Chapter 18: Kol
Leo finally was able to let go of his head as the pounding pain and feeling of dread faded. The human Kol was still staring directly at him… "We haven't met!" Before his vision of the man fighting Dialga and Palkia, he hadn't even seen him before…except for the brief glimpse at the University lab on the night of the fight.
"It…it can talk?" one of the technicians exclaimed to the others, all now standing well off to the side except for the Professor, who remained at his console.
"I guess it was a little while ago, in that other timeline that was erased," Kol replied calmly. "You were still human then. Oh, that's right, you're still recovering most of your memories." He came forward to stand behind the Professor, putting a hand on his shoulder.
If the human had only professed knowledge of the other timeline, that wouldn't have surprised him, being that he probably heard of his and Blaze's story. But that he knew that they met in it…
"The Professor couldn't have told you about something like that," his human self said, sounding equally surprised.
"Oh, just one of my abilities to know that." The fair-skinned human raised a hand, as if dismissing it as no great thing. "But to the subject at hand, I can't let you stop this little project of mine." His expression becoming cold, determined: "This gate will be used."
Grovyle started growling as he tensed…
Kol had his hand up immediately, rotating it.
At once, Leo felt dizziness again, but a different feeling from the Dimensional Scream as his vision turned watery. Yet Grovyle was still crystal clear as he leapt forward…
…to stop in mid-sir as if hitting something solid! Blaze and Celebi tried as well, meeting the same result.
"I put a dimensional bubble around you," Kol continued, still calm. "You can't break it, and one thought from me and you'll be gone. Oh, and Celebi, your time-traveling has no effect inside there."
The light green Pokémon appeared to be straining, eventually disappearing in a glow of light, only to reappear an instant later, looking very surprised.
Kol smirked.
What could he do? Leo thought desperately, fighting to became calmer. Touching his hand to the watery wall, it was solid, cold, wavy, almost feeling like a living, moving thing. A dimensional bubble? As in a separate dimension?
"Is this what you did to Dialga and Palkia?" Blaze shouted.
"You aren't human, are you?" his human self asked before Leo could translate Blaze's question.
"Is it that obvious?" Kol replied with a air of sarcasm.
"Then what are you?"
"Well, you could say I'm sort of like your swampert friend there, part human, part Pokémon. He's very unique in that way, you know: a human mind trapped in a Pokémon's body."
Leo never quite thought of himself in that way. He'd been able to do a lot of things he was certain he couldn't do if he had remained human. At the moment though, it didn't seem like he could do much no matter what form he was in. "You're going to kill us, aren't you?" His human self grimaced, flashing him a glare. Maybe asking was a mistake, but how long could they keep him talking and delaying the inevitable?
Yet in a relaxed, confident gate, Kol let his hand glide across the surface of a console as he rounded one of them, approaching the bank of windows before looking below toward the gate. "I was thinking since you went through all the trouble to get here, the least I could do would be to let you see…" His lips started curling into a wry smile, "…this disaster you say you're trying to prevent. Let's just say I'm giving you a gift for ending that other truly disastrous timeline and creating this one."
"Explain exactly how you know about the Future That No Longer Exists!" Celebi demanded.
Leo was about to translate, but Kol whipped around. "I told you, it's one of my abilities, just like it is for Dialga!"
He…what? Leo wasn't sure what he was more shocked about, that the human could understand Celebi or that he was claiming he had one of Dialga's abilities!
Kol continued: "And this…disaster, as you call it, isn't really a disaster at all. Think of it more as the beginning of a new era and as a means to save many lives."
And what exactly did that mean? Whose lives?
Facing the technicians briefly: "Continue with the aligning process everyone," Kol commanded. Seemingly without question, all the white-robed humans took seats around the room and started working, including the Professor. Were they all drugged, as his human self interpreted from the vision? If they were under some kind of control, yelling at them to stop likely wouldn't do any good!
Kol moved from the windows to lean against the front of one of the consoles, looking very much relaxed. "Well, since we have the time. You aren't going anywhere after all," he chuckled. "Maybe I might even convince you to help me. Especially you."
Although he felt revulsion that the human-thing would even suggest such, he also felt curious as he pointed at him. At least enough to want to know if it was something he could leverage to get him to stop using the gate.
"A human physically changed into a Pokémon really is quite unique. Especially one with your intelligence. You share the most kinship with me of anyone here."
Blaze hissed. "Careful, Leo. Don't trust…it."
"Don't worry about that," Leo returned, remembering Kol could understand them. He also fought to think of a way to get out of the dimensional bubble. If only he had more of his knowledge about such things… With a quick side-ways glance to his human self, he hoped at least he could figure out a way.
"The others of my kind I'm sure would welcome you," Kol continued. "But an amusement only has so much value." Forming a bemused expression, "Time…is limited."
Did he hear right? Leo stared back, noticing Blaze becoming more animated. "There are more like you?"
"Oh, indeed!" Sighing, the white-haired 'human' leaned over the console to give some attention to a display before facing them again. "Let me tell you a little bed-time story," he begun in the tone of a parent to a child. "Long, long ago in ancient times, Palkia was once worshiped as a deity by a primitive human tribe on this planet. Occasionally, he would even appear before them, though his reasons for doing so were known only to him. Always, he would stay for the briefest of moments and gaze around, as if looking for something, then leave again without so much as a word, even in Poke language. But one day that changed. Palkia appeared at the small temple and with a great, rumbling roar, the village became surrounded in a white veil. It stayed that way for many days and the villagers became quite frightened. The great dragon locked himself in the temple, allowing no one in until the veil disappeared. But when it did, so did he, though where he had gone was the least of their worries. When the veil disappeared, the view that greeted these humans outside the village was…not of their own world. Even the stars in the night sky had changed! Somehow, Palkia had transported the entire village to a different planet!"
"What kind of story is that?"
Leo was about to ask the same thing as his human self did, but Kol held up a hand to cut them off.
"Their new world was a savage place and the humans at first were ill-equipped to deal with the new dangers. Fortunately, Palkia frequently returned and served as a protector for many years. But as the years passed, he showed up less and less until eventually, he simply didn't return at all. The humans were forced to learn ways to defends themselves against the planet's dangerous wildlife. So over the following hundreds of years, the humans did learn those ways, multiply, and gradually built their technology. Then suddenly, one day after having been gone for centuries, Palkia returned, and he wasn't alone. Dialga arrived with him!
"The two dragons fought ferociously for reasons not understood, and the battle eventually ended up as a draw between the two, though not before causing great destruction in their battle.
"Seeing this, these humans decided they could no longer afford to be at anyone's mercy. By this point, they had advanced their knowledge enough to know advanced sciences. And so they searched and found two items each great dragon left behind from their battle: a scale from each of them.
"The research was difficult and took many years before the scientists were able to successfully weave aspects of the Pokémon's DNA with human DNA. But all the effort was worth it: the creation of a new human race, a race with human intelligence but most the abilities of both Dialga and Palkia."
Celebi's eye grew as she gasped: "No…that can be possible!"
"That's…unnatural!" Grovyle shouted with a growl.
Leo felt his own anger rising. To steal abilities from the two ancient dragon Pokémon that were held is such high regard by every Pokémon in existence seemed…a crime!
"You're lying!" Blaze breathed, whipping his tail about as his mane puffed. "Dialga and Palkia never mentioned anything like that happened!"
"I'm sure there's lot of things they haven't told you, infernape! And since that battle many decades ago, neither of them returned, but this new race quickly became the only one on the planet, with every child born being endowed with the new genetic sequence. Their new abilities finally allowed them to completely live at ease with the other creatures on the planet, no longer having fear of them. Yet…despite their gifts, there is one danger even they can't overcome: their world is now dying from long-term climatic change. A new home is needed.
Leo suspected where Kol's story was leading, noticing his change from past to present tense. If that's where it was going…
"Unlike Palkia," Kol continued, "these humans don't quite have the same level of energy – they can't create portals at a great enough distance to find another habitable planet. Things were getting dire for them after several years of less and less food from failed crops, and there was little hope; long-distance space travel was till technologically out of reach." Pausing, he looked down for a moment, as if mourning something. "Then…something fortuitous occurred. A portal was detected, not far away. Through their own powers, the humans were able to bring the portal closer until it was on the planet. After several attempts at contact, an emissary came through, an human from the old race…from Earth. After…convincing him to bring one of us back, I came through and eventually took over the corporation."
With dread, Leo realized his suspicion was creeping closer to being true, though it would have been completely unbelievable if he and Blaze weren't from a different planet themselves! "So, you're from a different world too, then."
"How convenient a portal opened so close to you," his human self added. "Derganio was careless in their research!"
Kol huffed while checking something on another screen. "I wouldn't quite call it luck. Apparently, some archeologists on this planet came across some old ruins some time ago. Found in them were unown writings describing a great 'transportation' of an entire village…along with some descriptions as to where they were taken. It seems Palkia left some clues behind. A bright Derganio scientist already working on the early gate prototype, figured out actual coordinates from them. So the first actual use of gate seven years ago was to find the planet spoken of in the writings."
"Amazing story," Grovyle commented as he glared back with his green eyes.
"Yes, isn't it?" Kol replied with a half smile.
Grovyle continued, turning his voice angry: "But you destroyed that gate and killed many of the humans there, didn't you?"
At first, Kol seemed a little surprised, then: "So you know of that incident, then. Well, it wasn't pleasant journey; it hurt a good deal to traverse dimensionally in that manner. As it was, I was in pain when I arrived here and not in complete control, so yes, I ended up destroying the gate. But I resolved to rebuild a much better one, and I worked my way into Derganio and…" Gesturing with a open wave of a hand, "…convinced it's leaders of my goals. Your contributions helped too."
"In helping you destroy Dialga and Palkia?" Celebi yelled, her high-pitched voice making it sound less then angry, though she obviously she was.
In a lowered, more growly voice, "What did you do with them?" Leo demanded.
"They're gone," Kol returned simply.
"How? Where?" he pressed. If nothing else, how this human-Pokémon hybrid made Dialga and Palkia disappear might give them a clue as to how to defend themselves against him!
Leo Hanson wanted to know too, figuring they were asking about Dialga and Palkia. But Kol only gave an unsatisfactory, "You wouldn't understand."
The hybrid continued: "I anticipated they would sense what was happening and try and stop me. Indeed, I saw them in the future as interfering; that's why Derganio funded your project…"
Feeling his anger rising, Leo stepped toward the dimensional wall, planting a fist into it - it was like hitting a brick wall covered with a thin layer of foam. "We really were just a diversion then!"
"They might have stopped me," Kol pointed out with seemingly little emotion. "I needed a way to stop them first. Very simple concept. Just like when you battle – hit your opponent and knock them out before they hit you."
Blaze said something angrily with tightly clenched fists, but his counterpart didn't translate. Kol just huffed in response, turning his back to check on one of the other consoles and mumble something to the two technicians there. Almost immediately, a slight vibration was apparent from objects on the consoles moving, though it quickly passed.
"Generator bank B on standby," one of the techs announced. "Full power available."
Kol gave them pats on their backs before returning to in front of the dimensional bubble. "Maybe I shouldn't mention my research team had access to your research all along," speaking with a slight sneer. "Your team is very gifted Leo, I should complement. Rebuilding this gate went much quicker with your help, especially since most of the team here…didn't quite survive seven years ago. Those that did, swore their loyalty to me, though."
"And after how much persuasion?" he spat, barely noticing Grovyle acting nearly as agitated as he was.
Kol shrugged. "As much as it took. This is about survival."
"Whose?" his swampert counterpart demanded.
Leo forced himself to stop and take a deep breath, though it wasn't very satisfying. He couldn't afford to lose control – he had to think of a way out of this and get the gate disabled…though at the moment it seemed impossible. What did he know about this dimensional bubble? Certainly he could theorize in a broad sense how it might be done using technology, but using a Pokémon's…Palkia's ability…he had no clue! Even if he could think of a way to disrupt the bubble, there was nothing in his pack that would help. He felt himself losing hope fast… "Alright, so tell us, why would Palkia and Dialga want to stop you in the first place? What disaster did they think you are going to cause?"
"I thought you would have figured that out, considering what I just told you." In response to a beep, the white-haired hybrid faced the Professor.
"Programming of coordinates complete," Professor Werner announced scarcely a moment later. "Starting final calibration cycle."
Kol seemed to take a deep breath himself before straightening his long cloak and facing them, "When this gate is fully aligned and calibrated, which will be in a few moments, I will be opening it to my world to rescue the rest of my race. Once here, we'll finally have a healthy planet at our disposal. There is plenty of room for each of us to have our own kingdoms, as we were meant to have. We do, after all, have the powers of two gods. We are their children."
In looking at his counterpart, Blaze, Grovyle, and Celebi, they all held the same astonished look as he felt. "You're…going to take over the Earth?" Although he sounded outraged, he no longer felt it. Trapped in the bubble with seemingly impenetrable walls…there was nothing he or any of the Pokémon could do. So then, this was the disaster Dialga warned about. The Earth would fall to a race of human-Pokémon hybrids, each with seemingly unprecedented power! It was all but a fact now, and he was feeling tired, sweaty, exhausted…and unable to muster much anger anymore. They failed.
And it was getting warm.
Leo knew he had to do something…but what? He could see no way through the watery-looking wall of the dimensional bubble. Certainly his own water pulse attack was useless. Blaze's, Grovyle's and Celebi's own attempts had proven equally futile.
Was this it then? The disaster Dialga sensed was going happen now, that being untold numbers of human-Pokémon, each with Dialga's and Palkia's powers, roaming the planet? With those abilities, who could stop them?
Kol was shrugging, "You archaic humans aren't doing that great a job. You could use someone to bring harmony and order to you, with all your petty battling and using slave Pokémon to do it."
Grovyle growled loudly.
"And should I even mention all the Pokémon, who have failed to really achieve anything great? Some are intelligent, but it all goes to waste…"
"All emitters are fully aligned," one of the white robed humans said from a far console.
"Computer predicts two minutes to final calibration," Professor Werner added.
Forming a grin across his pale boyish face, Kol bowed his head briefly before facing the windows and the gate below, standing much straighter. "It's the dawn of a new and better world, and salvation for my people! Those who follow us will be helped. Those who oppose…won't last. And maybe, eventually, we can find other planets to bring order to. Like that Poké world. From what I've gathered, it isn't far away…"
Celebi visibly tensed. "How dare you!"
"You're an evil human, just as bad as Darkrai was!" Blaze shouted, his mane puffing greatly.
"Depends on your definition, infernape," Kol returned. "And this Darkrai sounds like a fool for…"
"I define it as those who conquer those who don't wish to be," Leo answered. In Poke history, there were such stories; fortunately those who did the conquering were eventually defeated. Next to him, he saw his human self glistening, sweat on his face, as he spoke.
"So you're going to kill anyone who doesn't bow before you?"
The white-haired human-Pokémon didn't reply; instead, he continued gazing down at the gate for several moments. Finally: "Something else you maybe don't remember, Leo, is I helped you build the gate in that other timeline, even scrapping the building of this one so you and your team would have the equipment needed to finish yours…so this world would continue to exist. Of course, I never really told you…"
"What?" Leo back-stepped, about to call him a liar before realizing he could be telling the truth in the absence of most of his memory.
Swinging around and waving an arm: "Where do you think all that equipment came from in that last year? You certainly couldn't buy it, all the factories were crumbling. So if anything, this world…this timeline owes it's very existence to me! And you saved it for me very nicely, Leo…or rather, for this version of me."
"Is that…true?" Blaze asked, eye's wide.
"I don't remember!" Leo replied, feeling equally surprised. If this human-Pokémon really did help…
But his partner didn't seem to dwell on it: "Ha ha! Then you only wanted it saved it so you could take everything over, is that it?" folding his arms across his white-haired chest. "Same goal as Darkrai had!"
Leo couldn't have said it better himself, but sufficed in merely paraphrasing what Blaze said for his human self's sake.
Grovyle tightened one of his hands into a two-fingered fist. "I don't feel I owe him anything."
"I still want to know where Dialga and Palkia are!" Celebi tried shouting, but came out sounding tired.
Kol waved a hand, frowning severely. "Keep that attitude up, and you'll find out! All I have to do is collapse that bubble, little time-traveling pest!"
Celebi emitted a sound almost like a growl.
Several chimes sounded and the Professor became animated in touching several controls. "Calibration complete. We're ready!" Almost like a child, he smiled…
Must he sound so cheerful? From what he remembered of the Professor, he wouldn't normally be as such at the end of the world. Drugs…or was it some form of telepathic control? Some Pokémon could manage a form of rudimentary control for brief periods of time, like to confuse their opponents or put them to sleep. But if that was what Kol was using, it went far beyond those simple abilities. As if having Dialga's and Palkia's abilities (or so he claimed) and a fear attack weren't already enough!
"We have to do something," Blaze whispered as Kol went around visiting the consoles, apparently checking things over the shoulders of the others.
"Like what?" Grovyle huffed quietly back as he just caught himself from falling over. "We can't get out of here!" With a hand, he hit the barrier, rather weakly as he was breathing heavily.
Celebi floated in front of them, the wind from her wings feeling really good... "If I could time travel, I could go back to…before this bubble was created, but…I don't know why…I can't."
Leo noticed she was breathing heavily too as she suddenly floated over his head to land on it, clearly exhausted. In fact, so was he…and now that he paid attention, the air was feeling very warm and stale…
The dimensional barrier was airtight!
Kol looked over the favorable readings, quickly arriving at his decision: "Start charging power. I'm going to the gate room. Activate on my command." It was an easy decision to activate the gate as soon as it was ready, having worked toward it for seven years. Now that success was at hand, it felt…satisfying, and he whisked out of the control room without further word.
Saying anything more was rather pointless anyway: neither Leo Hanson nor any of the Pokémon were likely to be convinced, although he held some hope for the swampert. Truly, an unique specimen there. But even after considering at length about letting him out of the bubble, he still decided the risk was too great the others might escape and launch an attack, damaging something. Maybe after the air became a little more oxygen deprived and they were unconscious that might be a possibility, assuming they survived until he completed his task in sending a message back to his home world.
The fate of the others though, he was fairly certain how that would have to end.
No, the only real unfortunate thing about the situation was that Palkia couldn't be around to witness his 'children' returning home after many thousands of years. Too bad the great life-giver had to try and stop him instead. If nothing else, he'd like to ask the reason his ancestors were transported to another world in the first place. It was one of the great mysteries.
Back to the subject at hand, thinking as he picked he way around the debris in the hall, he could use his abilities to force the swampert to be more…malleable. It really would be a waste to let him die. But would the others allow him to live once they came through the portal? Despite what he said, they might not be all that welcoming and kill him; most of his kind were not quite as…tolerant as he was. Indeed, he suspected much of the unspoken reason he was given the task of coming to this planet in the first place was to merely get rid of him and as such, didn't really expect him to succeed, even though that was their hope.
Yes, won't they all be surprised when he turns out to be the one who saves their entire race? Quite of bit of stature it will afford him!
Gliding down the open metal stairs with near elation, he moved swiftly down the hall and toward the double doors leading to the gate room, scarcely looking the opposite way in leaving the stairwell. It only registered in his mind a couple seconds later that out of the corner of his eye, something didn't look quite right… After another second, he realized why!
But even as he started whipping around, he heard a shout: "Thunderbolt!"
And by the time he could fully face the group of one human and four Pokémon, the electric charges were already at the point of leaving the Pokémon's bodies. Of course Leo Hanson hadn't come alone!
Suddenly, he could see nothing after the bright flashes as his own body convulsed for many seconds! Finally able to let out his own scream, he fell to the floor, quickly feeling a level of adrenaline he hadn't experienced even when battling Dialga and Palkia! Barely regaining his sight, he started forcing himself back up while preparing a physic attack…only his restored view of the hall was of being slammed backwards and after landing hard on the concrete floor, of the blue wartortle on top of him.
"Hello," it greeted, it's tone contrasting to it's obvious intentions.
Instead of a physic attack, what he really wanted to do in his sudden anger was to form a dimensional bubble and get rid of them, but he wasn't getting the time and with their now scattered positions around him, he couldn't do it without getting himself in it!
"Get off me!" With a fist, he nailed the side of the Pokémon's head, managing to knock the thing aside so he could get up…just in time to see the flash of another electric bolt, nearly sending him to the floor again! Damn these creatures! Keeping himself on one knee, he focused on the three electric Pokémon and waved his hand, willing a quick spatial disruption to rip down the hall, knocking all of them over and ending their build-up of charge.
Facing the lone human woman: "Now you, Sally, you're going to join…"
"No you don't!"
From behind, the Poke-language enraged scream grabbed his attention, but it was too late to dodge the charging wartortle as it crashed into his side with its hard shell, knocking him across the hall. The sharp pain as he was crushed against the wall was nearly crippling, only to be further reinforced when the infernal creature followed up with a water pulse!
Clenching his teeth, he summoned all his rage to land a solid blow to the blue Pokémon's head yet again, forcing it away before releasing another spatial disruption, one that would ensure the accursed thing would stay down. But even in the few seconds that took, the pikachu, elekid and electabuzz were all back on their feet on the other side of him, all already charging themselves for another attack…
And he was now soaked!
"All together, thunderbolt!" Sally commanded.
This was no good! He was tired, his ribs were hurting incredibly, and he couldn't bring his attacks to bear fast enough; unless he got the few seconds he needed to form the dimensional bubble, he wasn't going to win this! For the longest time, it had been nearly inconceivable that he would ever allow himself to be put into a position where his one weakness could be exploited: to be attacked quickly, without warning, and relentlessly! His most effective attacks simply needed time to form!
Releasing his own thunderbolt only distracted two of the three remaining Pokémon; the elekid still gave him as good as he got, and only through grim determination did he start stumbling toward the gate room. If he could get in and seal the door, he would get the few seconds to form the bubble! Kicking the already recovering wartortle out of the way, he almost reached it…
A primal scream only just preceded the heavy impact from behind that sent him crashing to the floor.
"You'll pay for what you did!" the electabuzz yelled as it hopped up, preparing it's fists that were crackling with electrical energy.
Yet another spatial disruption at point-blank range sent the yellow and black electric type flying backward to hit hard against the opposite wall. The attack was certainly effective, but he wasn't going to be able to manage many more…his strength was already ebbing…fast! Managing one more disruption down the hall forced everyone else to the floor, buying him enough time to get to the doors and hit the open switch. They started sliding open…
"Pi…ka…chu!"
With horror, he realized too late his last attack missed the small yellow mouse Pokémon with it being so close to the floor; the oversized charge of electricity surged through him like an unstoppable flood, and he barely had any strength afterward to kick it away…
Leo felt his strength quickly ebbing. Unable to stand any longer, he tried to avoid merely collapsing in going to all fours and laying down gently, especially with Celebi still on his head. Normally she wasn't heavy, but she was feeling like she was now made of stone.
"Tired…" she mumbled.
"Need…fresh air," Grovyle said, going to his knees before leaning against the dimensional wall for support.
"There's no way out of this…is there?" Blaze asked, his words becoming slow.
Leo didn't want to answer him. Instead, he thought about what they had in their satchels. They had various berries, but he doubted an oran berry was going to do anything against a lack of oxygen. The knife certainly wasn't going to help, nor would the iron thorns. Everything else was equally useless. So much for the utility of what they brought with them from the Poke world.
Obviously not knowing any of that, Grovyle crawled and reached for one of the satchels anyway, tipping it upside-down and spilling it's contents in a small mound. The small black sack of coins made a nice jingle, but otherwise it was as he already thought: nothing useful, including the small flash bomb the green Pokémon was now grasping questioningly.
He told him what it was, but Grovyle still kept it, apparently not bothering to let go as he just laid down on the hard floor, appearing moments from blacking out.
There was, however, perhaps one chance. If he agreed to be Kol's "amusement", he maybe could deal to have the rest of them spared. But what kind of life would they have in a world ruled by Kol's kind though? The human-Pokémon didn't seem completely bad at least, unlike how Darkrai was. If Kol had been like him, he would have killed them immediately. So perhaps, there was a slight chance yet…
Finally putting his back against the wall of the bubble, Blaze quickly slid down it, his tail ending up between his legs, barely twitching. "Leo…this isn't how I thought it would end. After saving the worlds twice, another time was…too many, huh?" Grinning weakly, "I guess, up to… someone else now."
Leo grimaced, watching Grovyle as he, with obvious great effort, crawled to where his human self sat, looking as weak as the rest of them. He laid down again by his human partner.
Loyalty. He remembered that of him. Grovyle was always by his side in the lab as chaos ruled in the final months of the other timeline. Even perhaps saved his life when a desperate armed man broke into the building, looking for anything to survive with.
He made up his mind: when Kol returned, he would ask for the deal. It was either that, or they were dead. But if that human-Pokémon took much longer…
His vision was blurring, and it wasn't from the distortion of the dimensional wall. Shouting out to the technicians in the room for all he was worth, which wasn't much, they seemed to pay him no heed…not even the Professor.
Kol fell forward through the large opening steel doors, virtually spent. With a well-planted foot, he just forced himself to the side, hitting the close and lock buttons just before collapsing to the hard floor, but not feeling it.
He woke up staring at the wall.
How long? Seeing the gate with power activated but no other activity, it couldn't had been more then a few seconds…or was it a few minutes? Shaking with weakness, he crawled to his feet, relieved to see at least he was still the only one in the room, the doors remaining locked and sealed. But there was a bigger worry; being knocked out for however long meant losing some control… Not only that, if that researcher Sally and her Pokémon couldn't get into the gate room, then logically their next target would be…
Bracing against the wall, he slammed the intercom button. "Activate the gate now!"
Leo Hanson felt something change through his oxygen-deprived senses. For one, the air got significantly cooler. It also smelled fresher, was less humid and after a few seconds, his vision was losing it's blurriness. Gulping in the fresh air almost instinctively, he tried getting himself at least into a crawling position, the Pokémon beside him doing the same.
"The bubble is gone," his counterpart quietly pointed out from his own all-fours stance, surprise evident.
Quickly to his feet, Professor Werner was staring down at them from behind his console. "Well, this is unexpected. Kol must like you…"
Some beep from a speaker interrupted, a voice screaming: "Activate the gate now!"
"Kol looks like he's been attacked!" one of the technicians closest to the windows shouted.
Immediately the Professor and the technicians set about hitting buttons and tapping keys.
Barely getting himself up, Blaze took in a breath and tried a flamethrower attack, but the weak flames died only a couple feet from his mouth. He screeched something Poke speech.
Leo tried standing next, but found his strength was just a little too slow in returning. After a few more deep breaths, he at least could stand and stumble forward…and charged the Professor, knocking both of them to the floor.
"What are you doing? Get off me, Leo!"
Leo fought as the much older man struggled weakly underneath him, the Pokémon recovering quickly enough to surround them and face off against the other technicians, preventing any of them from interfering.
"This gate has to be shut down!" He wanted to argue further and perhaps get the Pokémon to start doing some damage, but the door opening made him jerk. At first, he whipped his head around in preparing to face Kol again for however much good it would do, but instead a familiar fake blonde walked in, followed quickly by four also familiar, though tired-looking, Pokémon… "Sally!", exclaiming in unison with his Pokémon counterpart.
Apparently the technicians decided it was too much as they all started retreating out of the room through the other door.
He was sure the oxygen deprivation was slowing his thought process, since he stood up and tried to figure out how she could be there…or maybe it was all an illusion. From the looks of Grovyle, Celebi, Blaze and his Pokémon counterpart, they seemed equally surprised. But however she was there, he was very happy to see her!
"Quit staring," she told them. "Did you really think I was just going to sit at the boat and wait?" cocking her head as she walked up to him.
"You…followed us?" For once, he was darned glad he wasn't listened to!
"Of course."
Despite being all sweaty and Sally looking the same, he embraced her with a long grateful hug…and maybe just a little beyond grateful. "You're amazing."
"I know," replying with a grin after they separated. "But when I heard what Kol said over the radio, I knew we needed to get in here right away to save all of you."
He wanted to laugh, but felt confused. "Over the radio?"
Tapping the small unit pined to her red shirt: "I heard everything he told you, about why he built this gate. Good idea keeping it transmitting during that."
"You did?" his counterpart asked, looking him over and obviously wondering where the unit was.
Now he felt completely confused. Reaching in the top of his one pocket, he yanked it out from it's tight fit with some effort, his pocket knife sliding out with it and hitting the floor… Realization then hit him about how the knife had been positioned: so tight was the fit, it had kept the transmit pressed the whole time!
"We attacked Kol downstairs and drove him into the gate room I think," Sally continued, looking around the room. "He locked the door and we couldn't get in, but…this the control room?"
"I said activate the gate!" an insistent voice yelled over a speaker.
With both Grovyle and Blaze restraining the Professor, he located the intercom. Finally feeling some semblance of relief, he tapped the reply key: "Sorry, but there won't be any gate activation today…or ever."
Kol stared at the intercom in disbelief, then up at the windows overlooking from the control room. Both Leo Hanson and Sally appeared there along with several Pokémon; none of his technicians could be seen…
Gritting his teeth, he fought off the instant urge to send the strongest spatial distortion he could straight up at them; he didn't have the strength at the moment, and it would likely do more damage to the equipment up there than the Pokémon anyway, even if it could get through the thick glass.
How could he have conceived of this outcome? How could such a small series of oversights have led to him losing control of the gate like this? Giving the door an enraged pound with his fist, he resolved that he hadn't lost yet. He only needed time, time to recover more of his strength so he could unleash dimensional bubbles…or better, and not play around this time!
Still, just in case he couldn't defeat them…
Waiting until they weren't watching anymore, he walked across the room and swung open the metal door to one of the storage cabinets where a diagnostic terminal was located, it's small screen showing the command prompt active for the core system. He sighed; it wasn't the outcome he wanted, but if he couldn't regain control of the gate, there was no choice but to implement the emergency program now before they could get access to the equipment vital to the gate's operation. Unfortunately, the price was going to be high…
After typing in the lengthy command and password, he watched just long enough to verify the first automated procedures were initializing before reclosing the door and hearing a pounding coming from the double gate-room doors. With relief, he found Terrace outside, along with the security rhydon and a looking-worse-for-wear breloom and staravia, the later chirping it's desire for revenge.
"I checked the security monitors and saw you in here and Leo Hanson up there," Terrace explained with some surprise, pointing upwards. "How did they get control from you?"
"Leo's friends ambushed me on the way down here," he snarled back, also thinking how long he could wait before storming the control room. At least with Terrance and his own Pokémon present, it would make it slightly easier. "We need to get rid of them all before they render the gate inoperable. But we have another reason to hurry." He hoped his look back toward the cabinet was enough of a clue to his closest agent to tell him what was up.
Indeed, Terrace nodded grimly in apparent understanding. "Will it work? You only finished the coding this morning."
"Don't worry, it's working." Leaving the gate room, he resealed it before leading the way down the hall toward the stairwell, hoping he'd recovered enough. He was going to complete his mission…one way or another.
Leo tried helping Sally get the gate powered down, but most the controls and displays made no sense to him. What little he did remember of the technology used in the University's gate seemed to be just a little different in Derganio's version. In short, he was useless.
Sally touched a button, only to be met with another beep telling of an invalid action. "Damn it, which of these combinations is the…oh no!"
Following her gaze down through the windows into the gate room, his heart skipped a beat.
"Leo…he's gone!"
His human self was busy arguing with the Professor to help shut down everything, finally replying with a "What?"
"I just saw Kol leave down there," Sally said. "There was another man with him, maybe that Terrace guy, and some Pokémon. He could be coming up here for another round!
Leo was almost proud of his other self in coming to a quick decision: "Sally, stay here with…uh…Pikachu and Elekid," pointing to each of them on his way to the door. "If we don't stop them in the hall, have them start destroying everything in here! Grovyle, Blaze, everyone else, out in the hall now!"
The Professor started shouting in protest.
"Be really careful!" Sally said, the worry on her face plain as they all left the room, Elekid and Pikachu staying behind as told.
The wait wasn't long; no sooner had Blaze closed the door behind them then Kol left the stairwell. The human with scarred hands was with him, as was a worn-looking breloom and staravia…but a very fresh-looking rhydon! From it's large well-muscled bulk, the flexing of the claws at the end of it arms, to it's menacing scowl, was enough to speak how tough it was going to be to defeat. In fact, apparently fixing his gaze on him, it formed a mean smile…
And not forgetting what Kol could do: "Spread out!" Hopefully, if the human-Pokémon was going to use another dimensional bubble, it would be more difficult to get all of them if they were scattered, if his thinking was right. Of course they could only spread out so far in a ten-foot-wide hall.
Seemingly gritting his teeth, the white-haired Kol seemed to look everyone over, his expression carrying not just anger, but frustration as well, Leo guessed. He also looked a touch tired.
"Leo Hanson…both of you: get out of my way or I will kill you and your Pokémon. I'm done being lenient." The fatigue in his voice was hard to miss.
"I'm not letting you wreck havoc on this planet," Leo heard his human self reply behind him, barely any hit of nervousness in his.
"We're going to avenge Dialga and Palkia!" Celebi added with a shout.
He admired both Celebi's and his human self's sudden bravado. Adding his own: "If saving this world means stopping you, then one way or another it's going to end here."
Blaze nodded agreement, whispering a "We'll do it this time," as he moved forward a little, spreading their ranks even more.
"I will also see to it you're stopped," Grovyle growled.
Kol huffed. "Your right, it will end here…one…way…or…another…"
The words became slurred, only it wasn't the human-Pokémon slurring; from nowhere, an intense pain and a now familiar feeling of fear invaded his mind, and instinctively grabbing his head did no good…he couldn't block out it out! He wanted to charge, attack Kol and end it, but he couldn't stop himself from backing up…anything to get away and hide!
From the side a green arm moved, throwing something. A flash of brilliant light resulted and while he was blinded, he heard Kol screaming in what sounded like agony…the pain and fear ended abruptly!
It took a moment, but on regaining some of his vision, he saw the human-Pokémon with his hands covering his eyes and crouching in obvious pain!
Which was odd, a flash-bomb shouldn't cause injury… But he wasn't going to question it! Without another thought and his vision clearing, he leapt straight for him…
The hard slam in mid-air caught him off guard; splaying his legs and arms on the floor, he tried keeping himself from rolling over onto his back as the rhydon stayed on top, pushing him across the smooth floor and close to the wall. Slugging the grey Pokémon on the side of it's head with his fist only caused it to lower it's longer horn and point it straight at his stomach!
On pure instinct his mouth filled with water and he quickly shot it out with all he had. At point-blank range, the effect on the rhydon was impressive as it belatedly shielded it's face and stood up to stumble backward, landing on it's own side with a roar.
The brief respite allowed him to get up and see Electabuzz and Wartortle already charging down the hall toward the breloom and the staravia that were struggling to mount attacks. And Kol…he looked to be recovering…
With a flash, Celebi popped into existence behind him. Wrapping his head with her arms, she made him stay off-balance for just a little longer, though behind them and rushing past Electabuzz and Wartortle, the burned-hands human, Terrace, was closing in on her. Blaze was already moving apparently to help, before stopping as the rhydon was getting up. Lowering it's head, he looked about to charge.
"Blaze, help Celebi!" Leo shouted just before trying to get another water-pulse ready, but the rhydon was already charging horn-first from only a few feet away!
A green streak went behind the rhino-like Pokémon and with a screech, the rhydon almost went crashing to the floor again from a strategic hit to the back of his leg. It howled with not just pain, but anger as well and in a surprising bit of speed, swung around to nail Grovyle with it's massive tail. Literally flying sideways, Grovyle slammed hard into concrete wall, falling immediately to the floor.
Finishing it's swing and looking even meaner, "You and me, swampert," the rhydon spat, pointing between them. Then without any sign of tensing or bracing, it charged, horns leveled!
The time to cover perhaps eight feet was short. The time to gather water in his mouth and dodge properly was just slightly longer. But it was enough to at least dodge the horns, he was thankful as the rhydon knocked him backward and again nearly onto his back, it's longer horn just grazing his shoulder! Nearly head-to-head, it's strong musky earth-like odor was almost overpowering.
With adrenaline-fueled strength, he slammed his fist down hard onto the back of the Pokémon's skull while spurting as much water as fast as he could into it's face. The rhydon didn't let go. Instead, twisting it's head, it succeeded in pointing it's one horn perilously close to his neck!
With extreme effort, he got an arm around it's neck and using his other hand, started forcing the horn away, one inch at a time and twisting his own body around even to the point of his rear fin bending against the floor to land a hard kick into it's side.
It roared in obvious pain but still, it wasn't budging!
In the background, he caught a glimpse of Blaze still battling hand-to-hand with Terrance and Celebi struggling with Kol, apparently doing something to sort of stun him, but not to great effect. Then with flames, Blaze got the human to momentarily back away. At once, the infernape made a move toward him and the rhydon.
"Help Celebi!" Leo struggled to shout as the rhydon redoubled his efforts to give him a piece of it's large horn.
Blaze stopped, indecision evident.
"Help her! Keep Kol occupied!" Kol was without a doubt, their single biggest worry, but the rhydon was trying hard to change that. With a massive grunt, it forced it's head to the side, raised it, and poised it's long horn straight at his throat!
One, two, three kicks into it's side was doing nothing as the raw strength of the larger and much heavier Pokémon was becoming very evident. Half on his back, he knew he was also at positional disadvantage, one that the rhydon was now taking full advantage of!
A last, desperate water pulse caused the creature to grimace and roar, but instead of backing off, it started coming down with it's horn instead. With much of it's weight behind it, even releasing the hold on it's neck and using both tiring arms couldn't hold it back any longer! Inch by inch, it came to nearly touch his throat…
With an insane yell, someone came crashing hard against the Pokémon's side and back. So concentrated on keeping the horn at bay, it took a moment before he recognized his human self was wrapping his arms around the creature's neck.
The rhydon's eyes went wide as it gave a gasp, nostril's flaring in an obvious struggle for breath as his human self looked to be using all his strength in tightening his grip and pulling back. It gagged once, twice, then with a quick motion, swung an arm back, knocking the human half over it's back, but also shifting it's balance…
Immediately releasing one hand, he combined a desperate kick, punch and water-pulse, forcing the rhydon to finally collapse onto it's side. His human self releasing his hold and running out of the way, Leo jumped on top to start giving the creature both fists.
Yet, it just wasn't enough! With one strong heave, the massive creature lifted him up and swinging a clawed-arm, clobbered him square in the chest, knocking him to the floor!
"I will not be beaten by any water-type!" it raged and again, lowered it's head and horns while snorting wildly!
"Then how about a grass type!" Right on his last word, Grovyle rose behind him and let loose into the back of it with all his leaf blades.
With a near-shriek, the rhydon collapsed, holding it's legs as best it could.
"Leo!"
Panting heavily from exhaustion and the hit to his chest, he whipped around, following the finger of his human self in time to witness Kol first give Blaze a hard elbow into his stomach, then yank Celebi off his head, throwing her hard into the concrete wall where she immediately fell. Then leveling his arm, a pale white arc started flying…
With shock, he recognized the attack as one of Palkia's! The spatial rend disruption didn't feel like it hit his chest quite as hard as the rhydon did, but taking the hit in exactly the same spot, he found himself again on the floor, almost balled up in excruciating pain.
Blaze screamed and still holding his stomach, released intense, bright flames from his mouth straight at Kol…
Still gripping one leg, the rhydon rose and went charging into the flames, blocking them from reaching the Pokemon-human. It roared a strange, agonized howl, and when the flames were exhausted, finally collapsed for what looked like good. But from behind, Terrace was making his own charge with a yell straight toward Blaze…
From further down the hall, a bright flash erupted as the electric bolt nailed the human square in the back, taking him down. Leo suddenly hoped Electabuzz was coming back to help, but he obviously wasn't done yet with the breloom and likewise, Wartortle was still engaged with the staravia.
He started struggling to get up as fast as he could, but Kol quickly took advantage of the absence of any attack, releasing his own electrical bolt into Blaze. He watched helplessly as Blaze became enveloped briefly by the charge before collapsing himself.
Then swinging back around with his long-white hair flying, the human-Pokémon created another spatial rend.
Leo couldn't avoid it. Stronger than the last, it hit hard and he hardly knew he was hitting the floor before he was already down. The intense pain followed only a couple seconds later, threatening to black him out. But from the corner of his vision, he saw the attack at least was blocked from hitting his human self. Somehow, he found the strength to painfully, slowly, get himself back up at least onto all fours...
"You've all been a pain," Kol spat, rage seemingly burning in his eyes. "I'm feeling strong enough again that I won't bother with a dimensional bubble this time. Dialga gave a great gift to my kind… Now suffer it!" Raising a hand over his head, it became bathed in a bright purplish light…
His heart jumped; he knew that light. He'd seen it only a few times before, being the near recipient of it twice… If it was as powerful as what Dialga had unleashed against them at the very top of a crumbling Temporal Tower, it could very well kill them all!
Quickly glancing around, Grovyle and Celebi were down, Blaze was struggling to get up, Electabuzz and Wartortle were too far down the hall…
In seemingly slow motion, Kol swung his arm down, aiming his brightly glowing hand toward…
There was no time to think – only react; he was closest to Kol and as the beam of intense temporal energy that was Roar of Time started leaving his hand, he leapt up and straight into it, meeting it head-on. Only after the beam enveloped him, did he realize what his action meant for him…
Leo Hanson was trembling as he crouched, heart pounding as he only hoped to avoid the coming attack he realized in a instant was aimed straight at him! He had no idea what the purplish light represented, but from Kol's rage he guessed it wasn't good. Of course as a mere human, he wouldn't stand much chance if it was powerful enough. As the hybrid's hand flared, a massive beam started taking form…
He started moving out of the way with a jerk but in front and from the side, a blue-skinned Pokémon with purple fins leapt right into it.
Just getting up himself, Blaze screamed from the background as the purple beam enveloped the swampert's form, holding him up off the floor as the energy was blocked from going any further. For two…three…four pounding heartbeats, the energy blast continued before dissipating with the attack running it's course, and the swampert fell heavily to the floor. Staggering backward, Kol tripped and fell, panting hard with a surprised look about him.
Leo froze, staring in disbelief at his counterpart's unmoving form only a few feet before him while Blaze was still screaming, now in ear-deafening rage as the red and yellow hair of his mane puffed to extreme proportions. With a leapt, the infernape slammed Kol completely to the floor and started pummeling him…
He wanted to both join in on beating Kol…and preventing the Pokémon from hurting him to the point of critical injury. Yet he could only stare as all energy felt like it was draining from him. His counterpart…dead? If he had a grave, a ghost was dancing on it…
Narrowing his eyes, he at once concluded Kol had to answer for what he did. Killing him would accomplish that…wouldn't it? Certainly, he was too dangerous to let live…
But could he do it? Or could he allow him to be killed? The hybrid already looked to be unconscious.
Hastily getting up, he rushed over, grabbing the infernape from behind and yanking him off. "It's over! He's beaten!"
The infernape continued screaming and started kicking powerfully in trying to break free, nearly taking both of them to the floor, but Leo kept his grip tight around the Pokémon's shoulders. "Blaze, it's over! Let the police handle him!" Except…how would anyone be able to control Kol? He had such power, how could any prison hold him? Maybe…he really should allow…
But Blaze suddenly stopped struggling and he let him fall to the floor. In sudden sobbing, the infernape crawled over to his partner and just laid next to him…
His counterpart's form was…so still.
Around them, he gradually grew aware the corridor looked even more smashed up than it did before. Grovyle and the rhydon were both on the floor, one barely conscious and the other completely out. Celebi was at the base of one wall, looking stunned. Kol's partner was also out as was the breloom, with the large staravia just receiving a knockout blow from a combined water and electric attack from Wartortle and Electabuzz.
He wished there was something, anything he could do for Blaze, but there was nothing. Feeling something trickle down his face, his hand came away a little red; that's right, the rhydon had hit him pretty good. But at the moment his own partner needed help and he went to Grovyle's side as Sally, Elekid and Pikachu came running out of the control room.
Sally looked around, silently, apparently stunned.
"We beat him," answering her unspoken question. "But…" He looked at his counterpart again, Blaze continuing to sob beside him.
She was silent for a long moment, her face transforming from worry into shock. "Is he…"
Well, he hadn't actually confirmed his counterpart was dead yet, but the attack looked powerful… Was that why he jumped in - to block it? "I…think so." It was easy to say, but no doubt the gravity of his counterpart's fate would hit him soon.
"Gro…"
Grovyle responded weakly as he and Sally helped him up. Waving his hands, the Pokémon seemed to insist he would be alright and left their arms to go to the fallen swampert, joining all the other Pokémon as they gathered around, including an unsteady Celebi.
Much hushed whispering went around, only with Blaze now silent save for many tears…
"Leo, the Professor fainted a couple minutes ago," Sally informed before rushing back into the control room.
Fainted? The Professor? For a moment, he was torn between staying with his counterpart and going to help tend to the Professor. One he probably couldn't help, the other he probably could…
Just moving to follow Sally, he was stopped by an excited shout from Pikachu. In a passing glimpse, he had seen it too: a slight twitch of a blue arm. Rushing through the crowd of Pokémon, he knelt by his counterpart and after feeling carefully: "He's breathing!" The Pokémon at once started chattering excitedly with Blaze's eyes going wide, hope back in his face.
Indeed, after a few moments, his counterpart did more than just breathe - he came fully to.
"Hey, how are you feeling there?" Leo asked, feeling almost more relief than he could handle.
The blue water-type Pokémon let out an almost silent moan. Almost inaudibly: "That…was…a…big truck."
He nearly collapsed with laugher, but remembering the Professor, got up and hurried into the control room, feeling relieved for a second time on seeing John sitting up. Together with Sally, he helped him into one of the chairs.
After a gentle shake of his head and looking very much confused after glancing between them, "Sally, Leo. What…happened?"
"We defeated Kol," Leo answered. "This gate's in our control now."
"Are you going to be alright?" Sally asked. "I have some water in my pack."
Grimacing and seemingly breaking into a cold sweat, the Professor shook his head again. "Kol, he…I think he has telepathic powers. Shot us with drugs to make us more susceptible. He was controlling me, controlling all of us! But then…" Now looking up in surprise: "You said you defeated him?"
Leo jabbed his thumb toward the door. "He's in the hall, out cold. Blaze gave him a pretty good beating, but Sally softened him up first."
Shaking, the Professor stood by bracing himself on the nearest console, attempting to look out the open door, but Kol couldn't be seen from where they were. Instead, Blaze came quickly bounding in, plucked some berries from one of the satchels, and bounded back out. "His control must have been…broken," before giving a quick look around the room.
"The others fled, remember?"
"I remember…everything, actually." Sitting back down heavily, "Leo, Sally, please believe me. If I wasn't being controlled, I would never have helped that man!"
Two sitrus berries in Blaze's hand appeared in front of him – the only two they brought from the Poké world, to be used for emergencies only. As conversations between everyone continued, Leo started downing the large, mild-tasting yellow fruit in large bites. The fast-acting drug effect hit within moments, at least to the point where he thought he could stand again.
"I thought you were…gone," Blaze said, sounding somewhere between happy and crying. "Why did you do that?"
Of course, so did he! On finishing the last of the powerful strength-restoring fruit, "What would that attack have done to a human?"
Blaze huffed, shaking his head. "Selfless as always."
In getting up, there was no shortage of offered hands, but Blaze and Grovyle ended up on either side of him and helped lift him slowly. Shaky at first, the sitrus berries continued to do their job as he felt himself rapidly gaining additional strength. Now in finally getting a good look around, he saw the result of their battle: three Pokémon, one human, and one human-Pokémon all out and scattered up and down the corridor. The smell of sweaty Pokémon in the confined space was near overpowering, too.
"Think they'll give us any more trouble?" Grovyle asked.
"The breloom certainly won't be," Electabuzz quipped, cracking a joint in his hand.
"Neither will the staravia or that other human," Wartortle added.
"What about this one?" Elekid asked, tapping his foot against Kol.
Blaze frowned, visibly tightening his fist. "Not for a long time, I think. If he does, I'll finish what I started!"
Leo wasn't sure what his friend meant by that, but judging from the bruises a trickles of blood on the white-haired being… Maybe best not to ask what happened after he was knocked out. "Let's go in the control room, see if the humans need any help getting the gate…shut down for good." Although he wondered just what the best way to keep it that way was.
"And destroyed," Celebi added.
Several of them sported sudden grins, Electabuzz and Elekid exchanging quick sparks between their fists as they left the smashed hall and headed for the room.
Sally was using the radio, calling Harry and telling him to move the boat around to their side of the island while Leo slowly moved to join her and his human self near the Professor, who greeted him with a smile.
"So you are the ones who stopped Kol," the old human asked, indicating both him and Blaze.
"It was a group effort," Leo replied. Sure, he blocked the Roar of Time blast, but he didn't know how much more effort it took to bring Kol down after that. No doubt Blaze would fill him in later. But in the mean time: "Are you going to help permanently shut down this gate now?" Not that he had high hopes considering what the old man had told them before.
His human self flashed him an annoyed look as the Professor nodded. "I think I'm recovered enough to do that."
"Recovered?" He got the impression there was something he was missing. After his other self quickly filled him in on the Professor being not just drugged, by telepathically controlled by Kol: "Oh." He should had guessed!
Kol could barely see anything, but remembered the swampert's hazy form getting up and leaving the hall with everyone else. Then nothing. Now there was the blurry image of someone's face over him.
"We have to get out of here…"
The whispering voice sounded familiar…Terrace. He felt his arms grasped, then the sensation of being dragged. His senses were dull and thoughts slow in coming, but one question he concentrated on: how did the swampert, Leo's Pokémon form, survive? At that range, the temporal shear that was Roar of Time should've killed him, especially in the beaten-down condition he was in. His attack was surely as powerful as Dialga's, so how…
Fighting fading consciousness, he was barely aware that he was being carried down the stairs as he pondered the question. To resist temporal shear, one had to have some temporal ability. A swampert certainly didn't have anything like that. It didn't make sense…
Around a corner and down yet another hall, they finally went through some doors to arrive outside the research building. A shield…? That had to be it! The small distortion around him as a result of being from a different timeline…it must had afforded him some kind of protection, however minute.
He would need to remember that if there ever was a next time…
…though there likely wouldn't be.
Barely smiling, the bright sunlight outside slowly faded until blackness once again surrounded him.
Leo looked on as Sally and his human self worked with the Professor in working the various consoles to get the gate to power down.
"So…are we going to destroy this thing or not?" Blaze asked.
"Yeah, isn't that why we're here?" Electabuzz added, hands on his hips and otherwise acting impatient.
He thought he knew the answer but then, he hadn't heard any discussion yet of what, exactly, they planned to do after the power down. "You don't want to destroy it while power is still surging through it," he answered simply. "Would be dangerous."
"Then we get to fry it?" Pikachu asked, a broad, wicked smile appearing on his small pudgy face.
Maybe he better make sure… "How are we going to destroy it?" asking out loud in human speech.
All three humans glanced back at him together, then at each other before all starting to speak at the same time, each with clearly different words. Finally, the Professor spoke: "Once we have everything powered down, we can simply drain all the coil coolant out. That'll render it inoperative."
"I'd like to see it never having any chance of getting up and running again," Sally said, brushing her long blonde hair back as she stood up from leaning over the console. "Like by destroying the maser coils and slicing every wire and cable there is."
"There's a lot of them," the Professor warned. "More than in our gate."
"We could do both," Leo's human self suggested. "Drain the coolant, break the lines and fry some of the coils. Maybe smash control boards too, just like we planned for our gate. I'm sure the computers could stand having their data erased for good measure."
The Professor stared back, frozen for a second. "What?"
"Derganio took over our gate this last week," Sally said.
"That part I know. I was forced to give them access after they had me under their control."
"Right. So we planned to sabotage the gate to prevent them from using it and causing the disaster."
Leo's human self continued: "That's when Dialga and Palkia showed up and took on Kol. The rest I think you overheard. Kol was simply using our project as a ruse."
"Oh…that bastard. Well, let's get this thing shut down first. See that readout on the third screen? Set the second coil circuit down to…"
"So, I guess we truly won then," Blaze said, his eyes starting to glaze as the humans continued talking tech. "We prevented the disaster…which was going to be Kol's people invading?"
Leo shrugged. "Seems that way."
"That would've have been a true disaster," Grovyle said, shaking his head that had almost more bruise than skin. "Thousands of humans like Kol roaming around?"
Celebi flew closer to float around their heads. "I would've gone back in time, dear. Brought you with me!" She smiled, though it appeared to hurt to do so, sporting a nice sized bruise of her own.
Leo ran to one of their satchels, grabbing the last of the oran berries.
Hissing, Electabuzz frowned severely. "That human…er, Pokémon…thing. How disgusting."
"We would've have been doomed," Elekid piped in.
Leo couldn't disagree. Something akin to facing untold numbers of Dialgas and Palkias combined. Which reminded him, they never did get an real answer as to what exactly happened to the two ancient dragons. Maybe on second thought, it was better that way. As long as they didn't know, he could still hope they were still alive somewhere…
"Alright, final command given," the Professor announced. "Complete power down underway."
Together, the three humans left the consoles to stand by everyone else. "So, you guys ready to do a little wrecking?" Leo's human self asked, flexing a fist and wearing a broad grin.
"We probably should tie Kol and Terrace up too before they come too," Sally added.
Leo cheered with the others in giving a loud affirmative and started following the others in approaching the door to the corridor, though he noticed the Professor glancing back before he quickly returned to one of the consoles, looking slightly puzzled. "Huh?" Everyone stopped as he tapped a few screens, bringing up other displays.
"What is it?" Sally asked, already with hand on the door control.
The Professor didn't answer for several seconds while typing something in and observing. Even from the side, Leo could see the growing confusion on his face. "It's not powering down. In fact…power levels are rising; one hundred and two percent already." Something beeped, grabbing his immediate attention. "Main coil switches just activated! Everything's on automatic all of the sudden…" The old human's alarm was obvious.
Leo rushed back with his human self and Sally to the one console, seeing the graphic display for himself before feeling a tap. Following Blaze's finger through the windows and to the gate below, he saw the barely visible grayish cloud forming in the very center of the ring.
Even not remembering most of the theory of dimensional portals, he knew that wasn't good…