TWENTY-SEVEN
"So where are you going to go?" Calem asked Serena as she sped towards the Route 13 gate back into Lumiose. Of course a blockade had been set up, she thought when she saw several police cars in front of the gate, with police officers, Scrafty, and Machoke standing by. The police cars that had followed her from the prison were still on their tail.
"There's a huge complex underneath the city, and I think that's where my Pokemon are. But you can only get in by Teleporting with a specific Abra, and one is kept at the lab," said Serena, spewing words as her mind raced to think of how to pass the blockade. Her speedometer indicated she was going a hundred kilometers per hour, there were five stationary cars in front of the gate, and it didn't look like anyone was inside them. She didn't have the means to fight them off, and there really wasn't time.
Her hands gripped the steering wheel. "Everyone hold onto something," she said as she accelerated, staring down the police at the blockade as if she knew this was going to work, when in truth she didn't know if it was. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Trevor brace himself against the dashboard, and she felt Shauna push onto the back of her seat. There was a gap between two cars almost large enough for the SUV to fit through, and she aimed for it. As she drew closer to that gap, the police officers and Pokemon standing on either side of it jumped out of the way, just in time for her to violently bump into both of the cars. The police cars were knocked to the side, a motion accompanied by the sound of metal and glass scraping and breaking against one another. Besides being jolted a little, the SUV appeared to Serena to not suffer any major damage, and she kept driving on through the gate.
"Are you crazy?" Trevor half-shouted as he looked in the rearview mirror to see police officers survey the damage to their cars or get into unscathed ones.
"Perhaps," muttered Serena. She sped through the gate and into Lumiose, winding up on the edge of North Boulevard. Driving through and crashing into those police cars caused her to lose some speed, but she thought it would be safer to go slightly slower anyway, now that they were in the city. She turned right suddenly, almost causing the car to roll over and making Tierno yelp in surprise. People and Pokemon in the streets saw them coming and ran out of the way, but Serena still had to swerve around some of them. When Augustine's lab came into view, so did the flashing lights of police cars in pursuit. Those on the sidewalks, many of whom had scrambled to avoid Serena, shrank back against buildings to watch what was happening.
Calem rolled down his window and sent out his Altaria, giving the Pokemon instructions to stop the police cars. Altaria flew around to the space behind the SUV and launched a Dragon Pulse at the police cars, sending them flying up into the air, doing somersaults until landing hard on the ground.
"Nice one," Serena commented as she saw the last of the police cars land upside-down through the rearview mirror. She moved her foot from the gas pedal to the brake and began slowing down, pulling up to the curb outside the entrance to Augustine's lab and coming to a complete stop.
"Okay, you all need to get out of here. Now." Serena shoved the gearshift to put the car in park.
"Do you want someone to go with you?" Calem offered as he stuck an arm out the window to recall Altaria.
"No. You guys go. Get out of town. You've done enough for me . . . do any of you know how to drive?"
"I can," said Shauna.
Serena opened her door and jumped out of the car. She surveyed the scene around her: toppled and broken police cars, their drivers crawling out from the wreckage, and civilians standing back and watching. One of the civilians recognized her and shouted "It's her! She's escaped!" followed by several other onlookers cheering and clapping: "Send them packing!" "Kick Teleurac in the bum!" "Vive le Kalos!"
She glanced over to the nearest group of people, standing outside the Pokemon Center. Behind her, car doors opened and closed, indicating that Shauna had moved to the driver's seat. One member of that crowd – a teenage boy with an athletic build – came running towards her, calling her name.
"Serena! Serena!" he said as he skidded to a halt in front of her. "My name's Tony, and I'm a HUGE fan of yours. You're such a badass. Especially since you just broke out of jail and all –"
"It was all my friends, actually," said Serena humbly, pointing behind her to the SUV. She glanced back and wondered why Shauna was poking her head out the window and watching instead of driving off.
"Well, whatever. Anyway, can I help you escape Team Flare? I have a team of six very powerful Pokemon at my disposal – perhaps you've heard of them? Xerneas, Yveltal, Zygorm or whatever it's called, Mewtwo, Victini, and Arceus, the god of Pokemon itself!" Tony smirked with a pompous overconfidence.
"Really?" asked Serena. She crossed her arms and looked at Tony skeptically. Zygarde hadn't been seen in months apparently, and Mewtwo had supposedly done a good enough job of sealing itself away in the Unknown Dungeon so no human could ever bother it again. "If you want to help me, I want you to have Arceus destroy the cannon on top of Prism Tower right now."
"Oh - uh – yeah, sure!" said Tony as he scratched the back of his head. "Look, let me go home and grab them first," he added nervously before breaking into a sprint and disappearing down the boulevard.
Serena rolled her eyes and turned back to the car, making eye contact with Shauna.
"We'll distract the cops," offered Shauna. Immediately after she finished speaking, the sounds of police sirens could be heard, growing steadily louder.
"And then get out of town," said Serena. "I'll find you guys later, and we'll have a hell of a revolution."
Shauna smiled, and then turned to face the road in front of her. The SUV then sped off, and Serena heard all of her friends shout "VIVE LE KALOS!" from the windows of the car as she sprinted to the lab. Once inside, she ducked under a window and poked her head up high enough to watch police cars speed by in pursuit of Shauna and the others. One Team Flare Admin on a motorbike stopped by the crowd in front of the Pokemon Center and asked them in a booming voice which way Serena had went. Everyone in the crowd pointed down the boulevard, in the direction that the SUV had gone.
The elevator ride up to the third floor lasted way too long, and she expected it to stop any second. Luckily, the doors opened up to the office on the third floor. She raced forward, around the partition to the desk and yanked open every drawer and cabinet in sight, tossing out item after item in search of a Pokeball. Along the way, she found a small box wrapped in silver wrapping paper and tied up with a red ribbon; there was a tag on the ribbon, which bore the writing "To Serena. Je t'adore. Joyeux Noel." Although curiosity got a hold of her, Serena placed the box aside; it was probably just some tacky piece of jewelry anyway.
She found a Pokeball tucked in the back of a file cabinet, and she sent out the Pokemon inside. To her relief, it was indeed an Abra. "Teleport me," she said, trying to sound authoritative. "Flying Litwick."
A few seconds of compression and disorientation later, Serena found herself inside the room she had once transported to with Augustine. Before she could think to do anything else, Abra Teleported away. "Really?" she hissed, cursing whoever trained that Abra.
She opened the door out into the hall, looked to her right to see the staircase that led up to the central chamber where the weapon's reactor was; not yet, she told herself. Instead, she turned left and ran down that stretch of hallway, stopping to open the first door she saw. That soon revealed itself as a mistake, as that room was full of computer workstations and several Team Flare grunts. When they recognized her, each grunt sent out a Pokemon; she slammed the door shut and dashed to the next door, which turned out to be a janitor's closet. Room after room yielded unfavorable results, and some Pokemon behind her were shooting Shock Waves and Flamethrowers in her general direction. Her ears rang with the cries of Pokemon, their Trainers shouting orders, and the whooshes and bursts of the attacks launched her way. She narrowly dodged one Flamethrower as she ducked into another room and used a chair to barricade the door behind her . . . for all the good it would do her.
She stooped over, hands on her knees, to catch her breath and cool off before investigating her surroundings. This room had computers lining the walls, each one labeled with the kind of information it contained or processed. In the center of the wall opposite the door was a computer in a tall red casing, and the sign on the casing read "Overflow Pokemon." Pushing back the strands of hair that had fallen out of her braid, Serena approached this computer, which had to be a storage PC. There was a slot underneath the monitor where Pokemon went for withdrawal or deposit, after all. She moved the cursor to wake up the monitor's display, then flicked through storage box after storage box which all contained Pokemon native to Azure Bay or Terminus Cave. None of them contained any Legendary Pokemon, she noted thankfully.
Finally, she came to a box labeled "S.C." and she recognized all the Pokemon she had ever caught and the ones in her main team: Eevee, Haunter, Fletchling, Vivillon, Dedenne, Skrelp, Carbink, Klefki, Noivern, Meowstic, Lucario, Ampharos, Charizard, and Greninja. How the others wound up here, she had no idea.
Something slammed into the door, and Serena jumped when she heard it. Hastily, she withdrew her main team and Noivern and clipped the Pokeballs to her belt, taking a moment to hold the ball-laden belt tight to her chest as if she was hugging the Pokemon themselves. She sent Noivern out from his Pokeball, just in time for those outside to slam into the door again with enough force to make the chair budge. She heard the high, guttural croak of a Croagunk outside, followed by Scrafty's cry.
"Remember how I promised you lots of Team Flare goons to fight?" she said to Noivern as she cautiously approached the door and grabbed onto the chair. "Well, they're all outside waiting for you. Give them hell." She pulled the chair out from under the doorknob and flung the door open.
Noivern zoomed out and began howling and screeching angrily, sending Air Slashes flying at every living being in sight. Serena sent out Greninja and Lucario as well to help Noivern, and she stepped out into the hallway and watched, sidled up against a wall and smirking triumphantly as Croagunk after Scrafty after Emolga after Slugma fell after being hit by Air Slashes, Water Shurikens, or Aura Spheres. Once all of the Pokemon belonging to the Flare grunts and Admins had been fainted, Celosia appeared from another room farther down the hall, and she sent out her Manectric.
Manectric shot a blinding Thunderbolt and struck Noivern with it. Noivern fell to the ground, wisps of smoke rising from electrical burns on his body, and he lay unconscious on the floor. Greninja was Manectric's next target, but he deftly hopped around the room to dodge the Thunderbolts shot at him until Serena recalled him.
"I hope you're enjoying time out of your prison cell, because you'll be back there very soon," said Celosia smugly as she stopped by her Manectric's side. Serena recalled the fainted Noivern and glared at Celosia intensely. Nothing was going to stop her, not even this overconfident scientist whose purple hair coloring was starting to fade at the roots.
"We'll see about that," Serena shot back as Lucario stepped forward to stare down Manectric. Before issuing any attacks herself or giving Celosia a chance to do the same, she pressed her finger to the stone set in her Mega Ring; a few swirls and explosions of pink light later, Lucario had emerged as his Mega Evolved form.
"Close Combat!" Serena cried. Lucario lunged forward and struck Manectric with a series of swift yet powerful punches, leading to the Electric-type collapsing on the ground. Celosia growled through gritted teeth as she returned Manectric to its Pokeball, and then she sent out her Drapion next. Serena smirked; did Celosia really think her Pokemon stood a chance against Lucario?
"Drapion, use X-Scissor!" commanded Celosia. Drapion swiped both its arms down at diagonals, as if it was cutting an X out of thin air. The attack hit Lucario, but it only made him flinch slightly. One well-placed Aura Sphere from Lucario was enough to faint Drapion.
"Urgh, so lame!" Celosia whined as she recalled Drapion. She then looked past Serena, and her pout turned into a smug smile. Serena turned her head, and she saw the green-haired Bryony approaching.
"What's going on – ah ha ha ha! What do we have here?" asked Bryony, noting Serena surrounded by Team Flare grunts and Celosia. She grabbed a Pokeball and sent out her Liepard.
"The little jailbird's broken out of her cage and is flying around for a bit," said Celosia.
Serena rolled her eyes. "Lucario, use Aura Sphere," she said, pointing to Liepard. How many more Flare members was she going to have to deal with? There wasn't time for this.
Aura Sphere landed a critical hit and fainted Liepard in one shot. Bryony sent out her Bisharp next.
"You have got to be kidding me," Serena said to Bryony, half-irritated and half-taunting. "It's been three years and you still have the same Pokemon? You didn't think to customize your lineup to deal with twerps like me?"
"Back then, winners and losers hadn't been decided yet. Today, though, we've already won!" declared Bryony, lazily tossing a hand in the air.
"It's not over yet," said Serena. "Lucario, Close Combat!"
Bisharp didn't stand a chance. Lucario delivered his attack, and the Dark- and Steel-type flew backwards and fell onto the ground. Bryony recalled her fainted Pokemon, and looked at Serena with an arrogant smirk on her face.
"Should we call Aliana and Mable?" Bryony asked; Celosia shook her head.
"No. They're out looking for the one who decided to think with his dick and go on a power trip," said Celosia. "It seems that stalling for time is not working as well as I hoped it would." She locked eyes with Serena. "Our weapon fires in less than an hour, you know," she said. "You can go try and stop it if you want, if it'll put your conscience at ease." She gestured to the staircase on the opposite end of the hall, letting out a devious snicker as she did.
Saying nothing, Serena pressed the stone on her Mega Ring again to return Lucario to his unaffected state, and then recalled him to his Pokeball. She then took off in a mad dash to the staircase, past all the Flare grunts who had previously tried to stop her, and ran up the stairs while skipping over several steps. She saw the eerie green glow of the gas inside the reactor before she even entered the central chamber, and when she arrived she stared at it for a moment. The gas inside was swirling faster than it was the last time she saw it, and the intensity of its glow pulsated in time with each swirl and twirl.
Only one person was currently in the central chamber: Teleurac, who stood at the control panel in front of the tall red screen, Holo Caster in his hand. The countdown to the weapon's firing showed the remaining time to be 00:47:45, with the seconds still ticking down.
Teleurac must have heard her footsteps, for he turned his head towards the entrance of the room. His expression hardened when he saw Serena, and he grabbed a Pokeball off his belt. A Liepard emerged, and it growled menacingly at her.
"I heard you escaped from prison . . . you never cease to surprise me, Serena," he said coolly. "It seems that you still need to learn some obedience . . . . Liepard, use Night Slash."