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Wyndon, the Darkest Day
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
-Chairman Bronze Tercano, final memoirs
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The pillars of red light sprouted from Power Spots all over Galar, piercing the heavens. Seismographic roaring swept over the land, and Henry saw buildings totter and sway. Rose Tower was shaking. The sky was draped in darkness like ashes from a nuclear winter, and the cityscape was quenched into night, the power gone. An eerie red glow covered the land from the light of the moon.
"Damn!" Bede said. "It's the Darkest Day! Run, do something!"
Henry smacked the elevator button, but then remembered that there was no power. Bronze activated a comlink, sending a message to his forces. "Get everyone out of Rose Tower! Send a skycopter to the penthouse to get us out! The building's going to collapse!"
In seconds, Henry heard skycopter blades whirring. It hovered up to a window, with men inside holding a hatch open. Breaking the window with his Hatenna, Bede crawled in first. The tower shook again, and the 'copter, stationary in flight, seemed to dip first to the left and then to the right. Henry and Casey reached for the opening, following Marnie and Hop. "A minute before this structure collapses!" Tess cried, pushing more people in. "Fly away! Fly away!"
The pilot raised the 'copter a bit higher. "No more room!" he yelled, seeing that a Rorian Commando-the one named Tyekanik-was still in the penthouse. "We're at maximum capacity. I had to use up my emergency reserves to get here so quickly!"
"Leave me behind!" the Commando shouted. "I will see you in Paradise if this Darkest Day takes us all!"
The 'copter banked left, and its lights illuminated the crumbling surface of Rose Tower. As Henry watched in horror, eighteen stories of the building, from the penthouse on down, crashed to the ground in a mighty roar and a cloud of dust, separated like a hewn tree. The ray shields screamed a wordless bellow of static, flashed red, and went dark. The rubble crushed Bronze's shuttle into mangled steel, scattering rubble all about. Fires were running loose in the city.
Henry stared at Bronze in the cramped 'copter hold. In the dim light of the control panel he seemed to have no expression at all, but he had given no thought to strapping himself in. His face was white, as if ill. No doubt that Tercano had seen people die before, but this was Henry's first time. Wondering if it would have been better for him to have died in the building, Henry shook his head and resolutely fastened his seat belt.
"Get us to the L.S. Victory!" Tess said. "We'll stop this disaster from there!"
...
The Gym Leaders saw Rose Tower's penthouse floor collapse from the safety of the ground and crush their escape shuttle to rubble, saw the 'copter fly across the city. "They made it out!" Gordie said. "Now, what do we do? Did they find Rose?"
"Something tells me that they didn't," Opal said. "There's no point in quibbling about it until we can get more information about this black storm that appeared out of nowhere, and this power-out. And..." She looked into the city, where a sudden commotion had begun.
"Great Mother! What is happening?!"
In the half-light of the red moon and battery-powered glowglobes, a new menace had come upon Wyndon. After the earthquake had ceased, Pokemon began to Dynamax en masse, but their trainers seemed to have no control over them. A Hawlucha landed in an aqueduct, lifting a fishing boat into the air. By the monorail line, a Greedant bit the heavy steel girders in half. Death and frenzy ran rabid over the city, and the Gym Leaders could do little to stop it.
Rorian soldiers and civilians alike tried to fight against the tide, but there were too many Pokemon, far too many to fight. The frigates above the city aimed their guns with a precision reserved for utmost caution at the Pokemon, trying to scry out if they could fire or not. The buildings were too closely packed together, however, and any bombardment would kill countless people. The massive juggernauts were helpless, and could only wait for further orders.
Warnings came over the Gym Leader's Rotom Phones. "This is Bronze Tercano! Rose is in Hammerlocke; I will send a transport to bring you aboard my capital ship! Keep your Pokemon inside their Poke Balls until we can figure out how to stop the Dynamaxing!"
The transmission became garbled. "Dear Arceus, it's the size of a-pull up, pull up-ahhh!"
A sudden flame sparked in the night. A Gigantimazed Garbador had thrown a car at Bronze's 'copter, bringing it down. The skycopter hit the ground hard, filling with absorbent gelfoam to prevent severe injury. The Pokedex Holders and company staggered out, covered in the pink stuff, seeing the chaos from the ground.
"This is it, the Darkest Day!" Henry said, watching a Dynamaxed Pawniard cut into a building, cleaving it like butter. "The Corviknight are scared, running wild, or Dynamaxing! We can't use the Flying Taxis...and the monorail is broken! How are we going to get to Hammerlocke?"
The Gym Leaders found Bronze, his hand over a head wound from the fall. "Tercano, you're the one who brought the army!" Melony said. "Are you going to use it or not?"
Bronze activated his comlink, sending orders to the fleet. "Fire on any wild Pokemon that leaves the limits of the city! All available soldiers are to fight with law enforcement to contain this outbreak of Dynamaxing! As of now, our focus has changed from destroying Macro Cosmos to limiting the damage done by these Pokemon! Send me a transport to get to Hammerlocke!"
"Sir," Rellus's voice came crackling over the comlines. "I'm in Hammerlocke now, and, uh, a new threat entity has appeared in a vortex above the Energy Plant! Macro Cosmos has fortified the place and shielded it; we can't get in for now without causing significant collateral damage. Also, we do not have your location! Please transmit the fleet your coordinates for where to send a drop pod!"
Before Bronze could answer, a vehicle came screeching toward them. The Magnolia RV tripped a gigantic Bonsly, coming to a halt. "Get in, all of you!" Magnolia yelled from the driver's seat. "All of you, the Gym Leaders, especially Tercano!"
The Pokedex Holders ran inside, with the others following them. Jake sat on the floor, while the Gym Leaders strapped themselves in preparation for the escape from Wyndon. Magnolia slammed the gas pedal, drove under the legs of a rampaging Mudsdale and bit into a shallow crevasse made by another Dynamaxed Pokemon. A tunnel that once held a roadblock, now shattered, led the RV to freedom.
...
Outside the city limits, the maddened Pokemon were thin and far between. Thousands of other cars created jams as they tried to escape the city, but Magnolia drove the RV off-roads, moving through fields and plains at the fastest speed she could go. Until Association forces could send faster transport, the band of trainers would have to drive the hour-long journey to Hammerlocke.
"Look!" Casey said from her console room. "Energy markers similar to Power Spots are all over the map, and actual Power Spots are becoming crazy active, like nothing I've ever seen before. That must be a symptom of the Darkest Day, like when Dracovish Dynamaxed in the tunnel back then." She began to chatter. "The particle leak at Hammerlocke was just a teaser, this is the real deal. Is there anything on the news? Bronze, uh, Chairman, sir, can you send a message across Galar to warn people about this?"
Magnolia turned on the radio, and Bronze recognized it as a station controlled by Macro Cosmos. "Rose's company still controls the media networks. We can't do anything without access, but he seems to be telling people everything they need to hear. Listen!"
"...to their Poke Balls at once. We repeat: do not let your Pokemon out of their Poke Balls!" the radio squawked. "Return your released Pokemon to their Poke Balls at once! Due to a sudden and unexplained spike in Galar Particle levels over all of the region, Dynamaxing is happening outside of Power Spots, Dens, and Stadiums without the aid of a Dynamax Band! Disoriented Pokemon may go wild and cause massive damage. It seems that a massive Association force anticipated the disaster and will contain the devastation for the time being. Do not approach Rorian soldiers while in combat! We repeat: do not let your Pokemon out of their Poke Balls for any reason!"
"Rose must have known this would happen," Tess said, her eyes glazing milky grey. "He intended to send out containment forces, but we now are working for him indirectly. That threat entity that Rellus mentioned is likely what caused the Darkest Day."
"Threat entity?" Allister said. "Can we get pictures from Hammerlocke? Do we know what it looks like?"
"I have a theory," Bronze replied. "A man named Sycamore deduced that the Galar Particles are of biological origin, produced by a entity emitting particle levels at the very limit of the Kant scale three thousand years ago. The multiplication of invisible power spots inside the tachyon net must be due to this Ozymandias entity being summoned again. Why did I not see this sooner? I assumed that Rose made an energy weapon to destroy my armies, but this is just as severe. Galar is in dire peril."
"No joking there." Henry looked into the mire of clouds, and saw flickers of arc lighting buried deep within their dark hearts. The lightning was shooting up. Was lightning supposed to strike up? He didn't think so.
...
Hammerlocke City
"Duraldon, hear my roar! Gigantimax!"
"Drednaw, let the tides rise! G-Max Stonesurge!"
"Charizard, burn bright on this Darkest Day! G-Max Wildfire!"
Rellus's voice came booming over the city, broadcasted from the thousand-strong fleet above. "Good work, Gym Leaders, Champion! Get the rampaging Pokemon away from the Energy Plant. We can't give you any support from the air until civilians are out of the streets! All soldiers, form perimeters around the city, Contain the Dynamaxed Pokemon and return them to their Poke Balls after you've defeated them!"
Sonia watched the devastation unfold inside a military cordon, only a few paces from Hammerlocke Stadium. The Darkest Day had unfolded once more, as in the old legends. Now, Man alone had unleashed its fury on Galar: Chairman Rose and his two lackeys. How they had done such a thing was still a terrible unknown, but the defeat of rampaging Dyanamxed Pokemon proved that the disaster could be contained.
A crimson burst of light crested at the peak of Hammerlocke Tower, and then blasted out in the form of red sheet lightning into the clouds. There was a luminous form above the tower, shining too bright to be looked at. A dark vortex above the creature seemed to catch the luminosity and devour it, creating more billows of clouds to send over all of Galar.
"Sonia, are you seeing this?" Nessa cried from outside the cordon. "Take a picture of that thing, filter out the light!"
"There is no need for that. I am strong enough to reveal myself at this time."
The awful voice sounded like jagged nails across a dirty chalkboard, roaring even louder than Rellus's broadcasts. As Sonia reeled in shock from hearing unmistakable coherent words coming from the being, the light lessened around it, dripping away like a Cascoon molting from its shell.
Then, she saw it, in all the things aberrated nature, its shocking and uncouth horns of ruddy matter, its articulated, crustacean neck that vanished into an exoskeleton-covered thorax, its insectoid pseudo-wings and rows of three-lobed burning eyes, its envenomed tail that swayed like a serpent, its terrible maw that slavered toxins and foul liquids, and the iridescent tissue that stretched between in its unlovely horns to shield the rest of the monstrosity.
Eternatus!
...
Route Ten. White Hill Tunnel
"Everyone, quiet down!" Magnolia said. "It seems that a Gigantimaxed Snorlax has broken the bridge to Hammerlocke. Tercano, how's the transport coming along?"
"Not for another ten minutes," Bronze said. "Do we have enough Pokemon that we can ride? If I could have a Dynamax Band, we could fly on my Charizard-"
Tess shook her head. "The skin of a Gigantimaxed Charizard is far too hot to touch. We also do not have any Pokemon that could transport all of us quicker than the Magnolia RV and have the seating capacity to fit us. I suggest that we take an alternate route through the White Hill Train Station. The bullet trains are shut down currently, considering that this disaster fits all the definitions of the apocalypse."
Magnolia swerved, went up a hill, and drove down the vacant train tracks. "Everyone, be careful not to bite your tongues!"
The rattling jostled the Gym Leaders in the cabin, but Bronze still managed to hold steady. Henry knew that what made a leader was his ability to deal with a crisis, and he was curious to see how Bronze would continue to act as the Darkest Day continued. "Do we have any tunes to pass the time?" Henry asked. "Perhaps a bit of small talk?"
Bronze activated his Rotom Phone, connected with an Association hotspot. "This adventure reminds me of my old glory days, but by no means were my adventures the first of their kind. Gym Leaders, know that over two thousand years ago, there was a great battle in Roria, or Logaria as it was then. By the gates of the Land of Shadowy Horror, the War of Wrath found its end, and the Hisuians and Logarians made many songs of their losses and victories."
"I know one," Melony said. "My mother taught it to me when I was very young. Gordie, you know it too. The Song of the Mounds of Gelien."
"Now, that was what I was thinking of," Bronze said. "Can anyone play the harp?"
"If we had one, I could," Kabu said, hitting his head on the roof again. "But shouldn't we be thinking about our plans for stopping this disaster?"
Bronze's Rotom Phone began playing a somber melody. "Sometimes there can be little left to do but sing, for melodies fill the heart with cheer and drive away the imaginations of despair that Men once held in their minds. Melony, Gordie, follow along with me."
...
We heard of the horns in the hills ringing,
the swords shining in the South-kingdom,
Steeds went striding to the Sutherland
as wind in the morning. War was kindled.
There Kamado fell, High Elder mighty,
to his golden halls and green pastures
in the Northern fields never returning,
high lord of the host. Iridia and Iscan,
Arezu and Palina, doughty Adunakor,
Latias and Latios, Dialga and Palkia,
fought there and fell in a far country:
in the Mounds of Gelien under earth they lie
with their league-fellows, lords of Logaria.
Neither Mai the Fair to the hills by the sea,
nor Calaba the old to the flowering vales,
ere to Hisui, to her own country, returned in triumph;
nor the tall bowmen, Anvin and Anthe, to their dark waters,
meres of Jubilife under mountain-shadows.
Death in the morning and at the day's ending
lords took and lowly. Long now they sleep
under grass in Logaria by the Great River Sereghir
Grey now as tears, gleaming silver,
red then it rolled, roaring water:
foam dyed with blood flamed at sunset;
as beacons mountains burned at evening;
red fell the dew in Southernesse.
...
As the trio stopped their singing, the Omninet came back on again. Macro Cosmos must have expended the last of its energy reserves in order to transmit a final message on the Holonet. "Sir, we're getting a live feed from Hammerlocke Tower!" Rellus transmitted. "Take a gander at this, Rose filled the channels with it!"
Casey activated the wallscreen, saw warped watcheye footage of the peak of Hammerlocke Tower, and a nightmarish being prowling the high pinnacle. "The entity has perched itself atop the Particle Observation Tower...seems to be surveying the area...do not approach. Gym Leaders containing damages. Association fleet is...again, do not approach."
"There it is, the Ozymandias Entity!" Jake said. "Ugly bastard, too. Haven't seen anything like that in your historical research, eh?"
"No, the geoglyphs in Turfield or any of the tapestries we found never depicted that demon," Henry said. "Hey, what's going on?"
The footage cleared, and the watcheye turned, moved by the impetus of a pair of hands. The static dimmed to a droning hum, and Henry saw the smiling faces of Sordward and Sheilbert. Perhaps if separated from their arrogance and brutality, they could have been handsome, heroic even, but those sneers made them seem almost as repulsive as the horned creature beyond them.
"Now, people of Galar," Shielbert said. "Do not be alarmed! We are Sordward and Shielbert, and are the descendants of Galar's founding heroes! Thus, we are of royal blood. We come in this Darkest Day to defeat the one responsible for this disaster:" He pointed at the beast. "The demon Eternatus!"
"Stop this recording!" Bronze shouted into his comlink. "Rellus, fire on the Energy Plant! Now!"
"We would do no damage!" Rellus cried. "Hammerlocke Stadium is still shielded. We can't cut the connection from outside, either. There's nothing we can do but let them talk until a more permanent solution can be found."
"Yes, Eternatus is its name," Sordward said. "Do not be deceived by those that would call it a Pokemon. It is a creature older than that. Even the most ancient Relicanth would have been but a stripping at the time when Eternatus would have seen far-ago eras, yet another delicacy in the long banquet of immortality. But we of such high blood have come to defeat it and end this Darkest Day! You know of us from the legends of Galar. Now, we offer indisputable proof of our lineage!"
The two held the Rusted Sword and Shield up to the camera, causing Henry to gag. "Yes! They're in Hammerlocke Tower! Magnolia, drive, drive faster!"
"These are the Rusted Sword and Rusted Shield," Sheilbert said. "Our ancestors took these heaven-forged artifacts and used their power to drive off Eternatus in an ancient era! Now that Eternatus has appeared in modern times, it is our duty to destroy this evil from another time once more and end this terrible calamity that currently is devastating Galar!"
The camera feed cut off suddenly, replaced by a testing ticker. "They're waiting for something else," Bea said. "That gives us more time to get to HAmmerlocke and stop them!"
"So, that was their motivation," Milo said. "Perhaps they did all of this to get the treatment they thought they deserved as the descendants of a royal house. But in causing the Darkest Day they have forfeited that right by allowing evil to walk free again! But why wait until now, and why would Rose go out of his way to help them?"
"It is exceedingly likely that Rose is insane," Tess bluntly said. "Many great leaders have had latent mental illnesses. This would explain Rose's seemingly irrational behavior. He might have been manipulated by this being. Did we not know this was coming, Bronze? The dark lord will return in a form anew? We were looking in the wrong places. Two enemies returned? We have those, although I have no idea who they are supposed to represent."
"Of course," Bronze said, trying to put the matter off for as long as he could. "Gym Leaders, when we arrive at Hammerlocke, Association forces there will bring you back to your own cities if you so desire. Your own towns and dwellings will have less protection given by the third contingent of my forces that I sent over Galar. You would be an important source of moral support for your citizens."
"Yes," Rellus said through a puff of static. "Reports from Motostoke say that the town is overrun with Dynamaxed Pokemon. Kabu, you must return as quickly as possible. We'll send twenty ballista frigates to aid you."
"That will be soon enough," Magnolia said. "We've arrived at Hammerlocke. Tercano, get your men in order. Find out a way to breach those ray shields!"
...
The Magnolia RV passed through a blockade on the tracks near Hammerlocke Station, and the Rorian soldiers escorted the Gym Leaders and Bronze into the city, passed, mangled chunks of buildings and unconscious Pokemon defeated by the trio of Gym Leaders and Association forces. Several ballistas and javelin-model ships hovering above the city looked damaged, with the odd few lying crumbled in the streets, running through buildings in their wake.
Death was everywhere. Seeing the ruins, Henry knew that it could take years for Hammerlocke to recover. The only building completely unscathed in the entire metropolis was the Energy Plant, surrounded by an entire legion of Rorian Commandos. Far above Eterantus lurked, peering down at the force assembled to destroy it.
"Oi! Henry!" Raihan called. "Glad you and the others could make it here. Tercano, can you disable those shields?"
"I can try," Bronze said, sending out an Absol. "But will try and succeed. There is no failure, not now. If you have a Pokemon that can attack using Psychic-type moves, the time has come to use it! Aim at the base of the walls! Future Sight!"
Crackling bursts of energy screamed from the ranks of the Rorians, blasting the shields. The walls of Hammerlocke Stadium burnt and blistered, their black tilings withering. The shields over the plant smoked, and flashed red. A breach formed around the central gate, making a path to march into the tower.
"Allow me," Bede said, approaching the control panel. "I know all the codes. Being under Rose's wing has its benefits, you know-"
"Step aside." A Rorian Commando pointed a plasma howitzer at the door. Bede scrambled away as the man released a hellish gout of energy fire into the gullet of the dragon-carved door. The whipping flames caused immediate, horrendous damage to the gates and the ambient shield generators. Metals melted, circuit components and generators corroded and broke. Noxious smoke rose out of the blasted aperture, which Raihan blew away with the help of his Flygon. Within moments, the door collapsed into a slurry of smelted resources. "Now," the Gym Leader said, looking satisfied. "Where can we find Chairman Rose?"
"In the Energy Plant!" Bronze said. "Captain Aziz, have your battalion follow me! Rellus, move half your fleet to Hulbury and Circhester! Gym Leaders, do what you will to aid Galar. The magnitude of this crisis affects millions! Henry Sword, Casey Shield, you are Pokedex Holders and thus are equal to me. You may face whatever horrors Rose has conjured alongside me, or leave to help with relief efforts."
Bronze marched at the head of his column, a conqueror destroying the last ragged remnants of resistance against his advance. Henry and Casey exchanged glances. Now, Rose, Sordward, and Sheilbert would pay for his evil deeds. To turn back now would mean that all their effort would have been an empty gesture, ephemera in the light of the greater victory. They sent out their Pokemon, and followed Bronze deep into the Energy Plant.
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Hammerlocke Energy Plant
We believe that confession should lead to forgiveness and redemption. Usually, however, it leads only to further accusations.
-The Rorian Whip, second revision
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Chairman Rose Venport stood in the deepest chamber of his beautiful Energy Plant, where humming Galar particles were converted into raw energy in cylindrical canisters, suspended around a central dais for maintenance and observation. A great vault door had been closed, trapping him inside, even though it would never withstand a concentrated effort to break in. That was acceptable. He never intended to leave.
Was he even the Chairman of Macro Cosmos, at least anymore? He was poorer than even the most impoverished beggar. His men were dying in great heaps to fight for him. And now he stood alone by the remnants of the cell he had made for Eternatus. In the warmth of the ambient Galar Particles, he had given it the final dosage of Wishing Stars before it awoke, starting the Darkest Day at his command.
Silent and alone, Rose looked around the facility, knowing that this was the largest remnant left of his once-vast corporate empire, along with the small broadcasting hut near Wyndon that Olena and a handful of employees had hidden in. He had been squeezed down to this, seemingly trapped and cornered. And within it all, everything was going to plan.
Minutes later, he heard pounding on the barricaded metal blast door, the hiss of thermal cutters as they began to burn their way through the sealed lock.
He felt no surprise or fear. He wanted to confront Tercano again, face to face. He wondered if he could threaten him, at least in his current state. No, he was deluding himself. He had nothing, or at least nothing to save himself with. Neither his vanished money nor infrastructure could do it.
"Sordward, Sheilbert," Rose transmitted, seeing the door turn molten red. "Start the watcheye footage again and battle Eternatus. Destroy it. The amount of Galar Particles released since the Darkest Day began until now will sustain Galar for one hundred thousand years! Carry on without me, and use your skills of negotiation to save yourself. The people will love you once the second Dark Lord is toppled."
The two brother's response came back to him, painfully slow. "Yes, Rose. Eternatus will fall by our hand. The future of Galar is safe." The cutting tools had almost opened the door. "We hope that Tercano gives you a painless death."
"I hope so as well." He saw the door caving in, heard the shouts of the soldiers on the other side. Were those the voices of Henry Sword and Casey Sheild? What a strange chance! They must have followed him here from the debacle at Wyndon. Now, I can finally try to reason with them.