"There it is," N said, leaning against the boat's railing as it sailed towards the island. A dome-like structure stood visible just over the tops of the trees.
"It's way out here," Robert said, frowning. "Perfect place to hide a secret lab. Also, what's with the name "P2 Laboratory"?"
"You'd have to ask Colress." N shook his head as Zoroark padded over to him. N smiled softly before rubbing the Pokemon's head. "He's very... enigmatic. Especially when it came to naming things."
"Go figure," Alex snorted. "All you mad scientist types are complete wackos."
"Hey!" Robert exclaimed, pretending to look affronted. "I consider myself a step above the rest thank you very much!"
"That says a lot."
"And what do you mean by that!?"
Someone chortled behind them. "Nothing tells you more of two people's friendship than the way they argue. I consider myself honored I got to come along for the ride." Marlon of the Elite 4 frowned as he steered the boat towards the island. "Are you certain it's abandoned?"
N went to say yes, before hesitating. "No, not anymore. Colress could have used it for his own operations. I was never fond of him. His talk of bringing out the true potential of Pokemon... It was unnerving. Not to mention that Genesect of his..."
"That's the one you mentioned on the way here," Alex remembered. "The Bug/Steel type he was researching. You think it'll be here?"
"This is just off of Route 18 and 17, so it is possible," Robert mused. "Plus, Colress, mad scientist type, he's bound to have a few surprises waiting at this lab even if it is abandoned."
"Maybe if we're lucky the frigate will be here as well," Alex said darkly, cracking her knuckles.
"I never quite liked the look you get in your eyes when you get this way," Robert sweat dropped as he edged away from her malicious aura. "I pity the poor fools who go after your boyfriend."
"Careful," Alex warned him, a smirk playing on her features. "You're usually one of those fools."
"I want to apologize," N said, turning to face her. "For... everything. Zeno proved himself a true hero, and I... was played for a fool. And because of that, he got hurt. I'm sorry."
"Oh, uh..." Alex shrugged, not really looking at him. "You weren't ever really a bad guy. We kinda already knew that. Zeno knew that for sure. He's always been good at reading people. You were just... misguided."
"Misguided," N tried the words on his tongue. He looked doubtful.
"I think Zeno actually respects you," Alex said, this time smiling. "While we definitely didn't agree with Team Plasma's methods, what you're fighting for, it's not wrong. As I said, you've just been misguided. But your beliefs, they aren't wrong. Never forget that."
"I... thank you, Alex."
"Anytime... Natural Harmonia Gropius."
"...My sisters told you my name, didn't they."
"Yep," Alex made a popping sound when she said it. "Oh look, we're here."
Marlon spun the wheel, aiming for a small and dingy dock. He slowed as they approached and docked the boat. He swung himself over the railing and landed on the rotted boards, testing their weight. "It's safe, but probably just one at a time. And don't let your Pokemon out until we get to the beach."
"Aye aye captain!" Robert mocked saluted as the Elite 4 trainer crossed the dock and motioned for them to follow. When they finally joined him, his Quagsire had been let out onto the sand. With two flashes of light, Ninetales joined Alex while Swampert immediately latched onto Robert. Zoroark simply transformed into an Archeops and soared over the water before turning back into himself next to N.
"It's a jungle out there-OW!"
"You deserved that," Alex said dryly as she surveyed the treeline. "You're not wrong though. This place is pretty overgrown for a Unovan forest."
"Colress never liked to be disturbed by the public," N said as he began walking towards the trees undaunted. "Come on, there is a path. It's just well hidden."
"Good enough for me dude," Marlon shrugged as he and Quagsire went off after him.
"...This place is almost definitely trapped, right?" Alex shot Robert a questioning look.
"Oh yeah," Robert nodded as the two of them began walking. "Without a doubt. I mean, if Colress is a mad scientist worth his salt, then he definitely has a few surprises in store for anyone coming in to snoop."
The temperature dropped even further as they entered the forest and Robert became glad he'd donned a coat for this operation. Swampert padded beside him, on alert as her eyes constantly scanned the area around them. It didn't help that Robert had the feeling they were being watched, which to him was confirmation they were indeed being watched, but by what?
N stopped just up ahead and he turned around in a panic.
"What's wrong?" Alex asked as Zoroark immediately went into a defensive position.
"Voices," N mumbled. "I don't..." Louder, he said, "I don't hear their voices. I've been here before, and then this place was thriving. So many voices of Pokemon living their lives here. And now... I can't... Nothing. Just nothing. Either they're all staying quiet and hidden, or they're..." He didn't finish that thought. He didn't have to.
"We keep moving," Marlon instructed as he scanned the trees above warily. "But don't let your guards down."
"Man, should've gotten that gig in the Desert Resort," Robert mocked complained.
"You kidding?" Marlon acted faint. "In all that heat where there's no water? Nah, I say we got lucky with this location."
"I just hope one of our groups finds some good intel on Team Plasma," Alex grumbled. "We have no idea what they're planning. Our only saving grace is that Zeno was smart enough to lock Zekrom's and Reshiram's pokeballs. Speaking of, you sure they're unhackable?"
"Of course," Robert answered immediately before pausing. "Okay, they're gonna have one hell of a time trying to brute force their way through, I don't care how smart Colress is. Those things are tough nuts to crack even without my added features. Sorry, both mine and Clemont's added features. Man, we need to collab more often."
"We're here," N said from up ahead as he stepped out from the trees into a clearing. There stood the ruined dome structure, the ceiling having half caved in on itself. Patches of ice littered the ground, with spikes of the stuff jutting out from windows.
"What happened here?" Marlon wondered.
"Ice?" N frowned. "I don't remember Colress working on a project that involved ice."
"Maybe whatever they outfitted their cannons with on their frigate went ballistic here on accident?" Robert tapped on an ice structure. "So they had to refine the weapons before outfitting them to their ship?"
"It's an idea," Alex admitted as she and Ninetales hesitantly approached the broken front doors. "You think-?"
"Watch out!" Marlon shouted from behind and Quagsire fired a wave of water that crashed into the figure that had zoomed from above towards Alex. She whirled around, leaping back as Ninetales hurried in front of her, snarling as she crouched.
Genesect rose from where it had crashed into the building, shaking itself as it locked onto Alex and Ninetales. Its eyes flashed red and its cannon fired a blast of silver energy. Ninetales met with it a Flamethrower, overpowering the attack, but only just barely.
"Oh crap!" Robert shouted as he dived to one side as another Genesect crashed into the ground where he'd been standing. It rose only for Swampert to tackle it and slam it to the ground with an earthshaking punch.
"There's more," Marlon threw out two more pokeballs. "Carracosta, Jellicent, to me!"
"Robert, get inside!" Alex ordered the blond as she sent out Incineroar and Darmanitan. "Whatever is in there they're trying to protect! N, go with him! Marlon and I will hold them here!"
"Roger that!" Robert yelled back as he ran full tilt for the building, Swampert deflecting an attack from another Genesect. Incineroar leaped into the air, crashing a fiery fist into a flying Genesect that was aiming for N and Zoroark. Alex cursed silently as she counted at least half a dozen of these freakish Pokemon.
"Alright, guess we're doing this." She cracked her neck as Ninetales, Incineroar, and Darmanitan returned to her side. "Alright boys and girls, let's light 'em up!"
"CRAP!" Robert shouted as he dove behind an overturned table as the Genesect's beam carved its way through the floor. Swampert surged forward, grabbing it by the cannon and managing to crush the end of it before slamming the Pokemon into the wall. Zoroark then bombarded the downed Pokemon with flames before the Genesect fell from the hole, charred and fainted.
"The main lab is up ahead," N said as he rose up from behind a different table. He looked worse for wear. Robert noted the guy still hadn't fully recovered from the collapse of his castle, yet here he was trying his best to make up for his mistakes. Robert respected that. He also knew that convincing him to stay put had been a futile effort.
"How many Genesects did that make?" Robert asked as they went through into the next room full of toppled chairs, cracked monitors, and a surprising amount of ice covering the floor.
"Three just in here," N said, counting on his fingers. "And who knows if more showed up outside or not."
"Great, they have a veritable army," Robert complained as he made a beeline for a terminal that didn't look as bad as the rest. "Let's hope that all they have are the ones here." He frowned as he booted up the system. It was sluggish, but at least it was working. Who knew if the files in the databank, if there were any, were at all fully intact.
"Okay, I'm in," Robert said after a minute. "Shoot. Not a whole lot here. I think they tried doing a memory purge, but something must have interrupted the process. Probably whatever happened to this place was the cause."
"So we're out of luck?" N asked worriedly.
"Well, this is actually not as bad as I had feared," Robert admitted as he tried restoring the files still remaining. "We'll see what I can dig up. Won't be much, but it'll be something. And we really need something... Okay, nevermind."
"What?"
"About the whole Genesect thing," Robert groaned as he enlarged an image he was able to pull up. It showed the schematics of the Plasma Frigate, and while that was most certainly useful information to have on hand, what it showed was pretty bad. "There's a whole hanger here where the Genesect can be stored. And by the looks of it, it can fit up to three dozen of them at least."
"That's... not good," N said, mouth having gone dry.
"Understatement," Robert said as he tried digging into some more files. Nothing really caught his eye until he spotted a word that looked both unfamiliar and as if he should know what it meant. "Kyurem..." He tasted the word on his tongue. Why was he suddenly reminded of a warm fireplace and the intoxicating smell of hot cocoa? "What's Kyurem."
"Kyurem?!" N choked.
"You know it?" Robert glanced back at him. N was at his side in an instant and Robert opened the file up. After reading what was there, Robert got a pretty good idea what Kyurem was.
"The third Dragon," N spoke softly. "The one who remains an empty shell after Zekrom and Reshiram split from it. But... there was an expedition to find him. I was there. Unless... they found him and kept it from me... It makes sense now."
"What makes sense?" Robert asked, almost afraid of the answer.
"Why Ghetsis took both of the Dragons," N looked horrified. "He plans to reunite them. Combine them back into one. With the powers of both Truth and Ideals together, this would be the Original Dragon. A powerful force of nature this world has not seen the likes of since they split apart thousands of years ago."
"That's their big plan?" Robert huffed. "Okay, I won't lie, this is still foreboding as heck, but come on, I was kinda hoping for something different this time."
"Huh?"
"Come on," Robert patted the green haired teen on the back as he stood, the download complete. "Let's get back and see if Alex and Marlon still need our help. This whole ordeal just got a whole lot simpler."
"I'm sorry, but could you explain why this is now easier all of a sudden!?" N stood in front of him, arms crossed and his glare at full force.
"Because," Robert grinned as he settled his hands on his hips. "Zeno, Alex, and I have a LOT of experience with legendary Pokemon emerging after thousands of years and wrecking havoc. This is right up our alley. Oh, we need to be cautious and all that, but I dunno about you, but I'm feeling a whole lot better about this situation now."
"Oh yeah, shouldn't even have worried," Robert said as he sidestepped a burning crater with a toasted Genesect at the bottom. "Alex, just how overboard did you go?"
The girl in question was laying on her back beside her Pokemon, her hair splayed out around her. She gave a weak thumbs up. "What does it look like genius?"
"Now that was a workout of epic proportions," Marlon said as he and his Pokemon made their way over to them. "Find anything useful inside?"
"Yeah," Robert said, holding out his screen. "Whatever they're working on, it has to do with the third Dragon, Kyurem. They might already have him. That could be where all this ice came from, but that's just speculative information."
"Wasn't this third Dragon supposed to represent emptiness?" Alex asked, sitting up. "Why would they want it?"
"Because they intend to merge it back with Zekrom and Reshiram into the Original Dragon," N spoke. "Or, as some translations call it, the Perfect Dragon. It won't be just truth or ideals anymore. It'll represent absolute clarity, and its power will be unmatched. We can't hope to fight against it if they somehow get it under their control."
"We've dealt with worse odds before," Alex said with a grin. "This just-"
"Got easier?" N looked at both her and Robert in disbelief. "How can you two act like this after hearing that?"
"Practice?" Alex shrugged. "We fought the Shadow and the Ultra Beasts in Alola, took down the incarnation of Chaos in Kalos, and now there's a supposed "Perfect Dragon" about to rise? Just looks to me like round three. Or four, if we're counting Shadow and the UBs as separate."
"Separate," Robert confirmed. "Definitely separate."
"Who even is the Shadow!?" N shook his head. "No, sorry, I just... You're all crazy."
"That's just how we roll," Robert winked. "So, you in?"
"I know I am," Marlon grinned and waved at them. "You saved Alola, that's all the proof I need to know to put this region in your safe hands."
"I..." N closed his eyes. Something Zeno had said came back to him.
"This is just another Tuesday for me. Not that it gets any easier-!"
He was strong enough to triumph against me, N realized. Not because he's some hero, but because he's had experience facing tremendous odds before. He and his friends. They're... He took a deep breath. "Alright. I'll trust you both. I'm in."
"Good to hear!" Robert pounded him on the back. "Not that you had much choice in the matter!"
"Ugh, let's get going," Alex said, rolling her eyes. "We need to check up on Zeno before we craft a game plan."
I spat out blood, grimacing as I knelt upon the icy earth. All around me the streets, the buildings, even the people of Opelucid City had been frozen. I shuddered at the cold, my breath coming in frosted clouds. I turned my glare up at the Frigate above, its gleaming cannon the cause of this destruction.
"Ghetsis," I growled. "Colress... I will..." The last of my strength faded and I fell forward, utterly spent. I had the faintest recollection of my body being moved into the sky before all went dark.