A/N: We're back! Arc three begins now, as do my semi bi-weekly uploads. Hopefully everyone is getting a good start to the new year. I appreciate all of your patience with me through my hiatus. I'll do my best to make it up to you all with a thrilling final arc to this story. Please enjoy this chapter and look forward to more soon. Reviews are still very appreciated!
Looker couldn't sleep. Roughing it in hostile territory was downright pleasant compared to his current accommodations. He knew that none of his companions shared his anxiety about their new working conditions based on how easily they slept while he kept watch. It was purely a personal problem, and that made it all the more irksome to contend with. They were currently in the depths of the shining city they'd discovered underneath Area Zero. Not a single sign of human life was present, as Looker expected. Though permanently terastilized pokémon had flourished, proliferating and taking over the environment in the absence of human interference, it seemed that humans weren't able to adapt to the world that they'd carved out for themselves. It bothered Looker more than it should. If humanity wasn't able to exist here, why were they having such an easy time exploring?
Everything in Area Zero proper had been hostile. By contrast, the terastilized pokémon and the terapagos as Turo had called them had been as friendly as if they were Looker's own pokémon. He couldn't trust it. Knowing that there was likely something more to their behavior triggered all of his detective instincts and denied him rest. The sun, or rather whatever passed for the sun all the way down here, was beginning to crest in the sky. Looker's best guess as to this phenomenon was that sunlight was somehow being emulated through the power of the teraite, but even that explanation felt wrong. Teraite was supposed to be highly condensed tera crystals, yet what covered the walls of the massive cave that encapsulated the city was more like the walls that lined Professor Turo's time machine. Thinking of the professor drew Looker's eyes to the laptop clutched in Giacomo's hands as he dozed. The children trusted Looker now to watch their backs, but not to talk to the AI without one of them around. That was fair, in a way. It was entirely likely that the AI was aware a copy of it had been made.
The detective rose to his feet. Days and nights down here felt shorter than above ground. If it was a tactic by the city itself to set them off balance, it was at least working on Looker. He roused his companions to varying degrees of protest. Only Eri was fully awake by the time he'd finished preparing a meager breakfast composed of biscuits and food rations from their supplies. Juliana was confident that their goal was in sight and they had more than enough food, but Looker wasn't going to take that chance on the girl's whims alone. "Is there a reason we have to move when it's bright out?" Mela complained as she struggled to get her boots on.
"Would you prefer that we be subject to ambush from all sides when it's dark?" Looker queried as he handed the girl a plate.
"Nothing's attacked us since we came here though," Giacomo pointed out. "It's been nice."
"That sort of attitude is exactly why we should be on our guard. We are in an unfamiliar place with poor understanding of the rules governing it," Eri told her friends off with more conviction than Looker was expecting.
Having Eri take his side in an argument was unexpected, but Looker welcomed the change of pace. Battling an enemy on multiple fronts was exhausting, and even he had his limits. This reminder came to him every time he tried to swallow his food. Though he'd been able to soldier onward for a while, there was only so much he could do without medical treatment for himself. He wasn't ready to rely on kadabra for movement just yet, but the idea had crossed his mind more frequently of late. It was a depressing prospect to remember that the main purpose of his defecting to this group was yet to be fulfilled. "I agree with Giacomo. The pokémon here are friendly, let's just sleep all day," Juliana decided around a mouthful of biscuit.
"We aren't going to err in pacing because you're dissatisfied with our sleep schedule," Looker decided, folding his arms. "You were the one who indicated that our time to act was short, if I recall."
"Yeah, but I was trying to be cool and stuff. I wasn't saying things that I thought would affect me personally."
Mela scoffed. "Why don't you sleep and Eri can carry your ass all the way to the city center?"
"Oh, Eri, would you? You're a gem, you know that?"
Suddenly flustered, Eri hid her face behind her food. "E-even if I wanted to do that, it would leave our two most capable fighters vulnerable. I just got done saying this place was dangerous! If you want to be carried, wait until we're done here!"
"Finnnnne. I'ma check our location." Discarding her tray, Juliana disappeared, likely joining one of her patrolling pokémon to confirm their route. Never being completely certain whether he was talking to Juliana or an illusion had been difficult to get accustomed to, but Looker learned to accept it by the end of the second week.
This was the odd dichotomy that Looker had found within the leading champion trainer of the Paldea region. She was often aloof, unable to focus on one thing or another at a given time. Only when something important was happening did Juliana seem to wake up, ready to act on a moment's notice with laser focus. The differences were most stark in the mornings when Juliana was at her least alert. For this reason among others, Looker had deduced that this was the best time to make his move. "Well then, why don't you three help clean the dishes when you finish while I check our current route from the ground?"
Looker rose from the makeshift circle they'd been sitting in, intentionally finishing his food faster than the Team Star admins. This was the only time of day that Juliana consistently left their group alone, and he'd only have a few minutes. He made his way out of the small house that served as their shelter. Most of the city was full of teraite, but some of the furniture was at least partially unterastilized if it was inside. The emphasis on the word partially had been made clear when Mela tried to flop onto a couch and nearly broke her arm. As Looker walked up to a terastilized tree, his kadabra was waiting for him, keeping watch with growlithe as he instructed. "If you get the chance, do it." Looker commanded.
His kadabra nodded and disappeared. A minute or two passed. Looker stared out at the landscape without saying anything. There was nothing he could really think to say when confronted by a world so alien to him. His growlithe was stalwart by his side, not needing words of reassurance to perform at its peak potential. It made Looker feel a twinge of guilt as he watched a couple of terastilized eevees wander about nearby. Thankfully, kadabra reappeared with Giacomo's laptop before he found the air between him and his pokémon becoming awkward. Nodding in approval, Looker took the device and opened it, inserting a new USB as he did. Giacomo was a whiz with using a computer, but understanding how it worked on the inside was an advantage Looker's team had over the DJ. Giacomo was no Penny, and because of that Looker quickly hacked his way past the student's password lock. A moment of searching produced the program that controlled AI Turo. The AI was accessed and Looker allowed it to see him using the laptop's camera. "Can I help you?" the AI asked when it realized who it was talking to.
"I doubt it, but we could perhaps come to a mutually beneficial exchange," Looker proposed, glancing over his shoulder involuntarily.
The AI chuckled, which was unnerving. It sounded like two pans banging together with an oven mitt between them. Now that they were alone, the AI had no inhibitions about showing its true nature, or perhaps lack-there-of. "That is unlikely, Agent Looker. You have no more cards to play, and my hand is full. It cannot be stopped now without tremendous loss. Juliana is the region's best alternative. Surely you can see that?"
Looker could see that. He could feel the machinations of this malicious AI moving pieces around, toward the center of the board they were currently standing in. "It's not going to work," Looker judged, focusing his gaze on a building that would have dwarfed any man-made structure above ground. "If things continue the way you envision, nobody will achieve their objective, not even you. We'll be left with an empty husk of a region, just like this city. Am I wrong?"
"You are wrong in assuming my objective and that this city is an empty husk," the AI surmised. "Look again, Agent Looker. Life teems in this husk, as you called it. Is the lack of humans unnerving to you? Much of Paldea is wilderness, yet you protest that one region among dozens be devoted fully to the cultivation of our relationship with these creatures we abuse. I would expect someone like you who has seen the things you have to understand that there can be no compromise here. Paradise, as the professor called it, is not free. All must pay a toll to enter. You understand, do you not?"
"It's my perspective that everyone should have a chance to repent, especially before it's too late. That includes an AI."
The AI processed this as the fan keeping Giacomo's computer from overheating whirred angrily. Looker wouldn't be able to hide the evidence of teraite use if he didn't wrap this up. "We have nothing to discuss. No offer of yours would change my mind in that regard. I will ensure that woman burns in hell for what she did." The spurt of vitriol in Turo's tone startled Looker enough that he lost confidence in his ability to continue the conversation. Forgiveness hadn't been programmed into this machine apparently, but Looker had a bit more insight into what the pieces on this board were likely to do next.
"We'll discuss this again, then." The laptop closed with an echoing thud.
What a disappointment. Looker wanted to say that out loud, an old habit from when his every action as a police officer was to be documented or recorded. More importantly, Looker would need to return the laptop before someone important noticed that he'd borrowed it. This opportunity didn't come. "Having a chat?" Eri asked, appearing behind the detective with a menacing cadence in her approach.
"For someone so strong, you're awfully stealthy," Looker complimented, turning to face the fighting type expert. "And yes, I was."
"You already know what I'm going to say then."
"I suppose I do. You wish to admonish me for speaking to the AI without the others around."
Eri clenched a fist. This might have been more threatening if she wasn't still holding a spatula from breakfast. "If you know that, why are you going out of your way to cause problems right at the end?"
Looker shook his head, offering the laptop back non-threateningly. Eri took it, but refused to move away without further explanation. "I caused problems for you a month or so ago when I inserted myself into your group. I watched as you interacted and evaluated what the lawful course of action to take would be. In that time, I have learned a little about each of you and what brought you down here. Your devotion to Penny and Juliana is exemplary."
Eri snorted, remaining obstinate in her blocking of Looker's main route back to the group. Growlithe hadn't gone into attack mode yet, but Looker could sense the fur on its back starting to rise. "You're dodging the question."
"Hardly. I'm only providing context. My intention is to see all of us walk out of this city in one piece. Can you accurately say that everyone in our group desires the same?"
The trainer hesitated. Looker knew this was her concern deep down. The others saw this as carrying out an order from Penny, but not Eri. Of the admins, she was the only person who was here out of something other than obligation. For all her terrifying strength, that made her the easiest for Looker to sympathize with. People who only acted out of obligation like AI Turo were quite difficult to converse with. "I know Juliana wants to survive," Eri insisted more to herself than to Looker. "I can't believe otherwise."
Both parties were aware that Eri was lying to herself. Juliana's true purpose was more of a taboo topic than a genuine secret. "If you truly mean that, then you'd be willing to confront her about it?" Looker pressed, crossing his arms.
"Of course. Why are you being so combative?"
An interesting take coming from the person threatening Looker at the moment with her body language. Calling Eri out on that probably wasn't a great move. "I'm taking advantage of an opportunity. Juliana has been watching us the whole time, after all. I was never truly alone."
"Oh, come on! I worked really hard on this one too!"
One of the terastilized bushes near the duo shimmered and disappeared, revealing a disappointed Juliana and zoroark. "What gave it away?"
"A good detective is always aware of his surroundings. I noticed that there was a new bush here this morning, so I thought it better to investigate. You would have improved your chances if you'd taken advantage of the natural environment rather than manipulating it to suit your needs. Always remember the strengths and weaknesses of your target. I'm more familiar with zoroark's illusions than most."
Though Juliana was pouting, she still whipped out a notebook and jotted down what Looker was saying. "And here I was thinking that I finally got one over you."
"You may still yet," Looker encouraged. "Try again after revising your strategy."
Juliana smiled warmly. Looker had never taken on an apprentice in his long years with the international police. In his experience, that sort of work should be reserved for those who believed they had no more to contribute to the front lines. As long as Looker could still effectively get the job done himself, knowledge transfer could wait. But he couldn't deny that he enjoyed watching Juliana put into effect, or at least attempt to put into effect his teachings on stealth and espionage. "Are we just going to gloss over the fact that he was talking to the AI without us?" Eri snapped, finally catching up to the conversation.
"He knew I was here, so it's fine," Juliana waved off. "Besides, it sounds to me like you're the one who has something to say to me, not him. Am I wrong?" Juliana guessed, nudging her shoulder against the Team Star admin playfully.
Eri blushed and looked away. "W-we had this conversation already! You know how I feel."
Juliana snickered. "Yeah, but I like hearing you say it. In any case, we should reach the capital building today. No time like the present, right?"
With Juliana there to put a leash on Eri's murderous urges, Looker was in the clear. Returning the computer to a disgruntled Giacomo drew some ire from him and Mela, but there was nothing they could do if Juliana was alright with it. Looker sighed to himself as the group finished their packing and set out for the capital building. Seeing through the illusions of Juliana's zoroark had become easier than determining what sort of threats she was actually taking seriously.
The capital building was actually rather nondescript compared to the rest of the city, identified only by the AI's referencing of Turo's notes on its importance as the supposed source of the tera phenomenon. If anything, the building stood out by being completely uninteresting compared to the rest of the city around it. A small, pure white structure that reminded Looker of some houses he'd seen in Unova sat like an ugly pimple against the soaring skyscrapers covered in terastilized energy. This building didn't have any signs of terastilization on it, and the pokémon seemed to be deliberately avoiding the place. Looker would have found it suspicious regardless when they'd noticed it from the 50th floor of one of the buildings they'd investigated, but a map that Mela had found confirmed it as their eventual destination more than anything the AI could posit.
Looker wished he'd been afforded a better chance to ask about the AI's understanding of this place. It was abundantly clear that Turo had made his way here somehow in the past, but the specifics remained locked conveniently behind the professor's biometric ID. All they'd been able to confirm was that the source was connected to the capital building and that Turo himself never reached it. Standing in front of the place now at the conclusion of their morning's journey, Looker was no less intrigued by the building. He and Juliana started toward the building without hesitation, but their companions didn't follow. "Something wrong?" Juliana asked, turning back to their hesitant comrades.
"You don't feel that?" Giacomo asked, pointing at the building and clutching his head with his other hand. "The vibe in that place is whack."
Looker tilted his head. The behavior of the local fauna and color aside, it was just a building. He'd seen this trio pass through trials far more dangerous than a poor choice in paint. "I fail to see what that has to do with anything," Juliana admitted, walking back over to her companions.
"He's phrasing it poorly. There's something evil in there," Eri supplied, staring at the front entrance with a mixture of awe and rage in her expression. "We won't be able to get close."
"Nonsense!" Juliana waved off, though her voice hitched in a way that Looker couldn't fault her for. "Come on!"
Juliana took Eri's hand and tried to pull her toward the building. Eri allowed herself to be dragged for a moment, only to stop and yank her hand away, clutching her head as she sank to her knees. "AGH!" she cried, shutting her eyes as if she'd just seen a ghost.
"Pull her back!" AI Turo commanded from Giacomo's backpack.
Immediately, Looker and Juliana helped Eri back to their team. Once they confirmed that she was breathing normally, confusion at the current situation fell on the AI. "What in Arceus' name was that?" Giacomo asked, wiping sweat from his own brow.
"What you just experienced is the reason that my late creator was never able to fully take advantage of what the wonders of terastilization have to offer," it explained vaguely. "The source of the tera phenomenon is undoubtedly in that building, but it creates a field around it that repels those who are deemed unworthy. This is as far as the professor was ever able to go. Everything beyond this point exceeds my current knowledge. Even my former body couldn't penetrate this barrier. It… considered me human."
"Unworthy?" Looker echoed, putting the AI's musings behind him for the moment. "Based on what grounds?"
"Native Paldeans," Juliana answered, looking up from where she knelt over Eri. "That's what you're talking about, right?"
The AI nodded on the advanced screen that Giacomo had provided it. "Correct. I did not predict that the sphere of influence would have spread this far, but those born above this city in this region cannot approach the source. It was designed specifically to keep those people out."
Another piece of the puzzle fit into place for Looker. This source, as it was being called, repelled native Paldeans, and somehow their AIs. There was something about the region itself that this source was offended by, then. Juliana had gone out of her way to bring only native Paldeans with her sans him as a sudden addition. Juliana herself wasn't native to Paldea. Penny wasn't either, and Arven's mother didn't have any records that even the international police had been able to find. "You knew about this?" Mela half-accused Juliana, asking the question that Looker had been hoping she'd ask.
Juliana shrugged as she helped Eri to her feet. "It was a hunch based on what the robot told me. I didn't believe it, to be honest."
Mela tsked and looked away, but Looker could tell that Juliana was lying. Most people had a tell of some sort that they didn't even know about to indicate when they were making something up. It was usually small, difficult even for a trained eye like Looker's to notice, but Juliana's was obvious. When Juliana was lying, her voice became unnaturally even. She didn't pause between breaths to think about what she was saying and never took her eyes off of the person she was talking to. In a way, the extra effort she went to making sure her target believed her made her less believable to anyone else paying attention. Juliana had pushed her eligible friends away on purpose. Looker was being strung along, likely meaning Juliana didn't see him as a threat. That was useful to know. "In any case, it is Juliana and I who will proceed forward while you watch our flank," Looker decided, rising to his feet as he concluded the inspection of his comrade. "Are you well, Eri?"
Eri shook her head, brushing off Looker's concern. "Like hell I'm letting you go in without us. It'd be even worse if you went alone with him."
"I've had a multitude of opportunities to betray you up to this point," Looker denied, indicating the city around them. "Nobody knows we are here. I have placed my faith you all and would have hoped by now I could see it reciprocated, if only uneasily. Would you like to know what I think?"
"Does our opinion matter?" Mela snarked, folding her arms.
"Let him speak," Juliana ordered, turning her unreadable expression to the detective.
"My gratitude. I came to this region with the given objective of apprehending the culprit behind stealing the AI from Area Zero. It became painfully obvious with minimal investigation that this was a cover for obtaining the information that the AI possessed. Information that you, Juliana, were able to at least partially access. The late professor's encryption methods were advanced, and his information was powerful enough to split mountains. Therefore, the most effective way for me to find the truth would be to acclimate myself to the person that the AI opened up to."
"So you admit now of all times that you just wanted to get close to us to find a reason to throw the book at us," Giacomo summarized. "Brilliant detective right here."
Looker's eyebrow quirked but he continued anyways. "On further observation, it has become quite clear that your intentions are pure. The source of the tera phenomenon is indeed to blame for Paldea's current predicament, which includes the accelerating effects of the late Professor's actions. There are no innocent parties, but the least that can be done is the destruction of the tera phenomenon."
"Sounds like something that someone who wants that power for himself would say," Eri posited, folding her arms.
"Were that the case, I would still be at my post. When in the field, we are to act with our own discretion. After seeing what this power has done to the living and dead alike, I decided that it would be best to aid those looking to destroy that power. If you cannot trust me, trust that my goals align with yours."
It was the best Looker could offer to those who bore no semblance of trust for him. He would have hoped that spending this month offering cooperation would wash away a day of mistrust, but that wasn't quite the case. Giacomo and Mela looked like they were at least considering the notion, but Eri stood firm. "I don't like it, not at all," she protested. "It reeks like someone trying to get their way at the expense of others."
"How is that different from what anyone else is doing?" Juliana spoke up, suddenly defending the detective. "Not to butt in, but time's kinda short here. We need to speed up this session to the part where we get in there. If the AI is right about one thing, we're probably being followed."
Juliana wasn't wrong. Though their information was limited by the interference from the terastilization everywhere, AI Turo had confirmed other human-like signals coming from Area Zero. How they got in was less interesting to Looker than how close they were getting. He needed more time. Eri grunted, now uncertain as a similar conclusion was reached. She clearly wanted to continue arguing, just not with Juliana. Finally, she jabbed a finger in Looker's direction. "If something happens to her, barrier or no barrier, you're dead."
"I'll keep that in mind," Looker nodded politely. "Now, as Juliana says, time is of the essence. Let's proceed."
"Hold on," Juliana requested as Looker turned to enter the capital building. "Lemme get a Turo USB from you, Giacomo. We'll wake him up if we can once we're inside so we can communicate."
This was why Looker needed to be here. Juliana could not be allowed to be alone with AI Turo for a single minute longer. The source of whatever had corrupted this young mind to turn against herself without her knowledge had to be resting here, and he couldn't let her face it alone. But he also couldn't leave the AI to itself. He needed to know the truth in order to be of any use. Another double-edged sword for him to wield. "We'll be waiting," Giacomo muttered, passing the small device off to Juliana.
The trainer stored the USB in her bag as Looker walked with her to the capital building once more. A small pressure started building in Looker's head as they walked, but he wasn't physically repelled the way their companions had been. He could tell that there was something of great importance in this nondescript building, but there was no indication of what it was. As they entered, Looker raised an eyebrow. The interior was identical to that of the Paldea League's lobby. What had looked like a reasonably sized building from the outside was showing them only a singular room on the inside, comprised of an empty desk with an elevator behind it. "This is the capital?" Looker muttered to himself. "Why does it look like the Paldea League?"
"The current Paldea League building was designed by Geeta," Juliana supplied like this answered Looker's question as she wandered toward the elevator on the far side of the room. "I'd guess the people who designed our region are really lazy. The elite four didn't even get their own rooms, you know."
In a way, Juliana's explanation was useful. Geeta knew something in the same way Juliana did about what was down here. "You're implying that she's been here before," Looker surmised.
"That would be the logical conclusion, detective sir. Or at least she's read some good history books. Honestly not sure how I feel about it, but it's not important right now." Juliana announced as she jabbed the down button on the elevator several times to no response. "Aw, beans. Don't tell me this thing's terastilized or something."
Juliana smacked the down button on the elevator to call it several more times, but the button didn't even light up. "Does it lack power?" Looker guessed, joining Juliana to stare at the buttons.
Before either of them could try something else, the entire room shook. The floor itself began to descend, with Looker only now realizing that everything in the room was firmly bolted to the floor. The door they'd entered behind them rose up until they couldn't see it anymore, and the duo descended until a set of four doors covering every wall of the room reached their level. Each of these doors seemed to lead to a different part of the city, as if this was some sort of transportation hub. "Is this building connected to all the other major buildings in the city?" Looker guessed, reviewing a holographic map that appeared on one wall of the room.
Juliana plugged the USB into the PC that was sitting on the reception desk. After a moment or three of loading, AI Turo returned, the PC whirring with power as Turo scanned the area around them. "That appears to be the case. It seems that this elevator was designed to help move employees efficiently to their work location. I cannot speak to how effective it was."
"Maybe what we're looking for is up, rather than down then," Juliana guessed, pressing the up button on the elevator.
There was another long pause, then the elevator slowly rose back up to the ground floor until Juliana pressed the button again. The ride up wasn't nearly as long as the ride down, and only a single door was open to them when they reached the top. Entering it after retrieving Turo revealed a network of hallways that made up the actual body of the city hall building where people probably worked at one point. Another convenient map showed the two of them where they were supposed to be going. Looker noted that confidence in the integrity of their target had to be high if its location was clearly labelled. After navigating the halls for a while, they came upon a set of terastilized steel doors. "It's in here," Juliana asserted with mostly unwarranted confidence.
Though Looker had no more information than Juliana at this point, the pressure in his head had increased slightly as they approached this door. Whatever was causing it likely sat just beyond this point. To test his theory, Looker turned and took a few steps away from the door, scanning the area. The pressure in his head didn't fade. Sighing, Looker faced Juliana properly. The student met his unvocalized challenge without batting an eye. "I propose this business of ours be settled before I open that door," Looker posited, his hands finding his pockets.
Juliana didn't respond immediately, judging with her gaze what Looker's intentions were. Looker stood firm, careful to make no sudden moves. He was at a disadvantage, after all. "You saw," Juliana surmised.
"You should know better than most the properties of a zoroark's illusion capabilities," Looker responded indifferently as a zoroark appeared behind him. The pokemon's claws were pointed at a vital spot on his back, poised to strike if he made any unwarranted moves. "This isn't the greatest Plan B for dealing with unwanted companions that I've seen, I must admit."
"I didn't have the luxury to plan that sort of thing out down past plan A," Juliana admitted as she moved to stand between Looker and the metal door. "I'm guessing you know what my M. O. is, Mr. Detective?"
"Juliana, I've known that you had no interest in leaving this hole ever since I met Arven. Everything that happened since that point has only further proven my theory. Your behavior is highly consistent with that of someone taking care of unfinished business before a monumental undertaking, or more commonly, a final major change in life."
A sheepish grin found its way onto Juliana. "Nothing gets by you, huh? There's no guarantee I'm gonna make it out of this. But Turo said that it had to be me, and he's right. You saw what it did to my friends back there. And if I brought the others, they'd just insist on taking the same risk with me. No sense in that."
"No sense indeed. Why contain an explosion with multiple bodies when one will do? What's a few broken dreams and shattered hopes when the safety of the world is on the line, correct?"
"Uh, yeah?" Juliana nodded, confused by Looker's tone. "I get the feeling you don't agree."
"If I agreed, I wouldn't be in this situation. Would you indulge me in an anecdote before you go, Juliana? I find it pertinent to our current situation."
"Since you asked nicely, I don't mind," Juliana nodded, leaning against the metal door with her fingers dancing over the handle. "But try to make it interesting. I'm not good at paying attention."
Looker chuckled briefly, adopting his serious demeanor again with a quick cough when Juliana didn't reciprocate his attempt at levity. "Well, you know well that I have two partners who work closely with me. My growlithe and my kadabra. Both have been my companions since the beginning of my career. Well, more accurately, I raised growlithe from an egg when I was a boy. Unlike the other police growlithes you'll see around this region and others, this one was found and trained by me. Passed the police exam at the same time I did. I trust growlithe more than I trust any person I've ever met. I imagine this sort of bond is not foreign to you."
A glance was cast to Looker's shadow. "You know it isn't."
"Yes, excellent. But my anecdote is not about growlithe, or kadabra. It's about my third pokémon, one that I lost in the line of duty some years ago. Perhaps you can predict where I'm going with this, but we were in a situation not entirely unlike this one in terms of gravity. The world was on the line, as it tends to be, and I had no other recourse to stop a madman from unleashing power he didn't understand."
"You sacrificed one of your partners, yeah?" Looker could feel disinterest bleeding into Juliana's tone.
"Hardly. I was prepared to sacrifice myself. After an arduous battle with the madman's many followers, I found myself confronting him at the peak of a mountain. He was attempting to erase the world and create a new one using the power of several legendary pokémon. Even if I defeated him in battle, it wouldn't be enough to stop what was coming. I had to destroy the device he'd created in order to stop the creation of the madman's new world. The rest of my squad was busy dealing with grunts. It was supposed to be up to me to deliver the final blow. But I knew my limits." Looker paused, training his eyes on his dirty shoes.
"It would not be incorrect to call it a cowardly maneuver. I gave up the chance to end the madman myself and passed the task on to another. A younger trainer, one that would eventually enter the hall of fame for their region. But he had a greater stake in seeing the madman fall, and the madman would be more likely to indulge in that trainer with battle. I tried to force my way past the madman's lieutenants while he was distracted to offer aid, but we were too slow. The madman summoned that demon pokémon, and had the trainer I trusted not risked his life pursuing the madman, everything would have been lost."
"But everything worked out. That trainer survived, didn't he?"
"He did, no thanks to me," Looked nodded. "But I wanted to make a specific point, Juliana: The right answer isn't always to take the entire burden on yourself. Sometimes it is better to lean on others, in particular when the stakes are so momentous."
Juliana's hand hovered over the handle to the metal door behind her. Her expression was almost wistful as she shook her head. "But that boy was able to do it, wasn't he? There are people like that out there, who never falter in the face of any adversity. They wouldn't hesitate to open this door, would they? Could you look that boy in the face if he was here and tell him not to take that chance?"
It would be impossible. "I never took on an apprentice while working this job," Looker admitted, fixing his most impassive face against Juliana's challenging gaze. "But I saw potential in many. Rather than attempt to nurture the seedlings I found, I scattered them. It was not my responsibility to ensure the quality of the next generation when so many problems were left to be addressed in my own. Why not let those willing to put their potential on the line do so? That was the sort of mentality that allowed that boy to take my place, and I still regret it. Does that surprise you? That boy was no member of my unit. I had no obligation to ensure his safety any more than the citizens of the region being threatened by the madman. It was entirely within my jurisdiction to throw him to the mightyena on the off chance it solved the problem. When I realized this way of thinking had become the norm for me in the aftermath of the madman's defeat, I made haste to switch gears entirely. That boy and those like him shouldn't have to go through what they did because of my organization's incompetence."
"You're not wrong or anything, but we're already at the breaking point, Mr. Looker. I don't have time to wonder about what we should have been doing for the past couple of years to prevent this from happening. That's Geeta's problem, not mine." Her hand started to press down on the door handle.
"Wait!" Looker insisted, taking a small step forward.
Instantly the claw hovering over his back pressed down. It was barely enough to avoid drawing blood, but Looker froze anyways. He'd advanced as much as he could for now. "Please, indulge me a bit longer, if you would. I put the burden on myself to pursue the fracturing remains of the madman's crew as a way of atoning for what I'd done to that boy. We tracked their new leader down to an active volcano where he was trying to revive the legendary pokémon heatran to do his bidding. Again, I was too slow. Heatran was awakened by the time our forces were able to confront the new leader. It was a long, grueling battle to wrest control of the legendary pokémon from that man. Eventually, his own comrades abandoned him, disgusted with the lack of empathy he showed in having them fight alongside a walking eruption. Fortunate as this ruthless turn of events was, being cornered forced the coward to smash the stone that served as the seal on the heatran's power, causing it to go berserk. The entire mountain was collapsing. I was too distracted by ensuring the coward didn't escape and I failed to notice the molten rock falling on me until it was too late. My croagunk… shoved me out of the way just in time for me to see it get crushed in my place. I won't describe the details beyond that save to clarify that we eventually subdued both the beast and the remnants of that wicked organization." Looker turned his eyes downward once more, thoughts of his partner stalling his consideration of the current situation.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Juliana apologized sincerely, her hand still hovering over the door handle.
"Appreciated."
There was a lull in the debate. Looker considered whether he was doing the right thing. It had been a difficult battle with that question up to this point. In a way, running down here with Juliana had given him a much-needed reprieve from the rigor of detective work that had been the 24 hours preceding his decision. It wasn't a gift, it was preparation necessary for him to be able to make the right choice in this moment. The detective shook his head to himself. That decision had been made when he chose to join the trainer in front of him. Everyone in this region deserved protection, including her. "I am not prescient, Juliana. I could not have come down here with complete understanding of what convinced you to follow this path, though I can hazard a reasonable guess. In the same way, I could not have foreseen what the consequences of my cowardice would be for my partner and myself. If you walk through that door alone and choose not to return, I can only be certain that similar consequences from the hole you create will follow. That is something I refuse to abide."
"So you're trying to say that my friends will be sad if I'm gone, right? They'll get along. You're doing alright without your partner, aren't you? Wait, sorry, that was insensitive." A real apology. Looker chose to view that as progress.
Looker smiled somberly, pressing his advantage in the conversation rather than physically. "I feel that hole in my heart every day, but it no longer stings the way it used to. In that way, you are not wrong. It reminds me of who I am, what being an international police member means. I bring my partner up now because his job should not have ended because of his fool of a trainer, just as you are not beholden to end things here for the sake of your ideals. You are not a soldier trained to follow orders, and you are not the martyr this region needs. Of that matter I can speak with certainty. What this region needs is something far more complex."
Juliana tilted her head, leaning toward the door. "What, you want me to sock Geeta one before I take care of this? Because-"
One hand left Looker's pocket, revealing that it was empty. Zoroark's and Juliana's attention would be drawn to that hand for an instant, hopefully causing both to ignore the soft clicking noise in Looker's other pocket. If this last push didn't work, words wouldn't be enough to sway Juliana. "I want you to live because there's a region up there that is going to require someone who gives a damn about it if it's going to avoid the regret that comes with survival, Juliana. Yours and Geeta's actions have likely caused an uncountable number of atrocities ranging from displacement to, Arceus forbid, death in the Paldea region. The intention behind your actions, who started it, is unimportant. Make no mistake that without you around, the blame will fall on others, most likely those I imagine you would least like to see face culpability in your place. Without owning up to your own weakness and asking for help, you're straying down a path where your partners and those you care about will perish, one by one. A coward drags those around them down by refusing to ask for help. They either make others do their job or try to do everything themselves to avoid losing anything. You struck me as the type who would be willing to take responsibility for her choices. I would be quite disappointed to come all this way only to be proven wrong."
This was Looker's trump card. All the empathy Looker knew Juliana had for her allies was being reframed as selfishness whether it was the truth or not. Simply entertaining the idea was enough, evidenced by the way Juliana's hand moved away from the door to point at Looker menacingly. "You can wax poetic all you want. All you're doing is threatening me. The fact of the matter is that the source of the tera phenomenon needs to be removed. Only I can do that, so I have to pay the price. Either way, I'll pay for what I did. That was never the question."
Looker's foot was in the door, allowing him to launch into every possible attack he knew to blow Juliana's realm of possibilities wide open. "And who decided that payment method for you, Juliana? Is that the perfect analysis of the late professor Turo, who never managed to lay eyes on this source for himself? Hasn't it struck you as odd that you discovered this AI so late into the excavation of Area Zero? The deaths that followed you before and after you escaped Area Zero with the AI? You are not the only strong non-native Paldean the AI could have contacted. I can think of at least two other trainers in this region that would make better candidates if strength weren't the most important factor. Cutting off an ekans at the head doesn't stop it from biting. The incident that occurred between Geeta and Professor Turo is still unfolding, and I suspect that Turo has no desire for you to be involved in what comes after this source is expunged. Your friends are risking their lives to go against your wishes and be by your side. If the consequences of that decision can be justified in your heart by the punishment laid out before you by the AI that engendered this situation in the first place, then open that door."
An ultimatum was Looker's last shot. Juliana was teetering, unsure of what the correct decision was as her perfect understanding of the world rapidly expanded faster than she could comprehend it. In situations like that, Looker was well versed in what people like Juliana would do. "What comes next, huh?" Juliana smiled to herself. "I'll give you this, Looker. I don't know what the AI really wants. But I trust AI Turo. He wasn't a good person, but he was honest with me about what mattered. I think he has the region's best interests at heart, if not mine."
"But who have you been talking to? What evidence do you have that this is the same identity?" Looker challenged, taking another step forward.
The detective felt the claw press into the small of his back again. The pressure had slackened over the past minute only to renege itself as Looker approached further. That was fine. Juliana wouldn't give her pokémon the order to attack now. "Proof? Why should I need to prove who my friends are?"
"Your friends are the people who are willing to stand by you no matter what. You can tell, can't you? They're coming, despite your wishes."
"I know that. It's another reason why I need to act."
One more push. Juliana still felt that she needed to act, but the action itself had been stripped from her diction. The weapon in Looker's pocket felt heavier. "It's another reason why you need to stop and think! What are those two going to do if they come down here and find your corpse along with the AI? Who will believe that the source is truly destroyed if they can't see it for themselves? The strongest trainers in the region are converging on this single point. Unless someone has a reward to dangle in front of their faces, there will be a bloodbath over the truth. Do you understand, Juliana? You can't end this by cutting off the head. We have to be stronger and smarter about this if we want to save as many people as possible, or all those above waiting for a helpful solution will suffer for our actions too."
Juliana narrowed her eyes. She had approached this challenge to her plan flippantly at first, a way to pass the time just once more before her big finale. Now she was standing up straight, seriously considering Looker's offer as she brushed some dirt from her perpetually dirty uniform. "Careful, Looker. If you keep making sense I might have to take you seriously."
Looker kept his expression neutral. Personable exchanges were Juliana's strong suit, and discarding them meant that Looker had no further need to put the effort in himself. "I would hope so. Even if you care not for yourself or your friends, the region you care about and claim to be defending here will not survive the power vacuum that will be left when this city inevitably collapses in on itself. Instead, we should use what precious time we have here to determine an alternative."
A change in Juliana's expression told Looker he had gotten through long before the girl opened her mouth to speak carefully again. "What did you have in mind?"
The claw disappeared from Looker's back. If Looker had been alone, he would have heaved a sigh of relief. Instead, his true goal had to be pursued immediately. "That will depend on the actual condition of this source that we've heard so much about. If it's something we can deactivate simply, that would be best. However, if it's truly as the AI has implied, then we'll have to go about making others believe that the opposite is true. Our weapon is information, not our companions, Juliana, and taking up that sword is a far more noble pursuit than drowning ourselves in destruction and ignorance. Will you help me fix this region?" Looker extended his free hand, keeping his other pocketed just in case.
A moment passed as Juliana stared at the hand contemplatively. Looker was beginning to suspect she didn't understand what he was asking before she finally took it, shaking firmly. "I reserve the right to resort to plan A if you can't pull your weight with this whole plan thing, Looker," Juliana warned. "We still have to save the region."
Zoroark retreated from Looker's back as the detective allowed his posture to relax. He offered a hand that Juliana shook firmly. "I'll keep that in mind, Juliana. You've done the right thing." It was a similar sentiment that Looker remembered expressing when he'd first arrested the student, but this time he didn't have a bitter taste in his mouth as he spoke.
Together, the duo opened the steel doors that Juliana had been teasing for the past few minutes. The room they were greeted with was almost a different world. Contrary to the extravagant machine that Looker had been expecting, there was a simple device that took up the center of the small room they found themselves in. Long, thick wires spread out in all directions except for the path from the door to the center of the device, making up the floor, walls, and ceiling. Centered around this mess of wires was a single glowing orb within a glass sphere that Looker couldn't determine the exact nature of due to how brightly it was shining. What was clear was what was powering the orb. Several terapagos were trapped in similar glass orbs that surrounded the centerpiece of the device. Despite likely having been there for an extended period of time, none of the pokémon expressed any signs of distress. If anything, they all seemed to be asleep. Looker would have feared for their lives if he couldn't see the soft rise and fall of their chest. Circling the room took some effort due to the mass of wires exploding in all directions, but Looker was able to confirm that the terapagos were organized in the same pattern used to convert teraite into its original material. "What do you suppose is in the center?" Juliana asked, doing her best to get a closer look without blinding herself.
"If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it's whatever the purest possible form of teraite is, but I'm sure that our AI friend is dying to take a guess," Looker mused, thumbing toward a computer near the door to the room as he tried to ignore the headache building in his temple.
After plugging him in again to the computer by the door, AI Turo seemed to be disappointed. "This is the only computer in this room? It has no administrative privileges."
"You'll have to make do. We're operating by the seat of our pants," Looker informed the AI as he leaned in to inspect the terapagos closely.
The AI made a noise that must have been the equivalent of surprise. "Juliana, did we not decide that this next part of the task should be yours alone to complete? Why is he still present?"
"Why indeed, professor?" Looker spoke up before Juliana could answer. "You were created by a bright man with many secrets. Is it unfathomable that your coworkers might harbor secrets and ambitions of their own?"
"This is beyond the realm of secrets. You have directly antagonized me since we were introduced. I fail to see any scenario where your presence is helpful for Juliana's goals."
"And what are my goals, exactly?" Juliana wondered, putting a finger to her chin. "You seem to know them better than I do, dontcha, Turo?"
The AI whirred as it made some sort of calculation in what passed for its head. Being in a computer from a future society should have sped it up, but the only available piece of hardware was decidedly closer to Looker's world than the world of terastilization above it. "I have no unwarranted ill intentions, despite whatever the detective might suggest to you," Turo insisted, folding his arms on the screen. "What could I say that I have not already to suitably persuade you to leave that man behind?"
"You could explain why a computer like this is in such an important, unreachable room," Looker suggested, motioning to the computer that the AI was plugged into. "Why is technology from our time functioning in this lost civilization of the past and future combined into one?"
The AI shook its head. "I only know what the professor knew. He found signs of intrusions from others in this city, but no actual signs of life besides pokémon. If there is a computer here, it only stands to reason that someone has been here before us. That's all the more reason to ensure that the source of the tera phenomenon is destroyed before harm can come to-"
"But the source is these pokémon!" Juliana interrupted, kneeling by one of the glass bubbles. "Surely you can't be suggesting that these guys need to be sacrificed too?"
"I would rather we set them free as well," Looker noted, knocking on one of the glass spheres to no reaction from the trapped terapagos. "Yet these pokémon have existed in here for who knows how many years to no notably negative effects. It's curious how that would have been possible."
"I can provide insight, but not to outsiders," AI Turo spoke up. "I would not bring Juliana here without giving her the means to carry out her intended task."
Juliana gave up on the terapagos temporarily to reprimand Turo. Pacing in front of the AI, she placed her hands on her hips and leaned down so that the two were face to face. "Listen here, buddy. You and Mr. Looker don't get to decide what I wanna do. I wanna help everyone. Whether your way or Looker's way is more helpful to everyone is all that's important to me. So spill your idea and let Looker spill his. Then you'll get your way if your plan is really as foolproof as you think it is. What's so scary about that?"
"Nothing. I do not experience fear and I have no doubt that this is the only way to save the region," The AI responded easily. "Those terapagos have been placed in a deep slumber that mimics the experience they would have travelling through deep space. This pokémon is not from our world, you see. When it is hurtling through space on an asteroid or comet or what have you, it produces an inordinate amount of tera energy to ensure that its host is strong enough to survive the depths of space until it can wake up on a hospitable planet. If it wakes up on an inhospitable planet, it will simply terastilize everything around it until it has a new ferry to take it somewhere else. But what if that excess energy could be harnessed? The result of that foul question is what you see here." Turo disappeared from the screen, replacing himself with what looked like some sort of schematic for the machine they were standing in.
The part they were standing in was shown to be connected to all the major power lines in the city, from the skyscrapers to the residential district to the hospitals. "You could think of this machine as the beating heart of the city. Originally, this device could provide nearly unlimited clean energy for an entire civilization. But as you have witnessed, something went haywire at some point. The energy stopped being converted, and the city itself was terastilized into its current state. Pokémon can survive being terastilized, but humans cannot. Though the terapagos are unharmed, they cause untold damage to the city and the region by pumping their concentrated tera energy everywhere, creating tera crystals, teraite, and likely the tera phenomenon as we know it. Left unchecked, the entire planet could be subject to the terapagos' next ferry to the stars. Thus, this machine must be destroyed and the terapagos must be awakened. Doing so violently is the only way, and in doing that, everyone who is in the building at that time will be terastilized. This will give existing terapagos a place to live below and the tera phenomenon above will be slowed enough to be reversed using the tera shards gathered by the people of the Paldea region."
"And what happens when the terapagos population expands and there's no longer a place for them to live?"
"You speak of hypotheticals that do not need to be dealt with, detective. Terapagos are perfectly content to exist without reproducing at a rate that humans would consider normal. Their lifespan likely far exceeds that of most life on this planet."
"You contradict yourself, professor. You assume that destroying the device is the only way to stop it. This is the first time that you've laid eyes on it, correct?"
A dangerous pause came from the AI. If it was deciding how much to say, it had already said too much. Juliana noticed the air of the explanation shift, subtly moving away from the screen as she awaited the answer. The diagram disappeared, replaced by what passed for a pensive expression on the AI's face. "Yes. But Turo analyzed it thoroughly through the multitude of connections into the city that it has, as you can see. Anything with that sort of output can't be disabled quietly. There's nothing here designed to turn this machine off. It's poor design, but no failsafe removal system exists. In ancient times, this would have been tantamount to a city-wide blackout."
"So maybe it's elsewhere, professor. Your plan relies on removing this problem, but it does nothing about the hundreds of ticking bombs wandering around this city. Surely as a pokémon trainer yourself you at least considered the idea of catching a terapagos to study it further?"
"Balls thrown at them terastilize, even if the terapagos is unconscious," the AI replied. "I don't-"
"Enough," Looker cut off. "I understand your plan, but it is imperfect. You'll have to bear with me, but I have a way to shut this machine down so that its power is never wielded against this region or anyone else again. Between the three of us, I have more experience with pokémon from space than anyone."
"Do tell," Juliana encouraged, turning her attention back to Looker before the AI could argue.
This wasn't technically a lie, but Looker still had too many unknowns to answer about the device behind him. There wasn't enough time to fully understand its inner workings before they were set upon by every overpowered trainer in the region. But if Looker was right, that wouldn't be necessary in the first place. Terapagos was a pokémon that could live without food, sleep or water for extended periods of time. If there was one thing every pokémon from space had in common, it was an affinity for being transportable. If Looker made the right assumptions, they had a chance to resolve this debacle with minimal further bloodshed and no major changes in the balance of power. As a member of the international police, there was only one choice to make, no matter how long the odds were. The building pressure in Looker's head and chest was discarded as Looker funneled all the parts of his mind warning him of injury and fatigue into rapidly developing the plan he'd been mulling over ever since he lost his partner. "Alright then. This will be our final lesson down here, Juliana. Let me show you the best way to salvage a region in a world-ending crisis."