Aggron's plan had gone off without a hitch. Lopunny sat underneath a cart as she was carried out of the hospital. Once they were somewhere hidden outside, Aggron pulled her out and slinged her arm around his shoulder. It was increasingly that Lopunny was in no condition to go forward. Aggron, at least, had some time to heal. Lopunny had woken up barely an hour ago. She hissed with every step, and tried as she might to hide it, she was in an immense amount of pain. At that point, Aggron sat her down,
"Okay, this isn't gonna work. It's obvious you can't walk," he said worriedly. Lopunny knew where he was going with this and was having none of it.
"I'm not going back. I've committed to this. Carry me on your back," she said.
"Lopunny, you're barely able to stand right now!" he stated.
"I don't care! I'm going to find Lee, come hell or high water!" she yelled back. Taking a moment to calm down, Lopunny laid down the facts,
"I've only known the guy for so long, but you and I both know why he ran. Worst case scenario: we are on a time limit before he does something stupid. The sooner we can find him, the better. We already agreed to this plan, let's see it through. Plus I really don't wanna have Grandpa yell at me right now," she said. With that Aggron's hesitation, while not completely gone, was dulled enough for him to continue. He picked up Lopunny, piggyback style.
Lopunny pulled up the app. By the looks of it, Infernape was near a town called Ghastleburg. Directly south from them. From the command seat, Lopunny pointed forward and told Aggron,
"We're going south! Ghastleburg!" Aggron, feeling a living taxi, gave Lopunny a semi-joking glare before following her orders. The duo, but primarily Aggron, sprinted towards Ghastleberg, hoping to find the missing fire type.
At that point, Lopunny got a call on her phone. Looking at the number, she was surprised to see it was the number of her and Blastoise's house phone. Aggron heard that and asked her,
"Who's that?"
"Someone's at our house," said Lopunny darkly.
"I take it that isn't a good thing?" said Aggron. Not responding to Aggron's question, Lopunny answered the number,
"Who is this?"
"Ah, hello there, young lady," said Malamar on the other line, "I received a call from one of your neighbors. Apparently, you haven't been since in quite some time. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you and your mentor were okay." Immediately, Lopunny was suspicious. This is apparently a police officer, but instead of calling Blastoise, he called her. Blastoise has friends in the local department. Hell, she's met a couple of them. She asked,
"So, you're a cop, right?"
"Of course! Now, could you-"
"What is your badge number?" she asked seriously. Malamar was immediately thrown off. Badge number? This crossbreed bimbo shouldn't even know what a badge number is. He took a breath to compose himself. He couldn't let this opportunity slip by.
"121013" he said confidently, "Now, where are you, sweetie? I need to tell your neighbors that you're okay. You know, to make them rest easy," he said. Confident in his ability to manipulate her.
"Hakutai," said Lopunny before hanging up. She leaned to Aggron's ear and told him, "That's a fake cop. Someone's going after me and Blastoise,"
"What?" exclaimed Aggron, "How did you know?"
"The Hydroton PD has four digit badge numbers, not six," she said flatly.
Malamar scowled, still not over Lopunny's insolence. That, alongside his gross underestimation of Lopunny's intelligence, blinded him to the fact he was being duped. He called the rest of the cult and informed them of the news. Bisharp then told him,
"Stay there. In case they're lying-"
"Are you doubting me?!" snapped Malamar.
"Maybe I will if you don't shut up and do your job! Now, stay there and see if you can find any more information on them. Got it?" said Bisharp. Reluctantly, Malamar said yes before hanging up and throwing that phone across the room. It broke something that Malamar couldn't care less about. That was what he needed to clear his head. What if someone heard that? He ordered his 'bodyguards' to deal with it as he went on a walk. He needed to calm down before he did something stupid.
As he walked, his mind couldn't help but wander back to that Gardevoir that ran into him. She just seemed so familiar. Perhaps he had seen her on the news. But she seemed so ordinary. He figured that he was confusing her for one of those interlopers…who had a Gardevoir on their team…and there was Son Lieyanhou, who made headlines months ago when he, alongside his friends, destroyed the Black Masks.
That was her. She was with that group, and she, for whatever reason, was in Hydroton.
With a sinister grin, he started running out towards the city, bringing along Sigilyph as a safety precaution.
"Excuse me, miss lady," said the voice of a young girl. Gardevoir looked up to see a Nidoran looking curiously at her. Gardevoir then composed herself to look strong in front of this young kid.
"Yes. Did you need something?" she asked. Nidoran tilted her head and pointed out,
"You look sad," said Nidoran, "Why are you so sad? Grown-ups can't be sad" Gardevoir weakly smiled at the little poison type.
"Well, grown-ups can be angry, sad, confused, just like kids. As for me…I did something very bad," said Gardevoir. The kid nodded before looking back at her parents. She turned around to Gardevoir and told her,
"Mommy says that anyone can be forgiven, as long as they try." Such wise words from a little kid. With a self-defeating chuckle, Gardevoir told the girl,
"I wish it was that easy."
At that point, the kid's mother, a Nidoqueen, stepped in. She picked up her child and looked at Gardevoir with pity. Having heard most of this, she offered some kind words,
"Do you feel bad for whatever you did?"
"Of course, I do," exclaimed Gardevoir.
"Then you're already one step of the way there," said Nidoqueen, "All you need to do is do what needs to be done." With that, Nidoqueen turned around and left.
Those words hit Gardevoir harder than she ever thought they could. She didn't know why a child and her mother managed to get through to her more than a trained professional. In particular, the last thing the mother, about being one step of the way there, hit her the most. What did that mean? Who wouldn't feel bad after making a mistake? There must be more to it than that. How could she possibly move on without forgiveness…perhaps. No, she couldn't. She was a failure. Destined to be one since the moment she decided to live out her dream.
But wasn't this the same pit that Lee had fallen into.
His belief was that the event eight years ago was meant to show him his place in the universe. That he was destined to be a loser. Someone who would only be granted a gift so that it may be taken away from him to remind him of his place. She had told him, all the way back when Ampharos first arrived, that his fate was in his hands. That his life could be more than that. It was Gardevoir's idea to bring him along, and because of that, he managed to have a happy, if not far too short, life. He reignited his musical passions. He gained a new family. He fell in love. All of that just because she asked him to come with her to Boltein.
Perhaps, he had already forgiven her.
"Hello there, Chorna," said the voice of a cocky predator having found his prey. Gardevoir looked up to see Malamar staring down at her. Immediately, she sensed that this man was up to no good. She stood up, never taking her eyes off of him,
"How do you know my name? What do you want," she said. Malamar chuckled,
"I think you know what I want, and you'll tell me what I want."
The lights on his chest began to glow. Gardevoir instinctively covered her eyes. His tentacle arms grabbed her arms and held her in place. Despite shutting her eyes, it didn't help as much as she needed it to. Her thoughts began to slow down. Memories became lost in a dense fog. Gardevoir wasn't one to go down easily though. Her psychic typing gave her some resistance to effects like this. Raising her defenses, she unleashed a psychic explosion around herself. Malamar was sent across the park, spiraling into several tree's, which broke apart.
Gardevoir watched the results of her attempt to free herself. Who was that man, and why did he want to hypnotize her? Those were questions that could wait to be answered. Right now, she had to leave as soon as she could before he managed to get her. That cloud that was forming in her head was dissipating. Gardevoir floated into the air and soared as fast as she could away from the park. However, it wouldn't be so easy.
Sigilyph appeared from the skies and blasted her with a wind blast. Gardevoir plummeted back towards the park, but managed to stop herself just before hitting the ground. Looking up, she saw Sigilyph flying back towards her. Odds are, he was probably being hypnotized. She was not in a position to fight. Her options were to either wait for the Senshi, or run. Recalling what Aggron did all the way back home, Gardevoir fired a large pink beam into the sky. However, she had failed to recognize that Dusknoir was a much more careless opponent,
And much more vicious.
Sigilyph flew into the beam like a man possessed. It exploded upon impact. Gardevoir gasped in horror. The hypnotized victim fell from the sky. His body smoked. Gardevoir rushed over to him to try to save him. However, Malamar had anticipated this. Several psychic rings flew towards her. Gardevoir dodged a couple, but one caught her by the wrist. She was dragged across the park towards Malamar. She fired three small blasts to knock him away. The first two missed, but the last one hit him on the beak. As he screamed, the psychic ring around Gardevoir's wrist vanished. Despite this, escape wasn't going to be easy.
To her surprise, Sigilyph was back on the attack. Dozens of wind blades sliced through the air. Gardevoir fell back to the ground. She formed a shield around herself to protect herself from the barrage. Alas, this would be her undoing. While Gardevour was occupied, trying to keep herself from being sliced into swiss cheese, Malamar snuck up behind her. He wrapped his tentacle arms around her throat and arms. Forcing her look his way, he tried once more to place her under his control. This time, there would be no escape. If she so much as attempted anything, she would be choked until she was just about to pass out. As her thoughts began to shut down, the last thing she thought,
"Some…one…help…me."
(A/N) So with school starting up again, I've decided to take what will hopefully be the last two week break for a while. That and this next chapter is probably going to be the emotional climax of the arc. I want to use that time to refine this chapter to the best it can be. The next chapter will be released on February 3rd, 2024. Have a good January.