Chương 86: Chapter 69

We staggered out into the concrete hallway, two teenage girls dripping with viscera and suffering, accompanied by five subdued balls of exhaustion. Somehow, we weren't the worst off group down here. The two security guards hadn't done nearly as good a job of protecting themselves when struck by the waves of shadows, and both men were groaning on the ground, heads between their arms as flecks of darkness shed off of them.

Their worried partners fretted over them, a visibly-injured Houndoom and a wilting Grovyle trying to provide what comfort they could to their suffering trainers, but unsure of how best to actually help.

"Shit," I didn't say, as my vocal chords spasmed and failed to produce the curse.

"Best thing we can do for them is get help down here," Gretchen muttered as she dragged me past the scene. Was that true? Could I cleanse the darkness roiling off of the two men? What was even afflicting them? I didn't see any signs of synergy stones on their person, shadow or otherwise, and their Pokémon were mostly fine, so why were the pair laid out like this? And then it hit me.

Rather, it'd been hitting me, but even weakened as I was, I'd been able to passively defend myself from the haunting energy wafting down the corridor. It felt like a more diffuse version of what we'd just been battling, permeating through the air instead of sitting in condensed chunks. A wave of boiling miasma and malaise that was draining just to be in.

Next to me, Gretchen was staggering, and we both ended up leaning against a nearby wall, her unable to stand unassisted under the assault and my own energy rapidly flagging as whatever dregs of power I had remaining kept me barely conscious. My knights surrounded us, chirping with worry and concern as we struggled to stay upright. If I were at 100%, it wouldn't have been a problem. The same was probably true for Gretchen and the downed guards.

Unfortunately, all four of us had been weakened by the day's earlier tribulations, leaving us vulnerable to the malice suffusing the air. Gretchen's eyes started fluttering, and I could see her limbs trembling as she hugged the wall, desperate to stay upright. Any words of encouragement or support I might have had were lost to my spasming vocal chords, and I could barely hold up my own weight, let alone assist her with hers. And then, there was light.

Cool and gentle and soothing, it wafted down the corridors, washing away the malaise like a shadow chased by the light. The sensation was familiar. Something I'd definitely felt before. It took me a moment to place, before I remembered where we were. It was the sweet embrace of a great synergy stone, the power of the earth filtered into a refreshing and vitalizing energy. The diametric opposite of what'd just been afflicting us moments prior.

And confirmation of my worst fears, that our mysterious foe had been trying to corrupt a great synergy stone! In a stadium filled with people no less!

"We have to get above-ground," I choked out, my voice wheezing and all but inaudible. Gretchen nodded, as she heaved herself up off the wall.

"Right, just– just a fifteen minute walk. Easy. We've got this." We made it less than ten before we both collapsed, unable to continue on any further. I'm not sure how long we lay there, half-delirious from pain and exhaustion. Whatever length of time, it would have been far longer were it not for unexpected, outside aid. For that surely must have been what suffused my limbs and lightened my mind.

There was nothing left in me to give, no energy to spare, so whatever strength let me sit up, and even stand could not have come from within. I felt– okay. Better than okay even. I felt good. I gingerly touched my ear, and found my skin sensitive to the touch, but not exploding in pain like it should have. I cleared my throat a few times, and found that it no longer hurt to breathe, nor did my back ache from its earlier impacts with the unforgiving ground.

I looked over to Gretchen, who was similarly recovering herself. The other girl had been able to marshall enough willpower to stand, and she was looking down at her palm in wonder. A cool breeze wafted through the corridor, and after only a moment's hesitation, I followed it, my knights and Gretchen trailing behind me. We emerged out of the staff-only area into the concourse proper, only to find it deserted.

The reason was immediately and unignorably obvious, because plastered on every screen in the massive hallway was the visage of a legend. I'd seen videos of Suicune before, of course. He participated in over one-hundred of highly-publicized battles every year, after all. Guardian of the Lake. Legendary Hound. Champion of the Blue League. And the obstacle that'd halted more climbs through the Ferrum League's ranks than any other.

Only by defeating Suicune and his partner could Blue League challengers ascend divisions, and even earning that attempt was difficult, requiring high placement in a year's promotion tournament. The Guardian-wall, as he was unaffectionately known, set the standard of true greatness in the league. The dividing line between those who struggled, and those who soared. To say he was popular would be an understatement. Adoration would be a more accurate term. He was Ferrum's most visible legend, after all.

He and his sponsors, the Keasu family, featured in commercials, sold exorbitant amounts of merchandise, and featured rather prominently in our region's popular culture. I could name two prominent actors from the family off the top of my head, and that wasn't even to mention the one that'd been a popular disco artist (whom my Nuna had a deep affection for), and the painter whose work we'd been forced to spend a few weeks on in art history class.

Suffice to say, Ferrum as a whole was very familiar with Suicune, and his partners. For all the enigmatic Water-type was reclusive when not battling, he certainly did enough of that activity that few in the region could claim that they hadn't at least laid eyes on him through a screen at some point. And familiarity did take away somewhat from his majesty, I wasn't afraid to admit. It– sort of reminded me of Drake actually. I knew in my head that the man was a big deal.

He was the champion of another region, a Dragon-type master, a war veteran, and surely a dozen other important things. But usually I just remembered the curious old man who thought he was too good to ever give someone a straight answer. Until something stirred loose the memory of him casting down a god. Like in this moment, as I witnessed another living legend create a miracle. Suicune stood balanced atop the hovering great synergy stone like a Gogoat on a mountain peak.

His four, delicate paws were completely unmoving as the quivering stone beneath him bobbed up and down, releasing visible pulses of energy in azure waves. The stone itself was cracked and damaged, and even as the legend worked, I could see the light fading from the hovering crystal. That power wasn't going to waste, however. Gretchen and I stumbled out onto the stands, and the full-force of the guardian's workings struck us. I could have wept, at the sudden sense of relief.

My throat was cool, like I'd taken a longer draft of cool water, and my palm no longer wept blood from a half-dozen tiny holes. We both released our partners in a hurry, and their injuries recovered visibly before our eyes. Lance's puncture wound shrunk to a small pit in his armor, and the discoloration around it turned back to a healthy shade of coal. The injured maus' chest showed no signs of our barber surgery beyond the missing fur, and Mana's burnt mouth regained a healthy color.

Fierce the Beedrill's carapace visibly fused in places where it'd been cracked, and crooked stingers straightened themselves almost of their own accord. And the greatest beneficiary was the recently-captured Klang, whose core took on a solid, consistent glow, instead of intermittent flashing. Scrapes and scuffs on their steel-body faded, and the chips and wear I could see on the teeth in their gears smoothed itself out, leaving behind solid, burnished metal.

And we weren't the only ones benefitting from a legend's aid. All across the stadium, I saw humans and Pokémon alike visibly recovering, fortifying themselves with Suicune's assistance. The miasma and malaise from the corrupted great synergy stone had been all but banished, And whatever lingering effects it may have had were swiftly being rectified by a being whose very name was synonymous with purity. And then, with as little fanfare as it'd begun, the work was done.

The weakened great synergy stone gradually fell from the air, falling atop its pedestal and cracking into several pieces. Suicune leapt from his collapsing perch, alighting for a moment atop a nearby grandstand. He took one graceful step, and then another, accelerating before our eyes, until after but a few moments, he was gone. The only evidence remaining of his presence was the restored vitality of everyone in the stadium. And the dozen videos taken by a similar number of camera-Magnemite.

- The news ended up calling it a terror attack.' Foreign Terrorist Attacks Mechry Stadium.' There weren't a lot of facts available, but the tabloids and news stations were only all too eager to fill in whatever details they felt were required with speculation instead.

One report claimed that the two masked men were Unovan super spies, and that they were embroiled in some sort of falling out during a top-secret mission, leading to their confrontation in the stadium, Another declared that both assailants were Sinnohan nationals, retaliating against Ferrum for breaking the region's monopoly on iron. Yet a third said that the mysterious figures were corporate plants, stirring unrest in the region to make people more amenable to more draconian measures by the government.

And the origins of the two 'attackers' weren't the only elements of the story featuring rampant speculation. The method by which the assault took place was just as hotly contested, with some pundits claiming the symptoms experienced by everyone in the stadium were hallucinations created by the two Zoroarks empowered by the great synergy stone, and others asserting that as one sort of device or technology was responsible.

Uncertainty was running rampant, and there was only one thing anyone knew for sure: Techne now had three suspects on their most wanted list, one for serial murders, and two for acts of terror against the state. And one of those 'criminals' was currently sitting on my couch. It wasn't all that surprising he'd beaten us to my home, there'd been a lot to take care of in the wake of the attack. Gretchen and I had had to meet up with Alyssa and Bert, and then we had to get our Pokémon checked over and treated.

The four of us probably could have used some medical attention ourselves, but Suicune's Magic had left us in far better shape than we deserved to be, and none of us were keen on getting hospitalized right now for various reasons. It would have been tough for me, seeing as neither of my parents were currently reachable, and I knew Alyssa wouldn't want to be stuck somewhere she and Pikachu might be vulnerable to her stalker. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

I wasn't sure what made Bert and Gretchen so recalcitrant to seek out medical aid, but whatever it was, I wasn't enough of a hypocrite to call them out on it. My newest partner had necessitated some explaining, but being a former ranger earned me a lot of leeway when I told the Pokémon Center staff that I'd rescued the Steel-type from a dangerous situation. I could only hope that they'd corroborate my story when they awoke, but for now, it (and they) were out of my hands.

Their injuries and exhaustion necessitated an overnight stay at the center, and I'd have to check up on them tomorrow to see how they were doing. With our other Pokémon examined, and given (shockingly) clean bills of health, the group of us ended up trundling back to my apartment. Partly because it was closer than everyone else's to the stadium, and partly because it'd be a place we could gather and discuss just what'd happened without adult supervision.

Or at least, that's what we'd been thinking, except for the adult who'd broken into my apartment. I knew for a fact that I'd never given Mr Gima a key, but that certainly hadn't stopped him from finding his way inside.. Unfortunately, the Unovan Dark-specialist wasn't in the greatest of shape himself. He'd dug out our family's first-aid kit, and had plundered it thoroughly to treat himself and his partners, and I was hardly willing to begrudge him for it considering the damage I was seeing. For his part, Mr.

Gima's skull was swathed in bandages, with a bloom of red covering one side, and he was icing one shoulder with a persistent wince as he kept one leg elevated on the coffee table in front of the couch. His Pokémon were in better shape, but only just, and all five of them were quite busy making our already small apartment look absolutely miniscule. Alister was leaned up against one wall, unfamiliar nicks and scratches all over his gleaming crimson armor.

BB the Krookodile had patches of sandy scales torn free from his body, and both Ink and Neirah were missing chunks of fur. Worst off was poor Scrafty, who's shed skin had been reduced to a sad pair of boots. Several teeth had been knocked free from his omnipresent smile, and one of his arms was done up in a hasty sling, clearly broken in a not insignificant way. Of course, none of that was my main concern when I saw Mr. Gima laid out on my couch.

No, my mind went immediately to the suspicious van still parked outside our apartment, in spite of the day's tribulations. Not that Alyssa was aware of that.

"Did you get him?" she asked, as she walked past me, her partner cradled in her arms.

"Bastard got away," the Unovan man responded with a hiss.

"Slippery son of a bitch. What's with the tag-alongs?"

"Before that, you didn't get noticed coming in here, right?" I asked as my partners finished filing into the crowded apartment.

"There are city-security sub-contractors staking out this apartment right now." My statement got odd looks from all the humans in the room.

"Why the fuck are the cops stalking you?" Bert asked from the dining room table, where he and Champ had sat themselves down.

"They're not actually security, they work for a company related to my dad's. He's been missing since Wednesday and they're trying to track him down."

"Wait, your mom's hurt and out of the region, and your dad's just gone? What the hell Fe?" That came from Alyssa, the other girl leaned up against the living room wall. Apparently Mr. Gima had told her where I'd been this morning.

"I'm just as confused about it as anyone. I was hoping he'd have left a message or been back when I got here this morning, but instead I had security goons knocking on my door. Speaking of which–" I trailed off while staring meaningfully at Mr. Gima.

"Don't worry your pretty little head. Ink's mostly wiped, but not so much that he couldn't get us in here unseen," the suited man reassured us.

"Wait, you're the guy who was on the screen for a couple of seconds there," Bert piped up.

"Just, without the domino mask."

"Okay, again, why are these two with you? Are they in on this now?" Mr. Gima asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Sorry," Alyssa interjected, "this is Bert and Gretchen, and their partners Champ and Fierce. They went to school with us, and ended up getting wrapped up in the attack. I– I sort of felt like they deserved an explanation."

"So you all know what's going on here?" Gretchen asked from her position slumped over the kitchen table.

"Because the news at the Pokémon Center was clearly full of Tauros-shit." I couldn't help the dark peal of laughter that escaped me.

"Honestly, we're probably the only people in the entire region right now who have an almost complete picture. I can explain the how, at the very least."

"I think I know the why," Alyssa said, before burying her face in her partner's fur and taking a deep breath.

"And that just leaves the who," Mr. Gima interjected.

"Lucky for us, my contacts just got back to me with a name. Or, a codename, I guess." We all looked over at him, and the foreign man fiddled with his communication device for a few moments before holding up the watch-like instrument. The screen was small, and decently far away, but I could make out an image on it of a man with green hair and a long beard. He was wearing a jumpsuit, on the front of which was emblazoned a red R.

"Meet Scythe. A former member of Team Rocket. He parted ways with the organization when his views and methods proved too extreme for the most reviled criminal group in all of Kanto. He's wanted in every league-affiliated region, and now this one too, and Interpol has been keen on apprehending him for almost a decade now."

"He's figured out some method to corrupt synergy stones," my voice pulled everyone's attention to me.

"I don't know how, but he can turn them into something called shadow synergy stones, which are dangerous crystals that can parasitize Pokémon."

"The orange crystals on the Klang!" Gretchen made the connection.

"Exactly," I nodded.

"Any Pokémon affected by a shadow synergy stone turns into a Shadow Pokémon. I'm not 100% clear on the details, but it makes them stronger, at the cost of the stone driving them effectively mad. The stones themselves are interested only in absorbing power, and they'll force their hosts to drain it from the environment, or obtain it through predation."

"So that Klang was sucking up all the power from the gaia spot," Gretchem muttered, while running her hand along one of Fierce's stingers.

"And you think this Scythe guy put them there?" I nodded.

"It just makes sense. Remember the Hypnotized guards?"

"A Hypno!" Mr. Gima snapped his fingers.

"That's the flash of yellow I saw. That's how the bastard got away."

"And this isn't the only time he did something like this. Did any of you see the news yesterday or this morning about a Pokémon rampaging at Techne General?" Almost everyone shook their heads, but Bert had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"There was something about that on the news this morning. They said it freaked out during treatment and hurt and killed some people. Is that…" he trailed off, unable or unwilling to finish his question.

"That's how my mom was hurt," I confirmed the suspicion.

"I think– I think it was a targeted attack. I wasn't sure before, and two's not enough to say it's for sure a pattern…"

"But it all lines up," Alyssa said, her face still buried in Pikachu's fur.

"He's– he's after me. He must be. He went after Fe's mom first, because she's one of the people who'd stand up to my family if they tried to take me back."

"That's what I figured too," I said, some of the hoarseness Suicune had banished creeping back into my voice. Everyone was quiet for a few moments, before Alyssa looked up at me, her eyes glittering.

"Fe, how bad was your mom hurt? Mr. Gima said they needed to teleport her to Kanto for treatment?"

"It's– they said she'll probably be okay." I said, my voice thick.

"But– but it's still up in the air."

"She got hurt because of me," Alyssa's face was pressed against her partner's fur again.

"And– and you're here getting hurt too, to help me, instead of being by her side." I crossed the room in five steps, wrapping my best friend in a hug.

"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else while you're in danger," I told her as I squeezed tight.

"My mom– I can't do anything for her right now, but I can help keep you safe, and I can help make sure we nail the asshole who hurt her to the wall." I felt Alyssa shuddering in my arms, and Pikachu's face twisted up in disgust as the fur on her back swiftly grew damp and matted, though she voiced no complaints.

"Okay, so this asshole let loose a 'Shadow Pokémon at the gaia spot, and then was doing something to the great synergy stone, why are we convinced that this means he's after Alyssa?" Bert asked the group at large.

"You know Alyssa's last name?" I asked the boy.

"Madaka, right? But she's gotta be from a branch family or something. Otherwise there's no way she'd be slumming it with us at the Dojo, or at Nickel-street Prep." I shook my head.

"She's the only child from the main family. Her dad's the patriarch of the whole clan."

"Oh," Bert's voice was quiet, and both his and Gretchen's eyes were wide as they stared at Alyssa.

"Are these Madaka folks a big deal?" Mr. Gima asked from the couch.

"You guys told me it was an important family, but these two are acting like you just told them she was related to the Hero-kings themselves."

"There are a few really important families in Ferrum," I explained.

"Madaka is one of them. I don't really know how to contextualize it for you– but they're a big deal, okay?"

"Alright, I'll take your word on it," Mr. Gima nodded.

"So why is Alyssa estranged from her family? And why would they be trying to get her back?" I looked up at my best friend in askance. The other girl sniffed a few times, and wiped her eyes on Pikachu's back. That was a bridge too far for the Electric-type, who released a few jolts of weak lightning into my best friend and I, causing us both to shudder and forcing the other teen to release her partner.

The spunky Pokémon landed in huff, and marched off further into the apartment, likely intending on finding the bathroom and availing herself of the shower or sink.

"I can explain," Alyssa told me as we both watched her partner walk away. She turned to the rest of the group, and took a deep breath.

"My dad wants me to take over as head of the family. Or, rather, he wants his blood to take over. Unfortunately for him, he can't have any more children after an accident, so I'm his only option," the girl took a shuddering breath.

"Of course, for him, that's almost an upside, since it means he can pick whoever he wants as his successor, and just marry me off to them. He already had someone picked out half a decade ago."

"Guardians." Gretchen swore, her face a bit green.

"So how does Fe's mom fit into all of this?"

"She wasn't too happy when she learned that Alyssa's dad had her all but engaged when she was only seven years old. She got her family to lean on the Madaka's, and they worked out a deal where Alyssa gets to live on her own and go on a battle break like everyone else," I explained.

"And if I win enough, and rank up enough, I'll have the sort of political and social capital I need to make sure my dad can't push me around," my best friend continued, a hint of familiar steel reentering her voice.

"I thought that he'd underestimate me, and give me the opening I needed to climb the ranks, but it seems like he ran out of patience earlier than I thought."

"But wait, if Alyssa gets hurt, that doesn't help him at all," Gretchen mused, her cheek planted solidly on the kitchen table.

"But if something happens to her partner, she can't compete anymore," Mr. Gima's flat voice made a shiver run up my spine. I turned to look at the man, and found his eyes blazing with a simmering rage so hot it increased the temperature in the room a couple of degrees.

"And so he hired that monster to go after Pikachu."

"It probably wasn't my dad himself," Alyssa supplied as she rested her head on my shoulder. The other girl had slid down the wall, taking me with her, and now we were both sitting up against it.

"He likes to delegate, and I don't think he'd risk working with an Interpol-wanted criminal. No, this sounds more like one of my less-cautious relatives. Which probably means my cousin, Mueller." The girl made to explain further, but before she could continue, a voice from the entryway interrupted her, "Links Falinks!" We stared at the disturbance, three of my knights trooping into the room, sounding the alarm about something near the entrance.

Mana popped up a second later, swimming over to me and demonstrating the same shapes she'd used earlier to tell me about the truck parked outside the apartment.

"Those security goons again?" I asked my partners, to which I received a variety of nods. I stood up with a groan, Alyssa letting out a little noise of complaint as I jostled her off my shoulder.

"You, hide," I pointed at Mr. Gima, who snapped off a sarcastic salute.

"Everyone else– don't say anything suspicious, I guess?" It was only when I was halfway to the doorway that I realized that I hadn't checked to make sure that no one had been in the apartment other than Mr. Gima since my partners and I had left. What were the chances that these 'security agents' had left bugs in our apartment? Was that something they'd do? Something they were capable of? I stood up on my toes and saw a familiar face through the peephole.

The same woman from earlier in the day, though there was an unfamiliar look of concern on her face that didn't align with the impression I'd had of her earlier in the day. I made sure my partners were in position and the chain on the door was secure before easing it open slightly.

"Good evening officer," I said through the cracked doorway.

"Do you have any news for me?" The woman stood a few feet away from the opening, actually wringing her hands, the PSS she'd been carrying earlier conspicuously absent.

"No, Ms. Alvida, no news," she told me, though that clearly wasn't why she was standing in front of the door right now, judging by the way she kept trying to look over my shoulder further into the apartment.

"Well I haven't heard anything either, so I don't think I can help you," I told the woman, making to close the door.

"Wait!" she all but shouted, holding up a hand. Her voice must have carried past me into the kitchen and living room, because someone there responded.

"Mom?" Bert's voice rang out in confusion, accompanied by the sounds of feet scrambling towards me.

"Bertrand, Gretchen, it is you!" the woman said, her shoulders immediately sagging and a sigh passing her lips as the two teens came into view. I looked between them, and the woman in the armored jacket in front of my apartment.

"Mom?"