Icicle Badge Pt_
Swole-POV:
Slipping into my good shoes, a thought crosses my mind. I am dressing up for a loss, aren't I? Yes. I guess I am, but I'd rather not be defeated while looking like a loser too.
Knock, knock
Who could it be? Who'd knock while I'm still in the changing room? Dawn? No, too shy. Zoey? No, she'd just waltz in-- actually, she wouldn't. Not since she lost her arm. "Yes? Come in?"
The door handle twists. Candice peeks through the narrow opening, shielding her eyes. She peers between her fingers, hazelnut-brown eyes sparkling with curiosity. Spotting me fully dressed in black suit pants and a white dress shirt, she pushes the door fully open.
"Hi." A small wave. She steps inside, shuts the door, and clasps her hands behind her back, dancing around on the tips of her toes. "Sooo... I'm... sorry for doing it this way. It's just--"
"I get it. It's your reputation on the line."
"Yours too. And I'm sorry for making you go through with this. Thank you very much for taking a dive for me."
She could have just put an impossible hurdle in my way and left it at that. Candice is already being a lot more considerate than necessary to reach her goals. "No need to apologize."
I continue tying my shoelaces, trying to get the bows to loop perfectly symmetrically. "I'll admit, it sucks. I wish I could gracefully accept this opportunity to really challenge myself and my team, but I can't."
"Opportunity?"
Putting on a fake smirk, I look up at her. "I won't leave Snowpoint City until I beat your challenge, no matter how long it'll take. That way, you'll get your public victory against the bratty, cocky challenger, and I'll make the progress I need to become the champion."
She laughs before catching herself. "Sorry! I shouldn't be laughing at your conviction. I'm grateful, really... I'd better get going, though. I still need to find a referee, haha... ha."
A blue shine covers the handle; it twists on its own, opens the door, and she quickly retreats, leaving Lopunny, Riolu, and me alone.
I need to recall them... Actually, why shouldn't I keep them out of their pokeballs? They need to learn the enemy just as I do.
"Salandit, Sewaddle, come out." It would have been cool if that worked.
Instead, I press Sewaddle's pokeball, and she appears in the middle of the room, curled up in a silken cocoon. Her face pokes out from a sleeping bag. Beady eyes flutter open. Her mandibles twitch.
"Hey, sorry to wake you, but we're having a surprise gym battle."
Her eyelids blink. And again. Slowly, she nods her head and crawls out to... to eat her cocoon. Strange.
Salandit appears next, fast asleep on her back, tongue lolling and drool pooling on the tiles. Morbidly curious, I poke the tip of her tongue - only for the prehensile muscle to wrap around my finger. Then my hand.
~"Mashhhter?" She speaks in her sleep.
"We're under attack. Enemies are stealing our egg supply, and they carry bathtubs with them."
Her eyelids rip open, her wide irises slit into thin lines as her head darts left and right until her view settles on my hand.
She slurps up her tongue, rolls over, scrambles to all fours, then scurries up my arm and down the back of my shirt. "Hey! What are you doing?" My clothes rustle and wrinkle as her claws dig into my skin. "Haha! Stop it!"
Her head pops out through the neck hole-- her tongue lashes out, smacking against my firmly closed lips. She chuckles, struggles to pull the rest of her body out of the too-tight hole, and then hops off. ~"Tssk. I guessss you win thiss time."
I chuckle a bit before picking her up - Riolu too - and placing them on my shoulders. Sewaddle can stay in the nook of my arm.
"I called you out because we will fight a gym battle today. I want all of you to learn as much as you can about the enemy, understood?"
They nod.
"Sewaddle, you're going to be up first. I don't know what pokemon we'll fight, but let's stick with the strategy we used against Jumpluff. If we can take down one and learn who the second is, then I will consider it a success. Let's give it our best, alright?"
Lopunny still seems excited at the battle ahead. ~"Yes, master!"
~"Yess, masster!"
~"Yes, master." Riolu places her paw in front of her heart as if swearing it.
~"Alright!"
"Let's go." All of them are infinitely more hopeful for a victory than me.
Following the crayon signs leading out of the changing room, I walk down a dusty path through an unlit tunnel.
Salandit's back ignites, lighting up the path until we reach the end, emerging into the stadium with her flames as flickering backlight.
Whistles and cheers, laughter, and loudly gossiping teens sound out from the audience. A small crowd - the students of all ages and some parents - has gathered to watch me lose.
A Rotom drone flies overhead, capturing us from our best angles. Meanwhile, Candice stands ready at her side with a wide stance and arms crossed over her chest. She wears a dress shirt with a blue bow tie and a sweater tied around her stomach as if the cold doesn't bother her.
Salandit's flames flicker out, and a fresh breeze carries a couple of snowflakes across the battlefield.
Jagged ice boulders stick out of a mirror-smooth surface of ice.
That's not good.
Two spots of thick snow mark the starting points of our pokemon, but the whole space between them is made of slick and slippery ice.
I want to curse out loud - what did I do in my past life to deserve such a terrible battlefield? "Sewaddle." My tone rings harsher than intended - but it fits my image as a villain. I'll keep the gruff voice for this fight.
Sewaddle crawls along my arm. She attaches a sticky thread to my fingertip and rappels down. On the ground, she creeps toward the battlefield, crossing the tiled boundary. She tests the ice with one cautious step, then another... and then freezes. Slowly, she turns back to me, her tiny face straining to stay brave - until it crumples into a look that clearly screams: ~"This won't work."
"Good grief." I can't help sighing.
As soon as all six of her nubby limbs touch the ice, Sewaddle begins to glide, her mandibles clicking in fright as she slips toward our snowy platform.
On the other side, a pokeball expands in Candice's grasp. She throws it underhand, high into the air. The Rotom drone follows its arching path until the ball pops open, releasing Weavile at the center of the arena.
She glides with effortless grace, twirling across the frozen surface before leaping into a pirouette. She lands in a ballerina's pose, one leg lifted high behind her, almost touching the back of her head.
This is just unfair, isn't it?
---
...
...
...
The moment Weavile's claw touches it, Sewaddle's Protect shatters, popping like a bubble.
Feint strikes true, slicing from head to tail across Sewaddle's back. A pitiful squeal escapes her as my finger hovers over her return button.
She's in pain because of this stupid humiliation ritual for the masses. Yet, she fights on, tanking the hit and skidding across the ice, only stopping when she reaches the end at my feet.
Pressing her nubby legs against the ground, she prepares to continue the fight.
"You're doing good, Sewaddle. We've already gained invaluable information."
I now know that Candice must have watched my battles and learned my strategies. She knows I like to hide behind Protect. She will give directions hidden within orders to counteract my old plans I used against Gardenia; they won't work again. But Weavile's moves are public on the pokeweb. Before the next attempt, we can look them up!
"Give a sign, and I will recall you." But Sewaddle shakes her head, too stubborn to surrender.
Their half of the arena has a few splotches and lines covered in sticky strings, but it's no use. Weavile is too nimble; she simply skates past her shots and jumps over the strings wherever they landed.
Sewaddle is giving it her all, but it's like holding a lighter up against a glacier. We don't stand a chance.
Without an order, her body begins to glow. Slowly, green orbs appear from the meager sunlight that reaches us through a layer of clouds and the open ceiling. A trickle of healing blobs absorbs into her body. Wasted effort because I couldn't think of anything else in time. I'm a disappointment.
"Finish her off with Ice Shard!"
Weavile gathers power in her claw, then flings a clump of ice. It hits Sewaddle in the face with a sharp pling - hard ice striking her sturdy chitin and sending her skidding across the ice. It was far too fast to dodge.
When she reaches the border tiles of the arena, her momentum rolls her over, and she tumbles all the way to my feet. Crumpled in a heap, yet she won't surrender. She flips herself over and crawls back to the edge of the arena.
She used Endure to tank that hit. Her fighting spirit stays strong... stronger than mine... I'm letting her down, aren't I?
To them - my pokemon - this is just a battle like any other. They are giving their all, while I'm watching from the sidelines, content to learn a few snippets of info...
"Shit." No. I can't let that stay!
I can't let my pokemon take all these hits while I'm not doing shit!
But what the fuck is there to do?! Sewaddle is practically powerless in this match-up!
Her body glows again.
I will need to pivot my strategy. Sewaddle really doesn't stand a chance against Weavile. I still have both of my swaps left. Riolu or Lopunny can deal with Weavile much better.
I've got an idea! "Use String Shot! And aim for their snow pile!"
Should I send in Riolu next? Aura Sphere is an extremely good option. But Riolu depends on Protect and Detect, and I have no plans against Feint.
Lopunny doesn't have that issue, but her footing won't be good enough to brawl on ice. Slippery ground has always been her nemesis.
Can Salandit run well on ice? The pads underneath her feet and toes stick to anything, but ice too? It's risky to let her fight against a brawler.
... I'm not seeing String Shot or a counterattack by Weavile yet... Also, why is she using Synthesis again? ... Isn't Sewaddle shining a little too brightly for Synthesis?
Holy shit, Sewaddle is evolving!
Her small body already glows, wrapped in a shining cocoon of light. Two ear-like buds sprout at the top just before the shine fades, revealing the new leafy green form of Swadloon.
With her back turned to me, I can only see the large green leaf-like mantle covering her whole body from head to... oh no. Swadloon doesn't have toes, or feet, or legs. She has zero mobility!
She is just a yellow head wrapped up in a leafy blanket! How are we supposed to dodge anything now?!
The growths atop her head twitch slightly while she tilts back. There are two moss-like appendages coming out from under her leafy cover at her sides; these shift around as she stabilizes her position.
Suddenly, Swadloon spouts out a whole net of sticky silk, sending it arcing through the air. It's not String Shot, but Sticky Web!
The web spreads wider as it flies to cover the entire enemy side of the field in the sticky strings.
Weavile jumps, threading a hole in the net before landing gracefully. Looking back over her shoulder, she sees the obstacle course left behind on their side of the arena.
Her red ears twitch, and she returns her attention to us. A new ice crystal forms in her claw-- She's attacking with Ice Shard! Candice must've been whispering!
"String Shot! Use it to pull yourself away with it!"
Far too quickly, Ice Shard flits through the air, striking Swadloon in the face and knocking her out.
She slides across the ice until reaching the boundary tiles. Then she rolls the rest of the way until I pick her up just before she passes between my legs.
I give her a hug, careful not to agitate any wounds. "Well done, Swadloon. Get some rest, and know that I won't let you down anymore. I promise, we're going to give Candice one hell of a fight."
Pressing her pokeball's button, I watch her disappear.
I repeat the words in my head a few more times, since I'm the one who needs to hear it the most.
Then, I breathe deeply. "Riolu? Let's give them hell. You're up." It's time to cheat. ~"And if you can hear me, get your feelers ready."
---
Riolu carefully skates across the ice. Her footing is unstable, but she's having fun and doing a lot better than Sewaddle-- She fell on her butt.
Scowling at the ice, she pushes herself up and slips once more before trudging on toward the snow pile. What a ridiculous arena. Banette is the only one on my team who wouldn't be bothered - but she won't fight at all. Sometimes it doesn't even feel like she's part of the team, like she's cutting herself out on purpose.
Anyway, while Riolu settles into her spot, Weavile carefully hops across the many lines of sticky web, slowing her down as she gets ready.
There is no way Candice will ignore that. She will either fight from a distance or use a gap closer that skips the webs. Aerial Ace? ... Does Weavile learn it?
This won't do! I can't go into a serious battle without even knowing that! After this, I'm memorizing every damn move set! Starting with ice types. I can not afford to doubt myself in the heat of a battle.
I look at the rotund man at the side of the arena. Mr. Honcho, the principal and gym referee as a side job... Just how poor is this city?
Tourism collapsed worldwide, gym trainers avoid this city and save it for last, and the population isn't large enough for taxes to be substantial either. Is that another reason why Candice wanted to settle our match like that? So she doesn't have to pay reward money? Don't they get money from the league?
Mr. Honcho's eyes scan the arena, spotting both Weavile and Riolu ready for battle. He raises his hand as the signal.
"Aura Sphere!" - ~"Stay ready."
Riolu's feelers rise higher into the air. Her stance changes, and a small orb of blue aura gathers between her paws.
Weavile doesn't move.
The sphere begins to grow. "Hold steady."
Candice remains calm. They know we can't hit them at this distance.
"Ice Shard."
Weavile grows an icy projectile within her paw, throwing it not even a second later.
Keeping her stance, Riolu shuffles aside. Their probing attack misses by a hair, zipping past my ear. Lopunny would have protected me if I was in danger. I keep my focus on the battle.
Weavile's ears twitch again. This time, it's got to be Aerial Ace. ~"Riolu, hide Aura Sphere behind your back and let it fade."
Riolu listens, shifting her stance as the sphere shrinks and finally dissipates. A soft glow covers Weavile's body. ~"Get ready."
Riolu's fur stands up, her muscles tensing and eyes closing in preparation.
Suddenly, Weavile disappears. "Protect!" - "Switch to Feint!" - ~"Use Counter! She's coming from behind!"
The moment she reappears behind Riolu's back, Weavile abandons her attack. Flying-type energy bursts in a flash of light before fading. Her paws darken, dripping with tar-like energy from the ivory-white tips of her claws. Black and corrosive - a single drop of that power could tear a Protect in an instant and siphon the energy to fuel the attack further.
But Riolu simply turns and tanks the hit to the face. Her eyes clench in pain, a scream pressing at the edge of her throat, but she holds it back, anchored by Inner Focus.
She grabs Weavile's arm and pivots on the spot; with a roar, she leverages her shoulder, lifts her opponent up into the air, over her head, and judo-slams Weavile into the ground. She drives her a full meter into the ice, growing fissures around the impact site.
"Vacuum Wave!"
Riolu pulls back her paws like she's charging an Aura Sphere, muscles taut. Sparks ignite - an icy-blue fire flashing between her palms. With a sudden thrust, she unleashes a dense jet of power--
"Protect!"
The blast blooms into a small inferno as it crashes against Weavile's shield. "Again!"
"Jump!" Candice shouts. "Get out of there and use Icicle Crash!"
"Hurry up!"
A half-formed Vacuum Wave blasts out, but Weavile leaps. Her heel clips the attack; still, she soars higher than the stadium's curved walls. All around her, snowflakes veer from her path. The gathering storm veils her, hiding the icicles forming in the air.
I'm not using my eyes to feel them anyway. They spread everywhere; no spot around Riolu will be safe.
She huffs and puffs, panting and gasping for air. Feint shouldn't have struck that hard. Is it just exhaustion? Is Weavile even stronger than I thought? Can she still tank an Icicle Crash?
"Charge up Aura Sphere!"
Maybe she can tank one of the icicles?
They grow and keep growing until Weavile reaches the peak of her leap. As large as beach balls, they drop from the sky.
It's a strong move; Weavile has a STAB advantage, and Riolu doesn't have the greatest defense. Without an evolution to Lucario, ice will have regular effectiveness.
"Step left!"
She listens immediately, shuffling to the side moments before the first projectile crashes to the ground, battering her and me in mostly harmless shrapnel.
The second one smashes into her shoulder, pressing her down to her knees but failing to make her flinch.
"Shoot it straight up!"
The third icicle strikes nothing, the same for the fourth and fifth. The rest land too far away to be of notice.
"Jump again!" Weavile kicks off the last icicle midair, just before the Aura Sphere pierces through it, shattering the spike into a rain of ice shards and rocketing skyward. Fragments clatter onto the battlefield, then Weavile herself drops to the ground, bleeding off speed with seamless grace, ice-skating across the arena.
"Riolu! Use Rock Throw!"
"With what rocks?!" Candice shouts, incredulous.
I can only hope it works. Riolu can't summon stones like Onix could, but maybe an ice boulder counts?
A shard of ice bursts from the frozen lake. Then another. The ground trembles as cracks widen, chunks loosen, and the ice sheet rises unnaturally.
It's actually working? But it's just supposed to be a single rock; just how large is it going to be?
The diameter grows. Five meters of ice all around her splinters, crumbles, and cracks. The arena shudders and groans as fissures race to the edges.
Weavile disappeared.
I didn't watch out! "Protect!" Or Counter?!
The ground sags as soon as Riolu drops her attack. Aerial Ace slams into her shimmering sphere of Protect-ion, and Weavile rebounds back into the air.
"Dark Pulse! Now!"
Wait... Dark Pulse? The same move Darkrai used to blast everything around him while fighting Dialga and Palkia? And she wants to use it in front of me? "I'm standing right here! Are you insane!?"
Lopunny roughly pulls me back, shielding me behind her body. "Riolu! Use Detect!"
Dark miasma, interlaced with purple light, rushes overhead and past my sides. The powerful AoE swallows all light until a cone of light between us and the entrance is all I can see, as if it were a slice of reality within a sphere of the void.
Then, light floods back in, spilling from the sides and overhead as Weavile runs out of steam.
With trembling limbs, I push past Lopunny... only to see an ice wall between us and the carnage. It's just large enough to keep us safe.
A second and third protect the viewers on both sides, and the fourth barrier saved Mr. Honcho.
The walls collapse, revealing a pouting Candice on the other side of the arena, tapping her foot angrily. "You thought I didn't plan for that?!"
Shit. I really thought she didn't. And that's even after Zoey told me that sob story of nobody taking her seriously. "Sorry!"
"A sorry won't cut it! Now lose! Dark Pulse again!"
"Vacuum Wave!"
We have to be faster, right?! Dark Pulse needs so much more power than Vacuum Wave!
The dark, bubbling energy oozes from Weavile's claws like a churning condensate of hatred. Purple lightning arcs between the dripping bubbles. She claps her hands together, unleashing it in a wave. At the same moment, Vacuum Wave pierces a hole through the attack, smashing into her.
Once again, Dark Pulse washes over us, briefly turning the world to blackness and void, until the move ends... the ice wall falls... and she lies passed out on the ground.
Riolu is KO. Weavile wins the round.
Despite it, she breathes heavily, bracing herself on her knees. She's just a Quick Attack - or anything, really - away from her own KO.
I want to hug Riolu, but I can't yet. Forced to unclip her pokeball from my belt, I aim and... wait, what's with that strange shimmer in the air?
Doesn't that look a lot like the same shimmer I've spotted before in Alamos Town, right before the sky itself quaked?
... Why am I feeling vibrations?!?!
---
...
...
...
What... what the fuck just happened?
I'm lying on the ground, same as almost everyone. A few people are opening their mouths as if shouting, but no sounds come out.
It's like what happened when the Galactic Bomb went off. But there was that shimmering light. It was the same I saw in Alamos Town before-- oh no. Before Palkia abducted us!
But the sky is blue. Not a single cloud hides the sun away. It was cloudy before. Synthesis wasn't working well enough, and Chlorophyll didn't activate either earlier.
So we're not between the dimensions. That's a reassuring start.
Did we move through space or time like Route 218? Or, well, more like the Tree of Beginning traveled through time and space. The missing clouds would suggest so, but it could have other reasons.
I look around, feeling the ice-cold frozen lake on my cheek; all I see is chaos. Most children crawl for safety or sit with their heads between their knees; some are trying to piece together what happened or checking themselves for injuries.
My pokemon fuss over me, but I can't hear them. I pull out the emergency potion and give my ears a quick spray before crawling over the cracked ice to Riolu and applying the rest to her. I return her to her pokeball.
As sound returns, all I hear is chaos - murmurs and shouting. Most people haven't realized they can't hear their own voices. Didn't they experience this already when the Galactic Bomb went off? Well, Snowpoint City is farther from Lake Acuity than Zoey's family farm. Maybe they barely felt it?
My head feels strange. I've probably knocked it when I fell. Dawn is currently treating Zoey's ears, and now they swap places.
Everyone important is safe... Well, no; they just aren't in any immediate danger.
Fucking hell. What the fuck happened?
I pull myself up, watching ice shards tumble down my body. Then the ground quickly approaches my face. I slipped. Lopunny rushes to my aid, only to slip up herself and knock both of us into a heap.
We help each other up.
"Swole!" Candice glides across the battlefield, almost as graceful on ice as her pokemon. I probably have a concussion - why else would I be focusing on that? And her motions seem to blur and lag too. "Are you doing alright? That fall looked brutal!"
"Yeah... I... fell. I got distracted and couldn't brace myself-- Wait! Did you see that shimmering light just before it happened?! We're in danger! We need to get out of here!"
"Calm down." She says, prompting me to do the exact opposite. "Calm down! It's not the end of the world; it's just another test run by Team Galactic, I bet."
"I know what I saw. This wasn't the same as the Galactic Bomb."
"Ah, right. You already know about their bomb. That's supposed to stay a secret, you know?" Candice sighs, combing her fingers through Weavile's crest to calm her nerves. "They did warn me and the other gym leaders something like this might happen - though, I didn't expect it twice. In any case, the match is over. We need to move the injured children to the pokemon center, now."
She doesn't take me seriously. "No! I mean, yes. But also, we're doomed! That same shimmer appeared in Alamos Town right before it was dragged into another dimension!"
"... Are you serious? This isn't the right time to joke around--"
Dawn arrives with Zoey. "I saw it too! The same light appeared on Route 218 too!"
Her eyes dart between Dawn and me; nervous sweat builds at her forehead. "You're serious."
Dawn grows frantic. "Yes! Wherever that light appears, so many people will die!" She's shouting as tears brim in her eyes.
A child's arms sticking out of a cave wall. Body bags after we saved the town. Of some people, only pieces were left. Zoey almost joined them... "Candice, can you organize the students to take care of the injured?"
She nods and skates off, her mind clearly elsewhere until she reaches the scattered, panicked students, directing them.
My attention returns to Dawn and Zoey. "In the meantime, we need to figure out what's really going on..."
But how?
We need to know if we're already in the eye of the storm. If we've been dragged into another dimension - or between them - then the only way back is to force Dialga or Palkia to return us... That sounds impossible.
GPS! Of course. It's still the best way to tell if we're on our planet.
I press the button on my phone. The screen lights up - it still shows Buneary and me on the ferry to Canalave City. We looked so... carefree... "Do any of you have an internet connection?"
After checking, Dawn and Zoey shake their heads.
"No service." Zoey mutters, her voice cracking. "But GPS! That means we're not trapped by Palkia, right?! Oh, Arceus, please don't let me die again..."
Dawn wipes her cheeks, only for fresh tears to take their place. "Guys? When exactly did Alamos Town get pulled between the dimensions? Was it when the shimmer appeared or when the fog had surrounded the town?"
"It was the fog, wasn't it? The science guy's recordings showed Palkia broke into our dimension, and that had caused the shimmer. Between then and the actual dimensional shift, we had enough time to take care of the sleeping people and pokemon, go on a shopping date, and eat an ice cream cone. Around two hours after the shimmer."
Zoey trembles. "Then... if it's happening again, we have maybe two hours - max - figure out where Palkia is and get as far from her as possible... I'd really rather not flee toward her accidentally."
"Me neither, but how do we figure out where she is? Palkia was invisible the whole time. Science guy - Tonio?" They nod, remembering his name better than I do. "Tonio just happened to look at the right spot because Darkrai was there--" Oh no. "... I saw an Articuno fly overhead today."
They don't see the pattern, looking at me strangely.
"It was an omen! Something terrible was going to happen here!"
"No," Zoey disagrees, yet her body still trembles in fear. "I've seen her loads of times. She lives in the snowstorms."
"He does have paranoid tendencies." Dawn's right, but my paranoia is also right on some occasions!
That woman in Eterna City really was Domino. "Either way, the question remains, where could Palkia be, if she's even here at all?"
"We have a temple up north." Zoey comments. "It's at the very edge of town, near our mines. Students go there for their graduation party... if they aren't sick that day."
"The one where Maria works as a temple maiden?"
She nods.
About fifteen minutes have passed already. "Can we get there to verify and run far away within an hour? And we'd also have to evacuate the town if we find Palkia there."
"Yes. If we run, we can make it there in ten minutes. But we need to get Maria; only she has the keys to get inside."
"Great! That means we have a plan! Now, where did Maria go?"
"... I don't know. I was a little distracted with panicking."
"I saw her." Dawn says. "She and Riley were sitting nearby, trying to inconspicuously make out, but I saw them. I bet they are helping bring the injured to the pokemon center."
"Then we need to get there ASAP." One limping kid remains. He probably refused help to seem tough. Everyone else already left for the pokemon center. "You go ahead; I'll carry him and catch up."
---
The pokemon center's door slides open, and the kid hops off my back, stumbling when he lands on his injured foot, but I catch his hand before he tumbles to the ground.
"... Thanks, Mister..." He mutters before stalking off towards the chaotic mess of people talking in the building.
"Find yourself some help, Timmy."
He nods, pushing through the crowds of people.
The building is dim with most lights off, electricity cut to the essentials. The ground hums with the basement's emergency generators, and a check on my phone reveals that the WLAN works here.
I send a short message to Barry, praying to Arceus he's the same one I grew up with... Where are Dawn and Zoey? ... Swadloon and Riolu need medical attention, but even from here, I can see how overwhelmed Nurse Joy already is. If we need to evacuate, the youngest, most injured students have to be treated first.
But Swadloon and Riolu NEED proper treatment. What if we have to fight? What if Palkia attacks?
I call out Riolu first and pick her up, searching for a quiet place to get a modicum of privacy, but finding none.
There's a red padded chair in the lounge - meant for people waiting for Nurse Joy on a normal day. Taking a seat and digging out another potion, I place Riolu on my lap and look her body over thoroughly.
She still has some bruised tissue hidden underneath her fur; I spray it with the potion and rub it in thoroughly. She winces in her sleep.
Checking my wristwatch, I can't help but wince when the digital minute increments once more. Zoey and Dawn will search for me after they find Maria, right?
I should get up and find them... But my legs refuse.
Instead, I swap Riolu out with Swadloon. She's not in a good state either. That last hit struck her right between the eyes and cracked her chitinous face. A few sprays of potion, and it sealed right up. Only a hint of the fracture remains, running from her forehead down to her... uhhh... abdomen.
Her lower body is smooth, without any limbs. Actually, she doesn't have any limbs at all hidden anywhere underneath her coat.
In nature, Swadloons are entirely reliant on Leavanny. Sewaddle too. I had looked it up, and it's usually Leavanny who makes Sewaddle's clothes. I guess mine got separated from her family and had to make do.
"Don't worry, Swadloon. I will make sure you're safe until you evolve."
Her body feels strange - smooth and hard, yet the large plates that make up her form shift slightly under pressure. Like an insect, really. Despite being made from leaves and moss, her clothes are surprisingly warm on the inside and a little spongy on the outside.
"Recover soon."
With a press of her pokeball's button, she disappears, just as a commotion catches my attention. A group of people is huddled around a TV screen, all trying to get as close as they can.
"No!" That sounded like Zoey, and I spot the frazzled, red tuft of her hair sticking out from the crowd.
I get up and try to push a way through the densely packed crowd. Something in the center made everyone buzz with chatter, but Zoey's distressed voice rings clearly over the noise. "No! This can't be!"
"Turn up the volume!" Someone else shouts.
"... an aerial view of the site of the convergence." A familiar reporter's voice rings out, just as I catch a glimpse of it past two strangers' heads.
It shows a massive crater, smoothly cut from the ground and surrounded by snow.
"Team Galactic's convoy was struck by the event. After completing a mission at Lake Acuity, they were transporting an artifact back to Eterna City when it happened."
The camera pans around the circumference of the crater, lingering on a bisected truck, tossed far away from the edge. Inside, a blurry red blob is censored, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out what it means. "Fuck."
"It happened right as the convoy passed a local farm." Local farm? Oh no... "Power lines supplying Snowpoint City with electricity from the Windvalley Powerplant have been severed-- Wait, what is that?"
The feed cuts and shows the reporter flying on top of a Pidgeot's back. Her familiar face squints at something in the distance.
"Rotom, get a close-up of that. Is that a survivor?"
The camera pans around again, slowly zooming in on a brown dot on the snow. Then a red dot appears beside it as they grow larger, gaining more details, and taking shape.
Wooden boards lie strewn nearby, belonging to a little hut or a kiosk before it got blasted away by the pressure differences of a massive chunk of space simply disappearing.
The brown splotch of color in the snow is a Piloswine, scuffing at the snow, digging out something red. It's... a person. A red-headed girl--
"DAISY!" It's Zoey's little sister. "Oh, Arceus! Oh, Mew! This can't be possible! This can't be happening!"
I push myself through the crowd as they step back from Zoey, who collapsed to her knees. She grips at the stump of her arm as she stares at the screen. Dawn hugs her from the side, Candice from the other.
Zoey keeps muttering to herself. "This isn't happening. This isn't real."
The reporter flies closer, talking about something, but I can't hear it.
"No, no, no. It's a different farm. It has to be."
The picture clears, and it reveals Daisy as she's petting Piloswine's snout. Her other arm and the rest of her body are still buried underneath the snow.
"Are you alright?!" The same female reporter who interviewed me after the school tournament and after Alamos Town rushes to dig Zoey's little sister free.
"M-madam... mah family... w-where is Mama?"
"No..." Zoey trembles in my hold, and I press her against me.
"I'm sorry." Karla Kolumna digs through the snow with her bare hands; her voice cracks as she meets Daisy's eyes. "I don't know where they are."
"No, no, no..."
Daisy's ears are bleeding. "M-mama. I want my mama..."
"This is bullshit. I'm dreaming. It's just a nightmare."
"Zoey... They'll be alright." I hope. "We got out alive too."
She turns around in our hugs and nestles her head against my chest. Her voice sounds distant and hollow. "It was that song that got us out. Oración... And those towers."
A prediction made a century ago by the man who built those twin towers. It needs something like that to save them. "What about that artifact? The reporter said Team Galactic had recovered an artifact; what if that's going to help them escape?"
"... What if that is what's caused it?!" She rips herself out of our arms, a murderous glare on her face. "It's got to be! Why else would they target mah family?! Palkia used those towers to hide herself between them! What if it's these artifacts that attracted them in the first place?!"
Is this what's going on? Godey foresaw a terrible calamity, and the towers' design then came to him in a dream. Was it perhaps the same dream? Did he build the towers because he believed they would prevent the disaster he saw? But then, did he unknowingly cause the calamity by drawing Palkia to them?
Did he even change anything? Was his vision just a self-fulfilling prophecy? And if so, why was he shown it? Was it Darkrai who sent him the dream - no, the nightmare? It must have been Darkrai. Why?
Why would Darkrai have done this?
But Zoey needs me right now. There is just one sliver of hope I can see right now. "How long was it until Alamos Town returned?"
"Uhm, around two hours." Candice says, brushing the hair on Zoey's head with her hand. "I see what you mean. Zoey, I'm sure we're going to see them return soon."
"W-what if they won't?"
"I'm sure they will." I don't want to imagine another scenario. "We'll just need to wait and see."
At least this means we are safe here... As safe as one can be nowadays. Holy crap.
I shift, sitting down on the carpeted floor and pulling Zoey onto my lap. Her arm stays locked around my neck, clinging like a life ring, as if holding on keeps her from drowning in sorrow.
Candice hugs her tightly once more before standing up, her braided hair brushing against my face. "I need to get going, Zo-zo. I have to organize some emergency measures. Hang in there, alright? Your family will be fine, I'm sure of it."
Zoey doesn't reply, just silently nodding her head against my chest as I take over the task of brushing her head.
The reporter finished digging Daisy out in the meantime. She's battered, bruised, and with cuts all over her body, but she's alive.
She stumbles slowly towards Piloswine before collapsing against him and hugging him tightly.
Then the camera begins another look around the crater, refusing to enter it but hovering at the edges and zooming inside.
Smooth as if cut out with a razor-sharp knife.