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Equilibrium	By : jvperric Category: Pokemon > General Views: 12587 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. Nintendo does. I make no claim towards any of the copyrighted intellectual property contained herein. I am making no money from this story in any way.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
*****Chapter VII: The Sepris Gulf*****

“We’ll charter a boat directly to the island. I’m sure one of the sailors here could use a little extra gold. How does that sound?”

“San, san Sandslash!”

“If all goes well, the Air Gem will be ours soon enough. And then the others.”

—Conversation overheard in Gemsea Town, c. 1900 CE

*****

“That answer’s not helping, Colonel.”

The commander’s office of Dragon’s Egg Army Base was sweltering. A ceiling fan spun futilely, oscillating back and forth. An aide by the door blinked a bead of sweat from out of his eye.

Two men sat on opposite sides of the desk in the office. One wore fatigues with the cuffs rolled up to the elbows and sweat under the arms. His short gray hair did nothing to conceal the vein slowly growing on the side of his forehead. Every few moments his hand would unconsciously curl into a fist, which he would relax when he noticed it.

The second man wore a navy blue suit, buttoned up to the collar. Sweat snaked down the back of his neck from under his hat. He held a small notebook in his hand, tapping the open page with a pencil. The badge of the Sederan Federal Marshals hung from his jacket pocket.

“I don’t have any other answers for you, Mr. Garrett,” the colonel said, drumming his fingers on his desk. “I’ve never met the man and I damn sure didn’t give the order to bring him here. You can have your friends tear the place apart, you won’t find them.”

“I hope that won’t be necessary.” Garrett produced a sheet of paper from within his jacket and slid it across the desk. “That’s the tasking order Captain Beck gave the police in Gemsea Town ordering the abduction of Leonard Szilard. It’s signed by you. Care to explain that?”

“I’ve never seen that shit before in my life,” Colonel Mattson said, tossing the paper back to Garrett. “Look, I’m up for a promotion in September. Brigadier General. Do you think I’d jeopardize that by ordering this horseshit you’re throwing at me?”

“I think a man disappeared and I’m trying to find him,” Garrett said.”Where’s this Captain Beck? I need to talk to him, too.”

“There are no officers here named Beck. Not captains, not lieutenants, not majors. Now if you’ve got any more supposed evidence, show it. Otherwise, I have other appointments. Sergeant!”

“Sir!”

“Escort Mr. Garrett back to his vehicle.”

“I’m going to need a ledger of all your personnel before I leave, Colonel.”

“Someone in the administration building will get it for you. Good day, Mr. Garrett.”

Garret nodded to the colonel while the sergeant opened the door for him. He left the office, heading back into the baking sun. They passed a squad of soldiers standing in formation, fitting hydration systems into their rucksacks. Garrett and the sergeant walked towards the administration building, where a convoy of trucks was pulling away.

“Do you have a take on all of this, Sergeant…?”

“Jennings. Rall Jennings. And I don’t, sir.”

Garrett stopped and swung around to face his escort. “Sergeant, if you’re withholding information and I find out about it, you’ll be just as guilty as the colonel. I don’t care if you’re just an NCO, I will bring the Marshals down on this place. We are going to find Dr. Szilard.”

“I don’t have anything to tell you, sir,” Sergeant Jennings said. “I’ll wait here while you get your list.”

Garrett turned away and went into the administration building. The air conditioner was running full blast, and he had to shout to get the attention of the people inside.

“Lieutenant?”

A young man at the first desk looked up. “Hello Marshal, what do you need?”

“I have to sign out and I need a personnel ledger for the base.”

The officer rifled through one of the desk’s drawers and removed a stack of papers. He went to the copier and ran every sheet through, stapling the final product and placing it on the front desk while Garrett signed out.

“Thank you.”

He left the cool building and walked right to his car, ignoring the sergeant following close behind. He gave him a glance back as he got into his car, a look of distrust the sergeant returned. Garrett closed the door, set the ledger on the seat next to him, and took out his phone.

“Captain, it’s Bruce. I just finished here at Dragon’s Egg… No, nothing. They say they don’t have him… No judge is going to give us a warrant for the whole base. Did they reopen that road through the Garagin Mountains yet? I want to talk to the family… Yeah. I’ll call in after.”

*****

“All right, hooks out. I’m scuttling this once we’re up.”

“Rules of engagement, sir?”

Xavier paused. He had given no thought to the fate of the ship’s crew. “Don’t shoot anyone unarmed. Put anyone that fights back on the ground. Anyone with a weapon gets a bullet.”

Seven grappling hooks arced through the air and landed on the deck railing twenty feet above. Xavier’s team lifted themselves onto the side of the ship and began inching their way up. When they were halfway to the top, Xavier began following, taking a knife from his boot and tearing a gash in the side of their craft. It sank while he ascended, and he joined his team on the port deck. They brought their weapons from around their backs and took up positions on the wall of the bridge.

The weather had taken a wet turn in the past hour. What had started as a drizzle was becoming a torrent, and the clouds coming from the southern ocean brought down near-freezing droplets on them. Bolts of lightning cracked the air to the south, over the islands of the Sepris Gulf. Xavier’s breath dissipated through his mask and he shook water from the top of his head. He pressed himself against the wall and spotted the door to the bridge.

“Alpha team, on me. Bravo team, starboard side. The starboard bridge door is a bulkhead, number one-eight-one. We’ll breach simultaneously and deploy concussive charges. Stack up in a Raikou-three formation, Alpha’s doing Raikou-four. Remember: no unarmed casualties. Move.”

Three men turned and disappeared around the corner. The rest followed Xavier along the wall under a shallow overhang, trying to keep out of the rain. A heavy bulkhead broke the long gray wall that stretched in either direction. Two men stood on one side of the door, one crouching and one standing, and the third planted a breaching charge above the bulkhead’s wheel before crouching on the opposite side.

“Bravo, send confirmation when in position, over,” Xavier said into his radio.

“Roger that, Predator, we’re coming up on the hatch now…charge is set…we’re stacked in Raikou-three, standing by.”

Xavier nodded and took up his position against the wall. “Do it.”

A serendipitous, deafening crack of thunder masked the sound of the exploding doors. The two men in the bridge were still busy at the controls when a pair of rifle butts collided with their temples and they collapsed. The remaining five agents rushed in with surgical precision, moving to clear the room in a perfect Raikou maneuver.

“Bridge clear!”

“Stairwell clear!”

“All clear!”

“Get their hands and feet. Masks too. Joyek, get a full schematic of the ship. Ramiz, Terrell, secure the cargo hold once we have the map. Everyone else, find a ledger. If there’s anyone else here, sweep the ship.”

*****

His Pokémon safely put away for the night, Jason lay flat on his cot, engaged in some late-night exercise. When he had finished, he stood up and replaced the comforter, laying it across the bed and then relaxing on it. Kirlia watched voyeuristically from his Pokéball, having forgotten to mention that the sensory perception was turned on.

Jason’s Pokénav buzzed through the silence. He picked it up from the nightstand, only to replace it when he saw his father’s number on the screen. It buzzed after another minute of silence, and Jason was ready to throw it across the room when he saw it wasn’t the phone; it was Kirlia requesting release.

He obliged, and his Pokémon appeared in a dim glow of light. “Hey Kirlia, what’s up?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said, playing with a rogue lock of hair that refused to fall flat with the rest. “Could I please sleep out here with you? I get bad dreams in the ball.”

“I really want you to get used to sleeping in your Pokéball,” Jason said, nodding towards the others on his belt, looped through jeans hanging from a chair. “Your teammates do just fine.”

Kirlia rocked back and forth, shifting his weight between his feet. “I know, I just…like being next to you. Didn’t I do good for you at the Gym today?” he asked, his hands together in supplication.

“Yes, you did. But come on, I’m in my underwear here.”

Kirlia’s gaze slipped away from Jason’s face to look over his uncovered arms and legs. “And I’m naked all the time.”

Jason sighed and shrugged. “All right, just one more time, understand? I don’t want the others to think I’m favoring you.”

“Thank you!”

Kirlia jumped into the bed, settling next to Jason and putting his arms around his Trainer’s torso as best he could. Jason stroked Kirlia’s hair and turned out the lamp on the nightstand.

“Goodnight, Kirlia.”

“Goodnight Jason. I love you—”

His mouth slammed shut like a steel trap, and his whole body began to tremble. He thought of taking the Dawn Stone from Jason’s bag, evolving himself and devoting all of his power to turning back time just a few precious seconds. To be betrayed by a slip of the tongue—

“I love you too, Kirlia.”

Jason smiled as positive emotion poured over his mind. Kirlia cuddled up next to him, face buried in Jason’s shirt. The whole room bobbed steadily around them with the sway of the water. Waves and rain splattered against the hull.

“Kirlia, why are you pressing your hands on my side?” Jason asked.

“Hmm? I’m not—” Kirlia looked down and shoved himself off the bed. “Ah! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Kirlia bolted out of the makeshift stateroom, yelling profuse apologies. Jason wiped the side of his shirt dry and sat up on the bed. He began running his hand through his hair before he realized what was on it and jerked his hand away.

“Kirlia, it’s okay, just come back in here.”

“No! You’re mad at me! That’s not how I’m supposed to be! I’m bad!”

Jason could hear his Pokémon’s light footsteps in the cargo hold. “I’m not mad, it’s perfectly natural. Come back so I can explain.”

“Ow!”

Something large fell to the floor somewhere in the hold. “Kirlia? Kirlia, are you okay?”

Jason stood up and left his curtained-off area. There were hundreds of boxes, maybe thousands, all stacked high and forming a maze of twisting passages, all alike. In the middle of the hold was a large cage walled with chain-link, filled to the top with Pokéballs in stasis.

“Kirlia, where are you? What fell?” Jason asked, calling out to the silent room. He chose a corridor that he knew led to the exit, figuring that Kirlia might be sitting on the stairs leading to the upper decks. Indeed, as Jason west closer to the exit he heard the bulkhead swing open and hit the adjacent wall.

“Don’t run up there, I won’t be able to find you.”

Jason rounded the last corner and found his nose pressed against a rifle. The butt of another gun connected with his gut, and the last thing he saw were two blurry figures murmuring something indecipherable.

*****

Mira sat on her bed, sheets still askew from the previous night. Zangoose sat curled up on a chair, watching Mira roll the Pokéball she received in Callport City in her hand, shrinking it and enlarging it every few seconds. Starly sat on a perch on the desk in the room, snoozing.

“Zangoose, Zangoose, Zan.”

“I know, but what if I don’t like it? What if it bonds to me? I don’t want to release it after it makes a connection. Still…I wonder what it is…Swath would send me a good Pokémon, wouldn’t he?”

She quickly pulled the release clasp back and the Pokéball opened in a flash of light, revealing a sleeping Ralts on the floor. It began shivering almost immediately on the cold metal, and its large red eyes snapped open and locked with Mira’s.

“Ralts,” it said slowly, sitting up. It was very young, not having grown used to keeping its own head balanced; it started to fall to the side when Zangoose darted down and kept it upright. Ralts looked at its protector and cooed questioningly.

“Za, Zang,” he said, picking up Ralts. “I’m Zangoose. This is Mira. She’s your Trainer.”

His introduction flooded Ralts’ mind with even more questions, causing a small headache as Zangoose handed it over to Mira. Ralts looked up at her, and the mental pain was washed away by feelings of safety and comfort. It cooed again and nestled into Mira’s arms.

“Just like Jason’s…”

Mira let a smile creep across her face and brushed Ralts’ hair. She took note of the size of the crests on Ralts’ head and noticed the front crest was larger than the rear, but could not remember which gender that indicated.

“Cute little thing. You’ll be beautiful.”

She took her Pokénav from her bag and pressed the receiver to Ralts’ Pokéball. Information poured across the screen.

“Female. Thank you, Swath.”

Mira lay down on the bed, placing Ralts next to her, where she almost immediately went back to sleep. Zangoose curled up at the foot of the bed, positioning himself protectively between Mira and the door, but he too fell asleep soon after. Mira turned off the light and gave herself over to her thoughts, and soon enough she had slipped into sleep as well.

Growing up around dozens of screeching Flying-types, Mira slept soundly through the sound of two pairs of boots dragging a large mass right by her stateroom. Jason hung limply from the arms of the two Scion agents as they hauled him up to the bridge. Xavier gave them only a glance of acknowledgement when they returned, but wheeled around when he saw they had returned with someone. Another agent put zip-ties around Jason’s wrists and ankles, and then put a black bag over his head.

“Wait.” Xavier waved him away. “Take the hood off.”

“Sir?”

“I know this one,” he said, kneeling down while the agent took off the concealing hood. Xavier looked him over carefully, holding his head up while he examined him. “He was at Greenpeak…the one who jumped. I’m surprised he recovered so quickly. Where did you find him?”

“Cargo hold,” one of the agents said. “He was talking to someone, but we didn’t find anyone else, sir.”

“I doubt he was talking to himself. All of you go down there and find whoever he was with.”

The six men filed out of the bridge, leaving Xavier kneeling over Jason’s unconscious body. He lifted one of Jason’s eyelids, then the other. Xavier stood back up and stood at the navigation console, leaning on it for support.

“No.”

*****

“This one’s a dead end!”

“It’s a fucking maze in here!”

“Did you find anything?”

“Shut up and keep looking. We can’t go back empty-handed.”

Kirlia watched the men from the rafters, clinging to Jason’s bag for support on the narrow metal beam. He balanced himself precariously to get a better view, terrified of both falling and being seen. There was always the option of teleporting again, but the noise and light would attract attention, and then they would find him eventually.

I failed…I didn’t protect him…I’m a coward.

Kirlia blinked out hot tears while watching the beams from powerful flashlights sweep over the massive room. The gruff voices grew angrier as time went on, then desperate, and then quiet for a long time. Kirlia picked up conflicting emotions from them; fear, anger, joy, relief. Distracted as he was with the thought of his own failure, Kirlia could not make sense of everything they were saying and feeling.

After the minutes that masquerade as ages when in the throes of fear, the voices began moving away and eventually disappeared. The door shut loudly behind them, and then there was silence.

Kirlia reappeared in Jason’s stateroom in a flash of blue light and dug his teammates’ Pokéballs out of the bag. He released them all, a task more suited to beings with opposable thumbs. Eventually he discovered a way to pull back the release clasps, holding the ball between his knees and pulling it back while his spare hand kept the ball from rotating. Riolu, Rufflet and Mightyena appeared, surveying their surroundings with confusion; their sensory perception had been turned off. “Are we there yet?” Riolu asked, yawning and stretching his arms.

“No,” Kirlia said, still crying openly. “They took Jason.”

“Who?” Mightyena asked. She began to snarl. “Who took him?”

“Humans. He went by the stairs and they took him. Then they came back to look for me because I was out and they heard him talking to me.”

“Why didn’t you protect him?” Mightyena snapped. “It’s what your species does!”

Kirlia collapsed, bawling as he tried to smash his head against the floor. Riolu held him back from giving himself a concussion. Mightyena advanced on him and Riolu backed away.

“You’re useless! You didn’t even put up a fight, did you? You just hid!”

His instinctual fear of Dark-types, successfully suppressed until then, kicked back in, and Kirlia vanished and reappeared on the other side of the room, huddled into a ball under the bed. Riolu slapped Mightyena on her haunches.

“That’s enough! You yelling at Kirlia isn’t helping anything. Look, he’s in even worse shape now.”

Mightyena turned her head and looked at Kirlia—or what she could see of him. A white leg stuck out from under the bed, trembling violently while its owner continued sobbing. Rufflet tried to coax him out from under the mattress, without success.

“Come on, come back out,” Rufflet said. “Mightyena’s not going to yell anymore. Right?”

She sat down and rolled her eyes. “Right.”

Slowly, Kirlia crept out from under the bed, wiping his eyes dry as he went. Riolu nudged Mightyena and she glared back at him.

“Touch me one more time and you lose that paw.”

“Apologize,” he said, quiet enough so Kirlia couldn’t hear. “He’s the only one that can help us find Jason.”

“He’s the one that lost Jason,” Mightyena said, but she caught Rufflet staring daggers at her and she knew she was beat.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you, Kirlia,” she said, nearly choking on the words. “I’m upset, is all.”

“All right,” Kirlia said weakly, steadying himself.

“Now how are we going to find Jason?” Rufflet asked. “Is there anything you remember that might help us?”

“No, not really. They went up the stairs and then came back down a little while later.”

“How many?” Riolu asked.

“Five or six. They were talking about someone that wasn’t with them. They were scared of him, like he was in charge. Then they left and I let you guys out.”

“Let’s head up the stairs,” Mightyena said. “Mira’s around here somewhere, she’ll help us.”

“If they didn’t take her, too,” Rufflet said. They all grew uneasy at the thought.

“Zangoose is somewhere above us,” Kirlia said. He had regained his composure and sat on the bed, searching for psychic signatures. It was a power he did not train often, and the thick walls of the ship only hindered him, but there were thin mental traces, human and Pokémon, scattered throughout the ship. “I can’t tell where exactly, but he’s probably near Mira. He’s protective of her.”

“First we have to find our way out of here,” Riolu said, looking out into the passages formed by the cargo containers.

Rufflet flapped his wings. “Easy enough,” he said, and took off.

With Rufflet guiding them, Jason’s Pokémon navigated the hold with ease and came to the bulkhead at the top of the stairs separating them from the rest of the ship. The heavy door refused to budge until Riolu and Kirlia climbed onto Mightyena’s back and turned the wheel on the front. It drifted open and revealed the hallway beyond.

“Zangoose is still above us,” Kirlia said, closing his eyes and focusing. “We need to find more stairs.”

They wandered through the deck, taking turns picking which way they would go at the intersections that cropped up. All four Pokémon were on edge, mostly because of their missing Trainer, but also because of the foreign, almost alien coldness of the ship’s interior. The long, compartmentalized corridors that they navigated were a far cry from their natural forest environments, and the metal felt cold and unwelcoming under their feet. Every so often Rufflet’s wing would brush against the wall and he would squawk in panic, and then embarrassment.

“Humans make some weird things,” Riolu said.

“Humans do some weird things,” Mightyena replied.

Kirlia walked a slight distance ahead of the others, ostensibly to guide them, but he took the time for self-pity instead. His felt a deep shame when he thought of himself hiding in the rafters while Jason was taken away as he watched. No, it was more than shame; he could have acted and chose not to, and the hot self-hate brewing in his belly was the only thing that assuaged his guilt. If they survived this ordeal—no, when, he reminded himself; both of his fathers had always cautioned him against thinking pessimistically—when all of this was said and done, he would ask Jason to use the Dawn Stone in the bag the others were taking turns carrying. If he was stronger, if he was a Gallade…maybe then he could protect Jason. He would certainly look more like Jason, if nothing else, and perhaps that would make him open to…to…

Stop it, Kirlia thought, shaking his head clear. Now isn’t the time.

He was lucky that he had snapped himself back to reality when he did, because as he rounded yet another corner, he came mere feet from bumping into one of the men from the cargo hold. Kirlia stole back behind the corner and motioned frantically for the others to stop. They looked at him questioningly.

“What—” Riolu began, but Kirlia put a hand over his mouth.

“One of the men that took Jason is around the corner,” Kirlia whispered. “He’s got the same signature.”

Mightyena nudged him out of the way and rounded the corner. The man had his back to her, and only turned around when she barked. She saw the gun in his hands; she did not recognize it for what it was, but knew it was meant to harm her when he began to raise it towards her. Mightyena leapt up on him, knocking the man to the ground and sending his gun off towards the wall.

She smelled the fear on him. She loved the smell and could never mistake it for anything else. It was adrenaline and sweat and the breath so quickly exhaled in a panic. His eyes widened, losing their focus as he struggled to react. The strange metal ship might have been disquieting, but she knew hunting and he was just another kill.

The man struggled desperately to throw her off, but Mightyena forced her head closer to him and clamped her jaws around his neck, gnashing and tearing and pulling with all her might. Blood spurted everywhere. Her right side had a long shock of glistening crimson, as did the wall next to them. Red pooled all around the man’s neck as his resistances grew weaker and weaker and eventually ceased altogether. The others came around the corner when the noises stopped and saw the carnage. Mightyena cocked her head and looked at them, her muzzle coated in blood.

“You killed him,” Kirlia said, holding himself still at the scene.

“He took Jason,” Mightyena said, taking heavy breaths as her body shuddered in post-kill afterglow. “And here are the stairs we needed.” She snorted at the others. “He wasn’t just going to let us pass.”

“None of us have ever killed,” Riolu said, his voice shaky. “There’s…so much blood…”

“Yeah, and the longer you look at it the sicker you’ll get,” Mightyena said. “Let’s go.”

Rufflet flew up the stairs ahead of Mightyena while Kirlia and Riolu took care not to step in the blood or any of Mightyena’s now-red paw prints. Kirlia refocused and resumed leading them towards Zangoose’s energy.

Riolu trailed behind them, stealing one last look at the gore they had left behind. He felt his last meal churning in his stomach as he forced himself to look away. He had seen death, but never up close, not like…that. There had been plenty of Caterpie and Wurmple in his forest, and occasionally he would see a Flying-type swoop down and pluck it up in its talons. He was not ignorant of their fate, nor that of the Surskit he once saw before a pack of Zigzagoon descended on it…

“Riolu, where are you going?”

He came back to the present. Kirlia and Mightyena were standing at an intersection he had passed, with Rufflet hovering over them. “It’s this way. Are you all right?”

“Just got distracted, that’s all. Are we far?” he asked, rejoining them.

“I think he’s just past this door,” Kirlia said, putting his hand on another bulkhead. Mightyena boosted Riolu and Kirlia to try and turn the wheel mounted on the door, but it refused to yield.

“It won’t open like the other one,” Riolu said, jumping down from Mightyena’s back. “We could pull all night and it wouldn’t move.”

“Wait a minute,” Kirlia said, looking around. The placement of the doors in the hallway was familiar. “This is the way we walked when Jason and I got on the ship. I saw the inside of that room. I can try to teleport inside.”

“Worth a try,” Rufflet said.

He summoned up as much energy as he could. Teleporting was a simple matter for him, but moving to a place he only remembered, rather than one he could see, was not as easy. The crests on his head began glowing white and the air around him visibly distorted. There was a short pop, and then he was on the other side of the door, directly on top of Zangoose’s tail.

It was enough to rouse him from sleep. Zangoose let out an almighty yelp, scrambling to his feet with bared claws while Kirlia tried to silence him.

“Zangoose, I’m sorry but you have to be quiet!”

“How did you get in here?” he asked, his eyes tearing up as he massaged his tail. “Why did you step on me?”

“I teleported inside because we couldn’t open the door. We need Mira’s help. People took Jason.”

“What people? Who’s outside?”

“Please, I can explain, but you have to get Mira up.”

“All right, hold on.”

Zangoose let go of his tail and jostled Mira’s shoulder. “Zangoose, Zangoose Zan.”

“Mmm? What is it, Zangoose?”

Mira rolled on her side, holding Ralts securely against her chest while she opened her eyes and turned on the light.

A Ralts? Kirlia thought. Must be what was in the Pokéball she got.

“Kirlia?” Mira sat up. “The door was locked, how did you get in here?”

“Kirlia, Kir—” He stopped himself, remembering that he was unintelligible to her.

‘Can you understand me like this?’ he asked, projecting his voice to her mind.

“It’s faint, but I can hear you. What’s going on?”

‘People took Jason. They came into the cargo hold and took him…somewhere. Then they came back to look for me but I hid. Then I picked up Zangoose’s signature and found you. Can you open the door? The others are outside and the people might come back.’

Mira placed a confused Ralts on the bed and unlocked her bulkhead. It opened and Mightyena, Riolu and Rufflet entered, and Mira shut the door behind them. Starly had awoken from all the noise and light and began twittering; Zangoose silenced him with a glare.

“Mightyena, you’re covered in blood,” Mira said, taking a rag from her pack and cleaning her muzzle. Mightyena sat obediently while she dabbed the red from her nose and around her mouth. She coughed, and a large bit of skin fell to the floor.

Mira shrieked and jumped backwards onto the bed. The motion bounced Ralts up and she began to cry. Kirlia picked her up and slowly rocked her back and forth, quieting her for the moment.

‘We found one of the people on the way here,’ Kirlia said. ‘He was…in our way.’

“So you killed him?”

‘No, Mightyena did. We didn’t know if there was another way up to you.’

Zangoose kicked the bit of flesh under the bed and out of sight. “I’m sure Jason will deal with whatever it is you did, Mightyena…but they probably took him to the bridge. How many people were there?”

‘I saw five or six,’ Kirlia said. ‘One less now. They were talking about someone else who wasn’t there.’

“Can you see human signatures? Like you did with Zangoose?”

‘Only yours, and only because you’re so close. I won’t be able to do that until I evolve again.’

“Riolu, can you see anything upstairs?”

Riolu closed his eyes and tapped into his own sixth sense. His powers were underdeveloped, having focused on physical training in the past month, but he was able to clearly see the auras of everyone in the room. Tilting his head down, he saw the fading aura of the dead man a ways below them. Above, indiscriminate blurs of aura swirled about, connecting and separating.

“There’s…something upstairs,” he said to Kirlia. “It’s not clear.”

‘He says there’s something higher up,’ Kirlia said. ‘We’re not evolved, we just aren’t strong enough to be sure.’

“I can smell their blood,” Mightyena said.

“That’s probably the blood still in your nose,” Rufflet said.

“No. Everyone’s blood smells different. There are eight smells in this room. There’s the one downstairs.” She paced the room, pausing by a vent in the wall. “Nine others, including Jason.”

‘Mightyena smells nine people outside this room.’

“Jason and the two crew,” Mira said. “Five more from the cargo hold, and whoever it is they were talking about is the ninth. Can you tell where they are?”

Mightyena shook her head.

“Okay. We can’t fight six people at once, especially if they have guns. Did the one you…found…have one? A heavy metal thing in his hands?”

‘He had one,’ Kirlia said.

“Then we’re going to need a miracle to get Jason back.”

*****

The sloop cut through the early morning waves, sliding over the Tentacool that watched curiously from below the surface. Sandslash had a claw dipped in the water, watching his part around him with fascination. His Trainer sat at the bow of the boat, while its pilot stood at the helm nearby.

“Looking for new Pokémon, then?” the pilot asked.

“You might say that,” the Trainer said. “Sandslash and I think there’s something powerful on that island.”

They both looked out to the massive white tower cutting into the sky and through the clouds. The Trainer’s eyes slipped to the base of the spire and the water below.

“There must be to have created that,” the pilot said. “Plenty of powerful Pokémon nearby, too. It’s where I found Sharpedo. He’s been pacing us this whole time. Right, boy?”

A large blue shark leapt out of the water to the port of the boat and slipped back under the water. The Trainer watched the patch of slightly darker water move easily along with the sloop.

“Impressive,” he said. “I may pick one up myself.”

The small boat glided on the winds towards Skyblast Island.
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Equilibrium