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Augustine stared at his monitor and wondered where he had gone wrong. What had he missed? Should he have paid more attention? When had Lysandre turned into this? Surely this was a bad dream, an over-caffeinated hallucination, a-
“Augustine!” barked a voice, cutting into his reverie.
Augustine shook his head, then looked back at the screen Professor Rowan’s face was displayed on.
“Sorry,” he said. “It’s just…just…”
“I understand.” Rowan said more gently. “But we need you present right now.”
“Deep breaths, Sycamore.” Professor Juniper added from a different screen.
He was in his lab, surrounded by the monitors he was using to communicate with the representatives of the other regions: Rowan, Juniper, Samuel Oak, Steven Stone, Professor Kukui, and Champion Geeta, along with a line to the satellite monitoring systems at Mossdeep.
“Is there still no response from Galar?” Kukui asked.
“No, you know how Rose is,” said Steven. “The emergency lines were never set up properly.”
“Do we have any more information about the weapon’s capabilities yet?” Juniper asked. “Power, range, rate of fire?”
One of Augustine’s assistants handed him a note.
“Ah, it’s mostly lost in legend, but it’s said to have destroyed cities, and what records we do have from the Kalosian Wars give us a minimum range of eastern Unova, and AZ’s writings suggest worldwide range.”
“Oh, wonderful.”
“Isn’t the Kalos League doing anything?” Geeta asked.
“I, uh, don’t know.” Augustine told her. “I can’t raise the league- I think Team Flare might have sabotaged the lines. Lysandre invented Holo Casters, you know, so Flare has root access. We’re lucky these lines are independent. Malva has the emergency hardline backup contact, but she’s not answering either for some reason. Of all the times!”
“Cynthia is assembling a group of trainers to mount an assault on the weapon once we’ve found it.” Rowan informed them. “They’ll be in the air in five minutes, but it’s a long flight.”
“And May is suiting up to go and fly there with Rayquaza,” Steven told them. “But even with a ballistic flight trajectory it’ll be at least ninety minutes.”
“Red and Mewtwo are going to try and intercept any strikes directed at Kanto.” Oak added. “And Lyra and Lance are about to take off on Dragonites, but even at top speeds it will be another six hours before they can reach Kalos.”
“Unova can send a strike team too, but it won’t be any faster than the others.” Juniper informed them.
“It’s the same here, unfortunately.” Geeta concurred. “Don’t you have anyone closer to hand you can send to find the weapon?”
“My field agents are already out chasing a lead,” Augustine told her. Just then, his Holo Caster chimed. “Speaking of which…”
He picked up the call and saw Sina- her hair was blown back and her voice half-drowned by wind as if she was flying somewhere very fast.
“Professor,” she told him. “The cafe was a Flare base, but the only important thing left by the time we finished going through was the machine for spying on Holo Casters, which we broke. But we got some information! We think the weapon’s in Geosenge Town, probably connected to the standing stones somehow. We’re headed there as fast as we can, and we’ll see if we can do anything. Sina out!”
Augustine went back to the general call.
“Geosenge!” he told the Mossdeep operator. “The weapon is likely in Geosenge Town. Can you get eyes on it?”
“One moment,” said the operator. “Adjusting cameras.”
Everyone waited impatiently for a few moments, then-
“Done.”
“Well, is it there?” Augustine asked.
“Uh, that depends. Does Geosenge Town normally have a giant crystal flower thingy in the middle of it?”
“No.”
“Then, yeah, looks like it’s there.”
“Well, at least it’s at the edge of Kalos,” Oak sighed. “That might save a little time.”
“I don’t suppose there are any Kalosian legendaries that might intervene on our behalf?” Steven asked hopefully.
Augustine shook his head.
“It’s not inconceivable that Zygarde might do something about it, but by the time it pulls itself together it’ll already be too late for millions of people.”
“Damn,” said Steven.
A distant wailing started up as someone in Lumiose finally thought to turn the emergency alert sirens on. The sound pounded in Augustine’s head, but at least someone was doing something.
(Whether or not taking cover would actually be of any help against the ultimate weapon was doubtful, but it wasn’t like anyone had any better ideas.)
There was an awkward pause in the conversation.
“I don’t suppose we have any guesses as to where he’s going to strike first?” Juniper asked morosely.
“Lumiose, surely,” Augustine muttered.
“Maybe,” said Oak, “but if he wants to kill everyone, he might simply go down the list of population centers in order: Saffron, Castelia, Lumiose, Wyndon, and so on.”
There was another, considerably more morose pause, before Kukui clapped his hands together.
“There’s no sense in just sitting here trembling, waiting for the axe to fall,” he said. “Sycamore, what can you tell us about Team Flare and Lysandre’s battling skills? Teams, moves, that sort of thing.”
“Team Flare mostly just uses Dark and Poison types, like most of these sorts of teams. They’re not that tough. Lysandre… assuming he wasn’t hiding a secret battling squad from me, his team is Mienshao, Honchkrow, Pyroar, and Gyarados. I…I’ve never seen him use it, but I know I gave him a Key Stone and a Gyaradosite.”
Kukui nodded.
“Not bad, but nothing a champion shouldn’t be able to handle. Whoever gets there first should be able to beat Team Flare.”
“Well, sure,” said Augustine. “The problem is, who can get there in time? Of all the times for the League to be out of contact!”
“It is rather unfortunate,” Rowan agreed. “Though it may be something of a contagious problem. I had to have Cynthia organize our strike team because Dawn is uncharacteristically-”
A phone of some sort suddenly started ringing next to Rowan; he looked down and shook his head.
“Well, speak of the Renegade. One moment while I answer this. Dawn, where are y- Turnback Cave? Why are you- huh? Hm. Let me check the energy readings.” Rowan turned to look through something offscreen. “No, I don't think it would mix well with distortion. What’s that? Oh, I’d guess about a hundred kilometers. Seventy-five if you want to take a risk. Alright, good luck.”
He hung up.
“That was Dawn. She, Barry and Lucas are going to try and get Giratina to help them take a shortcut by opening a portal from the distortion world. With a little luck, they might make it before the weapon fires too many times. They do have to come out a fair distance away to avoid any unfortunate energy entanglements, though.”
“Even if they get there within half an hour, how many times can the weapon fire before then?” Juniper asked. “Even once would be an unprecedented disaster.”
“We can only guess,” said Augustine. “The records are from so long ago that any exact technical specifications are impossible to derive.”
“Maybe it’s been so long that it won’t work properly when they try to fire it,” Kukui suggested optimistically.
Most of the other people in the call gave him a Look; he held up his hands.
“Alright, alright. A little hope never hurt anyone.”
“Excellent point,” Rowan agreed. “This waiting game is hard on everyone, but we should try to avoid despairing.”
“Sorry to interrupt,” said the Mossdeep operator. “But we’re reading energy fluctuations in the weapon. No idea what they mean.”
“I doubt it’s fluctuating just because,” Oak pointed out. “We should brace for it to fire soon.”
“You know, when I suggested setting up an interregional crisis coordination hotline,” Juniper said, “I was hoping we’d be able to do more than just commiserate with each other while waiting to see what would happen.”
“Well, whatever does happen, we’ll all know right away, and can plan accordingly,” said Kukui.
“We may very well need to use these calls to coordinate disaster relief, assuming enough civilization is left afterwards to do so,” Geeta added.
“Don’t you think that’s a little-” Steven started to say, before-
“The weapon’s firing!” Mossdeep cut in frantically. “The trajectory’s vertical enough that I don’t think it’s leaving Kalos.”
Lumiose, then. Augustine had spent years thinking Lysandre was the most charitable person in the world, and now he and millions of other people were going to be murdered by him.
“I-I’m sorry, everyone,” he said. “I should have seen… I should have done… I don’t know. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t give up, Augustine.” Rowan told him. “We don’t know where it’s headed yet. You’re not to blame for Lysandre’s madness.”
Augustine nodded blankly, not really believing his old mentor, as the distant air-raid sirens blared through his skull and the deadly energy arced through the heavens.
“Trajectory calculated,” said the Mossdeep operator. “It’s- that can’t be right. Check it again!”
“What can’t be right?” Steven demanded.
“You’re sure about this? Positive? All right,” said the operator. “For some reason, the weapon appears to be targeting… itself?”
Augustine shot upright.
“Itself?”
“Yeah, we’ve triple-checked it. What on earth…”
Augustine grabbed at his Holo Caster and called Sina. It took her a while to pick up; when she did, the sounds of psychic blasts and shattering ice were prominent in the background.
“I’m a little busy, Professor!” she said. “Team Flare has a bunch of Pokemon strapped to the rocks to drain their energy, and they’re not letting us rescue them without a fight. The weapon fired a minute ago-”
“Mossdeep says it fired at itself! Take cover!”
“Oh, shit. Dex, grab the kids and hide somewhere!”
“Kids?” Augustine demanded. “What kids?”
“I-” Sina started, before her connection cut off in a flash of blinding light and a thunderous roar.
“Impact,” said Mossdeep, unnecessarily.
“Do you have a visual?” Steven asked.
“Between the dust cloud and the ionic interference, no.”
“Sina, come in!” Augustine yelled. “Come in!”
The connection flickered back to life; Sina looked rather ruffled, but unharmed.
“Whoa,” she said. “Dexio? Is everyone alright?”
Dexio’s response was too far away to hear, but evidently positive. Sina smiled.
“Dexio, Trevor, and Tierno are all fine, and the Pokemon aren’t any worse off than they already were,” she reported.
“What are Trevor and Tierno doing there?” Augustine demanded.
“They were already here when we got here, dunno why. They helped free the Pokemon while we fought the Flare Admins. Good kids.”
“Is that your field agent?” Steven asked, back at the main conversation. “Are they close enough to get eyes on the weapon?”
“Sina, can you get a look at the weapon?” Augustine asked.
“Yeah, we can pop over and take a look.”
A few tense minutes passed as Sina and the others made their way into town.
“Geosenge is a wreck,” she reported. “Not sure how much of that is from the weapon coming out of the ground in the first place and how much is from the shot impacting.”
“Any sign of the weapon?” Augustine asked.
“Just a big crater in the middle of town full of rocks.”
It really had fired at itself, then. Why? Had it been a malfunction? Had some Flare grunt had a moral realization and sabotaged it? Maybe this had all been some elaborate plan of Lysandre’s to get rid of the Kalos region’s malcontents by gathering them all in one place and blowing it up. Yes, that made sense- or at least, it made more sense than the idea that Lysandre had simply gone crazy and tried to kill everyone.
(Right?)
“Most of Geosenge seems to have had the sense to evacuate once the ground started shaking, so casualties don’t look too bad, but we’ll definitely want some search and rescue teams here,” Sina reported.
“On it,” said Augustine, motioning for an assistant to send out the relevant messages.
“Lots of dust everywhere, and- hold up. Movement in the direction of the crater.”
There was a tense silence as Sina stared like a hawk at something offscreen, before shaking her head in disbelief.
“Of course. Who else was I expecting?”
“What is it?” Augustine asked.
“Serena, Calem, and Shauna are all making their way out of the impact zone as we speak,” Sina told him. “What in the world do you suppose they were doing there?”
“Saving Kalos, presumably.” Augustine sighed.
He had known Calem and Shauna long enough to know that neither of them would ever sit idly by while a crisis like this was going on, and his acquaintance with Serena, though not quite so long, was enough to confirm that she was the same way. But what had they been forced to endure, down in the depths of Flare’s lair? Had they been the ones to make the choice to destroy the ultimate weapon and its operators to save everyone else? No one that young should have to have blood on their hands, no matter how justly shed.
“They’re coming over here,” Sina told him. “And- aw, hell, please tell me I remembered a first aid kit.”
“First aid kit?” Augustine asked, alarmed.
“I know it’s in here somewhere- oh! Okay, false alarm. Serena had some blood on her, but it’s just a little cut.”
“A cut?”
“On her forehead.”
“Well, if she’s bleeding there, she must have got hit in the head! Give her a concussion check, and-”
“I’m perfectly lucid, Professor, thank you.” Serena said primly as her face popped into frame. “I was merely nicked by a small piece of flying crystal. But I appreciate your concern.”
“Serena? Thank the lifegiver! What happened?”
“When Lysandre’s insane message went out, I recalled a suspicious cafe in Lumiose City, and Calem and I went to investigate what did in fact turn out to be Team Flare’s headquarters. After some rather odd- well, it’s not important now. To make a long story short, we found out the weapon was in Geosenge and rushed over.”
“What was the point of all that nonsense with the keys and buttons and chosen ones if he was just going to activate it anyway?” Calem groused as he joined them.
“Once in Geosenge, we discovered Team Flare’s control center, and with some important help from Shauna in deactivating the locks, Calem and I defeated Lysandre and his minions and rescued the legendary Pokemon he was using to power the weapon. After that, Lysandre had a… breakdown-”
“A tantrum, more like.” Calem corrected.
“-and used the last dregs of power left to fire the weapon at itself in a bid to destroy us all and get revenge, at which point we evacuated the facility, and not a moment too soon.”
“Relatedly, Serena and I currently have Yveltal and Xerneas in Master Balls in our bags.” Calem added. “Please advise.”
“You have-! Okay, we’ll deal with that later. The weapon’s gone?”
“Blown up and buried.” Calem confirmed.
“And even if it can be repaired, it can’t be used without the power of the legendaries.” Serena added.
“Also Lysandre’s probably the only one crazy enough to want to use it, and I don’t think we’ll be hearing from him again.” Calem concluded, nastily.
Augustine took a moment to swallow an awful emotion and compose himself; he apparently should have taken several, because his voice was still choked when he spoke again.
“And you’re sure you’re all fine?”
“Nothing a box of bandaids and some antiseptic cream won’t cure.” Calem confirmed. “Are you alright?”
“Just a little…overwhelmed. I never could have imagined…”
“Ah,” said Calem.
“None of this is particularly your fault, Professor.” Serena declared.
“That’s kind of you to say, but-”
“Hey, Professor,” said Shauna, popping into frame. “That was insane! But don’t worry, we’re all okay and it all worked out, so everything’s going to be fine!”
Oh, to be that young again.
“Thank you, Shauna. Anyway, I need to talk to some people from other regions about all this, but we should have a proper conversation some time too. We can meet in, oh, I don’t know-”
“Couriway Town?” Serena suggested. “We’ll be there soon anyway.”
“Yes, that will work.” Augustine let out a sigh. “I am so very glad I chose all of you to have Pokedexes. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” said Serena.
“Anytime.” Calem said.
The Holo Caster winked off, and Augustine went back to the interregional calls.
“Well?” Geeta asked.
He took a deep breath.
“The weapon is inoperable, Lysandre is… missing and almost certainly dead, and we all owe a debt of gratitude to some very skilled and very brave young trainers.”
There was a collective sigh of relief, and a look of slightly rueful familiarity on the faces of several of the other participants.
“What a curiously contagious phenomenon,” mused Professor Oak, stroking his chin.
“You’re certain that the weapon is destroyed?” Geeta asked.
“There doesn’t appear to be anything left, and its power source has been captured as well.” Augustine told her.
“Can confirm,” said the Mossdeep operator. “The dust is cleared enough to get a look. There’s just a big crater now.”
Geeta nodded.
“Very well. I should go and tell the civic authorities in Mesagoza they can cancel the alerts, then. I will have the Paldea League on the lookout for any Team Flare members that attempt to escape into our region. Don’t hesitate to contact me if any other problems arise from this incident.”
With a polite nod in Sycamore’s direction, she hung up. After she broke the floodgates, the rest of the professors and champions followed suit, saying farewell and offering to arrange various things as needed for the cleanup, until it was just him and Rowan left.
“How are you feeling, Augustine?” Rowan asked.
Augustine laughed.
“What do you think?” he asked, before slumping in his seat with a sigh. “It’s all so…sudden.”
“Crises often are.”
Augustine sat in silence for a moment.
“I trusted him,” he finally said. “I knew him as well as anyone. Why didn’t I see it? I could have helped…”
He trailed off, head in his hands.
“None of us can help having regrets in our lives,” Rowan told him. “But whatever you did or didn’t do, you didn’t force him to do this. He made his own choices, and he could have decided not to do something so stupid and monstrous at any time.”
Augustine carefully took a deep breath, in and out. Then he straightened up, plastering a half-smile on his face.
“You know, I suppose you’re right.”
Rowan wasn’t fooled for an instant.
“Oh, Augustine, don’t try to bury this-”
“Who’s burying anything? And anyway, it would be ridiculous to mope around when there’s so much that needs doing right now.”
“You can delegate. This isn’t the kind of thing you can just brush aside and go on with your day.”
“And I won’t,” Augustine assured Rowan. “But there really is a lot that needs doing right now. I just have to get through it, and then I can take some time for myself. To process.”
By the look on Rowan’s face, he was clearly skeptical of whether Augustine would actually do that.
“Talk to someone, Augustine. I’ll pick up your calls anytime. Or talk to your Kalosian friends, or I’m sure there’s at least one decent therapist in Lumiose. Just, don’t try to bottle this up forever.”
“I won’t,” Augustine told him.
Rowan looked at him closely, then nodded.
“If there’s anything at all I can help you with, you have my number. Take care, Augustine.”
The call ended, and Augustine took the opportunity to lean back in his chair for a minute. Then he got up, walked over to the coffee maker, downed a cup, and set off. He hadn’t been lying; there was a great deal to do. He had to make sure the search and rescue in Geosenge went alright, catch up with Dexio and Sina for a proper debriefing, find Diantha and the Elite Four to figure out where they had been and explain what had happened, make sure any injured Pokemon were properly treated, figure out what to do with Xerneas and Yveltal, meet with the kids, make sure the Holo Caster network was safely back in order, arrange for the Honor of Kalos to be awarded to the region’s saviors with the appropriate ceremony, and probably half a dozen other things he was forgetting about.
And the more things he had to do, the longer he could go without having to think about what had happened, and all the ways he could have prevented it. Augustine expected to be busy for quite some time.