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Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Investigators of Soul/Heart/Spirit

a fanmade story

"Urm…ah'm nat too sure ab'ut this n'more…" Dhelmise said from inside Zekrom's grasp.
"Welp, too late for that now," Lurantis replied from atop his wing. "We're already here."
"Basically," I agreed. Aileen and I were sturdy on Zekrom's arms, Lurantis and Stacia holding onto his wings, and he was holding onto Dhelmise and Sky. Cheren and Talonflame were going to follow through his wind draft.
"Well, this is quite a setup," the president of the PHEW admitted, with Pokémon all over him. "But anyway…"
He spread his wings and crouched, his tail generator glowing and crackling with electricity.
"…it's time to end this."
"To the Team Perial Base!" I pumped my fist out.
Zekrom jumped into the air, and with a mighty roar, covered us all in lightning and lurched forward at insane speed.
"AaaaAAAAAaaaahh!!" Aileen clung to Zekrom for dear life. "This is CRAZY!"
"YeeeEEAAAAAH!!" Zekrom had a different outlook.
Holding on tight myself, I looked behind us to make sure the other two airborne Pokémon were close behind us, and through the blue sparks I could see them.
Turning back forward, I tried to see where we were heading…
and there it was, coming up fast.
The fluorescent metal target on the ground.
Going straight for a bulls-eye.
"That's it!" Stacia recognized the base.
"Dang right, it is!" Zekrom announced. "We are nearing our destination. On the count of three, be ready to jump!"
"Wait," I heard that, "WHAT?"
The base was getting bigger by the second.
"One!"
I could make out the emblem on the gate.
"Two!"
We were just yards away from the wall.
"THREE!"
He threw Sky and Dhelmise into the air before smashing into the wall with Fusion Bolt at full force, bursting it the heck open. The rest of us jumped to avoid feeling the impact of the crash.
Cheren assisted by changing the courses of some flying debris to make sure we all landed on the available floor safely.
"Unh!" I shouted upon touchdown with both feet and a hand.
Aileen landed beside me, as did the rest of us, and I barely heard Dhelmise's "HABADABOOSKIIIII!!" over the sirens that were now blaring.
Along with the obvious "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" came a "WARNING. WARNING. SECTOR: G. HAS BEEN BREACHED. IN NEED OF IMMEDIATE REPAIR. REPEAT: SECTOR: G. HAS BEEN BREACHED. IN NEED OF IMMEDIATE REPAIR."
I stood up, and counted eight. "Everyone okay?"
Nods all around.
"Okay," I sighed in relief.
"It's all you now," Zekrom said, and flew off.
I turned away from the night sky and took in where we had landed. It seemed to be some secret stash of old memorabilia and merchandise…yet everywhere I looked was the Team Perial emblem.
Even through my time working here, I remembered, I flipped this place upside down…but I've never seen any of this…
Stacia ran up and tried the door while some of us pilfered through all this…STUFF.
"Locked," she affirmed.
Lurantis sighed and readied Solar Blade. "So much for finesse."
"Uh, Lurantis," Talonflame said. "We came in on freaking ZEKROM, and BUSTED THROUGH THE WALL. Finesse was never part of the equation."
"Well, I tried," she shrugged in response.
"Hold on. Before you break down the door…"
Everyone turned to Sky as he held up a large, fancy portrait of what appeared to be an old woman. "Look at this."
I looked at Aileen and went over to see. Rather than the human's frail, tired eyes and fancy hairdo, what caught my eye was the text box chained to the bottom.
"What is this…some kind of description of this person's feats?"
I read it aloud:
"Brooke Uvloz
Time in office: 1989-1997
Founded Team Perial as a scientific research group, dreaming of putting different peoples and Pokémon in the same general areas together to see how all life interacted with each other. This curiosity going global resulted in an explosion the group's numbers, funding, and reputation. Died of old age, leaving Team Perial in the hands of her son Cody."
As I finished reading that, I noticed another, similar picture near my feet, and set Brooke down to read about Cody, who resembled Carter, though with a more collected, less intimidating feel to him.
"Cody Uvloz
Time in office: 1997-2013
Took over Team Perial after his mother passed away. Kept her spirit alive in the organization, though he began using more direct methods of bringing in subjects."
I stopped to form a thought, but couldn't figure out what I was thinking, and kept reading.
"Still, the public respected Team Perial as a whole, and Cody was head of the organization during some of their most crucial breakthroughs. Died suddenly of drink poisoning. The culprit remains unknown for certain, though many suspect it was his brother Carter out of jealousy and ambition."
This suddenly clarified my thought…but now I need to make sure.
Is it…possible?
I threw that aside and dug through all the stuff until I found what I was looking for: Carter's portrait of this style, complete with his oh-so-full-of-himself smile.
"Carter Uvloz"
Where there was "Time in office" was scribbled out and had "REIGN" written over it. "2013-present
Took over Team Perial after his brother Cody passed away. Held onto all Pokémon currently part of the organization and refused to return them to their rightful owners. Lost the public appeal after announcing that the old Team Perial 'was no more' and was 'rising anew' as 'your new world leaders'. Has done nothing more than gathered Pokémon ever since, through fair means or foul."
I looked up at everyone. "This…this is lore."
"My guess," Talonflame tried, "is that Carter killed Cody for all the Pokémon in the current Team Perial, thinking it would only be a little more until he had every single one out there and could conquer the world…looks like he lost his mother's purpose.
"I mean, BOY, was he wrong, but…what the heck? Kill your own brother for yourself?! Who does that?"
"…I don't think it's that simple. That doesn't make sense," Cheren thought aloud.
"What do you mean?" Aileen asked.
"Remember when we met Carter?" she said. "He just sat there eating popcorn, and said he was 'too good' to fight us. Would he do it? Maybe. But would he have the motivation to? Doesn't seem like it. And just look at this around us…he backs up his claim of 'the old Team Perial is no more' by stuffing it all in a closet and locking the door? That says something right there."
"Good point," I agreed. "If anything, he's the king of doing things halfway. Why would he go to the trouble of poisoning a drink with such care that he never got confirmed guilty?"
An awkward silence.
Then I remembered the sirens blaring.
"Well, there's no point in wondering about it right now," I said. "We're already here, time to do what we came to do."
Everyone nodded, a few "Right"s, and Lurantis blew down the door with Solar Blade.
"Let's-a guh!" Dhelmise insisted.
And we all charged out into the fray.
(Team Perial Base
5F-10F
Team Perial Grunts; same as before, but Pokémon are stronger.
Gabriel: 42 [no change]
Aileen: 42 [no change]
Stacia: 52 [no change]
Lurantis: 66
Dhelmise: 71
Talonflame: 52
Cheren: 62
Sky: 60)
Fighting through the Grunts on guard duty to avoid being captured, we made our way up the building. After a few floors, I found what I was looking for.
My old office.
P.A.I.G.E. wasn't charging on the outlet just outside, which was both good and bad.
But mostly good.
"Alright, everyone, in here! Quick!" I opened the door and the eight of us went inside.
"Someone barricade the door," Stacia insisted.
"Dun." Dhelmise plopped himself down and leaned against the wall.
"Pfft," Talonflame kept himself from laughing. "Taking 'deadweight' to a whole new level."
"Shut yer beak."
"What are we doing in here?" Sky asked.
I took the flash drive out of the Pocket Dimension and plugged it into the computer, and told him "Gotta load this up," as I pressed the power button.
It asked for my password, and I typed it in.
"This is a lot harder without opposable thumbs…" I noted.
But it got me in. I clicked into the Recycle Bin, took a few moments to make some modifications to paige_act_seq.EXE, renamed it paige_dea_seq.EXE, and copied it to the USB.
"There we go," I let everyone know I was done as I signed out and put the loaded flash drive back into the Ring Portal.
"Not a moment too soon…" Aileen said, and I noticed that something was pounding on the other side of the door, giving Dhelmise some competition even while Sky and Lurantis were supporting him.
"Oh, boy," I remarked. "You guys can let go now."
They did, and the Grunt's Machamp burst in only for Stacia to meet it with a Drain Punch to the back of the head, KO'ing it probably by removal of whatever mental power was left.
The Grunt panicked, returned Machamp, and then just stared at Stacia for a moment with his jaw hung open.
Stacia covered her face with her hands, then let them fly and faked a jump at him. "BOO!"
He ran for his life.
"Let's get moving before anyone else shows up," she insisted.
On the road again, we made a dash for the throne room to settle this once and for all.
(Team Perial Base
11F-15F
Same as before
Gabriel: 43 [+1]
Aileen: 42 [no change]
Stacia: 52 [no change]
Lurantis: 67
Dhelmise: 71
Talonflame: 52
Cheren: 62
Sky: 60)
After only a little more headway, we were finally here again.
The throne room.
"I ALREADY SAID!" Carter was shouting into the mic. "STOP THEM BEFORE THEY GET-"
"Uh, sir?!" Genesis got his attention and pointed to the eight of us.
"Wait a minute, Genesis," he responded, "can't you see I'm busy scolding Gr- AAAH!!"
Knowing words meant nothing now, my party got into battle stance to show we meant business.
"What are they DOING HEEEEEERE," he said to his assistant.
"Why are you asking me?!" Stacia's possessed body turned to him, just as panicky and confused.
The Marshadow saw her chance. Her body began to glow green as she ran up and jumped at the Team Perial Admin.
"HaaaaAAAAAAAAH!!"
But Genesis saw it coming, and kicked Stacia out of the air back at us.
"D'oh!!" the Gloomdweller Pokémon moaned before hitting the floor and standing back up. "Urgh…"
Stacia no longer had the element of surprise.
"Okay, nice block," Carter clapped. "Now can you get them outta here?!"
"I would," Genesis replied, "if I had any Pokémon."
She widened the pockets of her utility belt to show him. There was nothing in them, unlike our last encounter.
"WHAT?!" Carter freaked. "Since WHEN?!"
"I loaned them out to some Grunts for practice," she claimed.
But I could tell by the way she said it that she was lying.
"ARE YOU KIDDING?!" Carter fell for it. "OF ALL TIMES…"
"Well, how was I supposed to know?" Genesis replied.
"Ugh. I guess there's only one thing left to do…
"You eight!"
He pointed at us.
"You're gonna regret the days you were ever born…"
And he slammed a button on his recliner with his fist.
All of a sudden the room began to shake as the glass covering on the top of the throne slid up.
Here we go…
The six Terminal Balls placed there shot out of their indentations at us, and opened up in midair, revealing our opponents through the light…
"Blub blub blub," the Magikarp made a weird noise.
It bounded toward me and bumped into me, not hurting at all.
I just stood there, dumbfounded.
Magikarp.
Ledyba.
Pineco.
Caterpie.
Yungoos.
And Patrat.
THAT was Carter's team that he was supposed to destroy us with.
Ledyba flew around my head, very. Very slowly. before landing on my shoulder, banging its head against me for whatever reason.
I just stared at Carter, unamused, as I flicked it off me and it crashed into the wall, KO'd.
Everyone else just whiffed, and that was it.
"Well, THAT was anti-climactic," I said to my team.
Then all eyes were on Carter, as he just sat there, uncomfortable all of a sudden.
"We came here," Talonflame recited, "on ZEKROM, BUSTED THROUGH THE WALL, for THIS."
Stacia took a deep breath, held her hands together in front of her face, and then slowly threw them forward, letting it all out:
"BOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII."
"See?" Genesis responded, picking up on the gestures. "Even THEY think you're pathetic."
"Sh-shut up!" Carter demanded.
"I tried to tell you, if you didn't train them, this was exactly what was going to happen."
"SHUT UP! WHERE THE HECK IS P.A.I.G.E.?!"
"I'M ON MY WAY, ARCEUS DANG IT," P.A.I.G.E. screamed back at him through the communicators. "JEEZ."
She's coming, I processed.
I took a deep breath.
This is the real challenge after all.
Time to face the facts.
Just then, she skated past the party and got between us and Carter.
"Wha-" she was confused for a breif moment, but that quickly turned into anger.
"UGH!!" she moaned, her face turning red, complete with an agitated mark in the corner. "It's ALWAYS you!"
"Wait, WHAT?" Carter processed, getting furious. "You're telling me, that these Pokémon have ALL eluded you, EVERY SINGLE TIME?!"
"Who're YOU to judge?!" the robot snapped back. "You can't even fight for yourself to begin with!"
"Oooh, roasted," Genesis commentated.
"Just watch," P.A.I.G.E. turned back to us. "I already promised these ones revenge, and I'm going to hold true to that!"
"Hang on," I held my hand out. "Before we settle this, I've got a few things I want to get off my chest."
"Oh, goody, last words," P.A.I.G.E. was more annoyed than anything else now. "Whatever. Fire away."
"First, a question."
I told her about what we found in the closet we broke through.
"Wha?" was her reaction.
"He can understand you," I offered. "Ask him."
Having grabbed at P.A.I.G.E.'s curiosity, she turned to Carter. "Did you poison your brother Cody in order to rise to power?"
"What?" he asked. "Where'd you hear that?"
"This group here found your secret stash of 'old' Team Perial stuff, and some portraits and descriptions of you and your family. They're annoying, but they're not stupid."
"Fine. Since YOU asked…" he gave us the answer…
"I'm gonna tell you the same thing my lawyer said in court: You know I'm unmotivated, why would I go to the trouble? Simple. I didn't.
"But that's not saying I've got nothing to do with it, oh no. I didn't care much for my bro, but enough to want vengeance. Whoever killed him got away with it…and I want EVERY SINGLE SPOT ON THIS PLANET RESERVED UNTIL HE SHOWS HIMSELF AND I CAN GIVE HIM WHAT FOR."
"I think I understand…" I said to P.A.I.G.E. "He's got two dreams; world domination, and to avenge his brother, which he thinks he can accomplish THROUGH world domination. But he's too lazy to do either."
"Well, that's one thing we can agree on," she replied. "Is that it?"
"Actually…" I saw this as my chance, and gestured for everyone to step back. "We used to agree on a lot of other things."
The tick mark on P.A.I.G.E.'s face became a question mark. "What are you…talking about?"
"Or…at least I thought. I don't know…maybe if I had been able to understand you better…before it was too late…
maybe none of this would've ever happened."
She stood there, staring at me blankly, until it finally hit her.
"Wait…no. No! Y-you're lying! That's…i-impossible!
You're not-
Y-you're not-!!"
"One. And. The. Same." I came out with it.
"Uh-uh!" P.A.I.G.E. refused to believe it. "Tell me something only…THAT Gabriel would know!"
"A missed Water Gun, a Growl, and another missed Water Gun, in that order, is how you beat a level 21 Wishiwashi at level 3 by using Tackle over and over.
Paige."
She actually lurched back. "…a-ah…"
"Not using your name as an acronym. It's me…"
"Wait…" Carter pieced together P.A.I.G.E.'s reactions with her dialogue to get the concept. "Gabriel? That one Admin who we found dead in his office maybe a couple months ago?"
Ouch. He doesn't even remember me.
Not that that matters.
"I-I could've sworn…" Paige went with that belief.
"Not dead," I explained, pointing at Stacia. "Just had my soul misplaced."
P.A.I.G.E. was now officially paralyzed with fear.
"B-bu…bu…b-bu…" she stuttered, finally letting it sink in.
The Gallade who stood before her was both her best friend…and her worst enemy.
"GYAAUGH!!!" she finally outbursted. "OF course…the moment I saw Marshadow, I should've known. UGH…
Why won't you just die quietly?!"
That cut through my heart like a knife.
And yet I completely deserved it.
She truly…100% hates me for what I did.
I guess there's only one way to fix that…
"I thought you were gone for good," Paige affirmed, "I HOPED you were gone for good. But no! Of course not. Of course something else has to happen."
"Paige…" I tried to avoid a fight, "I can't put into words how sorry I really am…"
"Then don't," she scowled at me. "'Cause I still wouldn't believe you."
"Agh…" I gasped for air after that emotional blow. "Please, Paige, the only reason I'm here is-"
"Stop. JUST. STOP!" she demanded. "You wouldn't need to apologize if you never did…IT in the first place!"
I couldn't say anything to that.
"GrrRRR!" she began to scream. "Maybe in the NEXT life, you'll think things through before you ruin someone's life!"
I raised my fists.
"Gabriel!" Aileen rushed to my side and got into battle stance. "I'm ready. Let's-"
"No, Aileen…" I hated to have to say it to her, "you can't help me this time. Only I can help myself."
"But…"
"You have to understand…this is my fight. I have to do this by myself. Just this once."
She was silent for a time, looking into my eyes, but finally sighed and stepped back with the rest.
"Awwww, look at that," P.A.I.G.E. teased. "Your little friend wants to help…
"Hang in there, kiddo," she pointed at Aileen. "I'll make it so you never end up like me…so he never gets the chance to BETRAY YOU!"
Lowering her voice, she turned her attention back to me.
"Every painful mindbreak for trying to be nice…
"Every day I drive myself further insane…
"And every night I cry myself to sleep…"
She clenched her fists.
"RIGHT NOW…" she threatened, "IT AAAALL COMES BACK TO YOU IN FULL!
"TAAAKE THIIIS!!!"
And so began my final battle.
No mercy at all, P.A.I.G.E. wasted no time Dodging up close and punching me with all her might.
I got out of the worst of it by Dodging past and hitting her with a Psycho Cut on the way.
And getting right into a spot where she could grapple me with her tail.
Before I knew it, I was being dragged back to the spot, slammed on the ground, and further followed up by being stomped on.
I thought I was okay for a moment when I froze solid. Can't take any damage.
Boy, was I wrong.
She threw my frozen form into the air, and KNEED me with her heat pad there, thawing me out, hurting a lot, and sending me crashing into the wall, to boot.
I had to rethink my strategy.
From where I was, I could land a Shadow Sneak, but again, I didn't stay there for long. She picked me up into the air with her psychic power and slammed me down onto a random spot on the floor, using one of my Reviver Seeds to keep me in the game already.
I tried a different approach and Dodged sideways, where Paige pursued me but couldn't quite reach in one turn, but expected me to swoop in and began analyzing me closely, the cursor over her eye.
I tried to outwit it by swooping in with a Dodge and going past with a Leaf Blade, and succeeded in avoiding a legitimate counterattack, but she still punished me coming close by grabbing my arm and stunning me with her palm. She continued off of my paralysis and proceeded to thrust her elbow into my chest and deal a burn on top of significant damage.
When I could attack again, I went for everything I had with Close Combat, but it didn't stop her from kicking me into the wall.
Needing to be revived AGAIN, I knew I had to finish this before I ran out of the life-savers.
I threw the weak punch, and P.A.I.G.E. took the bait and came close. This allowed me to Jump and use Psycho Cut; lucky break, Jump bonus AND a critical hit.
The mechanized Eevee had had enough. As if she wasn't serious enough, she lunged back to the center of the battlefield and began charging…something.
Even as her creator, I had no idea what she was doing. I Dodged as close as I could in one turn, which she used to continue charging, beginning to slightly levitate now…
I took another step closer, and she rose higher into the air, about to burst with a stage-coating attack.
I had to Jump to reach her, and thankfully another Psycho Cut was the last it took to knock her down to the ground.
Having for once sustained more damage than her mechanical body could handle, P.A.I.G.E. collapsed to the ground on her stomach, short-circuiting with the leftover, unusable electricity from the charge I had interrupted.
"Wha- Bu-" she didn't understand. "How did you-?!!!"
"Let me try this again," I said, taking the flash drive out of the Pocket Dimension. "It's finally over."
As I stepped around the electrocuting robot, looking for the plugin on her back, she continued to struggle, trying to move, but couldn't without severely glitching out. "Gah! Unh…g-gah…I…won't…l-lose…to y-you…"
"You'll be easier to reason with without all that electricity frying your brain," I assured her, and knelt down, trying to find a spot I could put the USB in without getting shocked.
"Ngh…"
The robot's head turned to where I could see her face, glitching out and looking like she was in pain with a dark blue coloring.
"Y-you…really think…you can…s-save…me…?"
The way she looked into my eyes and said that…it almost felt like she was making herself start to believe it.
That I had come to rescue her…
That I was changed…
It was like she was on the verge of forgiving me.
I simply smiled and responded with, "Hang in there, Paige…just another minute or two."
She was silent for a moment.
I turned my attention back to getting the flash drive in and permanently deactivating the robot…
but was interrupted when I heard the throne explode.
P.A.I.G.E.'s sparks were getting out of control, and one of them had struck the wire of Carter's speakers, and they blew.
"AAAAGH!!!" Carter screamed, dropping and rolling to extinguish his pants, but not stopping until he was "safely" away from the burning recliner.
Note the quotation marks around "safely".
As if the fire spreading along the carpet wasn't bad enough, the overload of electricity went back through the wire the other way to strike something else vital.
The building's generator.
When THAT went BOOM, it was heard throughout the whole building, as it began to quake and begin exploding elsewhere. The emergency showers activated, adding artificial rain to the mix, but they weren't helping.
"Wah!" Sky was beginning to lose his balance.
"WHAT IS HAPPENIIIIING?!!?" Talonflame screamed.
I had actually forgotten everyone was here, I had been so absorbed in the fight.
"This whole place is gonna explode!" Lurantis realized, looking at me.
"Everybody go!" I ordered. "We'll catch up as soon as we can!"
Just then, Carter swiped Genesis' communicator and screamed into it: "ATTENTION EVERYONE!! DROP WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING RIGHT NOW, BECAUSE WE ARE EVACUATING THE BUILDING!! DON'T ASK QUESTIONS, JUST RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIIIVES!!"
And with that, he proceeded to escape.
"Let's go," Cheren said, a trace of fear in her voice. "We have to get out of here!"
No questions asked, everyone fled to safety. Except for Stacia, who took one last glance at Genesis, who she could no longer reach through the exploding, but packed it up and ran…until she saw Aileen stop, looking at me.
"Gabriel…"
"I'll be fine!" I called out to Aileen. "Just another moment or two!"
"But-"
"Stacia! This is what I made you promise me!"
She nodded, grabbed Aileen's arm, and ran the other direction.
Taking her away from me.
"I believe in youuu!!" I heard Aileen say as her figure faded out behind the flames.
Water pelting me from behind my head, I turned back to the plugin before me, still blocked by sparks, even more dangerous now that water was involved.
But then I got distracted again when I realized Genesis hadn't moved in all this.
P.A.I.G.E. saw it too, and said to her for me; "What are you still doing here?! Run!"
But Genesis didn't run. It wasn't that she had no opportunity to…she was hunched over, shaking violently, her hands scrunching up.
"What the…" I found myself looking on.
Then all of a sudden her shadow flared up.
She flung herself back the opposite direction, on her knees, and some black and purple ball of smoke shot up, piercing through where her heart should be and floating above her. Then she fell forward, unconscious, the sprinklers washing away the dye in her hair, revealing it as orange, and slowly undoing the ponytail.
"Wuh?!" Paige was freaked out, eyes on the thing that popped out of the Admin.
As it began crackling with white lightning and glowing pink in the center, I suddenly felt very, very stupid.
I spent this whole time planning on how I was going to save Paige, and I forgot about the worst possible thing;
Stacia's possessor getting involved.
It was like getting blindsided by a Wailord…
AND WHAT KIND OF IDIOT DOESN'T SEE A WAILORD COMING?!?!?!
The thing's glow got stronger and stronger, until all of a sudden:
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!"
The whole thing shot for P.A.I.G.E.'s head, the control center, and pierced into it, carrying the robot into the air and swirling around her torso with black and purple smoke as she wailed in pain.
"NO!" This can't be happening!
I looked at the flash drive in my hand, then at the plugin on her airborne back.
It was still sparking, but if I didn't do something, a lot worse was going to happen.
Safety second.
I thrust the flash drive into the USB, and quickly removed my hand.
A perfect fit.
The deactivation sequence began, covering her glitchy digital face with a green and purple spiral, as the strange force continued to suspend her in the air and wreak havoc on her systems otherwise.
After a few moments, her face glitched out a couple of times, and then completely disappeared, along with the smoke, leaving only the spiral on the screen as she fell to the fiery floor on her back, crushing the flash drive in the slot.
It was broken, but it seemed to have done its job.
Right?
I found myself unable to move for a few moments, staring on at P.A.I.G.E. as the world burned around me.
She laid there for moments without any movement whatsoever.
I was about to walk up and finally break her free when her hand slid along the burning carpet.
"Urf…"
Through the spiral on the screen, her face barely glitched back into existence…
but it was red.
A very dangerous shade of red.
"Urf…uuurrrrgh…"
Her eyes were clenched shut as she pulled herself up to her feet, short-circuiting still.
"Nnnnngh!"
Even with the pixels coming and dying on her face, I could see her squinting her eyes open…
and the burning fury within them, in the form of a pixelated fire in her otherwise empty eyes.
What is happening…?!
"Guh! HuurrrRRRGH!!!"
She bent over herself, trembling in a way similar to how Genesis was just before. An orange light shone from the robot's torso.
"NGH…GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
As I covered my face to shield my eyes from the exploding light, I saw a pink light was emanating from my own chest, and gradually getting brighter.
H…help me… I heard Paige's voice weakly in the back of my head.
Suddenly I became enveloped in a spherical pink shell and felt power surging through me. I instinctively closed my eyes as I felt myself becoming…stronger.
Strong enough to face whatever this was.
After a second or two, I opened my eyes, and shattered my shell with my newfound power.
"Haaah!"
I briefly looked over myself. Wherever I had been green before was now white, making my whole body that color. My lower arms were equipped with an extra pink blade on the sides, along with a spot of the same color in the center. I had two capes attached to my back…almost like wings.
I had Mega Evolved.

(If your starter can't Mega Evolve here, they simply get a temporary increase in stats. Ash-Greninja doesn't count, and does not transform.)

(Also, complementary final boss theme: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YzDHH… )

And as I looked up at P.A.I.G.E. now…it was like nothing I had ever seen before. It seemed to be a power-increasing form change…
but I never built her with anything of the sort.
Through the sparks and the fire that now surrounded her, I looked the berserker machine over from head to toe. Her head was now a vibrant red, her ears with an orange filling. Her upper body had a base yellow color, lined with orange streaks, and her chest spike was out, not retracting. Her torso and tail remained brown, though the tail claw was open, in its rightful spot, looking like it would shoot a thunder orb at any time. Her limbs were variations of red and black, and the heat pads burned blue. Even the Never-Melt Ice coating her feet had melted away in this fiery form, turning them black with cracks of red, almost like an igneous rock.
All the while her whole body burned a fearsome red aura of rage.
Judging by that cry for help I heard…this isn't something she can do normally.
That thing that popped out of Genesis must have amplified her anger to the point where her heart can't hold it!
Whatever's going on… I thought, I gotta stop it.
I gotta get Paige out of there and blow this joint…
before this joint blows!
"GUUUUAAAAAAAAH!!" P.A.I.G.E.'s furious new form unleashed another cry of wrath, and lunged backward, pulling a backflip before landing near the wall.
"What're y-"
There was no "in case of emergency" label, but she broke the glass and grabbed a MACE out of its display case.
"HOLY-"
The strange angry energy surrounding the robot seemed to bend the makeup of the spiky metal ball-and-chain when she had a grasp of it, and it lit the weapon on fire.
As if I didn't have enough to deal with.
Armed and dangerous, P.A.I.G.E. jumped back to the spot where she could confront me, swinging the mace down into the floor, cracking it open.
Another foot and that would've been me.
"Oh, boy, am I in for it now…" I said to myself, before the serious final battle began.
"KYAAAAAH!!" P.A.I.G.E. let out one more agonizing wail before closing in for the kill.
"Time to get serious…"
The crazed machine began her assault with a sliding swing, which I narrowly avoided, but then I realized she wasn't done as she swung again.
Words cannot describe how much that stung. Only through the benefits of my Mega Evolution was I able to even survive that with 1 HP.
Knowing I was going to be needing another Reviver Seed anyway, I went for the maximum damage output with Close Combat, stronger than ever before.
Still, the berserker robot took it well, and readied herself for another attack.
I felt I knew where she was going to end up, and quickly Dodged out of the way.
As I suspected, she began spinning with her weapon, flying across the battlefield at crazy speed and rebounding off of the walls in a straight, diagonal pattern, before finally stopping her ring of fire around herself and becoming dizzy and confused. Having foreseen the path, I had stayed put where I couldn't be hit.
Seeing my chance now, I Dodged over to where she had stopped and used Psycho Cut. She took another swing at me, but in her disorientation, it was waaay off.
I Jumped and slashed her from above with another Psycho Cut, and was unpunished again as she missed a shot from her tail that would've both hurt and paralyzed me had it been on course.
Yet another opportunity to wail on the machine, I used another Close Combat for more massive damage…
but this time P.A.I.G.E. was smarter and did a single spin around, connecting that last little bit she needed to use up my last Reviver Seed.
Having a feeling she was going to snap out of it, I Dodged back out of her path. Guessing right, she came back up to me and brought her flaming mace down from the air, smashing it into the ground and causing a small explosion to go along with the others. It was a weaker attack, but it did knock me back into the wall and burn me.
The last thing I needed right now was to have my Attack lowered.
Well out of her range this time, I searched through my Pocket Dimension for a Heal Seed or Rawst Berry…
and I remembered I had my other items that I could use.
Duh.
That would've been helpful to know before.
Finding a Rawst Berry I was looking for, I wholeheartedly ate it and turned the heat down just a little, as P.A.I.G.E. approached me from where she was.
This time to save myself, I got a Slumber Wand out of my inventory and swung it. Her anger wasn't enough to keep her awake, and P.A.I.G.E. was in Sleep Mode in a second.
I used the one Blast Seed I had, and then got two more free Close Combats. Then she woke up, prepared for her spinning attack again, but it was too late. One more Close Combat beat her to the punch.
Defeated, she lost her balance, dropping the mace and letting the existing fires consume it, and held her head with one hand and her knee with the other.
"Buh…ngh…urrrrgh…" she continued to unintelligably make noise, having had enough.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!"
With this last cry of agony, the robotic Pokémon assassin's face phased out again, this time permanently. The black and purple cloud of possession exited P.A.I.G.E., and the aura dissipated and her color scheme returned to normal, as she fell backward onto the ground.
Out of commission.
The smoke sphere began crackling with lightning and glowing pink again, and reclaimed Genesis with that.
"Bah…aHA…" Genesis said, getting up, her disguise having little left to it.
But there was something different about her voice. It sounded like…tons of voices, all saying the same thing in sync. From the back of my head, no less…
"WeLL…" she got up and said, "thAt VEsSel dIDn'T LAsT lONg…anD ThiS, tOO, is RunNiNG OUt oF UsEFulnESs…"
I didn't understand any of this. What is she saying?
"THoUgh i sUpPOSe It no LOngEr…mAtTerS," Genesis continued to ramble, taking a green jewel out of her pocket. "SuReLY I aM pOWErfUl ENoUgh By nOW…To unLEAsH tHe DArkNeSS ON thIs iGNorAnt wOrlD oNCe MoRe."
An evil grin crossed her face, and she jumped, holding the gem out with a single spin, before disappearing in a burst of light.
"MwAHa…MwahAHaHAHAhAHa!"
I just stood there, confused. What the…
But then the explosions and quaking began to become more frequent and powerful, and I snapped out of it.
"Aah!" I remembered, looking down on the broken P.A.I.G.E.
I lined myself up with the black screen that was her face, drawing my fist back, ready to do it this time.
"Grah!"
I punched it with all my might.
It didn't bend.
"Guh!"
I punched it again.
I got a small dent.
"Come on…"
I punched the spot, seeing it was weakening.
The dent increased, and I got more cracks.
Man, I built this tough…
"One more! HaaaAAAAH!"
This time it gave, shattering the screen…
and finally revealing the Eevee within, unconscious, the control helmet over her face.
As I snapped that off, I noticed what else was in here; some berry remains and a small hole broken into the floor.
She had to dig that to keep herself alive, I realized, peeking into the hole and seeing it went into the Terminal Ball storages. Picking berries and piping them up through here was the only way she could get food and water…
further proof that I gave no care to her when designing P.A.I.G.E.…
I broke the bar restraining her and freed her at last, holding Paige close to me.
"It's okay…" I whispered to the sleeping Eevee, drowning out the carnage around me for just a brief moment. "You're okay now. Everything's going to be alright."
I made myself believe that as I looked back out through the flaming, raining hallway.
Our only way to escape.
"Here we go!" I shouted, and ran for my life…and Paige's.
Mainly Paige's.
I dashed down the stairs and through the fire as fast as I could, the floors exploding around me. The cold water from the sprinklers helped to keep me going through the heat, charging past what remained of desks, laptops, papers, and Terminal Balls.
By the time I was three stories down, it was getting so bad that rubble was starting to rain down from the higher floors as well.
The destruction only accelerated with me, as I kept charging on.
But at a much faster rate.
I was only five floors down when I nearly tripped over the shaking floor.
I kept moving anyway…
but I knew we weren't going to make it.
There wasn't an exit in sight, and things were reaching their breaking points.
I could barely stand in the violent quaking, and everything was exploding around me.
Still I kept running, for whatever reason.
This is it… I knew.
This is how it ends…
Any last words?
Having one last thing to say, I held Paige tightly to me, clenching my eyes shut as I ran on, drowning out the terror and just feeling her deep, slow breaths against my chest.
And then I screamed into her ear, even though I knew she couldn't hear me:
"I'M SORRY-Y-Y-YYYYYYYyyyyy…"
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

"…urgh…"
Aileen slowly regained her consciousness and pulled herself up off the ground, still dazed, but sturdy enough to look around and see everyone else beginning to recover from the blast as well.
"Unh…" Lurantis sat up and held her head, shaking it to return to her senses.
"Gyyyauugh…" Stacia opened her eyes and forced herself to her feet.
"Oof…" Talonflame got up with a moan.
The pattern continued like this until Sky finally asked what everyone was thinking:
"What…happened?"
Aileen tried to remember. All seven of them had been waiting from afar for Gabriel to come out until…
She gasped and turned to see what everyone else was looking at from atop the hill;
the charred remains of the Team Perial Base.
The mighty explosion had attracted the attention of human and Pokémon firefighters alike, and they had since doused most of the flames while the group was unconscious, though there were still a few isolated fires here or there. But other than that, all there was was black. Not even the multi-material coated target was visible anymore underneath the explosion's black stain.
"Oh my…" Cheren was the first one who had any words to the destruction they beheld, lighting the dead of the night with the remaining flames.
But Aileen had a feeling.
A terrifying, sinking feeling that she couldn't make herself describe.
She just ran toward the wreckage without a second thought, and was soon followed by Stacia, then everyone else.
The Primarina dug through the rubble, throwing to the sides what were once bricks, changes of clothes, and personal belongings, but were now the same indistinguishable dark chunks of whatever.
Everyone knew what she was doing.
And as Sky read the auras of the surrounding area, he knew where it was.
"Hang on," he caught Aileen's attention, and she saw him open his eyes, shining yellow for a second. Then he pointed over to another section of the pile further up. "Over there…"
The group dashed over to where the explorer was suggesting, and Cheren and Sky combined their Psychic and Aura Sphere to quickly clear out the worst of the rubble.
Everyone pitched in to dig just a little deeper, and then they unearthed what they were looking for.
Everyone flinched.
Sky, Lurantis, and Aileen all gasped on top of that.
"Oh no…" Stacia found herself saying.
"A-agh…" Lurantis muttered.
"No!" Aileen cried out.
Gabriel's body was charred, also struck with the black curse of the flames, his Mega Evolution having worn off unable to protect him anyway, and laid there, lifeless.
Stacia hurried up and felt for a pulse…or even spiritual energy.
"Nothin'…" she regretfully announced. "He's gone…"
"Nev'r made it 'ut…" Dhelmise deduced. "If th' lad lived lung enuff t' see th' place go boom, dat's 's fer 's it went…"
"Buh…b-buh…" Aileen stuttered, at a loss of words, looking on at her friend's dead body.
But then she noticed something about him there.
"Huh?" her curiosity temporarily prevented tears as she lifted up Gabriel's arm…
and discovered a Pokémon there.
An Eevee.
Also having been subject to the explosion, but her burns didn't appear as bad.
"That's…" Stacia knew her from anywhere, "th-that's Paige!"
She quickly felt her for signs of life.
"Holy…" the Marshadow didn't believe it. "He actually frickin' did it…"
"Did what?" Talonflame was lost.
"He saved her! I've got a p-"
But then Stacia stopped mid-sentence as she felt the last of Paige's life force fade away.
"Oh…spoke too soon…"
Aileen coughed over herself. "Wha, wha?"
"He was so close, too…" Lurantis figured out, her heart hurting at this insult to injury. "Augh…"
Cheren and Sky gave each other glances, reflecting upon their own pasts, but couldn't bring themselves to say anything.
"I'm not entirely sure what's going on…" Talonflame finally said, "but guys, there's no other word to describe this than 'heroic'. I mean, look, the dude sacrificed himself trying to save and shield this little kid here! I mean, it's a shame she didn't make it in the end, but…that little bit of life we saw? She lasted that whole time we were out before…y'know."
"He's right," Cheren agreed. "That was an impressive survival time either way, when you think about it. Gabriel…he's a hero. And I think we all owe it to him to never forget that."
Everyone nodded in agreement. "Ah'm in t' that," Dhelmise said aloud.
Still, Aileen stared on at Gabriel's and Paige's charred corpses.
"Aileen…" Lurantis said solemnly, coming over to the Soloist Pokémon's side.
"I don't get it…" Aileen's voice wavered, finally tearing up. "I get this feeling…he knew this would happen…and yet, he wouldn't say anything?"
Lurantis sighed, fighting not to cry herself. "Aileen…maybe you're too young to understand now, but…maybe it was for the best."
"For the best?" she replied. "He's the only reason I made it this far…and now he has to go and leave us all forever?!"
"Kid…" Dhelmise started to say.
But Aileen was beyond comforting at this point, barely able to speak between gasps for air and sniffling.
"I…I-I…Gabriel…
"BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
She cracked and clung to Lurantis, crying her eyes out like the little kid that she really was deep down.
Not knowing what to say or do in this situation, Lurantis just hugged Aileen back…and cried into her shoulder, too.
Stacia looked up at the starry night sky, beginning to show signs of color as the sun began to rise over the horizon.
"Gabriel…" she said more to herself than anything, "you tried so hard. You really did…
and I guess this is the way to go out, if any.
I'd say you've redeemed yourself in full with this…
and now this marks the death of both the hero…and the villain.
Unless…"
She shook her head.
"This is how it has to be…" she made herself believe.
"And there's still so much of a mess left behind…
"I'll take care of that for you. To protect those you've…no. We've both, come to cherish in the last month or so."
Stacia glanced behind her at the team…at her friends, emotionally struck.
Her fighting spirit burned green as her resolve hardened.
"So you can really…rest in peace."

(Credits:
Writer/Author: me (StaciaMarshadow/MegaGallade475)
Illustrations: me (StaciaMarshadow/MegaGallade475)
Special Thanks:
Ava (LunarTheUmbreon1)
Vincent (VX9/vincentfas)
Thomas (ThomasTheRiolu)
Thomas Sager
Fatima Mirza (Red the Mudkip)
TNHGameRemixes
Nintendo
Game Freak
Creatures Inc.
The Pokémon Company
ChunSoft
And everyone else behind the official Pokémon and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon franchises)

(The End…? The Epilogue begins…)

Description
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Investigators of Soul/Heart/Spirit

a fanmade story

"Urm…ah'm nat too sure ab'ut this n'more…" Dhelmise said from inside Zekrom's grasp.
"Welp, too late for that now," Lurantis replied from atop his wing. "We're already here."
"Basically," I agreed. Aileen and I were sturdy on Zekrom's arms, Lurantis and Stacia holding onto his wings, and he was holding onto Dhelmise and Sky. Cheren and Talonflame were going to follow through his wind draft.
"Well, this is quite a setup," the president of the PHEW admitted, with Pokémon all over him. "But anyway…"
He spread his wings and crouched, his tail generator glowing and crackling with electricity.
"…it's time to end this."
"To the Team Perial Base!" I pumped my fist out.
Zekrom jumped into the air, and with a mighty roar, covered us all in lightning and lurched forward at insane speed.
"AaaaAAAAAaaaahh!!" Aileen clung to Zekrom for dear life. "This is CRAZY!"
"YeeeEEAAAAAH!!" Zekrom had a different outlook.
Holding on tight myself, I looked behind us to make sure the other two airborne Pokémon were close behind us, and through the blue sparks I could see them.
Turning back forward, I tried to see where we were heading…
and there it was, coming up fast.
The fluorescent metal target on the ground.
Going straight for a bulls-eye.
"That's it!" Stacia recognized the base.
"Dang right, it is!" Zekrom announced. "We are nearing our destination. On the count of three, be ready to jump!"
"Wait," I heard that, "WHAT?"
The base was getting bigger by the second.
"One!"
I could make out the emblem on the gate.
"Two!"
We were just yards away from the wall.
"THREE!"
He threw Sky and Dhelmise into the air before smashing into the wall with Fusion Bolt at full force, bursting it the heck open. The rest of us jumped to avoid feeling the impact of the crash.
Cheren assisted by changing the courses of some flying debris to make sure we all landed on the available floor safely.
"Unh!" I shouted upon touchdown with both feet and a hand.
Aileen landed beside me, as did the rest of us, and I barely heard Dhelmise's "HABADABOOSKIIIII!!" over the sirens that were now blaring.
Along with the obvious "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" came a "WARNING. WARNING. SECTOR: G. HAS BEEN BREACHED. IN NEED OF IMMEDIATE REPAIR. REPEAT: SECTOR: G. HAS BEEN BREACHED. IN NEED OF IMMEDIATE REPAIR."
I stood up, and counted eight. "Everyone okay?"
Nods all around.
"Okay," I sighed in relief.
"It's all you now," Zekrom said, and flew off.
I turned away from the night sky and took in where we had landed. It seemed to be some secret stash of old memorabilia and merchandise…yet everywhere I looked was the Team Perial emblem.
Even through my time working here, I remembered, I flipped this place upside down…but I've never seen any of this…
Stacia ran up and tried the door while some of us pilfered through all this…STUFF.
"Locked," she affirmed.
Lurantis sighed and readied Solar Blade. "So much for finesse."
"Uh, Lurantis," Talonflame said. "We came in on freaking ZEKROM, and BUSTED THROUGH THE WALL. Finesse was never part of the equation."
"Well, I tried," she shrugged in response.
"Hold on. Before you break down the door…"
Everyone turned to Sky as he held up a large, fancy portrait of what appeared to be an old woman. "Look at this."
I looked at Aileen and went over to see. Rather than the human's frail, tired eyes and fancy hairdo, what caught my eye was the text box chained to the bottom.
"What is this…some kind of description of this person's feats?"
I read it aloud:
"Brooke Uvloz
Time in office: 1989-1997
Founded Team Perial as a scientific research group, dreaming of putting different peoples and Pokémon in the same general areas together to see how all life interacted with each other. This curiosity going global resulted in an explosion the group's numbers, funding, and reputation. Died of old age, leaving Team Perial in the hands of her son Cody."
As I finished reading that, I noticed another, similar picture near my feet, and set Brooke down to read about Cody, who resembled Carter, though with a more collected, less intimidating feel to him.
"Cody Uvloz
Time in office: 1997-2013
Took over Team Perial after his mother passed away. Kept her spirit alive in the organization, though he began using more direct methods of bringing in subjects."
I stopped to form a thought, but couldn't figure out what I was thinking, and kept reading.
"Still, the public respected Team Perial as a whole, and Cody was head of the organization during some of their most crucial breakthroughs. Died suddenly of drink poisoning. The culprit remains unknown for certain, though many suspect it was his brother Carter out of jealousy and ambition."
This suddenly clarified my thought…but now I need to make sure.
Is it…possible?
I threw that aside and dug through all the stuff until I found what I was looking for: Carter's portrait of this style, complete with his oh-so-full-of-himself smile.
"Carter Uvloz"
Where there was "Time in office" was scribbled out and had "REIGN" written over it. "2013-present
Took over Team Perial after his brother Cody passed away. Held onto all Pokémon currently part of the organization and refused to return them to their rightful owners. Lost the public appeal after announcing that the old Team Perial 'was no more' and was 'rising anew' as 'your new world leaders'. Has done nothing more than gathered Pokémon ever since, through fair means or foul."
I looked up at everyone. "This…this is lore."
"My guess," Talonflame tried, "is that Carter killed Cody for all the Pokémon in the current Team Perial, thinking it would only be a little more until he had every single one out there and could conquer the world…looks like he lost his mother's purpose.
"I mean, BOY, was he wrong, but…what the heck? Kill your own brother for yourself?! Who does that?"
"…I don't think it's that simple. That doesn't make sense," Cheren thought aloud.
"What do you mean?" Aileen asked.
"Remember when we met Carter?" she said. "He just sat there eating popcorn, and said he was 'too good' to fight us. Would he do it? Maybe. But would he have the motivation to? Doesn't seem like it. And just look at this around us…he backs up his claim of 'the old Team Perial is no more' by stuffing it all in a closet and locking the door? That says something right there."
"Good point," I agreed. "If anything, he's the king of doing things halfway. Why would he go to the trouble of poisoning a drink with such care that he never got confirmed guilty?"
An awkward silence.
Then I remembered the sirens blaring.
"Well, there's no point in wondering about it right now," I said. "We're already here, time to do what we came to do."
Everyone nodded, a few "Right"s, and Lurantis blew down the door with Solar Blade.
"Let's-a guh!" Dhelmise insisted.
And we all charged out into the fray.
(Team Perial Base
5F-10F
Team Perial Grunts; same as before, but Pokémon are stronger.
Gabriel: 42 [no change]
Aileen: 42 [no change]
Stacia: 52 [no change]
Lurantis: 66
Dhelmise: 71
Talonflame: 52
Cheren: 62
Sky: 60)
Fighting through the Grunts on guard duty to avoid being captured, we made our way up the building. After a few floors, I found what I was looking for.
My old office.
P.A.I.G.E. wasn't charging on the outlet just outside, which was both good and bad.
But mostly good.
"Alright, everyone, in here! Quick!" I opened the door and the eight of us went inside.
"Someone barricade the door," Stacia insisted.
"Dun." Dhelmise plopped himself down and leaned against the wall.
"Pfft," Talonflame kept himself from laughing. "Taking 'deadweight' to a whole new level."
"Shut yer beak."
"What are we doing in here?" Sky asked.
I took the flash drive out of the Pocket Dimension and plugged it into the computer, and told him "Gotta load this up," as I pressed the power button.
It asked for my password, and I typed it in.
"This is a lot harder without opposable thumbs…" I noted.
But it got me in. I clicked into the Recycle Bin, took a few moments to make some modifications to paige_act_seq.EXE, renamed it paige_dea_seq.EXE, and copied it to the USB.
"There we go," I let everyone know I was done as I signed out and put the loaded flash drive back into the Ring Portal.
"Not a moment too soon…" Aileen said, and I noticed that something was pounding on the other side of the door, giving Dhelmise some competition even while Sky and Lurantis were supporting him.
"Oh, boy," I remarked. "You guys can let go now."
They did, and the Grunt's Machamp burst in only for Stacia to meet it with a Drain Punch to the back of the head, KO'ing it probably by removal of whatever mental power was left.
The Grunt panicked, returned Machamp, and then just stared at Stacia for a moment with his jaw hung open.
Stacia covered her face with her hands, then let them fly and faked a jump at him. "BOO!"
He ran for his life.
"Let's get moving before anyone else shows up," she insisted.
On the road again, we made a dash for the throne room to settle this once and for all.
(Team Perial Base
11F-15F
Same as before
Gabriel: 43 [+1]
Aileen: 42 [no change]
Stacia: 52 [no change]
Lurantis: 67
Dhelmise: 71
Talonflame: 52
Cheren: 62
Sky: 60)
After only a little more headway, we were finally here again.
The throne room.
"I ALREADY SAID!" Carter was shouting into the mic. "STOP THEM BEFORE THEY GET-"
"Uh, sir?!" Genesis got his attention and pointed to the eight of us.
"Wait a minute, Genesis," he responded, "can't you see I'm busy scolding Gr- AAAH!!"
Knowing words meant nothing now, my party got into battle stance to show we meant business.
"What are they DOING HEEEEEERE," he said to his assistant.
"Why are you asking me?!" Stacia's possessed body turned to him, just as panicky and confused.
The Marshadow saw her chance. Her body began to glow green as she ran up and jumped at the Team Perial Admin.
"HaaaaAAAAAAAAH!!"
But Genesis saw it coming, and kicked Stacia out of the air back at us.
"D'oh!!" the Gloomdweller Pokémon moaned before hitting the floor and standing back up. "Urgh…"
Stacia no longer had the element of surprise.
"Okay, nice block," Carter clapped. "Now can you get them outta here?!"
"I would," Genesis replied, "if I had any Pokémon."
She widened the pockets of her utility belt to show him. There was nothing in them, unlike our last encounter.
"WHAT?!" Carter freaked. "Since WHEN?!"
"I loaned them out to some Grunts for practice," she claimed.
But I could tell by the way she said it that she was lying.
"ARE YOU KIDDING?!" Carter fell for it. "OF ALL TIMES…"
"Well, how was I supposed to know?" Genesis replied.
"Ugh. I guess there's only one thing left to do…
"You eight!"
He pointed at us.
"You're gonna regret the days you were ever born…"
And he slammed a button on his recliner with his fist.
All of a sudden the room began to shake as the glass covering on the top of the throne slid up.
Here we go…
The six Terminal Balls placed there shot out of their indentations at us, and opened up in midair, revealing our opponents through the light…
"Blub blub blub," the Magikarp made a weird noise.
It bounded toward me and bumped into me, not hurting at all.
I just stood there, dumbfounded.
Magikarp.
Ledyba.
Pineco.
Caterpie.
Yungoos.
And Patrat.
THAT was Carter's team that he was supposed to destroy us with.
Ledyba flew around my head, very. Very slowly. before landing on my shoulder, banging its head against me for whatever reason.
I just stared at Carter, unamused, as I flicked it off me and it crashed into the wall, KO'd.
Everyone else just whiffed, and that was it.
"Well, THAT was anti-climactic," I said to my team.
Then all eyes were on Carter, as he just sat there, uncomfortable all of a sudden.
"We came here," Talonflame recited, "on ZEKROM, BUSTED THROUGH THE WALL, for THIS."
Stacia took a deep breath, held her hands together in front of her face, and then slowly threw them forward, letting it all out:
"BOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII."
"See?" Genesis responded, picking up on the gestures. "Even THEY think you're pathetic."
"Sh-shut up!" Carter demanded.
"I tried to tell you, if you didn't train them, this was exactly what was going to happen."
"SHUT UP! WHERE THE HECK IS P.A.I.G.E.?!"
"I'M ON MY WAY, ARCEUS DANG IT," P.A.I.G.E. screamed back at him through the communicators. "JEEZ."
She's coming, I processed.
I took a deep breath.
This is the real challenge after all.
Time to face the facts.
Just then, she skated past the party and got between us and Carter.
"Wha-" she was confused for a breif moment, but that quickly turned into anger.
"UGH!!" she moaned, her face turning red, complete with an agitated mark in the corner. "It's ALWAYS you!"
"Wait, WHAT?" Carter processed, getting furious. "You're telling me, that these Pokémon have ALL eluded you, EVERY SINGLE TIME?!"
"Who're YOU to judge?!" the robot snapped back. "You can't even fight for yourself to begin with!"
"Oooh, roasted," Genesis commentated.
"Just watch," P.A.I.G.E. turned back to us. "I already promised these ones revenge, and I'm going to hold true to that!"
"Hang on," I held my hand out. "Before we settle this, I've got a few things I want to get off my chest."
"Oh, goody, last words," P.A.I.G.E. was more annoyed than anything else now. "Whatever. Fire away."
"First, a question."
I told her about what we found in the closet we broke through.
"Wha?" was her reaction.
"He can understand you," I offered. "Ask him."
Having grabbed at P.A.I.G.E.'s curiosity, she turned to Carter. "Did you poison your brother Cody in order to rise to power?"
"What?" he asked. "Where'd you hear that?"
"This group here found your secret stash of 'old' Team Perial stuff, and some portraits and descriptions of you and your family. They're annoying, but they're not stupid."
"Fine. Since YOU asked…" he gave us the answer…
"I'm gonna tell you the same thing my lawyer said in court: You know I'm unmotivated, why would I go to the trouble? Simple. I didn't.
"But that's not saying I've got nothing to do with it, oh no. I didn't care much for my bro, but enough to want vengeance. Whoever killed him got away with it…and I want EVERY SINGLE SPOT ON THIS PLANET RESERVED UNTIL HE SHOWS HIMSELF AND I CAN GIVE HIM WHAT FOR."
"I think I understand…" I said to P.A.I.G.E. "He's got two dreams; world domination, and to avenge his brother, which he thinks he can accomplish THROUGH world domination. But he's too lazy to do either."
"Well, that's one thing we can agree on," she replied. "Is that it?"
"Actually…" I saw this as my chance, and gestured for everyone to step back. "We used to agree on a lot of other things."
The tick mark on P.A.I.G.E.'s face became a question mark. "What are you…talking about?"
"Or…at least I thought. I don't know…maybe if I had been able to understand you better…before it was too late…
maybe none of this would've ever happened."
She stood there, staring at me blankly, until it finally hit her.
"Wait…no. No! Y-you're lying! That's…i-impossible!
You're not-
Y-you're not-!!"
"One. And. The. Same." I came out with it.
"Uh-uh!" P.A.I.G.E. refused to believe it. "Tell me something only…THAT Gabriel would know!"
"A missed Water Gun, a Growl, and another missed Water Gun, in that order, is how you beat a level 21 Wishiwashi at level 3 by using Tackle over and over.
Paige."
She actually lurched back. "…a-ah…"
"Not using your name as an acronym. It's me…"
"Wait…" Carter pieced together P.A.I.G.E.'s reactions with her dialogue to get the concept. "Gabriel? That one Admin who we found dead in his office maybe a couple months ago?"
Ouch. He doesn't even remember me.
Not that that matters.
"I-I could've sworn…" Paige went with that belief.
"Not dead," I explained, pointing at Stacia. "Just had my soul misplaced."
P.A.I.G.E. was now officially paralyzed with fear.
"B-bu…bu…b-bu…" she stuttered, finally letting it sink in.
The Gallade who stood before her was both her best friend…and her worst enemy.
"GYAAUGH!!!" she finally outbursted. "OF course…the moment I saw Marshadow, I should've known. UGH…
Why won't you just die quietly?!"
That cut through my heart like a knife.
And yet I completely deserved it.
She truly…100% hates me for what I did.
I guess there's only one way to fix that…
"I thought you were gone for good," Paige affirmed, "I HOPED you were gone for good. But no! Of course not. Of course something else has to happen."
"Paige…" I tried to avoid a fight, "I can't put into words how sorry I really am…"
"Then don't," she scowled at me. "'Cause I still wouldn't believe you."
"Agh…" I gasped for air after that emotional blow. "Please, Paige, the only reason I'm here is-"
"Stop. JUST. STOP!" she demanded. "You wouldn't need to apologize if you never did…IT in the first place!"
I couldn't say anything to that.
"GrrRRR!" she began to scream. "Maybe in the NEXT life, you'll think things through before you ruin someone's life!"
I raised my fists.
"Gabriel!" Aileen rushed to my side and got into battle stance. "I'm ready. Let's-"
"No, Aileen…" I hated to have to say it to her, "you can't help me this time. Only I can help myself."
"But…"
"You have to understand…this is my fight. I have to do this by myself. Just this once."
She was silent for a time, looking into my eyes, but finally sighed and stepped back with the rest.
"Awwww, look at that," P.A.I.G.E. teased. "Your little friend wants to help…
"Hang in there, kiddo," she pointed at Aileen. "I'll make it so you never end up like me…so he never gets the chance to BETRAY YOU!"
Lowering her voice, she turned her attention back to me.
"Every painful mindbreak for trying to be nice…
"Every day I drive myself further insane…
"And every night I cry myself to sleep…"
She clenched her fists.
"RIGHT NOW…" she threatened, "IT AAAALL COMES BACK TO YOU IN FULL!
"TAAAKE THIIIS!!!"
And so began my final battle.
No mercy at all, P.A.I.G.E. wasted no time Dodging up close and punching me with all her might.
I got out of the worst of it by Dodging past and hitting her with a Psycho Cut on the way.
And getting right into a spot where she could grapple me with her tail.
Before I knew it, I was being dragged back to the spot, slammed on the ground, and further followed up by being stomped on.
I thought I was okay for a moment when I froze solid. Can't take any damage.
Boy, was I wrong.
She threw my frozen form into the air, and KNEED me with her heat pad there, thawing me out, hurting a lot, and sending me crashing into the wall, to boot.
I had to rethink my strategy.
From where I was, I could land a Shadow Sneak, but again, I didn't stay there for long. She picked me up into the air with her psychic power and slammed me down onto a random spot on the floor, using one of my Reviver Seeds to keep me in the game already.
I tried a different approach and Dodged sideways, where Paige pursued me but couldn't quite reach in one turn, but expected me to swoop in and began analyzing me closely, the cursor over her eye.
I tried to outwit it by swooping in with a Dodge and going past with a Leaf Blade, and succeeded in avoiding a legitimate counterattack, but she still punished me coming close by grabbing my arm and stunning me with her palm. She continued off of my paralysis and proceeded to thrust her elbow into my chest and deal a burn on top of significant damage.
When I could attack again, I went for everything I had with Close Combat, but it didn't stop her from kicking me into the wall.
Needing to be revived AGAIN, I knew I had to finish this before I ran out of the life-savers.
I threw the weak punch, and P.A.I.G.E. took the bait and came close. This allowed me to Jump and use Psycho Cut; lucky break, Jump bonus AND a critical hit.
The mechanized Eevee had had enough. As if she wasn't serious enough, she lunged back to the center of the battlefield and began charging…something.
Even as her creator, I had no idea what she was doing. I Dodged as close as I could in one turn, which she used to continue charging, beginning to slightly levitate now…
I took another step closer, and she rose higher into the air, about to burst with a stage-coating attack.
I had to Jump to reach her, and thankfully another Psycho Cut was the last it took to knock her down to the ground.
Having for once sustained more damage than her mechanical body could handle, P.A.I.G.E. collapsed to the ground on her stomach, short-circuiting with the leftover, unusable electricity from the charge I had interrupted.
"Wha- Bu-" she didn't understand. "How did you-?!!!"
"Let me try this again," I said, taking the flash drive out of the Pocket Dimension. "It's finally over."
As I stepped around the electrocuting robot, looking for the plugin on her back, she continued to struggle, trying to move, but couldn't without severely glitching out. "Gah! Unh…g-gah…I…won't…l-lose…to y-you…"
"You'll be easier to reason with without all that electricity frying your brain," I assured her, and knelt down, trying to find a spot I could put the USB in without getting shocked.
"Ngh…"
The robot's head turned to where I could see her face, glitching out and looking like she was in pain with a dark blue coloring.
"Y-you…really think…you can…s-save…me…?"
The way she looked into my eyes and said that…it almost felt like she was making herself start to believe it.
That I had come to rescue her…
That I was changed…
It was like she was on the verge of forgiving me.
I simply smiled and responded with, "Hang in there, Paige…just another minute or two."
She was silent for a moment.
I turned my attention back to getting the flash drive in and permanently deactivating the robot…
but was interrupted when I heard the throne explode.
P.A.I.G.E.'s sparks were getting out of control, and one of them had struck the wire of Carter's speakers, and they blew.
"AAAAGH!!!" Carter screamed, dropping and rolling to extinguish his pants, but not stopping until he was "safely" away from the burning recliner.
Note the quotation marks around "safely".
As if the fire spreading along the carpet wasn't bad enough, the overload of electricity went back through the wire the other way to strike something else vital.
The building's generator.
When THAT went BOOM, it was heard throughout the whole building, as it began to quake and begin exploding elsewhere. The emergency showers activated, adding artificial rain to the mix, but they weren't helping.
"Wah!" Sky was beginning to lose his balance.
"WHAT IS HAPPENIIIIING?!!?" Talonflame screamed.
I had actually forgotten everyone was here, I had been so absorbed in the fight.
"This whole place is gonna explode!" Lurantis realized, looking at me.
"Everybody go!" I ordered. "We'll catch up as soon as we can!"
Just then, Carter swiped Genesis' communicator and screamed into it: "ATTENTION EVERYONE!! DROP WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING RIGHT NOW, BECAUSE WE ARE EVACUATING THE BUILDING!! DON'T ASK QUESTIONS, JUST RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIIIVES!!"
And with that, he proceeded to escape.
"Let's go," Cheren said, a trace of fear in her voice. "We have to get out of here!"
No questions asked, everyone fled to safety. Except for Stacia, who took one last glance at Genesis, who she could no longer reach through the exploding, but packed it up and ran…until she saw Aileen stop, looking at me.
"Gabriel…"
"I'll be fine!" I called out to Aileen. "Just another moment or two!"
"But-"
"Stacia! This is what I made you promise me!"
She nodded, grabbed Aileen's arm, and ran the other direction.
Taking her away from me.
"I believe in youuu!!" I heard Aileen say as her figure faded out behind the flames.
Water pelting me from behind my head, I turned back to the plugin before me, still blocked by sparks, even more dangerous now that water was involved.
But then I got distracted again when I realized Genesis hadn't moved in all this.
P.A.I.G.E. saw it too, and said to her for me; "What are you still doing here?! Run!"
But Genesis didn't run. It wasn't that she had no opportunity to…she was hunched over, shaking violently, her hands scrunching up.
"What the…" I found myself looking on.
Then all of a sudden her shadow flared up.
She flung herself back the opposite direction, on her knees, and some black and purple ball of smoke shot up, piercing through where her heart should be and floating above her. Then she fell forward, unconscious, the sprinklers washing away the dye in her hair, revealing it as orange, and slowly undoing the ponytail.
"Wuh?!" Paige was freaked out, eyes on the thing that popped out of the Admin.
As it began crackling with white lightning and glowing pink in the center, I suddenly felt very, very stupid.
I spent this whole time planning on how I was going to save Paige, and I forgot about the worst possible thing;
Stacia's possessor getting involved.
It was like getting blindsided by a Wailord…
AND WHAT KIND OF IDIOT DOESN'T SEE A WAILORD COMING?!?!?!
The thing's glow got stronger and stronger, until all of a sudden:
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!"
The whole thing shot for P.A.I.G.E.'s head, the control center, and pierced into it, carrying the robot into the air and swirling around her torso with black and purple smoke as she wailed in pain.
"NO!" This can't be happening!
I looked at the flash drive in my hand, then at the plugin on her airborne back.
It was still sparking, but if I didn't do something, a lot worse was going to happen.
Safety second.
I thrust the flash drive into the USB, and quickly removed my hand.
A perfect fit.
The deactivation sequence began, covering her glitchy digital face with a green and purple spiral, as the strange force continued to suspend her in the air and wreak havoc on her systems otherwise.
After a few moments, her face glitched out a couple of times, and then completely disappeared, along with the smoke, leaving only the spiral on the screen as she fell to the fiery floor on her back, crushing the flash drive in the slot.
It was broken, but it seemed to have done its job.
Right?
I found myself unable to move for a few moments, staring on at P.A.I.G.E. as the world burned around me.
She laid there for moments without any movement whatsoever.
I was about to walk up and finally break her free when her hand slid along the burning carpet.
"Urf…"
Through the spiral on the screen, her face barely glitched back into existence…
but it was red.
A very dangerous shade of red.
"Urf…uuurrrrgh…"
Her eyes were clenched shut as she pulled herself up to her feet, short-circuiting still.
"Nnnnngh!"
Even with the pixels coming and dying on her face, I could see her squinting her eyes open…
and the burning fury within them, in the form of a pixelated fire in her otherwise empty eyes.
What is happening…?!
"Guh! HuurrrRRRGH!!!"
She bent over herself, trembling in a way similar to how Genesis was just before. An orange light shone from the robot's torso.
"NGH…GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
As I covered my face to shield my eyes from the exploding light, I saw a pink light was emanating from my own chest, and gradually getting brighter.
H…help me… I heard Paige's voice weakly in the back of my head.
Suddenly I became enveloped in a spherical pink shell and felt power surging through me. I instinctively closed my eyes as I felt myself becoming…stronger.
Strong enough to face whatever this was.
After a second or two, I opened my eyes, and shattered my shell with my newfound power.
"Haaah!"
I briefly looked over myself. Wherever I had been green before was now white, making my whole body that color. My lower arms were equipped with an extra pink blade on the sides, along with a spot of the same color in the center. I had two capes attached to my back…almost like wings.
I had Mega Evolved.

(If your starter can't Mega Evolve here, they simply get a temporary increase in stats. Ash-Greninja doesn't count, and does not transform.)

(Also, complementary final boss theme: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YzDHH… )

And as I looked up at P.A.I.G.E. now…it was like nothing I had ever seen before. It seemed to be a power-increasing form change…
but I never built her with anything of the sort.
Through the sparks and the fire that now surrounded her, I looked the berserker machine over from head to toe. Her head was now a vibrant red, her ears with an orange filling. Her upper body had a base yellow color, lined with orange streaks, and her chest spike was out, not retracting. Her torso and tail remained brown, though the tail claw was open, in its rightful spot, looking like it would shoot a thunder orb at any time. Her limbs were variations of red and black, and the heat pads burned blue. Even the Never-Melt Ice coating her feet had melted away in this fiery form, turning them black with cracks of red, almost like an igneous rock.
All the while her whole body burned a fearsome red aura of rage.
Judging by that cry for help I heard…this isn't something she can do normally.
That thing that popped out of Genesis must have amplified her anger to the point where her heart can't hold it!
Whatever's going on… I thought, I gotta stop it.
I gotta get Paige out of there and blow this joint…
before this joint blows!
"GUUUUAAAAAAAAH!!" P.A.I.G.E.'s furious new form unleashed another cry of wrath, and lunged backward, pulling a backflip before landing near the wall.
"What're y-"
There was no "in case of emergency" label, but she broke the glass and grabbed a MACE out of its display case.
"HOLY-"
The strange angry energy surrounding the robot seemed to bend the makeup of the spiky metal ball-and-chain when she had a grasp of it, and it lit the weapon on fire.
As if I didn't have enough to deal with.
Armed and dangerous, P.A.I.G.E. jumped back to the spot where she could confront me, swinging the mace down into the floor, cracking it open.
Another foot and that would've been me.
"Oh, boy, am I in for it now…" I said to myself, before the serious final battle began.
"KYAAAAAH!!" P.A.I.G.E. let out one more agonizing wail before closing in for the kill.
"Time to get serious…"
The crazed machine began her assault with a sliding swing, which I narrowly avoided, but then I realized she wasn't done as she swung again.
Words cannot describe how much that stung. Only through the benefits of my Mega Evolution was I able to even survive that with 1 HP.
Knowing I was going to be needing another Reviver Seed anyway, I went for the maximum damage output with Close Combat, stronger than ever before.
Still, the berserker robot took it well, and readied herself for another attack.
I felt I knew where she was going to end up, and quickly Dodged out of the way.
As I suspected, she began spinning with her weapon, flying across the battlefield at crazy speed and rebounding off of the walls in a straight, diagonal pattern, before finally stopping her ring of fire around herself and becoming dizzy and confused. Having foreseen the path, I had stayed put where I couldn't be hit.
Seeing my chance now, I Dodged over to where she had stopped and used Psycho Cut. She took another swing at me, but in her disorientation, it was waaay off.
I Jumped and slashed her from above with another Psycho Cut, and was unpunished again as she missed a shot from her tail that would've both hurt and paralyzed me had it been on course.
Yet another opportunity to wail on the machine, I used another Close Combat for more massive damage…
but this time P.A.I.G.E. was smarter and did a single spin around, connecting that last little bit she needed to use up my last Reviver Seed.
Having a feeling she was going to snap out of it, I Dodged back out of her path. Guessing right, she came back up to me and brought her flaming mace down from the air, smashing it into the ground and causing a small explosion to go along with the others. It was a weaker attack, but it did knock me back into the wall and burn me.
The last thing I needed right now was to have my Attack lowered.
Well out of her range this time, I searched through my Pocket Dimension for a Heal Seed or Rawst Berry…
and I remembered I had my other items that I could use.
Duh.
That would've been helpful to know before.
Finding a Rawst Berry I was looking for, I wholeheartedly ate it and turned the heat down just a little, as P.A.I.G.E. approached me from where she was.
This time to save myself, I got a Slumber Wand out of my inventory and swung it. Her anger wasn't enough to keep her awake, and P.A.I.G.E. was in Sleep Mode in a second.
I used the one Blast Seed I had, and then got two more free Close Combats. Then she woke up, prepared for her spinning attack again, but it was too late. One more Close Combat beat her to the punch.
Defeated, she lost her balance, dropping the mace and letting the existing fires consume it, and held her head with one hand and her knee with the other.
"Buh…ngh…urrrrgh…" she continued to unintelligably make noise, having had enough.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!"
With this last cry of agony, the robotic Pokémon assassin's face phased out again, this time permanently. The black and purple cloud of possession exited P.A.I.G.E., and the aura dissipated and her color scheme returned to normal, as she fell backward onto the ground.
Out of commission.
The smoke sphere began crackling with lightning and glowing pink again, and reclaimed Genesis with that.
"Bah…aHA…" Genesis said, getting up, her disguise having little left to it.
But there was something different about her voice. It sounded like…tons of voices, all saying the same thing in sync. From the back of my head, no less…
"WeLL…" she got up and said, "thAt VEsSel dIDn'T LAsT lONg…anD ThiS, tOO, is RunNiNG OUt oF UsEFulnESs…"
I didn't understand any of this. What is she saying?
"THoUgh i sUpPOSe It no LOngEr…mAtTerS," Genesis continued to ramble, taking a green jewel out of her pocket. "SuReLY I aM pOWErfUl ENoUgh By nOW…To unLEAsH tHe DArkNeSS ON thIs iGNorAnt wOrlD oNCe MoRe."
An evil grin crossed her face, and she jumped, holding the gem out with a single spin, before disappearing in a burst of light.
"MwAHa…MwahAHaHAHAhAHa!"
I just stood there, confused. What the…
But then the explosions and quaking began to become more frequent and powerful, and I snapped out of it.
"Aah!" I remembered, looking down on the broken P.A.I.G.E.
I lined myself up with the black screen that was her face, drawing my fist back, ready to do it this time.
"Grah!"
I punched it with all my might.
It didn't bend.
"Guh!"
I punched it again.
I got a small dent.
"Come on…"
I punched the spot, seeing it was weakening.
The dent increased, and I got more cracks.
Man, I built this tough…
"One more! HaaaAAAAH!"
This time it gave, shattering the screen…
and finally revealing the Eevee within, unconscious, the control helmet over her face.
As I snapped that off, I noticed what else was in here; some berry remains and a small hole broken into the floor.
She had to dig that to keep herself alive, I realized, peeking into the hole and seeing it went into the Terminal Ball storages. Picking berries and piping them up through here was the only way she could get food and water…
further proof that I gave no care to her when designing P.A.I.G.E.…
I broke the bar restraining her and freed her at last, holding Paige close to me.
"It's okay…" I whispered to the sleeping Eevee, drowning out the carnage around me for just a brief moment. "You're okay now. Everything's going to be alright."
I made myself believe that as I looked back out through the flaming, raining hallway.
Our only way to escape.
"Here we go!" I shouted, and ran for my life…and Paige's.
Mainly Paige's.
I dashed down the stairs and through the fire as fast as I could, the floors exploding around me. The cold water from the sprinklers helped to keep me going through the heat, charging past what remained of desks, laptops, papers, and Terminal Balls.
By the time I was three stories down, it was getting so bad that rubble was starting to rain down from the higher floors as well.
The destruction only accelerated with me, as I kept charging on.
But at a much faster rate.
I was only five floors down when I nearly tripped over the shaking floor.
I kept moving anyway…
but I knew we weren't going to make it.
There wasn't an exit in sight, and things were reaching their breaking points.
I could barely stand in the violent quaking, and everything was exploding around me.
Still I kept running, for whatever reason.
This is it… I knew.
This is how it ends…
Any last words?
Having one last thing to say, I held Paige tightly to me, clenching my eyes shut as I ran on, drowning out the terror and just feeling her deep, slow breaths against my chest.
And then I screamed into her ear, even though I knew she couldn't hear me:
"I'M SORRY-Y-Y-YYYYYYYyyyyy…"
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

"…urgh…"
Aileen slowly regained her consciousness and pulled herself up off the ground, still dazed, but sturdy enough to look around and see everyone else beginning to recover from the blast as well.
"Unh…" Lurantis sat up and held her head, shaking it to return to her senses.
"Gyyyauugh…" Stacia opened her eyes and forced herself to her feet.
"Oof…" Talonflame got up with a moan.
The pattern continued like this until Sky finally asked what everyone was thinking:
"What…happened?"
Aileen tried to remember. All seven of them had been waiting from afar for Gabriel to come out until…
She gasped and turned to see what everyone else was looking at from atop the hill;
the charred remains of the Team Perial Base.
The mighty explosion had attracted the attention of human and Pokémon firefighters alike, and they had since doused most of the flames while the group was unconscious, though there were still a few isolated fires here or there. But other than that, all there was was black. Not even the multi-material coated target was visible anymore underneath the explosion's black stain.
"Oh my…" Cheren was the first one who had any words to the destruction they beheld, lighting the dead of the night with the remaining flames.
But Aileen had a feeling.
A terrifying, sinking feeling that she couldn't make herself describe.
She just ran toward the wreckage without a second thought, and was soon followed by Stacia, then everyone else.
The Primarina dug through the rubble, throwing to the sides what were once bricks, changes of clothes, and personal belongings, but were now the same indistinguishable dark chunks of whatever.
Everyone knew what she was doing.
And as Sky read the auras of the surrounding area, he knew where it was.
"Hang on," he caught Aileen's attention, and she saw him open his eyes, shining yellow for a second. Then he pointed over to another section of the pile further up. "Over there…"
The group dashed over to where the explorer was suggesting, and Cheren and Sky combined their Psychic and Aura Sphere to quickly clear out the worst of the rubble.
Everyone pitched in to dig just a little deeper, and then they unearthed what they were looking for.
Everyone flinched.
Sky, Lurantis, and Aileen all gasped on top of that.
"Oh no…" Stacia found herself saying.
"A-agh…" Lurantis muttered.
"No!" Aileen cried out.
Gabriel's body was charred, also struck with the black curse of the flames, his Mega Evolution having worn off unable to protect him anyway, and laid there, lifeless.
Stacia hurried up and felt for a pulse…or even spiritual energy.
"Nothin'…" she regretfully announced. "He's gone…"
"Nev'r made it 'ut…" Dhelmise deduced. "If th' lad lived lung enuff t' see th' place go boom, dat's 's fer 's it went…"
"Buh…b-buh…" Aileen stuttered, at a loss of words, looking on at her friend's dead body.
But then she noticed something about him there.
"Huh?" her curiosity temporarily prevented tears as she lifted up Gabriel's arm…
and discovered a Pokémon there.
An Eevee.
Also having been subject to the explosion, but her burns didn't appear as bad.
"That's…" Stacia knew her from anywhere, "th-that's Paige!"
She quickly felt her for signs of life.
"Holy…" the Marshadow didn't believe it. "He actually frickin' did it…"
"Did what?" Talonflame was lost.
"He saved her! I've got a p-"
But then Stacia stopped mid-sentence as she felt the last of Paige's life force fade away.
"Oh…spoke too soon…"
Aileen coughed over herself. "Wha, wha?"
"He was so close, too…" Lurantis figured out, her heart hurting at this insult to injury. "Augh…"
Cheren and Sky gave each other glances, reflecting upon their own pasts, but couldn't bring themselves to say anything.
"I'm not entirely sure what's going on…" Talonflame finally said, "but guys, there's no other word to describe this than 'heroic'. I mean, look, the dude sacrificed himself trying to save and shield this little kid here! I mean, it's a shame she didn't make it in the end, but…that little bit of life we saw? She lasted that whole time we were out before…y'know."
"He's right," Cheren agreed. "That was an impressive survival time either way, when you think about it. Gabriel…he's a hero. And I think we all owe it to him to never forget that."
Everyone nodded in agreement. "Ah'm in t' that," Dhelmise said aloud.
Still, Aileen stared on at Gabriel's and Paige's charred corpses.
"Aileen…" Lurantis said solemnly, coming over to the Soloist Pokémon's side.
"I don't get it…" Aileen's voice wavered, finally tearing up. "I get this feeling…he knew this would happen…and yet, he wouldn't say anything?"
Lurantis sighed, fighting not to cry herself. "Aileen…maybe you're too young to understand now, but…maybe it was for the best."
"For the best?" she replied. "He's the only reason I made it this far…and now he has to go and leave us all forever?!"
"Kid…" Dhelmise started to say.
But Aileen was beyond comforting at this point, barely able to speak between gasps for air and sniffling.
"I…I-I…Gabriel…
"BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
She cracked and clung to Lurantis, crying her eyes out like the little kid that she really was deep down.
Not knowing what to say or do in this situation, Lurantis just hugged Aileen back…and cried into her shoulder, too.
Stacia looked up at the starry night sky, beginning to show signs of color as the sun began to rise over the horizon.
"Gabriel…" she said more to herself than anything, "you tried so hard. You really did…
and I guess this is the way to go out, if any.
I'd say you've redeemed yourself in full with this…
and now this marks the death of both the hero…and the villain.
Unless…"
She shook her head.
"This is how it has to be…" she made herself believe.
"And there's still so much of a mess left behind…
"I'll take care of that for you. To protect those you've…no. We've both, come to cherish in the last month or so."
Stacia glanced behind her at the team…at her friends, emotionally struck.
Her fighting spirit burned green as her resolve hardened.
"So you can really…rest in peace."

(Credits:
Writer/Author: me (StaciaMarshadow/MegaGallade475)
Illustrations: me (StaciaMarshadow/MegaGallade475)
Special Thanks:
Ava (LunarTheUmbreon1)
Vincent (VX9/vincentfas)
Thomas (ThomasTheRiolu)
Thomas Sager
Fatima Mirza (Red the Mudkip)
TNHGameRemixes
Nintendo
Game Freak
Creatures Inc.
The Pokémon Company
ChunSoft
And everyone else behind the official Pokémon and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon franchises)

(The End…? The Epilogue begins…)