This is a reinvention of the fanfic I did which died back in July. By reinvention I mean total overhaul, keeping basically only certain plot ideas and characters in place. This is set in my own interpretation of the Pokémon world, so if anything contradicts established canon, it's only doing so in the way that the animé is a different interpretation to the games. You can assume that something is as normal unless stated otherwise. This interpretation of Pokémon is more in-line with the real world than most others; treat Lucidia as a real-world island where Pokémon happen to live.
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, I hope you enjoy the story! (By the way, do click on that link and if possible keep the window open throughout; I would have it as an image but it's disabled in here).
Chapter 1 – Just Passing Through
Héva Island was probably the most isolated town in all of Lucidia. Since the cohesium mines closed five years ago, people had been emigrating away like nothing Amy Queen had ever seen. The once industrial centre had become a ghost town, with only the extremely stubborn remaining. Extremely stubborn primarily referring to Amy’s parents. Personally, Amy would love the opportunity to travel, but her family had lived on the island since the first colony arrived from Cielo City and her parents were very proud of the “family line”. She personally thought it was a poor excuse to be involved with the aristocratic, and considering they were the last upper class family remaining, it was an outdated way to behave. Her peers delighted in making fun of her because of it. Amy was clever enough to put it down to jealousy, though she would rather be in their position than her own. Normal family, normal parents. Normal house, which was something she particularly wanted as she reached the gates of Héva Hall, where she was approached by a particularly brawny one of her peers. The boy’s name was Guy Thistle, the son of one of the few remaining mining families. He attended her school and was determined to make like difficult for Amy Queen. He had confronted her three times already today, but those times were under the eyes of the college staff and he wasn’t quite stupid enough to do anything serious while at school. Outside of college was another matter, and it was just as Amy was thinking this that he knocked her to the floor.
He sneered. “Alright, Amy?”
She spat at the ground. “Perfectly fine, Guy,” She responded.
“Don’t give me that cheek!” He kicked her in the face, and Amy felt her nose start to bleed. With a great effort she didn’t cry out. She slowly pulled herself from the ground and drew herself up to full height.
Guy laughed. “Looks like I’m going to have to hit you a bit harder.” He made to punch her, but she blocked his arm with hers, Pokéball in hand. Noticing this, he stood back involuntarily, something that gave Amy a little comfort.
“That’s just like you, isn’t it Amy, eh? Always hiding behind someone. Your parents, your gates and your Pokémon.”
“Hiding behind a Pokémon is perfectly acceptable behaviour. I believe the term is a Pokémon battle. I know you’re hardly the brightest of individuals, but surely you’re familiar with the expression?” She spoke with an upper-class accent, but personally she would prefer to drop the nobility for a less formal approach. Nevertheless, as long as she was on Héva she was trapped in the confines of her family’s ways. And she had no prospect of leaving the family estate.
“I’ve had it with you,” responded Guy, “Go Machoke!” He shouted, releasing a Pokéball. The blue-grey muscle-bound humanoid was a typical choice for Thistle.
“Oh please, such battle cries are hardly dignified.” She threw her Pokéball in response, releasing a Lunatone; a yellow crescent-moon shaped Pokémon with a red eye on each side of its body.
“Let’s finish this quickly,” Said Guy. “Brick Break!”
“Defense Curl.” Amy was astoundingly calm considering all that had happened to her, though anyone who knew her would be unsurprised. Amy Queen was remarkably strong-willed.
Her Lunatone began rotating at quite a speed. The Machoke aimed a karate chop with considerable force at Amy’s Pokémon, but it deflected the attack hardly slowing its spin at all. Despite this, Guy sneered.
“Defensive moves are for losers.”
“Hardly. Rollout!” Her Lunatone, still spinning, dropped to the ground and rolled with considerable speed toward Machoke. It flinched, but stood its ground. Lunatone returned to its original position and ceased rotating.
“Heh, see what I mean? Dynamicpunch!” The Machoke spun rapidly before throwing a powerful punch in entirely the wrong direction, and falling to the ground in the process.
“It seems inaccurate moves like that are for the real losers, Guy.”
“That’s enough! Get up, Machoke!” The Pokémon responded, though only half-willingly.
“Lunatone, it seems we shall have to resort to a Psybeam.” The moon-rock’s eyes glowed purple, and a multicoloured beam almost the size of Lunatone itself was shot toward Machoke. The Pokémon was lifted from the ground and slammed into its master, who fell down to the floor with the weighty Pokémon landing on him.
“Dear me, Guy. This is a fine example of poetic justice.”
“MACHOKE! REVENGE!” The Pokémon leapt up with a glint of anger in its eyes, and threw an enormous punch at Lunatone. This time its aim was true, and Lunatone fell to the floor with no clear prospect of recovery. Amy immediately abandoned her demeanour and fell to the floor to cradle her fallen Pokémon. Sobbing gently, she returned it to its Pokéball.
Guy went to kick her again, but stopped short. “You’re not worth it.” He left her crouched in the middle of the road.
Amy knelt there for a while, thinking. She was sure that all the tormenting was due mainly to her upper-class conduct, and yet if her parents ever found out she had been acting like one of the “commoners”, she would be disowned for certain. To her surprise, se felt a warm arm wrap around her in a comforting sort of way. She looked up, and saw John Matthews gazing down at her.
“Hey, come on, cheer up!” John looked at her in that special way that always made her smile, and despite everything she couldn’t help but grin broadly.
“I saw Guy just now. I don’t know what happened, but he certainly didn’t look as smug as usual. You must’ve given him a real run for his money.” Amy was sure that he was just saying this to cheer her up, but she couldn’t help but feel an inward glint of triumph.
“Come on, you’d best get out of the road.” He offered her his hand, and she stood up.
It was at that moment that the ground collapsed beneath her.
***
Amy screamed as she slipped backward into the hole. John seemed to have secured his footing, and was trying to pull her out of whatever it was she was falling into. Amy risked a glance downward, and immediately regretted it. She was falling into a dark pit with no clear bottom in the fading daylight. She resolved not to look down again, and swung her other hand around to meet John’s.
“I… can’t hold on much longer…” John was trying as hard as he could to pull Amy out, but the ground was slipping out from underneath him too, and in the chaos the self-preservation instinct got the better of him and he changed his footing. In this moment, he couldn’t help loosening his grip on Amy. With a pang of guilt and shock, he saw Amy slip from his fingers and into the abyss.
***
“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done? This is my mission! You have no business saving someone so close to an important historical figure!”
The voice shouting was an unfamiliar male, with a vaguely British accent. Amy reasoned that the someone being saved was herself, and wondered whom the “important historical figure” was, before inwardly cringing and telling herself that this boy couldn’t possibly know who would be an important historical figure. She risked a glance around, and saw that she was surrounded by debris and rubble, probably the bottom of the pit. She looked around for the source of the voice, and saw two people. The boy who had spoken looked around her age of fourteen. He had blonde hair gelled so that it was spiky, and wore a light green jacket with brown trousers. He had his hands in his pockets, and was speaking to the girl also present, who had long dark blonde hair and a purple dress. She replied to the boy.
“If this really is your mission, Reniss, then no-one here should die in the first place.” She spoke with an upper-class accent not unlike Amy’s own.
“Don’t call me Reniss, Roma,” said the boy. “It’s Roan. And only the cause here is anachronistic, the disaster itself is part of natural time.”
“Well Roan, if I’m not needed here-” With these words she turned her nose up pompously, “-then I’ll leave.” She promptly disappeared in a green glow, to Amy’s astonishment.
“See you, Lizzie.” Roan turned around in frustration, only to step back in surprise when he saw that Amy was conscious. She stood up.
“Where am I?” she demanded, “and what has happened to me?”
Roan simply put his head in his hands and sat on a particularly large rock. “Oh God, you sound just like her. That’s all I need, another pompous idiot messing up time. See you around.” He pulled out a Pokéball.
“Wait!” Said Amy, a little too loudly, determined to make a good impression on her latest acquaintance. “I’m sorry. My name is Amy Queen.”
“I know what you’re name is.” He dropped his hands to his sides. “I’m ‘Reniss’ Roan Clockrow, of the Kalians. Call me Roan, I can’t stand titles.”
“Well Roan, would you mind telling me what’s going on?”
He laughed, not unkindly, but cheerfully. “You’re still on Néva, though about twenty metres below where you were about half an hour ago.”
“What caused that earthquake? Something tells me you were involved.”
“Not causally,” said Roan, “but yes, it’s my job to be involved.”
“Would you mind telling me what this job is?”
“That’ll take a hell of a lot of explaining. And I shouldn’t really tell you.” He paused. “But since you’re anachronistic anyway, it doesn’t really matter.
“The Kalians are an organisation formed by the seven Celebi. They picked seven people from all over Lucidia to be their trainers.” He paused. “That little bit is the hardest to grasp. It sounds like an old legend, but it’s true. I know it’s a little hard to believe...”
Amy nodded.
“Well, I do have proof.” He released a Pokéball. There, before Amy’s very eyes, was the legendary fairy Pokémon with the ability to control time. Celebi. Amy could do nothing but gape, mouth open.
“Heh, he does tend to have that effect on people. That’s why I keep him in his Pokéball.”
Amy pulled herself together. “And this… Lizzie, does she have one too?”
“All the Kalians do. So anyway, the Celebi allow us a lot of freedom with their power. We do a lot of things with it, mostly research, but my job is the most exciting.” He winked. “The repairing of anachronisms in history and the restoration of natural time.”
“What about Lizzie?”
At this he groaned. “Lizzie’s job is to save lives in preventable incidents. It sounds all high and mighty, but half of my work is fixing effects on the timeline caused by people she’s saved. I’ve suggested to Milleva hundreds of times that we do away with the Roma position altogether, but…”
“Milleva?”
“The leader of the Kalians. She basically co-ordinates all of our work and controls any additions to the database. She doesn’t get off Chronos Island much, but…”
“The Chronos Island?”
Roan chuckled again. “Yeah, I here it’s sorta’ an Atlantis among you Lucidians. The Celebi created a temporal shield around it, which is nigh on impenetrable. We use it as our base.”
They were silent for a moment. Amy was trying to take everything she had heard in, but there was one question digging at the back of her mind.
“When you were talking to Lizzie earlier you said… well, it sounded like I was supposed to die.”
Roan looked momentarily surprised. “You’re sharp. I probably couldn’t figure that out.” He spoke calmly and slowly.
“So it’s true.” The reality of what she had said hit her hard, and she sank to the floor in shock. She said nothing for a moment, but then chanced, “Are you going to kill me?”
“Naa, course not! I wouldn’t do that, none of the Kalians would.” This thought had been playing on Amy’s mind for a while, and she was relieved to find it was simply paranoia.
Roan thought for a moment. “You know, I could use a hand with this problem I have right now. You seem like you might be able to figure it out for me.”
At this, Amy stood and rubbed her hands together. “Excellent,” she said. “I love a challenge.”
“Great, pull up a piece of debris, I have a story to tell.”
***
“Back on Chronos Island, we’d called a conference, so all seven of us were together. It was about the hooded man, but he’s not really important to this.”
“Go on, I’m curious.”
“Well, he’s sorta’ the enemy of the Kalians. We’ve no idea who he is; we call him what we call him because he wears a long hooded cloak. He’s been trying to destabilise our organisation for almost fifty years of perceived time now.”
“Fifty years! You’re looking good for it.”
“The Kalian organisation was established almost one thousand years ago from our perspective, about five hundred from yours. It’s part of Celebi’s power that we remain this age. We assume it’s because we retain a childlike imaginative approach to problems combined with a slightly more mature outlook on life.
“Anyway, the hooded man. He can travel through time too, but he doesn’t seem to be bound to time’s tide like us.”
“Sorry, time’s tide?”
“Ah. That’s a difficult concept to get your head around. I haven’t actually had to explain this before, so stick with me. No matter where you are in time, you still move at the same rate. Of course, there’s all the stuff about relativity and that, but you’re still bound to the general flow of absolute time. It works like that with Celebi too. When we go back to Chronos Island after a mission, the same amount of time that passed on a mission will have passed there too, and there’s not a lot we can do about it- it’s one of the limitations of Celebi’s power.”
“I think I get you.”
“Wow, it took me a hell of a lot longer than that. It must be my incredible descriptive skills.” He winked. “Or my lack of attention to detail.
“So during this meeting, my Chronometer bleeped at me…”
“Chronometer?”
He shook back his sleeve, to reveal a metallic object worn on his wrist like a watch. It was egg-shaped, though about three times the size of a chicken’s egg.
“This is a Microsoft Chronometer Vista. We bought them around a millennium from now, when believe it or not Microsoft stuff is still flaming awful. Still, these aren’t too bad, with the upgrades I added. I’m the computer wizard, me. These have a holographic interface, temporal sensors and a full copy of the Kalian’s database. When they work that is; the operating system is absolutely terrible. A complete copy of the Apple iQuantum interface, too.”
“Ahem…” Amy personally couldn’t stand computer talk.
“Sorry. My Chronometer was bleeping to tell me that there was a developing anachronism.”
Amy sighed. “Excuse me again, but…”
“Look, if you’re going to stop me every time I hit a bit of jargon then we’ll be back in 2506 without Celebi’s help.”
“I understand the term,” said Amy irritably, “But if something changes in time, then shouldn’t the changes happen without warning?”
“The Kalians are safe from this, because of Celebi. When we’re on Chronos, the temporal shield protects us from any changes in the timeline, and when we’re on a mission we’re independent of relative time and so safe from any changes.
“Anyway, my Chronometer’s temporal sensors pointed me here: the collapse of Néva Island.” He stopped. “Oh God, sorry.”
Amy was silent.
“There was only one fatality. And none now.” Roan’s tone was one of attempted reassurance, but Amy didn’t feel much better about it. Roan was telling her that her home and everything she had ever known, was reduced to rubble like that they were sitting on. She hated having to live on Néva, but yet now that it was gone…
“Why?” She demanded.
“What?” Said Roan, blankly.
“Why did it collapse? What caused it?”
“The cause I have on record is because of excessive cohesium mining. The quarries collapsed, causing a chain reaction that collapsed the entire network of mining tunnels. The remains of one is probably what we’re sitting in now.”
“But doesn’t this mean that everything can be rebuilt?”
Roan shook his head. “Néva is sat on top of an enormous empty magma chamber from the extinct volcano. It won’t happen yet, but sooner or later the main settlement will fall into the hole. The mine cave-in gave it the push to start the real collapse. Néva will be around for maybe six months more, before it sinks into the sea.”
Amy thought for a moment again. “You said to Lizzie that only the cause of the events was anachronistic. I think I know what you mean. The mining here stopped five years ago; Hartley Industries moved to Prias City. They said they found a higher grade source of cohesium.”
Roan stopped and looked at her. “Well, I know that’s not right. The only Pokéball-grade cohesium in Lucidia is found here on Néva.”
“Pokéball-grade cohesium? Sorry, I never studied it.”
Roan laughed. “Typical, not learning the local trade. Mind you, I never once visited the Pokémon championships back in Cielo City. Anyway, cohesium is element 126 on the periodic table. It’s used to contain Pokémon in Pokéballs. You see, Pokémon life is made of a different sort of matter. Even the Kalians don’t fully understand it. This Pokématter, if you want to call it that, is extremely reactive with cohesium. If Pokémon come anywhere near it, about two metres or so, they are absorbed within the cohesium. This is called cohesidising, and it’s what happens every time you catch a Pokémon. Over the years, Pokémon have adapted to survive cohesidising, and through a process similar to electrolysis they can be returned to their original form. That’s basically what happens when you send out a Pokémon.”
Amy nodded. “I think I remember reading that somewhere. You were saying about coming here to sort out an anachronism?”
“Oh yeah. Normally I like to head off on my missions alone, or at least with Dominik.”
“Who?”
“Pagas Domink Hundert. German lad, a great guy. I grew up with him in Cielo City; we were the only two Kalians to know each other at the formation of the group. As Pagas his job is historical research, so we often end up on the same missions. Anyway, I usually like to go alone, ‘cos otherwise Lizzie ends up following me, like she did today. I arrived just in time to witness the collapse, and that was when I saw Lizzie turn up and rush in to rescue you.
“So basically you’re up to date now. Any thoughts about my problem?”
Amy didn’t reply for a moment. “If the quarries here were abandoned, then how can excessive mining have triggered a collapse? Surely it wouldn’t take five years.”
“That’s a fair point,” said Roan, “And one that would’ve taken me ages to notice.”
“Perhaps,” she continued, “The mining here continued in secret, and the mines on Prias were a decoy.”
“A decoy? Why would anyone go to all that effort?”
“Well alright then,” said Amy, “perhaps they’re mining something else. Except all the mineworkers here have left. Néva is a ghost town. How could they run a mine here?”
“By 2506 things like mining are fully automated.”
“Yes, but we don’t have that kind of technology yet. Mind you, you said this was anachronistic.”
“I tell you what, let me access the file on Hartley Industries.” Roan pressed a few buttons on his Chronometer. “Access database file- Jacob Hartley.”
Nothing happened.
“Damn, I bet it’s crashed again. I’ll have to reboot, hang on…” He held a button down for a few seconds, and then pressed it. With a small flash of light, hovering above the Chronometer was what was unmistakably the Windows logo.
Roan seemed to be irritated by this, but Amy was intrigued. “How does it…”
“The logo is created by a projection of photons and force fields. In layman’s terms, it’s a hologram.”
The logo disappeared and the Chronometer played the traditional Windows logging on jingle.
“There we go. Access database file- Jacob Hartley.”
A three-dimensional image appeared in front of them of a plump man wearing a suit, with lots of text around it. The Chronometer began to speak, in a German accent.
“Yacob Hartley. Jour average pompous aristocrat. Owner of sevral mining and processing vacilities in zee late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Timeline risk- minimal to none. Auf wiederhören!”
“That was Dominik,” explained Roan, “He recorded this file, being in charge of history and all. This ‘Yacob’ doesn’t seem to be the sort of person to create anachronisms.”
“Perhaps he had help, someone from the future.”
“Excellent deduction, but who?”
The two of them looked at each other, sensing a connecting idea. “The hooded man!” they said together.
“Well, if it is him, I really should report back to Chronos and get backup.” Roan seemed thoroughly unenthusiastic about the idea.
“Well, all we have is pure speculation,” said Amy with a grin, “There’s absolutely no evidence that he’s involved at all.”
“And in such a situation,” responded Roan, grinning too, “I might feel that it is unnecessary to trouble HQ with requests for support. Go Celebi!”
The time lord appeared in front of them.
“Take us to the mines on Prias, if Amy wants to come along.”
“You’ll take me? Sure!” Her voice was filled with excitement.
“What? Have you never been to Prias before? They’ve got all the best beaches.”
“I’ve never even been away from Héva before. It’s my family, they are determined to stay.”
Roan looked genuinely sympathetic. “If I were you, I would tell them where to stick it. You’re coming then?”
Amy smiled. “You needn’t even ask.”
And with that, they disappeared in a flash of green light.
***
The sensation of a time-warp, or space-warp as was the case here, was fascinating for Amy. After the initial shock, Amy began to process the sensations. She couldn’t breathe, and yet she somehow didn’t feel the need to. Her surroundings were a pure acidy-green light. She couldn’t see Roan, which she knew would trouble her normally and yet she felt calm here. This place where people shouldn’t be oddly seemed like where she was most at home. It was over in an instant that lasted an eternity.
When she returned to the natural world, she felt a sudden shiver of feeling returning to her. The mine was cold and black, with only the dimmest of lights coming from a small green LED nearby, on what she assumed and hoped was the Chronometer.
“This is cheerful,” Said Roan’s voice from the direction of the light, confirming Amy’s suspicion. “I’ll add a little light. I’m going to create some holographic night vision visors with the Chronometer, which equalise all light in the surroundings making it as clear as… well, day.”
Amy nodded, before realising he couldn’t see. “I understand,” she said.
Suddenly she felt a pair of sunglasses materialise on her head, and she saw the mine in full detail. It looked like your average cave, like those on the Néva beaches, except for small wooden supports that had been erected to bear the ceiling, which was not much above head height. She glanced across at Roan, who he was wearing mirrored sunglasses. She assumed she was too. Celebi was hovering behind him.
“Shouldn’t you recall Celebi? If there is cohesium in this mine he could become trapped.”
“Good idea, but for the wrong reasons.” He pulled out a Pokéball and returned Celebi to its cohesidised state. “Keeping a legendary Pokémon in full view is never good. I can’t even battle with Celebi, unless the opponent knows about the Kalians. Which has never happened, until the hooded man. The cohesium in here, if it is in here, shouldn’t affect Celebi. Once a Pokémon has been cohesidised, it’s entangled with that particular piece of cohesium. That’s what makes it impossible to capture other trainer’s Pokémon.”
“Quantum entanglement? I had no idea this had a practical application.”
“It’s not common knowledge that this is how cohesidisation works. Marion figured it out. Medieva Marion Seine, in charge of Pokémon research, if you’re interested.” He paused. “I shouldn’t really be telling you all this. Not any of this. I don’t know why I am doing.”
“There must be something about me,” She winked.
“Maybe,” he said seriously, missing the joke. “Anyway, cohesidisation. If a Pokémon like Celebi were to become trapped, they can be freed using tangeum. Element 124, which has the odd property of breaking entanglement bonds. Marion would be able to explain, I’m not so good with quantum physics. This is Kalian-only knowledge too, so keep your mouth shut.”
“I will,” Said Amy, with a smile. “So we came here to look for cohesium?”
“Oh yeah, sorry.”
“These visors, can they be recalibrated to detect it?”
“I think so.” He began fiddling with his Chronometer. “I should be able to make ‘em highlight trans-Uranium elements, using radiation.”
Amy nodded in understanding.
“There we go.” Amy looked up, and almost stepped back in surprise. The walls were covered with yellow-highlighted material. “Well,” she said, “that answers that question.”
“And creates another,” responded Roan. “The question of why the Kalian databanks are wrong.”
“Well, the best way to find that out would be to confront an involved party.”
Roan nodded. “Jacob Hartley.”
***
One short space-warp later, Roan and Amy found themselves outside a luxurious office.
“So how are we getting in?” asked Amy.
“I’ll need to do a bit of acting,” replied Roan, who immediately burst through the doors. The room they entered was not terribly exciting; it looked like a doctor’s waiting room. A dowdy secretary was at a desk.
“Can I help you at all?” She said testily.
“Damn right you can help me. My sister and I have travelled here all the way from Néva chasing your boss for my money.”
“Your…”
“Don’t play ignorant with me,” he snapped. “My name is Alex Hartley, and I’m the nephew of that pompous fool through there. When my father passed a way, his three billion Pokédollars should have been passed on to me. Instead, my dear uncle has someone impersonate me to claim my father’s fortune. I’m here to get it back.”
“I’d better call Mr. Hartley…”
“You do anything like that and I’ll shove those glasses…”
“Alex…” said Amy warningly. The secretary hastily withdrew her hand from the telephone receiver.
“I’ll send you in, but he has someone with him at the moment.”
“Do I look like I care?” Roan proceeded through the next set of doors, quietly chuckling to himself.
***
The best word to describe Hartley’s office would be expensive. It was an unusual blend of modern and classical with wood panelling on the walls, complete with a fireplace, but with a silver floor and desk. At the back of the room was a window that filled the entire wall, looking out onto the picturesque Prias shore. Hartley was sat in his swivel chair looking outraged at Roan and Amy, and in the corner was a man dressed in a long brown hooded cloak.
“You!” Shouted Roan, pointing at the hooded man. “I’m arresting you under the authority of the Kalians for disturbing the flow of natural time. Please come quietly, or the use of force will be necessary.”
The hooded man simply laughed. It was a cold, menacing laugh that was oddly high-pitched. Suddenly, he released a Celebi, and disappeared in a green glow.
“Damn.” He said.
“Perhaps next time it would be more appropriate to arrest him after he can’t get away,” said Amy.
“Excuse me,” said Hartley, “But I would appreciate an explanation for why you’ve come in here and attempted to arrest my business partner!”
“Well, you’re not going to get one,” said Roan. “Though I expect you know already, as any business you had with that man was no doubt criminal activity.”
“Aha!” Said Hartley. “There is absolutely no law against what we have been doing. That’s the beauty of our operation, it’s so far ahead technologically that the law hasn’t caught up with us yet.”
“What about the use of classified material?” said Amy, though it was only a half-truth. “Those technological advances were no doubt provided by that man, who could have got it from nowhere but a restricted source.”
“He developed them himself, it took him years!”
“Which I’m sure is what he told you,” responded Amy. “We demand that you shut down whatever operation you have here. We know about the secret mines on Héva.”
Hartley paused. “Regardless of what you know, I’m not coming in without a fight. Shuckle!” He released a Pokéball.
Amy went for her Lunatone, but Roan stopped her. “Kalian Pokémon are genetically engineered to be stronger. Let me handle this. Go Charizard!”
The fire dragon appeared on the floor in front of them.
“Oh please,” said Hartley, “such battle cries are hardly dignified.” Amy privately agreed.
“Like I give a damn what you think. Flamethrower!” The Charizard shot a jet of fire from its mouth. Just in time, the Shuckle withdrew into its shell. When the flames stopped, it appeared again and seemed to have suffered very little damage, though its shell was blackened.
“Stealth Rock!” ordered Hartley. The Shuckle began to spin rapidly, and a large round rock was flung away from it and disappeared out of sight.
Roan laughed. “I expected as much. The only real reason to use a Shuckle is Stealth Rock.”
“You can hardly talk about poor strategy,” said Hartley, “when you selected a Charizard to bring down a Shuckle.”
Roan shrugged. “It’s better than having to take a Stealth Rock attack on a Fire and Flying Pokémon when I would send him in later.”
“Regardless, a Charizard cannot beat a Shuckle. You have no effective attacks.”
“Don’t I?” said Roan with a grin. “Iron Tail!”
Hartley did little to hide his shock. Charizard’s tail began to shine metallically, and it slammed into Shuckle with great force. The shell cracked, and Shuckle fainted.
“A well played round,” said Hartley, returning his Shuckle to a Pokéball. “But openings aren’t everything, and my Shuckle achieved its aim. Feraligatr!”
Roan contemplated the situation for a moment. “Sunny Day!” He ordered. Charizard raised its arms, and the light shining in from the window intensified. Amy felt the room grow considerably hotter.
“Well played,” commented Hartley. “Reducing the power of water attacks was a good idea. But I expect you didn’t plan for this. Feraligatr, Dragon Dance, then proceed immediately into a Waterfall.”
The blue crocodile nodded, and flexed its muscles in an unusual ritualistic dance, before surrounding itself with water and running at Charizard. The fire dragon was badly hurt, and was knocked to the floor, but it recovered.
“You’re okay?” asked Roan. “Good. Solarbeam!” Charizard opened its mouth and created a ball of light, and sent it toward Feraligatr in a large beam.
“Ha, eat that!” Said Roan enthusiastically.
“The round’s not over yet. Mirror Coat!”
“What? No!”
Feraligatr covered itself with purple energy, and reflected the Solarbeam back at Charizard with a greater intensity. The resulting explosions obscured Amy’s view for a moment, but when the blast cleared, both Pokémon had been knocked down.
“A draw.” Commented Roan. Nicely played round. Scizor!” The metal mantis immediately took a hit from the spinning Stealth Rock, though it wasn’t too badly hurt.
“Thank you, I try. Skarmory!” The metal bird appeared in a flash of red light.
“Well,” Said Hartley. “It seems this round is already mine. Scizor is virtually incapable of damaging me.”
Roan said nothing, but gave a very small nod. “Agility,” he said half-heartedly.
Hartley laughed. “Stall tactics won’t save you! Aerial Ace!” Skarmory flew at Scizor at quite a speed. Scizor was hit hard, but it stood it’s ground. It looked extremely weak.
“Hit it with another Aerial Ace, that should finish it off!”
“Baton Pass to Manmuu!” shouted Roan, and the Scizor disappeared to be replaced by an enormous mammoth Pokémon.
Roan laughed. “You called my bluff. Scizor can take a hell of a lot more than an Aerial Ace, and I don’t admit defeat quite that easily. With my Manmuu’s Baton Passed speed, you’re in serious trouble. Snow Slide!”
Manmuu shot an Ice Beam at the ceiling above Skarmory. It jumped, making the whole office shake and the ice fall down, crushing Skarmory.
Hartley looked saddened. He recalled Skarmory, and sat on his desk. “I admit defeat. Ask me whatever you want.”
***
Outside the window, the hooded man was watching and frowning.
***
“First of all,” said Amy, “Where did the cohesium in the mines here come from?”
“Fool!” Said Hartley. “The mines here are for tangeum.”
“Tangeum, the element that can break entanglement bonds.” Repeated Roan. “You were trying to develop something that could release trainer’s Pokémon!”
“It’s more than that,” said Amy, “He was trying to develop a Pokéball that could steal Pokémon! Why else would he still need a source of cohesium? The hidden mine on Néva…”
“And I would’ve got away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling…”
“Please, just don’t say it,” said Roan. “You villains and your clichés.”
***
After his confession, it was a simple matter to explain Hartley’s crimes to the police and have him taken away. Roan had taken Amy back to Néva, and to her parent’s house.
“I must admit,” said Amy, “that I would rather stay with you.”
“You would make an excellent Kalian. But all our positions are filled.”
“You said I was supposed to be dead. Taking me out of time will stop me having an impact.”
“I think I can risk it. That’s not to say you won’t be seeing me again.” He winked, but Amy didn’t cheer up.
“Look, I would love for you to come with me, but Milleva would never agree to it. It’s just one of those things.”
“How can I live a normal life now, knowing everything I know?”
“You’ll adjust. You’ll have to.”
Amy said nothing for a moment. “Then I guess this is goodbye.”
“See you around. Live long and prosper!”
And with that, he disappeared in a green glow.
“I’ll miss you,” said Amy.
Please do comment and rate. Thanks for reading!
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, I hope you enjoy the story! (By the way, do click on that link and if possible keep the window open throughout; I would have it as an image but it's disabled in here).
Clockrow
Chapter 1 – Just Passing Through
Héva Island was probably the most isolated town in all of Lucidia. Since the cohesium mines closed five years ago, people had been emigrating away like nothing Amy Queen had ever seen. The once industrial centre had become a ghost town, with only the extremely stubborn remaining. Extremely stubborn primarily referring to Amy’s parents. Personally, Amy would love the opportunity to travel, but her family had lived on the island since the first colony arrived from Cielo City and her parents were very proud of the “family line”. She personally thought it was a poor excuse to be involved with the aristocratic, and considering they were the last upper class family remaining, it was an outdated way to behave. Her peers delighted in making fun of her because of it. Amy was clever enough to put it down to jealousy, though she would rather be in their position than her own. Normal family, normal parents. Normal house, which was something she particularly wanted as she reached the gates of Héva Hall, where she was approached by a particularly brawny one of her peers. The boy’s name was Guy Thistle, the son of one of the few remaining mining families. He attended her school and was determined to make like difficult for Amy Queen. He had confronted her three times already today, but those times were under the eyes of the college staff and he wasn’t quite stupid enough to do anything serious while at school. Outside of college was another matter, and it was just as Amy was thinking this that he knocked her to the floor.
He sneered. “Alright, Amy?”
She spat at the ground. “Perfectly fine, Guy,” She responded.
“Don’t give me that cheek!” He kicked her in the face, and Amy felt her nose start to bleed. With a great effort she didn’t cry out. She slowly pulled herself from the ground and drew herself up to full height.
Guy laughed. “Looks like I’m going to have to hit you a bit harder.” He made to punch her, but she blocked his arm with hers, Pokéball in hand. Noticing this, he stood back involuntarily, something that gave Amy a little comfort.
“That’s just like you, isn’t it Amy, eh? Always hiding behind someone. Your parents, your gates and your Pokémon.”
“Hiding behind a Pokémon is perfectly acceptable behaviour. I believe the term is a Pokémon battle. I know you’re hardly the brightest of individuals, but surely you’re familiar with the expression?” She spoke with an upper-class accent, but personally she would prefer to drop the nobility for a less formal approach. Nevertheless, as long as she was on Héva she was trapped in the confines of her family’s ways. And she had no prospect of leaving the family estate.
“I’ve had it with you,” responded Guy, “Go Machoke!” He shouted, releasing a Pokéball. The blue-grey muscle-bound humanoid was a typical choice for Thistle.
“Oh please, such battle cries are hardly dignified.” She threw her Pokéball in response, releasing a Lunatone; a yellow crescent-moon shaped Pokémon with a red eye on each side of its body.
“Let’s finish this quickly,” Said Guy. “Brick Break!”
“Defense Curl.” Amy was astoundingly calm considering all that had happened to her, though anyone who knew her would be unsurprised. Amy Queen was remarkably strong-willed.
Her Lunatone began rotating at quite a speed. The Machoke aimed a karate chop with considerable force at Amy’s Pokémon, but it deflected the attack hardly slowing its spin at all. Despite this, Guy sneered.
“Defensive moves are for losers.”
“Hardly. Rollout!” Her Lunatone, still spinning, dropped to the ground and rolled with considerable speed toward Machoke. It flinched, but stood its ground. Lunatone returned to its original position and ceased rotating.
“Heh, see what I mean? Dynamicpunch!” The Machoke spun rapidly before throwing a powerful punch in entirely the wrong direction, and falling to the ground in the process.
“It seems inaccurate moves like that are for the real losers, Guy.”
“That’s enough! Get up, Machoke!” The Pokémon responded, though only half-willingly.
“Lunatone, it seems we shall have to resort to a Psybeam.” The moon-rock’s eyes glowed purple, and a multicoloured beam almost the size of Lunatone itself was shot toward Machoke. The Pokémon was lifted from the ground and slammed into its master, who fell down to the floor with the weighty Pokémon landing on him.
“Dear me, Guy. This is a fine example of poetic justice.”
“MACHOKE! REVENGE!” The Pokémon leapt up with a glint of anger in its eyes, and threw an enormous punch at Lunatone. This time its aim was true, and Lunatone fell to the floor with no clear prospect of recovery. Amy immediately abandoned her demeanour and fell to the floor to cradle her fallen Pokémon. Sobbing gently, she returned it to its Pokéball.
Guy went to kick her again, but stopped short. “You’re not worth it.” He left her crouched in the middle of the road.
Amy knelt there for a while, thinking. She was sure that all the tormenting was due mainly to her upper-class conduct, and yet if her parents ever found out she had been acting like one of the “commoners”, she would be disowned for certain. To her surprise, se felt a warm arm wrap around her in a comforting sort of way. She looked up, and saw John Matthews gazing down at her.
“Hey, come on, cheer up!” John looked at her in that special way that always made her smile, and despite everything she couldn’t help but grin broadly.
“I saw Guy just now. I don’t know what happened, but he certainly didn’t look as smug as usual. You must’ve given him a real run for his money.” Amy was sure that he was just saying this to cheer her up, but she couldn’t help but feel an inward glint of triumph.
“Come on, you’d best get out of the road.” He offered her his hand, and she stood up.
It was at that moment that the ground collapsed beneath her.
***
Amy screamed as she slipped backward into the hole. John seemed to have secured his footing, and was trying to pull her out of whatever it was she was falling into. Amy risked a glance downward, and immediately regretted it. She was falling into a dark pit with no clear bottom in the fading daylight. She resolved not to look down again, and swung her other hand around to meet John’s.
“I… can’t hold on much longer…” John was trying as hard as he could to pull Amy out, but the ground was slipping out from underneath him too, and in the chaos the self-preservation instinct got the better of him and he changed his footing. In this moment, he couldn’t help loosening his grip on Amy. With a pang of guilt and shock, he saw Amy slip from his fingers and into the abyss.
***
“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done? This is my mission! You have no business saving someone so close to an important historical figure!”
The voice shouting was an unfamiliar male, with a vaguely British accent. Amy reasoned that the someone being saved was herself, and wondered whom the “important historical figure” was, before inwardly cringing and telling herself that this boy couldn’t possibly know who would be an important historical figure. She risked a glance around, and saw that she was surrounded by debris and rubble, probably the bottom of the pit. She looked around for the source of the voice, and saw two people. The boy who had spoken looked around her age of fourteen. He had blonde hair gelled so that it was spiky, and wore a light green jacket with brown trousers. He had his hands in his pockets, and was speaking to the girl also present, who had long dark blonde hair and a purple dress. She replied to the boy.
“If this really is your mission, Reniss, then no-one here should die in the first place.” She spoke with an upper-class accent not unlike Amy’s own.
“Don’t call me Reniss, Roma,” said the boy. “It’s Roan. And only the cause here is anachronistic, the disaster itself is part of natural time.”
“Well Roan, if I’m not needed here-” With these words she turned her nose up pompously, “-then I’ll leave.” She promptly disappeared in a green glow, to Amy’s astonishment.
“See you, Lizzie.” Roan turned around in frustration, only to step back in surprise when he saw that Amy was conscious. She stood up.
“Where am I?” she demanded, “and what has happened to me?”
Roan simply put his head in his hands and sat on a particularly large rock. “Oh God, you sound just like her. That’s all I need, another pompous idiot messing up time. See you around.” He pulled out a Pokéball.
“Wait!” Said Amy, a little too loudly, determined to make a good impression on her latest acquaintance. “I’m sorry. My name is Amy Queen.”
“I know what you’re name is.” He dropped his hands to his sides. “I’m ‘Reniss’ Roan Clockrow, of the Kalians. Call me Roan, I can’t stand titles.”
“Well Roan, would you mind telling me what’s going on?”
He laughed, not unkindly, but cheerfully. “You’re still on Néva, though about twenty metres below where you were about half an hour ago.”
“What caused that earthquake? Something tells me you were involved.”
“Not causally,” said Roan, “but yes, it’s my job to be involved.”
“Would you mind telling me what this job is?”
“That’ll take a hell of a lot of explaining. And I shouldn’t really tell you.” He paused. “But since you’re anachronistic anyway, it doesn’t really matter.
“The Kalians are an organisation formed by the seven Celebi. They picked seven people from all over Lucidia to be their trainers.” He paused. “That little bit is the hardest to grasp. It sounds like an old legend, but it’s true. I know it’s a little hard to believe...”
Amy nodded.
“Well, I do have proof.” He released a Pokéball. There, before Amy’s very eyes, was the legendary fairy Pokémon with the ability to control time. Celebi. Amy could do nothing but gape, mouth open.
“Heh, he does tend to have that effect on people. That’s why I keep him in his Pokéball.”
Amy pulled herself together. “And this… Lizzie, does she have one too?”
“All the Kalians do. So anyway, the Celebi allow us a lot of freedom with their power. We do a lot of things with it, mostly research, but my job is the most exciting.” He winked. “The repairing of anachronisms in history and the restoration of natural time.”
“What about Lizzie?”
At this he groaned. “Lizzie’s job is to save lives in preventable incidents. It sounds all high and mighty, but half of my work is fixing effects on the timeline caused by people she’s saved. I’ve suggested to Milleva hundreds of times that we do away with the Roma position altogether, but…”
“Milleva?”
“The leader of the Kalians. She basically co-ordinates all of our work and controls any additions to the database. She doesn’t get off Chronos Island much, but…”
“The Chronos Island?”
Roan chuckled again. “Yeah, I here it’s sorta’ an Atlantis among you Lucidians. The Celebi created a temporal shield around it, which is nigh on impenetrable. We use it as our base.”
They were silent for a moment. Amy was trying to take everything she had heard in, but there was one question digging at the back of her mind.
“When you were talking to Lizzie earlier you said… well, it sounded like I was supposed to die.”
Roan looked momentarily surprised. “You’re sharp. I probably couldn’t figure that out.” He spoke calmly and slowly.
“So it’s true.” The reality of what she had said hit her hard, and she sank to the floor in shock. She said nothing for a moment, but then chanced, “Are you going to kill me?”
“Naa, course not! I wouldn’t do that, none of the Kalians would.” This thought had been playing on Amy’s mind for a while, and she was relieved to find it was simply paranoia.
Roan thought for a moment. “You know, I could use a hand with this problem I have right now. You seem like you might be able to figure it out for me.”
At this, Amy stood and rubbed her hands together. “Excellent,” she said. “I love a challenge.”
“Great, pull up a piece of debris, I have a story to tell.”
***
“Back on Chronos Island, we’d called a conference, so all seven of us were together. It was about the hooded man, but he’s not really important to this.”
“Go on, I’m curious.”
“Well, he’s sorta’ the enemy of the Kalians. We’ve no idea who he is; we call him what we call him because he wears a long hooded cloak. He’s been trying to destabilise our organisation for almost fifty years of perceived time now.”
“Fifty years! You’re looking good for it.”
“The Kalian organisation was established almost one thousand years ago from our perspective, about five hundred from yours. It’s part of Celebi’s power that we remain this age. We assume it’s because we retain a childlike imaginative approach to problems combined with a slightly more mature outlook on life.
“Anyway, the hooded man. He can travel through time too, but he doesn’t seem to be bound to time’s tide like us.”
“Sorry, time’s tide?”
“Ah. That’s a difficult concept to get your head around. I haven’t actually had to explain this before, so stick with me. No matter where you are in time, you still move at the same rate. Of course, there’s all the stuff about relativity and that, but you’re still bound to the general flow of absolute time. It works like that with Celebi too. When we go back to Chronos Island after a mission, the same amount of time that passed on a mission will have passed there too, and there’s not a lot we can do about it- it’s one of the limitations of Celebi’s power.”
“I think I get you.”
“Wow, it took me a hell of a lot longer than that. It must be my incredible descriptive skills.” He winked. “Or my lack of attention to detail.
“So during this meeting, my Chronometer bleeped at me…”
“Chronometer?”
He shook back his sleeve, to reveal a metallic object worn on his wrist like a watch. It was egg-shaped, though about three times the size of a chicken’s egg.
“This is a Microsoft Chronometer Vista. We bought them around a millennium from now, when believe it or not Microsoft stuff is still flaming awful. Still, these aren’t too bad, with the upgrades I added. I’m the computer wizard, me. These have a holographic interface, temporal sensors and a full copy of the Kalian’s database. When they work that is; the operating system is absolutely terrible. A complete copy of the Apple iQuantum interface, too.”
“Ahem…” Amy personally couldn’t stand computer talk.
“Sorry. My Chronometer was bleeping to tell me that there was a developing anachronism.”
Amy sighed. “Excuse me again, but…”
“Look, if you’re going to stop me every time I hit a bit of jargon then we’ll be back in 2506 without Celebi’s help.”
“I understand the term,” said Amy irritably, “But if something changes in time, then shouldn’t the changes happen without warning?”
“The Kalians are safe from this, because of Celebi. When we’re on Chronos, the temporal shield protects us from any changes in the timeline, and when we’re on a mission we’re independent of relative time and so safe from any changes.
“Anyway, my Chronometer’s temporal sensors pointed me here: the collapse of Néva Island.” He stopped. “Oh God, sorry.”
Amy was silent.
“There was only one fatality. And none now.” Roan’s tone was one of attempted reassurance, but Amy didn’t feel much better about it. Roan was telling her that her home and everything she had ever known, was reduced to rubble like that they were sitting on. She hated having to live on Néva, but yet now that it was gone…
“Why?” She demanded.
“What?” Said Roan, blankly.
“Why did it collapse? What caused it?”
“The cause I have on record is because of excessive cohesium mining. The quarries collapsed, causing a chain reaction that collapsed the entire network of mining tunnels. The remains of one is probably what we’re sitting in now.”
“But doesn’t this mean that everything can be rebuilt?”
Roan shook his head. “Néva is sat on top of an enormous empty magma chamber from the extinct volcano. It won’t happen yet, but sooner or later the main settlement will fall into the hole. The mine cave-in gave it the push to start the real collapse. Néva will be around for maybe six months more, before it sinks into the sea.”
Amy thought for a moment again. “You said to Lizzie that only the cause of the events was anachronistic. I think I know what you mean. The mining here stopped five years ago; Hartley Industries moved to Prias City. They said they found a higher grade source of cohesium.”
Roan stopped and looked at her. “Well, I know that’s not right. The only Pokéball-grade cohesium in Lucidia is found here on Néva.”
“Pokéball-grade cohesium? Sorry, I never studied it.”
Roan laughed. “Typical, not learning the local trade. Mind you, I never once visited the Pokémon championships back in Cielo City. Anyway, cohesium is element 126 on the periodic table. It’s used to contain Pokémon in Pokéballs. You see, Pokémon life is made of a different sort of matter. Even the Kalians don’t fully understand it. This Pokématter, if you want to call it that, is extremely reactive with cohesium. If Pokémon come anywhere near it, about two metres or so, they are absorbed within the cohesium. This is called cohesidising, and it’s what happens every time you catch a Pokémon. Over the years, Pokémon have adapted to survive cohesidising, and through a process similar to electrolysis they can be returned to their original form. That’s basically what happens when you send out a Pokémon.”
Amy nodded. “I think I remember reading that somewhere. You were saying about coming here to sort out an anachronism?”
“Oh yeah. Normally I like to head off on my missions alone, or at least with Dominik.”
“Who?”
“Pagas Domink Hundert. German lad, a great guy. I grew up with him in Cielo City; we were the only two Kalians to know each other at the formation of the group. As Pagas his job is historical research, so we often end up on the same missions. Anyway, I usually like to go alone, ‘cos otherwise Lizzie ends up following me, like she did today. I arrived just in time to witness the collapse, and that was when I saw Lizzie turn up and rush in to rescue you.
“So basically you’re up to date now. Any thoughts about my problem?”
Amy didn’t reply for a moment. “If the quarries here were abandoned, then how can excessive mining have triggered a collapse? Surely it wouldn’t take five years.”
“That’s a fair point,” said Roan, “And one that would’ve taken me ages to notice.”
“Perhaps,” she continued, “The mining here continued in secret, and the mines on Prias were a decoy.”
“A decoy? Why would anyone go to all that effort?”
“Well alright then,” said Amy, “perhaps they’re mining something else. Except all the mineworkers here have left. Néva is a ghost town. How could they run a mine here?”
“By 2506 things like mining are fully automated.”
“Yes, but we don’t have that kind of technology yet. Mind you, you said this was anachronistic.”
“I tell you what, let me access the file on Hartley Industries.” Roan pressed a few buttons on his Chronometer. “Access database file- Jacob Hartley.”
Nothing happened.
“Damn, I bet it’s crashed again. I’ll have to reboot, hang on…” He held a button down for a few seconds, and then pressed it. With a small flash of light, hovering above the Chronometer was what was unmistakably the Windows logo.
Roan seemed to be irritated by this, but Amy was intrigued. “How does it…”
“The logo is created by a projection of photons and force fields. In layman’s terms, it’s a hologram.”
The logo disappeared and the Chronometer played the traditional Windows logging on jingle.
“There we go. Access database file- Jacob Hartley.”
A three-dimensional image appeared in front of them of a plump man wearing a suit, with lots of text around it. The Chronometer began to speak, in a German accent.
“Yacob Hartley. Jour average pompous aristocrat. Owner of sevral mining and processing vacilities in zee late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Timeline risk- minimal to none. Auf wiederhören!”
“That was Dominik,” explained Roan, “He recorded this file, being in charge of history and all. This ‘Yacob’ doesn’t seem to be the sort of person to create anachronisms.”
“Perhaps he had help, someone from the future.”
“Excellent deduction, but who?”
The two of them looked at each other, sensing a connecting idea. “The hooded man!” they said together.
“Well, if it is him, I really should report back to Chronos and get backup.” Roan seemed thoroughly unenthusiastic about the idea.
“Well, all we have is pure speculation,” said Amy with a grin, “There’s absolutely no evidence that he’s involved at all.”
“And in such a situation,” responded Roan, grinning too, “I might feel that it is unnecessary to trouble HQ with requests for support. Go Celebi!”
The time lord appeared in front of them.
“Take us to the mines on Prias, if Amy wants to come along.”
“You’ll take me? Sure!” Her voice was filled with excitement.
“What? Have you never been to Prias before? They’ve got all the best beaches.”
“I’ve never even been away from Héva before. It’s my family, they are determined to stay.”
Roan looked genuinely sympathetic. “If I were you, I would tell them where to stick it. You’re coming then?”
Amy smiled. “You needn’t even ask.”
And with that, they disappeared in a flash of green light.
***
The sensation of a time-warp, or space-warp as was the case here, was fascinating for Amy. After the initial shock, Amy began to process the sensations. She couldn’t breathe, and yet she somehow didn’t feel the need to. Her surroundings were a pure acidy-green light. She couldn’t see Roan, which she knew would trouble her normally and yet she felt calm here. This place where people shouldn’t be oddly seemed like where she was most at home. It was over in an instant that lasted an eternity.
When she returned to the natural world, she felt a sudden shiver of feeling returning to her. The mine was cold and black, with only the dimmest of lights coming from a small green LED nearby, on what she assumed and hoped was the Chronometer.
“This is cheerful,” Said Roan’s voice from the direction of the light, confirming Amy’s suspicion. “I’ll add a little light. I’m going to create some holographic night vision visors with the Chronometer, which equalise all light in the surroundings making it as clear as… well, day.”
Amy nodded, before realising he couldn’t see. “I understand,” she said.
Suddenly she felt a pair of sunglasses materialise on her head, and she saw the mine in full detail. It looked like your average cave, like those on the Néva beaches, except for small wooden supports that had been erected to bear the ceiling, which was not much above head height. She glanced across at Roan, who he was wearing mirrored sunglasses. She assumed she was too. Celebi was hovering behind him.
“Shouldn’t you recall Celebi? If there is cohesium in this mine he could become trapped.”
“Good idea, but for the wrong reasons.” He pulled out a Pokéball and returned Celebi to its cohesidised state. “Keeping a legendary Pokémon in full view is never good. I can’t even battle with Celebi, unless the opponent knows about the Kalians. Which has never happened, until the hooded man. The cohesium in here, if it is in here, shouldn’t affect Celebi. Once a Pokémon has been cohesidised, it’s entangled with that particular piece of cohesium. That’s what makes it impossible to capture other trainer’s Pokémon.”
“Quantum entanglement? I had no idea this had a practical application.”
“It’s not common knowledge that this is how cohesidisation works. Marion figured it out. Medieva Marion Seine, in charge of Pokémon research, if you’re interested.” He paused. “I shouldn’t really be telling you all this. Not any of this. I don’t know why I am doing.”
“There must be something about me,” She winked.
“Maybe,” he said seriously, missing the joke. “Anyway, cohesidisation. If a Pokémon like Celebi were to become trapped, they can be freed using tangeum. Element 124, which has the odd property of breaking entanglement bonds. Marion would be able to explain, I’m not so good with quantum physics. This is Kalian-only knowledge too, so keep your mouth shut.”
“I will,” Said Amy, with a smile. “So we came here to look for cohesium?”
“Oh yeah, sorry.”
“These visors, can they be recalibrated to detect it?”
“I think so.” He began fiddling with his Chronometer. “I should be able to make ‘em highlight trans-Uranium elements, using radiation.”
Amy nodded in understanding.
“There we go.” Amy looked up, and almost stepped back in surprise. The walls were covered with yellow-highlighted material. “Well,” she said, “that answers that question.”
“And creates another,” responded Roan. “The question of why the Kalian databanks are wrong.”
“Well, the best way to find that out would be to confront an involved party.”
Roan nodded. “Jacob Hartley.”
***
One short space-warp later, Roan and Amy found themselves outside a luxurious office.
“So how are we getting in?” asked Amy.
“I’ll need to do a bit of acting,” replied Roan, who immediately burst through the doors. The room they entered was not terribly exciting; it looked like a doctor’s waiting room. A dowdy secretary was at a desk.
“Can I help you at all?” She said testily.
“Damn right you can help me. My sister and I have travelled here all the way from Néva chasing your boss for my money.”
“Your…”
“Don’t play ignorant with me,” he snapped. “My name is Alex Hartley, and I’m the nephew of that pompous fool through there. When my father passed a way, his three billion Pokédollars should have been passed on to me. Instead, my dear uncle has someone impersonate me to claim my father’s fortune. I’m here to get it back.”
“I’d better call Mr. Hartley…”
“You do anything like that and I’ll shove those glasses…”
“Alex…” said Amy warningly. The secretary hastily withdrew her hand from the telephone receiver.
“I’ll send you in, but he has someone with him at the moment.”
“Do I look like I care?” Roan proceeded through the next set of doors, quietly chuckling to himself.
***
The best word to describe Hartley’s office would be expensive. It was an unusual blend of modern and classical with wood panelling on the walls, complete with a fireplace, but with a silver floor and desk. At the back of the room was a window that filled the entire wall, looking out onto the picturesque Prias shore. Hartley was sat in his swivel chair looking outraged at Roan and Amy, and in the corner was a man dressed in a long brown hooded cloak.
“You!” Shouted Roan, pointing at the hooded man. “I’m arresting you under the authority of the Kalians for disturbing the flow of natural time. Please come quietly, or the use of force will be necessary.”
The hooded man simply laughed. It was a cold, menacing laugh that was oddly high-pitched. Suddenly, he released a Celebi, and disappeared in a green glow.
“Damn.” He said.
“Perhaps next time it would be more appropriate to arrest him after he can’t get away,” said Amy.
“Excuse me,” said Hartley, “But I would appreciate an explanation for why you’ve come in here and attempted to arrest my business partner!”
“Well, you’re not going to get one,” said Roan. “Though I expect you know already, as any business you had with that man was no doubt criminal activity.”
“Aha!” Said Hartley. “There is absolutely no law against what we have been doing. That’s the beauty of our operation, it’s so far ahead technologically that the law hasn’t caught up with us yet.”
“What about the use of classified material?” said Amy, though it was only a half-truth. “Those technological advances were no doubt provided by that man, who could have got it from nowhere but a restricted source.”
“He developed them himself, it took him years!”
“Which I’m sure is what he told you,” responded Amy. “We demand that you shut down whatever operation you have here. We know about the secret mines on Héva.”
Hartley paused. “Regardless of what you know, I’m not coming in without a fight. Shuckle!” He released a Pokéball.
Amy went for her Lunatone, but Roan stopped her. “Kalian Pokémon are genetically engineered to be stronger. Let me handle this. Go Charizard!”
The fire dragon appeared on the floor in front of them.
“Oh please,” said Hartley, “such battle cries are hardly dignified.” Amy privately agreed.
“Like I give a damn what you think. Flamethrower!” The Charizard shot a jet of fire from its mouth. Just in time, the Shuckle withdrew into its shell. When the flames stopped, it appeared again and seemed to have suffered very little damage, though its shell was blackened.
“Stealth Rock!” ordered Hartley. The Shuckle began to spin rapidly, and a large round rock was flung away from it and disappeared out of sight.
Roan laughed. “I expected as much. The only real reason to use a Shuckle is Stealth Rock.”
“You can hardly talk about poor strategy,” said Hartley, “when you selected a Charizard to bring down a Shuckle.”
Roan shrugged. “It’s better than having to take a Stealth Rock attack on a Fire and Flying Pokémon when I would send him in later.”
“Regardless, a Charizard cannot beat a Shuckle. You have no effective attacks.”
“Don’t I?” said Roan with a grin. “Iron Tail!”
Hartley did little to hide his shock. Charizard’s tail began to shine metallically, and it slammed into Shuckle with great force. The shell cracked, and Shuckle fainted.
“A well played round,” said Hartley, returning his Shuckle to a Pokéball. “But openings aren’t everything, and my Shuckle achieved its aim. Feraligatr!”
Roan contemplated the situation for a moment. “Sunny Day!” He ordered. Charizard raised its arms, and the light shining in from the window intensified. Amy felt the room grow considerably hotter.
“Well played,” commented Hartley. “Reducing the power of water attacks was a good idea. But I expect you didn’t plan for this. Feraligatr, Dragon Dance, then proceed immediately into a Waterfall.”
The blue crocodile nodded, and flexed its muscles in an unusual ritualistic dance, before surrounding itself with water and running at Charizard. The fire dragon was badly hurt, and was knocked to the floor, but it recovered.
“You’re okay?” asked Roan. “Good. Solarbeam!” Charizard opened its mouth and created a ball of light, and sent it toward Feraligatr in a large beam.
“Ha, eat that!” Said Roan enthusiastically.
“The round’s not over yet. Mirror Coat!”
“What? No!”
Feraligatr covered itself with purple energy, and reflected the Solarbeam back at Charizard with a greater intensity. The resulting explosions obscured Amy’s view for a moment, but when the blast cleared, both Pokémon had been knocked down.
“A draw.” Commented Roan. Nicely played round. Scizor!” The metal mantis immediately took a hit from the spinning Stealth Rock, though it wasn’t too badly hurt.
“Thank you, I try. Skarmory!” The metal bird appeared in a flash of red light.
“Well,” Said Hartley. “It seems this round is already mine. Scizor is virtually incapable of damaging me.”
Roan said nothing, but gave a very small nod. “Agility,” he said half-heartedly.
Hartley laughed. “Stall tactics won’t save you! Aerial Ace!” Skarmory flew at Scizor at quite a speed. Scizor was hit hard, but it stood it’s ground. It looked extremely weak.
“Hit it with another Aerial Ace, that should finish it off!”
“Baton Pass to Manmuu!” shouted Roan, and the Scizor disappeared to be replaced by an enormous mammoth Pokémon.
Roan laughed. “You called my bluff. Scizor can take a hell of a lot more than an Aerial Ace, and I don’t admit defeat quite that easily. With my Manmuu’s Baton Passed speed, you’re in serious trouble. Snow Slide!”
Manmuu shot an Ice Beam at the ceiling above Skarmory. It jumped, making the whole office shake and the ice fall down, crushing Skarmory.
Hartley looked saddened. He recalled Skarmory, and sat on his desk. “I admit defeat. Ask me whatever you want.”
***
Outside the window, the hooded man was watching and frowning.
***
“First of all,” said Amy, “Where did the cohesium in the mines here come from?”
“Fool!” Said Hartley. “The mines here are for tangeum.”
“Tangeum, the element that can break entanglement bonds.” Repeated Roan. “You were trying to develop something that could release trainer’s Pokémon!”
“It’s more than that,” said Amy, “He was trying to develop a Pokéball that could steal Pokémon! Why else would he still need a source of cohesium? The hidden mine on Néva…”
“And I would’ve got away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling…”
“Please, just don’t say it,” said Roan. “You villains and your clichés.”
***
After his confession, it was a simple matter to explain Hartley’s crimes to the police and have him taken away. Roan had taken Amy back to Néva, and to her parent’s house.
“I must admit,” said Amy, “that I would rather stay with you.”
“You would make an excellent Kalian. But all our positions are filled.”
“You said I was supposed to be dead. Taking me out of time will stop me having an impact.”
“I think I can risk it. That’s not to say you won’t be seeing me again.” He winked, but Amy didn’t cheer up.
“Look, I would love for you to come with me, but Milleva would never agree to it. It’s just one of those things.”
“How can I live a normal life now, knowing everything I know?”
“You’ll adjust. You’ll have to.”
Amy said nothing for a moment. “Then I guess this is goodbye.”
“See you around. Live long and prosper!”
And with that, he disappeared in a green glow.
“I’ll miss you,” said Amy.
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