Chapter Text
"We're now above Lake Valor."
"Descend to 500 meters. Prepare to drop Galactic Bomb."
My airship, uncloaking, floated its way to the center of Lake Valor. The crew was filled with anticipation, and for good reason. Capturing the Lake Spirits isn't something most of them signed up for, but the plan seemed perfect. My contact at Team Galactic made a pretty good offer too. Generous payment even considering the scope of the targets, provided backup, necessary equipment… I would be more than happy to do business with them again in the future if this panned out.
Which it would. Because no one is better at this than I am, and they know it. That's why they came to me and my crew in the first place.
I delivered.
Hopefully this bomb of theirs worked the way they said it would. The specs all seem to be right, and they even have three of their most important members acting as support from the Lakeside. They seem pretty competent at least. With so much behind this operation, this was going to go swimmingly.
"Sir, we've arrived at the drop point."
"Release the Galactic Bomb."
As the latch released, the incredibly dense galactic bomb fell like a meteor, crashing into the water and sinking into the lake. All screens showed no signs of a detonation, but the bomb would detonate after impact on a delay to ensure it hit the right depth. A few more moments and sure enough-
*DDDSSSSSSEEEEEUUUUUU*
Rather than a louder, more violent explosion, the bomb erupted into a massive, expanding ball of blue swirling light in the depths of the Lake. The light slowly stopped expanding and merely permeated the water. I don't know where in Sinnoh Team Galactic got this thing or what it was made of, but I didn't ask questions they didn't want to answer.
Slowly, the water's surface above the bomb began to bubble, but according to the sensor data it wasn't the temperature. Sparks of blue lightning crackled along the surface before the blue spherical light seemingly sank, pushing the water of the lake aside, and creating a massive hole straight to the bottom of the Lake, the water seemingly held at bay by some invisible force. The water on the sides of the hole swirled upwards like a Whirlpool crackling with more lightning. An ominous violet wind blew up from the Lake Floor. The blue light shrank until it was only the size of a 3 ft sphere.
As though it was willing itself to fly, the sphere floated up its makeshift silo into the air above the Lake, still within our expectations. I don't know where exactly Team Galactic got all this data, but seeing as this went according to their plan, the result was essentially set in stone.
"Keep a visual and notify me of any abnormalities. I'm off."
"Yes, Sir!"
I quickly paced from the command room into the Hangar cross from my quarters on the upper level. Salamence was there, standing by. Wordlessly, I jumped up onto her back and rode Salamence out of the hangar and into the open air above Lake Valor. Sweeping around and into position, I saw one of the Team Galactic leaders distracting some kid with an Electivire and an Umbreon. The kid shouted some command or other, but the Galactic Leader's Toxicroak took advantage of his lapse in focus to knock the Electric Type out of commission.
Good, so I wouldn't have to worry about needless distractions. It's nice to work with a competent employer once in a while, especially after a couple recent jobs hadn't paid out. His lackeys threw out a small swarm of Golbat as my aerial backup while he cleaned up the brat's team. They were a poor match for my prey, but fast enough to distract and dangerous enough that they couldn't be ignored. Just enough for me to get a shot off with my Gauntlet.
It was time to start the capture.
"Salamence! Hyper Beam!"
"GRRRROOOAAAAAH~!!!"
A rapid yellow stream of concentrated energy erupted from her mouth and quickly impacted the floating sphere, distorting space around it. It began to glow brighter, bright enough to damage the eyes if not for my visor, until the light dissipated revealing the still form of Azelf. Its small blue body unfurled as it levitated in the air, both of its long tails fanning out on either side of its body. Its bright green eyes fluttered open as it began to orient to its surroundings.
Not that we would give it much chance.
It quickly identified me as the primary threat as I used the Golbats as a screen. Its eyes and the red gem on its forehead glowed as it willed a wave of psychic energy in my direction. Salamence darted out of the way, and the wave finished off a few of the Golbat, causing them to pass out and plummet into the water.
Acceptable losses.
"Golbat, Supersonic!"
The Galactic Leader shouted the order from the beach and the Golbat all scattered, screeching so intensely that they visibly distorted the air, blasting sonic energy at the Pokémon. Predictably, it evaded, but that's all the pitiful thing could do when it was so surrounded. However, it noticed a patch around it where the Golbats were slightly thinner. Thinking to escape, it took them out with another wave of psychic energy and fled.
Right into my trap.
Salamence hovered into its path, forcing it to stop in its tracks.
"Hmhmhmhm~" I laughed.
Now!
I quickly aimed and let loose a beam of energy from my gauntlet as the psychic type desperately launched a wave of psychic energy at me. The two passed each other and the wave of energy crashed into me. It felt like a wave of physical pain and nausea crashed against my brain. I stood strong, and my mind felt the full force of an intense strain, but as soon as the feeling came, it went. The beam had hit Azelf, cutting it off mid attack and petrifying it. The crew had already sent a Cyberdisk to pick up the now frozen Lake Guardian before it could begin to fall. It formed a glass-like casing around the product and hovered down to the Lakeside where the Galactic Commanders were waiting.
Some guardian that was. This was almost too easy. I had taken a hit, sure, but I had expected something called a "Legendary Pokémon" to put up more of a fight. Still, money's money, and I wouldn't turn down a payday this easy.
"Sir!" The Comms officer called out through my headset. "Galactic Observation Squads are giving us the Red! Expect the two spirits at any moment!"
"Track Distortion!"
"On it! …Lakeside, 0-100ft!"
When psychic type Pokémon teleported, the area they were about to teleport to always displaced the matter in a given area. After all, it wouldn't do to teleport something inside your own body, or teleport yourself into a wall. More obviously, however, psychic energy had to move the space here in order to make that space for the user, and that was easy to track. It made predicting where Pokémon would teleport incredibly predictable with the right equipment.
Salamence sped off to the Lakeside as I activated my Visor, tracking distortions in space until I could see two lumps of psychic energy right next to each other. Phase 3 was about to begin.
Two more brightly glowing spheres of light burst into being, shining like small stars before fading and unveiling Uxie and Mespirit, the other two Lake Guardians. Two at once was a bit trickier, but still predictable. They were here to save their precious friend after all.
And they immediately took the bait, starting to charge up psychic attacks on the Galactic Commander holding their friend. When the flamethrower jettisoned towards them from the woods, they were barely able to dodge. The other Galactic commanders and their Pokémon came out of hiding. They might have known about J and the Toxicroak because of some Legendary psychic connection they all had, but Azelf didn't know about this ambush. They had lost their momentum and they had barely even arrived.
"Now, Supersonic!"
More screeches split the air as the two Guardians tried to evade. As tactically sound as it would have been to split up, it wasn't a good idea for them here. If they split up to dodge, that would make it all the easier to isolate them and take them out one at a time. It was not something they could risk, and so they had to expend more of their attention dodging the sonic blasts while not getting in each other's way. Desperate, they made a break for it in the first gap they saw.
They really must be connected. After all, they made the same mistake as their little friend in the capsule.
The two stopped themselves before getting too close to Salamence, and both immediately looked upwards and fired two massive bolts of psychic lightning straight into the sky. I had Cyberdisks on my back set to redirect electric attacks if need be, but the lightning wasn't even remotely attracted to it. The lightning simply went past the clouds, and dissipated into the sky.
Whatever that was, it could wait. I hesitated from the little light-show they put on, but I was quick to collect myself and fire a blast each at Mesprit and Uxie. The shot on Uxie went wide, but Mespirit was hit and out of commission. The crew detached one of the disks to catch it as I engaged the final guardian, who looked pained and angry. Before I could fire another shot, Uxie let out a torrent of psychic energy. It washed over me and assaulted my mind. I could feel my consciousness bouncing around on the inside of my skull. Adrenaline coursed through my veins. The distortions in space blew past me like a gale wind, cracking my Visor as the mental attack battered my brain like someone had unleashed a hydro pump directly into my ear. I was going to have to replace that visor.
And that pissed me off.
Seeing my shaken mental state, Uxie did the one thing it shouldn't have. It got cocky. It wore a smug grin on its face watching me reel from its attack, as though it had already won. For a being of knowledge, it was a pretty stupid move. I reared up from clutching my head and fired a shot directly at it. The little thing was too caught up in its brief success to react to the beam. A clean hit.
It was as though it had forgotten that a threat was right in front of it. It was satisfying to wipe that stupid smug look off its face.
I had taken a hit or two, but that went perfectly otherwise. Obviously, the crew was going to celebrate. This mission could not have gone more smoothly. Our collaborators had been of great help in this operation, and we would be handsomely paid for our efforts. Even aside from the money, the acclaim that would come from capturing the Legendary Pokémon of the Lakes was next to none. Though the Regigigas operation hadn't gone this well thanks to some meddlesome trainers, this was an undeniable success.
Obviously I was going to succeed, but the ease of this mission almost felt…hollow.
That, however, was a stupid thing to be thinking about such an incredibly successful mission.
"Salamence, good work."
Salamence roared in triumph as it took me down to finish our deal with Team Galactic.
We swooped down to the Lakeside where our contacts were collecting the goods. A redheaded woman turned to me with a smug smile.
"Excellent work, Pokémon Hunter J. I hope you're not hurt~" a redheaded Galactic Admin said, almost mockingly.
Unlike my contact, the Galactic Commanders were far less tolerable.
"See, we couldn't just let ourselves be pushed around by the legendary trio, of course. We are the chosen ones after all!" A purple haired one followed up, arrogance dripping off her every word. They didn't have to be polite, or sane even. If these nutjobs want to thank me for a job that easy they are more than welcome to do so. Whatever pleasantries they wanted to say are of no concern to me compared to my lingering headache.
The third one walked up after his grunts had loaded the goods onto their Helicopter. "Hunter J, well done! You have your payment as agreed."
Immediately after hearing the transfer had been made, I hopped back on Salamence and made a combee-line for the Hangar. Then, after returning Salamence to her Pokéball, I walked back to the cockpit. The headache wasn't going away. In fact, it was getting stronger by the second.
"Ready for departure?"
"We're ready, sir!"
I sat down, the pounding at the back of my mind getting stronger and stronger. What felt like a mild headache earlier was starting to hurt. I was going to have to get this checked out once we cleared Port Valor…
"Alright, return to base!"
The pounding was getting worse. A scowl formed on my face. I walked into this job expecting the most exciting work I've ever done, and while I certainly left richer, I wasn't sated. This couldn't be the peak of Pokémon Hunting. This was an embarrassment! I'd expected more from the legendary Lake Trio! Could I even call this my achievement? Team Galactic did most of the groundwork getting the necessary pieces of the plan together and insisted on providing most of their own Golbats. Argh just thinking about how little resistance they posed in this whole operation got me angry! Was this the headache talking or-
KCKCKRRRRRRRRRR!!!!
Loud claps of Thunder echoed through the control room as the entire airship violently shook. A massive explosion rocked the ship and intense sirens started to blare. Something attacked us?! My body rattled as the airship began to lose altitude. We were falling!
"Increase engines to max power! Maintain our speed!"
"Engine's losing power, fast!"
"Sir, we've lost control!"
Our engines were hit! We were going to crash into the lake! Panic surged through my still aching mind as I struggled to figure out what had hit us. There was a peal of thunder, then-.
My mind instantly remembered that attack the Lake Guardians had launched into the air. It just came back down! Wait, why am I thinking about this right now? I have to get out of here!
I collected myself and looked out the window of the cockpit, before I had even realized it, a giant wall of swirling water was the only thing visible. How had we fallen so fast!? I had barely even collected myself just now, and we were already- we were about to hit the vortex!
"Every man for himself, evacuation protocol!"
I couldn't tell if I was thinking clearly or not from the adrenaline that was spiking in my veins. I struggled to get up as our airship was tipping forward right as it was about to hit the water. The incline to the hangar was getting worse and worse, and it was already t a 45-degree angle. Pushing my calves to their limit I made my way to the door and tried desperately to open it, letting my body weight fall on it.
KSSSSH!!!!!
The glass behind me shattered. I could barely make out the screams of my crew over the sound of rapidly rushing water. I violently swung around, flinging my visor off as I saw a torrent of water barreling toward me.
A cold chill barely had time to run down my spine as I hung from the door. Death was rushing towards me. I couldn't fly away from this.
I wasn't going to die here! I wasn't getting tricked like this!
Time seemed to slow down. Panic overtook me. Then the water hit. I felt a resounding crack in my ankle as it got caught on something when the torrent threw me back. It was like getting hit by a truck. The force of the water bashed me into the door as I curled up and covered my head with my hands and turned. My shoulder struck the wall, sending bolts of insane, painful sensation throughout my body. Water rushed into my open ears; my hair was violently tossed into my face as I put my hands up desperately trying to hold my breath. Desperately trying not to scream. Desperately trying not to vomit. I could barely control my arms as the turbulent water pinned me to the wall. My gauntleted hand felt itself losing strength. I was losing strength… I-
I'm not sure what possessed me. Was it a moment of genius in the midst of a crisis? Was I running on autopilot? Had I thought this through before? I can't say why I did it, but I pressed my arm cannon into my stomach as tightly as I could.
If I was going out, I was going out on my own terms.
I pulled the trigger.