“How could this happen?”
At the question a room full of the most powerful people in Hoenn simultaneously find themselves unable to speak for some unknown reason, looking around as if expecting someone else to have retained the ability.
“How. Could this. Happen? What’s been going on and what part of this government is so incompetent that we let it get this far?”
The secure bunker they’re sitting in, deep underneath Evergrande, has nothing but stark concrete walls for the people here to distract themselves, but it’s clear they’re trying.
Eventually Chief Officer Jenny taps the table.
“This morning at approximately eight twenty nine AM, the ambient type energy surrounding the volcano spiked, triggering alerts of volcanic activity. At eight thirty one I received a priority message from a sister of my clan heading the Mauville police department. She reported that one Professor Dacite called claiming the group of interest ‘Team Magma’ is planning to fire an experimental device into Mt. Chimney with the assumed intent of causing a volcanic eruption. One minute seventeen seconds later I received another message claiming the process had already started with somewhere between thirty and forty minutes to eruption.”
The Chief Officer pauses to take a drink of water and in that time the speaker of the senate taps the table.
“Why isn't Champion Stone here for this meeting? His normal ‘excursions’ are bad enough but we are in a crisis right now–”
“Champion Stone’s location is currently unknown.” The speaker of the league interrupts. “We believe he’s caving somewhere in the southwestern islands, all available resources are being spent on getting back in contact.”
The speaker of the senate grimaces at that, allowing an unpleasant look to linger at the man across the table before looking back at Chief Officer Jenny.
“Well… since the volcano hasn't erupted it’s obvious you stopped them, so can we skip to the more immediately pertinent parts of this? Like the machine, do we have it?”
The older woman’s nose twitches as she shakes her head.
“We didn't."
“...What?” The speaker of the senate asks slowly, eyes widening.
“We didn't stop them. I brought the–”
She’s cut off as the room becomes a mess of raised voices echoing off the bare concrete into illegibility, each person only raising their voices higher to be heard through the din.
Until the ear piercing sound like nails on a chalkboard cuts through it all and causes everyone to quiet with a wince, the sound emanating from a key being scraped across the metal table by the director of intelligence.
He looks up from the report he’d been reading, untouched by anyone else as it sits in front of them, and nods respectfully at the Chief Officer.
“Please, continue Ma’am.”
She nods back and clears her throat.
“I brought us to Alert Condition 2, sent the bunker order to preserve continuity of government, and coordinated with the league and the director of national defence for a first response.” She takes a moment to sigh and rub the bridge of her nose. “Unfortunately past this point information is still uncertain, but before learning the process of eruption had already started a message was sent to the local gym leader, Flannery Moore, to make ready for an assault on the volcano. However, after a phone call with Professor Dacite for pertinent information a second message was sent to Ms. Moore but it seems she had already left by that time, acting on her own information.”
“Whose information?" The speaker of the senate asks, now finally picking up the hastily compiled report and opening it to its first page.
“The same person who made the report in section 5.33b I assume.” The director of intelligence chimes in, to which the Chief Officer shakes her head.
“It is unknown at this time, section 5.33b is a tip by a private citizen, of which several versions were delivered by fax over the past two weeks, but were disregarded by the local station as conspiracy until today.” She flips through the pages of her own report then looks back up from the table. “At eight forty four AM the type energy readings began to fluctuate wildly, at eight forty eight they suddenly dropped back to normal levels. Then, at eight fifty one, Ms. Moore called on a league supplied satellite phone reporting when she’d arrived the machine was already destroyed with many injured.”
“We caught them?” The speaker of the senate asks, flipping quickly to the end of the document. “...Wait, why are there…”
The Chief Officer exhales slightly louder than necessary and the speaker of the senate closes his mouth.
“At eight fifty seven the rapid response core of the National Guard’s second division arrived on the scene, medical personnel remained to assist the injured while the majority of the unit formed a perimeter around the volcano to prevent any attempted escape. The photos you see in section 6.1 were taken a few minutes after the fact, showing the state of the scene when they arrived." She flips to the relevant page on her report, a picture of a human in a stretcher being airlifted while medics continue to work down below.
But they’re outnumbered by the amount of chansey working alongside them.
The Chief Officer taps the page as she continues.
“The bunker complex found in section 4 is being more thoroughly investigated, the long range warp panel shown in section 4.3 is of key interest. As of ten minutes ago everyone found on top of Mt. Chimney have been accounted for and either arrested or detained for interrogation and debriefing. But currently the source and identity of the chansey are unknown, as is the condition of the members of Team Magm–”
“Eleven members of Team Magma require hospitalization or medical observation post healing of a severe injury, four remain in critical condition with structurally discohesive blunt trauma, severe cranial swelling, and neural hypoxia.” Head Nurse Joy interrupts, voice the picture of professional courtesy as she places her finger on the report. “And these chansey, they’re from this year’s Jubili clutch, batch number 65013. They’re supposed to still be in the Jubili nursing school, but…” She shrugs, smiling softly at the entire room. “You will all have to forgive this group’s adventurism for causing any confusion.”
Chief Officer Jenny nods cautiously, but as she opens her mouth to respond the Joy continues.
“But with all this excitement over, they will be released.” She says without a change in tone or smile. “The clan will hold an internal inquiry and report our findings as soon as possible, but I think the last thing anyone wants is for their continued detainment to cause any… delays with so much chaos already.”
Half the table winces at that, Chief Officer Jenny strongest of all despite her normally stoic expression, and she gives a sharp nod.
“A list of questions will be provided as soon as possible.” She says, holding her own neutral expression as the Head Nurse’s unblinking smile doesn't move.
“We’ll take them under advisement.”
The Head Nurse straightens her posture and looks back down at the report, and almost immediately after the speaker of the senate taps the table again.
“So… that’s it? We don't know anything? Can we even tell if we’re in any danger right now?” He asks, looking around the table. “I don't believe this table even has the authority to lower the Alert Condition. Where’s the speaker of national defence?”
“The speaker of national defence and his arm of NDCG are siloed in a separate location for redundancy.” The director of intelligence says without looking up from the report. “And to comment on section 5.33b, to call this a ‘tip’ is an insult. This is an intelligence dossier, do we know who made it?
The Chief Officer shakes her head.
“The phone number the fax was sent from belongs to the library of the Jubili Medical School, not a personal number.” She says before turning to look at the speaker of the senate. “The question of risk is one of the main reasons we are here. The speaker of national defence has sent a message motioning that we lower the AC to three. This report was compiled to inform that decision.”
The head diplomat taps the table.
“From my chair we need to lower our alerts as soon as possible, it’s been near impossible to keep our international friends informed on what’s going on with all this security and obfuscation. I don't need a complete picture to know that us going into lockdown and scrambling like this is making people nervous.”
The director of intelligence taps the table.
“I’m not comfortable lowering the AC until we’ve locked down this ‘meteorite.’ The site that dug it up as well, has the NDCG locked that place down?”
“Gym Leader Roxanne was tasked with securing the site, the First Division of the National Guard should be arriving to assist within half an hour from now.” The speaker of the league answers.
“Good. Then I agree to the motion.” The director says. “We’ll soften the hazard to the public to avoid a panic, furthermore I propose a motion that we invoke the emergency powers act to begin invasive psychic probing immediately–”
“Wh– You cannot propose another motion while one is already on the floor, and you cannot have it both ways with the public like that.” The speaker of the senate interrupts. “Either the public knows the danger they were in and they agree with you or my friends in the senate throw us all out of office with a vote of no confidence for abuse of power.” He pauses for a moment, flipping back through the pages of the report and continuing with a more deliberate tone. “...As for this… Yes, I agree that lowering the Alert Condition is for the best.”
Chief Officer Jenny nods after the speaker of the league also agrees to the motion with a wave, then signals for one of the soldiers standing guard at the door to report the result to the communications room down the hall.
The woman salutes crisply and walks through the door as the Chief Officer looks back to the table.
“It will take a few minutes for the order to go through and for the blast doors to open up again.”
The rest of the table nods and the speaker of the senate taps the table.
“Is there anything else we need to discuss?”
—--
–_–
—--
“You’re lying! You’re lying!” Someone screams from down the hall, echoing down the hall of the police detainment area. “We would never do something like that! No one would do that! We were reclaiming land from the ocean for everyone! Get your hands off me!”
Boss watches as the member of Team Magma is half carried past the window of the break room by two humans in matching green camouflage pattern uniforms.
She’s one of four siblings that decided not to go stay in their ball after having to go in to get back down the volcano. Even Artist, who normally hates her pokeball, decided not to pop back out after the balls were placed in this room and the few who did pop back out were informed to stay in here until someone comes and gets them.
But she understands why so many just want to drift off in that comforting darkness.
Pictures flash through her mind, cries of pain, distant eyes, and so much red–
Boss feels herself warble in distress, but quickly turns and smiles reassuringly at the others who look at her.
It’s different from the photos in the anatomy textbooks, far less clean than the professional cadaver dissections, even the photos of the wounds were just less… real.
“...an’t believe we need to tell these idiots not to contaminate their interrogations by telling the enemy what we think they were doing. The jail cells are overcrowded already with these guys, we can't do any more isolation.” The soldier’s voice rises again as he comes back in the other direction.
“Dude, I’m pretty sure telling them their charges is like… a legal right or something.”
“Legal nothing! They tried to blow up a volcano on us!” The man snips back before his voice fades again.
They’ve been here for almost twenty minutes, and in that time she’s seen the hallway outside be a mess of bodies pressing against each other while leading struggling red clad criminals somewhere deeper into the building.
With the return of near complete silence Boss yawns and takes a sip of coffee from the paper cup she’d found in this breakroom and grimes at the taste.
She’s already been awake for seventeen hours, what’s a few more?
The ‘mon takes another long sip of coffee, then jolts back to look at the door as the unmistakably familiar thudding footfalls grow louder and the window at the door is flooded with pink before–
“Big Sis.” Boss calls out as the door opens revealing her sister, her attempt at pumping the normal energy into the call falling flat as she watches the ‘mon shove herself through a door half her size to get into the room.
Stepping through with the sound of straining wood, the ‘mon looks down at her sister with an expression painfully trying to appear as blank.
“Chansey.” She says neutrally, eyes roving over the three others who’re sitting or standing around the break room. “Everyone.”
The others offer slightly incorrect smiles and waves, but notably do not walk over to their newly arrived sibling.
Boss shuffles her feet slightly in the silence.
“...What’d they talk to you about?” She asks eventually.
It had been kinda hard to figure out while in the pokeball, but she realized that her sister was being taken somewhere else even before she’d pushed herself out in the breakroom, so she’d assumed they wanted to talk to her.
“They wanted an after action report, what I did and what I saw.” Big Sis answers in that same painful neutrality, holding her posture as still and upright as possible like a statue. “I was in the process of writing one up for them before they abruptly ended the interrogation and had me go here.”
“Oh…” Boss says eventually, taking a step closer to her sibling and looking up to meet her eyes.
When Boss was a happiny everything seemed so big, Matron, her caretakers, the human nurses, her partner, all of them towered above her like giants, feeling almost larger than life itself. But as she got older, she got bigger, and despite the fact it feels like the rest of the world is changing, she knows it’s just her.
The day she woke up and realized she could meet the eyes of Matron and all the caretakers she was raised by made her realize that the world felt like it got so much smaller.
But as she looks up at her sister, the ‘mon realizes that even as the world shrunk, Big Sis never changed, the angle Boss has to tilt back to meet her siblings eyes is exactly the same as the nursery, like the world really had shrunk all around them and her sister’s with all her absolute certainty just refused to shrink with it.
Big Sis looks down at her, and takes a second to pick apart every detail reflected in those calm eyes like she always does before speaking.
“As they terminated the interrogation early I took the time to give an abbreviated list of suggested action points, the presumed teleportation device the leader escaped through being top priority.” She states with almost no inflection in her tone. “...I would have preferred they let me complete my after action report immediately.”
Boss nods, reaching out to press an arm against her sibling’s side in reassurance.
“It’s alright.”
The instant her arm makes contact with her sister’s bulk, she sees a flash of raw emotion cross her sibling’s eyes, and at that exact same time the undivided attention of the other three ‘mon in the room is focused entirely on their Big Sis.
For a moment Boss is taken aback by what she saw in that flash, and the sympathetic feelings in her core that she’d been too self absorbed to notice.
The ‘mon doesn't seem to notice the attention, her agonizingly passive gaze remaining locked to Boss’s eyes.
“You disobeyed my… instruction to leave.” She says with the precise clip of a machine. “In fact, you all increased your risk margin.”
Boss presses her arm firmer into her sister’s bulk, reaching out with the love burning in her core towards the burning star she knows exists opposite.
“It’s alright.”
“Furthermore you actively put yourself in danger, heading up to that volcano without the years of proper training needed for managing the risks you just took.”
“It’s alright.” “It’s ok.” Boss and Chansey say in tandem, her sibling having walked across the room to lean up against the much larger ‘mon’s side.
The star of love in her chest burns hotter and brighter than anyone’s, but as Boss reaches out it draws away, retreating as if spooked by the sensation.
“Your rearing, education, and training represents a considerable investment of resources on the part of the organization we are a part of. Throwing it away foolishly disrespects that effort and represents a massive waste besides.” She says with no inflection. “This will not happen again.”
“It’s alright.” Boss answers among a chorus of responses, only growing louder as more siblings emerge from their balls and walk over to crowd in with their siblings.
“I mean it, such waste will not be tolerated.” She states, eyes unblinking since she walked into the room.
She’s answered by an incoherent mass of replies as the crowd shoves and jostles closer in all around her.
The endless burning star of love keeps trying to retreat, but she’s surrounded, insistent and unconditional, it’s offered with more certainty than the real sun in the sky.
Their elder sister stands like she’s alone, pretending the pressing mass of pink flesh all around her doesn't exist as she holds herself upright and firm, still holding unblinking eye contact as her star weakly attempts to push the love away.
For the first time she breaks eye contact, looking instead at the space directly above the eyes, hesitates, then slowly opens her mouth.
“...I thought I killed them.” She says with a pause, and her sister understands every layer of that statement almost without needing to think about it.
The intentional ambiguity on whether she wanted to kill them.
The regret that she failed to do it.
The pain of doing something she felt she had no choice in.
And the calm certainty underneath it all that she would do it again.
And again.
And again.
There’s only one response to every layer of that statement, and the endless –constant– offered love does not flicker for even a moment.
“It’s alright.” Boss says, one more voice added to a tide of voices that rise and fall like the waves of an ocean.
Then, slowly, their elder sister blinks, and for the first time seems to actually see the mass of siblings she’s surrounded by.
Big Sis’s lips drift into a shadow of amusement.
“...It seems I’ve been caught.” She says quietly, her posture relaxing as she eases into the pile that formed around her with a sigh.
The warmth and comforting pressure surrounding her has Boss feel the caffeine rapidly losing the battle to keep her awake, a state that seems to be shared by at least a few around her if the sleepy chirrups are anything to go by. But they can't be sleeping right now, it’s not even noon, and this is not the time to be slacking off. The room’s too full anyways, most of everyone needs to get back inside their balls.
…In a minute.
Almost without realizing it, the ‘mon notices she’d lowered herself to be sitting on the floor at some point, leaning almost her entire weight against the comforting mass of her biggest sister.
But just as she feels her mind driving away, Big Sis’s voice rumbles something too quietly for her to hear, just loud enough to make her trill drowsily and crack one eye to look up at the ‘mon, seeing her wide awake and carefully looking around the room.
The sight has something deep inside untense, and her eye drifts closed once more.