CW: Mentions of child abuse and manipulation. Depictions and mentions of torture. Blood, violence and death (human and pokemon) abound.
Is it better to do something because it is right, or because it benefits you?
"He's waiting in the other room," Matori said with a curt nod. "He seemed agitated." His secretary pushed back from the desk and rose to her feet, walking over towards the doors to the conference room.
Giovanni drew himself up to his full height and followed her. It would not do for the Champion to see him with shoulders sagging and exhaustion dogging his steps. He had only just arrived back in Viridian, finally returned after chasing down another lead on Mewtwo that went nowhere. At least this time, he had something that might be useful.
"Lance usually is," he replied. "He seldom graces us with his presence because something good has happened." He crossed the foyer with Matori, hand diving into his suit and removing the small artefact within. "Perhaps this will lighten his mood."
"Is that going to help us?" she asked, gesturing at the small stone tablet in his hand.
Giovanni looked back at her. Matori had been at his side since before he had even begun working with Lance when they had founded Rocket and taken up positions within the Indigo League. She was perhaps the most loyal among his organization, though there were many who might dispute that.
He smiled softly at his old friend. "I certainly hope so, Matori. It required a significant amount of effort to obtain." He gestured towards the doors. "If you would be so kind."
Matori blushed slightly and pulled the doors open for the boss. The Champion was waiting. He was tall, almost the same height as Giovanni. But he cut an imposing, powerful figure with the long flowing cape hanging from his shoulders.
"You're late," Lance said coldly. "I thought we agreed that wouldn't happen."
Giovanni waved off his concern as the doors shut behind him. He may have trusted Matori implicitly, but only three people in the world were permitted to have the knowledge he was about to impart. Lance and he were two thirds of that trio, with the third recently retired from League activity. "I was delayed. More of the Professor's work, if I understand. He interfered yet again."
Lance frowned. "What were you doing getting involved with him? You were explicitly ordered to remain out of contact and out of his way."
"I was doing what you asked. Our other objectives superseded your order," Giovanni replied, leaving a bitter tone on the final word. He often allowed Lance the illusion of control, but he would not tolerate direct authority over himself. He lifted the small stone tablet, handing it over. "You asked for a solution, so I found one for you."
Lance took the small, worn stone tablet. "Is it safe to be handling it like this?" he asked. "This looks ancient."
"I have the relevant information copied to my archives. I thought you would prefer the real thing to a photograph." He cocked his head slightly to the side. "I know how you adore relics." Giovanni grabbed one of the remotes from the table and turned on the screen hung on the opposite wall. "I've already begun analyzing it and I think this may point to a potential countermeasure, one that could make Mewtwo's creation irrelevant."
Lance raised an eyebrow. "I thought that abomination was supposed to make all other legends irrelevant," he said, condescension creeping into his voice.
The screen lit up as Giovanni fell silent, a blown up image of the tablet appearing on screen. A strange creature, obscured by smoke, was portrayed behind a series of rings. Ominous glyphs were leaking through the rings, reliefs of deities peering from behind the glyphs. Three mythical deities lay before the rings, all of them battered and broken in defeat.
"What am I looking at?" Lance asked. He turned to Giovanni, an eyebrow raised. "It seems as if you bring me unsubstantiated myth and call it salvation."
Giovanni shrugged. "Our foes are myths themselves. With the gods of the natural world stirring and devastation creeping closer, we can no longer wait for decade long plans to bear fruit. We need a countermeasure now. Perhaps one can be found among our foes?"
Lance looked up at the screen again. "And what is this countermeasure called?"
Giovanni grinned. He knew he had Lance now. The moment he was asked to elaborate, he knew he had hooked the Champion. "Hoopa," he said. "A creature sealed away by ancient Kalosians. It is said to have been capable of summoning a worthy opponent for any foe."
Lance scowled, a dour expression worn on his face. Giovanni had not seen so much as a single smile on his face since Lance had replaced old Samuel Oak the year prior on the Champion's throne. The burden seemed to be crushing the new Champion, leaving a man whose cape hid sagging shoulders and a limping gait. It was one of the reasons Giovanni had put forward Lance's claim to the Champion's throne rather than pursue his own. "This is hardly something we can use. How would we even deign to control such a creature?"
He waved off the concern again. "We have twisted science to our purposes before. It should be no small matter to do so again."
"It would not be, had you not failed quite so spectacularly." Lance folded his arms across his chest. "You lost yourself the assistance of Indigo's finest minds after Mewtwo's escape. To a man, they have all refused any further contact with you." Lance smirked and Giovanni had to discard his mental image of a tired and broken Champion. "You have painted us into a corner with your arrogance."
Giovanni sighed, feigning boredom. He knew the way down to Lance's core. He knew how to bring the Champion to his heel. "Is there anything else? Or should I begin?"
Lance sighed heavily. He turned, swishing the cape with him. "Get me results, Giovanni. I've heard rumblings from Hoenn and there have been yet more sightings of Lugia in the Orange Islands. Gods stir and yet we are no closer to reigning in your last mistake." He glanced back over his shoulder. "You have a month. Give me something we can use. Before your mistakes consume us all."
Giovanni did not speak as the Champion departed. He simply watched the man go, wondering if perhaps he should have been the one to challenge Oak and sit atop the throne himself. The doors closed behind Lance and Giovanni let himself sink slowly into his chair.
Matori entered the room, cracking open the door quietly. "Sir?" she asked carefully. "Shall I call for Archer?"
He looked up at her, exhaustion no longer hidden for Lance's sake. "No thank you, Matori," he said in a ragged tone. "I think for now, I would like to rest for a moment. I do not have the patience to deal with Archer for the moment."
She bowed deeply. "Yes, boss."
Matori departed the room, leaving the crime lord alone. He leaned back in the chair and sighed heavily. It was going to be a very long and busy month.
The phone on his desk beeped twice. Giovanni reached over and tapped the blinking button.
"Silver has arrived," Matori's voice said.
Giovanni glanced up at the doors. His son was here. His first and only child, a monument to all his sins. "Send him in," he said curtly.
The doors opened half a moment later. His son strode in, crimson red hair hanging down over his sullen face. The red glow of the boy's mechanical eye was half obscured by his hair, but there was no mistaking the glint of metal covering half his face.
He moved with purpose, an uneven gait betraying the injury that had sparked his transformation. Despite all of Rocket's achievements, he still walked with a limp, the remnants of his human body struggling to keep up with the cybernetic enhancements Giovanni had made.
The boy sat, regarding Giovanni coldly. It was nothing outside of the usual. Silver loathed Giovanni and the boy's father loathed what he had done to him. "I take it that you have something more important for me than babysitting some scientist?"
"I do," Giovanni replied. He pressed the button on his remote, turning on the screen to the tablet he had recovered. "Asset retrieval."
Silver looked up at the screen and Giovanni saw his mother's likeness for a brief moment. It was gone in a flash, replaced by the cold cybernetics that Silver had been implanted with. Giovanni pushed the disgust away as he dropped the dossier in front of Rocket's soldier. He did not like showing Silver he was disgusted by him. The boy was one of Rocket's best, he was allowed to have his father's pride.
"What's the target?" the boy asked. He thumbed through the dossier, not sparing a glance up at his father.
"A Kalosian artefact," Giovanni began, clicking through to the picture of the particular estate. "Currently in the possession of a noble family from the Kalosian Rivière." He glanced back at the boy as he placed the remote back on the table. "I'm sure they won't be a problem for someone of your particular skills."
Silver was quiet for a moment, his eyes scanning the briefing that Giovanni had pushed towards him. He shut the folder and sighed in annoyance. "Is that all?" he asked, his steely grey eye flashing back up toward his father. The red one hadn't moved, remaining solely fixed on Giovanni since he had entered the room.
Giovanni felt the pang in his chest, the utter disgust with what he had allowed Ariana had turned their son into. "That is all," he said, allowing the moment to pass. He could not allow himself to feel guilt, not allow compassion to weaken his resolve. He needed Silver as he was, even if it cut him to his soul to see it. He needed a soldier and his son was the best. "You will find yourself a new assignment if you succeed."
The boy looked back up at him. Giovanni saw the hatred there. While it hurt him to see, the hatred gave the boy strength. Strength that he could use. Strength that made him perfect for the job. "It will be done, father." He rose, lifting the dossier that Giovanni had pushed towards him. "What is the timeline?"
"I need the artefact within the week. Your travel has already been arranged and a drop point set up for you to hand off the artefact in Lumiose."
Silver nodded again and turned away. He strode from the room without a further word, leaving Giovanni alone with the guilt of failed fatherhood.
Giovanni stood in his usual place by the window. A week had passed and Silver had not returned. It was not in Giovanni's nature to worry, but he could not help the gnawing pit of fear growing in his stomach. Not for his son, he had buried any of those feelings back when he had departed down this path and allowed Ariana to remake the boy for war, but for the potential catastrophe that Lance would rain down on him if Silver was discovered.
Matori burst into the room, blustering at the imposing man behind her. Lance ignored her entirely and set his eyes on the reason he had come. He threw back his cape and placed an intricate porcelain jar on Giovanni's desk. Gold rings wrapped around the base, winding their way through the hole in the centre of the bottle.
"Lance," Giovanni said quietly. He could see plainly enough what had happened. His fears had come to pass. It just remained to see how much he had lost. "I can explai-"
"No," said the Champion. "allow me to explain." He stepped away, turning to look out at the city and ignoring Matori's concerned squeak.
Giovanni dismissed his secretary with a wave. As much as he trusted her, she did not need to hear this admonishment. "I sen-"
"You openly moved against a member of a foreign League," he said, cutting off Giovanni's protest before it began. "You sent your pet assassin, a boy who should be your son, to kill members of a foreign state nobility and steal a very sacred artefact from their vault."
Giovanni frowned. He needed a way out, a way to turn off of what had happened. Silver was gone and he could not stand to dwell on that for the time being. He had to move forward.
"You did give me a month to get results. I needed the artefact and the boy was my best chance of obtaining it."
Lance simply stared at him, studying his visage for any cracks. He shook his head slowly and turned back to look at the city. "He is alive, you'll be happy to know."
Giovanni let out a breath that he hadn't realized he was holding and sighed in relief. He paused for a moment as the stunned revelation that Silver was still alive sank in. His chest tightened when he realized what that entailed.
Lance turned to look at him. "So you do care for him? I had gotten the sense that there was no love among your family."
There was silence between them for a long moment. Lance was right. He did care, despite everything that he had put the boy through. Whether by love or a sense of investment, Giovanni refused to answer.
Giovanni turned at last, sensing that Lance was determined to make it difficult for him. "Is he alright?"
"He is alive," Lance repeated. "That is all I can say. The Kalosians captured him three days ago, after he handed off the artefact to one of your associates. I picked up the associate upon his return to Kanto." He folded his arms across his chest. "They are unable to discern his identity, but Grand Duchess Diantha has taken a personal interest in the theft."
Giovanni walked back to his desk, sitting heavily in his chair. He eyed the strange bottle and felt the tension hanging in the air. "Does she suspect Indigo's involvement?"
Lance turned back away, leaving his back to Giovanni. "Not at the moment, but she is on the scent. It is but a matter of time until she knows who stole from her."
"What are our options?" Giovanni asked quickly. He paused as he realized the image he had just portrayed for Lance.
"Options?" Lance scoffed, seizing upon the opening to admonish his equal. "What options? For rescue?" He shook his head and Giovanni swore that he could have seen the hint of a satisfied smirk on his face. "The Kalosians have him now. Pray that they kill him quickly, else he will spend an eternity on the edge of death. They will know who stole from him with time, and there will be hell to pay for it."
Giovanni looked down at his desk. He did not know whether to cry or rage or sit in silence. So he did none of them. "At least we have the artefact," he said in a sullen tone. "It is of utmost importance. We must use it."
"What is it?" Lance asked. "Since you did spend your son's life on it."
Giovanni reached out, lifting the sealed bottle and regarding it with something close to disgust. It had cost him his son. It was not something that he had expected to affect him so deeply, but he could not afford the sentiment. He had a mission and he could not afford distraction. Silver's capture and torture was a distraction of the highest magnitude.
"The prison bottle. A seal, containing a strange and wondrous creature with a strange and wondrous power." He placed it down on the table, unable to meet Lance's gaze as he pondered Silver's fate.
"You have claimed to be capable of controlling such a creature before," Lance replied. He shook his head. "I have doubts that you claim to be capable of such a thing once more."
The crime lord narrowed his eyes, his tone icing over. "Mewtwo was different. It was created to be the most powerful pokemon in existence. We succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. Hoopa is no such creature."
Lance scowled. "Then how do you expect it to defeat Mewtwo?"
"As I have previously mentioned," Giovanni began with a coy grin, "it has the ability to summon a worthy foe for anything. That may be our salvation, given that Mewtwo is a part of everything." He lifted the prison bottle, admiring the golden rings wrapping around the vessel. "I will require material for my tests. Rocket can source most of it, but some of it may be in League possession."
"The League can provide what is needed," Lance said. "No need to raid our own facilities."
"I'll have Matori send over a list."
Lance nodded and departed in silence, his irritation clear as day in his expression. Giovanni had given him failure after failure ever since Mewtwo's escape. Their entire grand plan to lead humanity into the future was at risk now, and there was nobody left to blame except for him.
Giovanni placed the vessel down on his desk. He looked away and stared out the window. Viridian sat on the edge of the vast forest, stretching off into the distance in the north and west. The Argent mountains were vaguely hidden in the distance, Indigo Plateau laying somewhere among the eastern peaks.
"Giovanni?" Matori's meek, quiet voice asked. "I heard what the Champion said about Silver. Are you alright?"
He stared blankly out at the throne of a man he thought to have once been his friend. A man who condemned his son to almost certain death. "No, Matori. I am not."
He scowled and looked down at his feet. The Champion would not like open defiance. But it would not be the first time he had done something without his approval. It would not be the last time either, if he had his way. He could not afford a distraction and this was nothing if not a blinking sign pointed at his failures.
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
Giovanni scowled. "Something foolish," he started as his mind looked for a way out of the mess, "maybe something brave."
Matori smiled weakly as her boss turned his attention back to the city. He had been called many things. A monster, a villain, an egotistical maniac. One thing she had never heard him called, was a father. It was heartening to see.
"Is there anything I can do?" Matori asked.
Giovanni shook his head. "No," he replied. His chest ached and his head was pounding but he needed to move forward. "I'm the only one who can solve this."
He closed the blinds and shut out the city. The crime lord turned, picking up the prison bottle and heading towards the door. "If Lance comes calling, tell him I'm out."
Matori nodded, trying not to show the blush in her cheeks. "Yes, boss."
The device sat at the bottom of the bunker, secluded behind a half dozen blast doors and guarded by a pair of Rocket's finest agents, among a garrison of twenty five men. Nobody would be able to reach it without approval from Giovanni himself. Including Lance.
One week had passed since Lance had left Viridian. A week and a half since his son had fallen into the hands of the Kalosians. Giovanni knew the boy was strong, but Kalos was not kind to foreign agents. Rocket could not afford any information breaches, especially from someone as knowledgeable as Silver.
He privately agonized over his son's imprisonment, but with Kalos locking down and Lance keeping tabs on his movement he had very few paths forward. Hoopa would be his son's salvation. It had to be, or Giovanni had thrown his son's life away over an old folk tale. And that was not something he could tolerate.
Archer approached him from the hallway behind him, white suit as immaculate as always. His teal blue hair was cropped close to his head and the effortless shadow of stubble darkened his face. Giovanni scowled at the thought of the lengths Archer went to care for his appearance.
"The device is complete. The dark balls are ready as well. Hoopa's ability will be yours in short order," he said calmly. "Though, that scientist, Gideon, is irritating to say the least." He glanced through the viewing deck at the wiry man still fiddling with the controls. "He wants to speak with you about more potential projects."
Giovanni followed his gaze, eyes boring into the man from above. He was outwardly unimpressive, but Giovanni had long since disregarded appearances. They could deceive anyone, even him if he was not careful. "Are they promising?"
Archer shook his head. "They're mad," he replied. "Even compared to this venture, even compared to Mewtwo. He speaks of creating a new god, of using the old to create something new." He glanced back over at Giovanni. "His work is madness. Do not allow yourself to walk that path."
"Should I bother speaking with him?"
Archer shook his head again. "Not unless you wish to give him confidence in his schemes. Our experiments were based on science and desperation. His are not." He glared back down at the man. "They are well and truly mad ventures."
The scientist turned away from the machine as Giovanni glanced down at him, looking up at the two Rocket executives. "Alright!" Gideon shouted. "The machine should be ready to contain whatever is inside that vessel." He pulled down his safety goggles and stepped behind the blast wall that was rising into place. "Ready for containment!"
The scientist raised his hand and pulled the oversized lever on the wall. A platform rose into place, a trio of triangular metal constructs lowering into place around it. They began to hum and vibrate in sync, the static whine of electricity filling the air.
"Barrier is active, shield strength holding steady!" shouted the scientist. "Ready for release!"
Giovanni peered down at the platform, staring intently at the Prison Bottle. He watched closely as a set of robotic arms emerged from the platform the Bottle sat upon and gripped the top of the bottle. With a smooth, practiced motion, they removed the stopper and unleashed the storm within.
Smoke billowed out from the bottle, pressing up against the barrier and testing its defences. Shadowy tendrils of black smoke writhed free of the bottle as an indistinct form began to take shape within the smoke.
Archer leaned forward, staring intently at the figure. "Mad science," he started, his tone low and cautious. "In the flesh."
Two heavy legs thudded onto the platform as the smoke began to dissipate. It was tall, likely close to seven meters in height as it stretched its legs. Six disembodied arms floated beside the creature's torso, a trio of rings wrapping each arm. Thick, deep maroon fur covered most of its torso, only a golden ring embedded in pale purple skin on its chest peering through. The fur continued up the creature's neck and around its head, pulled back into a long trailing ponytail by a pair of golden rings.
"Now," ordered Giovanni. They had little time before the creature acclimated itself and attempted to get free of the prison they had constructed.
Archer pressed a button on the control panel in front of him. The wall opposite the observation platform slid open, ominous darkness held within. There was a brief moment as the creature turned towards the movement, regarding it with curiosity. Then a wall of blinking red lights lit the darkness.
The dark balls were one of Giovanni's greatest creations. They were powerful, even more powerful than the greatest ultra balls. They completely subverted the captured pokemon's mind and controlled their actions while amping the base power of the captured pokemon. Only one ball had ever been theorized to be more powerful, and it was still barely even out of the prototype stages.
Giovanni had stockpiled dozens of these Dark Balls for a moment precisely like this. He had long dreamed of capturing one of the gods of the natural world and twisting it to his will. He had failed in creating his own, but this perversion would work. It had to, else Silver would rot in a Kalosian prison.
The Dark Balls streamed out of the compartment, all of them flying directly for the captured pokemon. It raised its arms, but there was no time to react. A ball struck it in the chest, sucking it into nothingness before it could defend itself.
"It seems that your plan was a success," Archer said. "Perhaps-"
The ball burst open, a golden ring springing into place as the creature escaped from the first ball. Another trio of the floating dark balls shot down towards it, but a deafening roar shook the bunker. A spear of stone smashed the balls against the ceiling as the monstrous tyranitar rose out of the ring.
Giovanni leaned forward, gently pressing the intercom as if he was unconcerned. "Vicious, if you would be so kind. Our guest has called for some help."
A metallic red blur buzzed across the room as the few scientists behind the blast wall ran for their lives. The tyranitar turned to face it, just as Vicious' scizor carved a metal claw across its chest. The cruel behemoth of a man stepped into view, his houndoom padding protectively in front of his master.
The caged creature turned to face the Vicious, trying to draw up another ring. Another dark ball slammed into it from behind, sucking it away before it could summon another combatant. The first ring disappeared beneath the tyranitar and cut off the spear of stone at the base. It smashed heavily against the floor with a deafening crash.
The tyranitar bellowed in anger again, shaking the very foundation of the secured bunker with its wrath. It reached out for Vicious' scizor, summoning a storm of stones that ripped loose from the ceiling, but another dark ball struck it on the shoulder. The levitating stones crashed to the floor, the beast controlling them no longer present.
Silence fell on the lab. Nobody dared to move or speak while the dark balls whirled overhead and waited for a new quarry. Only when the two occupied dark balls rose off the floor and beeped for a successful capture did the tension fall away.
"You were saying?" Giovanni asked, turning and eyeing Archer with an amused smirk. The other Rocket executive had stepped away from the viewport and hidden behind one of the concrete pillars. "I think you called this a success?"
Archer shot back a relieved glance. His expression was calm, but his rapid breaths and sweat beading on his forehead betrayed Archer's fear. "The beast was captured, was it not?" He approached the viewport, cautiously watching for any movement. None came.
"Both of them," Giovanni replied, joining his subordinate. "Perhaps this creature can be of great use to us."
"You could build an army if you can control its power." Archer leaned against the viewport. "You would command the most powerful force in the world. Even Lance would not stand before you, not with an army created by that thing."
He leaned forward, looking down at the Rocket agent picking his way through the stones. It had long bothered him that Lance saw himself above Giovanni and Rocket, but that view had faded with time. Giovanni knew the truth. Giovanni knew where his future lie.
"Lance is our ally for the time being," he said quietly. "Perhaps there was a time where I would have leapt at the opportunity to usurp his throne for myself. But now?"
He paused as several men approached the containment device to assess the damage. The wiry scientist that Archer had been annoyed with simply looked at the occupied dark balls with awe.
"After everything that has happened, every failure and misstep, I understand the true limitations of the Champion's burden." He turned to look at Archer. "Lance is a public figure, beset from all sides by potential claimants and usurpers. Better to stay in the shadows, pull the strings of civilization from afar."
He smirked knowingly, thinking about the Rocket's true plans for Indigo, about the boys destined to dethrone the dragon master. "We have true champions on the way. It is simply our job to clear the road for one of them. We must be prepared for that road to include Lance."
Giovanni pressed the intercom button again, turning away from Archer as the other executive contemplated his words. "Vicious, bring me the balls. I have some tests to be done."
He couldn't help the almost giddy smile spreading across his face. Finally, after so many partial failures and crushing setbacks, something had gone right. Perhaps Silver could be saved after all.
The door ground shut behind them, sealing them in entirely. The room was a concrete box. There was no way in or out, not unless he gave the explicit order. Vicious stood across from him, holding a dark ball in each hand.
He gingerly touched the lump on the back of his head, feeling for the surgically implanted control chip for the dark balls. He normally wasn't the kind to get personally involved in his projects, but necessity and his son's capture had forced his hand.
"Prepare for anything," Giovanni said warily. "We don't know how well the mental influence took."
Vicious nodded, gritting his teeth beneath the iron mask. "Are we expecting it to fail?" he asked. "They've never done so before."
Giovanni looked up at him. "And we have never tested one on a pokemon as powerful as this." He stepped back, a pair of pokeballs at the ready. "Just be ready for anything, Vicious."
He nodded and the muscle bound monster of a man tapped the button on the first ball. The tyranitar materialized in a flash of red light, standing solemnly between them. It did not move, nor make any aggressive gestures.
The intercom blared once. "Transferring control to operative."
The towering tyranitar blinked dumbly and looked down at the two. It stared at them with that same blank look that was common to all pokemon corrupted by the dark ball.
"I have him," Vicious said. "He's a strong one. Should be a fine addition to my team." The iron masked man turned to look at Giovanni. "He is mine, isn't he?"
Giovanni nodded. "He is," he replied. "For services rendered to the cause." He gestured to the other ball with a flash of anticipation in his eyes. "Now, the real prize."
Vicious nodded and tapped the second ball.
Hoopa appeared, smaller than the towering tyranitar but no less imposing. There was a malevolence to its figure, a shadowy aura that hung in its presence. It was dangerous. It was perfect.
"Give me control," Giovanni said, closing his eyes in preparation for the transfer. He had experienced basic control of a pokemon before, but nothing on this level. Hoopa was far more powerful than any of their previous test subjects.
"Transferring control," said the intercom.
He felt the control chip activate, felt the neural interface receiving the signal and felt Hoopa's pliant mind connect with his own. It was an ingenious invention, one that Blaine Katsura had likely not intended for such a use. Nevertheless, Giovanni had co-opted it like he had with so many other of Kanto's top minds' greatest creations.
"I have him," Giovanni said. He opened his eyes, meeting Hoopa's yellow pupils.
Hoopa looked back at him blankly. He felt nothing through the link, nothing but his own will permeating the creature's mind. He had expected some resistance, but Hoopa did not seem interested in fighting against Giovanni's control.
He nodded. They had tests to conduct and limits to learn, and hardly any time to do so if he was to rescue his son before Lance expected his report. Giovanni turned, ready to begin the test. "Alright," he said. "Let's begin."
Archer stared at the screen with bleary red eyes. His stubble had grown into a scraggly and patchy beard and the black of his hair was starting to show at the roots. The last week or so had been a taxing one and Giovanni silently was amused by the degradation of Archer's carefully manicured appearance.
"So, we've ascertained exactly what Hoopa's particular ability is." He shook his head, rubbing his temples. "Unfortunately I am no scientist and I can hardly understand it at this point, so Gideon will explain."
Giovanni turned to the wiry man that had been working on the containment device. "Gideon, I presume?" he asked. "I've heard great things about your work."
He saw a glint of pride in the scientist's eye as the wiry man rose to his feet. Archer rolled his eyes and turned away, something that did not escape Giovanni's notice.
Gideon, for his part, either didn't notice or ignored Archer's disrespect. He launched into his explanation without even glancing at the other Rocket executive. "Hoopa's rings are a true marvel. They create instantaneous connections between two points in space-time and bridge the gap in a way that allows living beings to pass through unharmed."
Giovanni raised an eyebrow. "That sounds particularly useful."
"Useful?" Gideon said incredulously. "If it could be replicated, such an ability would revolutionize transportation. Teleport pads are limited in their utility, requiring a pad on both ends of the transit. With this, you could plant entire armies exactly where you want them, whenever you want!"
Giovanni remained silent, noting Gideon's enthusiasm. The scientist was giddy with possibility, something that Giovanni had long since grown used to. People had a tendency to play up the capability of their projects to him, hoping to curry favour with Rocket's head. It was something of a skill of his to cut through the exaggeration and find the true usefulness in each project.
Gideon continued, unperturbed by Giovanni's indifference. "Hoopa uses these bridges to drag powerful entities into battle for it. Travel through the ring seems to place pokemon under Hoopa's influence, allowing you to command them as you might command Hoopa itself." The scientist continued, ignoring Archer's slight.
Giovanni nodded. "Then it shall serve us well," he said. He couldn't help the smile that crossed his face.
"There is more," Gideon said, visibly shifting with discomfort. "It should not be possible, but perhaps impossibility can be massaged…"
The crime lord raised an eyebrow. Archer had mentioned Gideon's penchant for mad science, but he had yet to experience it for himself. "I have massaged science to suit my needs in the past," he said calmly, giving Gideon a chance to present the idea. "What did you discover?"
Gideon's nervous smile spread into a wide grin. "I discovered where Hoopa's rings lead through." He lifted a heavy folder of loose graphs and figures. To an untrained eye it would look like madness, but Giovanni saw the potential in the madness. "And it isn't anywhere in this dimension."
Giovanni lifted the folder, flipping through it as he eyed the data presented to him. "Is it dangerous?" he asked.
The wiry young scientist shook his head. "No. I noticed it when you were having me assess whether we could safely use its rings for transportation." He sifted through the papers he had spread out, lifting a radiation report. "And I noticed that it was leaking background radiation."
"That can be dangerous," Giovanni replied.
Gideon shook his head. "Not at these levels. This is background radiation, present and measurable at almost any point in the known universe." He lifted a pair of charts, with wildly different lines and fluctuations. "And I found something rather interesting when I matched it up against the signature coming out of those rings."
Giovanni looked back up at him. "What am I looking at?"
Gideon pushed another stack of papers towards him, all with wildly different signatures scrawled across them. "You're looking at the background radiation signature of at least seven different variations, none of them matching our known signature. While two are particularly similar, they are still different in minute ways."
The scientist went silent for a moment, allowing his implication to sink in. Giovanni looked up as realization dawned on him. "Those signatures," he started slowly. "They're from other universes, other dimensions like our own, aren't they?"
Gideon smirked with satisfaction. "And I didn't even have to ask if you were familiar with the many-worlds hypothesis!"
Giovanni went silent, lost in thought as he contemplated the possibilities. Hoopa had been theorized to possess capability to manipulate reality by some Kalosian scholars, but nothing had been concrete. Nothing until this.
He looked up at Gideon, tearing his attention away from the charts. "I assume you'd like to test this theory, yes?"
"Yes," he replied with a nod.
"Then I suppose there's only one way to do so," Giovanni continued.
Gideon cracked into a wide, toothy grin. "Open a ring and see what's inside!"
"Many-worlds theory, initial probe test," the mechanical voice echoed across the same room that they had tested Hoopa in initially.
Giovanni stood beside the hastily fabricated probe, watching Gideon secure the camera within the vacuum sealed protective casing. It was little more than a collection of scientific instruments strapped to a repurposed robotic rover, but crude science was better than nothing and he had very little time.
"Will it hold?" he asked.
Gideon pointed up at the radio antenna bolted to the side of the probe. "I'd be more worried about that thing. We don't know if it will be able to function at all, let alone send readable data back." Gideon stepped away, the probe finally ready.
Giovanni lifted the dark ball from his belt. "I guess we do this the old fashioned way."
He tapped the ball, feeling Hoopa's mind responding to his as the creature took shape. Giovanni closed his eyes, feeling the thrum of power ready through the creature.
"Hoopa," he began. "Open a ring gate, connecting to the other end of this room."
The creature raised an arm, conjuring a golden ring beside the probe. A second ring appeared on the opposite end of the room.
Gideon grinned stupidly. "To history!" he said with barely contained glee.
Giovanni nodded and lifted the probe's remote. He inputted the command and watched eagerly as the probe inched across the threshold of the ring.
There was no grand moment of discovery. No huge swell of emotion or cheer from the experiment's observers. Even Gideon was silent as they watched the camera feed waver and crackle, but remain steady.
It was stunning. Giovanni stared at the distorted and crackling image and knew that their initial theories had been right. The multiverse existed and was real, and Hoopa was capable of traversing it.
Giovanni looked over at Archer, knowing that they were on the verge of something greater than Mewtwo ever could be. "This base once housed Kanto's doomed space program, did it not?"
Archer raised an eyebrow. "Yes," he replied. "However, I fail to see-"
"Do we have any more of the prototype explorer suits left?"
Archer's expression shifted to one of excitement as he realized what Giovanni intended. "Most of them were shipped off to Hoenn after the Devon Corporation bought the design," he started. "But we still have two left."
Giovanni grinned at the prospect of exploring an uncharted new frontier, Silver's predicament momentarily forgotten. "Dust them off," he ordered. "We have some exploring to do."
"Remember, you only have about an hour's worth of oxygen." Archer lifted Giovanni's dome helmet and placed it carefully into place. "So once you're satisfied with yourself, get yourself back through the ring. We don't need you getting lost in there. Hell, we don't even know where 'there' is."
Giovanni smirked. "Act like you wouldn't like that," he replied. "Then you could have complete control of Rocket, just like you always wanted."
Archer stepped back, looking over the space suit in a final check. Vicious stood behind him, already suited and ready. "While I make my ambition to forge Indigo into something new, I am aware that without you at its head, Rocket would not be what it is." He smiled and nodded affirmatively. "I would be Lance's puppet, or even worse, lost in the quagmire of debt that you pulled my life from. I owe my existence to you, and that has earned my undying loyalty." He gestured over his shoulder, at Vicious. "I would imagine that most of us agree, even if for less honourable reasons."
Giovanni's expression hardened. He knew that he commanded the loyalty of Rocket's administrators, but he hadn't realized how completely. "I appreciate it," he replied. Archer's admission warmed his spirit. So many would view him as a villain and yet Archer professed his loyalty as though Giovanni was a hero.
Giovanni turned towards the open ring with Vicious, his mind turning to the task at hand. "Shall we?" he asked.
Vicious nodded, his absurd iron helmet clinking against the inside of the dome helmet. The Rocket agent stepped through the ring and stopped, waving the boss in behind him as he regarded something with awe.
Giovanni stepped through the gateway after him and beheld the unkempt order of a thousand shifting realities.
Mirrored windows reflected back at him, strange shapes moving amongst them. Endless darkness stretched off into the void in all directions, punctuated only by flashing prisms of indistinct light. There was no end to it and no beginning, simply the endless expanse of countless possibilities.
He heard Vicious suck in a startled breath. "Gods above…" the mountain of a man began. "That's… thats…"
"Impossible made possible," Giovanni finished. "This is astounding." His mind raced with the possibility. An infinite number of universes, all of them existing in unison, stared back at him from a place between worlds.
He adjusted the suit camera and attempted to activate the communicator. "Archer, you getting this?"
The suit radio crackled and buzzed with interference, but Archer's voice broke through. "It's unbelievable," he said. "Countless new worlds, ripe for the taking."
"Or a thousand new threats, worse even than Mewtwo," he replied. "This is—"
An alarm blared, audible even in this inhospitable spit of nothingness between universes.
"Sir," Archer said nervously. "There's somethi—"
Violet light erupted from the edges of the ring gates. Giovanni abandoned his curiosity, Vicious already running haphazardly in his suit towards the ring.
He ran, fighting the awkward movement of the suit. He ran, his eyes dancing with spears of burning light. He ran, giving more than he had ever before as real fear overtook him.
Then the gate blinked from view and the space between worlds was empty once more.
He was coming. He was coming to kill Giovanni and there was nothing the crime boss could do to stop it.
The bunker was supposed to have been secret.
Archer and Proton were supposed to have stopped him.
Their vile abomination of mad science, the unholy fusion of fire, lightning and ice, was supposed to have stopped him.
But Ash Ketchum was unstoppable. Giovanni had bought off the boy's closest friends, spending sums of money that would have bankrupted entire nations to produce. They had led him into a trap and he had slaughtered them all for it.
All that was left was a vengeful shade of the happy and hopeful trainer Ash had used to be, and there was nothing Rocket could do to keep him from enacting his ultimate revenge.
The door to the testing chamber blew inward, a blast of azure aura lighting the dim room. Giovanni and his last few remaining chess pieces were arrayed against the intruder. It would never be enough, but they would go down fighting.
Mewtwo, clad in heavy black armour that seemed to drink in the scant light, shot forward to tangle with the howling golden lucario.
Ash stepped into the chamber, glowing with a fiery blue light. His unkempt hair was raven-black and hung down in his face. "It's time to die, Giovanni!"
His pikachu leapt from his shoulder, blazing with blue lightning. The bolt hit Ariana and her arbok, sending them both into convulsions. Giovanni didn't watch her end.
A leavanny dashed from behind Ash, leaf blades held high. Blood streaming from her weapons., Pausing, she held up a blade, letting the blood drip into her mouth, relishing it like other bugs relished liquid sugar.
His charizard spread its wings and took flight, bathing the rest of the gathered Rockets with a firestorm that dwarfed anything Giovanni had ever seen.
Mewtwo landed in front of Ash, tossing an unconscious lucario to the ground. The ultimate weapon drew up a swirling ball of psychic power, hurling it at the chosen hero. Ash lifted an arm, projecting a shield of blue light in front of himself. Mewtwo's attack bounced back at itself, smashing Rocket's ultimate weapon into the wall.
"I told you that I'd kill you for what you did," Ash said, raising his skarmory-feather long sword. "And now I—"
Purple light erupted behind Ash. He tried to turn, but the golden ring that popped into existence enveloped him and his team completely. They were gone as quickly as they had come, leaving Giovanni alone with a battered and unconscious Mewtwo. Only a fading golden ring gave any clue to what had happened as it blinked out of existence.
Giovanni groaned, rolling onto his back. Vicious was leaning over him, grinning at the boss through his ridiculous helmet-under-a-helmet. He held out a hand for Giovanni and hauled the smaller man to his feet.
"That was incre—"
"Giovanni!" shouted a new voice. "I'm here to kill you!"
He spun on the spot, zeroing in one the source immediately. It was a boy, no older than Silver. His black hair was matted with sweat and blood and a team of fearsome pokemon stood with him. The boy dropped an empty full restore bottle, his shining golden lucario rising to its feet beside him.
He was in a bulky exploration suit, his pokemon stashed back in the control room. He had nothing to defend himself with, nothing but—
Hoopa was forming from the spear of red light, wispy smoke rising off the creature. Giovanni felt the connection in his mind and instantly reached for anything he could summon. He found suitable warriors in a strange shattered remnant of Galar and reached out for them with Hoopa's power.
A trio of golden rings appeared, dragging help from across the reaches of space and time.
An red-orange blur slammed into the charizard's throat, snapping the fire drake's neck with the suddenness of its attack. The creature turned, glaring at the intruder and his team as Giovanni watched on in awe.
A purple bird that radiated psychic power floated through the second ring, freezing the rest of the intruder's pokemon in place as the discoloured Zapdos speared the leavanny from behind with a pointed beak.
The Zapdos tossed the bug into the air where a third bird, a reaper of black with sinister flames roaring off the Moltres, skewered the leavanny and swallowed it whole.
The intruder fell back in shock, the rest of his team frozen in place as the birds devastated his team. The lucario made it a few steps before midnight fire smote it where it stood. His espeon glowed with psychic fire, but the purple Articuno wiped it from the earth with a flick of its mind. The pikachu stood the longest, but even the intruder's starter could not stand against the awesome power of the assembled legends.
They were gone as quickly as they had come, sent back through portals and leaving naught but corpses in their wake. Hoopa sat there implacably, unimpressed by the carnage its minions had wrought.
Giovanni stepped forward, looking around in caution. The intruder was holding what looked like a homemade sword fashioned out of a skarmory feather, the tip quivering as he retreated slowly towards the wall. His breathing was rapid and shallow and his eyes darted between his opponents.
More grunts were streaming from the door beneath the control room, fifteen or twenty of them with weapons drawn. Laser sights trained on the intruder as Archer emerged from the door with his houndoom padding along beside him. A second houndoom, likely Vicious' pokemon, followed the first one and took up position beside its master.
Giovanni reached up and unsealed his helmet. He held it at his side, regarding the newcomer with curiosity. "Surrender," he ordered. "Before the same happens to you."
The intruder dropped the sword, raising a hand and screwing up his face in effort. Nothing happened, and the moment passed as doomed realization crossed the intruder's face.
"I think that we have some explaining to do," Archer said quietly. "Something this dangerous… the multiverse delivering someone here… we have to inform Lance." He folded his arms. "He will not be happy."
Giovanni scowled. Lance would most definitely not be happy with the reckless science used here. He never was happy with the perceived failures of Giovanni's projects and this would be no different. But he could delay that conversation until he had rectified his mistake.
"Indeed he will not," he replied.
Giovanni turned away from the prisoner, smiling cryptically as he thought through his plan. Silver still needed to be rescued, save he expose Indigo's meddling in the natural order of the world. Giovanni's mind flashed to the thought of his son subject to foreign torture. He pushed the thought away as quickly as it came, refocusing on the moment at hand. He could save his son, he just needed some more time.
He turned to face Archer. "And I know just who to inform him."
Fear flashed in Archer's eyes for a brief moment. "Indeed," he replied in resignation. He knew that the Champion would not be happy with the news presented here.
"Take the intruder," Giovanni said. "Offer him up and plead for leniency. But do not give away my whereabouts."
"I don't know where you're going in the first place," Archer said.
Giovanni smirked. "That's the idea, old friend. That's the idea."
The Kalosian Rivière was a peaceful place. Located along the wide river to the west of Camphrier town, several of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the world had built a series of sprawling estates that dwarfed even the largest of mansions in Kanto. The entire Rivière was larger than the Indigo Plateau's walled city and constant patrol by Kalos' Royal Guard kept the expansive gardens clear of interested wild pokemon.
All of these guardsmen were barracked on the Rivière's guard post, two absurdly large houses down. It would take ten minutes for the first responders to arrive, by which time he and Silver would likely be gone. There was an airfield maybe a five minute flight away as well, something that he was slightly nervous about. He had the means to buy more time if necessary. He was hoping that the Kalosians made it necessary. He did ostensibly come here to test Hoopa's capabilities against powerful foes, rather than save his only child.
He smirked, catching himself in the lie. He was here for Silver and his conscience. He knew Hoopa was everything they needed and more. No test was required to tell him that.
He glanced over at the creature through the heavy mask that obscured his identity. "Hoopa," he said, regarding the creature with no small measure of pride.
The creature was more than he had been expecting and far greater an asset than he had been hoping for. Archer had been right. The creature opened up a vast multitude of possibilities for Rocket. Dangerous possibilities, but possibility nonetheless.
"Let's go say hello, shall we?" He pointed forward, bending the Hoopa's pliant mind with his will. "Give me something big. I'd like to make our entrance particularly spectacular."
A golden ring appeared overhead, larger than any Giovanni had seen Hoopa create yet. He gasped as the terrible wings of a creature he and Lance had nearly been killed by ten years prior surged through the portal. Borne aloft by a shadowy psychic power and burning hatred, a corrupted Lugia winged its way towards the estate with a piercing cry.
Panicked shouting reached his ears as the protector of the oceans tore a wide path of devastation through the intricate hedge maze. A few scattered bolts of lightning and flame shot into the sky, the desperate acts of a Kalosian patrol caught by the sudden appearance of a furious and corrupted sea god. Lugia laid waste to the patrol with a blast of power that flattened the area entirely.
A shimmering barrier of psychic light sprung into place, deflecting a second blast of shadowy power away from the estate and into the river. A plume of water and mud erupted over the mansion, flopping magikarp sailing along with the deluge.
Giovanni turned to Hoopa as they started down the path that Shadow Lugia had created for them. "More!" he shouted. "Break down that barrier!"
Another golden ring spun into existence, volcanic rage pouring through the portal. An eruption of furious magma poured through the gate, spewing high into the air as the Shadow Lugia banked past the estate, laying waste to another patrol on the other side of the house that dared to assail it.
Magma arced down as if controlled by a divine force and splashed heavily onto the barrier. Giovanni saw a shape within the molten rock, a malevolent and low slung body with four clawed feet, radiating a furious heat that Giovanni could see from a distance. The ancient embodiment of molten rage raised a clawed foot, Primal Heatran preparing to smash the barrier.
With a great whine and a resounding pop, the barrier broke under a single blow. Great torrents of lava sloughed onto the house, igniting the great mansion into a roaring inferno. Giovanni feared for his son for a moment, before it passed. This was the estate of Kalos' Champion herself, outfitted with a state of the art fire suppression system. Silver would be fine for a few moments. Long enough for him to deal with some scant resistance.
A jet screamed overhead, a pair of missiles separating from its wings and splashing against a psychic shield that sprung into place in front of Lugia. Another two jets were racing behind it, all three making a pass of the corrupted Lugia and raking it with cannon fire. The twisted god screeched and flapped skyward in an attempt to evade its pursuers.
More flyers were inbound from the horizon, dragons and birds of prey carrying some of Kalos' finest trainers. He could see them as they closed, some of the trainers already shaking their fists in rage and grief.
Giovanni scowled. He was supposed to have at least ten minutes. The Kalosians had surprised him with the speed of their response. It wouldn't matter though, not with Hoopa at his disposal. Nothing did with this kind of power.
"Take down those jets!" Giovanni shouted over the roar of the jet engines. He turned to Hoopa. "I need more," he ordered.
A pair of smaller rings opened in mid-air, two purple blurs rocketing through with resounding sonic booms. Giovanni saw one of the Eon Twins, both of them colour shifted and in the shape of jets themselves, bank hard and tear off after the Kalosian Air Force jets. The second surged straight ahead and punched a hole through the centre of the aerial formation. The Kalosians desperately retaliated but their assailants were already burning away.
Movement was stirring from the house itself. People were streaming away from the burning building, running for their lives as Heatran laid waste to the tower that reached up from the mansion. It cracked under the fiery assault, twisting away and smashing to pieces among the devastated hedge maze.
Something tore Heatran from the rubble, lifting it over the house. The unseen force smashed the volcano god into the earth, burying it where the hedge maze had once been. The earth began to bubble and melt with Heatran's very presence. It wouldn't be trapped for long.
She rose from the house like an avenging angel, pink light lifting the Champion through the smoke and flame. Her gardevoir rose a half-step behind her, another man borne aloft by psychic power. The trio landed in front of Giovanni and Hoopa as the crime lord came to a halt and regarded his new foes. The Kalosian Air Force lit the night's sky with streams of fire and light, casting the confrontation in a hellish spectacle.
Champion Diantha was a haggard mess, a soot stained shawl wrapped around a sheer silk nightgown. Her hair was up in a messy bun and the left half of her face was burned a cherry red. She must have been in one of the sections of the house hit by the lava.
The man stepped forward, his nightshirt torn and exposing a bandage that wrapped around his stomach. "Prepare to meet your doom, vile cur!" His hand was on his wrist, on the strange glowing stone embedded in his bracelet.
"Hoopa," Giovanni said with a smirk. He had thought that Silver had killed the Royal Consort. Perhaps the father would finish what the son could not. "Dispose of them."
A charizard rose from the burning house, violet streamers of light rising from the Consort. His face was wracked with pain, but the man was committed to the gamble.
"Alain, no!" the Champion was shouting. "You're too—"
An explosion of vibrant energy erupted from the Consort. His bracelet burned with power, reaching up for his fire drake as it swooped overhead. The violet energy remade the charizard into something akin to a nightmare. Blackened scales and azure fire landed in front of Giovanni, looking down at the common man that had dared to challenge royalty.
Giovanni marvelled at the blackened charizard for a moment. He looked past the true dragon, at the Grand Duchess of Kalos and her Consort. "Impressive," he began in a half shout, "but I tire of this."
Giovanni glanced over at the creature responsible for the destruction. "We have spent more than enough time here. We have learned what we came here to learn. Now it is time to take back what is mine." A satisfied grin crossed his face. "End them, Hoopa."
A golden ring, larger even than the one that had summoned the Shadow Lugia appeared above Giovanni. A midnight sun appeared through the ring, bathing the entire battlefield in white-hot light. Ultra Necrozma, a being spoken of only in the most ancient of Alolan history, a creature once prophesized to destroy the world, passed through the ring and shrieked with awesome power.
He felt the temperature rise sharply, felt the air superheating around him. Diantha was enveloped by a bubble of protective light as her consort threw himself at their new opponent.
"Hoopa! Get me inside!"
His faithful servant opened another ring as the few hedges still standing burst into flame. Giovanni stepped through into the dimly lit dungeon, Hoopa following him and closing the gate behind them both.
He could feel the earth shaking and the temperature rising. Even here in Champion Diantha's dungeons, themselves dug into a tunnel under the river, he could feel the Blinding One's rage laying waste to Kalos' finest defenders. It was a terrifying spectacle of the kind that he had feared for Kanto when Mewtwo had escaped.
"Silver, report!"
Movement from one of the cells at the far end of the room drew his gaze. He hurried over to the cell, parental concern taking over for perhaps the first time in his life.
"Silver, you're alive."
The boy was chained to the wall, the heavy chains looping through the machinery his body had been replaced by. His mechanical arm hung limply at his side. It was half disassembled, along with the leg Giovanni had replaced, heavy links of the chains winding around and through the prosthetic limbs. The boy's red cybernetic eye was no longer glowing, itself dangling from the empty socket. Silver's metal face plate was peeled back as well, exposing tissue that had never meant to see open air.
The human half of his face was bruised and bloody, his crimson hair matted with dirt and blood. Silver's human leg stuck out at an awkward angle and Giovanni could see the fingers on his good hand reflexively opening and closing on nothing.
"Futhur," he murmured, hardly even able to speak. "Gav' 'em nuthin'"
Giovanni shook his head and felt the weight of consequence hanging from his neck. He gently brushed some of Silver's matted crimson hair out of his face and felt pride replacing disgust. Silver hadn't broken.
"You did well, Son." He stepped back, waving Hoopa forward as the underground prison shook with a titanic impact. "I'm getting you out of here."
Hoopa raised an arm, ripping the cell door off with a liquid shadow projected from its arm. Giovanni pushed past the pokemon and tested the chains on the wall. Moving them drew a small whimper of pain from the boy and Giovanni knew what had to be done.
He knelt down, blindly feeling for the release latch inside his son's mechanical shoulder. The Kalosians had trapped his prosthetics, but they could be replaced. The boy could not be. He found the latch and tore it open. Silver's mangled arm dropped to the ground with a heavy thunk. Giovanni moved to his left side, searching for the trapped leg's release latch as well.
"Doesn't… change -nything", Silver mumbled weakly.
"I know, boy," Giovanni replied as he detached Silver's leg. He looked down at the remnants of his child, shame and disgust at himself welling up inside. "I know."
He lifted Silver, draping the boy's remaining arm over his shoulder. He lifted the boy, pushing away a ping of guilt as the disassembled limbs lay abandoned on the floor. He could mourn his son's injuries later
"Get us topside," he ordered.
Hoopa drew up another ring and followed its master through. Giovanni could do nothing but gape in awe.
The Kalosian Rivière was a burning ruin. There was not a bush or a shrub untouched, not a single tree or house still standing. The Radiant One's light had scorched everything, leaving a blackened stain in Kalos' treasured heartlands.
The creature was still lumbering eastward, chasing down a bolt of blue dragonfire that dipped and dodged around spears of burning light. A few of Kalos' brave defenders still assailed it as the creature chased down Diantha's Consort, but the number of attacks were dwindling under the combined assault of the assembled gods
A heavy impact behind Giovanni drew his attention away from the cataclysmic devastation wrought by Ultra Necrozma's light. She was there, hair burned clean off her head and clothing smouldering at the edges. Her gardevoir disappeared into its ball as she approached Giovanni but she made no aggressive movements. Instead, Giovanni could see restraint in the hatred on her face.
"You," she said with barely contained rage. "you have brought destruction to my home, slaughtered my men, and summoned a creature that cannot be defeated…" her voice trailed off as Necrozma bathed another of the mansions with blinding fire. "Why? You stole the tablet. You knew the danger Hoopa posed. It will destroy the world if left unchecked. Why?"
Giovanni turned, regarding the destruction. It stretched on as far as the eye could see, not a thing untouched by fire. He turned back to Silver, looking upon his son's injuries in proper light for the first time. His stomach twisted and he looked away a moment later.
"The things we do for our children," he said slowly. "The lies we tell ourselves to handle the truth…" he trailed off for a moment. "My path led me to this mistake, to this moment. I wanted a power to defeat the ultimate weapon." He slowly looked back at his wounded son. "I found it, but I made a mistake in obtaining it."
"You made a mistake in unleashing Hoopa." Diantha's jaw was set and her voice was strong. "He may be your child, but Hoopa will destroy him the same as it will all of us. It must be sealed…" she trailed off. He gaze never left Giovanni. "Please…"
He turned back to Hoopa. The creature was beyond even his wildest dreams, but so had been Mewtwo. Mewtwo had paid his schemes back with destructive wrath that had levelled an island nearly two miles across. Hoopa could do far worse. "I created the ultimate weapon once," he started quietly. "I thought myself above the consequences of my actions. I was… mistaken."
He looked back at Diantha, at the Champion of Kalos as she stood before a man that could destroy her with hardly any effort at all. "I do not apologize for retrieving my son from your captivity. But I am sorry for what I have unleashed," he said. "It is wrong, a perversion of the natural order. No one man should possess such a power."
"You can stop it. One parent to another," she replied, desperate intent clear in her eyes. She was begging him, begging for the senseless destruction to end. "Hoopa controls them. You control Hoopa… please…"
Giovanni nodded sombrely as he bitterly thought on his failures. He had already endangered humanity enough. Hoopa was a threat, even if it was safely under his control now. He was but a man, and men could be killed. Hoopa had the potential to be even worse than Mewtwo. He knew what he had to do now. Even if it meant admitting yet another failure.
"One parent to another," he started in a solemn tone. "I will seal it."
He turned back to Hoopa. "Banish them," he ordered. "Send these creatures away."
Primal Heatran forced its way free of the broken earth, lava dripping off its head. A golden ring spirited it away, leaving a bleeding and burning wound in the earth.
Two rings formed, spiriting away the Eon Twins. A larger ring formed, sending the corrupted Lugia back to its home dimension.
An even larger ring appeared in the sky. The burning light of an artificial sun faded away, leaving only the smouldering, hellish glow of a thousand fires illuminating the broken Kalosian Rivière.
Giovanni produced the Prison Bottle from the inside pocket of his suit. "Give me a ring home," he said quietly.
Hoopa obliged him. A golden ring appeared behind him. Giovanni tossed the Prison Bottle to the Kalos Champion and turned to leave. He glanced back at the Champion and felt a brief moment of sorrow as he regarded the state of her home.
He raised Hoopa's dark ball and nodded with the respect Diantha's station deserved. "My apologies then, Champion." He stepped through the ring and turned to face her. "I bid you adieu." He snapped the dark ball in half, breaking his control over the creature. The ring blinked out of sight, leaving Giovanni and his son alone in the darkened room.
Giovanni gently helped Silver to the waiting medical bed. The lights in the Viridian Gym's medical bay slowly blinked on, sensing the movement.
"Just lay still, son," Giovanni said quietly in a vain attempt to disguise his remorse. "I'll get the auto-doc on."
He laid his son back, trying and failing to look away from his wounds. He punched in the commands on the auto-doc's control panel and returned to Silver's side.
"I'm sorry, son," he said quietly as the automated surgeon set to work sedating Silver. "I… I should not have put you at risk like—"
"Shut up," Silver spat through bloodied lips. "Save it f'r some'un who isn't y'r tool."
Giovanni was quiet for a moment. "You are right," he replied. He hung his head, shame and disgust overcoming him. "Still… I am sorry."
Silver met his eyes as the sedative began to take effect. His eyelids drooped, but Giovanni could see that hatred in them. "I don' giv' a fuck."
Giovanni didn't speak until long after Silver had succumbed to the sedative. He watched the boy, so similar in looks to his mother, breathe deeply and calmly. Giovanni didn't hide the tears. He bowed over his son for a moment, closing his eyes. "I'm sorry, son."
He straightened back out and stiffened his spine. Silver was safe. His son was alive and that was all that mattered. It had cost him the very weapon he had risked his son for and all he could think was how grateful he was that the boy was alive.
"He is right, you know."
Giovanni turned. Matori was standing against the wall, her arms crossed across her chest. "Of course he is," Giovanni answered. "I turned my own son into a living weapon. What kind of father would do that?"
Silence filled the room. Matori stood up off the wall. "I heard what you said to him," she said. "You may have failed him, but you were there when he needed you."
Giovanni bowed his head. "He doesn't need me. Not after everything that I've done to him." He reached up to the auto-doc controls. "But I still need him." He looked down at his son with guilt bearing down on his conscience as the machinery lowered from above.
Cybernetic arms poked and prodded at the unconscious boy, assessing his condition and determining what upgrades could be made. Two arms lowered, removing the rest of his disassembled leg as a replacement was produced from above.
Giovanni turned away and pushed down the guilt and disgust. He looked at Matori, not knowing whether he was saving his son's life over a sense of fatherhood or of the use he still had for the boy. "We should go," he said without a trace of emotion in his voice.
Matori nodded. "Yes, boss."
Lance was likely waiting for a report and he was sure to be furious. Giovanni pushed down the emotions and cleared his throat. He turned and strode from the room, leaving Silver behind to the care of the auto-doc. Matori followed him, remaining quiet as they walked through the gym's interior.
He found Lance less than five minutes later, waiting outside the door to his office. Archer sat patiently in one of the chairs, as if he knew Giovanni would be arriving soon.
"You have explaining to do," Lance said. "Kalos lies in ruin and this one," he gestured to Archer, "says something happened with a multiverse, which I still have difficulty understanding."
Archer shrugged, shooting Lance a smirk as if he had actually enjoyed being evasive about what had actually happened. "
Giovanni smirked as he opened the door to his office. "Indeed," he replied. He nodded at the prisoner trussed and tied to the chair. "And our new friend can tell us all about it."
Ash Ketchum looked up at the two most powerful men in Indigo and swallowed the lump that formed in his throat as the doors closed ominously behind them.
Giovanni stared blankly at the small bottle. "You mean to say that the creature contained within this vessel is what produced the phenomenon?"
Domino nodded, brushing her shoulder length hair from her face. "It is," she replied. "And now it's yours."
The boss smirked. Access to a thousand different worlds, all of them ripe for the taking. Mewtwo levitated off the ground, sensing his anticipation.
"And all of it will be mine," he said ominously. "Every last world will know the fury of my new Rainbow Rocket."
To be continued…
