Chapter 139: You're Bugging Me
Cyril equipped Noctum and Valkyrie with Morph-O-Trons that disguised them both as wimpod. Valkyrie protested, looking disdainfully at Noctum's disguised form. Noctum didn't bother reacting to it. All they needed to do was use the disguises to slip into the prison, right?
Leo opened up a rift that led to a dark, rocky crag. Living in Aeon, Noctum hadn't experienced that many storms. So, stepping into Citadark Isle's pouring rain proved surprising. Thunder rumbled overhead. Lightning flashed above them. The dark clouds were so thick and dense, Noctum wondered if they'd somehow gone back to Aeon by mistake. Leo confirmed they were in the right spot.
At first, the cosmic charizard worried the rain would hurt. Yet, for whatever reason, it didn't bother him at all. It couldn't have been the wimpod disguise. So, was it Palkia's power?
Noctum cautiously approached the edge of the crag. A vast ocean stretched out in front of him. Choppy water churned and churned. Its surface endlessly rippled from the raindrops bombarding it.
"Over here," Valkyrie whispered. She stood on the other side of the crag, facing the opposite direction. Noctum approached her and followed her gaze. The rocky crags stretched out into the distance, where Noctum saw some sort of giant metal facility with a dome and cylindrical towers. A purple and red ship descended from the storm clouds toward the building, quickly disappearing behind it.
"It's big," Noctum said. "Is it like what you remember?"
Valkyrie's fake wimpod body nodded. "The island seems... bigger than what I remember, too." She tapped the rocky ground beneath her feet. "It was almost entirely the prison when it was back in Radiance."
Their X-transceivers crackled.
"I think that's a difference in the water levels," Cid said.
"Yeah. That ocean's not natural." Cyril grunted in annoyance.
"If I'm remembering correctly, Paradox used this place to test some sort of weather machine. Problem is, the device wouldn't stop once it was turned on. So, rather than dismantling it, Paradox just... left it running."
Swallowing hard, Noctum looked down at the water crashing against the crag. "Then this ocean..."
"Is a giant flood," Cyril said.
"Great. That may complicate things," Valkyrie said.
Noctum frowned, though he doubted his wimpod disguise would show that. "What do you mean?"
"Citadark has a hydroelectric power station in its base," Valkyrie explained. "That's what I used to bust out." Her fake wimpod tail stuck up. "There
are vents on the surface. But these disguises don't
actually make us smaller. We'd get stuck in the vents and caught for sure."
That
was a problem. Especially since Noctum didn't actually know how to swim. And Leo would have to blow his cover to help him.
"No cap," Leo said. The joltik hopped in place.
"Hmm?" Valkyrie turned toward him. "You have an idea?"
Leo nodded. A salmon glow surrounded him. He transformed into a cutiefly. "Your Morph-O-Trons are gonna stop working if I do this, but it should be a'ight."
"And what exactly
are you doing?" Valkyrie asked.
"This." Leo rubbed his tiny hands together, then pointed them at Noctum and Valkyrie.
Pink light flashed around Noctum. Next thing the cosmic charizard knew, Leo practically towered over him.
"What the—" He looked at a spiky outcropping on the crag. It was
monstrous. Heck, individual raindrops splattered across his entire body. He hacked up water from his snout.
"Why's everything so big all of a sudden?"
"Did you... shrink us?!" Valkyrie stood beside her Morph-O-Tron band. It was now bigger than the garchomp!
"Sure did." Leo transformed back into a joltik. Chittering laughter filled the air. "Can't believe it totes worked."
Valkyrie leered at him. "You didn't even know what you were doing?!"
"Saw it on an over-the-top show the skorps were watching." Leo hopped in place. "There was a fairy-type joltik who made a bunch of the cast tiny using fairy energy." He looked up at the outcropping. "What was it called again? Legs of Genesis or something?"
"Well, turn me back!" Valkyrie huffed out teeny tiny dragonfire embers.
"Nah, fam. This is how we get in." Leo pointed a leg toward the prison.
Noctum followed his leg. With the change in size, the distance to the prison now felt
enormous compared to before. "Are we... going there on foot?"
Frowning, he spread his wings out. They were so
small. Just like the rest of him, he supposed.
"We'll exhaust ourselves just getting there!" Valkyrie huffed.
"I got this." Leo skittered up to them. "Hop on my back. I'll be your taxi."
With a flap of his tiny wings, the cosmic charizard got onto Leo's back. "Won't that tire
you out?"
At that, Leo held out a foreleg. Gray feathers materialized in front of him, then promptly vanished.
Suddenly, the rain stopped. The wind blew at Noctum's back, drying out his sopping wings instantly.
Valkyrie paused her climbing to look back. "Tailwind?"
"You got it," Leo chirped.
Huh. Noctum supposed that...
would make Leo faster. And opening a rift to get any closer would get them spotted for sure.
"All right." Valkyrie sat down next to Noctum on Leo's back. "Don't screw this up."
Leo shook his head. "I got this on lock."
And with that, the joltik took off, speedily skittering across the crag. Leo reached the edge, then shot a spool of electrified threads toward the next crag. It served like a zip line, drawing Leo across the water and onto rocky ground without much difficulty.
The Tailwind did wonders. Noctum had trouble holding on. He didn't want to dig his claws into Leo's back. Though, glancing at Valkyrie, it appeared the garchomp chose to do that. And it didn't slow Leo down in the slightest.
"You okay?" Noctum asked, using his claws to tighten his grip on Leo's back.
"Fine." Valkyrie kept her gaze trained ahead. "You don't need to keep pressing me on it."
"R-Right." Noctum's tail flame shrank. "But, uh, I'm here if you need me."
"Yeah, I can see that," Valkyrie scoffed, though Noctum caught the faintest hint of a relieved smile on her face. And that was good enough for him.
After darting across a few more rocky crags, Leo refreshed his Tailwind. His path took him through a small tunnel in a rock face. Probably a natural deformity, given its jagged shape.
On the other side sat metal platforms raised high above the water. Eternatus Gunners and Brawlers patrolled the platforms. Behind them sat the prison, atop a massive wall of rock and concrete. Searchlights moved around from inside the complex. Two of the Brawlers on the platform manned searchlights of their own, maneuvering them along the wall.
Two Gunners stood by some sort of console. One used a joystick to control a crane moving giant metal crates onto a lower down platform next to the rock wall.
"Did you catch last night's episode of All My Stakataka?" the Gunner at the joystick asked his counterpart.
"I did!" the other cheerfully responded. "Ugh, can you
believe Stakateresa left Stakaterry for his evil twin brother, Stakatempleton?"
"It's completely ridiculous!" the first Gunner threw up his blaster arms. "The writers have pulled a lot of baloney in the past, but this takes the cake!" He shook his head. "It's been downhill since season 75. Still, I'm in it to see how it all ends."
"I feel you." The second Gunner shook his head. "Even the All My Stakataka subreflectit agrees... the writers
really jumped the sharpedo with this one."
"Seriously?" The first Gunner returned his blaster arms to the controls. The crane picked up another box and began to move it down to the lower platform. "They never agree on anything!"
One of the Brawlers walked over to join them. "It's wild! Maybe the emperor will send the station an angry letter and get them to retcon it!"
The three Troopers broke into laughter.
"What are we waiting for?" Valkyrie hissed in a whisper.
"Trying to see if there's a vent somewhere on the other side," Leo responded.
"Well, let's get over there first." Valkyrie jabbed the joltik's back. "Can you climb on the underside of these platforms?"
"Can you guys hang on?"
"I'll manage." Valkyrie looked to Noctum.
"Uhh, I guess?" Noctum tightened his grip.
"A'ight. We out." Leo skittered out of the tunnel and used some jagged rocks bordering the platform to easily make his way to the platform's underside.
Noctum's world flipped upside down, but the cosmic charizard's grip held even as Leo headed forward. He didn't conjure a Tailwind this time. Noctum figured that was too risky now that there were actual guards around.
The joltik skittered on ahead. Noctum could scarcely hear the
tinks and
tunks of Leo's tiny steps over the pounding rain and loud metal
thunks of patrolling Eternatus Troopers. But that was a good thing. It meant the shrinking worked. So far, anyway.
Leo kept to the underside of the platforms, using electrified webbing to zip between them. Noctum held his breath for every zip, but nothing seemed to happen. He only heard glimpses of vague conversations about Eternavision programming atop the platforms.
Once Leo reached the end of the lowest platform, he skittered around to the edge of the platform. Large stacks of metal crates were lined up against the massive rock and concrete wall. However, there was enough space for a tiny joltik to easily maneuver through. Which is exactly what Leo did.
"Keep your eyes peeled," Valkyrie whispered. "We may find a vent or a drain some—"
She jerked some fur on Leo's back, then pointed to her left. "There, a vent!"
"Shhh." Noctum put an index finger to his snout.
"Bruh. I can barely hear you two over the sounds of that crane moving all the boxes," Leo scoffed.
"Right." Noctum tittered. "Then let's get into the vent."
"Venting like sussy bakas," Leo declared, skittering toward the vent bolted to a portion of concrete.
"The hell does that mean?" Valkyrie growled.
"Stuff." Leo stopped at the vent. The grate's gaps weren't big enough for him to slip through. "We gotta get this grate off."
"Say no more." Valkyrie hopped off the joltik's back. The garchomp proceeded to use her claws like glorified screwdrivers, getting the bolts off. Noctum and Leo helped her gently put the grate against the crate right behind them.
With the grate taken care of, Noctum and Valkyrie climbed back onto Leo. He hopped into the vent, which
quickly went upwards. Noctum could easily fly up himself, while Leo didn't look to have any problems maneuvering along one of the vent's walls.
It reminded Noctum of infiltrating that uPhone factory. God, that felt like forever ago. It had been, what, three or four months now?
Boy, how things have changed.
There were no fans stopping their ascent. Once a
rush of hot air threatened to blow them back down, but Leo and Valkyrie alerted Noctum and he dug his tiny claws into the opposite vent wall to keep himself in place.
Eventually, Noctum spotted an orange glow in the distance. He also heard muffled whirring and clanking.
"I think we're getting close to the proper facility," Valkyrie said.
"Right." Noctum's starry tail flame nervously rippled. "Um, actually, now that we
are inside... what
should we be doing?" He kept flapping his wings. The orange light drew closer. "This place is huge. How can we possibly find the others without getting caught?"
Valkyrie shook her head. "We're not going to."
Noctum blinking. "What."
The garchomp sighed. "Were you not paying attention before we left? I
told you guys... we're going to the warden's office."
"Because you think there are master controls for the facility there, right?" Cid asked through the X-transceiver line.
"Bingo." Valkyrie smirked. "We should be able to open up the cells from there." She tapped Leo's back. "And he's got that program Cyril gave us that'll let him access the system."
"And if that doesn't work?" Noctum asked.
"Then we employ a little...
gentle persuasion to get the warden to tell us where they are."
Noctum knew full well there'd be
nothing gentle about Valkyrie's persuasion. But he kept that thought to himself.
They reached the end of their climb, with the ventilation shaft turning sharply horizontal. The orange lights were from grates that opened out into... some part of the facility. At least, Noctum guessed they were within the prison confines, given the robotic announcement he could hear.
[Attention inmates. Due to the overwhelming success of Emperor Paradox Appreciation Day, we have decided to extend the event by infinity plus one days. Please adjust your calendars accordingly.]
Valkyrie pushed past Noctum. The garchomp approached one of the grates and looked down into it.
"Cafeteria," she said. "Looks like Block D. The eastern quadrant of the prison." Valkyrie looked down the ventilation shaft. "When Citadark was on Radiance, the warden's office was in the northeast quadrant. In one of the highest towers. So, we're actually closer than I thought."
"That's good, right?" Noctum smiled at her.
"Well, it's not
bad," Valkyrie said. She got off Leo's back and strolled forward.
"C'mon, you could be a
bit positive," Leo said, skittering after her.
Valkyrie grunted. "Keep quiet. We don't want anyone to think there's something crawling around the vents."
Leo continued ahead, snickering. "Yeah, cuz that'd be sus."
Noctum followed them, sighing and shaking his head. He passed by several more grates, all showing the cafeteria. Assorted pokémon filled rows of tables. Some as big as onix and steelix, who needed two whole tables to themselves.
None of the species matched Yuna and the others, however. Not that Noctum truly expected to find them that easily. But God it would have been nice for
something to actually be simple.
[Inmate HC17B, Flygon, G, please report to the D Block custodial office for cleaning duty. Again, Inmate HC17B, Flygon, G, please report to the D Block custodial office for cleaning duty.]
That announcement was much louder. Though, for all Noctum knew, that could have been because there were loudspeakers hanging near the part of the vent they were walking through.
"Path branches up ahead," Leo announced. "Looks like there're vents going left, right, and up."
"If we came from the east, then right goes north." Valkyrie held up her right arm. "We go that way first."
"Works for me." Leo skittered ahead and turned right at the junction. Valkyrie quickly followed the joltik.
Noctum paused to look through one more grate. A group of plusle, minun, dedenne, and togedemaru sat at a table that was too big for them, eating food in silence.
Grimacing, the cosmic charizard flew after his teammates. Hopefully, they could find the warden's office quickly.
XxX
As soon as Chien-Pao finished introducing himself, he turned and walked back into the snow. No hostilities. No demands that they leave even though they didn't know how to. He just... left.
"Imbecile. Follow him."
Gene's starcloud tail twitched. He silently beckoned Bahamut and Widget to follow him, then trudged through the snow after Chien-Pao.
"So... the Bittercold, huh?" Gene said.
"The Bittercold saved this world from itself," Chien-Pao declared. Curiously, the snow seemed to part as Chien-Pao walked through it, offering Gene
some visibility of the path ahead.
They walked across a snowy plateau. Gene saw a drop-off in the distance, but couldn't make anything out beyond that.
"Saved it?" Bahamut looked around. The cosmic lucario brushed snow off his arms. "It's a frozen wasteland out here."
If Chien-Pao was offended, he didn't show it. "The world wished for emptiness. That is what the Bittercold provided."
Widget squawked in alarm. The silvally's starcloud neck ruff puffed out. "E-Emptiness?"
"Yes." Chien-Pao continued forward, albeit at a slower pace. "The world was full of suffering. Sadness, resentment, bitterness, envy, and heartbreak. All that and more weighed down people's hearts."
He looked skyward. "With such heaviness, people yearned for emptiness. For stillness. For an eternal quiet."
His footsteps crunched in the snow. The edge of the plateau grew closer. Gene noticed a few blurry shapes. Shapes that soon turned to outlines of pokémon. An emolga and a dunsparce beside a swanna and a quagsire.
... Only they were ice sculptures. They had to be, right?
"No. You're lying to yourself."
Chien-Pao walked by emolga and dunsparce. "The Bittercold heard those wishes. To give the people the empty stillness they desired, it froze the world."
Widget looked at Swanna. "Th... then these are... actual people?"
"Yes. Granted blissful slumber from their pains and woes."
Gene's chest core burned a bit.
"Now I remember." Dark Matter sighed.
"In worlds like this one... the Bittercold is an offshoot of me. Or we're connected. Feeding off people's negativity. Believing the solution to negativity's constant presence is to end the world."
"Then we're walking past frozen corpses," Bahamut growled. He leered at Quagsire, then rapped their icy body with a paw.
"Is there
anyone who's not frozen?" Widget wondered, hesitantly walking toward Chien-Pao. "Like you?"
"No." Chien-Pao resumed walking. He approached the edge of the plateau. With the snowstorm parting for him, Gene was able to see into the distance.
A sprawling ice palace sat in the valley below. There were icy swirls around it and big, pointed towers jutting into the stormy skies.
"But those who helped spurn the Bittercold's existence are enshrined inside the palace," Chien-Pao continued.
"Riiiiight." Arms crossed, Gene gazed at the palace. "And the Bittercold?"
"Also within the palace," Chien-Pao replied. They tilted their head up a bit. "Atop the tallest spire."
Gene entertained the idea of asking Chien-Pao to take them to the Bittercold. But, from what he heard, the mega mewtwo doubted the Bittercold would even be interested in helping them. It would probably try to freeze them.
"You are all uncertain," Chien-Pao exclaimed, looking at Widget in particular. "You believe what the Bittercold has done is wrong."
"Of course I do!" Widget squawked. "You can't possibly tell me this is what
everyone wanted."
"Mmm. That's right." Dark Matter gave an annoyed grunt.
"The Voice of Life was rather hands on in tackling the Bittercold of our old world."
Chien-Pao looked off into the distance. "You're right. I can't." He shook his head. "The Bittercold believed
enough felt that way to justify freezing the world."
"Yeah, because that's all it can think of," Gene cut in. The mega mewtwo walked up to Chien-Pao, shaking his head. "I don't believe your master or whatever can really
understand the opposite side of the coin. The joys that life and companionship can bring."
Silence followed, saved for the howling of the snowstorm's winds. Chien-Pao slowly turned back to them. He scrutinized the trio.
"You do not seem that joyous with one another," he said.
Bahamut crossed his arms. "Hmph. That's a hell of an understatement."
Gene shot the cosmic lucario a look that said he wasn't helping. Bahamut turned his head away, scowling.
"We don't have to be buddy-buddy all the time," Gene said, pinching his brow. "Life... isn't perfect. It
can't be. There'll be plenty of sadness and anguish."
Chien-Pao tilted his head. "You sound as though you speak from experience."
"I do." Gene's starcloud tail curled up. "We've... all experienced quite a bit of it. And have fought against it for a while." His gaze fell to the snowy ground. "Some of us longer than others."
"But you are still in pain," Chien-Pao said. "Then doesn't it make sense to give up?" Blue light twinkled around his snowflake Tera jewel. "Wounds of the heart... can be as much a struggle to heal as physical ones. And they can pile up and pile up and pile up. Sadness and anguish crush the soul."
Gene's shoulder crystals flickered red. "That doesn't mean you stop fighting." He held out his right hand and made a fist. "There are always ups and downs. That's why... people should work together to get through the downs and lift the ups even higher.
"Even when things are pushed to the brink... you don't give up."
Chien-Pao stared blankly at Gene. Then he tossed out an accusation. "You do not believe that with your whole being."
Widget looked between Gene and Chien-Pao in confusion. Gene uncurled his fist and held up his right hand to stop the cosmic silvally from butting in.
"You can sense it, huh?"
Chien-Pao bobbed his head once. "As I'm sure you could with me."
"Tch. Then are we talking to the Dark Matter of this place?" Bahamut said. He looked toward the palace. "A Dark Matter that succeeded?"
"In a manner of speaking," Gene responded, still focused on Chien-Pao. "You're right. Part of me
does think that fighting's worthless. That we can't win. That we're better off giving up and accepting what's to come. Blah, blah, blah."
He rolled his eyes. "But that nagging doubt has been there for a long time, and I've managed to push past it. Because I've always had
someone standing by me."
Gene stomped a foot down. "These aren't things to forge alone. I've got a team. Even if we don't see eye-to-eye on everything, we support one another. That's how we get through this."
The mega mewtwo stepped toward Chien-Pao. "And what about you? These people who were so desperate for emptiness... did
they have teams? What about the people who
were together?" He looked back toward the frozen pokémon they'd passed earlier.
Chien-Pao didn't have a response at first. He turned around and looked out across the snow-covered valley. Slowly, he lifted his head, eyes tracing the palace in the distance.
"He is uncertain."
Statement of the obvious right there, Gene mentally scoffed.
"I believe... some of them were." Chien-Pao's ice Tera jewel dimmed. "Not in the way you described, however. More that they... stumbled upon one another and worked in parallel to grow the Bittercold's power."
"Uh-huuuh." Gene crossed his arms. "And what do
you think about this?"
Chien-Pao shook his head. "It is not my place to think about this. I am the Bittercold's emissary. The ones I described earlier are responsible for my existence. So that I could conjure the palace before you. The Bittercold used it to plunge the world into emptiness."
His Tera jewel brightened. "I was part of the emptiness... until your arrival."
"Wait" Widget approached the edge of the plateau. "You were frozen, too? That doesn't sound like much of an emissary."
"My job was already done." Chien-Pao looked over his shoulder. "But the Bittercold wanted the disturbance investigated. To ensure nothing would break the world's stillness."
He returned his gaze toward the valley. "You are that disturbance, of course. And your hearts are wrought with so much pain. I should grant you all emptiness. Free you from your strife."
Gene's chest core flickered. This was neither the time nor the place to fight. Especially if his powers were dulled.
"You never answered my question, though," Gene said. "What do
you think about this?"
"It is not an emissary's place to answer."
"Don't give me that." Gene stepped forward, leaning over. "I know you realize we're alike. Yet we've walked
very different paths. I'm sure you're thinking
something." He flicked his right arm. "So, come out and say it."
Chien-Pao grimaced. "I... must preserve the world's stillness. Your beliefs... are antithetical to my purpose."
"What are you talking about?" Widget said. He took another cautious step forward. "No one should decide your purpose except you."
Chien-Pao turned his gaze on Widget. The cosmic silvally continued, "I was... built with a specific purpose in mind. And at first, I followed it without question." He glanced at Gene. "But then his team opened my eyes to the truth. And I turned away from that purpose to fight for a different future.
"Even after hearing about a
new purpose, I'm trying to stay true to myself." Widget stuck his golden foreleg out. "Nothing's stopping you from doing the same. Because that's what it's like to live."
It was a good point. Gene didn't expect it to change Chien-Pao's mind—part of that was probably Dark Matter's pessimism cropping up again—but he was glad Widget put it out there.
Silence took over the group again, aside from howling wind. Then snow crunched beneath Chien-Pao's paws as he walked back and forth along the plateau's edge. He kept glancing at the palace, Tera jewel getting dimmer and dimmer.
"Very well," he finally said. His snowflake Tera jewel glowed a brighter blue.
"Huh?" Widget tilted his head. "Are you... going to help us?"
"I shall." Chien-Pao nodded. "Though I do not fully understand where you're coming from... I feel strong convictions. Like I did from those that brought the Bittercold into existence."
"Oddly charitable," Dark Matter muttered.
"Be on your guard for a trap."
Gene resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Still, he could at least press for details.
The mega mewtwo lazily traced his foot through the snow. "So, what does helping entail?"
"Someone has been communicating with the Bittercold," Chien-Pao said, looking skyward. "Requesting entrance to this world. At first, I did not understand it." His tail flicked in the group's direction. "But now I think they are here for you."
Gene stiffened. Someone was here for them? Had the emperor followed them? Or sent something to make sure they stayed in exile?
"See? You get your hopes up for one second and—"
"Then let them in," Widget said, trotting to the edge of the cliff. "I don't believe they can change what's going on with your world. There's nothing to lose here."
"That is what we're working on." Chien-Pao returned his gaze to the palace. "Please give us a moment."
He walked a few paces along the plateau's edge, away from the others. His Tera jewel glowed brighter. The light drifted in the palace's direction.
"Hmph." Bahamut approached Gene, one arm crossed under his chest spike and another swatting at snow that drifted in through Chien-Pao's buffer. "What are the odds this isn't something good for us?"
Gene sighed. "If you ask Dark Matter, almost a hundred percent."
Widget's chest ruff deflated. "The emperor
does have that Rift Ripper. He could send anyone or anything after us."
Bahamut scowled. "And we lack our powers to properly fight back."
"Let's not jump to any conclusions." Gene stood tall, watching Chien-Pao intently. "Maybe things will be okay."
"I am finished," Chien-Pao announced, though he didn't turn to face them. "Your visitor has arrived."
Despite urging caution, Gene instinctively tensed up. He took a stance meant for conjuring his spoon, except it couldn't materialize.
A strange, checkerboard portal appeared in front of them. Gene crouched down, expecting an attack to come flying in.
"Hey. That's not like any of our rifts," Widget pointed out.
Instead of an attack, gray-white paws stepped into the snow, followed by a fluffy body and nine fluffy white tails. A rainbow gem sparkled underneath their chest fur.
"An... ice ninetales?" Bahamut leaned forward. "Why do you have a Soul Dew in your chest?"
"Oh, that's my core." Ninetales looked at Gene. "Y'know, like what he's got. But full of light instead of shadows."
Not an enemy, then. Gene relaxed his stance.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"We talked indirectly the other day." A somber smile appeared on Ninetales' muzzle. "Wish our first in-person meeting could be under better circumstances, but I'll take what I can get."
He stepped toward Widget and extended a foreleg. "I'm Shane. And I'm here to get you back to your home."
XxX
CDL902: Citadark Isle, Orre
According to Boss Kitty, this place was going
to be the origin of some sort of criminal syndicate. But Matriarch's surveillance picked up on their activity and she dispatched Nova and his type: full units to put a stop to them before they ever gained any sort of traction. So, it stayed an empty island until the emperor rose to power. He plucked it out of the sea as a show of force toward Earth and tossed it into some distortion, where it reappeared in Radiance.
Enamorus must've found it and had it converted into the kingdom's main prison. As time went on and tech improved, Polaris used the prison for experiments and as a cheap labor source. Now it seems it's back in the empire...
. I do wonder how the name change will go over with the main party: I don't expect he'll be Chiaki again anytime soon, but it remains to be seen how his status as a fugitive will resolve. Also poor Scarlett too. I like the parellel being drawn between the two here, where they both just wanted to feel important and respected by their peers.
