“What the fuck is that!?”

“Argh! My leg! It got my leg!”

“Hey! Hey! Harry isn’t breathing! Where are the medical supplies!?”

Panic and chaos. As soon as the guns whirred to life Felis and Sirius had sprinted to action, grabbing those they could and shoving them behind cover–the half walls with their displays still flashing. Most of those who saw the two react followed suit, but the slow ones, the ones unprepared…

Well, at least they weren’t panicking.

Repel protocol? Was that what it was? Just a full extermination of things?

“Fuck.” Felis growled, as bullets cracked across the wall. He hated how familiar this felt, the way his hand automatically reached for a gun that wasn’t there. Guns, of course they belonged to an ancient civilization, why the hell not? And how the hell did the machine know it was him? Access granted by who?

Question after fucking question.

“Valor!” He heard his brother shout, “[Harden] and [Growth], tell me when you reach your limit.”

The little Seedot chirped, glowing with ethereal green energy as he began to tense and swell. Others used their Golbats and Bronzors to the best of their ability, letting the steel Pokemon tank against the rapid fire of machine gun spray while Golbats tried to buffet the bullets away with powerful winds.

It wasn’t really working all too well however.

“Whatever those things are made of,” Emily called out, “They’re tough! I can send out Grimer but I’ll need a good shot!”

“I’m going to try freezing the machinery!” Hazel said, “But Snowrunt needs to get close!”

“What should I do?” Aken asked, watching the battle unfold around them.

“Nothing.” Felis hissed back, “We aren’t strong enough to handle long-range encounters like this.”

“But I cannot be killed!”

“But you will be shred to pieces! Stay down, let the others handle it for now.”

Aken snarled under his breath, but Felis didn’t care, grabbing the ghost and dragging him into his lap in case he got any funny ideas. Aken wasn’t strong enough, and Felis had nothing that could tank bullets, so they’d sit their asses down in cover until he figured something out or someone else handled it.

“[Bullet Seed!]” Sirius commanded, and Valor hopped out away from cover, firing a spray of seeds that exploded against the machine-gun fire. While the Pokémon couldn’t match the machines bullet for bullet, the group was now facing a much more manageable hail of bullets, if that term made sense.

“Get the Bronzors to take fire!” His brother continued, “Get them close, make them targets!”

The Bronzors, bless their metallic souls, did as asked, flying forward with grim determination as bullets pinged and pierced their bodies. But with the combined effort of Valor and the steel Pokémon, they were given enough cover to actually move out of their cramped hiding spots.

“Snowrunt! [Powder Snow!]” Hazel called out. The Pokemon ran forward, shivering so much Felis felt bad for the little guy. At the same time, Emily vaulted over her spot, throwing her pokeball like a pitcher in a baseball game would, cracking it directly against the blank face of the statue.

“Do your thing buddy!” She said, before ducking back into cover. Felis peeked out to watch just what the fuck Grimer was going to do, and he found himself thoroughly impressed. The Pokémon immediately started to ooze downward like a slow waterfall, its cheery smile stretching and elongating as parts of it dripped into machinery and gears, causing the left machine to spark spazz out, before letting out a small puff of smoke, it’s gunfire stopping soon after.

Snowrunt on the other hand, blasted the statue with a constant stream of snowflakes, and while at first it didn’t appear to do anything, he could eventually see ice forming on the machine, and after a few minutes, it too slowed to a stop, leaving the once full loud room empty and silent.

“It’s over…” Remi breathed, peeking up past the barricade. “...Check the bodies, now!”

“Dead.” One of the Grunts said, staring at the two that hadn’t been able to get away in time, “We’ve got injured too.”

Surprisingly, everyone didn’t react much to the dead bodies, save for maybe that one Grunt who silently grieved over his friend ‘Harry.’ Felis felt bad of course, but not enough to start going into shock. If you cared enough to cry over everyone you’d lose, there was no way you’d survive in the Before. He supposed it was the same here, watching Hazel and Emily instead focus on the wounded, with Sirius giving out instructions.

“Keep pressure around the wound, we don’t know if the bullet has left the wounds.” Sirius directed, “Let him lie down, Hazel, keep the man talking, Emily, anything else we can use to stop the bleeding?”

“We have sprays, but they’ll cover the wound.”

“Then we keep the bandages and get them back to homebase. How many can still move?”

Between the 11 of them, there were now two dead, and 1 wounded. Honestly…not bad all things considered. There were three other unnamed Grunts with the injured Bronzors, but everyone else appeared fine.

“Remi?” A grunt asked.

“You three, with the injured Pokemon.” Remi said, chewing his lip, “Pack a few heals and take the dead and injured back. The rest of us push forward.”

“You want to keep going?” Hazel asked.

“We were supposed to be a team of 5. There wasn’t any resistance on the way here, there won’t be any on the way back. They’re also the ones with Psychic Pokémon, it’ll be easier to carry.”

“Yes sir.” One Grunt said, relief in his eyes as the trio prepared for their walk back.

“We don’t know what’s in there.” Hazel argued, “There could be more of those…things.”

“That’s exactly why we should go,” Felis countered. “This is new. We’ll be careful of course, but this is something Cyrus should see, it’ll help us as well.”

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“You mean it’ll help you. I’m not putting myself or Emily in danger against something we don’t know. Find someone else.”

“Hazel.” Felis said, grabbing his arm, “Listen. I won’t mince words, we need you two there. The reason– the only reason–we managed to lock down those machines was because of you and Emily. We continue this mission without you, we're dead.”

Hazel held his gaze, “Then you best come back to base with us.”

“You’re not thinking this through! Sirius and I can watch from the front, whatever this repel effect is, we can probably find a way to turn it off!”

“Turn it off? How are you going to do that? Will you just happen to find the ‘off’ button while we explore? And what if we don’t have cover next time? Will you jump in front of me while the machine blasts you to bits? Do you have some sort of super sense that will warn us of when the next attack will happen?”

Felis grit his teeth in frustration. They were close, they were this close to getting some answers. But he needed them, if guns like that attacked again how the hell was he supposed to handle it? Aken would be torn to shreds, and Valor, despite his power, couldn’t keep up with a fucking machinegun. What could he say? What could he offer?

“I think we should go.” Emily suddenly said.

“What?” Hazel asked.

“What?” Felis echoed, equally surprised.

“Hazel, we knew this was going to be dangerous.” Ems sighed, “We’re in Galactic for Arceus’s sake, what did you think we were going to do, have friendly talks with Chronos?”

“No! But–”

“But nothing.” She whispered something into his ear, something Felis couldn’t pick up much to his frustration. But by the time their silent conversation was over Hazel looked annoyed and defeated.

“Let’s go.” He growled, pushing past them to reach his Snowrunt, who gratefully allowed itself to be scooped up into his arms.

Remi huffed and and followed after, with Emily and eventually Sirius in tow. Felis could only blink, watching as their party split, before his gaze locked in on Emily.

“Interesting.” He muttered.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, Felis’s original plan was to get Emily alone and talk, figure more about her and Hazel.

But holy shit this place was beautiful.

Aside from the constant threat of the “Repel Effect” and the Unowns that seemed to be actually looking at them instead of just floating, the group had found themselves in the confines of the temple. Though to call it “confines” would have been an insult to whoever had crafted such a building.

White marble-like floors gilded with intricate imagery of lotuses, trees, and dragons who very much resembled Sinnoh’s big three lined the floors and halls of the abandoned place. White, nebulous light sometimes gave way to glass-like “windows” that revealed a spiralling swirl of rose-colored void, that seemed to beckon and dance at them from above.

The air itself had changed too, the stale, dry tasting air of the caverns gave way to a moist, crisp scent of morning dew, likely from the overgrown plants that stretched and grew along the walls and the floors. Statues–very reminiscent of the Repel Effect ones, watched with blank faces, the threat of guns ever present, yet none seemed to make a move.

Not that it made them any less nervous.

“Check for the machines.” Hazel said, looking at Felis.

“Yea, sure.” Felis replied, rolling his eyes internally, “How?”

“Shuppet’s a ghost, right? All ghosts have short range teleportation. Have him teleport in.”

He blinked, turning to Aken who looked at him in turn.

“You can do that?” He asked incredulously.

“Of course I can. I’m a great spirit.”

“Fuckin’ holding out on me man.” Felis muttered, as Aken flew over to the nearest of the statues. Man, ghosts were useful, why weren’t more people using them?

“Hmm…I can see machines, but they aren’t moving.”

“Give me a yes or a no buddy, can’t understand you.”

“Must we keep this a secret from them as well?” Aken asked, floating back. “It gets annoying.”

“Yea I’m working on that.” He whispered back, before raising his voice again to say, “So?”

Aken nodded. “This is stupid.”

“They’re there.” He said aloud to the group, “But I guess they’re not working? Is that what you’re saying?”

His ghost rolled his eyes and nodded again.

“What the fuck is even going on.” Remi sighed, rubbing at his temple, “Alright Felis, you and me take point. Get Aken to check everything before we go forward.”

“Sure.”

With Felis and Remi taking the front, Sirius and the others watched their backs, Pokémon out and vigilant as they crossed golden halls. It honestly felt a tad redundant, the amount of pathways the group had to traverse through, each area felt the same as the last, the only difference being the way the plants grew differently from area to area.

“It’s like they had so much shit they didn’t know what to do with it.” Felis commented.

“I don’t think I’d know what to do with all this either.” Remi agreed.

“Probably a giant statue of myself, to be honest.”

“Nah. You'd have people screaming and running the other way.”

"Ouch Remi. You got a better idea?"

"Hmmm." The manager hummed, "Probably Antlers of Vitality."

"The fuck is that?"

"It's exactly as it sounds. Sinnoh has its deities, but time and space aren't exactly the end all be all. Kalos's primes work between life and death. The Antlers of vitality, the wings of destruction, all that."

Oh. That was X and Y, wasn't it? He wanted to play that but he was a broke middle-schooler at the time. Wait...where was the X and Y story in this whole timeline? Would that happen at the same time as now? in 5 years time? Probably not, right? Didn't make sense for two world ending organizations to be active at the same time, right? Wait...no. Aqua and Magma--shit, what the fuck was wrong with these people?

"That's...strangely poetic." Felis said, shutting down the thoughts before it could spiral out of control. Hooray, more things to add to the list.

"I just think it gives the necessary hope."

It took a while, but eventually they’d reached an area that felt like there was purpose to it. There were actual doors now, though as they were all automatic, a few remained broken down and irreparable–the first signs of actual damage within the otherwise pristine abode.

“This looks almost like an apartment.” Emily commented, as the group peered inside the room. It was a beautiful, if not empty room, that was probably an apartment for a single person. It was large, for sure, but the way the room was oriented, with a small kitchenette, a bathroom with the largest bathtub he’d ever seen, and a single bed.

“Ishaq…bin Salman?” Remi asked.

“Where did you find that?” Felis asked, instantly at his side. That was an Arabic name, what was that doing here?

“Here, it’s by this photo.”

The photo showed a man in his early thirties, a round face with a moustache, Middle-Eastern? Pakistani? He couldn’t tell. What he could tell though was that this was literally just some fucking dude. A human, a person from his time, maybe.

“Al-Saud…” Felis mumbled, reading the extra text at the bottom. That looked familiar, what did it mean? Shit…he tried racking his brain for anything, but could find nothing.

“Sirius, this look familiar?”

“Hm?” His brother asked, before spacing out again.

Right. The sense.

“Hey, how you feeling? Is the pressure getting any worse?”

“I think I’m alright for now.” Arun smiled at him, “Go, explore, I’ll let you know if I feel anything.”

Felis smiled back, patting his shoulder before the group continued their exploration. It looked like this was a residential wing of sorts? The rooms were all uniform, their interiors uniquely showing off their prior resident’s personalities. It felt all the same however, almost everything was covered in gold though, furniture, appliances, hell, even the carpets had gold on them, dusty and mouldy as they were. Each room’s occupant varied though, with different people of different ethnicities, but that seemed to be the only thing different about the wing.

“I don’t get this building.” Felis said to the group after they passed another set of identical rooms.

“What do you mean?” Hazel asked.

“What’s the point of all this? Look at this–it’s the same room for another single person. I thought this was supposed to be a temple? So far all we’ve seen is a glorified apartment complex. Remi does the report mention what the other doors led to?”

“Mostly gardens and altars.” Remi responded, snapping a photo of another room. “Nothing before mentioned a…residential wing?”

“And that’s also where they faced more opposition right?”

“Mhm.”

“If we find another one of those screens,” Ems said, “Do you think we can get some more information?”

“Last time we did that, those things attacked us.” Hazel countered.

“Then we just don’t press anything that says ‘kill’ or ‘repel’.”

“I like that idea.” Felis said.

The only issue was there weren’t any screens for another hour. The tense feeling of statues coming to life slowly dissipated as they realized none of them were really doing much, so he pulled Aken close to him instead, letting the ghost trail by his shoulder once more. When they did finally find a screen that could work it was a little…annoying.

“You are here.” It read, with a single dot blipping at the very bottom of the strangely shaped chamber.

“That’s impossible!” Remi exclaimed, “We’ve been walking for over an hour, how?”

“Take a picture before anything else.” Felis said, equally annoyed, “There’s an actual map here. And look–there’s the central chamber Cyrus mentioned earlier.”

Sure enough the map was actually labelled, thank god. The area they were in was labelled [Residential Wing-D], with others like [Garden Wing-D] and [Dream Wing-D] whatever the fuck the last one meant. Moving higher up rooms were labelled from D to B, with the higher letters moving up along the room.

“Dream Wing–that’s where the initial group faced opposition.” Remi realized, “It says they were stopped just before the B wing.”

“And all the halls end up connecting to the dream wings…” Hazel muttered, “So we’re fighting opposition no matter what.”

Felis tapped the holo screen, it felt like a thin, moist, film against his finger, the alien sensation causing goosebumps to rise in his arms. It flickered, the map winking out to a very friendly looking interface, thick squares displaying apps like “Help”, “Manifest”, and “Teleporter”

“Oooh.” Felis grinned, tapping the “Manifest”.

[ERROR. RED CHAIN PROTOCOL: N NO LONGER EXISTS WITHIN THE FACILITY, PLEASE EXECUTE MARS PROTOCOL]

“Mars?” Emily asked, “Admin Mars?”

Felis didn’t think so. Whatever these people were, they had some sort of obsession with divinity and deities, Mars protocol probably had something to do with fighting right? Maybe a security force considering Mars was the god of war after all.

“Try the teleporter.” Hazel suggested, his curiosity getting the better of him, “Maybe we can get a shortcut through this place.”

He did so, praying that whatever teleport system they had in place wouldn’t be the same as Galactic’s god awful ones. Much to his relief and disappointment however, another error message appeared, displaying: [ERROR. RED CHAIN PROTOCOL: P NO LONGER EXISTS WITHIN THE FACILITY, PLEASE EXECUTE MARS PROTOCOL]

“The letter’s different.” Felis commented.

“One option left.” Remi said.

He shrugged, hitting the “Help” button, this time a secondary screen appeared.

“Would you like a visual assistant AI to help you?” He read aloud. “You guys cool if I hit yes?”

“Absolutely.” Emily grinned.

“I’m in.”

“Hrm.”

“You’d probably hit the button even if we said no.” sighed Hazel.

“Correct!” Felis cheered, tapping the ‘yes’ with a flourish.

A bit of the screen peeled off from its original place, dropping to the floor with a splash. The whole of the group (minus Sirius) yelped, jumping backwards as the weird…puddle thing began to tremble and rise into the air, floating particles churning and twisting to eventually build a small…and very familiar looking human.

“Hi, I’m Jeff Bezos.” The thing smiled artificially, “Though, not really. I’m an AI designed to mimic one of the facility's proud patrons–Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Jeff Bezos is…oh, you’re not skipping? Usually divines skip the whole introduction.”

The whole group could only stare at the small bald man in rich holographic robes as it looked at them quizzically.

“Dude." Felis said slowly. "What. The. Fuck."