A Journey's Link

Chapter 12 - Determination

"Now, for our finale!" Serena announced to the audience. Braixen looked back at Serena and nodded as she received the next command. "Make small circles using Flamethrower!" Braixen opened her mouth, preparing for large flames to be expelled and morphed into circular patterns. This is the deciding moment, Serena thought. This is where I prove Drew wrong.

Just as Braixen was about to execute the Flamethrower, a loud droning noise, similar to a siren, began to fill up the contest hall. Everyone in the audience groaned as the piercing noise entered their heads, causing many to kneel over in pain. The judges, which had sat intently watching Serena's performance, now fell with their hands covered over their ears.

Serena and Braixen were in the same situation as everyone else; hunched over in pain and overall anguish. Serena had no idea what the sound was or where it was coming from. As her mind raced for a solution, she quickly thought about the crystal sitting in her pocket.

She quickly removed her hand from her ear, something she quickly regretted, and pulled out the crystal, tossing it across the stage in an attempt to distance herself from it. As it slid across the stage, she noticed that it had changed. From a distance, it seemed that the colors began changing from red to deep purple.

Is the crystal making that noise? Serena thought. And if so, how do I even stop it? Her mind raced with questions, most of which resulted in no answers; she couldn't think straight with the noise infiltrating her ears.

Suddenly, without warning, the noise stopped. Everyone in the hall quickly realized and slowly began uncovering their ears. The crystal, which had been purple and glowing, now sat motionless with a bright orange color. Serena ran over to the crystal to hide it from the onlooking crowd.

As she stuffed it into her pocket, she saw Braixen slowly getting up from the ground. "Braixen!" Serena yelled. "Are you okay?!" In response, Braixen weakly nodded and pulled herself off the ground and into a standing position. Both she and Serena looked around at the mass of people murmuring to each other in confusion.

The announcer's microphone crinkled as he began speaking into it. "We're not sure what just happened," he said in a flustered tone, seemingly out of breath. "But we've decided to go ahead and allow everyone to go home. The contest has been canceled!" There was a mixed reaction from the crowd; some were frustrated while others were secretly relieved. Serena had no opinion, as she now had bigger problems involving the crystal that sat in her pocket.

Serena returned Braixen to her Pokeball, knowing she should take her to the Pokemon Center to be inspected. Entering the waiting room, which was empty, she ran to the changing room to retrieve her items. Thankfully, the items were there, so she quickly got her bag packed and ran towards the door.

As Serena walked outside, she saw a large cloud formation in the sky. That's weird, she thought. The forecast said it would be bright and sunny all day. Suddenly, the clouds began producing droplets of rain. Serena hated getting wet, so she hurriedly ran back inside and watched the rainfall, opting to wait out the downpour.

She watched as people on the streets rushed to get into buildings; anytime the rain made contact with their skin, they seemed to scream out in pain. What's the deal with that rain? Serena thought. It's almost like it's hurting them. She continued pondering about the rain and noticed that the few droplets she could see had electricity inside.

She closed her eyes, hoping for the rain to stop, mostly because she wanted to get to the Pokemon Center to make sure Braixen was okay. As if Arceus had heard her request, the rain stopped; Serena opened her eyes and stared out the window. The clouds that once covered the sky were now gone, replaced with a shining sun and dry ground.

Serena now had more questions than answers, but she decided that this was probably her best chance at getting to the Pokemon Center. So, with enough courage, she opened the door which revealed the now bright and sunny outside, and set off for the place that might have those answers.

[----]

Z watched as Mr. Stone stayed on the ground, unmoving, as the elevator doors shut on him. He wasn't done toying with the man just yet; Steven Stone was a far too valuable asset to give up so easily.

He began inputting the coordinates that led to the lair on a small watch on his wrist. Taking the elevator was just a medium to make sure he didn't accidentally drag anyone else with him; that would be disastrous. Once he had gotten the location correct, he pressed on the face of the device and disappeared, leaving the elevator open on the ground floor, empty.

Appearing at the entrance of the lair where the masked guards were, Z grunted at them to open the door. Without any response, they did, having dealt with his attitude in their last encounter. He entered the tunnel and made his way towards his makeshift office area dug out into the rock, where Lukas already stood patiently.

"Sir, how did the experiment go?" Lukas asked, partially curious. He rarely agreed with what Z did morally, but the scientific portion of his mind urged him to do whatever it took to ensure the advancement of technology.

"Fantastic, Lukas," Z responded jovially; he walked past the scientist, who had his hands behind his back, and sat in his leather chair. "But, sir. There is just one thing I wanted to discuss with you regarding the experiment." Z looked over and frowned. "And what's that?" He muttered.

"Well, sir, when you were close enough to the boy to activate his crystal, I noticed that there was another reading of a crystal," Lukas explain, walking over to Z and showing him a radar map on a laptop; there were two points, one where Ash had been, and one where Serena had been.

"I didn't think much of it, so I went ahead and just activated the boy's crystal to see what it did. But when I did, this happened." He simulated activating Ash's crystal on the radar map; Ash's point lit up in high readings. "Looks to be just Ash's," Z said under his breath. "Patience, sir," Lukas replied, staring intently at the screen.

A few seconds later, Serena's point on the map also lit up, flashing simultaneously with Ash's. Z leaned in close and rubbed his chin. "So there's two of these crystals out there?" Z asked, looking up at Lukas. "I believe this may be the case, sir. How should we proceed from here?" He asked, closing the laptop screen.

"We proceed by watching the aftermath of this little fun game of ours. We can worry about that later," Z responded ignorantly, turning on the Rustboro City News on the main monitor and leaning back in his chair. "Sir, I don't think you understand," Lukas spoke up, stepping in front of the screen. "With two crystals of this caliber, who knows what could happen if they somehow come close to each other."

Z got up from his chair and growled. "Did you even hear me? I said we can worry about it later!" He yelled, raising his arms. Lukas flinched and held his hands in front of his face. "O-Okay, sir. I won't speak of it again!" He exclaimed, running out of the room in fear. Z watched as he left and sighed. "I guess he doesn't want to see the beautiful chaos he created."

As Lukas ran back into the small room that had been allocated to him, he opened the laptop again and stared at the results. "He doesn't understand how dangerous this is," he whispered to himself, watching the reactions of the two crystals happening over and over again. "What has he caused?"