It's over. Regigigas has been sealed again for who knows how long. Heinrich's wound stitched itself back up, meaning he's still alive; the potion wouldn't work otherwise.
"Maria, can I see your arm?" I ask, and she reluctantly reveals the deep wound. Blood seeps out the moment the pressure eases.
Before she can retreat, I quickly spray it with the potion. "Ahh! Shit! Damn!" She unleashes a storm of curses as the stinging miracle juice does its work. Each spritz knits the wound faster, fresh tissue forming as the pain slowly ebbs.
The potion bottle runs empty, and I replace it with a fresh one from my backpack. "Your turn, Riley."
"Shoot! Shite! Shit!" He's not nearly as squirmish as Maria, but also far less creative in his hisses.
Maria wrings the skirt of her dress; blood has splotched all over it. "What about Grandpa?"
Shallow, rapid breathing. His brain doesn't get enough oxygen with how little blood he has left. "He's stable as far as I can tell, but he needs to see Nurse Joy immediately. I'm not even sure--"
"No..." He mutters. His body remains completely still, except for his moving chest and mouth. "Hannelore... I want to see her..."
The man might not survive without a blood transfusion... He might not survive at all, no matter what we do. But then, who am I to deny his dying wish?
I look for Maria for answers. She's his granddaughter, so she must decide. "Don't worry. We'll bring you home, and then Grandma can take care of you."
She takes one arm and Riley the other. I want to help, but my feet stay rooted as dread creeps up my spine. It's as if an otherworldly creature lurks within the corners of my eyes - yet when I look, it's only Regigigas, still sealed in stone.
The lights have stopped their incessant flashing. Darkness entangles his motionless body once more. Silence reigns.
My paranoia feels worse than ever before.
Why? Does it mean anything? Or am I just a wuss?
"Swole?" Candice taps my shoulder.
Maria, Riley, and Heinrich have already left the temple. I'm not hearing their footsteps anymore either.
Something's going on. I can feel it. "Candice, do you remember what Heinrich said about the vision and his house?"
"N-no. Sorry, I... I wasn't really there. It was too much blood." She shudders... She didn't hear it.
"He said Regigigas destroyed his home with a single step."
"And?" I notice she still keeps her back turned to the bloodstained altar, her hazelnut brown eyes locked into mine without daring to look anywhere else.
"Regigigas isn't tall enough for that." Her eyes flick to the statue, then back to me. "He's about five meters tall. Very tall, but far from tall enough to do something like that. And when Godey dreamed of Alamos Town's destruction... his vision came true."
"What are you getting at? I'm not really in the state to solve riddles..."
"Sorry, didn't want to make one. I just don't think we've solved the real problem yet. When the lights flashed on, one of them revealed what looked like a seam - right behind Regigigas."
I move past the statue, into the dark where daylight can't reach. Sweeping the wall with my phone's flashlight, I look - and feel - for any uneven spots...
Nothing. It's flush. Just a single, smooth surface... It's the only smooth wall in the hall. Everything else is made from uneven slabs. It's exactly as large as the front door.
"This is suspicious." Candice states when she sees what the flashlight highlights.
"Very. Lopunny, can you push against this rock here?"
"Abomasnow, you too." Her pokeball pops open, and out comes a behemoth of a pokemon. Built like a bear or a frosty pine tree, she presses her green, clawed paws, thick as a trunk, against the rock. Lopunny continues pushing, yet her ears stiffen up and her body tenses, intimidated by Abomasnow's size.
The wall budges. A tiny straight crack forms right down the middle, rock dust falling down and clouding the air.
After nudging Lopunny closer to the seam for better mechanical advantage, I help out, pushing against the wall with all my might.
Candice chuckles. "I doubt you're going to make the difference. Mamoswine, come out and help, and Abomasnow, get ready to mega evolve!"
The pokemon grunts loudly, a jet of cold air escaping his mouth at the same time. Mamoswine pops free and presses her tusks against the rock.
A tremble shudders through the wall as it gives out more and more, yet it remains closed.
I'm starting to think that there's probably a switch or lever to open the door, but we're already making so much progress; we can't stop now.
A tiny sphere within Abomasnow's icy fur lights up in a bright, icy blue shine, matching the sparkles coming from Candice's left hair clip.
Abomasnow's fur stands up, doubling in volume. Her arms and legs widen, and her claws turn into thick, stubby roots. Two growths pierce her back, icy crystals like enormous pine cones. Frigid air billows down from them in thick wafts of fog, like pollen drifts from pine cones when they're ripe.
Wherever the fog touches, the ground is quickly covered by a thin layer of ice. Then come the cracks - her root-like legs driving into the stone, anchoring deep for grip.
She presses against the door with a roar, and something seems to snap or break. With a sudden lurch, Mamoswine and Mega Abomasnow push open their half of the double doors. They stumble, and the door slams into the wall as it swings open.
The ground rumbles, and Lopunny and I give out.
My arms hurt.
Candice laughs. "Good effort, Swole."
"We were very close to opening it, right, Lopunny?"
~"Right. Just a few more pushes."
Candice slaps my shoulder. "Haha! Well, don't sweat about it. Let's worry about that ominous tunnel instead. Honestly..."
---
"Honestly, I had no idea the temple had a secret exit leading deeper inside the mountain." Candice mutters after we both spent some time staring and worrying about it.
Neither of us approached the entry point. The fear of the unknown lurks within the dark tunnel beyond.
A deep rumble sounds out from the depths of the darkness. Then another. They come at a steady rhythm.
"This smells like big trouble." She says.
I sniff at the air, not noticing anything except a stale scent coming from the tunnel, as if nobody has been there in... centuries. Millennia? Has this temple been built before or after the one in the Grand Underground?
Whatever is inside, it can't be good. "I agree. It's going to be dangerous, I'm sure of it."
Candice gulps before she pulls out a tablet from an infinite space bag somewhere hidden by the sweater she wrapped around her waist. She taps away at it before storing it back in her pocket.
"We're alone with this, aren't we?"
She nods. "I've requested support, but everyone is too busy with the Space Time Convergence. I don't know when or if help arrives, and I don't even know how much time we have left..."
When she pauses, I look back at the yawning abyss in front of us.
"I know I technically promised to keep you out of danger, but will you come with me?"
Candice is a gym leader; she basically doesn't have a choice in this. I'm just a field researcher. I... Do I have a choice? Fuck! What if it's really as bad as Heinrich said it would be? Literally another end-of-the-world situation!
"I understand if you don't want to..."
Except this one could be stopped before it even starts. Dad, Team Galactic, the princess - hell, even Team Rocket, technically - are all working to save the world. But what's the point if Regigigas tears it apart first?
"I'm coming with you. We're the only trainers around; it's our responsibility."
"Thank you. Seriously."
I take a deep breath before calling out Riolu and Swadloon. They are still in rough shape, but their eyes quickly flutter open before they surround me.
~"What's going on?" Riolu asks while I pick up Swadloon. She's gotten larger, and I have to carry her in both arms now, like an extra-large pokemon egg.
"Big trouble. Lopunny, can you explain it to them? And Salandit, I need you with me. I might need your night vision."
~"Rodger." She hisses and scales up my body, stemming her clawed hands against my head to move along with me.
Candice chuckles. "Good thinking. We might need everyone's help." Her pokeballs pop open one after another. Joining Weavile, Mamoswine, and Abomasnow, she releases Jynx, Glaceon... "And you too, Aurorus."
Another enormous pokemon appears from her personal arsenal: Aurorus, the tundra-like pokemon. She's built like a dinosaur, with two flaps of translucent skin waving like an aurora borealis along her neck. She has to duck her long neck to fit inside the tunnel.
"Sorry about the cramped space, but I need all of us girls to work together now." Candice pats Aurorus' flank. It looks like I'm the only guy around. "We're going first. Froslass, scout ahead."
A splotch of darkness, a darker shade than the shadows, separates from the group and flits past the phone's light, shooting into the tunnel. After just a few meters, she becomes indistinguishable from the shadows deeper inside.
After hearing nothing in response besides the steady rhythmic thumping, Candice shouts into the void. "Froslass? Everything alright?"
No response. "That's not good."
"Froslass, now is really, really not a good time for pranks."
"Froslass." She speaks. I startle when she suddenly appears out of the ceiling right in front of us. "Fro- Froslass."
"Alright. Good work, but can you get out of the shadows? I need to see you, in case something happens."
Her pokemon emerges fully, dressed like a girl in a kimono. She floats ahead, and Candice follows with her team.
I move after them, Lopunny walking by my side and Riolu on the other.
We creep along a straight tunnel; walls, floor, and ceiling are all the same dull gray stone. Everything blends together.
Only one thing stands out: three rows of evenly spaced bumps lining both walls, repeating in a quiet, unsettling pattern. It looks so creepy, like a foreign language, perhaps?
"Hey, uhm..." Candice slowed down and allowed me to catch up with her. "Thanks for coming. I'm honestly really close to bolting... I don't think I could do this without you."
"Bolting? Like running?" She nods, her eyes turned down in shame. "Yeah... kinda me too. But right now, we don't know how dangerous this really is. It could be nothing, who knows?"
Fat chance. This will be terrifying and dangerous, just like all my other escapades.
"You don't believe that... You're pretty brave, you know?"
"Not really. I used to be. Not too long ago, I was an ignorant young boy who'd run recklessly into danger. That boy was brave, and it was worth it too. I got Lopunny and Riolu because of this innocent, young boy's decisions... But every time I ran into danger, it felt like it carved out a piece of my soul... Sorry, I shouldn't bother you with that."
"Don't be sorry. Tell me more, please. Maybe I can help?"
"How?"
"I'm the school counselor too. I'm pretty good at helping."
"Mayor, gym leader, teacher, and counselor?" She nods. "Your parents must be proud."
"Ehhh, let's talk about that some other time. We should keep this focused on you. What made you feel like you were losing parts of yourself?"
"Well, I lost my innocence when--" Wasn't that a euphemism for something? "When I watched pokemon in the wilderness tear into each other. It was brutal, and I get why everyone is always supposed to travel along routes... Then, I've lost my bravery at the Tree of Beginning on Route 218. I watched my friend die for me because we rushed into danger to save the tree, like some wannabe heroes."
"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that."
"When Dawn was abducted on the MS Anne, I threatened to torture and rape a Team Rocket member for information. It worked. That day, I realized that there is probably no limit to how low I could sink..."
"..."
"... Losing my innocence means having sex, doesn't it?"
"Yes. I didn't want to interrupt your story, but that sounded really strange. Haha."
Then I've also really lost my innocence. But I'm not telling her about that part. Good grief, Lopunny has been part of the best and worst moments of my life - as the saying goes, through good times and through bad.
"In Alamos Town, I've learned how dangerous the world truly is. At any moment, Palkia could attack and erase one of us from space, as it happened to Zoey. That's how she lost her arm, by the way."
"That's how she lost her arm?! She always kept the details to herself. Palkia took it?!"
"Worse. Her arm was all that was left. Some mystical powers brought her back but didn't restore her arm. I've never felt so powerless as when I held it..."
"Oh, fuck. That's why she didn't want to tell... Now I feel like an ass for asking her so much..."
"I've also lost a finger and a tooth that day." I wiggle my four fingered hand in the air. "Do you chat with her often?"
"All the time. She's such a gossip."
"Ha. She really is." She always complained about everything Brock, Ash, and Barry were doing. It was honestly hilarious to listen to her daily problems. I always had fun reading her rants. "Do you think the fun will ever return?"
She looks me in the eyes, a bright smile on her lips - completely at odds with how I feel right now.
"Definitely. You know, many boys and girls feel just like you, even when they have much smaller problems. It's just part of becoming an adult. The terrifying parts seem overwhelming right now, but you're going to get used to them, and then you will find joy again."
"Seriously?"
"Yep. Let me guess, because I'm good at guessing: one of your biggest worries is that you don't recognize yourself in the mirror. That you think you're not the same person anymore."
"Well, yes. I did stand in front of a mirror rather recently and thought exactly that. Kind of cringe in retrospect, especially when you point it out like that."
"Ha!" Her sharp laughter echoes once, returning from the darkness of the tunnel as if someone stood at the end of it and laughed back. "It is, but it's normal to feel that way. Do you think Swole Solo, the boy, would be the same person as Swole Solo, the man? They can't be the same, or else they would've had the same title, duh!"
I can't help but laugh with her.
"You shouldn't compare yourself with who you used to be. And you shouldn't compare yourself with your childhood ideals either. You're a man and a pokemon trainer. The question should be: are you a good man and a good pokemon trainer?"
"I'm the best."
"See? Then you've got nothing to worry about. Don't try to be something you're not. You're not a boy anymore, so why try to be one?"
"What about the immoral things I did?"
"Who cares? Everyone has a few evil bones in them. You want to know a secret?"
"Yes."
"I used to be a schoolyard bully. With my parents' influence, I made the other girls do what I wanted. It wasn't until my passion for pokemon lit aflame that I cooled down a bit."
"No way. You? Really?"
"Yep. Next time you see Zoey's older sisters, ask about me. Ruby still hates my guts, haha."
"Wow. You think you know someone, and then they turn out to be evil."
"Hahaha!"
---
"Thanks, Candice. I think you really helped me today."
"Gladly. I love helping people." The chipper tone in her voice echoing throughout the tunnel makes me believe this is the truth.
But our cautious steps and the constant strumming of ever-loudening noise make it rather difficult to keep any happy feelings alive. "It's a rather long tunnel, isn't it?"
"It's to tell the people walking along a story."
"Huh?"
"The nubs on the wall - they are braille. They tell a story of prehistoric times, when Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre formed the continents and the oceans. At that time, Regigigas, Regirock, Registeel, and Regice shaped the planet as we know it today."
"Primal?"
"It's like a title. The Regis also have one, but it's a symbol that I can't recognize in braille. It warns of them: They must be imprisoned, for when they walk free, they herald the end of time."
"That sounds pretty bad."
She silently agrees, just nodding her head slowly. "... You've been in a lot more of these apocalyptic adventures than me..." She prefaces something in a way that makes me dread her next words. "Do you think they are related?"
"Definitely. None of these things would have happened if it weren't for Dialga and Palkia battling it out."
"I think so too-- Hold on." She holds out her arm, blocking my way.
"What's the matter?"
"I thought that was a wall up ahead... are you seeing that?"
I peer past her pokemon - nothing but pitch-black darkness. My phone's flashlight barely scratches it; the dark swallows everything. It looks like a solid wall, but the floor suggests the tunnel simply opens up into a vast chamber. "We need more light. Salandit, can you take care of that?"
She nods atop my head, then shifts position. Claws prick into my skin as she scrambles for balance - then her back and tail ignite, bursting into an orange flame, casting light like a miner's headlamp.
"Actually, I think your flashlight is brighter. Let us handle it. Aurorus and Jynx, can you help us with Flash?"
The skin flaps along Aurorus' neck brighten, becoming more and more intense while fluttering wildly. In the meantime, Jynx summons a yellow orb in front of her outstretched arms. The orb steadily turns white, increasing in intensity as well.
"No way." Candice mutters.
"It's still not enough? Just how massive is that room?" It's also where the rumbling comes from - it echoes from that very room.
Murals decorate the walls. Impressive artistry with incredible levels of detail showing a world of molten lava. In its center appears what must be Primal Groudon - unlike the sketches I've seen of regular Groudon, this one seems to glow with veins of liquid magma running along its body.
The wall on our left shows the opposite. Thunderclouds swell overhead, rain pours, and everything is submerged. Deep beneath the waves looms Primal Kyogre, aglow with rune-like veins. It's detailed enough to reveal a submerged city - a sprawling metropolis eerily reminiscent of Lumiose City... Wait... that tower...
"Swole?"
Could it be? "This really is Lumiose City, isn't it?"
Her eyes widen. "It might be. And I think this is the Bell Tower of Ecruteak City."
I glance back to Primal Groudon's picture and spot it. Like a ruined postcard, the Johto city drowned in a sea of lava. The Bell Tower still stands amid the lava... and another tower nearby... "What's that other tower?"
"That's the Brass Tower before it burned down. A lightning strike hit it 150 years ago."
"So it's not a prediction, and it's not a historic event-- No, wait. How old is this temple, and how old are these towers?"
Candice thinks for a moment. "The temple has been here since before Kanto colonized Hisui, so it's much older than the Prism Tower, the Bell Tower, or even the Brass Tower. How is this possible?"
Visions? But no, the Brass Tower isn't burned down.
Candice giggles, but it sounds fake. "What if it's just a creative art piece? Maybe they had visions of these cities and just thought it was funny to paint them in this destroyed state..."
"Funny?"
"I'm trying to be optimistic, alright?"
"What if this temple came from another dimension? Another world where this really happened, and a Space Time Convergence brought it here, sealed in a sphere of rock. After thousands of years of erosion, that sphere roughened and became the cliffs outside."
A long silence follows, the words quickly swallowed by the noise rising from the dark.
"Did you read Doctor Belmont's paper on Space Time Convergence?" She asks.
Doctor Belmont... where did I hear that name before...? "You mean Tonio? From Alamos Town? I've only read his interview in the news."
"He explained how it's possible for points in space, time, and even between different universes to briefly become entangled, only to get rearranged and ripped apart when the timelines diverge."
"What?"
"Sorry. He basically wrote that you might be right."
"I hate always being right."
She laughs out loud, and her voice echoes. But then a particularly loud rumble coming from two thick pillars further in the back shuts her up.
In front of these pillars is another altar, like the one in Regigigas' chamber. Except, atop this altar stands a wooden chair on four wooden legs.
Candice follows me as I approach it to investigate.
Yes... mostly a chair. A lever juts from the armrest, wired to a counterweight. Release it, and the weight drops down a chute, pulling a rope... The rope snakes through pulleys and gears, connecting to a blade, aiming for the neck. "What the fuck." It's exactly the kind of device Victor Manchineel would've dreamed up. "This is fucked up."
"Is that a suicide chair?"
"A self-sacrifice chair, I'm guessing."
"That's so tasteless." Candice sneers.
The blade and the back of the chair have blood on them, blackened by age. "Someone sacrificed themselves here to power some kind of device."
"To power what?" She gulps, slowly approaching the pillars and walking past them. "There..."
I follow and see what she means. A mirror copy - if one ignored the larger size - of the gemstones that repetrified Regigigas is embedded into the wall.
Another sound rings out, echoing throughout the hall... It sounds a little bit like a whole bunch of piano strings strumming... no, snapping all at once.
"Candice?"
She turns to look at me, her eyes full of fear and dread, a window into a vision of despair. "Y-yes, S-Swole?"
I feel the hair standing on the back of my neck. I feel my legs trembling, close to giving out. "I-I don't think these pillars are decorative or structural."
"W-we're standing right under it, aren't we?"
"I don't want to check. Can you?"
She shakes her head, her eyes remaining strictly locked into mine.
"We could leave." I suggest. "We've never found anything. Just a strange tunnel with strange paintings. Someone else can take a closer look."
Her face twists. Her lips curl down, and thick tears well up in the corners of her eyes. "W-we can't. It's going to destroy the world. I-i-if we don't stop it."
Fuuuck. "I hate that you're right." The suicide chair looms over us in the corner of my eye. A single pull of the lever, and it's all over in an instant. "What if we're wrong? What if the device is broken?"
She shakes her head. "What if it's not?"
"Fuuuck."
"As far as we know, one of us just has to sit down, pull the lever, and the world doesn't end."
"But the world is still ending." I point out. "Dialga and Palkia are destroying it."
"Team Galactic will fix that..." She briefly glances up, only to stare at her feet just as quickly. "But once it's freed, no one can stop it."
I eye the chair again. One of us - or the death of the world... "Someone imprisoned it in the past-- or maybe another world. Who's to say it can't be done again?" I know the answer.
"If the world faces two calamities at once, we'll likely fail at both." Candice knows it too. Her brown eyes glaze over with dread... acceptance. "One of us will have to do it."
"I can't do it." Their faces flash through my mind, grieving just like I did when Lucario and Lucas died. "Lopunny, Akari, my pokemon, Dawn and Zoey, my parents, Mary and Banette, and even Mars... I can't leave them behind."
Her lips quiver. "I'm a gym leader." She breaks eye contact and takes a shaky step.
"Aboma..." Abomasnow rumbles, not fully understanding what's going on.
"Weavile!" Her pokemon dashes to Candice's side, holding her by her hand as tears stream down both of their faces. Weavile shakes her head and pulls her back. "We-Weavile!"
"I'm sorry." Candice mutters, fully defeated. She gently removes the claw and rubs Weavile's head. "I must do this."
"Abomasnow..."
"I'm sorry, I can't." Candice hugs her pokemon, petting her frosty spines.
She bends down to embrace Jynx, holding her tightly as tears drip to the floor. Her pokemon is still in shock. Candice kisses her cheek while Glaceon paws at her knee. "Glace... Glaceon..."
"No... It won't work. There's no time for that. It could awaken at any moment." Bending lower, she picks Glaceon up, and they rub their faces against each other.
Aurorus lowers her head. "Aurorus." And Candice extends their face-rubbing to her as well.
"I love you too, Aurorus. I love you all... Mamoswine." Tears fall faster; a steady dripping splashes to the ground. Her pokemon won't let her go. "P-please. Don't make it harder."
"Mamoswine!" The gentle giant shakes her head, her tusks swaying left and right as she blocks the way.
Candice sobs. "I-I... I don't want to leave either! But I have to! I want you all to live! I want little Zoey to grow up! I don't want the world to end!"
Before I knew it, my pokemon are clutching at my limbs. Lopunny has firmly taken hold of my arm, Riolu of my leg, Salandit's claws dig into my skin, and even Swadloon has her tail-growths firmly wrapped around my fingers.
As if to say, "Don't you dare offer to take her place."
Yet, no matter how much I know I should, I cannot.
I finally understand what Heinrich meant. He meant the desire to know his loved ones are fine, even without him alive.
But I've become too selfish. Adult Swole would rather die with his loved ones than without them. So what if the world ends? At least we're all still together.
Candice breaks down. She drops down to her knees and cries as her pokemon overwhelm her.
---
"Candice..."
"I can't do it!" Her scream echoes in the vast, dark hall. "I'm sorry! I can't!" Her voice hitches. "I-I just can't."
The world will surely end.
With another tremble, a part of Regigigas' shell crumbles off, crashing into the ground around its feet. The thorny throne of a selfless hero stands atop the bloody altar, waiting for... someone brave enough to claim it.
The world will end, and we're at fault.
"Lopunny..."
She tightens her hold on my arm and bares her teeth. ~"I won't let you leave, master!"
"Lopunny... I won't do it." It will be my fault! "I order you to stop me if I change my mind."
~"I swear!"
Everyone will die because I'm a selfish coward!
Lopunny drapes her arms around my neck and softly pulls me to the ground. Riolu and Salandit help her and hold me in place.
I am failing humanity.
"Banette... if you can hear me... I'm sorry."
I'm failing her the most. I've promised to find Mary, and now I'm...
Banette appears at the side of my view. Her golden zipper of a mouth curls down in sadness just like the day I met her. Her blood-red eyes look towards me in what has to be abject disappointment.
"You haven't failed yet." She sounds in my mind like a wet willy that pierced my eardrums and went deep inside my brain. "We can still find her."
The world will end.
"You're right." The lie comes easy. "We just need to find a different way to survive. Candice!"
She peeks past the limbs of her pokemon, tears stream from her eyes, yet a smile is on her lips as her pokemon put her in the same hold I'm in.
"We're going to find a different way!"
Otherwise, I'll die with my loved ones - and I'll die happy. And... and they'll be happy too, won't they?
My fingers drift through the fur of Lopunny and Riolu. My palms brush over Salandit's skin and Swadloon's chitin.
Lopunny holds my face between her hands and places a long-lasting kiss on my lips. Then Salandit steals a quick peck, and Riolu too, after I nudged her along.
Swadloon, almost entirely immobile and silent, still squeals in delight when I move her up to my face to kiss her too.
... I truly get it now. Heinrich was wrong.
We might all die, but we're all going to die together.
A large rock crashes down nearby, kicking up a cloud of dust - but through it, I can still see the glow of Candice's pokemon.
"Candice! We need to get out of here!"
"I can't..." She mumbles quietly.
"What?!"
"My legs stopped listening to me! Pahaha!" She laughs, too loud, too long - her sanity clearly snapped. "I was so scared they just gave out! I literally couldn't do it! Get it? Haha!"
"REEEGIIIGIIIGAAAS"
Fuck. I really don't want to be anywhere around when that thing starts moving!
"Get over here, Swole! And Abomasnow, start building us a cozy little igloo, will you?"
"Are you insane?"
"Don't worry about it! Haha!"
Fuuuck. My team allows me to stand up, keeping hold of my limbs the entire time, and we cross the distance while Abomasnow builds a wall of densely packed snow. "That's not going to work out."
"Sure it will. Her snow's the best. Get a little closer, though. She's building the exterior wall right now. It's only going to get tighter from now on."
She has actually gone insane.
Her other pokemon help out too, and the igloo's outer shell quickly takes shape, sealing us in. I meet her strained smile. "We're boned, aren't we?"
"Haha."
We're fully encased in ice and snow. The temperature drops further as her pokemon start the next layer. The ground rumbles - probably another piece of Regigigas's prison collapsing.
"Ha... I just realized Mamoswine could have carried me out."
The very air shudders as Regigigas calls out once more.
"We should've gone to a safer spot before digging ourselves in at least. Like in the tunnel."
"How do you know the tunnels would be any safer? That might be exactly where Regigigas will walk."
She's likely right. If the vision is still correct, then Regigigas will head south. Along the tunnel - even though he won't fit - straight through the city... and then who knows where.
"I've doomed them." Her lips quiver as if her mouth doesn't know whether to smile or to frown. "I'm their mayor, their teacher, and their gym leader... yet here I am, hiding from my responsibilities."
As the igloo grows, the cramped space inside grows tighter. I'm already pressed tightly against my pokemon, but now Candice and her team are forced into the cuddle as well.
The ground quakes.
"Sorry about the tight space." Candice offers an apologetic smile. "Apartments really aren't all that great nowadays, wouldn't you agree?"
I snort at the awful attempt at small talk. "I wouldn't know. Say, since we're stuck, and since you're a teacher..."
Her eyes light up at the offer of a distraction - or maybe it's just the way Flash hits her pupils. "Yes?"
"Can you teach me about ice pokemon? Preferably starting with moves that Weavile can learn?"
"Gladly!" The ceiling cracks a little, her smile strains, and a small piece of ice falls between us. "Weavile evolves from Sneasel - but only if they hold a Razor Claw at night. Starting from hatching, all Sneasel know moves like Scratch..."
Narrator-POV:
Just outside their little safety igloo, the embodiment of reconstruction takes its first step since coming to this broken world three thousand years ago.
Following the program ingrained deep into its soul, it rights itself as if unobstructed by the tons of mountain that make up its prison. Regigigas' head breaks through the ceiling before repeating the code for the whole world to hear.
The lights on its body blink wildly; each flash comes with a deep, rumbling sound that shatters the sky, ground, and sea.
In some places, literally. The mountain it escaped continues its collapse as the noise turns boulders into rubble and dust.
Off the coast, far in the north, where an abducted luxury cruise ship hides from the authorities, awaiting a signal - there, an iceberg, greater than all the others, resonates with Regigigas' message. A crack streaks down its center, shattering it into pieces.
In the deep wilderness, south of Route 218, where Alpha Regirock fled and waited, it resonates as well. Standing tall, it faces the source. Its eyes begin to blink in the same rhythmic pattern.
It takes some time for the message to reach its third recipient, a quarter of the way through the world. Deep underground, in the planet's mantle, a pokemon begins its start-up sequence.
Finally, Regigigas received all three replies. Thus, it takes a step. The mountain parts before it like butter. Then another.
Where might it go? Nobody knows.