Pokémon Bloodstone | An Orre Fanfiction

Chapter 83: Preoccupied

Anabel met Lyndon outside the hospital. Hop arrived with Chobin on Corviknight. Chobin was flustered even before hearing the news in full.

'M-m-ma'am!'

Unlike Courtney, being called 'ma'am' didn't bother Anabel.

'M-m-m-my Robo Rayquaza! It was stolen while I was at Citadark Isle! Th-they must have used it! To reach the Robo Pokémon!'

'I thought Lyndon gave them all back to you...'

'H-he did! He gave me a key to the lab where they were modified, so I could get them back. But even I, Chobin, could not safely remove the Robo Deoxys and Robo Jirachi from orbit!'

Lyndon stared at the ground. His arms absentmindedly hugged his body.

'I forgot they were even a thing.'

'What do they do, Lyndon?' Anabel asked, 'Do you remember?'

'I think... I mean, the idea was to end the world, so...'

'As far as I know, ma'am,' Chobin continued, 'They were fitted with extremely powerful cannons. Space is not my area of expertise. I did not dare mess with them...'

Anabel sighed. 'Well, if anything like this ever happens again... please report any unaccounted-for space junk directly to the International Police.'

'Oh, bloody hell!' Hop exclaimed, 'That's how they're causing the blackouts, innit? And hiding auras! No wonder the signal's not coming from anywhere in Orre! It's coming from fucking space! And no wonder you nicked them, Lyndon. I thought they were useless! But how powerful are they?!'

'Unmodified,' Chobin replied, 'They are simply fantastic, but they can be modified to unleash great power, as you know from the Robo Groudon, Kyogre and Suicune. It would seem the Robo Rayquaza has also been modified for space travel...'

'How do you send a bloody metal Rayquaza into space? Without killing the poor sod inside?'

'Chobin does not know...'

'Wait!'

There was a glimmer of a memory in Lyndon's eyes.

'I do remember. Coren said he kidnapped and tortured an aerospace engineer... that was Jamal. He didn't tell Coren anything, but we did get a bunch of stuff from the Space Center when that Fein guy took his key card and impersonated him... that was how my scientists modified the Robo Pokémon for space travel. And how we launched them.'

'But where did you get rocket fuel?!'

'It wasn't rocket fuel. My dad sold some of the energy they got from those Dynamax Shadow Pokémon in Galar, but a shit-ton also came to The Under. It's very similar to the Infinity Energy that powers the Hoennian rockets. I learned all about that from Team Magma and Team Aqua. I didn't tell Courtney exactly what I was doing... but I said enough for her to confirm that I had more than enough of it to destroy the whole planet.'

There was a moment of disturbed silence. Hop was the first to speak.

'It sounds scary on the surface, but when you really think about it – recycling a suicidal guy's robots is scraping the barrel. They don't want to destroy the world. They want to rule it. They're just gonna use the robots to threaten us. They'll never actually use them.'

'But I bet they have a bunker under that resort. And Ardos would rather blow up the whole planet than see Cipher go down again, as long as he survives. Just like he blows up everything inconvenient to him, including my grandpa.'

Hop grimaced. 'I didn't know he killed your grandpa. Sorry.'

'Oh... I forgot you don't know yet. I guess that's the least of our worries. But there is something I never told Ardos... or Coren... or anyone else in Cipher, except the construction workers who had no idea what they were building.'