Blaguarro Town T2 Deepest Lab

[Jackie Cat]

Privately, Laura wondered if the Covenant had meant to let Lovrina's experiments produce results they couldn't achieve themselves – or which they wanted to wash their hands of, whatever the outcome. Cynical of her to think, but plausible. Lovrina certainly seemed like the kind of arrogant genius to think so little of a more... subtle faction.

There was no way Lovrina had a convenient cure for Shadows on hand, but it sounded like Gladion was trying to neg her to get her to spill more of her 'achievements'... Laura could play into that.

"So what does make the ARK Unit categorically different from any other Shadow?" she pressed. "What's the point of your work?"

Her gut twinged, and she wondered what 'Ark' themself thought of the whole thing, if anything. The poor creature might not have much conception of anything – everything they experienced right now could be formative for them.

She approached the chimera cautiously, not wanting to spook them.

"We have some Radiance," she said, quietly. "That's what all that light was, earlier. I'm sorry if it was scary. We think it might be possible to use it to cure Shadowing, though..."

She wondered whether touch would help, or just startle them. She could always ask.

Laura was small next to Ark, but she knelt on the floor beside them all the same, and held out a paw for them to examine.

 

[Chibi Pika]

"And step one wasn't taking off the helmet that suppresses the system you, ahem, 'got working' at all? That was just never a part of the process? Come on. Are you sure you didn't just create a normal perfect shadow?"

Lovrina threw her head back in exasperation. "Ohhh my god, why are you so obsessed with the helmet, anyway? Yeah, the ARK Unit, like, had that when we got it. You get it off if you're so smart, then."

At Laura's question, however, she paused, tilting her head. "C'mon, isn't it obvious? Normal Shadows can't make more Shadow. The ARK Unit can--where do you think all the Shadow goo in the machine you broke came from, huh?"

The machine... it hadn't been exposing the chimera to Shadow, it had been siphoning Shadow away for other uses.

"Is that true?" Jade asked, turning around.

"Generating Shadow energy, my system does that, yes," the ARK Unit said with a nod. It glanced between the party, looking uncertain. "You were able to resist."

Jade's tail wrapped around her legs. "Yeahh, we, uh... we kind of already have some Shadow in us already. That lets us... control it, I guess." She still didn't like thinking about it, but... it had at least meant that they'd been able to keep control while exposed to more of it.

"And like, obviously I never made a way to reverse it--why would I want to undo my own work, anyway?" Lovrina added. "That would just be the worst."

"Computer parts?" Dave asked, eyebrow raised. "Did they seem to know computers, and wanted those parts specifically?"

"Not really. Seemed like they just thought our tech was cool beans, and we had a lot of old junk that we didn't really need," Lovrina replied with a shrug.

---

"We have some Radiance. That's what all that light was, earlier. I'm sorry if it was scary. We think it might be possible to use it to cure Shadowing, though..."

Laura was small next to Ark, but she knelt on the floor beside them all the same, and held out a paw for them to examine.

The ARK Unit hesitated, as though wary that Laura was going to produce more Radiance with her paw. Then, upon seeing that there was no light, it sniffed her paw once and then pressed the front of its helmet against it.

 

[Ambyssin]

"And like, obviously I never made a way to reverse it--why would I want to undo my own work, anyway?" Lovrina added. "That would just be the worst."

"Emergency failsafe for when you can no longer control your work," Nova said. He glanced at Gladion. "I was built with a kill switch. Managed to disable it before turning on my creator, but the threat of self-destruction was always there." He shuddered.

So, ARK produced shadows? Well, that was even more of a reason to reverse the modifications. If Alexander found out, they were fucked six ways from Sunday. But what was Nova supposed to say? Yes, hi, it turns out there's a guy running around Forlas who can turn shadow pokémon into his slaves and he'll do the same to all of you if he gets his paws on you so help us make a cure.

He had to at least run it by the others. Especially Mhynt. This wasn't one machine he was smashing, after all.

"Hey, Betel. Your, uh, magic aural scanning or whatever isn't pulling up a certain zweilous, is it?"

Nova stomped past Lovrina and Naps and headed to check the room that they'd come out of. Surely there was something important back there. Useable equipment, important papers, more memory drives. He'd take anything.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura's heart broke and lifted all at once, at Ark's fear – and trust. She'd been ready to be rejected, honestly. That was ordinary among wild 'mon back home. Although, of course, Ark was something else entirely. Someone. A sapient 'mon.

"Let's get you to the surface," she said, soothing them.

They had plenty of time for cleanup and interrogations – and the Rangers and Escarpa to assist. As far as Laura was concerned, what they all needed right now was to see the sun again.

"Somehow, we'll help you," she told the chimera, quietly. Then, to her squadmates, "Come on, you guys. Let's take the lift."

Idly, she wondered whether her human teammates from across the pond would hear elevator by way of Betel.

"Everything good on the other floors, Betel?" she whispered to herself.

The familiar 'pressure change' in her head, like a telepathic inner-ear drop, indicated Betel's quiet, comforting presence.

Yes, Laura.

Everything is going to be okay.
​

 

[Shiny Phantump]

"And like, obviously I never made a way to reverse it--why would I want to undo my own work, anyway?" Lovrina added. "That would just be the worst."

Gladion picked Lovrina up to take her away, leaving the hammer behind. He wouldn’t be needing it anymore. “Come on. Saying that having to undo your work is ‘the worst’ thing is just tempting fate at this point. Do you want me to point out that we can prove to you it isn’t the worst thing that can happen to you? ‘Cause it sounds like that’s what you’re asking for to me.

“Don’t answer that, actually. In fact if you say something that annoys me— namely, anything that comes out of your head— while I’m stuck in the elevator with you, and you’re getting knocked out again. Got it?”

He looked over at Ark. “Sorry for the delay, had to deal with her. For real, this time: Let’s get out of here.”

 

[Butterfree]

Dave shot a glare at Gladion. Jesus Christ, easy on the threats of fucking extrajudicial executions and/or torture. The Wayfarers were sure proving giving these people Radiance superpowers probably wasn't a great idea.

Lovrina seemed extremely ready to blab about her research anyway, regardless, and if they learned more about what was actually going on here with these energies, the mechanics of how it worked, who said they'd need her explicit assistance to work out how to undo it. For the moment, though, getting out of here and seeing how things had gone with the others seemed a good idea.

"Well, how about this," he said, glancing towards the Tinkaton. "I'll come visit you in jail later and then we can talk the science of it. Right now, let's get the big guy out of here where they can be far away from you people."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Dave shot a glare at Gladion. Jesus Christ,

Gladion sighed. “Alright, alright, phrasing. Point being that undoing the damage she did is a nonsensically petty place to draw the line of ‘worst thing ever’ while getting apprehended.”

 

[Jackie Cat]

"Hey, Betel. Your, uh, magic aural scanning or whatever isn't pulling up a certain zweilous, is it?"

Hello, Nova! No, I do not detect Alex & Xander.

...However, I do not know that I am reliably able to do so.​

 

[Ambyssin]

"Ah. Well, the effort's appreciated nonetheless." Maybe they'd have to hit up Powehi about that.

As Nova rummaged through the room, however, something did spring to mind that he quickly called out into the lab. "If you didn't develop any sort of countermeasures, then how do you explain the fact that you and Birdbrain didn't have any significant reaction to the shadows that leaked out of the machine after I blew open the hull?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Lovrina let out an affronted scoff and was about to reply, but Naps cut her off. "You don't have to threaten; we're already cooperating. There's no point in doing anything to us," he muttered, keeping his visor-ed gaze firmly on the floor.

Jade exhaled slowly. Her whole body felt tense. "Right, yeah. On that note, we should probably meet up with the others. Sounds like they've finished up their missions."

Nova had returned from the other room with what looked like a few more Memory discs and some paperwork that, at a glance, seemed to be a record of "asset acquisitions." Maybe they could take a look in more detail later.

At Nova's last question, Lovrina tilted her head. "We didn't develop anything that could purify a perfect Shadow," she replied, as though this were obvious. "Making it so we could resist Shadow is totally different. Plus, the other admins were like, super into the idea of having total control over being Shadowed themselves. But my work was all about making Shadows who could never-ever be purified."

There wasn't much else to take care of, so Jade followed Laura to the service elevator, where a tap of the card key opened the mechanical door. The space inside was large, probably designed for hauling machinery around, so it fit everyone without too much trouble. Jade rubbed her paws together, still trying to fight off the tension that had lingered the whole time they'd been in the lab.

Still, with a glance at the ARK Unit now accompanying them, she reminded herself--it'd been worth it.

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