Pokémon Mars

Chapter 22: One Answer

Joshua's team returned to the Olivine Canyon with a crowd of Magikarp, Feebas and Corphish. Firmino, Epsilon and the two hydrologists accompanied them. They had to check out the water. Arabella would have been overjoyed to know it was out there, if she hadn't actually found it herself before she was killed by a landslide.

At least they didn't have to endure a Robo Rayquaza ride. Firmino flew them there in a regular plane. They all found themselves looking out of the windows, wondering if Courtney was following somehow, but she was yet to work out how to leave Ironville without being caught.

Most of her underlings were loyal to her. They gathered around her at the garage where she parked her 'stalker rover' which was, of course, officially owned by a Grunt's wife so no-one knew it actually belonged to Courtney.

'I know some of y'all are feeling a little disappointed and worried right now... but don't worry! Not only will I keep paying you, but we're still going to terraform Mars! And prove what's really going on in the Ares program! We can't have liars and backstabbers on Team Magma's Mars!'

That didn't reassure all of them. They were worried about being arrested, or sent back to Earth and away from their families, for choosing her over Kazuki. Not that all of them really chose to. It just happened. One minute they were genuine Team Magma employees and the next, their colleagues were commanding them to the garage to hide from the authorities and hear their new leader's daily edifying speech. A photo of her great-grandfather Maxie hung beside a Team Magma flag.

'How will we terraform Mars, you ask? Well, if Pluto Harmonia can pull a Zekrom out of an Ultra Wormhole, why can't we find a Groudon?'

Some of the Grunts were admittedly frustrated with the lack of progress under Kazuki. They didn't understand why they couldn't just dig Groudon out of the bowels of the Hoenn region and bring it to Mars. They certainly couldn't do that with a fugitive as their leader, but stealing the Groudon of an alternate universe, via Ultra Space, was an option... if a crowd of climatologists, planetary scientists and geologists could work out how to manipulate Ultra Space.

'My relatives have gone soft. They've forgotten what Team Magma really is – a noble organisation whose ambition is to propel humanity to even greater heights of progress and evolution! No matter what it takes! But don't think I'll make the same mistakes as my great-grandfather. I know Groudon isn't enough. We also need Kyogre! And we will find them! We will be the most incredible scientists we could never dream of being under Kazuki's thumb!'

When Courtney's right-hand man, Uriah, began to clap, the Grunt who fled the lab followed. Then everyone else did. Most of the applause was genuine. There were people genuinely excited by that prospect and it wasn't entirely new. Courtney always believed the Robo Pokémon were a waste of time and that Kazuki was too soft. They needed the real Groudon. After 12 years of working with her, her underlings agreed. The longer they thought about it, the more excited and annoyed with Kazuki they got. That was why they were on Mars: to see a new world in their lifetime, not to contribute to something that would only materialise in the distant future.

Courtney didn't seem obsessed with the leader of Team Aqua when she talked about Groudon, with such fervor, for over an hour. She did snatch the photos off her wall before she abandoned her studio, but she wasn't naive enough to display them alongside Maxie, even if she was doing this to impress Firmino as much as anything else. The only photo of them together was still in her pocket. She only took it out when she trudged down the stairs to the freshly-dug basement, while Uriah and a colleague, Zharko, introduced themselves as the new Admins. A photo of Kazuki was already pinned to the cork board of blacklisted faces.

'You.'

Courtney's Houndoom wasn't asleep in its basket, but it pretended to be. It couldn't bring itself to face the look in her eyes. It loved Kazuki. It didn't want her to hate him.