Pokémon Mars

Chapter 74: Proud

From afar, Ironville's skyline looked like it always did. The wilderness was as red and barren as ever. Yet with a blue sky above, the farms uncovered, gateposts abandoned and most strikingly of all, no bubble protecting the city, the landscape was barely recognisable.

As the bus from Mt. Coronet approached, its passengers saw the Team Magma guards surrounding Ironville. Their Pokémon were ready to attack. Caroline and Calypso patrolled in long circles around the city. Triton, Saxon and Koji patrolled the streets. They were relieved when their colleagues returned to take their places while they finally slept.

They arrested all known members of Team Plasma and Cipher, other than Rudolph and Nessie. Most of the rogue Team Magma members handed themselves in, but Courtney, Uriah, Zharko and two loyal Grunts were still out there. A few Team Genesis Grunts handed themselves in, including the ones Wish freed at Delta Lab 3. The remaining Grunts were terrified when Wish stepped off the bus from Mt. Coronet, but they had known him with wild eyes and a maniacal grin for so long that they barely recognised him now.

Many of the surviving Team Genesis Grunts were born on Mars. They could have been charged with aiding an evil team, but the Interplanetary Police didn't have the time or resources, let alone free cells. They issued official birth certificates, passports and arranged for them to either stay in empty apartments or return to Earth with cautions.

It was different for the older Grunts. They were already convicted in Seri for the first Team Genesis incident. By returning to the team, let alone going to Mars, they either escaped prison or violated the conditions of their probation. Wish took responsibility, since he was the one who approached those on probation or bribed and threatened prison staff, but most of the Grunts remained surprisingly loyal and insisted they were equally responsible.

The Interplanetary Police didn't have the time or resources to deal with that, either. If Hadron was honest, he didn't care. He believed they were harmless once Wish surrendered. They had much bigger things to worry about, like the complete lack of Martian law enforcement now the police were revealed to be factions of Cipher, but they couldn't ignore Team Genesis. The Royal Seri Police wanted them.

'But,' Triton said over pizza at the restaurant with the Smeargle statue, where windows were still smashed and piles of broken chairs everywhere, 'No sign of Mable or Zebulun?'

'No... Team Magma are kindly searching the area, but they could be anywhere by now... there were rovers and buses outside that they could have used...'

Hadron looked much older than his years when he sighed then.

'I have an idea regarding the local police situation, but I think I'm also going to employ that Julien to run a recruitment campaign... we desperately need more people...'

'Stop beating yourself up, bro.'

'What? I'm not...'

'Yes, you are. I know you're blaming yourself for everything we couldn't do. But you did all you could. You lost a Pokémon, but you're still going. I'm proud of you. I'm glad I passed up on that job so you could have it.'

Aranchi would have agreed if she was there. She and Castra were still swooning at the stories from Mt. Coronet, let alone Mercury's photo of Hadron arresting Hera. As far as Aranchi could tell, however, his head was far too deep in his work to surface for romance.

Mercury was equally entranced by his own photos. No-one could tear him from his laptop. He feared that his photos of Arceus would be blank, or even that he hallucinated photographing god itself and there would be nothing where it stood, but it was there in perfect clarity. He even caught Palkia's foot. The most striking photo of all, however, was arguably the conclusion of an ancient prophecy: Volo's splayed silhouette as he threw himself at the cannon.