Loomian Legacy Veils of Shadow

Marooned

"It won't work! You know that! Aiden and the others will stop you." Jake spat out as he was led off the airship and into a large hanger. He shrank under the gaze of grunts as they stopped their work to stare at him. When they got into the hallway, though, he remained headstrong.

Cypress laughed at that. "Those three!?" He laughed again. It was a horrible sound. "Those three are way in over their head. Their minds can't comprehend the power I will harness." He raised his fist into the air. "With Hoopa's power, I will take the Pokémon and all those who are worthy to a new world. A new reality where I will rule over a just, new world. Arceus is dead. I'm the new god of the new world." At this, Jake couldn't help but snort at the outlandish claims. "Aiden and I stopped you from getting Groudon, and we also kicked your butts when you tried going for Kyogre. Aiden and Tess are strong, and Kat is league-level, they can take you no problem." Jake stated, flooded with confidence for his friends.

At this, though, Cypress stopped, forcing Jake and the grunts escorting him to stop as well. For a split second, a terrifying calm settled over them. Then, in a sudden flash of movement, Jake was slammed against the wall, the restraints on his hands and legs digging into him with the sudden movement and he nearly lost his balance. "Your friends are dead!" Drops of spit hit Jake in the face with Cypress' venomous words. "They died in the Anthian City explosion, along with everyone else in that city." Jake tried gasping for air but Cypress didn't let up, he only seemed to tighten his grip. "Your friends were an inconvenience, but now they're gone. Who's going to stop us? You?" At this, Cypress laughed as if he had just made a hilarious joke. The two grunts escorting them joined in as well.

As Cypress held Jake with an iron grip, the boy managed to choke out a question. "How could you?" Jake expected to be brutalized further, but instead, the opposite happened. Cypress let the boy go, and Jake immediately gasped for breath. "Take him to the cells and lock him up next to the archeologists," Cypress commanded.

Before the awful memory could continue, Mabel saved him. "Jake!" She said loudly, causing the boy to nearly jump. He realized that the photograph of him and Tess in front of the giant white tree from Route 9 in his native universe. He tried to hide the photograph quickly, but he knew Mabel had seen it. She didn't comment on it, however.

"Yeah?" Jake asked while scratching the back of his head. "Thane wants to talk to us about what Lucas told us." Oh yeah. Jake remembered. Upon arriving at the rental, Lucas had told them everything about the strange man and his fight with the Loomian. Immediately after, Lucas promptly fell asleep.

Now, a few hours later, he was awake and Thane was ready to take the reigns with his team. "Okay, if what the creepy dude said is true, then that means that there is something outside of POLUT Corp. hunting us." At this, a murmur of unease rose over the small group, but Thane managed to reign everyone back in. "If it comes back, even after the beating it took from Lucas, then we got to be ready. I'll see if Via can find anything on this Loomian based on the description Lucas gave. I'll also see if she can make my eyes able to detect hidden spirit-types."

As Thane spoke, the resemblance struck him. Thane was Aiden. Jake thought back to a conversation he had with his universe's Dr. Vanta when he acted as a double agent about alternate universes. His Vanta believed that everyone had a counterpart of themselves in other universes. They could be similar, or vastly different. Turns out, his Dr. Vanta was proven right. This universe had a Vanta after all.

Even if Thane and Aiden weren't counterparts, the similarities were glaring. Both fought battles that were completely out of their league, though Aiden's fight was more personal than Thane's. Both carried themselves with confidence, though Thane had yet to come into his own due to his lack of experience. Jake was sure, however, that as he traveled with Thane even more, the resemblance between him and his old friend would only grow.