Pokemon: Orbion and the Runes of Chaos [#Wattys2016]

Nine: Pursuit

Another helicopter flew low over the Basin of Creation. Mewtwo ripped it apart midair with his psychic powers and sent the shredded metal crashing into the ground beside the wreckage of the first two.

Orbion cursed silently as he watched its descent through the eyes of his puppet. The mounting attention from the humans now doubt heralded a more coordinated assault to come.

The manipulation of the Unown was more time consuming than he had first imagined. He had only managed to place the first two letters of the phrase he intended to create with them. The Unown D and E were suspended next to each other upon one of the crystalline walls of the fortress, purple energy crackling around them.

Orbion concentrated on the mass of Unown swirling around him. He pointed at an Unown A, and it froze midair. It began struggling violently against his will as he guided it towards the wall beside the other two. As it neared its destinations, its speed slowed even further.

Three hours, and only two of Runes have beenplaced. At this rate my plan shall not be complete until tomorrow.

Jason slowly paced back and forth across N's hospital room deep in thought. Just behind him, Lugia imitated his movements. Jason ignored her miming. Apparently his near-genius intelligence extended beyond the realm of Pokémon battles and strategy, for he was already mentally exploring several different lines of reasoning at once.

"Hmm, as much as it pains me to say it, Orbion's most obvious move would have been to immediately try to kill me. However, the fact that I'm still here nearly a week after his escape indicates that he has other motives."

"He could be biding his time until the moment is right," suggested Clemont.

"Doubtful. He would have realized that it would be days before I learned of his escape. He had the element of surprise, but he chose not to take it. No, I think we can safely say that he will not attempt to attack me, at least not directly.

"N," Jason said, turning to the other boy. He was propped up by a stack of pillows and wrapped tightly in casts and bandages. "You said you managed to reach out to Orbion's aura in the facility. Did you glean any information on his future plans?"

N tried to shake his head, but winced as the movement pulled painfully at his injuries. "No, all I felt was darkness and hatred. His only coherent thought was killing the scientist responsible for many of the experiments performed on him."

Jason nodded, seemingly unfazed by the dead end. "Hmm, perhaps he somehow learned of his lineage and will try to move against Arceus."

He thought over the possibility for several minutes before rejecting it. "No, the only ones who know are the people gathered in this room, Rosalyn, and Arceus himself. The chance of Orbion somehow gaining the information is too miniscule to consider."

His racing mind led him down yet another path. "It's also possible that Team Rocket managed to recapture him. After all, they've been holding him for nearly two years, so they've no doubt developed technology specifically designed to capture Orbion should he escape."

N tried to shake his head again. "His powers have grown since you knew him. Even with potent serum coursing through his veins, he still managed to completely destroy the entire base. And I suspect that was not the extent of what he was capable of either. He showed no signs of strain when he bored a hole through the wall of the complex, nor when he unleashed lightning into the hallways."