On The Road

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Larance glumly walked into the Mossdeep Space Center, his arms folded. Arriete walked by his side, drumming her fingers on her leg. Bina walked on Larance's other side, clenching the meteorite shard in her hand. Wally walked next to her, worry on his face. No one said a word as they made their way to the top floor where Steven was waiting for them with Prof. Cozmo.

"You four don't look too happy," Steven commented when he saw them.

Larance explained everything to Steven, resulting in said person's eyes widening in surprise.

"So...that's what happened," Steven mused. "We must keep an eye out for this Zinnia woman. However, we do have good news. We have figured out a way to stop the asteroid."

The four friends visibly relaxed, and let small smiles form on their faces.

"Well then, what's the plan?" Wally asked.

"Our current plan involves using the Infinity Energy within our rocket, combined with the life energy of humans found in Key Stones," Prof. Cozmo began. "We will start off by artificially replicating the massive energy that is triggered at the time of Mega Evolution! We will fire the energy produced from our rocket into space... And create a "warp hole." By creating a warp hole in the path of the incoming meteoroid, we hope to be able to transport it somewhere far away from here. As a matter of fact, this technology already exists and has been incorporated in some of our commonly used devices."

"An audacious plan," Steven replied. "And using such technology you would... May I ask where exactly will the asteroid be warped to?"

Prof. Cozmo didn't reply right away.

"Well. We're not entirely sure, but...." Prof. Cozmo finally answered. "We do have a device that links the warp holes. We've named it the Link Cable. But there's no need to worry. Based on our theory, we can at least guarantee that we will be sending it away from our planet. However, we've realized that we will need more energy than originally anticipated to control the Link Cable properly... I'm sorry to ask this of you, but with one more Meteorite Shard..."

"Nice! So this is the heart of the famous Space Center everyone talks about! Pretty impressive, huh, Aster?"

The six of them turned to see Zinnia approach them, looking around in wonder. She noticed them and ran up to them, smiling.

"Who are you?" Steven asked, a little confused.

"Me?" Zinnia asked. "Oh, I'm Zinnia! I'm pretty sure those four over there told you about me."

"You're the one who attacked them!" Steven realized angrily. "Why do you need the Key Stones?"

"I'll try to explain it, but I'm sure that the only person who will understand is Bina," Zinnia replied. "I'm one of the Draconid people."

"A Draconid," Steven muttered, calming down a bit. "I'm surprised that I haven't figured it out before."

"What's a Draconid?" Wally asked.

"Ah, a wonderful question Wally," Zinnia grinned. "Originally, Draconids were a tribe of Dragon-type Pokemon trainers that lived in Meteor Falls, in a time when meteors constantly showered the area and Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon fought, until the super-ancient pokemon were stopped by Rayquaza. A thousand years later, when a meteor struck what is now Sootopolis, Groudon and Kyogre were awakened. The Lorekeeper, standing with a rainbow stone, wished for Rayquaza to return. When it returned, that wish allowed Rayquaza to Mega Evolve. After a fierce battle, Groudon and Kyogre returned to the depths, and Rayquaza returned to the sky. Afterwards, the Draconids built the Sky Pillar, where they can summon their Lord Rayquaza. The Sky Pillar is decorated with a mural painted by the Draconids. After a thousand years of peace, they foretold that a meteor would strike once again, and planned to call Rayquaza to prevent it from striking the Pokemon world. However, your plans for the asteroid involve sacrificing the energy of Pokemon like that man did 3000 years ago, and I can not let that happen. Aster."