The Type Specialist Extra Chapter 5 - Memories of Magearna (Part 1)

If you missed it and need context, read the first extra chapter HERE.
(Originally posted almost two years ago.)

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“Wandering Elite Alex! It’s a great pleasure to meet you. I’m so glad you sought us out for help with your little problem.”

My arm was practically swallowed by the man’s greeting, and I did my best to shake his hand right back to prevent myself from getting overwhelmed.

“I’m just thankful you accepted my request given everything else that’s going on,” I said. “But if there’s anyone that’s an expert with energy—”

“Then it’s us here at Macro Cosmos,” Chairman Rose said with a smile.

With my hand finally being released, I could practically see the confidence radiating off of this man, and I had no problem believing just why he had managed to catch practically all of Galar in an economic stranglehold. He was unironically richer than people like Steven Stone, Cynthia herself, and even Lysandre and Cyrus—from back when those two were in charge of massive corporations and weren’t just defeated criminals. However, the empire that Chairman Rose had built was all in the past. As it stood, Macro Cosmos was no longer the economic behemoth it was before.

“So, uh, how are things... going?” I asked. It was hard not to be awkward with this, but given I was the person whose comments inspired the first investigations, I did have to know.

Chairman Rose, however, had no idea of my involvement. Despite wearing a neat grey suit, his stomach bounced as he let out a laugh.

“It could be better! Ah, to be hit by so many anti-monopoly suits at once? Truly, I’m just happy to have preserved the one company that matters.”

“Energy,” I said. 

“Exactly!”

A dangerous glint appeared in Chairman Rose’s eyes, and if I hadn’t known what the League was doing, I would have been more worried.

If it hadn’t been for what I shared with Steven years ago, Chairman Rose would have been able to continue his plans to re-ignite Galar’s Darkest Days and summon Eternatus in a misguided attempt to control it. He was worried about an inevitable yet permanent loss of the region’s energy stores, and he wanted to solve that problem now, instead of within the next thousand years or so when it would rear its ugly head.

While his plan technically could have worked, the problem, of course, was that he wanted to summon and control a Legendary Pokémon. Specifically, he wanted to harness it for its power and create an infinite source of energy. That by itself was already doomed to fail, but Chairman Rose was also rushed, and he was paranoid. He skipped all possible safety precautions to try to force his plan sooner rather than later.

Except, that was only what would have happened in the games. Right now, the world had been changed through the decisions I had made. The strange part about Chairman Rose, a “villain” in the games, was that he wasn’t actually that bad of a guy—as long as you ignored how he was so willing to throw people away when they outlived their usefulness, or how his economic stranglehold was called a stranglehold for a reason.

Thankfully, learning about Rose’s plans regarding the Darkest Days saw the League look into his operations, and that tiny bit of action got Galar’s central government to do the same. Where Macro Cosmas had once had its tendrils in every part of a Galar citizen’s life, that was no longer true. Branches like Macro Cosmos Air, Macro Cosmos Media, Macro Cosmos Construction, and even Macro Cosmos Bank were being split up into their own companies, all separate and divided away from Chairman Rose’s control.

That just left Macro Cosmos Energy, the sole company that Chairman Rose had kept in his pocket, and it was the sole reason he still had his “Chairman” title, too. Even with all of those vested interests in outside companies, he had been the Chairman of Galar’s Pokémon League—a point of obvious contention. Thankfully, his title of “Chairman” now only denoted his position on Macro Cosmos Energy’s director board.

“As Galar’s foremost energy producers and researchers, we at Macro Cosmos tap into our region’s ample Dynamax Energy stores to provide power to both Galar and the world at large,” Chairman Rose spoke as he escorted me into the central structure of Hammerlocke, an enormous, brick building that served as its Gym as well as the lab for most of Chairman Rose’s personal research. “However, that energy is limited. As we are now, it’s set to run out within the next several hundred years. The added issue with that, of course, is that it assumes a consistent level of progress and technology. With our standards constantly rising, I predict that our energy consumption will see those stores become exhausted within the next few decades rather than the next few hundred years.”

As we walked through an empty lobby, my eyes scanned the walls of this building. My understanding was that this place used to be a castle before it was sold off to help fund the royals’... extravagances.

“Though recent unanticipated attention has come alongside the loss of our sibling branches, we here at Macro Cosmos have been gathering the support needed to solve our upcoming energy crisis. Despite the... differences that have emerged between Leon and I, he has still agreed to lend us his strength when our plan goes through, and we have a dozen other elite trainers already promised to our cause.”

I blinked, looking away from where a prominently hung picture displayed the current Gym Leader, Raihan, shaking hands with Chairman Rose.

“Wait, you’re publicly recruiting?” I asked. “For what?”

If he noticed any suspicion in my question, Chairman Rose looked completely and utterly unbothered.

“We are recruiting for a fight—a grand fight! We live in a Pokémon world, and that ultimately means we look for Pokémon solutions to our Pokémon problems,” he said, a confident smile worming its way back onto his face. “You can probably imagine that I was quite upset when the company I worked so hard to build was split up, but attention is attention, and even now, the Pokémon League itself is keeping a close eye on us. But where others would find issue with that—”

“You see opportunity,” I finished for him. “Increased League attention means more trainers learning of your cause. And more trainers paying attention means more trainers willing to help.”

Happily, Chairman Rose clapped his hands.

“When the Darkest Day returns, relying on Leon alone would have been a mistake,” he said. “No, while permanently securing Eternatus is an impossibility, its mere presence will be enough to refresh Galar’s energy stores to viable levels for the next several millennia—with our increasing progress accounted for. When all of that happens, we here at Macro Cosmos plan to have enough firepower aligned with us to turn the Darkest Day into the Darkest Minute.”

He laughed to himself, and honestly, it was a surprise that more people hadn’t pinged this guy as a “villain” earlier. However, so much more than before, there was a certain ease to both his speech and movements. Something about having the League’s attention on this seemed to have helped him relieve a lot of stress.

Though operating under restrictions, those restrictions were granting him opportunities, and he didn’t need to worry about keeping all of this out of the limelight.

Rose continued deeper into this room until he reached a point where he tapped a brick in the wall. With that press, the old stone structure practically unfolded itself to reveal the entrance of a much more modern elevator. The Chairman himself stepped into it and then gestured to invite me inside. The wall then closed behind us as we went down—

And down.

And down.

“I’ve done some research into Legendary Pokémon, myself,” I said, speaking in a half-truth to the Chairman while he hummed as if to say he’d done the same. “The Darkest Day... You mentioned Eternatus. Realistically, that Pokémon is going to be nearly impossible to defeat. Do you really think numbers alone will be enough?”

“No,” Chairman Rose answered bluntly. “I think quality will be enough, and I don’t even believe we’re there quite yet. We need the best of the best to work for our interests. Even if I had Leon and every Gym Leader in Galar on our side, I would still doubt we’d be in a position to win in that fight.”

I stared at him. He was serious. Though he was clearly very skilled at hiding just how unhinged he was, there was a measure of patience to him that hadn’t been present in the game.

“The Legends say—”

“The Legends spoke of a powerful hero defeating Eternatus, and we now know that those Legends were referencing the Pokémon Zacian and Zamanzenta,” the Chairman said, hands pressed behind his back as he watched the brick of this elevator shaft rush us by. “All stories hold power, but that power does not hold a candle to modern standards and technology. In the past, regions were isolated. Trainers lacked information. Now? The average person has much more freedom to travel—and also to train and learn.

“Believe me, Alex, we will fight that Legendary Pokémon. If not soon and under our own power, then when it eventually wakes up once more on its own. We cannot rely on Legendary Pokémon and chosen heroes to step in for us every time. We are humans, trainers, and partners. We will gather everyone we can, and we will fight to prove that we deserve to exist just as much as anyone else.”

His smile had vanished, but that same confidence remained. Any sense of worry, doubt, or carelessness had disappeared, all to be replaced by this careful plotting he was taking no efforts to hide.

This man truly believed that with enough preparation, a group of properly trained Pokémon Trainers could defeat Eternatus. If Zacian and Zamanzenta had managed to do so in the past, then right now, it was up to humans and their partner Pokémon to prove that they could do the same.

My team beat Tobias. Somehow, Necrozma was put down. When it comes to trainers and their Pokémon overcoming living legends...

I’d be a hypocrite to say I didn’t believe in the same.

“Who have you recruited so far?” I asked, curious.

“Leon, of course, and most of the leaders of Galar’s Gyms,” Chairman Rose answered, a small smile returning. “We have recruited a few foreign Elite Four members who were seeking tough battles, and I’ve personally reached out to every possible Champion, both ex and present. Alongside Leon and Lance, Diantha of Kalos’s Pokémon League has accepted, and Geeta of Paldea has promised to look into sending a small handful of elite trainers to assist us in this task.”

I wasn’t surprised those two had accepted. Kalos and Paldea were the closest regions to Galar, so they had the most vested interest in ensuring Chairman Rose’s plans went well. I could imagine that Cynthia could be recruited very easily just by pushing the “modern day history” angle, and Steven could probably be recruited by just pointing out that most of the other Champions were involved, too.

However, that second Champion that Chairman Rose had mentioned...

“Lance?” I asked.

“According to our research, Eternatus is a Dragon Type.”

“Ah.”

That put several pieces together in my head.

Pretty soon, the elevator came to a smooth stop at the bottom, and when it opened up, a woman in a lab billowing coat flicked her eyes over to us, briefly looking up from a clipboard she held in her hands before returning to her work.

“Chairman. Wanderer,” she said in greetings, slightly bowing her head in a sign of respect..

“Alex, this is Oleanna, my secretary!” Chairman Rose said with a bright smile. “She’s my right hand woman! If it wasn’t for her, I doubt Macro Cosmos would still be around in any form!”

“Hm. Yes. Quite.” Oleanna seemed far too pre-occupied with reading from her clipboard. “Wandering Elite Alex. You’re seeking to wake up a mechanical Pokémon? We can help. Follow me.”

Oleanna turned to lead the way, and Chairman Rose chuckled to himself out as he and I followed. The labs down here were white and sterile, almost reminding me of the Aether Foundation’s lowest labs. However, this place had an active force of Ace Trainers keeping an eye on its halls. The Galar’s League symbol sat prominently displayed on their chests, proving that no Ace Trainer here would let the remnants of Macro Cosmos get up to no good.

“So I take it that you weren’t explaining your plans just to brag,” I said to Chairman Rose as Oleanna brought us through these halls.

“Hah! I was a little,” Chairman Rose said, running a hand through his mustache after my words.

“It was still more than just bragging, though. You explained all of that as a literal elevator pitch, didn’t you?”

“Less of a pitch, more of a request to keep an open mind,” the Chairman of Macro Cosmos admitted. “If you’re willing, I’d like you to keep an eye out. Either accept our request to assist us with our task, or send any potentially interested trainers our way. However, that isn’t a requirement. No matter what, we’ll help you with your Pokémon problem. Not just to be nice, either—as it stands, we’ll either learn a bit more about the energy we seek, or we might end up with one more Legendary Pokémon on our side, hm?”

“Well, technically, Magearna is a mythical,” I pointed out.

The Chairman blinked.

“Is there a difference?”

“Not really,” I said with a shrug.

Unlike the labs I was used to, where the hallways were webs of individual testing chambers meant for one Pokémon at a time, the labs down here tended to connect to massive constructions and open areas—this place was primarily a power plant, after all.

With Macro Cosmos’s focus on Dynamax energy, however, they didn’t bring me to any side room. They brought me to a room in the very back of this place, into what was essentially an entire underground battlefield. Though there were no lines painted onto the floor in here, this place was very purposefully kept open and empty to support giant-sized Pokémon fighting it out.

There was a lot of steel support on the walls.

“Before we do anything, what’s the plan?” I asked. Nothing was around us, and Oleanna was still reading from her clipboard.

“Well! We’ve looked over the information you sent us and came up with a simple strategy,” the Chairman answered for her. “Oleanna, I believe you have something for Alex, if you will.”

Flipping her notes over, she pulled off a few sheets of paper and handed them to me. As far as I could tell, these just contained a list of numbers, comments, and optimizations. It was a little hard to parse through, but—

“So you’re going to do the equivalent of hooking her up to a car battery and hoping for the best,” I stated flatly.

Chairman Rose simply nodded, looking no less confident even with my monotone comment.

“As per the provided information, no attempts to activate Magearna have succeeded,” Oleanna said, finally looking up from her notes. “All previous methods involved targeted applications of certain energies, and we believe that involved far too little. Due to the probes performed by your Rapidash, we have confirmed evidence of both sentience and sapience. If anything more selective has failed to get through, our next best step would be to flood her with energy to ‘shock’ her into waking up.”

“Magearna isn’t quite asleep, but she isn’t in a coma, either. I asked Togekiss, and Togekiss said she’s... muted,” I mumbled, rubbing my chin in thought. “Not awake. And not... passed away. Magearna is still functional—she could generate the power she needs—but there’s not enough being produced right now, which is keeping her asleep.”

“And we plan to brute force past that,” Oleanna said. “Given her long-lasting condition, yes, she is likely to have her own internal power source, but as per your car battery analogy from earlier, sometimes those sources need a jumpstart to properly get going.”

It made sense in my head. Nothing else had worked. Silph Co. hadn’t been able to do anything due to this being so far out of their expertise, and even the Devon Corporation itself had failed to do anything without an “intent” behind their Infinity Energy to guide it. I’d also brought Magearna to several clockmakers, hoping there was a way they could “fix” her, but all of them could find nothing wrong.

She and her body were perfectly functional, she just needed to be woken up. However, looking between both Chairman Rose and Oleanna standing before me, it didn’t take too much effort to piece together their ultimate plans.

“You’re saying you want to Dynamax her,” I stated flatly, yet again..

Chairman Rose was the one to speak up first.

“This would be the first time we’ve seen a mythical Pokémon be Dynamaxed!”

“But of course—” Oleanna said, jumping in the second Chairman Rose started to become a little too eager, “while Dynamaxing is our ultimate goal, we would start with only a trickle of energy, and we would only do so with your permission. Our machines would enable a controlled environment for the application of Dynamax energy, and we would provide everything required, ourselves. Our only request is that you let us record the data, as seeing how a mechanical Pokémon like Magearna reacts to the power would be critical to continuing our research.”

I wanted to comment that the League would know everything that transpired here, but there’d be no point in saying that. I was sure that these two knew the consequences of trying anything too suspicious—and I’m sure they were distinctly aware that nothing they got up to was “private” anymore.

“Alright,” I said. “Do it.”

Oleanna looked back to the room’s entrance to gesture for some people to come in, and the next several minutes were spent setting up.

Researchers and scientists in white coats assembled large machines full of dials and wave-form displays. Radio dishes and devices with apertures were set up and pointed toward a padded cot placed on the ground. I sent out my team while they built all of this, using curiosity as the excuse. The truth was, of course, that my Pokémon had been released as an insurance. 

Everyone here knew that was the case.

Rapidash trotted among the researchers, walking behind them to keep a careful eye on just what they were building. Gardevoir stayed off to the side, in the far back, looking over the entire room at once for anything that might be aggressive. With a room this large, Ninetales ran around like an excited dog, but really, she was just getting a sense of the size of the place and testing how long it took for her to run across the entire room. That just left Florges and Ribombee, and Florges idled alongside next to me while Ribombee sat hidden. He was nestled deep inside her flowers, hiding himself just in case he needed to be our group’s undetected surprise.

“We’re almost ready.” Oleanna was now wearing goggles. The same was true for Chairman Rose. Those two looked up from a discussion with a group of scientists, and Oleanna gestured to the cot. “Please release Magearna so we can start.”

Nodding once, I did so, and the mechanical Pokémon appeared on her back, laying on the floor.

I had known there was something wrong with Magearna the moment Steven Stone and Cynthia revealed her to me. The mythical Pokémon was one of Lusamine’s “possessions” in the Aether Foundation, and this Pokémon had seemed to have been the focus of idle research. However, the Aether Foundation was almost wholly focused on Ultra Beasts, so their research into fixing Magearna had been sporadic at best. They had not succeeded, but there was definitely something off about Magearna’s current situation.

In her deactivated state, Magearna should have resembled a large, closed Pokéball. Instead, she was in her fully extended state, resembling some sort of mechanical maid with a metal dress, a cap-like gear on her head, and a pair of rabbit “ears” that were really just two halves of the “lid” of her ball.

She had been tinkered with, but how or to what purpose, I didn’t know. What I cared about was waking her up and making a decision on where to go from there.

“Please step back,” Oleanna said from behind a thick pane of glass. “We’re about ready to start.”

Ultimately, I liked Pokémon. I wanted to help Pokémon. Magearna might have been a mythical Fairy Type, but my real purpose here was just to try to get her out of her deactivated state.

Strapped for other options, I followed Oleanna’s call to join her with the researchers, positioning myself behind the panes that protected both the people and their equipment.

My team joined me, leaving their spots from around the room, and running my hand through Ninetales’s freezing cold hair let me calm my nerves, at least a little bit.

“When you’re ready,” Oleanna said.

Chairman Rose almost looked like he was bouncing.

I sucked in a deep breath.

“Alright. Let’s start.”

Right away, the machines hummed. Tickers and displays began to click, and a line flickered into a wave filled with uneven arcs. A thick cable had been dragged over from an opening in the side wall to this room. Nothing physical was connected to Magearna, but several dishes pointed at her, and those dishes gained a strange, warm pink glow.

“Energy levels are at their minimum, being maintained,” Oleanna noted. “So far, we’ve seen no reaction, so we’d like to ask your permission to turn up the radiation.”

“Increase it,” I said.

Dials twisted.

The process was slow, with that cycle of asking and increasing the energy repeating, and the radiated Dynamax energy slowly went up and up and up.

“I’m not that familiar with your region’s style of battling,” I commented to Chairman Rose while watching the unconscious Pokémon on the ground. “I probably should have asked this earlier, but how, exactly, does Dynamaxing a Pokémon work?”

Oleanna and the scientists were hard at work taking measurements and managing their machines. Chairman Rose, meanwhile, just kind of seemed to be... there.

“Fundamentally, or mechanically?” Rose offered, speaking up with a slight laugh. “Fundamentally, think of it as a ‘supercharge.’ It’s less the Pokémon growing to an enormous size and more like the energy takes their form and creates a projection around them that’s cast out. Mechanically, we at Macro Cosmos produce an item called a Dynamax Band that can harness Dynamax Energy. When activated in the right location, it will draw on local stores of Dynamax Energy to fill a Pokéball that contains a Pokémon. That Pokéball serves as the conduit for the ‘supercharge’ and allows for the Pokémon contained within to act with a far greater amount of control. It allows for the phenomenon to occur with a significantly smaller risk  of the Pokémon lashing out!”

“Hold on. There’s a risk?”

I snapped my head over to Chairman Rose, but he just laughed once again.

“There’s always a risk! How often does your Mega Evolution fail?”

“Never. Not anymore,” I answered quickly. “But this isn’t about that. A Dynamaxed Pokémon lashing out—how large is that risk?”

“A thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a chance,” Oleanna mumbled, not bothering to look up.

“But you said Dynamaxed Pokémon carried a risk of lashing out,” I repeated, speaking as fast as I could. “That the risk is there unless they’re in their Pokéball.”

“Well, yes! You essentially have that right. Forcibly Dynamaxed Pokémon tend to rampage, especially those that have made their home within naturally occurring dens,” Chairman Rose said.

I heard a soft groan from behind me as Florges covered her face. Rapidash’s expression didn’t change, but I saw an acceptance in his eyes that spoke of him understanding that something like this would have always been the case.

“So Dynamaxing a Pokémon without recalling them first has a chance to see them go on a rampage,” I said to him. “And, with all of this equipment set up and with Magearna on that cot, what do you think is about to happen here?”

“Well, Magearna is—”

“We’re getting a reading!” one of the scientists shouted, interrupting Chairman Rose. “The Dynamax energy is working! We’re going to turn it higher!”

Faintly, I could hear the distant ticking noise from within Magearna’s chest begin to grow louder. The scientists and researchers began to speak more animatedly, but I was already turning back to my team and issuing what orders I could.

“Gardevoir, Rapidash. I need you two working together to protect everyone here. Ninetales, get ready with some of your tricks. Florges, Ribombee? Try to pin her down, and Ribombee, you’re crucial. For this, I need you to set up.”

I turned back to the cot.

“You’re the one that’s going to need to knock her down.”

In an instant, Gardevoir flashed over to stand next to the scientists, and Rapidash ran to the room’s doors. Ninetales lowered her stance to stand just at the edge of the screen, and Florges pressed her hands to the floor beneath her. Leaving her flowers, Ribombee went on to begin to do flips above her head while building up a Quiver Dance.

Then, after a few seconds, Florges looked up at me with a nod; even with the room’s well-maintained floor, she would be able to manage a large amount of plant growth once this all started up.

“...Hold on,” one of the scientists mumbled to himself, the expected cue finally coming. “This isn’t right. The Dynamax energy is being drawn faster than we can support.”

“Reduce outputs to previous levels,” Oleanna ordered.

One of the scientists twisted a dial, and a look of fright flashed over his face.

“I’m trying, but it’s not working!”

That’s when the panic started to set in. The thick wire connected to the side of the room began to glow with a brilliant red light. A loud hum came from where Magearna slept, and a strange sphere rapidly spun within the Pokémon’s otherwise unmoving chest.

“...I see,” Oleanna mumbled, and Chairman Rose hurried over. The scientists were in a furious discussion all around them, but Magearna had already started her draw and showed no signs of stopping. “We’ve fundamentally misunderstood just what a Magearna is. The visible machine is not the Pokémon—that’s only its shell. The true Pokémon is the artificial life that sits deep in its chest.”

Magearna had remained functional because her true self, her soul, had been in a deep, deep slumber. Now, being so filled with energy, she was finally waking up. However, the specific energy she was being presented with was Dynamax energy—which was both unfamiliar and chaotic. She couldn’t stop drawing what she needed, and she kept needing more and even more.

Red wisps began to flicker around her unconscious form. A dark cloud started to spiral in the sky above her head. The discussion between all of the scientists ceased as they recognized just what was in the process of occurring.

“Yeah, we’re actually doing this,” I said with a sigh, beginning to walk away to make some room. “Everyone, you already have your orders. We might as well start now.”

As my Pokémon jumped into action, all of the discs pointed at Magearna shattered in unison. Red energy rushed her, and it was like she expanded outwards once, then twice, and then thrice—and then a building sized Pokémon was suddenly laying on the ground.

With a massive mechanical body taking up a good portion of the floor, Magearna’s metal eyes finally snapped open, and she let out an enraged roar.

Right away, from next to where everyone was standing, Oleanna and Rose disappeared as Gardevoir teleported them away to bring them out of the room. Several scientists that were looking up, both dumbfounded and awestruck, were yanked off their feet. Rapidash galloped over to pick one up by sliding his head under her legs, and two more were pulled into the air next to him through careful yet powerful application of telekinesis.

Rotating up onto her feet, Magearna waved a hand, and more of that energy rushed out. She didn’t quite know what she was doing—her eyes were wide, pupilless, and staring straight ahead—because just like Rose had mentioned, the flood of Dynamax energy meant she was now actively lashing out.

The barest bit of effort saw lightning slam into all of the various machines; the people had been evacuated, and I had walked away, so only those expensive devices ended up destroyed. The earth then became colored with yellow electricity itself, and Ninetales took that as the sign needed to begin rushing the massive Pokémon.

With an exhale, Ninetales’s Icy Wind was practically a Blizzard, but this wasn’t her trying to deal damage. As the cold wind blew, frost formed on this behemoth of a Pokémon. The metal chilled, and Magearna slowed. Ninetales bought Ribombee just enough time to rush straight forward.

Magearna was slowed by the ice, but she was already slowed due to her enormous size. She waved her arm again, and an uncontrolled rush of steel spikes exploded out in a line in the ground. Ninetales tried to dodge with an Agility, but too much of an area was being covered.

However, Ribombe was right in Magearna’s face, and he was able to stop this attack with a brilliant distraction.

It was just a Pollen Puff, a move Magearna would resist twice over due to her dual Steel-and-Fairy Type. However, his repeated use of Quiver Dance had increased Ribombee’s speed and special capabilities far past any other member of my team. Out of all of the Pokémon I had with me, he was by far the weakest, but using Quiver Dance several times over meant he could surpass anyone here.

His Pollen Puff that exploded in Magearna’s face was a massive bomb of dust. It might have dealt little damage, but it covered so much area and hit with such force that Magearna was sent stumbling back due to the surprise.

“Now, Florges!” I yelled.

Magearna tried for one last move.

Her shout was deafening, and Fairy Type energy coalesced in the sky. Stars formed and fell, and for this last attack, my entire team acted at once.

Ribombee zipped over to change his focus; Moonblasts shot out to intercept what stars he could. Gardevoir appeared, using a foot-thick Light Screen to create a cover above our heads. From Rapidash, a beam blasted out to assist with the offense-based defense, and Ninetales’s passive snow and Blizzard worked to blow what fragments she could away.

The falling stars exploded against the battlefield floor, but a large area was protected—one large enough to keep me safe, and one large enough to let Florges focus. All of her attention was on the earth, where she had been channeling her power all this time. And, with Magearna still stumbling, the behemoth of a Pokémon was in no position to stop the massive vines that exploded out of the floor and wrapped around her legs.

“Grass Knot,” I named.

Florges smiled proudly as Magearna began to fall.

“I mean, I could say it. Should I say it? It’s a bit hackneyed, but I think it would be fun.”

Ninetales let out an encouraging bark, and Rapidash’s eyes glimmered.

As Magearna plummeted toward the earth, I laughed, not immune to their encouragement.

“Alright then,” I said, watching the collapsing giant. “The bigger they are—”

THUMP.

“...The harder they fall.”

_______________________________________________________________________

A Dynamaxed Pokémon rarely stayed Dynamaxed for long. It was only when they were truly out of control that they stayed giant, and here, Magearna’s initial blast had destroyed the same machines that had been supplying her.

With the threat gone, the scientists wandered back into the room, and slowly walked forward while looking around the destruction in awe.

The massive Pokémon was gone. There was no Dynamaxed mythical waiting for them. Instead, they just found me, crouching next to the ruined machines, watching a newly activated Pokémon do her best to pick up the pieces and organize what she could.

It took a full minute for Oleanna and Rose to rejoin me in the room and move to my side.

“Hah! It worked! And the reading we got—that risk chance I mentioned? With this information, I’m sure we can reduce it by another thousandth percent!”

For a second, I was slightly taken aback by the sheer level of excitement from Rose. He was known for being calm and controlled, and this manic reaction seemed out of place.

But then again, he’s gone through some significant upheavals in his life. And, he no longer needs to pretend about what he really wants to do.

“Any issues?” Oleanna asked.

“She’s awake,” I answered as I stood up. Magearna was still trying to clean, almost in a panic, but she slowed when Ninetales and Florges approached her.

Magearna titled her head to the side out of curiosity, and those two sent her soft smiles. Slowly, they both picked up pieces of the broken machines to assist, Magearna gained a brilliant grin as she continued to follow her instincts screaming at her to make this place neat and tidy.

“Yeah, she’s activated,” I repeated, smiling slightly. “Except...”

Oleanna was already tracking Magearna’s movements.

“Like a newborn babe acting solely on instinct,” the woman said quietly. “You reactivated her after a long time asleep, but she doesn’t have any memories, does she?”

“None, as far as I can tell.”

My team worked with Magearna to organize the parts by whatever system she had planned. The scientists clearly wanted to pick up the pieces themselves, but they didn’t want to get in the way of the many very powerful Pokémon that had just been on display in this room. One of the scientists made a comment and ran off to gather a sheet that was in the process of being printed out somewhere elsewhere in this lower lab.

Chairman Rose, meanwhile, finally managed to calm down. He was watching Magearna with a decent amount of interest, though he carried significantly less now that Dynamax Energy was no longer involved.

“Memories...” Chairman Rose mumbled. “Wiped clean, you say?”

“No clue. Either she’s reset, or there’s something still there in her, just pushed deep, deep down,” I answered.

“Hm. I would advise you to bring her to a place that’ll refresh her, or, perhaps, find someone capable of machine repair?”

“I doubt that’s the answer,” I replied, shaking my head. “There’s a reason no one in the Aether Foundation was able to wake her—or anyone else for that matter. Thinking that she’s just a machine is a mistake, too. The machine is only her body. Magearna is a Steel and Fairy Type. Really, Magearna is the sphere in the center—an animated, artificial soul.”

When I said her name, the Pokémon looked over, tilting her head at me. I smiled at her and held up a hand for a slight wave. She seemed elated at even just that small of an action, smiling brightly in return and proceeding to wave with both arms.

...The end result was that she dropped the chunk of metal she was holding, causing one of the watching scientists to wince. Eyes widening, Magearna hurriedly picked it back up and went right back to cleaning up the place the best she currently could.

“For her memories to return... You’d need to interface with that soul,” Chairman Rose said. “You’d need to do something significant to bring her memories back to the surface. Either that, or you’d need to return her to her home.”

“I can show her pictures and call someone she might know,” I said. I was hoping that Magearna had met Lillie when she was young, but part of me doubted that would work. “Unfortunately, we’ll likely need to dig deeper than that—assuming that anything is even there.”

I hummed briefly.

“Maybe we need to ask for a Psychic Type’s help?” I mumbled.

“Might I make a suggestion?” Chairman Rose suddenly said.

When I looked over, my gaze was flat. Though his plan to Dynamax Magearna had technically worked, it hadn’t exactly worked without consequence.

Still, he just laughed.

“No, no. This isn’t anything we can do for you. The role for Dynamax Energy here has passed, as much as that disappoints. No, if you’re seeking to stir her memories, you’ll need more than just the average Psychic Type. If you truly want to dig that deep into a mythical Pokémon, into a living soul?”

Oleanna raised an eyebrow.

“You can’t mean—”

“I can, and I do,” Chairman Rose said. “I’ve heard stories of a Pokémon of great Psychic power, one capable of witnessing all events—past, present, and future—all at once. If you wish to bring Magearna’s memories back to her, that is the power that you need to seek.”

“So not Rapidash. Not Gardevoir,” I said, crouching back down to better watch Magearna work.

“Not those two. They simply won’t be enough,” Chairman Rose said. “If you want to help Magearna, you need to search out a different species. Once, I dismissed its existence, but knowing of the Legends and myths I now know to be true...”

Magearna was still working, but she noticed me. Head tilting back to the side, she ran over as if to just check me out. She paused right in front of me, almost bouncing in place, and she very carefully looked me up and down.

Without saying anything, I held out a hand. She watched the offer limb for only a single second.  Before too long, she had already lunged forward, and that arm was shaken up and down in an excited form of a greeting.

“Head south,” Chairman Rose said. “Take the train. Climb into the deepest of mountains. Visit the tundra that sits at the top of the world, and search for the Crown that will bring Magearna back to her fullest form.”

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Author Note:

The next chapter needs the most work, so I doubt it will come out tomorrow. Right now, I’m hoping to release it on Wednesday, and then the true epilogue chapter should be out on Thursday, after that.

I’ve been playing the new Pokémon game, and I’m honestly surprised at just how much I’ve been enjoying it. It has a massive amount of details that are super specific to what I want to write next (unrelated to Mega Evolution, too!). I’m extremely excited to get to the next fiction, and it should start being released toward the beginning of next week!