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He pulled the lever.

"NO!" I yelled, my voice drowned out by a warning klaxon screeching overhead. Spinning yellow lights flashed on as the safeties of the airlock were disabled. "I'm sorry..." Peter said, stepping away from the lever. His voice was barely a whisper, and yet it still managed to be heard over the din of noises around us. "But this is something I must do..." I shook my head in frustration and turned to Volt. "Goddammit, Volt! Tell me you've got something!" The electabuzz shook his head and winced as the panel sparked. "I'm tryin', boss, but the system just slammed a fuckton of firewalls down on me! I'm locked out!" I screamed in frustration and turned back to the window, trying to think of a way to stop this.

The airlock door was slowly but surely opening now, a thin purple forcefield holding the extreme pressure of the ocean back outside. "There's an SD card in the bag." He told us, maybe out of redundancy, maybe because he didn't know we'd already found it. "On that card is everything. Everything that happened here, everything that we failed to stop." The door was about halfway open now, and still moving. "You have to find Daniel. You have to stop him before it's too late. And as for me..." He looked up and gave me a grim smile. "I'm used up. Just another broken monster in this ruin of a base." The doors let out a rumbling slam as they locked into place, fully open.

"This..."

"This is my redemption."

In an instant, the force field collapsed and the wall of water shot forward like a freight train, slamming into the outer airlock door with enough force to knock us off our feet. Cursing, I scrambled back up and peered through the glass to see...

Nothing. Nothing but a faint purplish shape in the water, fading with each passing second. In another few seconds, that shape became a thin fog, then a light mist, and then...

It was gone.

Peter Cohen was no more.

I couldn't even speak, my eyes locked onto the spot that the gengar had occupied only seconds earlier. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't. Not having surviving all of this. Not after everything that had happened in Marianas.

I don't know how long I just stared, speechless at the events that had just taken place. The world had seemed to stop in that instant, every noise, every movement frozen in time as reality itself tried to figure out what had just happened.

Finally, a whispered voice that I barely recognized as Volt's split the silence. "Permission to speak freely, sir...?" I just motioned to him without looking away. "This entire mission is FUBAR, SNAFU, and everything else that means 'royally fucking fucked up.'" None of us even bothered to snap at him because, to be perfectly honest, we had come to the same conclusion.

I don't know how long it took, but I finally stepped away from the glass. "We're leaving." I said simply. Nobody protested in the slightest, not after... that. We climbed through the hatch into the Alpha and Omega and sealed it, each taking a quick run through the decon showers before removing our HAZMAT suits. Harvest climbed up to the cockpit to set us off, Phantom floated over to the armory and started restocking the weapons, Volt flopped onto his cot with a depressed silence, and I sat down at the radio station to contact command. For a second, I hesitated, unsure what to say after everything I had seen in the past hour. Then, taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I turned the dial and reengaged long-distance comms.

"Overlord, this is Zeta One-One Actual, do you copy?"

"We read you loud and clear, Zeta One-One. What is your current status, over?"

"Package is sent, Overlord. All crew members accounted for. Minor injuries overall, nothing an oran berry won't fix, over."

"Copy that, Zeta One-One. Was Headmaster Cohen recovered, over?"

"...Negative, Overlord. Headmaster Cohen is KIA. Repeat, Headmaster Cohen is KIA."

"...Copy all, Zeta One-One. The brass wants a full debriefing the instant you get back, over."

"Understood, Overlord. Zeta One-One out."

I clicked off the radio and leaned back in my chair with a sigh. What I had seen in that base would haunt me for years to come. I could only imagine what Peter had been through back there. Then again... I thought, pulling the SD card out of the messenger bag, Maybe I won't have to. I was tempted to open the files immediately, but instead decided to save it for the debriefing.

A second later, a dull thud reverberated through the sub as we detached from the docking bay. "We're away, people!" Harvest said over the in-ship comms. "'Bout time we got outta that place!" I sighed and closed my eyes, hoping to get some shuteye before we detonated the bomb. However, much to my dismay, the comms switched back on not ten seconds later, forcing me to put on my headset once more.

"Zeta One-One Actual, this is Typhoon Five-One, do you copy?"

"We hear you, Typhoon Five-One. What's your status?"

"We're on station and ready to contain pressure waves, Zeta One-One. Fire when ready."

"Copy that, Typhoon. Zeta One-One out."

I took off the headset for the radio and walked over to my HAZMAT suit, reaching inside and pulling out a small data chip. Carefully, I slid that chip into a specialized slot on a detonator from the armory. "I'm about to blow the bomb, people! Brace for shockwave!"

Three... I walked over to the rear window of the sub as Phantom and Volt grabbed hold of the nearest support pylon.

Two... Outside, I saw a ring of minisubs, each one containing a water-type member of BuRNN Squad Typhoon, pulling into position a mile away from the base.

One... My hand tensed around the detonator.

Fire. I squeezed the detonator and watched in a tense silence.

At first, nothing happened. The sea was as quiet and calm as ever. The submarine's engines rumbled underneath my feet, the slow sound of my own breathing filling my ears as the anticipation boiled over.

And then, out of nowhere, a starburst of light appeared. I was forced to avert my eyes as the starburst quickly expanded into a second sun, casting the entire trench in a brilliant white light. I grabbed a pair of polarizing goggles from the door and put them on before looking back.

It looked for all the world as if a supernova had erupted in the heart of the base. Debris and glowing dust shot out into the ocean at blinding speeds, followed almost instantly by a visible, glowing golden shockwave that knocked me off my feet. By the time I got back up, there was a massive, glowing white sphere of pure energy expanding from the blast, growing at an alarming rate with each passing second.

Then, the sphere shrank down in a fraction of a second, disappearing as if it was never there. All that was left was dust and echoes at the bottom of the ocean, the only tomb that the dead of Marianas would ever know.

And so it was that the Marianas Pokèumans Base and Research Facility was finally destroyed.

A minute passed with me watching out the window, hoping that maybe, just maybe, Peter might still be alive. Finally, though, I just walked away and sat down on my cot. If nothing else, we could all rest easy knowing that that place was gone. No more Lurkers, no more... whatever the fuck that gardevoir-thing was, no more of that. They were gone now, either incinerated by the ultra-concentrated thermonuclear blast, or crushed to death by the unrelenting pressure of the trench.

With a sigh, I took out the SD card again, turning it over in my hand. Before me was a complete record of the events that taken place in that hellhole, every last thing we'd need to decipher the truth about the base's fall. Even better, if Peter had been right, we would have more than enough evidence to launch a world-wide manhunt for Daniel Bryson. The bastard had been declared dead only a little more than a week before, so if he was still alive and kicking, there was a good chance he was up to some nasty shit.

"You okay, Scar?" I looked up to see Harvest standing next to my cot. For a moment, I wondered why he was down here and not piloting the sub, then I remembered that the Argo-class subs had autopilot systems built in. "Sort of." I replied with a sigh, looking down at the invaluable data card in my hand. "Curious as ta what's on that thing?" He asked with a wry smirk. I nodded. "You're not the only one." I couldn't help but smile as Harvest reached under his cot and pulled out a portable e-reader. Technically, they were against regulations since they lacked sufficient encryption, but the Tokyo Base still hadn't gotten around to giving us ones that were up to scratch, so I was willing to let it slide. Carefully, I put the card into the device, waved Phantom and Volt over, and we began to read.

"What makes a monster..."

Description
He pulled the lever.

"NO!" I yelled, my voice drowned out by a warning klaxon screeching overhead. Spinning yellow lights flashed on as the safeties of the airlock were disabled. "I'm sorry..." Peter said, stepping away from the lever. His voice was barely a whisper, and yet it still managed to be heard over the din of noises around us. "But this is something I must do..." I shook my head in frustration and turned to Volt. "Goddammit, Volt! Tell me you've got something!" The electabuzz shook his head and winced as the panel sparked. "I'm tryin', boss, but the system just slammed a fuckton of firewalls down on me! I'm locked out!" I screamed in frustration and turned back to the window, trying to think of a way to stop this.

The airlock door was slowly but surely opening now, a thin purple forcefield holding the extreme pressure of the ocean back outside. "There's an SD card in the bag." He told us, maybe out of redundancy, maybe because he didn't know we'd already found it. "On that card is everything. Everything that happened here, everything that we failed to stop." The door was about halfway open now, and still moving. "You have to find Daniel. You have to stop him before it's too late. And as for me..." He looked up and gave me a grim smile. "I'm used up. Just another broken monster in this ruin of a base." The doors let out a rumbling slam as they locked into place, fully open.

"This..."

"This is my redemption."

In an instant, the force field collapsed and the wall of water shot forward like a freight train, slamming into the outer airlock door with enough force to knock us off our feet. Cursing, I scrambled back up and peered through the glass to see...

Nothing. Nothing but a faint purplish shape in the water, fading with each passing second. In another few seconds, that shape became a thin fog, then a light mist, and then...

It was gone.

Peter Cohen was no more.

I couldn't even speak, my eyes locked onto the spot that the gengar had occupied only seconds earlier. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't. Not having surviving all of this. Not after everything that had happened in Marianas.

I don't know how long I just stared, speechless at the events that had just taken place. The world had seemed to stop in that instant, every noise, every movement frozen in time as reality itself tried to figure out what had just happened.

Finally, a whispered voice that I barely recognized as Volt's split the silence. "Permission to speak freely, sir...?" I just motioned to him without looking away. "This entire mission is FUBAR, SNAFU, and everything else that means 'royally fucking fucked up.'" None of us even bothered to snap at him because, to be perfectly honest, we had come to the same conclusion.

I don't know how long it took, but I finally stepped away from the glass. "We're leaving." I said simply. Nobody protested in the slightest, not after... that. We climbed through the hatch into the Alpha and Omega and sealed it, each taking a quick run through the decon showers before removing our HAZMAT suits. Harvest climbed up to the cockpit to set us off, Phantom floated over to the armory and started restocking the weapons, Volt flopped onto his cot with a depressed silence, and I sat down at the radio station to contact command. For a second, I hesitated, unsure what to say after everything I had seen in the past hour. Then, taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I turned the dial and reengaged long-distance comms.

"Overlord, this is Zeta One-One Actual, do you copy?"

"We read you loud and clear, Zeta One-One. What is your current status, over?"

"Package is sent, Overlord. All crew members accounted for. Minor injuries overall, nothing an oran berry won't fix, over."

"Copy that, Zeta One-One. Was Headmaster Cohen recovered, over?"

"...Negative, Overlord. Headmaster Cohen is KIA. Repeat, Headmaster Cohen is KIA."

"...Copy all, Zeta One-One. The brass wants a full debriefing the instant you get back, over."

"Understood, Overlord. Zeta One-One out."

I clicked off the radio and leaned back in my chair with a sigh. What I had seen in that base would haunt me for years to come. I could only imagine what Peter had been through back there. Then again... I thought, pulling the SD card out of the messenger bag, Maybe I won't have to. I was tempted to open the files immediately, but instead decided to save it for the debriefing.

A second later, a dull thud reverberated through the sub as we detached from the docking bay. "We're away, people!" Harvest said over the in-ship comms. "'Bout time we got outta that place!" I sighed and closed my eyes, hoping to get some shuteye before we detonated the bomb. However, much to my dismay, the comms switched back on not ten seconds later, forcing me to put on my headset once more.

"Zeta One-One Actual, this is Typhoon Five-One, do you copy?"

"We hear you, Typhoon Five-One. What's your status?"

"We're on station and ready to contain pressure waves, Zeta One-One. Fire when ready."

"Copy that, Typhoon. Zeta One-One out."

I took off the headset for the radio and walked over to my HAZMAT suit, reaching inside and pulling out a small data chip. Carefully, I slid that chip into a specialized slot on a detonator from the armory. "I'm about to blow the bomb, people! Brace for shockwave!"

Three... I walked over to the rear window of the sub as Phantom and Volt grabbed hold of the nearest support pylon.

Two... Outside, I saw a ring of minisubs, each one containing a water-type member of BuRNN Squad Typhoon, pulling into position a mile away from the base.

One... My hand tensed around the detonator.

Fire. I squeezed the detonator and watched in a tense silence.

At first, nothing happened. The sea was as quiet and calm as ever. The submarine's engines rumbled underneath my feet, the slow sound of my own breathing filling my ears as the anticipation boiled over.

And then, out of nowhere, a starburst of light appeared. I was forced to avert my eyes as the starburst quickly expanded into a second sun, casting the entire trench in a brilliant white light. I grabbed a pair of polarizing goggles from the door and put them on before looking back.

It looked for all the world as if a supernova had erupted in the heart of the base. Debris and glowing dust shot out into the ocean at blinding speeds, followed almost instantly by a visible, glowing golden shockwave that knocked me off my feet. By the time I got back up, there was a massive, glowing white sphere of pure energy expanding from the blast, growing at an alarming rate with each passing second.

Then, the sphere shrank down in a fraction of a second, disappearing as if it was never there. All that was left was dust and echoes at the bottom of the ocean, the only tomb that the dead of Marianas would ever know.

And so it was that the Marianas Pokèumans Base and Research Facility was finally destroyed.

A minute passed with me watching out the window, hoping that maybe, just maybe, Peter might still be alive. Finally, though, I just walked away and sat down on my cot. If nothing else, we could all rest easy knowing that that place was gone. No more Lurkers, no more... whatever the fuck that gardevoir-thing was, no more of that. They were gone now, either incinerated by the ultra-concentrated thermonuclear blast, or crushed to death by the unrelenting pressure of the trench.

With a sigh, I took out the SD card again, turning it over in my hand. Before me was a complete record of the events that taken place in that hellhole, every last thing we'd need to decipher the truth about the base's fall. Even better, if Peter had been right, we would have more than enough evidence to launch a world-wide manhunt for Daniel Bryson. The bastard had been declared dead only a little more than a week before, so if he was still alive and kicking, there was a good chance he was up to some nasty shit.

"You okay, Scar?" I looked up to see Harvest standing next to my cot. For a moment, I wondered why he was down here and not piloting the sub, then I remembered that the Argo-class subs had autopilot systems built in. "Sort of." I replied with a sigh, looking down at the invaluable data card in my hand. "Curious as ta what's on that thing?" He asked with a wry smirk. I nodded. "You're not the only one." I couldn't help but smile as Harvest reached under his cot and pulled out a portable e-reader. Technically, they were against regulations since they lacked sufficient encryption, but the Tokyo Base still hadn't gotten around to giving us ones that were up to scratch, so I was willing to let it slide. Carefully, I put the card into the device, waved Phantom and Volt over, and we began to read.

"What makes a monster..."