Characters: Zinnia, Shelly, Courtney, Joseph Stone
Warnings:
Arson, guns, gun violence, animal/pokemon abuse, description of injury
Just as that night was painfully dark, the morning was painfully bright. There was a knock at Zinniaâs door, which only managed to elicit a groan from her. It was Shelly, just checking in – but Zinnia seemed less than enthusiastic. It was only when Shelly mentioned lunch was ready that Zinnia sprung to life.
âSHIT!â she shouted out, racing out of bed, leaving Aster to hobble behind her. Shelly tried calling out to Zinnia, but she had already bolted downstairs.
Once Shelly made her way downstairs, she saw Zinnia frantically flipping through one of her notebooks and tripping over her words while talking to Courtney. Courtney had asked her to slow down, and on seeing Shelly, Zinnia simply took a deep breath and sat down at the table.
âZinnia, what on earth was that about?â Shelly asked, left confused from her sudden movement, as if she hadnât been in the hospital for the past 2 weeks.
â…Nothing. Yea, nothing, thatâs what Iâm gonna go with.â Zinnia said, bordering on a mumble. She could obviously see the skeptical look in Shellyâs eyes, and she already knew her explanation was less than satisfactory. âI just realized it was late. I wanted to be up earlierâŚâ she added. Shelly let out a groan.
âGoddamnit Zinnia, you nearly gave me a heart attack.â
Shelly moved over and slumped down onto the beige couch with a creak of the floorboards beneath it. Courtney laughed at Shellyâs frustration, but was quickly told to shut up.
Zinnia got up, and grabbed herself some food. Sitting back at the table, she scooted her chair a bit closer to Courtney, the squeaking grabbing her attention where she was working on a laptop.
âWhat is it?â she asked, to no response. Zinnia simply slid her a note written on a torn out piece of her notebook, quickly looking to confirm what Shelly was watching TV.
âCan you help me with something? Shelly canât know or sheâll freak outâ
Courtney took a second to read over the paper, before clicking her pen she kept nearby and writing her response.
âWhat do you need?â
With some shuffling to try and look discreet, Zinnia grabbed the pen from Courtney and continued the chain – her response taking a while to write.
âI need you to look up the Devon Corporation on your computer and see if you can find the building’s floor plans anywhere.â
Taking back the paper, Courtney subtly nodded and began typing into her browser.
It didnât take long to pull something up, and while Courtney kept it open Zinnia quickly flipped to a page in her notebook that also contained floor plans and some notes. While Zinnia was hastily scribbling down some notes, Courney came to a realization – the floorplans Zinnia had drawn while in the hospital matched perfectly with the plans she found online.
After Zinnia was finished writing her note, she took the passed note once more and wrote her final response.
âAfter Iâm done, meet me in the backyard.â
Courtney nodded once again, before going back to her work, eyeing Zinnia every now and again as she ate. Eventually, Zinnia got up and pushed her chair in, leaving to the kitchen, before – CRASH. Shelly jumped up from the couch, but Zinniaâs voice stopped her.
âIâm fine, Iâm fine! There was water on the floor and I slipped.â
Courtney gave Shelly the ok that she was telling the truth, and Shelly just sighed before sitting back down. But from where Courtney was sitting, she could clearly see Zinnia had set up a clever ruse. She had given her plate and cutlery to Aster and told them to throw it on the ground. Using the noise, she was able to open the squeaky door to the backyard without being detected. Zinnia picked up the plate and utensils, before slipping out of the door. After waiting a bit, Courtney did the same.
Outside, Zinnia was sitting on the gravel path among the overgrown, weed-filled garden. When she saw Courtney exit the house, she gave her a wave to come forwards. After carefully making her way down the rotting stairs, Courtney stood in front of Zinnia, hands on her hips.
âAlright. What do you need from me? You better have a good reason for making me hide shit from my girlfriend.â she said, tone stern as she eyed Zinnia down – a smug smile on her face.
âArson.â Zinnia returned with, tone completely flat.
âEx⌠excuse me?â
âYou heard me, didnât you?â
There was a pause before Courtney got her senses together and gave her wittingly catty reply.
âOh, ha ha, very funny, Iâm the former Magma admin and you come to my help to set a pretty little fire because you assu-â Courtney was cut off by a frustrated noise from Zinnia.
âNo, oh my god, Iâm setting my own fire. I need your help to cover because I assumed you wouldnât care enough to let me do crazy shit.â Zinnia said as she rubbed her face with her hand. âSit down with me.â
Courtney groaned, but obliged anyways. She was interested in what âcrazy shitâ Zinnia had in mind. Zinnia got out her notebook, and quickly flipped through the pages that had the drawn floor plans on them.
Zinnia explained to Courtney that she had been seeing them in her dreams, night after night, and copied them down. She was also given some reason to believe that it was Devon, because she was shown the location of an artifact stolen from her by Devonâs CEO after he convicted her all those years ago. While Zinnia was in the middle of explaining, Courtney interjected;
âSo wait, why on earth are you choosing to believe these dreams instead of, I dunno, accepting maybe your brain is doing things to you?â
âIf they didnât mean anything, then why do the floorplans match up?â
Courtney couldnât think of a response, so she let Zinnia continue.
During her stay in the hospital, Zinnia had formulated a plan to take back the artifact and use it to summon Rayquaza. She had concluded that sheâd use the large vents to navigate the building and set a fire as a diversion to retrieve what was stolen from her.
Courtney had a blank expression on her face – she wasnât quite sure how to feel about all of this – it sounded so surreal. But Zinnia had gone into such detail regarding security information and specifics, she couldnât really pin it as a crazy plan, save for one subject:
âWhy? Why would you do this?â
âThe meteor.â
âThe WHAT?â Courtney gasped out. Nothing Zinnia was saying sounded believable at all, but this just topped the cake. She couldnât wrap her head around it, or any of this. Before Courtney had a chance to speak again, Zinnia spoke up.
âItâs⌠a prophecy thing. In my family. For the Draconids. Every 1,000 years, a meteor threatens Hoennâs existence and itâs up to the Lorekeeper to mega evolve Rayquaza to destroy it, and Iâm the Lorekeeper. ButâŚâ Zinnia took a deep breath. âRayquaza hasnât been here since the incident. And I need that artifact to summon her back. Thereâs 6 days left, Courtney.â
Courtney looked flabbergasted. âEXCUSE ME? WHY THE HELL HAS NOBODY BEEN TALKING ABOUT THIS IF WEâRE GOING TO FUCKING DIE IN 6 DAYS?â
Zinnia, taken aback by her yelling, went back at her in a similar tone. âTHIS IS WHY! If they told people, theyâd freak out! I bet those freaks at Devon have been hiding it from everyone. Look, I just need your help to-â Zinnia was cut off by the back door opening, and Shelly stepping out. She mustâve heard them through the old and thin walls.
âWhy are you two yelling at each other back here? Whatâs going on?â
Despite the two having been arguing a second earlier, Zinnia and Courtney gave each other the most nervous looks.
âCourtney wasâŚâ Zinnia started, but she was stopped by Courtney in a harsh tone.
âI was getting on Zinniaâs case about the garden!â She took a deep breath and her tone relaxed a bit. âWe had a disagreement over the state of the garden and redoing it that got out of hand, that was all.â
Shelly looked over the two with a skeptical look, before brushing it off. âWell, if you two want garden advice, I can only help a bit. Iâm glad you two are doing something with this old dusty pitâ
âYea, we were actually talking about heading to a store with gardening supplies this evening when itâs cooler.â Zinnia said, her expression now a twisted confident look.
âWe⌠we were?â Courtney responded, confused.
âDidnât you hear me? Or were you too hung up on what plants were weeds and what plants werenât?â
Courtney realized Zinnia was bluffing, and quickly went along with it. Shelly seemed convinced; she gave Courtney a quick kiss and told the two that she would be out until around 7pm anyways, before heading back inside.
After Shelly had left, Courtney quickly turned to Zinnia.
âGarden store? What was that all about?â she asked.
âI needed a cover for why Iâd be gone, and it looks like I just found one.â
—
The night was young, and Courtney promised to keep herself out of the house until they were both supposed to head back from the âgarden storeâ. In reality, Zinnia had hopped onto her Salamence, Aster and gasoline in hand, and was flying directly for the Devon Corporation HQ.
She landed somewhere in the small wooded area just outside one of the buildingâs back entrances, and used a flashlight to review her notes once more. This was it – she had one chance to get this plan right, and if she screwed it up, it was over.
After reviewing her plans for nearly 15 minutes, she took the deepest breath she felt sheâd ever taken, closed her notebook and put it into her bag, grabbed her container filled with gas, and turned her flashlight off to navigate to the back entrance in darkness.
From the information in her dreams, this was the one spot and time that was a âweak pointâ in Devonâs security – no cameras, and the door guard was in-between shifts. Even though Zinnia wasnât in particularly good shape anymore, it only took her a couple of well-placed kicks before the knob clattered loose, allowing her access. Past the door was a dark hallway – directly in front of Zinnia was a door leading to the office levels, and to her right was a door that led to the maintenance area – where she had planned to go. But what caught her attention was a third door on her left – a door that wasnât present in the blueprints sheâd been screened in her dreams or the blueprints Courtney found online.
Trying to muffle her breath, though it sounded louder than her pounding heart, Zinnia moved silently towards the enigmatic door, and attempted to peer through the tinted glass window, to no avail. She then pressed her ear against it, to try and hear anything from inside.
To her horror, there were people inside – two people, and one of them was someone she knew. She felt like her heart was going to stop, and she could only hear muffled bits of conversation, but she listened in anyways.
The person she knew was the man himself, Joseph Stone – CEO of the Devon Corporation. He wasnât supposed to be here this late, Zinnia thought, having been told when heâd be there and when he wouldnât. He seemed to be talking harshly to another man in the room, who was mumbling back at any verbal barrage he got. She couldnât really make out any noise, until Joseph began yelling.
âIF YOU DONâT HAVE THE DAMN DEVICE DONE BY THE FOURTH, YOU WONâT HAVE ANOTHER PAYCHECK!â was followed by heavy footsteps and a slamming of another door.
Zinnia felt like her breathing had stopped. Not only was the CEO here, but he knew about the meteor, and was constructing some sort of device. Zinnia was absolutely terrified, but kept listening to the door anyways. She could hear the scientist mumble and shuffle around for what felt like ages, before finally exiting out of what sounded like the same door Joseph had exited out of.
After taking what felt like her first breath in forever, Zinnia pulled her ear away from the door and examined the lock. She had a plan, but she was overwashed with curiosity from the strange room. It wasnât online, what could they be hiding?
The look was a keycard-style lock, and Zinnia wasnât sure if kicking it in would do much – and shattering the glass would be noisy, messy, and could hurt.
Suddenly, Aster murmured a bit, before releasing a supersonic wave. Zinnia covered her ears, and after Aster had stopped, she noticed the keycard lock had been broken by the loud noise. Zinnia briefly praised her pokemon before slowly creaking open the door.
The lights inside had been turned off, but Zinnia could see a variation of small flashing LEDs on computers and other technology. The room reeked of pokemon and an ammonia-like smell, to the point where Zinnia had to hold her nose as the smell overwhelmed her. She closed her eyes, to help them adjust to the dark more quickly. As she was in complete darkness, Zinnia could feel Aster grabbing her leg and shuddering, softly murmuring. She shushed it, before thinking about what to do next. This room is surely monitored, she thought, but her curiosity got the best of her.
Zinnia opened her eyes, and still had to adjust to the darkness a bit. When she was finally able to take a look at the room around her, it took her some time to fully process where she was.
âOh my god.â she muttered, upon fully realizing what kind of room she was in.
There were kennels lining the walls, most of which were empty, though some weaker pokemon found on the routes nearby were in some of them. There were racks of pokeballs beside the kennels, and both the pokemon in the kennels and the pokeballs were hooked up to some odd machine.
Zinnia slowly scanned the room for a surveillance camera, and to her surprised relief, there werenât any to be found. She slowly moved forward into the room, and while she expected the few pokemon in the kennels to get riled up at her appearance, they just looked at her weakly, in silence. The entire room felt haunted, and a weight on Zinniaâs chest kept telling her she was about to stumble onto something horrifying.
And thatâs exactly what happened.
Moving closer to the large machine at the central edge of the room, Zinnia slowly examined it before seeing two words that made her lurch back from the recoil of realization.
Infinity energy.
Sheâd learned about infinity energy during her studies as Lorekeeper, knowing the machine had to do with infinity energy brought the entire roomâs existence together.
Infinity energy was the energy produced by the life force of pokemon themselves. The reason for all the pokeballs hooked up to the machine and the reason the pokemon in the kennels looked so weak⌠Zinnia felt like she was about to vomit. She wasnât quite sure what she could do⌠the weight of the situation ended up making her dizzy, and she stumbled back and grabbed herself on a counter. Her hand managed to catch a paper, and when she looked at it, it was dated recently⌠very recently. As in, the paper had been written hours prior.
Zinnia tried her best to gather her senses and quickly skimmed over the report. Devon knew. They had known for about as long as Zinnia had known, and they had a plan. Their idea was to create a remote attachment to a rocket that would transport the meteor to another dimension. Zinnia was about to file it was bullshit, when she remembered she had mentioned something offhand about other worlds.
Could Devon have really figured the existence of other worlds out? And if they did, they really only decided it was for their own selfish desires? As if Zinniaâs opinion of Devon wasnât already below the ground, it somehow dug itself deeper.
While skimming the paper, she noticed a name she didnât recognize – Renee Markov. It piqued her interest because listed with her name was an address and plans for a meeting with Joseph Stoneâs son himself, Steven stone, that would occur tomorrow. Zinnia made sure to write down her address and name, before her attention was captured by Asterâs murmuring.
Aster was jumping at a door, and only stopped when Zinnia grabbed them. She quickly referred back to her notes on the floor plan, and realized that this door wouldnât make sense going anywhere on the online floor plan. She didnât know where itâd go, but she did know it was the door Joseph and the other man exited through.
Zinnia had planned this moment meticulously for weeks, and just one room threw it all off. Now, it was just one door, and Aster seemed intent on Zinnia using it. She sighed, before slowly turning the knob and quietly as she could.
What do I have to lose?
The door led to a stairwell, and that stairwell led to another stairwell. Zinnia felt like she was climbing stairs for ages, but still amended her original plan and made a trail of gasoline up the stairs.
After about 5 flights of stairs, Zinnia found herself facing another door. She knew that this would put her at the same level as the CEOâs office, and was anxious about how to proceed. Still, she put her ear up to the door, and listened. She couldnât hear anything for a solid minute, so she creaked open the door, more cautiously than she had any of the others.
And there she was, face to face with the CEOâS office.
The adrenaline rush hit her, and before anything else, she quickly made sure to douse the room in what remaining gasoline she had. When her tank was empty, she quickly looked around seeing if she could see it, and low and behold, and eventually found it. The talisman, stolen from her, was sitting in a glass case among other artifacts to the right of the CEOâs desk. Zinnia didnât think, she only ran to it and smashed the glass, hurting her hand. She grabbed the talisman and slipped it over her head onto her neck, and for a second, everything was calm.
I did it. I really did it, she thought. Her crazy plan had actually worked, and it did so easier than she had originally imagined it to. She was so caught up in the euphoria that she didnât initially notice Aster tugging at her leg, and it wasnât until she heard that noise that her stomach dropped.
It was a gun cocking.
Zinnia slowly turned around to see Joseph Stone, who mustâve been waiting to see her.
God fucking damn it.
âNow now,â the man said. âYou really thought you could break into my office like that?â
His voice was cold and unforgiving, as he aimed the weapon directly at Zinnia.
She felt like she swallowed a lump before just laughing. Zinnia looked the man in the eye, striking a match and preparing to dive to the side.
âBurn in hell.â
The match fell into the pool of gasoline, and it quickly lit up the trail around the room and down the stairs as well. The room became engulfed in smoke, and Joseph’s focused aim was taken aback by the flames, as he tried to jump to safety. Zinnia felt victorious – she had pulled her trump card, and it worked.
She tried her best to quickly dodge the flames and move closer to the window she had planned to escape from, when Aster grabbed her leg, and Zinnia fell to the ground. At the same time, a shot rang out, and a slowly creeping searing pain manifested itself in Zinniaâs foot.
She looked down to see the redness creep up her sock as it was being soaked up, and once again, she felt like throwing up. The man had shot her, and it was likely Aster who prevented it from being something other than her foot. Zinnia was stuck on the ground, in too much pain to move, as Aster was up in her face, murmuring in distress.
She could see Joseph do his best to escape through the main office entrance, and as the smoke swirled around her, Zinnia felt herself losing consciousness.
I was so, so close, I canât die now; Zinnia thought as she blacked out to Asterâs cries.
And then she woke up.
Zinnia was in her room, and she quickly noticed two things; first, Aster was huddled next to her, and second, the warm pain in her foot. She looked down to see it wrapped in bandages, and when she tried to move, it stung. So, Zinnia waited.
This must be purgatory; she thought. Thereâs no way I survived that.
When she looked to her side, the talisman was delicately laid out on her bedâs end table. Her heart started to beat faster, and she quickly grabbed it and stared at it – it was the real thing. Zinnia let out a triumphant cry, before recoiling from the pain.
The noise got the attention of Shelly, who worriedly rushed to Zinnia, seeing she was awake. The first thing Shelly did was berate Zinnia for going out and doing what she did, and she seemingly went on for ages, but at the end of it all, she gave Zinnia a hug.
âIâm glad youâre alive.â she said, holding Zinnia until she pushed her out of the hug.
Shelly explained to Zinnia that she had been flown in unconscious by her salamence, and Courtney had used her nursing knowledge to patch the wound up. While Shelly insisted on bringing Zinnia to the hospital, Courtney SOMEHOW convinced her otherwise, leaving them where they were now.
Shelly got up, and sighed.
âPlease promise me not to do anything else like this.â
âI promise,â Zinnia said, prompting Shelly to give her a smile and walk out the door. Zinniaâs response was, of course, a massive lie. She was only getting started.
—
March 30th, 2005
7:12am
5 days
I canât believe I really did it. My crazy, stupid plan worked. I have it now. This all feels so surreal, like a dream, but itâs all real, baby! I have no idea how the hell I got out with my life, but all that matters is it worked.
I have a lead still – Renee Markov was her name if I remember right? Yea, it was. Iâm gonna sneak out and make sure I pay her a visit.
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