She tried not to look alarmed as they explained what they were looking for. These men were looking for information on people like her? Were they….No, that’s impossible. There’s no way they knew where she was - she didn’t even know if the others were still alive after the breakout, so why would they?
“Humans with Pokemon powers?” she repeated, acting as if she was mulling over the subject. “T-That does sound a little far-fetched…But I imagine if you wanted references to something similar, it would be in legends. I think some Sinnoh texts have some creation myths with similar concepts…”
She really hoped they didn’t catch on to her anxiety right now.
“Far-fetched? Maybe.” Atlas admitted. “But everything is far-fetched until new evidence suggests otherwise. If we simply assumed that everything we didn’t understand was untrue, Poké Ball technology would never have developed.”
“You certainly are talkative today, Atlas.” Abner interrupted once again. “Do you know her? Long-lost friends or something?”
“...no. Of course not.” he said, after a moment’s pause. Perhaps to stem his irritation at Abner’s attitude?
He glanced at the librarian girl, his eyes meeting hers, perhaps for the first time in their conversation.
“I’m sure we both know what that would mean.”
“Sinnoh creation myths, you said? We’ll be sure to have somebody check those out. Thank you for the help.” Atlas said, with a simple nod. “With our search narrowed, however, it’s perhaps time for us to leave, lest we trouble you further.”
Amelie got a good look at the man’s eyes then - a vivid, friendly green color. A familiar color…though she couldn’t figure out why.
“Hiens?” she repeated, mulling the word over. “I can’t say I’ve heard of your group before, unfortunately.” Which she would normally have thought was odd, but it’s entirely possible that they were a new group; there wouldn’t be a lot of information then.
“Can you tell me more about what you’re trying to reference? I might be able to help you find it if I have more information to go on.”
“Well, I suppose it doesn’t make much difference if you have heard of us.” Atlas said, with a slight shrug. “Nonetheless we have made quite a difference in the world. It’s actually our research that discovered Pokérus. Ah... but I’m bragging.”
He stopped, touching his chin for a moment in thought.
“We’re not entirely sure what it may have been referred to in older books, but in modern terms it’s something called an Affinity.”
A noise of disgusted dismissal sounded from the other man, who was apparently not only rude enough to ignore somebody speaking directly to him, but also to eavesdrop on somebody who is not.
“Such a ridiculous concept. Humans with Pokémon powers. If there were such a thing they’d be nothing more than Pokémon with a more attractive shape.”
Amelie narrowed his eyes at the dark-haired man - she heard the name “Abner” - that she thinks just tried to intimidate her? It was a little hard to tell, but he certainly had an arrogant air about him. What was it with this week and attracting all the troublemakers to the Lumiose Library?
Her attention shifted back to the lighter-haired man as he spoke. “It’s alright….I think?” she said hesitantly. It certainly sounded like he made an attempt at apologizing, but she wasn’t about to argue the point.
“Is there anything I can help you two find?”
“Ah... possibly.” the white-haired man responded, mulling it over for a second. “Are you familiar with Hiens? We’re a research group led by a man named Adlai Hiens.”
On saying this, he removed his sunglasses, which were likely unnecessary in the first place, revealing his vivid green eyes to Amelie, with a friendly, if a little formal, smile.
“We’re here today looking for some... ah... fairly obscure references. It’s hard to explain, but we’re not exactly sure what books to look for them in.”
Naturally, Amelie spotted them during a patrol of the book stacks. It was hard not to notice someone sitting on top of one of the tables. Did they not realize those chairs were there for a reason?
“Excuse me, I’m going to have to ask you to please not sit on the tables,” she said, approaching the two. “There are chairs available right beneath them, or if you need somewhere more comfortable we have reading areas with more comfortable seating.”
...
... ...
... ... ...
No response. Did he genuinely not hear her, or was he just being ignorant? It was hard to tell, as he literally didn’t seem to react at all to her speaking.
“Abner.” the white-haired man said, a little louder than the peach-haired girl had.
“What is it?”
“She’s speaking to you.”
The black-haired man, apparently called Abner, glanced around, noticing the librarian girl after a few moments.
“What does she want?”
“For you to use a chair like everyone else.”
It was Abner’s turn to roll his eyes, now, not making much in the way of effort to be subtle about it.
“Of course. Not content to let people work, are you?” he said, addressing the relatively short girl before him, removing his buttocks from the furniture, and instead standing, not sitting on the chair as asked, but instead almost making a show of how much taller he was than her. It seemed as though he was likely close to, if not more than, six feet.
“You’ll be here even longer if you stop to posture.” Atlas pointed out to him.
A brief frown later, and the black-haired man was pulling another book out of a shelf, not displaying the etiquette to replace the one he had already taken back first, and all the while mumbling something under his breath in irritation.
Atlas moved to pick it up without a word, placing it back where it belonged.
“He forgets that he doesn’t quite own everything.” he offered the young woman, as somewhat of an apology on the other man’s behalf.
The library was vast. A benefit of being in the capital of the Kalos region, one would have to assume. Still, when one was looking for vague references to something, rather than a specific title or author, such size was quite the inconvience.
There was little to be done about it, however. And so, he sat down with the first book in hand. Not on the chairs, though. That would be too easy and respectful. No, instead, the man sat on the edge of the reading table, opening the first book he had seen that looked even vaguely related to the topic, and began paging through it with all the respect of a high school delinquent.
"Is that really necessary?" his compatriot, a fairly tall, white-haired man of decent build asked, glancing over at him from behind the tinted lenses that were almost certainly unnecessary for an indoor space such as this.
"They're books, Atlas. They don't read themselves aloud just because you ask nicely." the black-haired man, who was similarly built, but just slightly taller, said, without even a hint of sarcasm.
"Why don't you pick one up and look too, or I'll be here all day."
With a roll of his eyes, Atlas did as instructed, squatting down to the lowest shelf to find anything that may look promising, then, with much more care than the black-haired man had, took one such book from between its fellows, examining the cover briefly, and began flicking through.
It was a strange thing, to have been both aware and unconcious for years. To be able to say that you know a person intimately, without having ever spoken a word to them yourself. To know that a friend needed help, despite your last true interaction with them having been a decade ago.
Strange as it may have been, however, it was the case for Waw, the sixth subject of the Infinity Project, who died at the age of nine when the entire group had broken free from a situation that should have never been.
And yet, in another way of thinking, they had never died. Because the person standing before Atlas Hiens now was undeniably them, despite still bearing the physical appearance of Adelaide Noire, Fire-type Affinity and all.
Keep reading
How was any of this possible?
Kineta could only watch in horror, rooted to the spot she stood, as she watched two of the people she cared most about in the world fight with such ferocity, barely even using moves so much as sheer physical prowess against each other.
Once, twice she begged them to stop, but her own tears, as well as the intensity with which they faced each other, drowned out the sound.
Instead of stopping, the fight continued to escalate. A fist collided with a face. A knee connected with a stomach. Throughout it all, one thing remained clear. Tsade was stronger. Fire may have been a perfect counter to Ice, but years of hibernation were no match for years of continued experiments that Tsade must have been through, and it was rapidly showing, as Tsade gained the advantage again, holding Waw up by their hair, steam billowing from between them as the two radically different temperatures met.
Tsade's fist reeled back, as he prepared to strike once again, but as he shifted forward, the torso of Kineta was thrown between them, taking the blow for Waw. Once again, a layer of frost coated the impact point, and Kineta, unable to maintain herself any longer, collapsed on the ground between them.
Tau was unconcious.
Qoph's body, under the control of Waw, was standing, but barely. Waw had been tough, back when they still had their own body. Qoph, however, had always been more intellectual than physical.
And Tsade. Tsade stood there, as though the fight hadn't even started yet. His own condition honed over the course of years to be stronger than his limits. The second-strongest among all of the children of the facility, who had watched over the rest of them like siblings for seven long years, before staying behind to protect them once more.
"You're exactly what you hated..." Waw muttered, clutching Qoph's shoulder, which had been strained from their previous grapple.
"I was wrong." Tsade replied, coldly.
"...what happened to you, Tsade?" they asked, looking at the man they had once considered a close friend - family, even, with sadness.
"Reality." he answered, the forme change ending as a briefly hint of softness returned to his eyes, as though there was still a slight bit of sympathy in there for their plight. "Our seven year dream ended. Hiens was all I saw when I woke."
"Then you just need to go back to sleep!"
With a sudden second wind, Waw rushed Tsade wrapped in a wreath of flame, hitting his center of gravity hard with everything Qoph had.
Their battle had taken them from the forest to the water's edge. Caught off-guard, it was all Tsade could do to sharply inhale, as the two of them struck the water, and sank below its surface.
Back. Back to Hiens, he said.
Which meant they were from Hiens. Which meant–
“You’re… with the people that did that to us?”
“What do you mean?” Atlas, or Tsade as Kineta had known him, asked jovially. “Of course I work for Hiens. Our studies make a difference.”
“Tsade…” She began, but stopped short. She couldn’t comprehend what he was saying. Hiens did this to them, didn’t they? Wasn’t that proof that they were awful? And yet here Tsade was, saying that they were good.
“I don’t understand…” she admitted, looking away from Tsade even as the tears continued to fall from her eyes, tucking her hand under her other arm in a vain attempt to comfort herself in the face of the feelings she was experiencing
"I know that I’m… I know that I’m not smart, and I’m childish, and impulsive, and outlandish, and so many other things… but Hiens… You’re saying that they did Infinity… right?“
There was a distinct sound in his voice, unlike any other she had heard prior.
She had never heard it before, but Kineta felt it must be the sound of a man broken by his experiences.
If it were possible, she would want nothing more than to help him. To return him to the boy he used to be. But the fact was that those days had long since passed. There wasn't any going back, but if Kineta wanted to be the hero she'd vowed to be...
"I'm going to save you." she said, looking Atlas in the eyes, even as her own were red from her tears. "I swear it."
The air between them grew still, only broken by the snowflakes slowly drifting down from the sky, a stark dissonance between the peaceful weather and the tension between the two Affinites.
"No." Atlas said simply, after a few moments of that silence. "I'm going to save you. It's obvious the world has warped your sense of right and wrong."
"How can you say that?!"
He merely raised his hand in response, silencing her.
"I'm taking you back. We're going to all be together again. If it needs to be by force... then so be it."
The way he said it made Kineta shudder. Things hadn't needed to escalate in such a way at all, and yet here he was threatening her...
But if it was how it had to be, then she didn't have a choice. It didn't seem as though he was willing to let her and Kit just leave at this point anyway.
"I'll fight you." Kineta said, hoping her expression looked more sure of herself than she felt.
"You won't win. Only Shin ever could."
"I'll still fight."
Victory Star hit the ground, clutching her stomach briefly from the surprisingly strong attack from the man. The way the man moved wasn’t fancy, but quick, efficient. Kineta found herself wondering if he had actually hit her, or if there was another Pokémon that she hadn’t noticed that did it for him.
"You were following me." the man spoke coldly. "Why?"
"I saw you outside the Battle Chateau." Kineta replied, her voice not at all shaky, despite her position.
"And? You decided to follow out of curiosity? What kind of idiot would--"
He trailed off, as he began to realise exactly what it was that the pink-haired girl in front of him was wearing. With a long sigh, he took whatever the object in his hand had been away, and tapped her arm under the shoulder, indicating that she should get up.
"I get it. Carried away in a role, I suppose." he said, audibly shaking his head. "There are people who won't take being stalked lightly, you know. You should be more careful in the future."
Still suspicious, Kineta turned to face the man as she stood. Whatever had been in his hand no longer was, and the way his voice had eased up indicated he no longer bore her any ill-will, and yet even so...
"What were you doing there?" she asked, her face serious as she looked at his face for the first time.
"If you must know... I'm with the Hiens Group." he explained with another sigh, taking a card out of his pocket with some kind of logo on it as proof. "Atlas Hiens, of Public Relations. Since some of our employees happened to be victims of the incident, and I happened to be nearby, I came to make sure they were unharmed."
"And now?"
"They weren't, so I was going home. Then you started following me. I thought you might be involved, so I took appropriate steps to defend myself. Are you satisfied with that?"
She had to be. As much as she had hoped she was about to catch somebody involved in the incident and bring them to justice, it was clear that this man from the Hiens Group had nothing to do with it. What he said made too much sense for that.
"Okay. I'm sorry." she said, with her own sigh.
He placed his hand on her shoulder briefly, and allowed himself to smile for just a moment.
"You only spooked me a little, nothing more. Just try not to let it happen again."
