"What a calm morning it is outside." A man with dyed blue hair and dark obsidian eyes walked around outside. He had his Alolan Ninetales beside him and she seemed bored on this walk. Her eyes slowly blinked and she let out a loud yawn stretching out fully, causing bystanders to stare at her.
The man had an annoyed expression on his face. "Really you want to be sleepy now of all times? We have a mission to do and you know that? I'm going to buy a coffee before we trigger the signal."
Walking into Sawsbucks he ordered a frozen hot chocolate and a donut. Sitting down he looked out the window and thought about what must be done. Lumiose City was the national trade and research center of Kalos. With it eliminated it will weaken Kalos's ability to generate enough revenue to continue funding its troops on Unovan soil, leaving them to die in the upcoming winter.
Finishing the donut he grimaced. That shit was way too stale for 10 dollars, another reason to hate Kalosians. They always overprice their food under the guise of "authentic" when it's just reheated slop.
Walking outside he made a turn into Grand Central Lumiose City Park.
"Ymir use Blizzard. Freeze the whole park."
1 second
The clouds in the sky across the whole of Lumiose were covered in big dreadful dark clouds. Small snowflakes came down. People looked around confused, pointing to the clouds. The man grimaced that these people didn't have the slightest clue what was about to happen.
5 seconds
The snowflakes turned into snow that started to swallow the whole of Lumiose in a sea of white. People started panicking. No way it should be snowing in the middle of summer. The winds whipped up slashing at people's bodies relentlessly in their fury.
10 seconds
Now the snow was so thick people were having trouble seeing ahead of them. But more importantly Ymir the Ninetales was almost done setting up the strongest blizzard in her life. She focused inward, calming her mind and expanding her energy outward causing an exponential rise in her power.
The crisp 80 degree weather dropped to -10 degrees. People started falling to the floor, hypothermia settling in quickly. This was all before the blizzard. Ymir inhaled and half of Lumiose City turned into a city full of ice.
Ymir let out a cough and slouched over. "Good job Ymir, stellar work." She had spent a week's worth of energy in one single move exhausting her reserves. Pulling out her luxury ball he returned her. While she wouldn't be able to contribute anything more the rest should be able to handle it from here.
Grabbing another ultra ball he could already tell the storm was dissipating slowly without Ymir to maintain the hailstorm.
20 seconds
The sharp frigid winds died down to a calm breeze and the raging dark clouds turned into a mellow grey with the hard hail turned to snowflakes. But the piles of snow remained. The people on the ground remained.
In a matter of 20 seconds he had single handedly killed off an untold amount of people. Not just the blizzard but the intense weather shift would have killed the civilians. The quickly rising temperature would not save them.
Walking out of the park he looked around and thought to himself "Lumiose looks good in so much snow."
Releasing the Pokemon inside the ultra ball. Skeledirge materialized heavy and immediate, that chest fire burning steady in the cold air. The snow around her feet dried on contact.
"We're moving to the rendezvous. The signal's already out."
Skully didn't acknowledge him the way most Pokemon would. No excitement. No readiness performance. She just started walking in the direction he was already facing like the decision had already been made before he said anything.
Scene break
Lumiose City 9am
Charlotte walked down the road with her child inside the stroller. She had her Espurr beside her. Looking down at the two she felt no regret in her life. While she made mistakes she wouldn't take them back for the world.
Because if it wasn't for her mistakes she never would have met her child or Espurr.
It was a nice 80 degrees outside, the sun was out, clear skies. For the last week it had been nothing but rain. Charlotte smiled to herself that her children would be able to go outside and play for the first time this week.
Grand Central Park would be the most perfect place.
Taking a turn she saw the bright green grass with the bright hot sun basking down on them. Taking Espurr and her child out she set them down on the grass and sat down on a nearby bench.
Looking over she saw a weird man. He had bright blue hair and even bluer eyes. Truly a fashion statement but it couldn't compare to the Ninetales following him. The Ninetales had a shining ethereal coat that shone in the light.
But she looked so tired like she had been working nonstop. Looking at the man in a different light Charlotte had a disgusted look on her face. Her face scrunched up in the way it does when you see something particularly disgusting. Working Pokemon so hard should be illegal.
But what could she say? She was just a single mom, not a trainer.
The man looked around and whispered something. She couldn't tell what exactly.
Then the clouds shifted. A snowflake fell down. How? It was the middle of summer.
Before she could realize it she was on the ground getting drowned in snow. She tried to reach her children but they were already lost in the snow. Trying to push forward to their last known location she rushed too fast and slipped. Before she got up she felt a cold blast and nothing.
Atlas disliked walking through snow. It truly felt dreadful. Looking around he saw the results of Ymir's work. Everyone was frozen solid, their bodies frozen in place like porcelain statues. Skully's flames from her mouth and the fire bird sat on her nose melting the snow into a nasty slush.
The sun was coming back out now, its hot glare beating down on him. One thing that people didn't know is that ice made from Pokemon energy doesn't survive well under the sun. Typically a severe ice event like this would take at least a week to thaw everything out.
But ice type energy is different. After solidifying out of the Pokemon's body it starts melting in hours not days. This is because ice type energy is not real ice, it's energy taking the form of the characteristics of ice.
With that knowledge in mind the ice in his opinion should be fully melted by tomorrow. While initially that sounds great it gives Kalos less time to prepare repair units, inflicting even more infrastructure damage.
He honestly expected more resistance. Where were the trainers, the gym leader? No way everyone could have died who could have posed a threat. He had one more target before he was able to go home.
His target was Lumiose Tower.
Daniel pushed out of the snow. Looking around he saw his friends around him. They had all been able to enhance their bodies to survive the random snow attack. That had to be a Pokemon made disaster, nothing can form that quick and cause so much destruction.
A man appeared who had a Pokemon that appeared like a crocodile in nature. Its red scales and golden eyes stared into their souls. It held itself with a sternness uncommon in most Pokemon.
Looking at the man he saw blue hair and dark eyes that stared out at the world with a cruel indifference. Daniel shouted at him. "Hey over here, we need to check for survivors!"
The man quickened his pace and his Pokemon didn't decide to match, instead just slowly following. When he finally got close enough he introduced himself and spoke with an accent Daniel couldn't place.
"Ah friend, how's it going. This attack es brutal, no?"
The blue haired guy was clearly a tourist caught up in this, albeit more capable as he was a Pokemon trainer.
Daniel didn't really talk to tourists much. In his opinion they take more than they give. But in this case he needed help so he pushed his dislike down and spoke again.
"You know Kalosian friend? What's your name?"
"Eh, I know a little. Zhe name is Atlas!"
"Atlas, can you help us find survivors?"
Atlas looked around the frozen city slowly like he was taking in the damage for the first time. His expression shifted into something that read as shock if you weren't paying attention.
"Of course friend, of course. Zhe people they need help no?"
Daniel nodded already moving. Atlas followed behind him with Skully trailing at her own pace. Her chest fire burned steady cutting through the cold air around her.
Daniel glanced back at the Skeledirge. "Your Pokemon. What type is she?"
"Fire." Atlas said. "She is good for warming up zhe frozen, no?"
Daniel accepted that without thinking too hard about it. It made sense on the surface. A fire type in a frozen city was useful. He wasn't wrong.
Daniel and his group moved through the frozen streets with Atlas keeping pace beside them. The conversation had picked up naturally the way it does when people are trying to process something too big to sit with in silence.
"You see anything before it happened?" One of Daniel's friends asked Atlas directly.
"Non, nothing. Zhe sky it just changed." Atlas said shaking his head slowly. "Very terrible thing."
"Had to be a coordinated attack." Daniel said. "Something this scale doesn't just happen. Someone planned this."
"Oui, oui." Atlas agreed nodding with the right amount of concern on his face. "Who would do such a thing to beautiful Lumiose."
Skully walked behind them. Unbothered. Her fire burning the same temperature it always burned.
The tower came into view ahead of them cutting through the grey sky. Daniel's group slowed slightly taking in the scale of it.
"Gym leader should be there if anyone survived." Daniel said. "Clemont doesn't go down easy."
Atlas filed that name away without reacting to it.
"Zhen we go yes?" He said gesturing forward.
Daniel nodded and they kept moving. Atlas kept his eyes on the tower the whole time. His second target. Right in front of him and nobody in the group had the slightest idea.
The tower doors were already damaged. Forced open from the inside.
Daniel's group pushed through first with Atlas following behind naturally like he belonged there.
The inside of Prism Tower was dim. Emergency lighting only. The electric hum that usually ran through the whole building was gone. Dead.
A figure was on the upper level looking down at them. Blond hair. Glasses. Young but the expression wasn't.
Clemont looked at the group slowly. His eyes moved across each person and stopped on Atlas.
Something changed in his face immediately. Not panic. Not anger. Recognition.
He came down the stairs faster than he probably intended to. When he hit the bottom floor he didn't address the group. Didn't ask about survivors. Didn't do any of the things a gym leader was supposed to do when civilians showed up in a crisis.
He just looked at Atlas and said it flat.
"Atlas Forsythe."
The tourist act dropped as a performance device the second his name was in the air. No point anymore.
Daniel turned slowly. "You know him?"
Clemont didn't look away from Atlas. "He's the reason your friends are frozen outside." He said it simply, like he was reading a fact off a page. "He's been on the Kalosian government's list for two years. Top theorist in the Unovan regime. The attack today has his signature all over it."
The room went very quiet.
Atlas looked back at Clemont without changing his expression. Caught. Completely. And somehow still unbothered about it.