The atmosphere in the caves crossroads was an absolute furnace, thick with the suffocating stench of sulfur, scorched rock, and hundreds of charred corpses rotting in the ambient heat. As the dense black smoke slowly parted, the two figures stood fully revealed over the gravel, their Pokémon anchoring the field with an imposing, heavy presence.
"You look like you've seen a ghost, Ariana," Odin said, his voice a flat, mechanical rasp that carried zero trace of human warmth. A cynical, thoroughly narcissistic smirk locked onto his pale face, his dead black eyes boring straight into the executive's wide expression. "Relax, your favorite officer didn't rot. I'm right here, live in the flesh, and looking far too good to be a corpse."
Lucy stepped up right beside him, smoothing down the hem of her pencil skirt as she let out a long, ragged exhale to empty her burning lungs.
"Sorry, Ariana, kinda went through hell..." Lucy muttered, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. She rolled her crimson eyes toward the ceiling of the burning cavern, her tone dripping with dry exhaustion. "I want a vacation. Seriously, I've had more than enough adventuring for one lifetime, trust me."
Ariana stood perfectly still beneath the dim, flickering orange glow of the cave fires. It took her a long, silent second to process the sheer absurdity of the situation. Her two missing officers—presumed dead inside mount moon or somewhere near for the last seventy-two hours—had just casually strolled out of a fire, completely unbothered by the carnage. Slowly, her cold, corporate mask began to reassemble itself, a dangerous, elegant edge returning to her features.
"And here I was worrying about my golden goose, and my whoring cousin," Ariana murmured, her voice carrying a sharp, velvet sting. She lowered her hand from her holster, though her Honchkrow remained aggressively airborne, its feathers smoking with dark energy. "Now I feel like my poor, innocent feelings were being played with."
She paused, looking around at the raging sheets of white-hot fire consuming the lower tunnels.
"Ah well... I would love to sit down and chat, but..." Ariana continued, her tone shifting into a dramatic, highly mischievous tease as she gestured toward the floorboards. "It seems our little Weezing problem isn't quite over yet. We can't stay in this sector much longer. This entire mountain is under red alert, the league law has initiated a total lockdown, and the League has officially placed a massive bounty on him. To make matters worse, this monster has completely broken its own mind. In other words, he's forever fucked... and we need to get the fuck out of here right now. I might have accidentally pissed off a gym leader."
Odin's slitted eyes narrowed, his features freezing into an expression of intense, icy irritation. He didn't care about her dramatic act, nor did he give a single shit about her warnings regarding the League or the lockdown.
"You sure talk a lot," Odin cut her off bluntly, his tone dropping into a chilling rugged anger.
Ariana's expression sharpened instantly, a dangerous flash of executive authority flaring in her eyes. "Watch it. I am still your corporate superior, officer."
"Watch it, I'm still your superior," Odin repeated back in a flat, mocking mimicry. He didn't yield a single inch of ground, his hollow black eyes radiating a heavy wave of pure killing intent as he stared at her Honchkrow. The mocking tone vanished, replaced by a cold, clinical fury. "Drop the act, Ariana. Why did you just try to kill my Pokémon?"
Lucy's entire posture went completely tense beside him, her fingers instinctively twitching near her backup belt. She could feel the ambient toxicity in the air rising rapidly; the conversation was standing right on the precipice of turning into a brutal, bloody civil war.
"Boo-boo, your little Pokémon is completely beyond saving," Ariana said, her voice dropping into a serious, unyielding line as she looked down at the battered creature. Her corporate arrogance faded, replaced by the grim reality of a veteran criminal. "It needs to be put down immediately. This isn't an execution, Odin... this is mercy. I didn't want to kill it either, but the hard truth is this—even if you somehow manage to fish him out of this cavern, this Weezing is far too gone. He is the biological equivalent of a severe mental patient. It doesn't matter what kind of medicine you use, they will forever stay mental. It's better if the thing just gets a quick, clean death right now, rather than surviving in absolute agony."
"Put him down? Mercy?" Odin whispered, his voice turning dangerously low, vibrating with a jagged, unhinged edge of rage. A tiny, psychotic glint flared within the darkness of his pupils as he stepped closer to the executive. "Who the fuck decided that?"
"Odin, I understand your anger... but you are being entirely too naive to the realities of this world," Ariana countered, her hand tightening around the metal casing of her kiseru pipe. "You don't understand anything about how the system handles corrupted assets."
"I don't fucking care!" Odin roared back, his long black hair casting a heavy shadow over his face as he slammed his combat boot into the ash. "Don't go deciding the value of my Pokémon's life on your own terms!"
"Tch! You just don't get it!" Ariana snapped back, her patience aggressively eroding as she pointed at the dirt. "You aren't saving him, Odin! You are only actively making it suffer by trying to drag its shell along! The thing has lost its mind completely. He traded every single bit of sanity he had left in his mind just to become the slaughterhouse monster he is right now."
Just as the argument reached its absolute peak, a weak, wet cough rattled from the shadows near the black boulder.
The two-headed purple sphere slowly, pathetically forced its massive body off the gravel. Weezing let out a weak, broken, and thoroughly miserable growl, his vents sputtering out a faint mist of clear fluid instead of toxic gas. He floated barely an inch off the muddy stones for a fraction of a second, his balance shattered, before his weight collapsed right back into the dirt. Moving purely on a mindless, brainless zombie like instinct, the creature drifted forward on his stomach, his jaws opening to weakly gnaw on the charred, blackened arm of a dead League corpse lying next to the rock. His eyes were completely milky white, devoid of any focus, sentience, or memory.
He looked like a brainless, dead zombie. A literal mental patient trapped in a loop of primitive, instinctual survival.
The graphic visual made all three of them freeze. A heavy, suffocating silence descended over the clearing as the sheer, agonizing trauma of the scene forced a rare wave of pity through their chests. It was deeply painful to watch. Odin stood perfectly still, a heavy, suffocating lump forming in his throat as his mind involuntarily flashed back to the way Poopie used to act on the surface. He remembered the two-headed blob being a completely happy-go-lucky, attention-seeking simp—a dancing, obedient dog that would constantly levitate around Angel, begging for compliments, pets, and head rubs with a goofy, cheerful energy. To see that same loyal partner reduced to a brainless, milky-eyed zombie chewing on roasted human flesh in the dirt was a horrible, brutal reality.
Ariana stabilized her composure quickly, wiping the brief trace of pity from her features as she turned her focus back to Odin.
"There is absolutely no point in saving it... can't you see it, Odin?" Ariana argued, her voice dropping into a clean, logical corporate breakdown. "The thing is in constant, agonizing suffering. So what if you managed to smuggle him into a Pokémon Center or pay off a rogue Nurse Joy? You can heal his physical wounds, patch up his skin, and restore his hit points... but there is absolutely no cure for a shattered mind. He has lost all of his consciousness. He isn't sentient anymore. Understand this reality—he is the permanent equivalent of a severe mental patient. It doesn't matter what you try to do; they will forever stay mental. It's only a cycle of endless suffering. It is better to just put the thing out of its misery right now."
Odin's jaw locked into a rigid line, his psychotic grin slowly creeping back across his cheeks as he locked onto of his partner.
"Tch... nah, he is built different," Odin muttered, his voice a low, threatening rumble. "I'll get his fucking mind back."
He paused, his eyes tracking the weak movements of Weezing before he looked up at the executive. "I mean... there has to be documented cases, right? In the history of the organization, there has to be files of something like this happening, and then the Pokémon eventually snaps out of it and comes back."
"There are documented cases—"
Ariana began.
"See?!" Odin cut her off instantly, his voice rising with an arrogant, triumphant snap.
"Let me fucking finish!" Ariana thundered back, her voice echoing off the cavern walls as she glared at him. "There are documented cases, yes, but not a single one where the Pokémon ever comes back sane! Many have gone completely insane under the pressure of slaughter or something else, but they have never recovered their sentience. Usually, Pokémon like these are either put down out their misery immediately by their handlers... or they become corporate experiments. They get turned into TM extractor slaves."
"What?!" Lucy gasped, her face turning pale as she took an involuntary step back, her hands flying to her mouth in pure disgust.
"Yeah," Ariana confirmed coldly, her corporate logic completely laid bare. "Pokémon that lose their minds like this have absolutely no more 'normal' or functional purposes within the market lines anymore. They can't follow tactical commands, and they can't be trusted on the frontline. So, the organization locks them in a underground lab, injects them with massive chemical syringes, and forcibly sucks out all of their learned Move knowledge straight from their cellular DNA, processing the fluid to turn them into TM syringes for the market. The extraction process is extremely painful for a Pokémon... but once they have lost their minds like this, the physical pains they feel become completely meaningless to their broken brains. The labs will keep injecting and extracting them until they lose every single ounce of biological value and have no more moves left inside their dna. After that... they are either sold off to the black market for food and raw crafting materials... or they get shipped straight to the underground fighting arenas, where these mental Pokémon are forced to face each other to the death in a sick, twisted gambling show for the wealthy elite."
Odin stood perfectly still in the ash.
Lucy stood perfectly still beside him.
The absolute, horrific reality of the underworld system hung over the burning cavern like a physical weight.
"..."
"..."
"Fuck," Odin and Lucy muttered concurrently, the heavy gravity of the trade rules leaving a bitter taste in their mouths.
Weezing forced his deflated purple frame up off the stones once more, his balance completely failing as he stumbled sideways over a scorched rock. He began mindlessly hitting his massive heads against the hard rock floor of the cave, letting out another weak, pathetic growl that died in his throat as blood trickled from his vents.
"Odin, please," Ariana pleaded, her voice dropping into a serious, almost desperate tone as she took a step closer to him. "Let me put him out of his misery right now. I won't ask you to pull the trigger yourself. I promise you, on my name and my status, I will use every single ounce of my executive authority—all of my corporate power—to force Petrel to personally breed you a brand-new, Platinum-Potential Koffing to replace him on your belt."
Lucy's crimson eyes turned down, looking at the agonizing routine of the two-headed blob on the floor. A deep, heavy sadness settled over her features. She turned her head, looking at Odin's rigid profile with a downcast, sorrowful expression. She knew this was going to be the absolute hardest, most devastating decision Odin had ever had to make since he woke up in this world. Slowly, she reached out, her fingers wrapping around his cold hand in a tight, reassuring, and highly supportive grip—silently telling him without a single word that no matter what choice he made, she would stand right behind his boots until the end.
"Ariana... this..." Lucy whispered softly, her voice trembling slightly as she looked from the executive back to Odin. "Is there really no other way around the thing?"
Odin slowly pulled his hand back from Lucy's grip, his posture straightening to its full, imposing height. He took a heavy step forward into the light of the flames, his long black hair casting a dark, shadow-like mask over his features as his dead, unreflective black eyes locked straight into Ariana's face. The psychotic grin returned to his ashen stained cheeks, wider, sharper, and overflowing with an absolute, terrifying malice.
"You will do no such fucking thing, Ariana," Odin said, his voice a chilling, absolute zero whisper that cut straight through the roar of the cave fires. "Crazy? Mental? Death? Put him down? Who the fuck decided that... No one makes that decision for me. I don't give a single shit about your TM factories, your arenas, or your corporate logic. I will bring his mind back myself. I don't care what it takes."
He took another step closer, his killing intent exploding from his chest with the raw, heavy pressure of his three Diamond-Rank Affinities, causing Ariana's Arbok to hiss in pure, instinctual terror.
"And I promise you this, boss lady," Odin sneered, his voice dropping into a deadly, mechanical executioner tone. "If you touch a single hair on his head... if your Honchkrow takes a single step toward his him... I will fucking murder you right where you stand. I will tear the flesh from your bones, and I will personally feed your raw meat to my Weezing."
The silence that followed was absolute, the air between Odin and Ariana snapping with a dangerous, live-wire tension. Ariana stared into his hollow, blood-stained eyes for a long, heavy beat, her hand tightening around her Poké belt. Before ultimately letting go, her expression softening a little.
"This once... I will let this blatant disrespect slide," Ariana murmured coldly, her corporate mask locking back into place as she stepped back. "Just this once, Odin."
"..." Lucy stayed completely silent, her heart hammering against her ribs as she prepared for the storm.
Odin walked fowards towards Weezing and slowly looked down at Weezing, his expression completely blank. His black hair hung loosely over his face, casting a shadow that matched the dull emptiness in his dark eyes. He didn't speak. He didn't yell. He just watched.
Weezing was an absolute mess on the dirt. The two-headed purple sphere would desperately struggle to force its heavy body up to levitate, only to lose its balance and collapse right back onto the rocks, over and over again. Broken, pathetic growls and weak roars vibrated from its throat. Between the gasps, it kept muttering incoherent words in the Pokémon language—nonsensical noises that meant absolutely nothing. It would gnaw and bite at the air, violently hitting its own heads against the hard floorboards of the cave in a frantic, self-destructive loop. It was completely miserable.
Suddenly, Weezing let out another weak roar, its milky-white eyes locking blindly onto Odin's silhouette. Moving purely on a chaotic, damaged survival instinct, the blob tried to lunge itself straight at Odin to attack him. But it had no balance left; it instantly slipped on the gravel and fell face-first into the dirt. It didn't stop. It immediately began hitting its heads against the rocks again, letting out more fractured roars and incoherent mumbling. It forced its body around, locked its blind gaze onto Odin a second time, and lunged again—only to clumsily miss his body completely.
Odin never even moved an inch. He stood perfectly still, letting the mindless beast strike the empty air around his boots.
Weezing forced itself to levitate back up, attempting another attack, but its balance was entirely gone. It lost its footing once more and collapsed heavily right next to Odin's leather combat boots. There was a charred Mankey corpse lying in the ash right there, and the moment Weezing's jaw hit the rock, it began immediately munching on the dead monkey like a rabid, wild beast, tearing at the scorched flesh without a single shred of sanity left in its brain. Completely forgetting Odin was right next to him.
Odin slowly tilted his head back, staring up at the jagged stone ceiling of the burning cavern. His expression remained entirely vacant, but his chest felt heavy.
"What shall I do, Angel?" Odin whispered into the dark, his voice a low, hollow rasp.
He didn't get an answer, but for a split second, his chaotic sociopathic wall cracked just enough for a single, quiet tear to leak out from his left eye, cutting a clean path through the dirt on his cheek. "Put him down... or not?"
Only the cracking roar of the surrounding flames and the sickening, wet sounds of Weezing munching on the dead Mankey could be heard as a sick and twisted reply to Odin's question.
He closed his eyes, directing his focus deep into his own mind.
'System... can he be saved?'
[Host can use your Poison Affinity to calm him down]
'Will it save him? Will it actually bring his mind back?'
[...]
The silent pause from the screen layout was deafening.
Odin's lips parted into a faint, bitter smile. 'I see... it's completely hopeless, huh...'
[Does host... wish... to put him down?]
'I don't even know anymore...'
[I... understand.]
Before he could open his eyes, the sound of heavy boots hurried over the gravel behind him. Lucy ran straight toward Odin, her arms lunging out to wrap tightly around his back. She squeezed his torso with a desperate, grip, burying her face directly into the fabric of his black coat as she felt the heavy, suffocating sorrow radiating off his posture.
"Odin..." Lucy cried out softly, her voice trembling with a deep sadness. "Odin, I think you should put him down... I'm so sorry... I know you don't want to hear that from me right now, but..."
Weezing didn't care that a brand-new person was suddenly standing right beside his territory. He didn't look up, and he didn't attack. His milky eyes remained locked on the ground as he kept mindlessly munching on the scorched corpse of the Mankey, occasionally lifting his heavy heads to let out a weak, pathetic howl into the smoke—sounding exactly like a dying, exhausted dog.