No one moved for five seconds.
Shaun considered leaping out the open window, but quickly decided against it. He would’ve probably been frozen in place again, and he wasn’t keen on reliving that particular experience.
Glancing around the room revealed no more exits. They were trapped.
Slowly, subtly, Buizel began pushing himself upright against the wall. It was so slow that Shaun didn’t notice at first, because Meowstic was speaking.
“First of all, you have a lot of nerve running away from me,” he said. “I have no idea how you managed to do it, but rest assured, I will not be making that mistake again.”
Shaun didn’t want to have to run again, anyway. He felt an ear twitch as Meowstic continued, “And don’t get any funny ideas. I know how you all think.”
Shaun couldn’t help but scoff at this. “Likely story.”
Meowstic turned his full, glaring ire on him. “I’ve literally gone diving into your psyche to try and fix your amnesia, Shaun.”
“Oh.” He had completely forgotten about that.
“That’s how I also learnt that you’re apparently a human, but I digress,” Meowstic continued, crossing his arms.
This news came as a shock to the other two Pokemon in the room, both of whom looked at Shaun completely dumbfounded. “What?” Sneasel asked.
“Huh?” Buizel said at the same time.
“Hm. He can keep secrets. Good for him.” Meowstic watched the room’s reaction to the bombshell with professional interest. “Has issues keeping friends, though.”
Shaun felt like the entire world was disintegrating around him, leaving him sitting on a chair in a vast void. Meowstic had done the one thing that he had hoped would never happen. And so casually, too.
“Wh- how is he a human?” Sneasel asked, gesturing to him disbelievingly. “He’s very obviously a Pokemon. Sitting right there.”
Meowstic shrugged. “That’s beyond my capabilities of knowledge or understanding.”
“The great disaster finds its final mark,” Buizel said randomly.
Everyone turned to stare at Buizel, who was now standing completely upright against the wall, looking pale. “Pardon?” Meowstic asked.
“That’s- that’s three messages, now.” Buizel said this with an edge to his voice.
“Messages?” Shaun looked blankly at Buizel for a second. “Oh, more cast out of perspective? Like the weird one saying ‘the seven are not your friends’ or whatever.”
Meowstic looked between Shaun and Buizel sharply. “What.”
Buizel nodded. “Yeah, it was another one like that.” He didn’t look too happy about it.
A moment of silence descended on the room. Shaun glanced outside the window again at the purple-hued sky. Something was off.
“Alright,” Meowstic said, seemingly after a moment of deliberation. “I’m taking you two-“ he pointed at Buizel and Sneasel, “-back to the village. You-“ he pointed at Shaun. “-are going where you belong.”
“A grave?” Shaun quipped dryly.
“Keep talking like that and you’ll definitely find yourself in one,” Meowstic responded. “We’re leaving now.”
Shaun suddenly found himself outdoors, walking in single file through the fields underneath the purple sky. His legs weren’t exactly complaining, but they were clearly plotting their revenge for later.
Sneasel, surprisingly, had volunteered to be the one in front. Shaun had the idea that she was trying to avoid interacting with Meowstic as much as possible, which he understood completely. He didn’t envy her particular situation.
Buizel followed her, ahead of Shaun. Buizel kept glancing around, seemingly paranoid over nothing. Shaun wished he could talk to him, but Meowstic, who was following behind Shaun, had made it very clear that they were not to talk to each other. Shaun was actually glad for the rule. It kept him from having to answer questions.
As they walked, the horizon progressively got more and more red. Shaun didn’t think much of it at first until Buizel looked up and stopped dead in his tracks.
Shaun walked into him and took a few steps backward. “Ow. What’re you looking-?”
The words died on his lips as he looked up. A bright red something that was decidedly not a star hung in the sky above them.
Curious, Meowstic and Sneasel looked up as well. A long minute of silence prevailed, Buizel breaking it by muttering, “The great disaster finds its final mark…”
“And I can’t be bothered about something like that right now,” Meowstic said, unimpressed. “Walk, or you lose your walking privileges.”
They started off again, Shaun feeling significantly more uneasy. Something in the sky was large and red, and it didn’t seem to be getting smaller.
Soon after that, they reached the woods, which blocked out most of the night sky. Shaun was actually a little glad that he didn’t have to look at the crimson eye that stared at them from the sky, but Buizel only seemed to get more nervous.
“That red star’s been growing bigger all night,” he whispered to Shaun when he thought Meowstic wouldn’t notice. “I think it’s-“
“More walking, less talking,” Meowstic said, cutting him off.
The group descended into silence again. Shaun wished that he could talk at all, but Meowstic wouldn’t allow that luxury.
After a while, Shaun began to feel that sense of approaching sacred ground again. He glanced over his shoulder and was nonplussed to see the strange runic wings starting to fade back into existence. “I still don’t like that,” he muttered.
Buizel glanced over his shoulder at Shaun and stared until Shaun was thoroughly uncomfortable. He made a shooing motion with his paw, but Shaun still felt uncomfortable even after Buizel had turned away.
A few minutes later, Meowstic called for them to stop. “Alright,” he said, gesturing to the other two Pokemon. “You two need to stay here.”
Whatever Meowstic did, it was powerful. Shaun flinched a little as Buizel seemed to almost fall over and Sneasel closed her eyes, grimacing.
“And you,” he said to Shaun, “will be coming with me.”
Shaun smiled half-heartedly at Buizel as he turned to follow Meowstic. “Goodbye, I guess.”
He couldn’t bear to see the look in Buizel’s eyes.
Far too quickly, they were back at the temple. Shaun, exhausted, was directed onto the top of the slab, just beneath the strange floating circle. Shaun collapsed onto his side, too tired to keep fighting. Meowstic watched him, expressionless for a moment. “Maybe if you weren’t such a headache, I’d feel more remorse.”
Shaun smirked despite himself. “But you do feel something.”
“Unfortunately, yes.” Meowstic replied. “…why does the Enforcer have such a hard job…?” Shaun heard him mutter.
The ground rumbled.
Confused, Shaun looked down at the trembling floor. “What on earth…?” he muttered, looking around. As he looked up into the red sky, any confusion he had was quickly replaced with horror.
A fireball the size of the sun seemed to be descending on the very spot they were standing. Shaun pushed himself up, unable to tear his eyes away from the terrifying sight. As it grew closer, Shaun realized it was a massive meteor, probably the size of the entire island, if not bigger.
Meowstic looked up and also saw it. Instead of panicking, like Shaun was expecting, he just folded his arms and stared at it.
“I guess this is where I die,” Shaun remarked half-heartedly.
Meowstic glanced at Shaun, and then in the direction that Shaun presumed Island Village was in. “…No.”
Shaun watched as the meteor crawled ever closer, seemingly gaining speed. The ground shook again, the leaves of the trees sounding like a high wind. “Unless you think you can somehow stop a literal ball of rock hurtling towards us at terminal velocity, I don’t think anyone here has much of a chance.” Shaun didn’t want to think about what was happening. It couldn’t be happening. This entire day had just been one bad dream, and he was a few minutes from waking up.
Meowstic cracked his neck, making Shaun jump from the sudden noise. “Save others at the cost of your own life,” he muttered. “I knew what I was signing up for.”
He walked down the slab of stone and stared up at the meteor before pointing at it with a paw. Shaun wanted to laugh hysterically. “Yeah, I see the rock. I think everyone can see the rock.”
And then, slowly, Meowstic’s ears unfolded.
Any amusement Shaun had quickly died as he saw the two blue eye-things on the tips of Meowstic’s ears. As he watched, they began to glow a bright blue along with Meowstic’s regular eyes. The meteor above them didn’t seem to slow down, but Meowstic was doing something to it.
Shaun’s attention was suddenly drawn to the rustling of the bushes to his left. Buizel burst out of them, panting like he had run a marathon. He looked around wildly and spotted Meowstic pointing at the meteor. He wisely left him alone and instead ran over to Shaun. “The sky is falling!” he said, a little unnecessarily.
“So I’ve gathered,” replied Shaun. “How the heck did you get here? I thought that you were supposed to stay back there.”
“Broke free,” Buizel panted as Sneasel also crashed through the brush. “Seems like his attention is focused elsewhere right now.”
They stared into the sky at the approaching meteor as Sneasel walked up next to them. “If you stand around staring at the sky all night, then no one’s going to make it out alive,” she said bluntly.
“Well, what the heck do you suggest we do?” Shaun asked, tearing his eyes away from the giant rock above them.
“Find a way to stop the meteor?” Sneasel said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Shaun glanced at Meowstic. “I think he’s got that part covered.”
Sneasel shook her head sadly. “He really doesn’t. He’s only stalling it to give us time to think of something.”
“Why us, of all Pokemon?” Buizel asked, still watching their impending doom. “Surely there’s other Pokemon on the-?”
“Most of the island has just been evacuated,” Sneasel cut in. “There’s almost no one left.”
“Then why don’t we leave as well?” Shaun reasonably asked.
Sneasel sighed. “By the time all the evacuees are unloaded and anymon is free to swim out here again, the island… won’t exist.”
“Ah.” Shaun glanced up at the sky again. “So it’s do or die.”
“Mhm.” Sneasel surveyed their group. “So. Any ideas?”
Shaun shook his head. “I’m not really an ideas guy.”
“Doesn’t Rayquaza destroy meteors to prevent this exact thing from happening?” Buizel asked, a bit too calmly.
“Usually, yes,” Sneasel answered, “but sometimes a couple slip through.”
“Pretty big oversight on that guy’s part to let this one through,” remarked Shaun. “How long do we have to figure something out?”
Sneasel cocked her head like she was listening to something far off. “Um, about ten minutes.”
Shaun groaned. “Are you sure we can’t buy more time?” The ground rumbled as if it agreed with him.
“No.” She started pacing back and forth. “Oh Arceus, I’m completely lost. I don’t think anything you could’ve taught me would’ve prepared me for this.”
Buizel slowly sat down, the light in his eyes dimming. “I hope Mom makes it out okay,” he mumbled.
Shaun stared into the sky again. The meteor seemed even closer than it had been a minute ago. “If only we had more time,” he muttered. “Then we could at least think of something. Anything.”
Buizel suddenly jumped up from where he had despondently slumped against a pillar. “Time!”
Sneasel and Shaun looked at him, not quite daring hope. “What about it?” Shaun asked.
Buizel rushed down the stairs and collected the Time Gears from off of the grass, where they had been lying since Meowstic had confiscated them from Grovyle’s bag. He ran up the steps and deposited the gears in the middle of the group. “We literally have the keys to time right here!”
“Oooookay,” Shaun said, dragging the word out, “but how do you propose we use these?”
Buizel looked completely blank. “Um.”
Sneasel sighed, nudging the gears around with her foot. “Well, so much for that idea.”
“Well, the least we can do is put one back where it belongs,” Shaun said. He tried to pick up a gear with his paws and failed. “Oh. Uh, Buizel, can you put that gear in the middle of the green halo thing for me?”
Buizel obliged. As he let go of the gear, it seemed to hover there before spinning on its own.
As Shaun watched the gear spin, his mind drifted to something that Buizel had said a week ago. “Hey, time technically only flows one way, right?”
“Yeah?” Sneasel said.
Shaun turned and grinned at them. “Funny thing about gears,” he said. “They only turn one way. It takes a second gear to make them move in reverse.”
Buizel glanced at him, confused. “That’s- what?”
Sneasel folded her arms. “I don’t see how that applies to anything.”
Shaun gestured to himself with a paw. “I am a Time Gear, apparently. That-” he gestured to the spinning gear behind him. “-is also a Time Gear. What if I made it spin backwards? Time travel? More time in general?”
Buizel glanced up at the meteor. “How do you know it’ll even work?”
“I don’t,” he replied. “It’s worth a shot, though.”
“What’ll happen to us?” Sneasel asked, reasonably.
Shaun huffed as he faced the gear. “I don’t know. But if we don’t try something, then I know we’ll all be dead.”
“We don’t even know what Time Gears can do,” Sneasel protested. “Are you sure that this is even a good idea?”
Shaun looked at the other two Pokemon and shrugged. “I’ll live through worse.”
As Buizel inhaled sharply, Shaun walked up and touched the gear with a paw.
It instantly stopped spinning with a click. Shaun slowly, slowly began turning the gear backward.
It was more effort than he would’ve thought. He had to really push the gear to get it spinning backward. It resisted his every movement, its very nature fighting against him. If he could just get the inertia going…
Painfully, slowly, the gear began to turn backwards. And with it, the surrounding scenery changed.
It began slowly at first. Shaun watched the conversation he’d just had start playing in reverse, speeding up slowly. He watched himself climb down the podium steps backward and disappear into the forest, with Meowstic following him.
The gear began to spin faster and faster. He watched his battle with Grovyle replay in reverse, sped up to superhuman levels of movement.
Slowly, the sun began to rise from the west, casting brilliant red rays into the clearing. Shaun watched in awe as the meteor slowly rose up into the sky, the sun quickly hiding it from view as it shone down into the clearing.
The gear was starting to spin so fast that it was almost a blur, the air around it making a whistling noise. The day slowly faded into night, the sun setting in the east. The meteor grew further and further away, slowly shrinking into just a red star.
Clouds appeared out of nowhere above Shaun, seemingly sucking rain from the ground. It grew bright and then dark, and then bright again, faster and faster and faster.
Shaun, beginning to feel a little nervous, tried to slow the gear down, but it batted away his paw. It looked more like a shining orb than a gear at this point, casting long, blue rays of light across the clearing.
Shaun began to float off the ground. He gasped and flailed uselessly, trying to get back to the ground. The days passed faster and faster, and the Time Gear began to hum dangerously.
And then it shattered.
Shaun was hurtled into the air, flying over the treetops, away from the clearing. He tried to control his flight, but it was too little too late. He slammed into a tree branch, which snagged painfully on his fur as he fell down through the canopy.
He desperately tried to grab onto any branches to keep from falling further, but he was too exhausted to properly grab anything, the branches slipping just outside of his grasp.
He hit the ground, and was suddenly swallowed in darkness.