That was their last day in the Gear station.

It’s been week that Emmet was waiting for their annual vacation, Celebrating the new year with their friends and family was always fun for his twin and himself, and he was looking forward to it every year since they started this tradition.

The reason? His brother bad habit of overworking himself to the bone – the number of times he had to force him out of the station could not be counted with only two hand, probably more than twenty even, At one point he stopped trying to remember how many times he had to carried him out, and count how many time he don’t need to – it was mostly one of the rare time he don’t have to pull him out of nightmarish administration!! Because everyone can and will come to get him out if they need to!!

It was also the occasion to pass time with their family and friends, and he will admit, Emmet would never trade that for anything in the world, so the faster they finished their shift the better it was for him.

And, to his surprise, they did finish early – he does have the feeling that his brother did work behind his back, but he doesn't have any proof … yet – it was a real delight for him as he couldn't wait to get home to prepare everything for this year, he may, or may not have push open the door of their office way too strongly, but the illusionist was already gone before his older brother could say anything about safety, walking with a lot of enthusiast in the corridor of the station a grin on his face.

His twin simply sighed, shaking his head as he rapidly tried to catch up on him, setting himself in his usual spot next to Emmet, a fond smile starting to form on his face, one of those that the younger twin always compared to a skitty smile.

“Ingo, this is our turn to host the party, everything needs to be perfect!”

Humming with a slight nod, Ingo crossed his arms, still walking at the same steady speed as his brother “Imperative, As the host of this year, we should make sure that our guests have a good time, do you already have some idea of what we should do?”

“Of course, silly of you to assume I did not have any idea, Brother I already made our schedule for the week, I am verrrry excited about doing it! We need to surpass last year's celebration!!”

“Hum… You set your expectations high Emmet, Last year it was Elesa who hosted the party, If my memory is right, it will be difficult to make something better than that, Through that will never stop us trying to surpass her, am I right?”

Emmet nodded with an even bigger grin, stopping on his track, as by reflex he took their signature pose “Of course you are, We are the Subway Bosses, we can do anything if we work for it!!”

“We will be able to work toward victory, no obstacle can stop our track if we try to do it together as a two-car train” Ingo himself mirrored Emmet, posing next to him, his eyes burning with determination to organize the best party they could.

“ALL ABOARD!!”

That was enough to make them chuckle as they made their decision to surpass Elesa celebration, Emmet was pretty sure that with the schedule he made and his brother's unstoppable will, they were going to win this unofficial competition.

Unsurprisingly, their luck had to come short, as they realized that something seemed wrong while walking closer to the exit of the Station, More precisely, one of their Depot agent, Jackie, seemed to act out of character, He was not the type of person to get stressed out easily, far from it, he was by nature lay down and would, if given the occasion, observe a bad situation and laugh it off, being nervous was more a Cameron things to see… so the moment they saw how Jackie was acting, walking around seemingly not knowing were to go, the twin understood that there must be a problem happening.

first step, his usual frown on his face, “Jackie is there a problem you want to talk about? You seemed strangely distressed, That is extremely unusual coming from you”

Emmet immediately took a step too, still smiling but feeling himself mostly worried about what could put the usually calm depot agent in this sort of stress. “Yup, you are worry”

“Oh! Hum, no worry, I can take care of that, I know you two clock out for the holiday already, neither of you should work now, I can deal with that”.

As much Emmet wanted to know about what could worry the depot agent, Jackie did have a point there, they are not supposed to work anymore and they should be going home now – and Emmet honestly didn’t want to stay here when they finally finish their load of work – although Ingo seemed to have been faster than him.

“Nonsense! If you need help, you should not hesitate at all, We will be happy to give you a hand” That was At times like this, that the younger twin wished his brother stopped being so eager to help others when he should be thinking about himself, biting back the envy to say no, Emmet settled down by tilting his head and listen what their depot agent have to say with a patient smile.

“The Lime line seemed to have a problem, the camera refused to work and when I tried to go there I…..hum... I seemed to be unable to reach it” That was enough to also pick up the interest of Emmet, It is an unspoken secret in the station that Jackie is far from the most ‘alive’ of their employees, He was able to do a lot of things than others weren’t able, like seeing behind the illusion of certain pokemon, hearing his impossibility to get to the problem was worrisome in some degree, the other problem who make him want to frown, was that he did go to the line in question before joining his brother in their office, and he know for a fact that nothing was out of place.

As much as the young twin would have preferred to go home than deal with whatever mystery that was, his older brother would be unable to sleep if he left the station like this, and he would himself have some difficulty putting in check his own curiosity.

“Do not worry, I am Emmet, Ingo and I will take a look before going on vacation, It should not take long”.

Ingo looked at his brother, nodding at Emmet before returning his attention to Jackie, talking immediately after “It is probably nothing bad, but safety comes first”

“If we can’t do anything immediately, we will make the problem know, and you can take care of it later

Jackie was definitively not reassured by their declaration but finally seemed to accept, mumbling slightly “Your the bosses, even if I tried I don’t think I would be able to change any of your minds, but I have a very bad presentiment about that”

Even with this warning, the twin turn back to get every materiel they would need to walk inside the line in question, as well as getting as much information they could about where the anomaly is situated from Jackie, before heading to this last check up.

_____________

Normally, Ingo would have let Chandelure light their way in the dark, that was what they do when they checked up a line together – a rare occurrence as Emmet usually liked to do this alone – but the younger twin knew that she was probably too tired to do anything after the last battle of the day – and he also didn’t want to have her teasing him now, or even worse being sarcastic about the all situation, no thank you, he was not going to stay silent for who know how long when she would be able to say whatever she wanted to annoyed him – obviously two flashlight was good enough while his brother’s partners were left behind

As the two walked next to each other at their usual spot, following closely the track of the tunnel, Emmet took the initiative to start a discussion : “Ingo, you have an idea of what it could be? I bet that it’s a Pokemon”

“Hum…. I supposed that it could be effectively the act of a Pokemon but it would be way too easy, I will say that it is the work of an intruder”

It took a moment for the younger twin to find an answer to that, frowning slightly as he started to raise an eyebrow “A Pokemon can be an intruder Ingo”

“I know Emmet, that way I am always going to win the bet even if it is a human, ghost or a Pokemon”

Gasping loudly to his brother, Emmet playfully glared at him, as he realized what his older brother dared to do, outsmarting him. “That is not fair” That sentence made Ingo bark a laugh, not stopping his snickers at all, even if Emmet nudged him multiple times, too amused by the younger twin's reaction.

“I can assure you that it is fair game, Maybe you should have thought about it beforehand, so I would appreciate it if you could, please, stop your attack on my cab”

“Never” Emmet proceeds to nudge even more his twin side with a mischievous smile, as Ingo continues to laugh, trying to not move until Emmet finally stop.

Something about them bickering like this just felt familiar, it nearly made him forget about the reason why they were in the tunnel in the first place, but his amusement slowly diminished as a feeling of uncanniness started to settle in, It was a strangely sudden, something out of nowhere that Emmet couldn't place where it was coming from.

Why? Why was he feeling like that??? That was more uncomfortable than he should be, It was the same sensation he feels every time a trainer chooses a Pokemon with an ability like pressure, but even worse and slightly different at the same time, like everything was 3 feet apart, or something was putting all their weight on him, it feel unnaturally heavy, not enough to make him run away but enough to make he stop, and feel unable to move.

That confirmed that the intruder was a Pokemon – it was a guess, he honestly wasn’t sure – but it meant that he now had to search for whoever was causing the problem and talk some sense into them.

Ingo definitively saw the switch of attitude in Emmet, as he slowly started to poke the illusionist to get him out of whatever daze he was in, It made the younger twin remember that humans are not as sensible with certain abilities as a Pokemon is, and in this situation, that mean his brother either don’t feel anything or was not as disturbed by it than he was.

“Emmet, are you okay?”

“Huh! Yup, everything is fine, we need to finish that soon, we have a lot to do back home”

His older brother definitively wanted to know more about what was really bothering Emmet, but the younger twin decided to cut him off before he started to ask too many questions “the broken camera is situate around here, you should take a look at it, I going to search around for any intruder”

“...I supposed it would be more effective that way...” The hesitation in Ingo’s voice was loud, but Emmet was happy that his older brother didn’t try to push his luck, How was the illusionist supposed to explain that he knew that the culprit of their situation was probably a Pokemon??? He doesn't have any clue how to bring that up without giving himself away.

Even if he felt bad to some extent to – again and always – worried Ingo about him, that was the best choice he could have made for his brother's safety – and the protection of Emmet secret – to make him stay behind.

After all, between the twin, Emmet was the only one to still have his team ready to be called in case of a fight against whatever wild – and definitively strong if the uncomfortable pressure still weight on him said something about it – Pokemon decided to make their way in the subway line.

“I will be quick, it should not take long”

Walking further in the tunnel while Ingo stayed behind made finding the intruder much more easier too, as he didn't have to be careful about acting to be unable to talk to Pokemon, Emmet would just have to talk to the unwanted passenger to make them leave or go against them in a combat, simple and efficient!!

Yet, as he started to get further away, he felt the pressure getting less...presence, It was strange, not something he thought was possible, He didn’t see anything, so why? It’s not like the Pokemon was in the wall or something, he checked that out already, there was no ghost type hiding in the wall or ground type making himself know, where could the intruder be in this situation? Or is there really an intruder?

crack

That was loud, an undeniably loud noise that nearly made Emmet yelp of surprise, It was strangely close to a glass breaking on the ground, but it was far from being normal, It was a disturbance so out of place that Emmet didn’t realize immediately where the strange sound was coming from

But when he does realize, Emmet felt goosebumps immediately, his expression of confusion changing to one of terror as his head snapped in the direction, seeing some sort of luminous particle floating around, the strange light did not reassured him the slightest.

….Because it was coming from Ingo’s direction, his older was in danger and he was far from him, Emmet didn’t think too much about it before he started to run as fast as he could, even when the pressure got worse and that he was pretty sure his illusion was not in the best state, as much as he tried to not let it go.

As he got closer and closer to his brother, he rapidly started to see cracks all around the tunnel, not just the wall but the air himself was running through cracked, Whatever was going on was breaking the space little by little like a frail twig, It was a view to behold even if it was clearly not the moment to be amazed by whatever that was.

crack

This time, Emmet physically flinched at the noise, it was even louder and more uncomfortable than a moment ago, but he ignored it to the best of his ability as he tried to stay focused to get to Ingo, Finally, he was close enough to see his twin and what the situation was, and it was worse than he through.

Ingo, who was on the ground, trying to unstuck his jacket off the track – honestly, the Illusionist had a lot of questions about how it even happened, but again he could ask that later – and much more worrisome, some sort of bubble was all around his twin, as well as one large crack, the biggest he ever saw since this distressful situation started, in the middle of the strange bubble, threatening to open itself at any moment.

“Ingo!!” The illusionist did not stop himself from yelling in his panic, wincing a bit at his own volume, but, ultimately drawing his twin's panic gaze to him, Ingo who is usually not the most expressive, seemed genially scarred by all of that.

CRACK

The twins covered their ears at the same time as the glass sound was yet again extremely loud, stopping Emmet dead in his track as numerous cracked who were around spread more in the space barely holding together.

But when Emmet was able to take a look at the large crack who was near his brother without having his ear destroyed by the booming noise, he saw with horror that the crack in question finally gave in, opening what could be described as some sort of portal who suck up everything around it, even some of the track, with a lot of force – he also rapidly realize that only what was in the bubble was pulled in but he shrug it off, his all attention more on Ingo than anything else.

He did have some sort of reassurance when Ingo happened to be fast enough to reach the track were his jacket was stuck on, and was able to hold it, for dear life, in a somewhat awkward position, but it was obvious that even with that, the track was not going to stay put for long, as well as the verrry obvious fact that his brother definitively don’t have the strength to hold indefinitely.

As he started to slip out, Ingo seemed to know that it would probably don’t end well, looking up to the younger brother with a somewhat accepting look that Emmet did not like at all, He hated it, it was not like Ingo to act this way. “Emmet, I will be fine do not worry for my cab!! Stay away from the yellow line, it is too dangerous!!”

“Ingo hold on! I am coming!!” Not listening to his brother, Emmet tried to close up the last meter separating him and Ingo, If he could get a hold on him, if he was fast enough, maybe… maybe it would be fine. – it had to be fine, because Emmet did not want to think about the worse scenario like he is doing right now – A small sort of hope blossomed when the portal was also slowly closing up, It was a small chance, but if he just could be faster.

The blossoming hope got crushed nearly as fast as it had appeared as he fell on the ground.

That was a careless mistake on his part, a terrible error, that he should have been able to avoid, He should have been more careful, as he looked up to see Ingo slipped in the closing portal in front of his eyes, He never realized that he could get even louder than Ingo.