Cyrus

**Cyrus** is the founder and former leader of Team Galactic. In this capacity, he played a role in the backstory of several characters, including Matt Chiaki, Amanda Chiaki, Cassy Natsuka and Mitsumi Crowe.

## History

Cyrus was born and raised in Sunyshore City, Sinnoh. He became known as a brilliant student, but as a result of his disinterest in social activites and preference for spending time in the company of machines, he did not live up to his parents' expectations, darkening his outlook on life further.

Eventually, through his disciplined academic activity and work with machines, he became independently wealthy. Using this money, he invested in libraries and museums throughout Sinnoh, and founded the earliest form of Team Galactic. Cyrus was already secretly planning to change the world by this point, and used Team Galactic to conduct research into Sinnoh's lore in search of a way to create a world without the spirit that so pained him. His activity with Team Galactic also brought him to the attention of Polaris, who sent Fumika Chiaki to infiltrate it under the alias "Mercury."

In events depicted via flashbacks in *S.O.S.*, Cyrus found Matt Chiaki and his sister Amanda as they wandered in the blizzard outside Snowpoint City. Taking both pity and curiosity in them, Cyrus rescued them from certain death and brought them to his well-equipped base camp at nearby Lake Acuity. When they came to, he spoke to them in an effort to learn more about why they would have risked the dangers of the blizzards beyond their hometown, subtly desperate to understand their spirits. He expressed admiration for their grandfather, Sutter, whom he once studied under. Once Cyrus understood their story he decided to help them, identifying with the conflict they had with their own parents. He requested that they stay with him while he conducted his survey of Lake Acuity, promising that once they returned to his headquarters in Veilstone City, he would contact Sutter and arrange for him to help them further.

While Cyrus did keep his word, he harbored far darker motives for aiding the pair. By this time, he had developed Project Cortex as a way to pursue his ideal world, and secretly hired Charon Chiaki, Matt and Amanda's father, under the alias "Pluto" to conduct it. For this project, Team Galactic collected orphans from around Sinnoh and conducted experiments to dull and eventually remove their emotions. Two of these orphans were future Polaris Chromosome Cassy Natsuka and future International Police agent Mitsumi Crowe, the latter of whom gained Cyrus's interest due to similarities he perceived her to share with himself.

Cyrus also sponsored Matt's research into alternative energy concepts, secretly intending to use his ideas to create a weapon, the "Galactic Bomb." When Matt learned of both the Galactic Bomb and Cyrus's plan to use Amanda in Project Cortex - the latter of which was leaked to him by Mercury - he escaped from Team Galactic with Amanda and moved to Hoenn to get away from the organization. Nevertheless, Cyrus retained the plans for the Galactic Bomb even in Matt's absence.

However, Project Cortex ultimately failed, resulting in the deaths of all of its test subjects except Cassy and Mitsumi. This forced Cyrus to change his aims, and he shifted to a plan utilizing Dialga and Palkia, the deity Pokémon governing time and space, to erase the current universe so he could create a new one with himself as a god, giving himself the power to eliminate the human spirit. He first targeted Azelf, Mesprit and Uxie, the Pokémon of Sinnoh's three lakes, and deployed the Galactic Bomb in this endeavor. Once the three were captured, he fashioned the Red Chain from the crystals on their bodies and went to the Spear Pillar atop Mt. Coronet, where he summoned Dialga and Palkia. However, he was only able to control them for a short time before Giratina, their counterpart governing antimatter, intervened to prevent him from destabilizing reality. Giratina opened a warp gate and pulled Cyrus into another world, resulting in his disappearance.

Since he vanished at Mt. Coronet, Cyrus's whereabouts have been unknown, and it is not clear if he is even still alive. Team Galactic partially crumbled and passed into Mercury and Pluto's hands following his disappearance, and collapsed completely several years later.

## Relation to Canon

Cyrus is depicted as the Team Galactic boss in many different forms of Pokémon media. His depiction in the *Operation GEAR* series is primarily based on the video games, blending his relentless pursuit of his goals from *Diamond and Pearl* and *Platinum* with his somewhat calmer, more sympathetic characterization from *Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon* and *Pokémon Masters EX*.

## Trivia

* Cyrus's actions were what drove Mitsumi to hate all villainous organizations.