Over the next few days, Mars did some preparing. She drove as close as she could get to the prison to scope things out, and planned an escape route that went from the underground spot that she would infiltrate the prison with and ended at a spot farther on Route 215. At the exit spot, Mars had her Excadrill make a ramp that lead to the underground, making sure the dirt was packed solid enough to drive on. Thankfully, Excadrill was strong enough to accomplish this, and Mars got the van down into the underground with some more help from her Pokémon.
Going over her list, it seemed that the stage was set. Now all that was left to do was perform, and hopefully it would go well.
After a bit of subterranean driving, Mars found a spot that, according to her phone's GPS (which she would shut off shortly), she should be in what had appeared to be the most unassuming spot to dig a hole underneath the prison.
Taking a deep breath, she sent out Excadrill to make the tunnel leading to the surface quietly as possible. The Pokémon started by digging a wide tunnel that she could fit into, but thinned out considerably closer to the surface. At the very end of the tunnel, the Subterranean Pokémon carefully made a hole above ground just big enough for a Zoroark to get through. This would be Redshift's entry point.
Once Excadrill had been returned, the Zoroark was sent out directly in front of the tunnel. From there, the Illusion Fox Pokémon carefully but swiftly climbed through the small passageway, and slipped onto the surface, currently illusioned to be invisible to the eyes of humans and (most) Pokémon.
Redshift picked up a nearby large, flat rock and placed it on top the hole to make it less visible, since trying to keep the tunnel entrance illusioned from a distance wouldn't be possible. With that done, the Zoroark headed off, planning to change disguises into a guard upon entering the prison.
Mars was then left to sit in the van and hope for a miracle. No, it wouldn't take that much, right? This wasn't the first time Redshift had needed to use stealth in order to accomplish a goal. This was just… a bit harder, that's all. A challenge, that's what it was.
Besides, if it came down to it, Redshift could just use Flamethrower to melt through the wall and get out that way, couldn't he? Mars had only seen it done before on TV, though, and wasn't sure if it would work in real life. Still, the whole escapade sure sounded like the plot of a movie.
Having nothing better to do, Mars started counting the minutes on the clock.
Tick, tick, tick, tick...
It had been an entire thirty minutes since Redshift had gone above ground, had the Illusion Pokémon been caught? Instead of letting all of the what-ifs come to mind, the young redhead attempted to focus on one fact- nobody had found the hole Excadrill had dug, and she could hear no sign of an alarm sounding. If she could just concentrate on that...
WREEEEEEEEEEE!
"Sector C6 has been breached, units report to your superiors for further instruction."
Well then.
After uttering a long string of expletives, Mars realized that she was faced with a tough decision. Should she stay in the van and wait for Redshift to come back, or should she assume the operation a failure and save herself while she could? It was probably too late, if she stayed there she would be found for sure. The fact that the sounds of people's voices mixed with Pokémon cries were audible over the sound of the alarm and coming closer was not very reassuring.
Mars sat frozen in her seat, engine on and foot on the gas pedal, ready to drive off and away from both one of her Pokémon and what could be her last chance at saving master Cyrus. Eyes wide and shaking slightly in a moment of horror and indecision, the woman really wasn't sure what to do.
It was a good twenty seconds before the cry of a Pokémon rang out over the shouts, bringing Mars back to earth. It was unmistakable as the cry of Redshift, specifically the sound that the Pokémon usually made while unleashing the move Night Daze. Using that move would make it clear to everybody that Redshift was, in fact, a Zoroark. Thus, Night Daze was strictly reserved for emergencies where what Redshift was didn't matter, usually to escape from a situation at all costs.
By the time she had glanced to the passenger seat to her side, the door had been yanked open and something rather large had landed in the seat next to her. After blinking for a split second, Mars realized that there were two somethings in the car with her- the Zoroark, and an older man in an orange jumpsuit.
That was all the clue Mars needed to slam her foot on the gas pedal and drive like a bat out of Hell. Thankfully, it seemed that Redshift had managed to slam the door before the van picked up too much speed and such a task would be nearly impossible.
Tires rolling on the dirt floor of the Underground, Mars could tell that the van had less traction here than on the road. Would the prison guards catch up with her? Glancing in the back mirror, she realized that the guards weren't too far behind, or their Pokémon for that matter. This gave her just enough time to swerve out of the way of a large wave of water surging towards the van by turning the corner.
However, now that she had gone down a different path than intended, it would be extremely difficult to get the van out of the Underground. She couldn't just ditch the van and have Excadrill dig them out, right? Then there was also the chance that her intended exit had already been surrounded.
Ditching the van would mean having to run on foot from law enforcement, so it was out of the options, especially considering how one of her Pokémon would have to carry Charon. How, then, were they supposed to get out of this one alive? She couldn't just turn around and go back to where the exit she had made was, that would be running headfirst into a horde of Pokémon that would stop the van in its tracks.
Think, think, think… hang on, idea! There were different paths in the underground, right? What if she took the long way around and to her exit spot? If she remembered correctly, there was another path that would get there. It was risky, but then again, anything she did from here on out was taking a huge risk.
Soon enough, the path she thought she needed to head down came up. Wasting no time in making the turn, Mars was thrown to the side and into Redshift, who pushed her back into her seat. After a near-miss with the wall, the van was now rushing towards the place where Excadrill had made a ramp. At least, it looked that way, as light peeked out in the distance.
Hopefully it was the exit, and not light from emergency vehicles and/or Pokémon fire. Well, there was only one way to find out.
Reaching the ramp, there didn't seem to be that many guards stationed there yet. Mars took her opportunity and swerved past a couple of patrol cars as well as people with Pokémon in order to get onto the ramp and make her way out.
Thankfully, Mars had finally slowed the van a good bit before swerving onto the dirt ramp, and there didn't seem to be anybody standing on it to block their way. Somehow, the van managed to climb up the dirt and out of the hole, bringing the van out of the Underground and into the world above ground.
There seemed to be some law enforcement agents and their Pokémon at the surface, but it seemed that a barricade was still being built. Mars directed the van at what appeared to be a gap in security and once again slammed the gas pedal to go through it and to what was hopefully freedom.
Then, something odd happened. Redshift stood up and poked his head out of the car, and suddenly the van disappeared. For a moment, Mars was driving what looked like nothing.
After a moment of panic, however, Mars finally realized what had happened. Redshift must have created an illusion to make it look like the van was going somewhere else, leading the police the wrong way. Once she had gotten this, Mars quickly turned down what looked like a dark, wooded road and hopefully out of sight.
Immediately, the illusion faded and Mars once again appeared to be in the van next to the Zoroark. The illusion had been a lot for the Pokémon, who had seemingly fallen unconscious.
Now that it seemed they were safe from danger, Mars slowed the van down to a more reasonable pace and returned Redshift to his Pokéball. Her heart was still racing, though. That was far too close, the situation could have gone wrong in so many ways... Actually, she really didn't want to think about it. They had made it thus far, and that was what mattered.
"So, that was unexpected." Mars jumped and nearly lost control of the van at the sound of another person's voice. Had somebody snuck into the vehicle? No, that voice was familiar. It was the voice of somebody she had once known, and despised.
"Charon, you- you're talking! I- how-"
"Is it really that surprising? I'm not a Pokémon. Or are you stunned by the fact that I'm awake? The van was going pretty fast, it was hard to take a good nap."
The old man, who hadn't said a word up until this point, just started talking out of the blue? She had expected him to sleep the whole way, that she'd have trouble even keeping him alive.
"How? I thought- after all this time..." Come on, Mars, stay focused on the road. She hadn't gotten this far just to crash into a tree.
"How old did you think I was? Seems like you didn't know that I haven't reached my eightieth birthday yet. It's coming soon, though. That is, if we get out of this one alive." That was still pretty old, but to be that lucid? Even after solitary confinement for three years?
"Yes, but- prison! Solitary confinement! I can't see- how?" A jarring bump alerted Mars that the van had started to wander off-road again. Quickly swerving back onto the road and cursing under her breath, the redhead once again promised herself to stay focused on driving.
"It's a good thing that these roads are this empty at night. You would have caused several crashes by now otherwise. To answer your question, I am in much better shape than it seems you have assumed. It was nothing, really. They gave me books to read and everything. Well, it wasn't exactly the way I wanted to spend my last few years, but what can I say. Try to use a volcano to destroy a city and they never let you live it down."
It seemed that Mars had been wrong about the old man's willpower and sanity after all. Still, she thought she detected the slightest bit of horror in the elderly scientist's voice. Whether that was imagined or not, the young woman was sure that Charon hadn't come out completely unscathed. Still, he was doing a damn good job at hiding it.
"I don't want to further lower your rather questionable driving skills, but I do want to mention that I can guess exactly why you broke me out of prison. I'm just curious as to how far you've gotten on your little quest to find your dear lost wannabe god."
Was it really that obvious? But then again, the last thing that Charon had heard Mars say was that she would find master Cyrus at any cost. It really wasn't so surprising that she had stuck to her word. The important thing, though, was exactly how much the old scientist knew about Giratina and the Distortion World.
They were pretty close to Veilstone now, with some luck she could drive through the town and not be caught and arrested. Thankfully, she had bought another licence plate to replace the old one with at the shady dealer she had gotten the van from.
Somehow, the van made it through town without being caught. Mars parked it in an underground parking lot underneath an apartment complex, and headed into the building. As it happened, the apartment's owner was a former Galactic grunt, and Mars had bribed her to let the former commander stay there without trouble on multiple occasions.
Mars was rather low on money, but a quick talk on a landline with the owner and a deal had been made.
Now it was time to go into the assigned apartment room and crash. With Mars's assistance, Charon was able to make it there as well.
The room was old and musty-smelling with numerous other problems, and there was only one small bed. Mars let Charon have it, she could sleep on the beaten-up couch.
The next day Mars could grill Charon on what he knew about the Distortion World, that is if he could remember anything at all.