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Chapter 10: Turnabout

Steven allowed himself to be escorted away quietly, his head bowed and expression blank. Still tied behind his back, his clenched fists trembled, nails cutting into the palms.

His father had caved under Murasaki's threats, of course. Mr. Stone valued the lives of Pokemon, and he knew how much Steven treasured his team. It was also entirely too obvious that she would do exactly as she said — she'd kill them too, if he continued to refuse.

Not that there was any proof that she wouldn't kill them after she had what she wanted. Which meant they had only until then to make their escape.

At least Murasaki had been willing to leave even Carbink alone for now, returning it to its Poke Ball, hurt but alive. Steven shuddered, remembering his Pokemon's pained shrieks. He couldn't let that happen again.

The room that his guards, two Pawniard and a single Klefki, led him to wasn't a cell, or at least it hadn't been intended as one. It looked like a small storage room that hadn't even been entirely cleared out, with coils of thick cables and a couple of boxes still stacked in the dusty corner. But the door was thick and only opened when the Klefki floated over to press a keycard on its ring-arms to the panel.

It shut and locked behind Steven as he entered the storage room, leaving him in the gloom of a single, weak light bulb affixed to the stained ceiling.

He sighed. "I hope the plan can still work," he muttered. "This is definitely beyond anything we expected..."

Twisting around, he managed to pull his bound under himself to the front instead. With that, he could at least try to look for a way out. His Pokemon had been taken and, patting his pockets, he confirmed his cellphone and PokeNav were gone too. But it seemed whoever had been put in charge of that — one of Murasaki's Pokemon? — hadn't bothered taking anything else.

That included his hand tools. They were probably too small to be effective weapons, but it wasn't hard to use the chisel to pry apart one of the links in the handcuffs' short chain.

Poking around the room yielded nothing of immediate use. The boxes contained a combination of slightly rusted small machine parts and more cables. The vent was small and high up — even if Steven had entertained some spy movie notion of crawling out through it. There was no keypad on the inside, and no way to open the door once it had locked.

The only thing that caught his attention was the small panel next to the door. It was just a small metal rectangle screwed onto the plaster, covering what must have been a some inner workings. But it was slightly loose, and the paint had been scraped off around the screws, as if it had been taken off or reattached sloppily, in a hurry.

The drive slot on the screws was for a cross and too small for any of his tools to untwist. That wasn't enough to stop Steven — who simply wiggled his chisel into the gap between the panel and the wall, and pried it open with brute force.

Leaving it to clatter to the floor, Steven kneeled in front of the hole that had been revealed and peered inside.

It was full of wiring. Steven stared at it blankly.

Unlike his father, he had very little understanding of machines of any kind. He could work a GPS, what else did he need? Based on the position and the density of wires, they probably connected to the lock on the other side...

'M-maybe if I rip them out it'll open?' Steven thought, sweating a little.

But, as he reached for them, he hesitated. Up close, it looked like a couple of the wires had been cut. Gingerly holding up the cut ends, he frowned thoughtfully.

Putting the blue ends back together didn't do anything. Yellow with yellow didn't work either. But blue and yellow... sparks jumped between the two colors of wire, and there was a muted beep on the other side of the wall.

The door slid open.

Steven stared at it in surprise before smiling wryly. 'So that's what it was...' he thought.

The scratched screws, making it obvious the panel had been removed before, the exact wires needed to open the door already separated out and cut — it was too convenient to be a coincidence. Given that this place didn't have even one actual cell for holding a prisoner, the chances were good that this was the only room that had been repurposed... that Mr. Stone had been held here as well. And he hadn't sat around idly.

'He must have been interrupted right before he could break out,' Steven thought. 'Dad... hang on.'

There was no guards on the corridor, as Steven stepped out cautiously. Well, none that he could see. Given what happened at the Aeon Fund's headquarters, a ninja could easily—

A hand landed on his shoulder.

"Gaaah!" Jumping, Steven spun around — instinctively reaching for Poke Balls that weren't there.

The person who had snuck up on him only waited calmly. With the facemask and the all black outfit without identifying features, Steven had to stare for a moment before he could be sure, but...

"Oh, it's you," he sighed. "Oboro, right?"

The ninja didn't bother to reply. "You were supposed to avoid taking any action that might endanger you," he? she? — Steven still couldn't tell, probably intentionally — they said. "Please follow the plan, sir."

That had been the ultimate solution Carat came up with... hire a ninja of their own. Then, have them follow Steven when he went to confront Murasaki.

It had been a rather shaky, questionable plan, and they had certainly failed to predict a number of things, but it was what they'd done, given the lack of other options. Neither of them had known the first thing about hiring a shinobi, but Flannery had, when Steven called her to ask. Steven... still had doubts about this.

"Are you really going to be alright, fighting your... comrades?" he wondered, glancing at the ninja dubiously.

"Please do not concern yourself on this lowly one's account." The dry tone of Oboro's voice made his overly polite, archaic way speaking sound sarcastic. "In the first place, the village would not accept conflicting contracts. As I've said, your enemy's contract is with our rival clan."

"Right, your rival clan," Steven repeated. The only reason he believed it was because Flannery had mentioned the same thing — there were many clans of ninja in Hoenn, the two strongest being most famous being rivals who favored Seviper and Zangoose as their signature Pokemon.

"Furthermore, there are none of them here," Oboro added. "It would appear they were ordered to remain outside and guard only the perimeter."

Steven's brow furrowed as he considered that. It made sense. Murasaki had said it herself, she trusted Pokemon far more than humans. So she must have relied on her Pokemon to guard inside her base of operations — that explained the lack of guards at his cell, since she wouldn't have Pokemon to spare on watching just a locked door.

Letting the topic pass, he said instead, "Where are we? Is this... New Mauville?"

That was the obvious guess. Stained walls, blown out lights, a layer of dust and grime on every surface — all signs made it clear that this place had been abandoned for a long time. But it must have also been a place of significance to Murasaki, and somewhere easy for her to access, that could provide the foundation for building a complex machine. That all added up to... the blocked off lower levels of New Mauville.

'So the attack on Wattson most likely hadn't been about revenge or even silencing him,' Steven thought, 'just stopping him from investigating this place. His wife said the sensors he set up here picked up something. That must have made her decide he was getting too close, or maybe he just ran into one of the ninja guards...'

"That is correct," Oboro confirmed, nodding. "This is the twenty ninth floor of the abandoned power plant, New Mauville. Most of the structure is still shut down, but one of the generators is operating at low power. The target is using one of the back entrances to move in and out... However, I have scouted an alternative exit that will avoid the main patrol routes at the surface. I will accompany you to it."

"That won't be necessary," Steven said.

Oboro's expression was hidden, but the silence somehow clearly conveyed a sense of exasperation. "On the contrary, those are my orders," Oboro said. "Completing the client's orders flawlessly is a ninja's pride."

"I'm not leaving without my father and my Pokemon," Steven shot back.

"Please forgive my impudence," Oboro said blandly, "but I can complete my mission far more efficiently without you."

Steven's expression twitched a little — that was almost certainly true. It wasn't as if he had any special skills in infiltration or stealth, unlike the ninja. "But still, I—"

"You are aware that I can simply knock you out and carry you to exit," Oboro pointed out.

Instinctively taking a step back, Steven wondered, "Guh... W-what happened to obeying the client's orders?"

They stared at each other. "Tch," Oboro made an irritable noise, looking away first.

Silently, Steven let out a heavy breath of relief.

Completely abandoning the previous conversation topic, Oboro returned to business. "I followed the target and your father when they left the generator room. They moved to another room nearby, no special security observed. However, they were still accompanied by the target's Mawile. Several of her other Pokemon are patrolling across this level."

"And my team?" Steven asked.

"They were still with the target," Oboro reported. "Her Mawile was holding them when I departed. However..."

"It's strong, isn't it? Her Mawile," Steven said, frowning. "Stronger any of yours."

Oboro's eyebrow twitched at the blunt assessment. "...Indeed. Steel types put my Pokemon at a disadvantage, and we are specialized for stealth and speed. Direct combat is not a ninja's way." That sounded rather defensive.

"Then how about this... Distract the Mawile so I can get my Pokemon back, and then we'll deal with Murasaki while you get Dad out of there," Steven proposed.

He preferred it that way. He didn't want to just escape and pretend this never happened, he wanted to stop her. And he wanted to do it himself. This wasn't just some criminal who had taken the lives of countless Pokemon, and lied to and endangered humans — though that alone was enough to make his blood boil. No, this was someone who had gone after his family, his team, and him personally.

He was going to settle this.

Oboro was silent for several moments, mentally turning the scenario over and looking at it from every angle. Finally, the ninja nodded sharply — and bowed. "I hear and obey — as the client wishes."

The tone was completely expressionless and the words exceedingly formal, but Steven couldn't help reading some sarcasm there. Was the other clan like this too? If so, it was no wonder Murasaki preferred her Pokemon... Silently, he cursed the vice president.

'No, take this ninja with you, don't go alone, the president will get mad at me,' he mocked mentally. 'I'd rather fight those Pawniard bare-handed. She really does hate me, doesn't she?'

But... it would all over be soon. Yes, it was time to put an end to this terrible incident, after thirty long years.

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Notes: Somehow, yet another OC... Well, if I'm going down this path, I might as well embrace it, I guess. In any case, we're almost to the end! Next chapter should be the last. Thank god...

As always, please review!

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