Some more Buizel in here. Would love you guys's opinion- should Dedenne come in again at a later date? D'you guys like him? owx
Hope you enjoy, as always!
Buizel immediately reached for his own Rescue Pack, tied around his neck. He ripped it off to find it completely empty, now just a baggy, raggedy scarf. "Everything is gone!"
Eevee scrabbled for her neck and uttered several dirty words that had Dedenne cringing.
"W-what is the matter, then?" he asked anxiously. "I do hope it's not- anything I've done, or anything, umm, anything like that?"
Cyndaquil checked his own scarf with growing horror. All the supplies that had been in his kit were gone.
"Wait!" Eevee cried suddenly. "I've still got this…" From a fold of her scarf that J must not have noticed, she drew out a Base Key.
"That's the weird-looking one," said Cyndaquil in surprise.
Zorua looked at the clear, beautiful, blue-green Base Key. "Er, it used to be weird looking." she said confusedly.
Cyndaquil took a good look at the Base Key. It was definitely recognizable as Eevee's Base Key, and there was nothing to have marked it out as the orange-y color it had been before, except possibly for a small, almost invisible scratch near the bottom. It looked a bit like a scar.
"Go on, Eevee, try it," he said anxiously, not even realizing that he was giving Eevee an order.
A little confused, Eevee looked intently at both Zorua and Cyndaquil.
"What are you two talking about?" she asked in irritation. She didn't like to be left out of things.
Zorua spoke up. "While you were hurt in the vents, we saw that Base Key, but it was all orangey and… wrong."
Buizel's interest was piqued. "What's this about an orange Base Key?"
Zorua repeated herself. "While Eevee was hurt-" She was cut off by Buizel.
"No, I heard you the first time." He plucked Eevee's Base Key from her and examined it. "Hmmm… there's a scratch on the bottom, but that's it." He shook his head. "The Base Crystal technology, and even Sirai herself, is still very, very recent and new. There's more being discovered every day."
Even in the group's present condition, Buizel's eyes were beginning to take on that starry-eyed look that they always did when he talked about technological discoveries. "Fact: Did you know that the first time Rescue Home tried planting Base Crystals, they overgrew and trapped everyone inside the lab until a Munchlax figured out that they were basically sugar rocks? They had to fix two things after that: What they were made of, and how fast they grew. And there was another time-"
"We don't want to know about that," interrupted Eevee, who was still confused and therefore still peeved. "I still don't know what the heck's going on, but just look at the stupid Base Key and stop telling stories!"
"I thought it was a rather interesting-" Dedenne quailed under Eevee's furious glare. "R-right… I'll shut up now, very sorry, I… I…. yes…" He trailed off as Eevee turned back to Buizel.
Buizel was still examining it, looking it over once more before tapping it gently. It glowed for a brief moment, a sort of sputtering, flickering glow, and chimed quietly, barely audible.
"Great." Buizel frowned. "There's not enough power. Whatever damaged it did a heck of a job. These things run for months without needing a charge. Practically a year. Even then, all it needs is to be put on charging mode for a day and left where there's light, moonlight, sunlight, doesn't matter. And- Eevee, when was the last time you had your Key charged? Was it last month?"
"Yeah, last month." said Eevee, tilting her head in puzzlement. "And it was fully charged." She ran one paw along the Base Key, brushing Buizel's paw slightly as she did so. "I remember that it worked right before we entered J's ship- but there's no reason that J would fully drain the power, she would just destroy it."
Buizel tossed the crystal up in the air so that it grazed the ceiling of their prison before falling back down into his paw. He gazed at it curiously, apparently at a loss for words. For once.
Then, Zorua scrabbled for her Rescue Scarf, ripping it off her neck and then examining the inside. She smiled for a moment before grimacing. "Okay, good news, and bad news."
"How about the bad news first," said Eevee cautiously, keeping one eye on the Base Key in Buizel's paw like she was actually worried he would do something else odd to it.
"Our Rescue stuff's still gone." Zorua said. "But-and here's the good news. I don't think J or Team Plasma has it! I don't think anyone has it."
"How d'you make that one out?" Eevee asked dubiously.
Buizel examined the inside of his own scarf and came to the same realization as Zorua. "She's right! Scorch marks! Sirai's IDEAL System!"
"And…. that would be…" Eevee raised one eyebrow. "Umm… before I ask, is there any way that you could respond without sounding like a geek on a sugar high?"
Buizel grinned and replied cheerfully. "Nope!"
"Right, then, don't start," said Eevee quickly.
"I'm still going to say it…" Buizel said teasingly.
Zorua added her own opinion. "Quit yapping and just tell us already!"
"In normal Pokéspeech," said Eevee hurriedly.
Buizel rolled his eyes. "I'll try my best."
He paused for a moment, waiting for Dedenne to stop scratching himself and pay attention. Dedenne noticed everyone staring at him. "Hmm? Oh, don't mind me, please!"
"You don't understand," said Eevee. "Buizel's a professor at heart. And he needs ALL his students to be paying attention." She paused and added an afterthought. "Sorry, in advance."
Dedenne now looked faintly interested. "Much better." Buizel started talking. "IDEAL System stands for Imminent Detection Emergency Armed Link System. It's a self-destruct program that she has no control over. If she realizes that a human is about to find any sort of Rescue Tech, or if any human does find Rescue Tech, a five-minute countdown starts. Unless she thinks it's safe again, she can't stop the countdown."
At this point, Dedenne had fallen asleep. Buizel didn't seem to notice. Everybody else did.
"And when the countdown hits zero, that's where the Link bit comes in. Even though not all Teams have Base Keys - Well, they do, but not Sirai's crystal kind. Even though they don't all have them, all Rescue tech has a piece of crystal in it. It basically serves as a battery. When the IDEAL System is activated, nearby crystals will link together and use all the power still left to create a sort of shielded self-destruct. Like, using Protect and Explosion at the same time. Get it?"
"No," said Eevee bluntly. "But I get the main idea. So stop talking now."
Cyndaquil, who had been watching Buizel as if he was actually interested, blinked and then tilted his head slightly.
"Anyways," continued Eevee, "the idea is that Sirai's crystals self-destructed all our Rescue stuff when she realized that J was going to take it. So… I mean, I'm really glad to hear that, but it doesn't really help us in our present situation! I mean, we have three hours… probably less, now, but we've only got a certain amount of time before Team Plasma comes and takes us. We need a plan."
Everyone sat down and started thinking. (Except for Dedenne, who was still sleeping off Buizel's techno-rant.) But no one voiced an idea. Eevee snarled to herself angrily, which made Cyndaquil jump and completely lose his train of thought.
"It's no use," she wailed finally. "There's no way we can get out of this kind of trap! I mean, it's specifically made to keep Pokémon in! We're… doomed!"
Cyndaquil looked up, shocked at Eevee's words.
"N-no… you can't give up hope, Eevee," he said, cringing slightly, but facing her. "I mean… this is a pretty tough situation, but…"
"Not just tough," snapped Eevee. "Impossible!"
"Not impossible," corrected Cyndaquil. "Almost impossible. But after all…" He paused. "Umm… this might sound stupid, but…" His eyes darted from Eevee's and went around the group. "When I first met you guys- Buizel and you, I mean… well, I kind of got the impression that- that was your specialty."
"What?" demanded Eevee, surprised.
"Solving the almost impossible," said Cyndaquil. "And… umm, not to put pressure on you, or anything like that… but I really think that you can do it."
Buizel stopped fiddling with Eevee's crystal and looked up.
Cyndaquil looked at him, too, nervously.
"I mean… I really look up to you, umm… both of you," said Cyndaquil, seeming to grow more confident. "And… if anyone can solve it, you can. Together, you make a really good team… and… I don't know, I'm probably wasting our time," he finished awkwardly, "but…"
"No! No, Cyn, you're right!" said Eevee, her eyes slowly lighting up again. "Working together… yes! We can do this!" Cyndaquil looked taken aback by her sudden and uncharacteristic enthusiasm.
Buizel nodded. "You're right, Cyn. We'll get out of this!"
Zorua looked at the lasers in the glass pane. "I kinda have an idea. What if we could get rid of those electric laser things?"
"That could work!" said Eevee, getting up and pacing back and forth. "They're obviously powered from underneath the cage, because the bottom is thicker than the top and that's where all the wiring would go, so we would need something to short-circuit the lasers…"
Her eyes fell on Dedenne.
"But we would need to find some way of getting at the wiring, because it's sure to be protected," she said, her voice rising as she got more excited. "Buizel, help me, help me out here. How would we do this?"
Buizel thought about it for a second. He glanced at Dedenne as well. "Team Plasma's smarter than Team Rocket. They'll have it proofed for Electric-types, unless…"
Zorua asked irritably, "Unless what?"
Buizel seemed lost in thought. "Unless we can find something in this empty cage to use as a conductor. Something flat with at least an inch in length. Something better at conducting electricity than human-made materials. Something to wedge in between the glass and the plastic ledge on the inside here…" He fiddled with Eevee's Base Key as he spoke. Eevee stared at him.
"Something like ...that!" she broke in suddenly, grabbing the Base Key from him and holding it up. The flat, star-shaped Base Key caught the pale light as she twisted it every which way, staring at it intently. It had sharp, flat edges and looked like it would fit perfectly into the spot Buizel had described. "This would work, wouldn't it?"
Buizel blinked, looking at Eevee's Base Key, the glass window, and then back at the Base Key. "Brilliant! That'll work perfectly! It's flat, and sharp, and has a natural ability to conduct electricity!" He exclaimed, grabbing the crystal. "Now, someone wake up De-" He was cut off by the swooshing sound of doors opening.
Two grunts walked in again.
"Aahh!" yelped Eevee. "Quick!" Dedenne woke up with a jolt.
"O-oh! Have I missed any- auugh!" He yelped as Eevee dashed over to him and pushed him over to Buizel.
"Shhhh." Buizel watched the two grunts carefully. "Not now." They listened.
"Which way is Group D again?" The fat one asked. It seemed to be the same pair as before.
The female sighed and pointed to something on a clipboard. "We're not going for Group D, we're going for Group F. E and D have been moved to the last ones for today. And Group F is just past Group G here."
"Oh. Right." the fat one replied as the two of them moved on. The doors on the other side of the room closed after they stepped through.
Eevee let out a sigh of relief.
"I almost had a heart attack," she breathed, letting go of Dedenne, who immediately slumped against the floor, hyperventilating and chattering away nervously.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I swear I didn't do it! Whatever it was, I didn't do it, please don't hurt me," he sobbed. Eevee looked at him with disdain.
"Shut up and pull yourself together," she said. "We need you. ...much though I hate to admit it." Dedenne gazed at her fearfully.
Buizel explained kindly. "We need you to stick this," He held up the crystal. "into that space between the glass and the inside of this cage. And then shock it. Can you do that? It might just get us out of here."
"O-oh, of c-course!" Dedenne chattered, although the idea of having any real responsibilty seemed to scare him almost as much as Eevee had. "I… I… a-all righty, then." He took the crystal from Buizel and, handling it like it was made of blown glass, scurried over to the spot Buizel had indicated.
"Like this?" he quavered, looking anxiously over his shoulder at Buizel. "Or like this? L-like this?"
"Oh, get on with it!" snapped Eevee. Looking terrified, Dedenne shoved the Key into the thin crack.
"N-now do I shock it?" he asked Buizel tremulously, double-checking to see that the crystal was wedged correctly. Eevee let out a privately irritated huff.
Buizel nodded supportingly.
With a deep breath, Dedenne sent a delicate shock into the crystal.
Everyone held their breath.
"Did it work?" asked Cyndaquil, on his tiptoes with suspense.
Eevee bit her lip as Dedenne ended the shock. "I think… it…"