The Sky High Pokémon carried the team away from Anistar City, north-northeast towards the mountains between Dendemille Town and Leverre City. The Sinister Division's headquarters lay somewhere in the mountainous region, hidden from plain eyesight, apparently. Seeing as how no one had known prior to the current events as to the fact that there was even another villainous organization in Kalos, it seemed to make sense that they had remained so well-hidden.
"Jethro!" Valin shouted against the wind from behind him. The Wandering Hero turned to face his cousin.
"Yeah?" he called back.
"What about Riley?" Valin asked. Jethro blinked. He had forgotten all about the Aura Trainer!
"Left turn, big guy," Jethro shouted, patting Rayquaza's neck. The dragon of the skies banked to the side, descending towards Coumarine City, where the first entered the Region.
"Jethro?" Riley opened his eyes slowly, looking around the room and starting to get up. A sharp twinge of pain sent him dropping back to the bed.
"Easy," Valin said, patting his shoulder gently. "Those Sinister Division goons roughed you up rather severely."
"No need to tell me," the Aura Trainer groaned, his face twisted in pain.
"I'm afraid I can't let you stay too long," the doctor said as he watched. "He needs his rest."
"We'll only be a few minutes more," Valin assured him.
"So, what exactly was it you wanted to show me?" Jethro asked.
"I trust you've already learned how to accomplish Mega Evolution, correct?" Riley asked.
"Yes, I have," Jethro replied. "Garchomp was the first to undergo the transformation."
"From what we're told," Ellie said, "only one Pokémon can Mega Evolve at a time in a battle. Kind of inconvenient, if you ask me…"
"What if—agh!" Riley groaned as he tried turning in bed, his Lucario stepping forward with a concerned expression on his face. "What if I told you there was a way to Mega Evolve all of your Pokémon at once?" The three heroes glanced at each other, and Jethro cleared his throat.
"Actually, uh…" he began, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I think I managed to do that already."
Riley blinked at him, the surprise on his face clear as day. "Incredible," he muttered. "How?"
"Well… I confided with my Pokémon after having a nightmare," Jethro said. "And I made them promise me something… I guess that promise, that connection of our hearts… allowed me to unlock the full potential of Mega Evolution within each of them."
"What about Torterra?" Valin asked. "I thought it didn't have a Mega Stone?"
"It gets one heckuva power boost," Jethro replied.
"Remarkable," his cousin breathed, stroking his beard. "I've never heard of such a thing occurring."
"It was a first for me, too," Jethro admitted, turning back to Riley. "I hate to leave so soon with such bubble-bursting news, Riley, but we're kind of on a mission. That, and the doctor's getting anxious to get us out of here."
The man in the white lab coat scoffed. "I am not," he denied.
Valin's Lucario made an obnoxious buzzing noise, and the doctor's face flushed with color, caught red-handed with his lie.
"We'll get out of your hair, Doc," Elly told him, taking her own Lucario and walking past him out the door. "Feel better soon, Riley!" she called over her shoulder.
"I'll do my best," the Aura Trainer called weakly after her. He looked to Jethro. "So, you've already jumped ahead of my teachings," he muttered. "Heading home now?"
"Not yet," Jethro said, shaking his head. His expression turned stern. "We're heading to the Sinister Division's headquarters. We're going to take these scumbags down once and for all." He suddenly found his face closer to Riley's, the injured Trainer's hands clutching his collar and pulling him closer.
"You be careful," he growled. "I've seen those creeps before. Some of them aren't normal."
"Yeah, I've noticed," Jethro said, noticing the heart monitor's increased activity.
"No, you don't understand," Riley said, eyes wide with something short of sheer terror. "There are members… who follow the Sinister cause far too closely. Who take it too much to heart. They're as sinister as the Pokémon they put in those accursed Balls. They wear these…"
Jethro's eyes widened, and he grabbed Riley's arms. "Masks?" he asked. "They wear masks, right? If you pop them off, they fly to the next target?"
Riley blinked, relaxing slightly. "Yes… the one I encountered tried to take control of my Lucario. But its Aura was stronger…"
"So there's more than one," they said simultaneously.
"I'll be sure to keep an eye out for them," Jethro said, taking Riley's hands off of his collar and crossing them across his own chest. "Trust me, they're not ready for what's coming to them. Those masks won't touch us." He stood up and looked to the doctor sternly. "You take care of him," he said lowly.
"What else am I going to do? It's my job!" the doctor protested. He leaned back against the doorframe as Jethro got close to him, bringing their faces close.
"I find out you're one of them," he said quietly, patting his sword, "the next one in this room needing a doctor will be you." He briskly walked away, running down the hall to catch up with the others. The doctor watched him for a while and then turned back to Riley, who shrugged tiredly.
"They have a history," he muttered. "It isn't great."
Sinestra sat in her command chair, viewing the reconstruction of the base on her personal screens. It was nearly complete, and reinforced electronic equipment was almost finished being installed. She had full view of Kalos once again, and the only thing that hadn't been repaired yet, which made her admittedly nervous, were the outer defenses. Apparently, reinforcing them against electromagnetic attacks required much more time, and was much more sensitive, than the rest of the base. Nevertheless, she was confident they would not be defeated if they were to face an attack.
"Status report," she ordered as she pressed a button on her armrest.
"Repairs and reinforcements are ninety percent complete, Mistress," the head technician said. "We're still working on the outer defense repairs, but they should be completely restored within the next two hours." There was a noise on the other end of the line, and several shouts could be heard from the room the technician was in. Sinestra looked at one of her screens, and she watched with a very unamused expression as an electric surge ruptured through a computer console that controlled the turret that the engineers were working on, sending metal bits and pieces flying everywhere like shrapnel, the wires bursting into flames. The screen went dark, and Sinestra sighed with disappointment as the call was cut off. Another one came through her communications console, and she pressed the button.
"Yes?"
"Me again, Mistress," the head technician said. "I withdraw my previous statement. Things should be up and running by…" There was a pause as he calculated the time. "Approximately tomorrow noon, at the latest. Anticipating other setbacks. Morning around eight o'clock at the earliest with no further complications."
"Keep me posted," she said, ending the call before he could reply. The irritation in her tone was clear as a bell.
"Not too happy with that, was she?" one of the engineers asked. He received a sharp smack to the head.
"Mistress Sinestra is never pleased with failures or screw-ups," the technician snapped. "You're lucky she's given us another chance. Get that computer fixed, and this time when I tell you to configure something in a specific way, don't take any shortcuts!" he thundered.
"Yes, sir!" the engineer whimpered, scrambling back to the console.
Rayquaza descended just before they reached the mountain range, the sun lowering on the horizon. Jethro looked back to Valin and Elly, who shrugged. He leaned forward and patted Rayquaza on the side. "What's wrong, my friend?" he asked.
"If I may," the dragon replied, "I would like to suggest that we advance on the Sinister Division's headquarters under the cover of night. That way, I will blend in to the darkness, making our approach much less detectable than if in the daytime."
Jethro pondered the idea, staring down at the approaching ground. "That's actually quite strategic," he said, looking to the Legendary Pokémon who had turned to look at him. "Alright. We'll get some additional rest and attack under the cover of night."
"Did you even have a plan of attack thought up yet?" Valin called. Jethro felt his face turn red as he scratched his nose.
"Actually… I hadn't," he called back. Valin's head dropped to Rayquaza's back, while Elly looked at him in bewilderment.
"You didn't even have a plan?!" she shouted. "You could have gotten us all killed!"
"I was going to come up with one on the way and discuss it to you when we got there!" Jethro shouted back.
"Yeah, and by that time, they might have spotted us and attacked!" Elly pointed out.
Defeated, Jethro merely nodded and waited for their descent to end.
That evening, after having a healthy and small dinner, the trio sat outside in the middle of the dimly-lit battlefield near the Couriway Hotel, with Jethro's Poké Nav projecting a map in the middle of their wide triangle. They looked up as they heard the sound of rushing air, and the long, twisting form of Rayquaza descended through the clouds, levitating just above the ground and dropping Metagross between Jethro and Valin. The Steel-and-Psychic-Type landed softly on the ground, and scooted back to lower its body to the ground.
"What did you find out?" Jethro asked.
"It would appear that congratulations are in order," the giant Dragon-Type said. "The camera drone you commandeered and armed has done more damage than I had originally anticipated."
"Although most of their internal systems and surveillance operations have been restored," Metagross stated, "it would seem that they are still struggling to restore their outer defenses. Several technicians and engineers remain on the outer perimeter, tending to kinetic converters and electromagnetic scramblers. There is one turret that remains to be reconstructed." Metagross's eyes had been glowing blue and creating small orbs of light on the map to indicate the areas it was specifying.
"So, they're defenseless?" Elly asked after Jethro translated.
"We didn't say that," Rayquaza said. "In place of these perimeter defenses, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of Dark Trainers. The ones that wear masks are scattered throughout the area."
The other two waited until Jethro was done translating, and Valin was the first to ask what no one had yet.
"Just how big is the headquarters?"
Metagross illuminated the map, covering almost an entire subrange of the mountains.
"Oh, yikes," Elly muttered, resting her elbow on her knee and covering her mouth with her hand.
"Electrical signatures were detected up to three-quarters of a mile down into the surface of the mountains," Metagross said. "And that was in the base alone. They have eyes and ears reaching through the entire Region, and-" It broke off from its sentence and abruptly stood, its gaze fixing on a nearby shrub. All eyes followed its gaze, and all three Trainers jumped as Rayquaza froze it instantly with an Ice Beam. Metagross hovered over, its claws a mere inch away from the ground as it approached the hunk of ice. It raised its front right leg, and brought it down with a heavy Brick Break, shattering the frozen shrub into bits. Its body glowed a soft blue as it skated back over, dropping a sparking camera drone in between them.
A crimson 'S' was painted on its top.
"As I was saying," Metagross said with a growl. "They have eyes and ears everywhere." It jumped slightly, its legs jerking outward and almost smacking Elly as the drone jumped up and skittered away, making a B-line for the line of brush and trees.
"Get it!" Jethro shouted, taking his multi-tool out of its pocket and aiming it at the drone. A small burst of electricity leapt from two prongs on the front of it, missing the back of the drone by an inch. Metagross burst forward, jumping over the projector and hovering towards its prey at a hurried pace.
A cream-colored substance shot out from seemingly nowhere and caught the drone's back half, halting its escape immediately. Its front legs shot out as its momentum rolled through its chassis, digging into the ground as it tried to get away and free itself. The last thing it saw as it turned around was a large, silver foot with three gold claws falling towards it.
The ground shook as Metagross slammed its foot down into the drone, sparks skittering out from the squashed machine as it sputtered and went limp, a small, pathetic whining noise emanating from it as it died. The Pokémon turned to see the source of the sticky substance.
There, standing in front of a bush, was the shiny Froakie from Professor Sycamore's laboratory.
"Hey, little fella," Jethro said, stowing his multi-tool and walking over, squatting down in front of it. "How did you find us?"
"I hitched a ride on the big guy's tail," Froakie said, pointing to Rayquaza. The Legendary raised its tail, peering at the two fins on the tip.
"I thought I felt something there," it muttered.
"It was not a pleasant ride for me, let me tell you," Froakie said. "I'm not a flyer for a reason."
"Why didn't you get our attention in Coumarine?" Jethro asked.
"One, I was too dizzy to move anywhere for quite some time, and two, as soon as I regained my center of gravity, you were leaving again and I almost didn't catch up."
"Well, you're here now. No point sending you back to Sycamore," Jethro said, offering his arm. Froakie looked at him questioningly, and he gestured with his head for it to climb on. It hopped up, and Jethro stood up. "But you might want to stay very close to me for the next day or so," he said. "We've got quite the… exciting few hours ahead of us."