Hidden in Shadows Part 7~ The Under

Eagun and Beluh pulled up in front of Pyrite first, followed by Cail and then Gary and Amy as the sun was beginning to set. Cail had said that although The Under ran along beneath the desert floor the only real entrance was under Pyrite. Cipher had heavy guards on all other entrances but because so few people knew about the Pyrite entrance that it had minimal security. The group had to inconspicuously enter and cross Pyrite to the same building that Amy's parents Wes and Rui rescued Plusle years ago. Amy thought maybe that was a bad idea. Plusle and Minin were out again and even Beluh and Eagun thought the two seemed a bit gremlin-like in their twin grins. Gary was apparently prepping himself, and unaware he was talking out loud.

"Okay Gary, we can do this, you were born to be great! So what if we're saving that Jesse kid? It's not like Amy likes him or anything. And we have to save people's Pokémon right? So we can do this! So what if Cail doesn't have Pokémon? The rest of us do, and when we're finished we can go home! And then Amy and I will-"

Amy stared at him. "Gary, why are you talking to yourself?"

"H-huh? No I'm not," Gary said blushing furiously, "Let's go." Plusle and Minin cackled in unison. Cail frowned.

"You know I REALLY don't know about those things," Cail said and received two mischievous grins.

Beluh looked up in the cloudless, purple-ing sky. "I wish we weren't in such a rush to save the Pokémon, I don't like being in Pyrite at the best of times, let alone at dusk."

"Agreed, but we are in a hurry!" Amy said firmly.

"Yes dear, I know," Beluh nodded with a soft smile, "Lead the way young man," she directed at Cail.

"Uh-huh, you sure you want to come along? I usually manage to get a Cipher disguise when I go down there but you two may stand out even in that…"

"Disguise… how Duplica," Amy laughed.

"Duplica? Oh right, remember Saffron?"

"Yes, and Gabriel- oh," Amy had said his name and so the baby mutant Cubone burst from his Pokéball, yelling happily. Plusle and Minin jumped off of Gary and laughed with him and both trainers hurriedly recalled them.

"If that happens in The Under, we're all doomed, so try to avoid that," Cail said as they headed into the dark town. In front of the building it took Cail roughly 30 seconds to pick the lock and get them all inside just as complete darkness fell outdoors.

Inside it was lit though, and in the corner was an elevator with a woman in a Cipher uniform who was turned away from them, apparently listening to an I-Pokémon at full volume, bobbing her head to the beat.

"That's all we have to go against?" Eagun said, seeming disappointed.

"Actually, we don't even really have to go against this one," Cail grinned, "HEY! CELIA! TURN OFF THE TUNES FOR A SECOND!" the woman started and turned abruptly, but grinned when she saw Cail.

"Cail! Long time no see, what's with the entourage? You'll get caught this time you know."

"Well, I have to take the chance; this is a rescue mission, and a revenge mission." He glared at the elevator doors. "They got my Pokémon, my money, and Aims' friend."

Celia looked surprised. "I thought you admired a good thief?"

"Celia, that wasn't thievery, that was just… overpowering. I steal, I con, I don't beat people up and leave them tied up in a closet. So Cipher and Snag'em are going down." Celia raised an eyebrow.

"Wow, you seem pretty determined. In that case, any way I can help?" Celia asked.

"Cail, how do you know this Cipher Goon?" Eagun asked curiously.

"Eagun! That's Cail's friend! You can't call her a goon!" Amy gasped.

"Uh, actually that's my rank, Goon," Celia said with a raised eyebrow, "But yeah. Cail's my twin." There was a silence. "No really, we escaped The Under together. I joined Cipher at Goon level so I could guard, spy, and help let him in when he wanted to visit our old friends."

"Wow, um, so does that mean you'll help?" Gary asked.

"Course she will," Cail smirked, "Let's get going."

"Thank god, I hate this uniform; it'll be great to beat Cipher once and for all," Celia said with a sigh, "So you'll be wanting some uniforms?" she suggested, retrieved a stash of them from behind a panel on the wall.

150150

It was a short time later that the group had the Goon rank uniforms on and were in the elevator headed down. Cail said a group would actually be less suspicious; they could pose as a legitimate squadron without having to convince other people there that they belonged. Eagun agreed to use the higher rank uniform and lead the squad, even though Cail had to walk next to him and poke him in the side in the direction they needed to go next. On the way down he had mentioned that they were going to see a kid named Nett first, and Gary said that he'd spoken to Nett over a video phone while in Duking's house before. Nett had mentioned that he would do some hacking to find out anything he could about Snag'em, so it would be a good idea to stop by the Under kids' hide out.

In the city, they had a couple close calls, but Eagun was a good actor and managed to field all questions that were asked of him with 'WHAT BUSINESS IS IT OF YOURS?" answers. It was rather hilarious, but Amy kept her cool.

They managed to reach a smaller building that seemed like a tavern. Inside, Cail led them behind a curtain. No one bothered watching them go behind the curtain, the tavern was full of civilians who seemed too afraid of Cipher to even spare a glance their way. Behind the curtain, Celia tapped a wall panel and a keypad flipped out. She scanned her hand and typed a password into the pad and a set of stairs opened up. They headed down. Much more advanced then the bookcase panel in Duking's house.

Downstairs, a group of kids clobbered Cail and Celia when they came inside.

"CELIA! CAIL! Is it time? Are we going to finally beat them?" they asked.

"Yeah, we're going to beat them, so GET THE HELL OFF ME!" Cail snapped and they climbed off. He stood and took out a cigarette, looking pissed.

"What lovely children!" Beluh said happily.

"Okay, where's Nett?" Gary asked.

"I'm here," Nett said walking out of the shadows of another room. Amy did a quick headcount and figured there were about ten kids down there, all under the age of twelve. She wondered how they survived down here so long with Cipher running everything, especially when they were performing activities that could get them killed if they were discovered.

"Did you get any information on Snag'em?" Gary asked as Nett, who seemed roughly ten years old, approached.

"Yes actually, I did. The GPS coordinates to their base and a list of transactions. Apparently they handed over a Cipher escapee very recently."

"Jesse! Where did Cipher take him?" Amy asked frantically.

"He should be in the testing center in the TV station," Nett said carefully. He then handed Gary his list of Snag'em information and Gary thanked him. They were discussing tactics for attacking Cipher when the door burst open, salsa music filled the air, and the children screamed.

"Okay dahlings! Up against the wall now! You think we weren't listening in the elevator? We've been looking for these little hackers for months and you led us right to them, thank you!" Mirror B danced his way into the room looking gleeful.

"I never liked salsa music," Amy groaned.

"Same," Gary groaned as well and they released their Pokémon for battle. Isis, Socrates, Plusle, Minin, Gabriel, Pika and Beluh's Sceptile Margo faced an arsenal of Ludicolo, Houndour, Zubat, and one Shadow Pokémon, a Sudowudo.

"Alright! Double Ice Beam on Sudowudo!" Amy ordered. Isis and Gabriel blew the ice into the rock type and it flew backwards. Quickly grabbing Gary's Snag'em glove, she threw a ball to capture the aura encrusted Pokémon. She caught it. Gary stared.

"I thought you were against that!"

"Mirror B. deserves it for capturing Jesse!" Amy said darkly. Gary twitched.

"PLUSLE! MININ! THUNDERSHOCK!" battle waged a while, and with Beluh and Eagun helping, they managed to beat them back. They retreated though, so Cail and Celia knew that if they were to take out Cipher in The Under they had to do it fast. Leading the group of Under kids, they ran out of their hiding place, through the now empty tavern, and into the street, shouting for all citizens against Cipher to come into the street because the revolt was now.

That led to a good sized mob forming. In the commotion, it was a perfect time to go save Jesse if they could. Just then though, a huge TV screen lit up.

"Hello, welcome to The Under TV! It's me, your Venus, Lady Venus!" a beautiful woman in a long flowing gown appeared on the screen.

"Oh shit..." Celia groaned.

The woman continued, "It seems that a group of spies have gotten into our town and are trying to kidnap some of our lovely children! So be sure to turn these horrid people over to yours truly for punishment! Remember, I'm your Venus!" with a giggle the TV screen went back to advertisements.

"Oh… oh this is bad," one of the little girls, called Megg, whimpered.

"No, no we'll be fine, right Cail?" Amy asked.

"Erm… well… Lady Venus may be hot but she's evil. She's the one running The Under since the takeover," Cail explained, "And that announcement is not good for us at all."

"Then our priority should be to get the children to safety," Beluh said firmly.

"Yes dear," Eagun agreed sharply. Gary grinned.

"Yeah, let's go!"

"NO! I won't just leave Jesse! Look… Cail can help get the kids out with Beluh and Eagun. And Celia can help me and Gary try to find Cail's Pokémon and Jesse," Amy said and Gary frowned.

"Why is Celia with us and not Cail?"

Amy sighed. "Because we may have more doors that need to be opened and Celia is our best option. Mirror B. didn't see her face so she isn't under suspicion. We'll be less conspicuous like this, since we're going in deeper while you get out"

Eagun smiled. "You're a brave girl Amy. It'll be good to have you in the family one day."

Amy blushed hard. "I-I think that's thinking a little far ahead! Now, let's do this before it's too late!" the others nodded and took their leave. Amy and Gary pulled their masks down more firmly over their faces as they headed into the underground city.

150150

"So, from what you've told me…" Amy said as they walked the narrow street, passing straight by other Cipher cronies who didn't seem to think an intruder could possibly be wearing their uniform. "The most likely place they would've placed Jesse is under the Under Colosseum."

"Seems like it," Celia nodded, "Cail's Pokémon are probably there too, the subway's out of order right now so they couldn't have transported them to the Lab yet. But I doubt we have too long."

"Okay, I just want this over with," Gary grunted, "I hope those kids get out alright," he added as an afterthought.

"Me too, but we can't think about them right now," Amy hissed as they approached a platform. Celia had them stand in it while she placed a disk in a reader. They moved forward and she retrieved the disk as they arrived. The Coliseum stood before them. They hurried inside.

"Okay, we can try the stairway here," Celia said and they headed downstairs. They passed a couple rooms but nothing out of the ordinary. Then they reached a locked door. Celia punched a code into the keypad and they were in. Closing the door made the lights turn on. They were in a hallway of cells, not unlike the ones in the place Amy had been originally confined. The first had the door open. Inside were three Pokeballs.

"Cail can be happy now, I know those are his," Celia said, scooping them up. Amy was already down the hall though.

"Jesse? Can you hear me?" she whispered loudly without response. Her heartbeat quickening she started moving faster, peering into each cell hard, trying to define anything that was human shaped. But only at the last cell did she see her friend, he appeared unconscious.

"Jesse!" she hissed through the bars without response. "JESSE!" she rattled the bars and found the door swung open for her. In surprise she hurried inside. "Jesse?" then the door of the cell swung shut.

"Amy! It's a trap!" Gary yelled from out of sight.

"LET GO OF ME!" Celia's voice screamed. Sounds of struggle, Pokémon being called out. Amy went to Jesse's form, and discovered a dummy with ginger hair. Her mouth dropped open. She went to the bars and peered out.

"Amy! We-" Gary was trying to get passed the Ciphers blocking their path, including Mirror B, and Lady Venus herself.

"NO! GO BACK! J-Just find Jesse, and get Cail's Pokémon back to him. I have…" she slapped her forehead. "I have my own Pokémon. Go Selene," the Dragonair burst from its ball, blasted open the door of the cell, leapt at the Ciphers and attacked. As that distraction panned out well, Gary and Celia hurried off through another door and Amy recalled Selene, leaving the Ciphers unconscious.

"That's a strong Dragonair," Celia said in awe.

"You bet, she's saved my life more than once, she even helped save all of Kanto!" Amy giggled, thinking of Articuno and the Seafoam Islands as they ran down the random hallway they were now in.

"Amy?" came a voice form down the hall.

"JESSE!" Amy squealed and Gary let out a groan as Amy found Jesse tied up near some boxes. Quickly she helped him up.

"They moved me out of the cell and said that they were going to get you next, I was afraid… well…" Jesse began but Amy put her finger to his lips.

"No time for that now. Let's get out of here before we're totally screwed," Amy said and Gary growled as she pulled Jesse with them out the way they'd come… only to find the door closing.

"NO!" Celia screamed and made a dive, holding it open, but struggling with it. The three other managed to get out, passed the form of Mirror B and Lady Venus, and hurried out the door, up the stairs, through the Colosseum and toward a secret elevator Celia showed them to the surface. They went up, and ended up in the desert, just outside Pyrite, in some sort of quarry.

"What's this about?" Amy asked, picking over gravel.

"The Under was a mining town once a upon a time. But when the mine went dry, it sort of became a gambling town, and sort of blended into the background of Orre. Then Cipher took over," Celia explained as they headed back to Pyrite.

Jesse stumbled on a rock and sighed. "I hope you weren't in danger coming to save me, this was all my fault."

"Of course it's your fault! And drop Amy's hand already!" Gary snapped.

"Gary!" Amy gasped.

"I-I would but…" Jesse stammered and Celia sighed.

"Romantic conflict. Look, can you save it until we're all safe?" Celia growled as her PDA rang. She flipped it open and smiled. "Its Cail, they got out and are headed for Agate. I'll send them a text saying we'll meet them there as soon as we reach Gary's motorcycle."

"Right," Amy sighed.

"Um… so should I let go?" Jesse asked but no one was listening so he just held on to Amy's hand as the four walked back to Pyrite. Celia and Jesse crammed into the sidecar and Gary and Amy got on the seat as they prepared to head back to Agate.

((Joyful Note: I'm not... dead yet... still going... somewhere. I've just become such a fan of Hetalia, last time I saw Pokemon was an ancient age ago but... still alive... sorry...))