A/N: Italicized text indicates a conversation over radio.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Splinter Cell

Not even a second later, a trio of Pokémon trainers teleported in the midst of a dimly lit street, completely devoid of life, human or Pokémon. Straight out of a film noir, one of the streetlights were flickering on and off, just barely illuminating the road and sidewalk. On any other day, Ash and May would've been much more enthusiastic about such a cool looking scene, but for now it was incredibly important to stay focused and on track. The whole Sinnoh Region could depend on it.

[04:55 A.M.] Celestic Town (Main Street, Downtown), Sinnoh Region - α team

"Wow," Ash murmured, hardly believing his eyes. "We're here already?"

"Pika, Pikachu!"

"Wow, that was fast," May mumbled, catching herself by surprise. "If only I could've been teleported out of Johto a few days ago. That would've been so much easier than taking a ship."

"Teleportation isn't that easy, May," Cynthia explained in a soft voice, resting a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "Lucian is a fantastic trainer and he worked with his Alakazam unbelievably hard. It takes a great amount of mental energy to Teleport matter because it puts a lot of stress on the mind. Maybe I can explain more later."

"Will Alakazam and Lucian be alright?" Ash asked whilst suspiciously looking around corners to make sure nobody was eavesdropping. "Both are on duty right now in the other group!"

"They'll be fine, Ash," Cynthia affirmed. "I'm sure Alakazam will recover soon enough, but more importantly you need to remember what your job is. Do that, and concentrate only on that, and maybe we'll get through this operation without a hitch."

"Alright," Ash breathed to himself. "I'll try. I don't see anybody, so I think the coast is clear."

"So then, what's our job right now?" May asked.

"We've got to find some way to get ourselves into the Celestic Town sewer system," Cynthia explained. "Look around and let me know if you see a manhole cover anywhere?"

Just a moment's pause passed by.

"There!" May whispered with intensity. She pointed to an incredibly rusty circle in the ground with two notches on the side. "I see one! What now?"

"Excellent. Now let's get that thing open and climb down to sewer level."

"I can get Blaziken to help us!" May voiced her enthusiasm as she withdrew a Poké Ball. Before she could even release it, her hand was caught by someone with the reflexes of a Ping-Pong champion.

"No May, don't do that," Cynthia's warned. She gently released May's hand after her shock died down. "Problem is, the flash from the Poke Ball might give our position away. Ash! You seem pretty in shape for your age. Why don't you lift the cover for us?"

"Huh…?"

"Yes Ash, you!"

"What? Why me?"

"What's the matter Ash?" May taunted, giving him a condescending wink. "Don't you know boys have to be polite to girls?"

"That's not fair, you—!" Ash begrudgingly let the argument drop when he saw how stoic Cynthia's gaze was and how chiding May looked with her hands on her hips. "Fine! I'm gonna get you back for this."

With a sly thought in mind, Ash lumbered over to the giant metal cap in the road with Pikachu in tow. After instructing his partner to raise the cap only slightly so he could take over, Ash bent on both knees and heaved as much as he could to pump the iron out of the way. While this took a few seconds the two women carried on an aside conversation

"He's got good form at least," Cynthia mused, letting her eyes wander a little bit. "What do you think, May?"

"Yeah, maybe," May responded, never having considered the thought yet. "I'm just happy he's doing the lifting, not me."

"AH!" Ash grunted heavily, lifting the cover clean off of the slot. "Alright you guys, I've got the cover open. So now… ladies first!"

"Oh no…" the two women murmured grudgingly.

"Don't be like that!" Ash chided lightheartedly. He grinned all while still lifting the heavy iron. "I'm just trying to be polite!"

"No you're not!" May cried out in protest. "You're just trying to make us go into the sewer first! Ew!"

"Ughhh…" Cynthia grimaced, bending over the manhole and taking a whiff of the Celestic pipelines. "Fine, we don't have much time to waste anyway. I'll go first, May next, then Pikachu, and then Ash, who will also close the cover."

"Ewww…!" May cowered behind Cynthia. "Now I know why you brought an extra set of clothes."

And with that final thought, Cynthia placed one heel after the other on the ladder rungs, descending into the Celestic sewage tunnels. Begrudgingly May followed suit, silently thanking herself for picking gloves to compliment her most recent outfit. Once May was clear, Pikachu hopped on Ash's shoulder as he also took steps down the ladder.

As silently as possible, Ash dragged the heavy manhole cover across the road until it partially covered the hole. With a single descending step, Ash pulled the cover over the opening and let it slide in place. Fortunately Cynthia already turned her pocket flashlight on, illuminating the tunnel passageway before the group. May followed suit as well as Ash at the gesture. Not saying that anyone did, but if someone had brought their ear close enough to the circular manhole cover, they might have heard the voice of a young woman speaking into a small microphone saying:

"Hello, can you hear me? Hello? Can you hear me?"

[05:01 A.M.] Celestic Town (400 Main Street NW | Rooftop), Sinnoh Region - β, γ teams

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can hear you!" Flint called back into his own microphone. "You don't have to keep asking!"

On the roof of a recently constructed office complex, Beta and Gamma groups successfully set up camp overlooking the Celestic Museum below. They had a perfect vantage point and could see in all cardinal directions, but they still had no way of discerning what was inside the building.

"Alright, now that we've established solid contact, let's begin our observations," Lucian commanded. "Brock?"

"What do I need to do?" Brock reported, standing erect.

"You'll be teaming up with my Bronzong and I'll be teaming up with Alakazam," Lucian directed, tossing out a single Poké Ball. "Come on out, Bronzong!"

"Donggg…" the blue, rune-adorned Pokémon responded before settling to the ground.

"Bronzong, I need you to start the low frequency electromagnetic observation field and direct it towards the Celestic Historical Research Center," Lucian instructed. Immediately, Bronzong levitated mere centimeters away from the roof floor and angled itself towards the museum. "Alakazam, I need you to start the non-prejudiced electromagnetic observation field toward the same subject. I'm counting on you both."

"Zonggg!"

"Kazam…"

"What are those two doing?" Brock asked as he saw both Pokémon settle into concentrating stances.

"Alakazam and Bronzong are currently collecting non-visible light emitted and reflected by the museum," Lucian explained.

"Non-visible light?" Brock pondered. "Do you mean like ultraviolet and infrared?"

"Indeed. As it turns out, light has a wide range of frequencies, but humans are only capable of understanding a limited range of them. We can see the colors of the rainbow, but other 'colors' exist like infrared waves that represent heat, ultraviolet waves that damage the skin, and even cosmic rays that pass through objects. Different species of Pokémon naturally see different ranges of colors, and some Pokémon like Psychic types can be trained to see them.

"Bronzong is currently tasked with detecting infrared waves while Alakazam is tasked with detecting all electromagnetic disturbances. Both will observe them in real-time, in three dimensional space, but they won't interpret the information. Their function is simply to observe the museum and then provide an intractable field for us. Our job is to connect with their minds and sift through all that information to find any relevant points of interest."

"Okay," Brock nodded, letting all of the information settle. "But how do we connect our minds?"

"Just close your eyes and imagine a string going from your head to Bronzong's," Lucian stated plainly. "When you do, you're letting your brain waves flow into Bronzong's, letting the visions synchronize. From there on, you'll be able to mentally move through Bronzong's vision and infer what it is that you're seeing. Go on! Give it a try it."

"Alright, but is it hard to do?" Brock wondered as he took a seat on the ground. "I've never really interacted with a Psychic Pokémon like this before."

"Well, for someone rational and level headed, no. It won't be a problem," Flint assured his partner. "Someone with a mind like yours should get used to it almost immediately. On the other hand…"

"Would you stop wrongly accusing me of making dumb decisions? Over and out! Jeez!"

"…someone like Flint would have great trouble with it. Dawn, could you please pull out the museum maps from the bag?"

"Right away!" Dawn responded. She reached for her backpack and extracted three large sheets of paper and a red marker.

Seeing that the preparations were in place, Lucian took a seat beside Brock, resting each hand, palms upward, on his knees. Brock followed in a similar fashion, instead settling on clasping his hands together in his lap. For Lucian, the experience was routine, but for Brock, it was a fascinating phenomenon. At first Brock felt skeptical that he would see anything besides the dark noise of his closed eyes, but the instant he imagined a string linking his head to Bronzong's, his mental vision shot through the string and entered a vibrant three dimensional environment.

"Woa…"

"Isn't it?"

"Yeah…"

With his eyes still closed, Brock started raising his hands apart from each other, diagonally, forward, backward, interacting with the field of thermal images in his mind. He could see dozens of red regions with arms and legs, clearly spaced apart from each other even by height. He could tell the difference between a male guard sitting in a chair apart from a female guard pacing on the second floor above him. The experience was very enlightening. Meanwhile Flint approached the group after his discussion with Cynthia.

"Jeez!" Flint huffed. "And Cynthia calls me rude! She should look in the mirror every once in a while."

"Come on, Flint!" Dawn said, trying to calm Flint down. "I'm sure she was just teasing you. No need to worry!"

"Hmph. I'll believe it when I hear it straight from her," Flint dismissed. 'Dawn, could I borrow Piplup for a minute?"

"Uh, sure. Why do you need him?" Dawn wondered as she saw Flint extract a frying pan from his backpack.

"I'm hungry!"

With that, he also pulled out a small propane tank, foldable boiling pot, as well as a box of easy-to-make macaroni and cheese. Now it all made sense.

"I get it! Come on out Piplup!" Dawn softly called out. Once her Pokémon was out, Dawn directed his attention to her supervisor. "Hey, could I get you to fill up Flint's pot with some water? Use Hydro Pump!"

"Pip!" Piplup replied, launching a giant volume of water. Needless to say, Flint's pot filled right up to the top, not to mention his clothes were completely drenched.

"Oh my gosh Flint!" Dawn gasped. "I'm so sorry!"

"Brrr…" Flint shivered, smiling at the accident. "I guess Cynthia was right to put you in my team. Your Piplup is super strong!"

"Y-you think so?"

"Oh definitely! Lemme just get this set up okay… " Flint replied with a smile, placing all of his cooking materials in place. He turned on the propane, struck a flint stone to ignite the gas, and placed the pot on top. "Perfect! Now we just let Cynthia, May, and Ash do their thing for a while, and wait. I'm really not a fan of this part."

"Alright, I've already begun observation on the electrical systems," Lucian announced softly. Dawn, could you please label the map with each item?"

"Yes, Lucian!" Dawn replied, uncapping the red marker from her backpack. "Ready when you are."

"Excellent. There's a large radio wave dish coupled with several laptop decoders on the southern half of the room, and an identical structure on the northern half of the roof…" Lucian paused, letting Dawn write the notes on the map. "That's odd. Why would their operation require two dishes?"

"Dude, I could've told you that!" Flint chastised his partner. He was waiting for mac and cheese, bored out of his mind, so he passed the time peering over the edge of the building rooftop to check on the dishes himself. "Can't you do something better? Like see something we can't see with our own eyes?"

"Hey, I can actually do that!" Brock announced with excitement. "In fact, I've just locked onto the heat signatures of Ash, May, and Cynthia! They're alright!"

"Woa, really?" Flint asked in disbelief.

"Yep, I can even observe them from any angle I want," Brock said, changing his arm and hand positions to modify the mental visual space. "I'm looking right now at the sewer and they're making good progress towards the museum. This is very cool!"

"Brock, I strongly advise concentrating on the museum alone," Lucian stated plainly. "Remember that Alpha Team should not encounter any resistance for several minutes, and we need to focus on the greater threat at hand."

"Roger that," Brock agreed. "Switching targets… Dawn, would you please mark two guards standing in front of the main western entrance of the building?"

"Got… it…"

"Someone like Flint would have trouble, eh?" Flint murmured snidely, moving next to Brock and plopping himself on the ground. "Hehehe!"

"Uh, Flint…?" Dawn asked, watching her superior's antics. "Just what are you doing?"

"Uh… I'm uh," Flint stammered, trying to word things correctly. "I'm watching out for Alpha Team. Yeah, that's it!"

"Sure!" Dawn deadpanned. "You mean watching out for Cynthia, right?"

"Er…"

"Are you spying on her?" Dawn said accusingly.

"Naw man!" Flint fumbled around, trying to justify himself. "I'm just watching out for her… uh, safety! Yeah, safety."

"Oh god…" Dawn sighed, letting her head collapse into her hands.

"Let's see now, this is really tough… almost in range… and—ACK!" Flint jolted up out of his seat, clasping his buttocks. "What the hell?"

Lucian gently disconnected from Alakazam and smirked as he saw Flint assuaging his backside, courtesy of Brock's Croagunk.

"Hmm, I thought your Croagunk only paralyzes you, Brock," Lucian chuckled to himself amused. He turned his attention back towards the museum and closed his eyes once more. "Anyway, there is a high density of electronic devices on the first floor in the northwest corner, second floor. I believe these are computer workstations."

"Got it, Lucian!" Dawn replied, stifling her laughter at Flint's expense. "I guess Croagunk let Brock off the hook for just glancing. And Flint? Your noodles are going to stick to the pan if you don't stir them…"

"East face, patrols of two man cells on both floors," Brock recited. "Oh, and Dawn, Flint he could be paralyzed for a while, so try not to let the pot boil over? Also, additional cells patrolling the west face, but only on the first floor."

"Ugh! I'll take care of the noodles," Dawn complained.

"Thank… you… Dawn…"

[05:23 A.M.] Celestic Town (Main Street, Downtown), Sinnoh Region

"No problem, what's the status on Alpha Team?"

"They're still making their way through the sewers. Soon they'll get in place to enter through the air conditioning units, but it could be a bit tough."

"I'd imagine the sewer is worse, don't you think?"

With just that small amount of information, three expert thieves removed their headsets from their ears and disconnected them from the satellite listening device. In just seconds, they stowed the headgear as well as the folding device back in the carrying case.

"Hmm… interesting development, wouldn't you say?" James asked the group.

"The twerps are already starting to move," Jessie affirmed. "We should do the same."

"Alright guys, if we're gonna beat the pants off dose fashion freaks, we're gonna hit em' hard and fast!" Meowth rallied. "Whadda ya say?"

"Let's do it," James agreed. Immediately, he moved to the manhole cover that Alpha Team accessed earlier, and with both hands on the edges, began moving it out of its socket.

"Heave!"

"Ho!"

"Heave!"

"Ho!"

"Alright, I got it," James announced, lifting the cover right above the hole. He waved his hands directing his teammates to enter. "Go, go, go!"

Also in a short space of time, Meowth jumped into the hole, not even bothering to slow himself down on the ladder. Jessie followed suit in a front flip and descended straight down onto the concrete floor. James followed suit by lifting the cover over his head, then bunny hopping straight down into the hole. With a loud clunk, the manhole cover seated in its socket, and the three rockets descend into the sewer in hot pursuit of Alpha Team.

[05:26 A.M.] Celestic Town (Waste Management Service Tunnel 3), Sinnoh Region - α team

Through the pitter patter of dropping water from stalactites and the scurrying sound of Rattata through the tunnels, Alpha Team was making good progress about bout a thousand meters ahead. So far they hadn't encountered a hitch, but the slightly downward sloping walkway became increasingly infested with algae build-up. If this were a pedestrian walkway, it would have a 'Caution: Wet' sign.

"Watch your step on that one," Cynthia warned, pointing back to the staircase she just descended. "I nearly broke my neck going down."

"Ugh… this place is absolutely disgusting," May cringed at the smell. "How much longer till we get to the museum?"

"Not long, maybe three minutes or so," Cynthia replied with an edge of anxiety in her voice. "Watch out, it gets really slippery—"

"—woa, woah!"

"May!" Ash yelled.

As May fell forward into the sewer stream, Ash reached out as quickly as he could and in one quick motion managed to grasp May's arm whilst holding onto the railing himself. With one quick heave on Ash's behalf, he managed to pull May out of harm's way and back onto the sidewalk, anchoring her in place just to be sure.

"May, you alright?" Ash huffed through the adrenaline rush.

"Whooh… yeah, I'm good," May exhaled quickly. "Thanks for that…"

"Nice save, Ash!" Cynthia marveled at his reflexes. "Let's just be careful from now on so we won't need a daring rescue like that again."

"Here," Ash said, letting go of May's arm once she was on her feet again. "Hah, don't scare me like that again! I almost thought I didn't make it."

"Yeah, me too," May breathed. "I'll try not to do that again."

"Please don't, or I might miss the next time!"

"If Flint were here he'd probably let you fall in and laugh it off," Cynthia muttered darkly. "Speaking of that punk, we need to keep moving."

"Roger that," Ash agreed.

[05:31 A.M.] Celestic Town (Main Street, Downtown), Sinnoh Region - β, γ teams

Back with the group who had two psychic type eyes in the skies, Beta and Gamma Team had successfully marked over twenty points of interest including machinery, guards, and other noteworthy areas. Unfortunately, they have trouble discerning where the most important point of interest was: the lab staff.

"Any luck finding them?" Dawn asked apprehensively.

"I'm looking," Brock murmured whilst moving his arms to interact with the field of vision. "I'm looking…"

"Hm, we're probably trying to find a spot where there are about a dozen people grouped together in a single room," Lucian suggested, still equally perplexed why his target eluded him. "For example, I am trying to find their Poké Balls grouped together in a room somewhere."

"Let me see, let me see… is that—?" Brock focused in on something with a large blurry heat signature. "Wait! I think I've got them! There's only one room where there's just a giant blob of heat clumped together. Could that be a whole bunch of people?"

"Where is it so I can mark it on the map?" Dawn asked, uncapping the red marker once more.

"Northwest, on the top floor," Brock described. "It's in a very large room I think."

"Let me check that room," Lucian murmured. "It looks like there's a bunch of heating equipment, refrigerators, and it is well lit. I think it is in—"

"—the cafeteria," Flint piped up whilst devouring his bowl of gooey macaroni and cheese.

"Marking the map…"

"Well it makes sense that they're being imprisoned in a room that is sustainable," Lucian said, silently thanking whoever made that executive decision within Team Galactic. "Now I just need to find the blasted room where the staff's Pokémon are being held!"

"Wait, Lucian, let me return the favor!" Brock interrupted. "I was browsing through the rooms one by one, and I mentioned one place on the second floor, north east side that had three people in it. It looked like they were guarding something important."

"Let me check that area once more," Lucian whispered to himself while he focused in. "Hm… Oh wow…"

"What?"

"Brock, thank you kindly for helping me locate those Poké Balls," Lucian said.

"No problem Lucian!" Brock replied, happy to offer his support where he could.

"Success!" Dawn congratulated. "Now that we've got everything tagged, all we have to do is report everything to Cynthia, right?"

"Right," Flint mumbled through his last chew of easy-to-make macaroni and cheese. "If they even made it to the end of the sewer tunnel that is."

"I'll make the call," Lucian offered, gently severing the psychic connection and raising his hand to the device in his right ear. "Cynthia, have you reached your destination yet?"

"Yep! We got here just a moment ago. Are you ready to give me some intel?"

"Yes. Nearest to you are two guards posted at the front entrance. I would not advise entry. To the north are three guards in the forest who are—"

"Currently facing north, Lucian," Brock specified.

"Currently facing north away from your position. I advise a diversion in order to properly insert yourselves into the air ventilation system."

"Noted. Are the vents safe?"

"There are no patrols whose sole duty is to monitor those air vents. I advise silence whilst trekking the shafts."

"Also noted. Where are the primary targets?"

"There are two. The first is the staff, located near you in the most northeastern corner of the laboratory on the third floor."

"The cafeteria. Good to know they haven't been treated poorly."

"Agreed. The second point of interest is the staff's Pokémon, located in the northeast corner on the second floor. It is also guarded by three standstill guards. I advise a sedative like hypnosis or a distraction like a blackout."

"Solid copy. This will be tough… are there areas of interest that apply to Gamma or Beta Teams?"

"Yes. There are two radio towers on the roof which may be used for Team Galactics's internal communications. There is a central room on the first floor where several computer workstations are located. My guess is that this is a centralized research corroboration site. There is also a long room in the west wing where many individuals are sitting in workstations, perhaps in a batch processing unit. There is also a single person located on the second floor on the southern-most room. There are no electronic units inside, merely a single person who appears to be researching."

"Roger all of that. I would like the both of you to continue monitoring the situation and I want Beta Team to be ready at a second's notice. I think our assault in the future will start with Beta attacking the roof, Gamma teleporting through to the first floor HQ, and Alpha spreading out starting at the cafeteria. Understood?"

"Roger that. We're ready whenever you are. Good luck."

Before Cynthia could terminate the communication, Flint pressed his communicator on as well.

"Hey Cynthia?"

"Yes, Flint?"

"Just… be safe down there."

"…thanks Flint. We will be dark for the next few minutes. Alright. Alpha Team out."

[05:40 A.M.] Celestic Town (Waste Management Service Tunnel 3), Sinnoh Region - α team

Several meters below ground and underneath yet another manhole cover, the three Pokémon trainers looked at each other with their illuminated flashlights, steeling themselves for the task ahead. Cynthia closed the communication link with the touch of a button on her earpiece and turned off her flashlight. She looked at both Ash and May in the eyes and found no hesitation present on their faces.

"Are you guys ready?"

"Yeah."

"Let's go."

"Then we'll get this party started," Cynthia encouraged the team. She extracted a single Poké Ball from her backpack and opened the release seal in her hand. "Spiritomb, to me!"

The energy from the portable capture device materialized into a large rock on the sewer ground, adorned only by a few dots and lines. Immediately, the stone started to oscillate from side to side, increasing in frequency until it jittered so much that a ghastly form poured out from the top of the stone.

"Tomb…" the ethereal being murmured in a sub-bass voice. Ash and May couldn't help but feel their spines tingle.

"Honey? I need your help to distract the three guards above us," Cynthia instructed, pointing upward through the manhole. "Could you just do little things like breaking twigs, breathing down their necks, and rustling leaves? There's no need to go overboard just yet."

Suddenly, Spiritombs's otherwise stoic, spooky facial appearance crumbled away. Before Cynthia's instructions, the Pokémon looked like a seriously charged demon of death, but afterwards it turned into a wailing crying two year old boy who was denied ice cream.

"Tomb—tomb!" Spiritomb seemed to plead with its trainer. "To-to-tomb!"

While Ash and May were genuinely shocked to see such personification from a Ghost-type, Cynthia approached her partner and consoled it by gently rubbing her hand over the rock portion.

"Oh, don't be like that, dear!" Cynthia consoled with a sugary sweet voice. "I'll make it up to you by playing some pranks inside the museum, alright?"

"Tomb-tomb-tomb!" the Spiritomb yelled happily, bouncing its rock up and down on the surface like a Spoink.

"That's the spirit!" Cynthia smiled, getting another hearty laugh out of her Pokémon at the pun. "Now get going!"

Sure enough, Spiritomb retreated back into its rock and levitated steadily into the manhole tunnel opening. Once it reached the top, Spiritomb used a Psychic attack and levitated the manhole at an angle before wiggling itself through the crevice. Once the cover fell into the slot again, a still silence fell over Alpha Team once more,

"So what now?" May asked in a whisper.

"We wait," Cynthia replied with a wink.

Every town does things differently, and in the case of Celestic Town, the streets ran east to west and the avenues ran north to south. The road containing the Historical Research Center was called Park Avenue and it intersected Main Street in a 'T' configuration. For Alpha Team, that made the sewer back in the Downtown area a perfect vein to insert themselves into the Research Center undetected.

The way the sewer system was set up, the Historical Research Center was placed right above the Main Street sewer line, and an exit manhole existed right outside of the research center air conditioning unit. The air coolant system was rather large and loud, rumbling its fans to draw as much air from the surroundings as quickly as possible. For this reason the miniscule sound of a manhole cover closing didn't reach anyone's ear. However, three guards still maintained their faltering vigil just east of the air conditioning unit. If nothing was done about them, Alpha Team would be spotted for sure.

"Hell man, I just want this shift to end…"

"I'd be fine with the long hours if they just gave us a raise, bro."

"Or let us listen to music!"

"Your music is crap man, grow up and listen to the good stuff sometime."

Unbeknownst to the three guards, a pyramid-like stone made little hops towards their area before ducking behind an air conditioning vent. Oh, if only they had turned their heads backward to check the area, they would've noticed the odd stone magically bouncing toward them like something out of a cartoon. Regardless, they probably couldn't have done anything about it since Cynthia trained her Pokémon so well. But this was a covert operation—just snapping twigs, breathing down their necks, and rustling leaves.

CRACK. A tree branch broke in half.

"Did you hear that? I think something's out there!"

"Oh come off it, you're just hearing things, man!"

HOUGH… a light breeze floated down one neck.

"AHHH! Something's on me!"

"Dude, there's nothing there! Have you been doping up and not getting me in on it?"

"No I swear! There's something out there!"

RUSTLE…! Some leaves magically crunched themselves out in the forest.

"There! There's something in the forest! Come on!"

"I'm telling you man, there's nothing there! It's probably just some Pokémon! I swear you take this job way too seriously."

Underground, with her ear raised up to the manhole, Cynthia couldn't help but chortle at how well Spiritomb was at pranks.

"That's our queue guys," she whispered, shooing Ash up into the service tunnel. "Lights off, and get that cover open. Once you do, rush to the nearest vent and hide!"

One by one all of Alpha Team filed out of the cover, made a quick look around to make sure nobody was keeping watch, and filed out as quickly but quietly as possible. Fortunately the air conditioning units were complex enough that they offered plenty of visual cover with its multiple motor towers and industrial sized vent tubes. With the guards fumbling over themselves to identify the intruder, Alpha Team successfully ducked behind one of the larger air motors and looked around for an opening. Sure enough, May identified a metal service grate and pried it open with Cynthia's help.

First, Pikachu entered the vent itself to scout ahead, then Cynthia fell on all fours and clambered as best as she could into the air vent headed toward the building itself. May followed begrudgingly afterward, and Ash entered with the litheness of a Mankey.

"Psst! Spiritomb!"

Immediately Spiritomb materialized right in front of Ash, nearly scaring the daylights out of him. Fortunately he controlled himself and managed to smile as the Ghost Type entered into the vent without a hitch. Making sure to keep things looking how they were before, Ash closed the grate behind him, which only made a small metal sound.

"You hear that? There it is again! I heard a metal sound coming from the air conditioning! We're surrounded!"

"Relax you idiot! I swear you should get yourself checked out for schizophrenia…"

Meanwhile within the Historical Research Center itself, Alpha Team successfully exited the air vent and found themselves cramped, but kneeling in the attic of the first floor on the ceiling tiles.

"Phew… close call," Cynthia exhaled. She pulled out the Poke Ball from before. "Spiritomb, return for now!"

"Tomb…"

May looked around as best she could to see where to go from here. She could barely see so she turned on her flashlight, closely followed by the others. It was incredibly musty and creepy, but the floor seemed sturdy enough that she wouldn't fall through. There was simply no guarantee that they wouldn't be caught due to the sound of them walking directly on top of it.

"So what are we going to do now?" May whispered with a sense of urgency. "It's really cramped in here…"

"Any suggestions?"

"Ladder to your right, should lead through the corner support column up to the second floor. I'll guide you from there."

"Ten-four."

"Alright people," Cynthia instructed in a low voice. "The first thing we do is climb the service ladder to the second floor, grab those Poké Balls from a room on the far side of the museum, then circle around, return to the middle, and climb up to the cafeteria to start phase three.

"So are now in phase two?" Ash inquired as quietly as he could.

"Yes. We're now in phase two."

[05:55 A.M.] Celestic Town (Celestic Historical Research Center | West Research Wing), Sinnoh Region

"We should've begun phase three hours ago!" a deep aqua haired gentleman muttered to himself as he stalked his way to the control room. "What is the holdup anyway?"

The man paced himself evenly, making sure that his emotional turmoil did not show through his gait. He was a professional. Headstrong, determined, and an icon of willpower for idealistic causes, but a professional nonetheless. He would not let his emotions get the better of him. Having said that, the cause of his frustrations could have been easily settled three hours ago.

He came through the first floor processing unit and took the main stairs to the second floor processing unit, temporarily dubbed the headquarters of the entire operation. Coming through the stairs, the northern wing on the right hand side had a dedicated maintenance room that controlled the logistics of the facility like air conditioning and power resources. On the left hand in the southern wing, the residential mad scientist was supposedly working around the clock on research. Thanks to his careful gait, the man was almost completely unnoticed, but as soon as the main secretary felt her spine tingle at the base of her neck, she perked up immediately and bolted herself upright in a salute. Dozens of other employees followed suit.

"SIR!"

"Good morning, sir!"

"Administrator Saturn, sir!"

He smiled.

"At ease, citizens of the cosmos. Number forty-two?"

Immediately one of the youngest members of the headquarters came from behind his desk holding a clipboard and a mug of steaming liquid. He passed the cup to his superior officer and studiously recited the bulleted points on the list.

"Good morning, Administer! Sir! Here is your coffee and morning report as requested sir!"

"I see," Administrator Saturn murmured to himself. He blew lightly over the top of the mug, reminding himself of its transient nature, the fruitlessness of its pleasures, and carefully brought the hot amber to his lips. "It's sugary. I have told you already before what my preference is. Are you deliberately disobeying my instructions, number forty-two?"

"S-sir! My sincerest apologies, sir!" Number forty-two bowed profusely, clipboard held taught at his waist. "Sir, your coffee will be perfect next time, sir!"

"I suppose it is no matter after all," Saturn acquiesced. "With any luck we will be out of this deplorable town before long. Security detail, report!"

"Sir, no abnormalities, sir! Patrol attendance at full, sir!"

"Good," the administrator replied. He decided he'd humor his employees anyway by taking a sip. "Research progress detail, report!"

"Sir, Administrator Charon estimates his research is eighty percent completed... um," Number forty-two hesitated as he flipped through the pages of the morning report to be sure. "But he also advises further delays not inconceivable, sir!"

A pregnant pause filtered throughout the room. The only noises were the white clattering of keys on keyboards and nervous tapping under desks. Saturn wasn't known for his timely understandings.

"That senile old geezer…" the administrator cursed under his breath, casting the mug of coffee away after all. "Numbers thirty through forty-five, continue monitoring as before. Alert me only when necessary."

All personnel stood at attention once again, snapping off reasonably crisp salutes.

"Sir, yes sir!"

With the last order dispensed, the Administrator with the blue haircut folded his hands behind his back in taut eagle form, marching with purpose towards the left-hand wing. He wouldn't say he knew his co-workers very well, after all, it was drilled into everyone's heads that getting to know someone is the first step to compromising one's professionalism, and more importantly, the first step to emotional compromise. But having said that, Saturn had a reasonable understanding of how the other administrator worked. He liked to take his precious time.

And time was being wasted.

Saturn made brisker paces towards the research wing, already hearing the whirring of machines and the unnerving muttering of an old man as he neared the end of the hallway. He almost made his trek to the research wing without a single distraction, but alas one artifact that was native to the Celestic Historical Research Center caught his eye. It was a mural that depicted an ancient ritual of some kind; magnificent in scope and striking in its beauty.

The mural itself was made in a triangle that had a border around it. At each point was some sort of stout figurine, presumably live pieces to the ritual. From each figurine a large isosceles triangle stemmed towards the center, coalescing in a large circle. The circle was surrounded on its circumference by sixteen smaller triangles. In the space between the largest isosceles triangles were four leaf-like symbols as well as two diamonds. Sure it was historic, beautiful, and significant, but it also angered the Administrator who was so dedicated to this organization's cause.

He was supposed to have encountered the rightmost figurine in the corner of the triangle. Whatever it was, it was supposed to be the embodiment of willpower, the very thing that motivated people to get things done, to change people's lives, and to live their own life. But alas, it had not been seen by Saturn, and this mere fact behaved like a splinter in the back of his mind, driving him mad.

With that disgusting idea in his head, Saturn stormed away from the mural and into the door frame of his colleague. Without even relaxing or introducing himself, Saturn remained stoic with his hands still locked behind his back.

"Hoo-hoo-hooo" a grey-haired, old man in a white lab coat chuckled to himself without turning around to see who this new presence was. He simply remained hunched over his work desk, adjusting different sources of light and a specialized camera above it. "I don't remember sending for any lab assistants, but perhaps my memory is failing me? Even then! I would shoo those pesky assistants away so I may work in peace! Oh yes... hyech-hyech-hyech!"

"Administrator Charon," Saturn emphasized heavily. "Just how long do you expect your investigation to continue? It would behoove you to remember that we have already excavated this city once before, and it would not do our organization well to have attention drawn to our position."

"Hyech-hyech-hyech!" Charon laughed all while still photographing the item of his interest before him. "You incumbent administrators are sure an impatient breed, no? First you inquire about how much power could be amazed from the Floraroma windmill, then you interrogate me to quantify how many meteorites are required to synthesize ethereal materials, and now it has come down to demanding to know how long my research is going to take? Mark my words, boy. You cannot rush the might work of the super-genius Charon!"

Almost a minute of one-sided laughed ensued between the two people. For numbers thirty through forty-five, it was surely a good thing that they had not joined their superior in this conversation. The intent to kill was nearly as palpable as the instruments in the room.

"You are a textbook narcissist."

"HMPH!" Charon scoffed at the use of labels. He turned off all of the tertiary equipment and turned around to face his 'guest'. "Regardless of your ill-founded intentions and your rude behavior, I shall answer your question and bar my right to cast you out of my workspace! I expect we will have all of the raw data collected before noontime. Analysis, however, will take longer and I would prefer that we not move our location until my analysis is complete."

"Should there be no complications, I'll allow it," the blue-haired administrator relented. "But enough semantics. Would your brilliant mind finally explain what it is you hope to find? Even better, are there preliminary reports that you have prepared?"

"This is taking valuable time away from my research, I warrant you, but nevertheless I'll hand you an indulgence," the white-haired administrator sighed, folding his arms inward. "You see, Cyrus-boy happened across a very, very old collection of texts which appear to have been created five thousand years ago. According to one report published last year, the seismic event known as the Great Cataclysm also is dated at that time."

"How did our Master come across this artifact?"

"Oho... our latchkey discovery of this text was originally owned by Lawrence the Third, but his untimely defeat and demise allowed collectors from around the world to examine the spoils. Master Cyrus-boy came across the book at an auction on Shamouti Island even though he was unable to read it. Its secrets are encoded in an ancient language, but more importantly, it is ciphered in a mental language. One that requires a particular rewiring of the brain to understand. Fortunately, such decoding is work that only a genius of my magnitude ought to undertake! Wahahaaa!"

"Then this must be the book he keeps offering to, the reason why he founded Team Galactic..." Saturn pondered to himself and approached the desk with some measure of reverence. "But enough story-telling and just get on with it, old man. What secrets does the book contain?"

"Probably nothing."

"I'm sorry, I must have misheard you. What did you say?"

"This book probably contains nothing."

One could almost hear Saturn's heart rate increase through the stillness of the room.

"You're telling me... that this book... all of this time... WAS FOR NOTHING?"

"That's certainly a possibility."

"I am through with you, old man!" the administrator of little patience spat before stalking away back to headquarters. "You just wait until Master Cyrus hears of your treachery! Of how you wasted our precious resources! How you wasted time and space! How you jeopardized the creation of a new uni—!"

"If you must know, the book is nothing more than the records of an ancient secret society," Charon talked evenly, turning his attention back towards the book itself. Saturn stopped in his tracks.

"This secret society was well renowned for its members, otherwise ordinary people who wielded completely esoteric power," Charon continued, reveling in building the completely unnecessary suspense for his companion. "From what little I've managed to translate from the least encrypted list of contents, these pages are the holy grail this organization desperately needs. These pages detail this secret society's different meetings... its procedures... its members..."

"And...?"

"And even a blueprint to wield the power of God."

Saturn stopped his retreat of rage and but remained rooted to the spot by these last words.

"A blueprint to wield the power of God... how sure of this are you?"

"Confident to the sigma-three level," the senile old man grinned back at his younger colleague. "In other words, I am ninety-nine point five, five, five percent certain that Team Galactic will end this broken world and build a new one—but keep in mind the generous error of zero point zero, zero, zero one percent of course."

Nothing was said for quite some time. Saturn despised the old man on principle. He was methodical, detached, and above all, slow to produce results. Thus far however, Charon had more than proved his worth to the cause despite how hard Saturn tried to deny it. However, now even Saturn was convinced that world domination was within reach, and that at the very least, he could present a preliminary report to the leader of Team Galactic without regret.

"Carry on, then."

"He-he-he… as always, my boy! As always!" Charon boasted cheerfully, throwing his head backward in laughter. Now do you want to hear—?"

—SLAM! Saturn shut the door behind him unceremoniously.

"Hmph. What a fool! Had he stayed a second longer, he would've had more information to include in his meaningless little reports!" Charon muttered to himself gleefully as he tinkered with the exposure settings on the different instruments at his disposal.

"He would've known I've already archived all of the texts to our remote server for later study..."

Charon adjusted the beta brain wave emitter to fifteen percent more output.

"I would've told him who this secret society even was..."

He decreased the alpha brain wave emitter to five percent less output than before.

"And he could have reported that the only threat to our plans..."

He pulled a sheet of paper that contained the recently verified Professor Hale Symbol Index.

"Could only be thwarted by someone who is refereed in this manuscript as a..."

Only reading the very first line of unencrypted symbols on the page, the Administrator Charon painstakingly cross-referenced every single symbol as it passed through his eyes, through the brain's visual cortex, and finally to the language center. With each passing individual symbol, Charon wrote down on plain paper the rough translation symbols of the modern era.

W…

A…

V…

E…

U…

S…

E…

R…

"Now what could that be...?"

Dear Readers,

Hey guys, finally a real update right? I could tell you guys were getting PO'd at all of the public service announcements.

At any rate, I've got a few things to update. First off, I am NOT doing a leave of absence (gap year) as I earlier planned and instead will be doing five years of college, so I'll graduate at the same time as if I had done a gap year instead. Wasn't really my choice, but heck, I'll make the best of it.

My depression is probably at its worst right now, but I am finally taking some proper medication for it and we'll see if that mitigates the AD/HD effects I'm experiencing. As far as school is concerned, I still have assignments to submit since I requested Incomplete grades for them, so much of my winter break will be spent catching up.

I still want to finish this damn fanfic soon and get it out of my head and into the wild. Hopefully you enjoyed this installment!

Updated: Assumptions, Author's Preface, Chapter One: Unleashed

-TestSubject069

Story Notes:

N/A

Sources:

N/A

Author's Notes:

Completed, 09/02/13

Uploaded, 12/28/13

| first instance of radio conversation/will eventually redo the museum layout in later edits/introducing Aura lore |

RE: edit. 12/20/13

original title, "Ghost Recon"

| fixed some dialogue/spelling |

RE: edit. 12/27/13