Chapter Fifty-Two:

Solo Mission


Afternoon (3:35 P.M.), Paredes Forest

Jackie sneaked through the forest, carefully following a Universal scouting party back to Gris Village. He had the Darkforce bracelet on at all times to conceal his presence from the Psychics entirely. I have to be careful, Hero's not here to save me, and I'm all alone, save for my Pokémon, which I have recalled for stealth reasons. He frowned. They probably know that something's wrong, either from not seeing Virizion or finding their tied-up comrades.

It took several minutes, but the group he was tailing eventually found their way back to Gris Village.

Jackie gulped as he surveyed the village.

The dark purple cloaks were everywhere, their Universal wearers either scurrying about or standing guard.

"Gaah! Where is she?!" a man in a white cloak, assumedly their leader, screamed.

Jackie focused on the man. His hair was bright yellow, with thick, curved, orange hair spikes jutting out backwards from the top and sides. What's with the Sun-do? It looks so… unnatural… The boy with green, Sandslash-quill hair thought to himself.

The Sun-head facepalmed, letting out a deep groan, "Uuuuuugh, oh well." He straightened up, "We might as well begin today's testing. Who knows? We might have actually fixed it this time,"

Jackie blinked in surprise. Testing? What are they testing?

At this point a group of Universals emerged from a building, two prisoners in tow: one human, the other a Snubbull.

Sun-head snapped his fingers, "Prepare the Enslavement Rings!"

"Aye, aye, Doctor Sirius!" one of the grunts produced two red collar-like objects. He and another grunt then pulled the rings open, revealing them to be shackles.

Sirius's eyes flashed as he pulled out another red ring and strapped it around his left wrist, "Okay, chain them!"

"Yes, sir!" the two grunts obeyed and walked towards their captives.

Jackie gulped as he watched on in horror.

The two captives struggled and thrashed around against the restraining grunts, but despite their attempts and their screaming, they found no release or mercy, and the Enslavement Rings were snapped around their necks.

Their struggles ceased immediately; their eyes grew dull and blank, devoid of life and will.

Doctor Sirius snapped his fingers, "Let them go,"

The grunts did as they were told and backed away.

"Now," Sirius licked his lips, "Let's test this out," He looked to the man. Bow down.

The man did as he was telekinetically bid and dropped to his knees, bowing down to the scientist.

There were murmurs of amazement from the gathered grunts as Sirius shifted his attention to the Snubbull. Use Dig; emerge two feet in front of me.

The bipedal bulldog dug at the ground furiously, disappearing into a tunnel in mere seconds.

The ground in front of him shifted, and the Snubbull popped out.

Sirius smirk widened, "Yes! Yes! YESSSSSSSSSSS!" he cheered, the grunts joining with him, "After all these weeks, we've finally perfected it!"

Jackie narrowed his eyes in rage. Those monsters! What did they do to them?

"Ah, this calls for a celebration!" Sirius announced after he unstrapped the red bracelet and had the prisoners (sans Enslavement Rings) returned to the prison, "Cancer, Puppis, break out the beers! Let's get crunked!"

"WOOHOO!" the robed men and women cheered as the two supervisors went into the storage shed to bring out the alcoholic beverages as several other grunts prepared food.

Jackie blinked, his horror over the last scene quickly being replaced by confusion at this new one. Just like that? They're having a barbeque? Why?! He narrowed his eyes, focusing on the doctor-who-was-actually-a-scientist-but-gets-called-a-doctor-anyway. I need to follow him, and then I can find some answers!

Doing so, he sneaked around quietly, keeping tabs on the doctor/scientist as he made his rounds through the drunken hordes of the Universals.

Jackie frowned. Hmm? He isn't drinking; he's smart enough to keep his inhibitions up at all times. Dammit. That'll make this a lot harder than I want it to be.

Sirius eventually stopped in front of a single-floor building several times larger than the average houses surrounding it. In his hands he held a suitcase containing the Enslavement Rings. He looked at it fondly, "After all this time, we've finally completed them," he frowned, "Hmm? We'll still need to do a bit of testing, but they should be ready by the end of the week."

He smiled, "I sure learned a lot from my internship with Team Galactic!" chuckling, he opened the door and walked inside, "Grandmaster Andromeda… I'll make him proud of me!"

Jackie grinned. That must be his lab! He looked down at the Handheld Transceiver held firmly in his hands. If I go in there… there's no telling what kind of information I could get to Hero… I just need a few minutes…

His thoughts were interrupted as the door opened and Sirius stepped out, sighing, "Now that that's taken care of…" he looked around, "What should I do?"

"You *hic* can drink with me!" a female grunt wrapped her arm around his shoulder, in her other hand she held a beer bottle, which she eagerly took a swig of before continuing, "Come on, *hic* drink!"

Sirius glared at her disdainfully as he removed her arm from his shoulder. His nose wrinkled in disgust; her breath reeked of alcohol. He didn't drink himself, and he only suggested it to the grunts to keep them happy. He sighed, "I'm afraid I must decline. I think I'll scout around, making sure everything is secure for now," with that he left the women, who looked sullen for a moment, then threw her beer bottle on the floor, called him a bitch, and walked off.

Jackie's eyes glimmered. Thank you, Fate! If you weren't an ideological construct, I'd kiss you! He quickly slid over and opened the door.

This is it! He thought excitedly as he walked inside.

I'll finally get some answers on what Team Universal's up to!

I wonder, just what do they want?

Well, let's find out!


Author's Note:

Whew! I finally finished this chapter! I've been working on it all week.

Wow! Sorry this took so long. Also, sorry that I only uploaded one chapter last weekend, I had my cousin over. I have him over this weekend too, but I'll try to type more between playing Pokémon Y (with the release of the Poké Bank, I've tried to move away from being what I've always been, a simple collector of all the Pokémon, to actually playing online competitively in the metagame, wish me luck!) and playing card games with my cousin. Speaking of which, new Cyber Dragon Structure Deck! Finally! I've always wanted to run one of those! Yes!

*cough* *cough* sorry, getting a little off topic. I am getting ideas for a Yu-Gi-Oh! story after this one, though.

Oh well. Interesting thing happened to me today: my school bus caught on fire on the way home… *_* … weird, huh?

I nearly died... on the walk home. Seriously, my feet were killing me when I got home. You try walking home in a leather jacket with two full backpacks.

*shrugs* Oh well. I'm excited about what's coming up next: some major plot-points, character-building (I think), all happening in the next one or two chapters. Can you feel the excitement?!

I can. And with that, I leave you with this piece of meaningless trivia:

Do you remember the GS Ball in the anime? You know it, you hate it. Truth be told, it was originally supposed to hold a Celebi that was going to travel around with Ash and the gang, much like the Meloetta in the Black and White anime. However, with the release of the movie: Pokémon 4Ever – Celebi: Voice of the Forest, this entire plotline was deemed redundant and scrapped. So don't blame the GS Ball for its infamy, blame the movie.

Happy Valentine's Day!

-RGGod out!