6AM, early morning. There were 2 hours left on the clock until Ciper enacted whatever plan they had upon Alola. After finding out that their hideout was within Mt. Lanakila, Ash and his friends rested for a majority of the day before waking up early! They were all gathering at the Pokémon School, most of them understandably sleepy. Elizabeth rubbed her eyes, yawning as the building came into view. "Why are we up so early…"
"So we can stop Cipher at the last second." Scott said. Unlike the others he seemed oddly awake at this hour. "It would have been a waste of energy to tail Folly and Trudly yesterday. We needed to prepare and I can assure you that none of us were ready for scaling Mt. Lanakila."
"But why are we near a school!?" Takeba gasped, catching everyone's attention.
"Don't tell me you flunked out of school…" Grace looked at Takeba.
"…I don't want to answer that." Takeba cleared her throat.
"We're here because our secret base is under the school!" Lillie said, lifting a finger up. "You're all a part of the Ultra Guardians now."
"That's right!" Lana said with a tired smile. "So we have to bring you to our base of operations."
Sophocles looked around before turning to Ash. "Is Moon not coming?"
"Nah." Ash shook his head. "I told her last night what we were going to do, so she knows what's going on, but she said she wasn't sure she'd be of much help. So she's going to stay with Burnet." He explained.
"She was fast asleep when we left-roto!" Rotom said.
"So it's up to us then." Mallow said. "I don't blame her."
"So what's this base you're talking about?" Lovrina blinked as they walked into the school. All they could do was follow Ash and his Alola friends. When they rounded the corner into the class room, Kukui was already there waiting.
"Yo! Everyone get a nice taste of the Morning Sun?" Kukui said with a smile.
"It's still a little too early for my taste…" Marcus yawned. "But why are you here…?"
"To wish the Ultra Guardians good luck and see them off!" Kukui said, placing his hand on the blackboard. This caused the nearby bookcase in the corner of the room to turn around, revealing that it was an elevator!
"What." Elizabeth rubbed her eyes, unsure if she was hallucinating or not. It was early after all.
"Am I…still sleeping?" Rui blinked a few times, sleepily walking towards elevator…more so trudging her feet.
"Come on, we don't have much time to loss!" Ash was leading into the way into the elevator. It was a bit of a tight squeeze since there were so many people in the elevator.
"Good luck, Ultra Guardians!" Kukui said as he pressed the secret button once again, sending the Ultra Guardians down to the secret basement under the school!
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"It's a bit of a tight squeeze…" Elizabeth felt a little crowded.
"There are usually only six of us when we come down here…" Mallow scratched her cheek.
"But with a force like this, we won't be beat!" Kiawe shouted. At that moment, everyone began to suit up automatically! Ash and his friends were wrapped in their Ultra Guardian outfits! Now it was time for Marcus and the others to get a taste too, as the outfits were specially tailored to fit them.
"Whoa, whoa, what's happening!?" Marcus looked around as his body began to shine brightly! He was wrapped in a dark blue Ultra Guardian outfit, identical to everyone else's!
"Ahhh! It's so tacky!" The shock of it all woke Takeba right up. As she requested earlier, her uniform was a bright pink and it kind of clung to her, due to her figure. Still it was a perfect fit! Grace was given a dark purple uniform; Scott's colors were green and black, while Elizabeth had red and black! They were official members of the Ultra Guardians with this!
"Huh…" Grace stared at her new outfit. "You know, I actually kind of like this. It's really comfortable!"
"Me too…" Elizabeth admitted.
"Not too shabby…" Scott shrugged.
"…Uh." Rui and Lovrina looked at each other. They were never apart of the initial conversation a while ago, so they didn't get outfits, and they weren't so sure they wanted any either. The elevator came to a halt and everyone could finally stand out into the high tech base of the Ultra Guardians, where Clefable awaited them.
"This is your base!?" Marcus looked around. "Under a school no less…"
"Mother was very helpful in this endeavor." Lillie nodded.
Speaking of her mother, Lusamine appeared on the screen in the center of the room. Her hair was a bit frazzled since she had just woken up. "Good morning, Ultra Guardians. Time is of the essence and I've come with good news. After taking the information you've told us, we've done a scan of Mt. Lanakila." An aerial map of said mountain appeared on the screen, a red arrow pointing towards Cipher's predicted location. "We've located a building on the far side of the mountain, several kilometers up the base."
"That building looks huge!" Lana gasped. "There's no way we can miss that."
"But we have to be careful. Who knows what sort of schemes they've plotted. They know the area a little better than we do." Lovrina pointed out.
"They also have Shadow Pokémon at their disposal." Rui added. "So we're going to be in for a tough fight no matter what we do."
"That's okay. We can take them down!" Ash said confidently. "What else do we need to know, Lusamine."
"Well…" Lusamine began. "That particular side of the mountain is very sensitive when it comes to avalanches. Too much of a disturbance could cause the mountain to come falling down on that building."
"That would be awful…" Lillie frowned. "If an avalanche occurred, a lot of people and Pokémon could get hurt…"
"But we can't leave them be." Kiawe furrowed his brows. "Did Cipher pick that spot intentionally, knowing it could put us in a bad spot?"
"Regardless, we can't let that stop us." Grace told everyone. "We'll have to burn that bridge if we get to it. We have bigger things to worry about."
"She's right." Rui nodded.
As they spoke, Clefairy handed Mallow a toolbox. This toolbox contained handy items like potions and berries; they were going to need it.
"That's all you need to know about Cipher's whereabouts. Gladion will be joining you shortly as well. The rest is up to you, Ultra Guardians! Alola is depending on you to stop Cipher!" Lusamine stood up from her chair, extending her arm forward to send the Guardians off.
"Roger, Lusamine!" Everyone said before heading to the area where the Ride Pokémon were. Everyone geared up, though Scott had to share riding Dragonite with Marcus, while Rui and Lovrina once again had to use the Braviary from before.
"It's time to move out! Let's go, Ultra Guardians!" Ash took the lead, the runway opening up from under the fountain in the courtyard, allowing Garchomp to glide off into the sky, everyone else following right after! Their destination: Mt. Lanakila!
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"They only have 2 hours left." Ein tapped his foot on the ground. "Are you certain they took the bait?" He turned to Trudly and Folly.
"We were as dumb as we could be!" Folly said.
"So business as usual." Ferma snickered.
"Uh…" Reath gestured for everyone to look at their screen. "We've got visitors coming in hot!" A closer look revealed that it was the Ultra Guardians on their way!
Venus took one look at their outfits and nearly gagged. "Ugh, what are they wearing? It's horrendous…! It makes me sick just looking at it."
"It doesn't matter what they're wearing! I'll crush 'em all the same!" Dakim laughed.
Miror B had a sinister glint in his eyes. "Well well, it looks like everything's all going according to plan. We'll round up those brats and put an end to their song!"
"Just as predicted." Ardos folded his arms together. "The Shadow Pokémon are prepared for battle, Ein."
"Excellent." Ein's glasses gave off a malicious glint of light. He then turned to Folly. "Folly. You know what to do now, don't you?"
"Of course!" Folly gave a salute. "Now that the kid's house is empty, I go kidnap the Professor's wife, right? Even if that Professor himself it pretty strong, it won't matter if his lady is in danger!"
"And once we have that hostage, they won't have any choice but to back down!" Trudly grinned. "We're pretty good at kidnappin' chicks."
"You have to be, because no woman would willingly approach you." Venus flipped her hair. That comment of hers stung the two men hard.
"I-I'm gonna go now…" With his head hung low after Venus' confidence, Folly left with his dignity. He had a job to do, a job that could put their foes in a tight spot if he pulled it off correctly.
"Then it's time we all get to our positions." Nascour said, walking off immediately after. "We don't have time to waste and I want to ensure our guests receive a warm welcome."
"Haha…This is gonna be fun!" Gorrigan was bouncing in place from excitement. Not like a small child, but like a Primeape that was ready for the fight of its life.
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The Ultra Guardians landed a few kilometers up the base of Mt. Lanakila. They were prepared to climb the rest of the way, since the location they had been given was in an area inaccessible via flying. As soon as they touched the ground, Elizabeth collapsed on the snow and everyone turned worriedly. "Are you okay?!" Mallow asked, worried.
"SNOW!" Elizabeth was practically doing snow angels. "It's been so long since I've seen snow! I'm home! I'm home!" Dead silence. "What!? Don't give me those looks! I need this!"
"She's not even cold…" Sophocles was amazed. Their uniforms were made to retain body heat in these conditions, but if they played in snow like Elizabeth did, they'd be shivering!
"She's a Sinnoh native. They're like this." Lovrina said. "She's also embarrassing Sinnoh by acting like this. We have a job to do!"
"…Sorry." Elizabeth stood up, enjoying her brief time in the snow. "How annoying that we can't fly up the rest of the way."
"The winds are too dangerous and there's nowhere to safely land the Ride Pokémon." Kiawe said. "We can't leave them in this freezing cold either."
"I guess that's why they flew off, minus your Charizard." Takeba shrugged her shoulders. "Anyway, we don't have time to be losing!"
"Yeah, we have to go!" Ash agreed.
Rotom them started doing some calculations: "Our flight took about 20 minutes! Combined with our arrival and debriefing, we have 90 minutes left before Cipher acts-roto!"
"We don't even know what they're gonna do." Lana shook her head. "But it's for the best we stop it, no matter what!"
"Hold it." Scott stopped in his tracks, glancing around the snowy surroundings. "Someone's coming."
"Already!?" Lillie looked around, Snowy prepared to fight. A few minutes of tense silence passed until numerous rocks rained down upon them! They were akin to beams of energy and everyone immediately braced themselves as snow erupted all around them. "Ah!"
"Power Gem!" Marcus exclaimed.
Reath walked forward with her Ampharos beside her, a small device in her hand and a smug grin on her face. "Wow, you guys have terrible fashion sense. Welcome to Mt. Lanakila! I'm surprised it took you this long to find us~"
"What are you planning!?" Grace demanded to know.
"Do you really wanna know?" Reath twirled around the device in her hands. "Well, I suppose I can let you in. Miror B told me to tell you guys. Mt. Lanakila is a pretty tall mountain, wouldn't you say? It would be a real shame if something were to happen to it."
Everyone's eyes widened as these words. "You wouldn't…" Lana began.
"Oh, but we would! As soon as we're done dealing with you, we're going to blow this mountain up!" Reath grinned. "It'll probably cause a lot of damage…"
"You can't blow up this mountain! There are people and Pokémon here!" Lillie exclaimed.
"That sounds like a you problem." Reath shrugged her shoulders dismissively. "If you don't like it so much, why don't you try and stop us? Although I only have one detonator, which will explode the base of the mountain. The others have more on them, so even if you stop me, you still have them to worry about. They can blow up whatever part of the mountain they please."
"That's fine. We'll stop you all!" Rui said firmly.
"Okay, then I invite all of you to gang up on me!" Reath held her arms out.
"We don't have time for that." Takeba stepped forward, placing a hand on her Z-ring. "You guys go ahead! I'll catch up later after I beat this one!"
"Takeba?" Marcus looked back over his shoulder.
"Trust me, I got this." Takeba gave Marcus a wink. "I won't slow you down again, I promise."
"You heard the lady. Let's go." Marcus nodded and everyone followed suit up the mountain.
Reath waved off the Ultra Guardians as they went in the direction of the base before turning back to Takeba, who was reaching for a Pokeball. "Ah, so you must be Takeba Vermillion! I never thought I'd have the chance to meet such a rich lady face to face. Maybe after I beat you, I'll see what I can reap from your wallet. It's probably stacked."
"And after I beat you, I'll catch up with the others!" Takeba said while throwing out a Pokeball, calling Honchkrow out into the battle. "Or you could just make this easy and turn yourself in, its your choice!"
"Hah…" Reath's lips curled up into an evil smile. "Well, when you lose…" She then lifted up the detonator in her hands. "I'll press this button and blow up the base of Mt. Lanakila. Think you can handle that kind of pressure on your shoulders, Ms. Heiress?"
Takeba forced herself to smirk, pointing forward dramatically. "If you think I'm going to stand here and let you destroy a part of Alola, then you've got another thing coming! I'll show you the power this island has granted me!"
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Next Time: Neo-Cipher's Assault!
