Disclaimer: I do not own nor am I affiliated with Pokémon or any of its parent companies. I am merely a humble storyteller. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy this journey with me.
Note: I am English, so some of the wordings, spellings, and expressions will be those commonly used in England.
Chapter Ten: Exploud and Clear!
Aquarella sat at the screen, patiently waiting for Baron Phobos to appear and issue her new orders. Finally, the screen blinked and two faces appeared on it. However, not one of them belonged to Baron Phobos.
"Buzz?" she said, confused. "Avery? My dears, what are you doing there together? Where's Baron Phobos?"
"He has stepped out," Avery said stiffly.
"Ah, I see," Aquarella said, knowing by 'stepped out' that Avery really meant Baron Phobos was prancing about a field with his Lunatone. Hey, everyone needed a way to unwind. "But why are both of you there? Why aren't you in your Mobiles?"
"Yeah, well, er, the better question is why aren't you in yours?" Buzz demanded to know.
"I am in mine, sweetie."
"Oh."
Aquarella flicked back her pink hair. "So, what happened?"
Through gritted teeth, Avery said, "SOL happened."
"Huh?" Aquarella said, cocking her head to one side. "SOL? Didn't Baron Phobos say there was nothing to worry about them, or am I mistaken?"
"I'll explain everything when Gronk and Boolum log on," Avery promised.
"Worry not, I here," Boolum's voice said, and the moustached man's visage appeared in its own square onscreen.
"Good morning to you all," he said with a smile. "A fine one you are having, yes?"
His smile faded as his gaze locked on to Buzz and Avery. "Why you two together? Is this where you'll be doing the explaining?"
"Don't worry, we will," Avery said. "We just need Gronk now."
Unfortunately for them, Gronk did not show up. They waited and waited and even tried calling him, receiving nothing on the other end.
"That fool," Buzz said. "Did he not get the message to log on today?"
"Let's be honest," Avery said, "this is not unexpected. It's irksome, yes, but I suppose we can wait to tell him. He's probably in the middle of a Poké Ball run."
Confidentially, he was NOT in the middle of a Poké Ball run. He was performing press-ups and had gotten up to ten thousand. At least he thought so; he lost count a while back when he reached two thousand, four hundred and thirty-seven.
"Anyway, let's get down to it," Avery said. "The first thing is why Buzz and I are not in our Mobiles. Well, the thing is," he swore under his breath, "the thing is our Mobiles were infiltrated and compromised by a SOL agent."
Boolum shook his fist to the sky and cursed SOL in an overdramatic fashion, his eyes glistening with tears. Aquarella frowned and said, "Agent? As in singular? As in only one? Honeys, you can't be serious."
"She was sneaky," Buzz hissed. "By the time we detected something was wrong, she had stolen the Pokémon from their Poké Balls and was ready to battle us and escape."
Aquarella raised her eyebrows and gave him a condescending look. Buzz gnashed his teeth, about to retort with words and phrases that would make one blush, only for Avery's raised hand to silence him.
"Yes, we failed and disappointed Baron Phobos," he said, wincing as he grazed his sore knee with the back of his hand. "Maybe if I'd have known beforehand that the Phobos Train had been infected by the SOL scourge then I would've been better prepared to take on the agent instead of having my wings clipped. But what's done is done. Aquarella. Boolum. Now you've been informed. When the SOL agent appears – and she will – you'll be ready. Baron Phobos will hope to hear of news of her apprehension."
Boolum thumped his metallic chest and gave a salute. "Failure is in the future of the SOL Rattata! Victory will be ours!"
"Always love your, ah, drive, Boolum," Avery said, his face a blank mask.
"Yes, no need to worry," Aquarella said. "She won't ever be able to penetrate my Mobile. But I wonder, even if it is late on, shouldn't we have more members? I still believe we should've done that from before. Or formed an alliance with another group who would sympathise with our efforts."
"I understand your train of thought, Aquarella," Avery said. "I truly do. I have thought as much. But it is too late to add new recruits – even back when we started this, Baron Phobos seemed reluctant to do this, remember? – and what if we formed an alliance with a larger group. They would simply absorb us, claim this great plan for their own, and the Phobos Battalion would cease to exist."
"Yes, that does make sense," Aquarella said. "Fine, sweetie, I'll continue transporting the Poké Balls and keep an eye out for that agent. Her luck will run out soon."
Avery smiled grimly. "I hope so."
o~o~o~o~o
"Okay, where are you?" Lucy murmured. "I know you're around here somewhere."
Manectric sniffed the earth, tail erect, ears upright. Yes, it was around here somewhere, and the sooner they found it the sooner they could get to freeing the Pokémon from this second Huge Storage. It would be yet another accomplishment after she emptied Secret Storages Seven and Eight before making her way here.
Aipom sat on her shoulder, quiet, tail-hand clenched into a fist.
Suddenly, Manectric's nose left the ground. His hackles raised and he growled.
"It's on its way?" Lucy said. "As long as it's not another Tyranitar, we'll be good. I hope."
As luck would have it, it was not another Tyranitar.
It was a periwinkle Pokémon that stood at five feet whose large mouth and red eyes helped enhance its already intimidating appearance. It had four marshmallow-shaped teeth, each as hard as stone, tubes sticking out from its body – seven on its head like a crown, two on its tail, two on its back, and one each on its elbows and knees – where all but the ones of its joints were yellow. It roared, and the sound exploded not only from its mouth but the tubes on its body too, causing Lucy to hold her ears and arch her back as the injurious resonance ripped through her. There was no mistaking it: this was the Normal-type Pokémon Exploud.
She was fortunate in this case to not have a Pokémon that could put it to sleep; no amount of sleep techniques would get the better of it with its Uproar going off.
No, paralysis was the name of the game here.
"Manectric, use Thunder Wave!" Lucy screamed, the order coming through loud and clear to the thunder doggy.
He fired off a weak charge of blue electricity at the Exploud, to bring it to its knees and give them an easier time of victory.
Except… the Exploud was surprisingly nimble.
It jumped back, the Thunder Wave striking the earth harmlessly. It dodged a second one too, and, after a momentary glare at its enemies, opened its mouth wider than it had hitherto and unleashed an impossibly louder scream, so ear-splitting the soundwaves took on a physical form, waves that distorted the environment and tore through the atmosphere.
The Hyper Voice blew Lucy, Aipom, and Manectric away, the former being a mere human not helping matters; she tasted blood.
Groggily and wobbly she rose to her feet, the world around her muffled and sideways.
The Exploud grinned but stayed where it was, its eyes never blinking.
Okay, she had to think, despite the fact her brain had left a note saying 'Gone on vacation'. Exploud was only weak to Fighting-type moves, courtesy of being a pure Normal-type. Aipom's Power-Up Punch was the only attack they had that fit that criteria, but even then she did not get STAB from it and the damage would be mediocre until she landed a few of them. And would she be able to get close enough smack it around anyway?
Manectric's Thunder Wave was still on the table, but it appeared it would only work if he was nearer. The same problem.
Flygon appeared to be the superb choice, although Bug Buzz would be utterly useless; as it was an Exploud, its Ability would no doubt be Soundproof. Try to guess what that did. Yet, what if there were other Pokémon about, others that would also desire to… get rid of them. Flygon was the most powerful Pokémon she had at her disposal and she did not have that many PP restoring items on her – status and HP were an entirely different matter – so having her exhaust her attacks early on would obviously be detrimental.
Besides, what was the strategy there? A Hyper Beam followed by a Dragon Claw? Of course not! If the Hyper Beam did not take it out in a single hit, then Flygon would be left vulnerable to whatever Exploud had up its figurative sleeves. Trap it with Sand Tomb? Flygon would need to be a lot closer.
If only she had a Pokémon with Soundproof. That would make Exploud harmless. Having one while also using her other Pokémon to work alongside it would guarantee victory…
Ditto.
Ditto's name rode up unbidden, the amorphous pink blob smiling at her, gesturing to itself as if to say 'Hey, I can do it! Use me! I can help us get rid of this walking boombox'.
Well, it was either this or running away and losing time on stopping the Phobos Battalion's evil plan.
"Ditto!" she yelled, her own voice to her sounding like it was being transmitted from a bad radio. "Use Transform!"
The pink blob with the plain face hopped out of its Poké Ball and in the next instant was replaced by an Exploud which stomped the ground and roared at its twin. The other Exploud blinked in bemusement.
"Okay, guys," Lucy shouted. "Are you ready?"
Aipom, Manectric, and Ditto-Exploud nodded.
"Okay. Ditto, just walk towards that Exploud and when you get close use any non-sound-based techniques it knows! Aipom, Manectric, just hide behind Ditto so it can shield you from Exploud's sound attacks! And the same thing with you when you get close; hit it hard until its subdued. Now, let's go!"
Would it work? It worked it theory, but Pokémon were unpredictable. As a matter of fact, if you ignored the fact that 'Pokémon' and 'unpredictable' didn't rhyme, then they did!
Ditto stomped towards the Exploud, unfazed by the Hyper Voice it was firing its way, Aipom and Manectric bracing themselves against Ditto's back, grimacing as the deafening din knocked their senses silly, although not taking any physical damage from the attack.
The Exploud's eyes widened in panic and backed away. It trembled and tried an ineffective Uproar as a last stand.
Poor thing, Lucy thought. It's probably only ever used its sound moves to win and get its own way. It's probably forgotten it's got other techniques.
How right Lucy was. The Exploud's composure and resistance faltered before collapsing completely. It did not move as Ditto struck its cheek with an icy fist. Thunder Wave and Tickle left it immobile and powerless until a final, albeit purposely weakened, Ice Punch sent it to a temporary world of void.
"Good work, you three," Lucy said, casting a sympathetic eye over the unconscious Exploud. Hopefully, Amelia or someone else would give it a good home. "Okay, Manectric, you wait out here and make sure Exploud doesn't try for a second round. I truly, truly doubt it, but you never know. And keep an eye out for anything or anyone else because we're going to be here a while."
With Ditto returned to its Poké Ball, Lucy and her Pokémon went about their duties and, after a good amount of time, managed to save tonnes more Pokémon and take another step to her mission's goal.
Although, all the while, this niggling sensation in her stomach kept whispering to her 'But what about the Phobos Mobiles? Where's the next one?'.
Where indeed.