With Sword in Hand

by BewareTheDragon1

Finn's life sucks. He has no friends, a paralyzed right hand, and the worst luck when it comes to foot placement. But the worst part is that despite having Pokémon training in his blood, he can't befriend a single Pokémon. It's been four years since his tenth birthday, and though he doesn't know it yet, he's about to go on an adventure; with sword in hand.

60. Final Plans

It's often wondered why the task of dealing with criminals is left to random trainers dotted across the world.

Now that's not to say that the proper authorities aren't doing anything. World famous international police officer Looker is known for tracking down the remnants of criminal organizations and persecuting them. The alliance that most nations across the world signed into allowed him jurisdiction in almost every region. He has a well-earned reputation for digging up criminals in hiding, dismantling what little is left of criminal groups after their leaders disappear or are captured.

But Looker only steps in after the organization has fallen. The ones responsible for toppling those criminals are usually random trainers who haven't even completed the gym circuit. For example, Red Ketchum is credited with being the last person to battle the infamous Giovanni head to head, back when Giovanni was the gym leader of Viridian City. At least, until Giovanni reappeared for a single attempt at the Pokémon World Tournament, where he used a loophole in the local laws to avoid being arrested. Even then, Red was the one to beat him. Other such examples include when Brendan Birch and May Maple worked together to topple the eco-terrorist groups of Aqua and Magma. Purely from these accounts, it certainly seems like no official measures were taken.

Aside from the case of Red – wherein Giovanni's role as the leader of Team Rocket had not yet become public knowledge – there was League action involved. The attempted resurgence of Team Rocket was counteracted by a joint effort between Ethan Gold and Champion Lance Blackthorn. Then Champion Steven Stone was the one who brought Maxie and Archie to justice while Brendan Birch and May Maple took care of the raging legendary pokémon. Cynthia Shirona was there when Cyrus tried to conjure legendary pokémon to bind them to his will, ready to step in if anything went wrong.

Yet these champions didn't do the bulk of the work. It was those random trainers, never older than the age of sixteen, that saved the day. The Unova League cleared the path, but it was Hilbert Blaire who awakened Reshiram and showed N the truth of the world. It was Calem Xavier and Serena Yvonne who delved into the structure under Geosenge Town and fought Lysandre.

So why is this vigilantism so common? One factor is that it's mildly encouraged. Any trainer with an ID is, under a state of emergency, allowed and expected to take action to enforce the law. This stems from the days when pokémon trainers were basically soldiers, and has proven to still be useful, somehow. Another factor may be the inclusion of legendary pokémon in almost all of these events. When deific creatures are involved, the normal procedures get… weird.

The main reason the League encourages so many vigilantes, though, is because of how criminally understaffed they are. Four elites, eight gym leaders, a champion, and anywhere between twenty and fifty gym trainers is not enough to handle the sorts of threats that regularly plague every nation in the world. Don't get me wrong, those are some of the most powerful and skilled trainers in the world, but numerical issues are numerical issues.

Toreta suffers from this problem even more than other regions. With less gym trainers and lower funding than any other nation in the world, Toreta can't really keep track of criminal activity. Add in the fact that the government constantly fought with the League over what situations each responded to, and it becomes pretty obvious why Toreta has regular trouble with criminal groups cropping up.

---

Twenty days was a long time to spend doing nothing but training, but that's what Finn did. Trained his body, trained his aura, and trained his team until he was as good as he could get. The other champions had even humored him with pokémon battles. He'd solidly defeated Blue, had major difficulty with Lance, and barely eked out a victory against Iris thanks to Crai's fairy typing. Steven had managed to gain the upper hand due to his mega metagross, the mere existence of which made Finn both very frightened and very hopeful about their chances in the coming conflict. Cynthia had been a more conclusive loss, since her team was more diverse and that garchomp got pretty close to the same power level as the metagross. Red was the hardest loss Finn had faced since his battles against Trinity. Red hadn't said a single word the whole time, either.

And yet, Finn didn't feel too bad about those losses. Maybe it was because he was facing some of the most skilled trainers in the world. Maybe it was because his position wasn't at any kind of risk. Maybe it was because, instead of belittling him for losing, they all offered encouragement and advice. Even Red gave him a warm thumbs up and a handshake afterwards.

It was probably that last one.

Only at the end of those twenty days did Finn's father, with prompting from Professor Aspen, declare Finn's break to be at an end. Finally he was allowed back into the war room.

It was time to begin finalizing battle plans, as it turned out.

One by one, champions filed into the room. The last person in was Daniel, who closed the door with his foot.

"Alright, let's get to business folks." Daniel stepped forwards, rubbing his hands together. "We've received another message from one of the defectors in Team Plasma. They reiterated that the laboratory entrance is unguarded, then gave us the schematic for what looks like some kind of automated electrical defense system. But there's something that's confusing me."

Daniel removed a holographic tablet from within his suit, setting it on the table. On it were a set of blueprints, along with several pictures of the layout of the Plasma headquarters. But there were two messages displayed on the tablet.

"We got two at the same time. Well, nearly the same time. This is the second time this has happened. But we didn't get another supernatural message. We didn't, right?" Daniel glanced at Finn, continuing when he got a shake of the head in response. "The other message had simpler encryption, but I daresay it was safer because of that. More standard, tested, and secure. It also had the diagram for something I think Iris may find familiar."

A couple taps on the tablet revealed a strange x-shaped mechanism, with some kind of internal signal emitter. That was about as far as Finn understood it, but Iris gasped when she saw it.

"This thing again?!" She snatched the tablet and looked it over. "Ghetsis had this mind control thing last time! He used it to control Kyurem!"

"Looks like it's seriously powerful. This thing can send a signal over miles." Steven looked over Iris' shoulder. "And if it's capable of mind control… we need to take care of this thing. That's our victory condition."

"It's in his stupid walking stick," Iris spat. "Or at least it was last time. Ghetsis is a paranoid egotist, he wouldn't leave it in anyone else's hands."

"In the meantime…" Zane glanced over at Daniel. "Have you sent that lightning defense system design to Nik yet?"

"Did it right before the meeting," Daniel said.

The tablet buzzed at that exact moment, and Iris slid it back across the table to Daniel. He tapped a button on the screen, and suddenly the entire screen of the tablet was taken up by Nik's face. They seemed agitated, seriously so.

"Where did you get those designs?!"

Daniel leaned back a bit. "No need to shout."

"I-," Nik stopped, swallowing. "That's my schematic. I designed it in my off time as a thought experiment. It works, sure, but it was never meant to be used. I never even sent it to anyone. How did you get those?"

By the end of their rant, Nik was pulling at their hair, clearly in distress.

"Nik," Zane said, stepping over so he was in view of the camera. "I think some the shadow triad got into your lab, slipped past the security, and took your designs."

"They can't- I didn't-" Nik shook their head. "Nobody was supposed to see those! They were just doodles!"

"Does it work?" Steven asked. He had let out his metagross, and apparently shared his memory of the schematics with the massive steel type. It was projecting a holographic image with its psychic powers.

"Yes, of course." Nik calmed down a bit at the question, running a hand through their frizzy hair. "Everything I design should work, as long as it's supplied with enough power. But you'd need the combined output of five nuclear power cores to run it for more than a day."

"Could…" Finn paused, furrowing his brow. "Could you power it with an electivire?"

"For ten minutes, approximately," Nik answered.

"Alright, could you charge a battery off of an electivire over the course of a month and use that?"

Nik contemplated for a moment before answering. "Yes. A battery of that caliber is difficult to find or make, but it could keep the mechanism running for… I'd need to do some tests, but a quick calculation leads me to believe you could run the electrical defense system for twenty-four hours off of that kind of charge."

"Any holes in the system?" Athena Ferris asked, frowning as she looked at the hologram. "Weaknesses that can be exploited?"

"Aside from the power source? It doesn't work on ground types, as one would expect of an electricity-based defense," Nik said. "There aren't any blind spots or weaknesses aside from striking the mechanism itself, but it has a self-generating forcefield. That's why it takes so much power."

"And you just… design things like this in your free time? For fun?" Blue said incredulously.

"Um. Yes."

"Huh…" Blue rubbed his chin. "I might have to ask for some of those. I need an upgrade for my taser."

"Why do you have a taser?" Lance asked.

"Got one after Giovanni came back." Blue shrugged.

"Giovanni's back and you didn't tell me?!" For once Lance's calm demeanor cracked. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Calm down, calm down, geez." Blue rubbed his temples and shook his head. "I have it under control. He's not contacting anyone or something. Besides, I've set the one person who hates him more than you to make sure he doesn't try to slip off or something."

"Who?" Lance crossed his arms.

"Silver."

"Silver?!" Lance almost shouted. "Silver, really?! His-,"

Lance stepped away, hands to his head as he mumbled to himself. A few moments later, he came back, levelling a finger at Blue. "When this fiasco is over, we are having words."

"Okay." Blue shrugged.

"…Anyways…" Zane cleared his throat. "Thank you for your input Nik. That project you were working on, how close is it to finished?"

"Almost done. I just need to finish fine-tuning the power core." Nik hesitated for a moment. "Um, could you send Xollen over later today? I need its input to make sure everything is correct."

"Of course." Athena Ferris nodded. "Thank you Nik."

"Right." Nik hung up at that point.

After an awkward silence, Cynthia cleared her throat.

"So, timing out the defenses should be our best choice," Cynthia said, gesturing at the hologram. "We have some extraordinarily powerful pokémon at our disposal. But given the numbers, it doesn't seem like we can hold back even a small army of hybrids."

"We could recruit the ace trainers. There's a whole camp of them at the base of the mountain. There must be about two hundred, and they all have teams of six," Finn suggested.

Every head turned towards him at that. Finn swallowed nervously.

"That's a good idea." Blue nodded. "Arceus knows that every League on the planet is understaffed. Drafting in the most dedicated trainers in the region is just a good idea." He looked over at Lance, then at Red. "Hey, how come we never did that?"

"We did. When you and Red kicked Team Rocket out of Silph Tower," Lance said. "And again when Ethan Gold assisted me in halting Team Rocket's resurrection."

"Huh, never thought of it like that." Blue rubbed his chin. "Still, that's a good idea. How are we going to get them to help?"

"Offer a special accolade," Iris said, smirking. "Trainers will do anything for a shiny piece of metal."

That one got a snort out of Red, and he nodded rapidly.

"See, he agrees." Iris gestured towards Red. "Just promise them a special award and you'll have an army."

"I don't think that'll be enough to stall out the electric defense system," Cynthia said with a frown. "You said one of those hybrids took out a metagross single-handedly? And she was still ready to keep fighting? While that might have been one of the heaviest hitters they had, that's still indicative of incredible power. I'm not certain two hundred ace trainers are necessarily enough, especially since we know nothing about Plasma's battle strategies. We need to end it quickly."

Finn looked at the map on the table. Plasma HQ was going to be protected by an electricity based defense system, which would be able to strike down any non-ground type. It would last probably around twenty-four hours, which was far longer than any defending force would be able to hold against a small army of hybrids. But if someone could take out Ghetsis and destroy his staff, that would end everything immediately.

"Oh." Finn straightened suddenly. "I have to sneak in."

"What? No." Lance shook his head. "I wouldn't want you to get hurt trying to sneak into the enemy headquarters in the middle of a conflict. No way."

"I have to agree. Who knows what kind of defenses they'll have inside the base? You could be killed for nothing," Steven said.

"No, he's right."

All heads turned to Athena Ferris, who was staring intently at the hologram of the electrical defense system.

"I know my son. He's self-sacrificing to the point of reckless. But he's good enough to be a champion, and you've all seen that he's a very quick thinker." Athena pointed at the hologram. "That's the only reason the rest of us can't get in. By the time we have access to the Plasma Headquarters, the battle will be in full swing. Only a flying pokémon could get past the mayhem safely. Which is why it has to be Finn. He has a gliscor. A strong one. It can ignore the electrical defenses and fly over the battle.

"Now I hate, hate, that I'm advocating for my son to go into enemy territory unaided. But if we don't succeed, that's it. Toreta's done. Ghetsis wins." Athena Ferris sighed, closing her eyes. "We can't afford to let Ghetsis win."

"Why can't I do it?" Cynthia frowned, leaning forwards. "I have a garchomp, she's immune to the defenses."

"But you can't generate a shield capable of protecting yourself," Finn's mother said as she opened her eyes. "Nik's very thorough. They would have let us know if the defenses could be circumvented by just holding onto or being bodily shielded by a ground type. They don't leave holes like that in their designs. Even if it's not supposed to ever be real. That's not how their brain works. Finn is the only one who can get into that unguarded entrance."

There was silence in the war room for a while. Everyone was probably contemplating the consequences of sending a teenager to deal with their problems. He could understand why.

After a while, Red cleared his throat.

"Finn has unique capabilities, ones that make him suited to this task more than almost anyone else. He has a team that can get him into the base, and support him while he's there. He has both a spectral and a psychic teleport to get out." Red looked Finn in the eye. "And I suspect he has other reasons to want to do this himself. Be they personal or otherwise. I endorse his effort."

After several moments, Blue spoke. "I'm going to back Red here. He knows what he's talking about."

"I agree," Iris said. "Finn can handle it."

"I'm not sure I can condone sending a teenager into dangerous enemy territory without any kind of backup," Cynthia said, shaking her head. "Not anymore. Not when the stakes are this high."

"You let a trio of kids handle it when some wackjob accidentally summoned the god of the dead alongside the ones who created the universe," Blue said accusatorily. "But this, when he has the skills necessary, is too much?"

"I was there, when those three faced down the legendary pokémon. Right next to them. And I found myself frozen against my will." Cynthia closed her eyes, the tone of her voice wounded. "And then, they came to the League to challenge me. One by one. And one by one, they disappeared into the wilderness. Gone. Not a single trace that they ever existed. I've seen Barry in the background of news broadcasts all over the world and Lucas' face in newspapers from before he was born, but Dawn's just… gone." Cynthia opened her eyes, directing a fiery glare at Blue. "Do not dare accuse me of indifference, Blue Oak. I wanted with all my heart to help those children but there is nothing that can be done in the face of the gods."

Blue stood in stunned silence for a little bit, blinking away shock. "Okay. I'm sorry."

"Good." Cynthia closed her eyes again, her head tilting downwards. "I can't just… let it happen again."

"Look, you're not going to ruin my life by letting me do this," Finn said. "Nothing that could happen in there would change what happens to me. The only issue is that I might fail."

"But they could-," Steven began, only to stop. "How could – oh. Oh. I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. I came to terms with it a long time ago." Finn took a deep breath. "I can do it. I've fought their best fighters before – and not in pokémon battles. They might have gotten stronger since then, but so have I. I want to make a difference, and this is the best way to do that."

"Still…" Lance began, only to trail off.

He never got to finish the thought, because at that point a muffled explosion shook the room. The lights flickered for a few moments before stabilizing.

Zane's eyes went wide and he shared a look with Athena Ferris. "Was that..?"

"No. Let's go." Finn's mother grabbed a pokéball and started for the door.

Despite the rush that quickly superseded the previous foul mood and the fact that his mother was the first to act, Finn was the first one through the door. He slammed it open and released Crai into the hallway beyond. The gardevoir linked minds with him for a brief moment then nodded, pointing one direction. Finn and Crai darted off down the hallway, and he could hear the others not that far behind.

After several sharp turns, Finn came to the source of the explosion. It had to be. Outside the door to Nik's lab were four figures. Three were practically identical, with dark garb covering all but their eyes and arms. They had pale skin and a mane of white hair, and each of them was holding some kind of weapon. One was kneeling in front of the door to Nik's lab, attempting to disengage the mechanical lock. All three whipped their heads towards Finn as soon as he turned the corner.

The fourth individual was towering in stature, with broad shoulders and a bulky physique. Their right shoulder was rounded more than was normal for a human, which made sense since their arm wasn't human. While their left arm seemed normal – albeit with absurd musculature – the right arm was cylindrical. It ended in a tube reminiscent of the end of a cannon, with elongated claws poking out of the end. A fire burned atop the individual's head, which matched the almost literal fire burning in their orange eyes. They had a black bodysuit tailored to their unique physiology, and the attached mask covered the bottom half of their face. Finn recognized that glare regardless.

The cannon arm raised to point at Finn.

Finn raised both arms quickly, summoning a king's shield just as a stream of fire hit him. Crai acted immediately, grabbing a pokéball from Finn's belt and releasing the pokémon within. Athena erupted into action instantly, sliding in front of Finn to add her own barrier to his.

Despite her assistance, Finn could feel his shield failing.

"Xollen, light screen!"

"Telzos, assist!"

A shining pink wall of psychic energy formed just past the king's shield, allowing Finn to lower his arms and let the energy dissipate.

"Crai, take us to the other side!" Finn shouted over the roaring flames.

"Can't teleport in here!" Crai shouted back.

"Just try!"

Crai closed his eyes, and in a blink of psychic energy they were on the other side of the hallway.

A pair of daggers whistled through the air, stopped only by Athena's quick movements. The ninjas holding those daggers both recoiled from the sudden stops, moving in unison to slip backwards. The one on the right pulled a small piece of paper from within his clothes and slapped it onto Athena's blade. Athena went limp instantly.

Finn flicked his right hand out flat, creating a quartet of shadowy claws on his fingertips. He slashed out at the ninja that had incapacitated Athena, who was so shocked to see him do this that the spectral claws nicked his cheek. Finn felt resistance, indicating that there was something there that was stronger than a normal aura. The follow up missed entirely, the ninja leaning out of range.

The other ninja took the opportunity to pull a small capsule from within his clothes and toss it in Finn's face. Finn closed his eyes and raised his left arm as the capsule exploded into dust. As a reflex, Finn turned his skin to steel. Two light clinks at different points on his skin indicated this was the right choice.

Finn turned intangible to allow the dust to pass and opened his eyes. The ninjas had both backed away a bit, looking at each other. On the other side, a blastoise was counteracting the hybrid's flamethrower with a hydro pump. Red was standing next to the water type, his pokédex up to scan. The third ninja, the one at the door, was rapidly typing away at a device plugged into the keypad.

"I can't get anything on these guys" Crai said telepathically, his hands up and glowing. "And I can't use any fairy type moves effectively in this heat. They'll fizzle."

"Get creative," Finn muttered through his teeth, phasing back into solidity as the dust fell to the floor.

The ninjas came at him with their daggers again, swapping back and forth. When one darted in, the other would back out of his reach. The two moved with eerie silence, their coordination seemingly instinctual.

With a mechanical hum, the door to the airlock that separated Nik's lab from the rest of the League HQ opened. The ninja dropped the device he was using to hack the door and stepped forwards-

A pink flash and an object appeared under his foot, and the ninja stepped down on the misshapen thing. A wet, pitiful scream emitted, followed by a splat as the ninja was struck in the face by a blob of brown. The ninja stumbled backwards, wiping chocolate pudding from his eyes. The distraction was enough for a massive blast of electricity to strike him in the chest, sending him flying into the hybrid. The hybrid cut off its flamethrower as its ally slammed into it. The other two ninjas backed up, daggers raised as they fell into a tighter formation.

Finn took the opportunity to remove the cleanse tag from Athena, allowing her to raise off the ground and float at Finn's side.

"Fuck this, we're getting out of here," The hybrid snarled. He levelled his cannon arm at Finn. "Fuck you."

The fireball that launched out was little more than a formality, as the instant it left the end of the hybrid's arm there was a pink glow around the four Plasma operatives. Finn blocked the attack with a quick king's shield. Then, in a flash, they were gone. Teleported away. The only evidence they were there was the hacking device, the cleanse tag, a small pile of dust, and scorch marks on the walls floor and ceiling.

"Oh, so that's what Bastion meant by the thing with the chocolate pudding," Athena said.

Finn stifled a snort, waving his right hand as he dispersed the shadow claw. He stepped forwards to look into the lab. Nik was in there, dressed in something other than her protective gear for once. They were wearing loose-fitting clothes in drab colors. Tucked under one arm was some kind of improvised cannon, connected via a large metal cord to the computers behind them. Gauss the vikavolt was hovering over their shoulder, electricity crackling between its mandibles. Nik lowered the cannon as Finn peeked through the doorway.

"They tried to take my designs again!" Nik dropped the weapon on the ground, running both hands through their hair. "Again!"

"Hey, it's okay," Finn soothed. "We stopped them."

"What if they show up again? What if they try to steal my stuff again?"

"Then we'll stop them again," A soft voice said. Finn looked over to see Red stepping closer. Red glanced down at his pokédex, then showed it to Nik. "They brute-forced the teleportation block, probably using that magmortar hybrid's raw power. That was probably the power surge we experienced. If you could beef up the teleport blocker, they won't be able to get in again. They didn't deploy a porygon or rotom to hack the lock, so your systems are probably safe."

"Okay. Okay. Thank you." Nik took a deep breath, then nodded. "I'll go get to that."

Nik turned and walked back into the lab, stopping only to pick up the cannon and drag it back to the spot it was plugged in.

Red glanced over at Finn, then showed him the screen of the pokédex. It was an in-depth analysis of the hybrid, highlighting which parts were human and which were pokémon. A list of known moves scrolled down one side, with several highlighted in red. Finn realized after a moment that those were the moves that magmortar didn't learn naturally, including the likes of teleport and thunder but also a few that were more bizarre, including signal beam. The top of the screen had a blank space, with a blinking cursor to indicate it was selected. That was the name section.

"Darrell," Finn said. "His name is Darrell. When you send the information to Professor Oak or whoever, that's the name of this hybrid."

Red nodded, typing away at his pokédex for a little bit before he returned it to his pocket. The enigmatic trainer walked back down the hallway towards the war room, stopping on the way. The other champions were all there, somewhat crowded into the hallway. Red gestured towards Finn, then pushed his way through.

Finn shrugged, Athena floating up to one shoulder while Crai stood at the other. "As I said, I can handle myself."

O-O-O

The infiltration team appeared outside the door with a flash of pink light. The shadow triad all moved in unison, heading towards the door and entering the tunnel that led to the base. Darrell just stood there, flames flickering over his whole body for several minutes. The cave around him lit up brighter than it had probably ever been, a blackened mark on the floor slowly growing out from the epicenter. The young man pointed his cannon arm straight upwards, and a blast of fire erupted and slammed into the ceiling. Fire shifted to electricity, then to shimmering psychic energy, then the bright lights of signal beam, and lastly to a rush of raw power channeled into a hyper beam before the energy finally petered out. The hybrid stood panting in the middle of the chamber.

Renard was mildly thankful that he no longer had sweat glands. That would make the skin-tight suit extremely uncomfortable in this heat. Given that he no longer had skin either, the negatives outweighed the positives.

"I take it the mission went poorly?" Renard asked rhetorically.

"He was there. Right away. So much for slipping in undetected." Darrell pulled down his facemask and spat on the stone floor. Renard saw flecks of red in the saliva. "Fucking hero complex. He ran right at us, blocked a full-force flamethrower for ten seconds, then teleported behind me. The shadows held him off, but then the electric elite hit one of the shadows with some kind of lightning gun."

-"Did you manage to retrieve anything of use?"- Mono asked. Just being near the ghost made Renard's skin crawl. Well, membrane.

"No. They showed up too quickly for us to get anything. Would have been able to get something if you'd just lent us that porygon." Darrell shot a glare at Renard, but he ignored it.

"I have told you. Trojan has just as much of a chance of destroying anything useful as they do acquiring information," Renard lied smoothly. "And while leaving a section of Nik Tesser's research destroyed could be useful to us, it would be more useful to us intact."

"Yeah whatever." Darrell ran his left hand through his hair, only to recoil as he touched only flames. "Fuck, keep forgetting about that."

-"You'll get used to it,"- Mono said with some amusement. -"Or perhaps not. When this is all over, you can return to being a human."-

"Fuck that. I feel powerful like this. Much better than being human." Darrell flexed, showing off his enhanced musculature. Renard remembered him being muscular even before being fused with his magmortar, but there was a notable improvement. Although that might also be because of the near-constant training Darrell did. It was to the exclusion of almost anything else.

-"Hm. So be it."- Mono turned away from the young hybrid, his expression unreadable. Or it would be for anyone else. Renard could see he was disturbed.

"I'm heading in." Darrell stomped past the two, the heat intensifying for a few moments as he did. "I need to train."

Both Mono and Renard watched Darrell leave. After a moment they shared a look.

It was… unexpected to have Mono "coincidentally" be in the same places he was at almost all times. The ghost hybrid unsettled him. How much of that was due to the inherent nature of Mono's hybridization and how much could be attributed to Mono's intense demeanor was hard to tell. It seemed like Mono wanted to tell him something, but Renard wasn't quite certain what it was supposed to be. It made him nervous.

"Well." Renard cleared his throat – an unnecessary action, given his altered physiology – and shrugged. "I suppose we should - did you see that?"

Both hybrids whipped their heads towards the far end of the chamber. There was a tunnel there, meant to be used to access the secret entrance to Plasma HQ. Not everyone could teleport, after all. But there had been a hint of movement in the shadows.

-"See what?"- Mono asked carefully, narrowing his eye. He followed Renard's gaze. –"Hmm…"

"One moment…" Renard closed his eyes and held one hand up to the side of his helmet, twisting a dial. His psychic senses expanded in range massively, bouncing off of the shielded metal behind him but flooding down every twisting tunnel.

And he found a boy. Not even fifteen. Scared. He had seen them there. Seen Darrell's outburst and heard his words. The boy was running away, heading up tunnels that he recognized in a bid to escape.

Renard turned the dial back, returning to his body. He looked over to Mono.

"Nothing. Couldn't sense anything," Renard lied.

-"Hmm…"- The pupil of Mono's eye swelled, then shrank to a pinprick as it tracked something in the distance. Through walls. With a pang of fear, Renard realized that the other hybrid was seeing the boy's movements.

And then, Mono's eye refocused into the room and he looked at Renard.

-"Must have been a dark type,"- Mono lied. He had to be lying. There was no way he hadn't figured out what he was seeing with those supernatural senses of his.

"Er, yes. Indeed. Zhat would be why I could not sense eet." Renard swallowed, taking a deep breath to calm himself. His accent was acting up again. Blast it all.

-"Nothing to worry about, I'm sure."- Mono glanced out into the darkness again. –"I must go. I have… business to attend to."-

"Yes, I do too." Renard nodded. "I will see you… some time."

-"Likewise"-

Renard turned and headed back inside, moving quickly. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that interaction. He couldn't fight Mono. Not under any circumstances. They'd sparred before, after becoming hybrids. Mono had handily bested him, using weird techniques that defied any logic or reason. Psychics were capable of serious reality alteration, but that was nothing compared to a ghost type of the highest caliber. Which Mono was. If Mono went after that poor adolescent, there was no way Renard could stop him.

All he could do was hope that Mono would be merciful.

He shook his head, heading through the halls to the power center of the Plasma Headquarters. There was a massive generator in there, geothermal to make use of the volcanic nature of the Dragon's Peak. But he didn't particularly care about that. He was more interested in something else in that room.

Renard slipped past grunts and lower-level Sequenced combatants, ignoring them. He held both seniority and authority over them, and since none of them were hybrids there was no chance they could face him in combat if it ever came to that. It wouldn't though. They had no reason to try and fight him or doubt that he was anything but a high-level operative for Team Plasma. He was one of the first Sequenced, one of the first hybrids, and Lord Ghetsis trusted him with crucial information.

Ugh, Lord Ghetsis. The people of Kalos had a long history of beheading people who called themselves lords. Renard was too cowardly to do the deed himself, but he would be lying if he said he would be upset with Ghetsis' head being separated from his shoulders.

Oh how Renard wished he had the courage to do anything near that much.

Instead he was reduced to subterfuge. Well, reduced was the wrong term. Returned, perhaps. He had been very good at it some ten years ago. His forced retirement had really ruined most of his edge, but he was still sharp enough to cut when mishandled. And oh boy had Ghetsis rubbed him the wrong way.

Renard entered the power center and immediately leaned back, the mechanisms in his helmet going haywire for a moment. He reached up to the back of his head and fumbled with the catch, flipping the helmet off before he stepped in properly. It would still keep his senses restrained to the normal five in its powered off state, but now it wouldn't be ruined by the static.

He stepped around the massive generator to see the source of the static in the air. With her back to him was Dua, her tails plugged in to a massive battery of some kind. Cyril had designed and constructed it herself, calling it a waste of her talent. Some talent it was, inventing weapons. Making horrible things like misshapen clones and crippled hybrids because she couldn't figure out how Colress did it. But she could create a fully-functioning robot designed exclusively to kill. That thing had to be taken down before it started murdering grunts.

After a few moments, the static in the air slowly diminished. Dua started breathing heavily, pulling a lever to disengage her tails from the machine. She stepped away, picking up a water bottle and pouring it over her head. Her yellow hair and fur flattened, but she let out a sigh of relief. Only then did Dua turn around to see Renard.

"Oh! Hi!" Dua smiled, setting down the water bottle. "Renard! I was just about to go find you."

"Hello Dua." Renard inclined his head in a gesture of greeting. He was smiling himself, but there was no way for her to see it through his helmet. "How are you doing?"

"Tired, honestly," Dua said. "My medicine makes me tired, and I have to dump all my charge into the battery to power the electrical thingy. But if you're up for it, I have enough juice to go have some of the nice rations?"

"Dua…" Renard sighed. "Please, after this whole thing is over… once things have calmed down, I'll go on a date. But until then, we just don't have the time or resources for it. Okay?"

"Yeah, okay…" Dua nodded. "But it was worth a try, right?"

"I… suppose so." Renard hesitated. "Have you ever thought about whether what Team Plasma's doing is okay?"

"Um. Weird question." Dua furrowed her brow. "No, not really. Why?"

Renard sighed again. He liked Dua. He really did. He wasn't sure if a relationship with her was ever going to work out, but he did enjoy her company as a friend. But she was oblivious. She thought the best of everyone, and had no sense of skepticism. She was also extremely dangerous, a skilled close quarters fighter with absurd reflexes and speed. A horrible combination, given it had landed her in this situation. It was endearing, though.

"Dua, I want you to listen closely." Renard looked around, then lifted one hand to form a nearly invisible psychic wall around them. It would block the sound of anything he said. Hopefully. "Are you part of the 'honor guard' that Ghetsis has assigned to defend him?"

"Yes." Dua nodded. "I was really excited when I heard about it. Me, you, my brother and sister, and Darrell. Some of my favorite people. And Darrell."

"Right. Well. I… I have reason to believe that we'll have to fight. I don't know who yet, but I have some suspicions. We're going to need to fight someone, or multiple someones." Renard paused to make sure she had taken in the information. "When we do, I want you to find the earliest opportunity to get out of there. There's a chance you could be hurt, and if you are then Ghetsis and Cyril will not try to help you. I'm going to find a way out of conflict the instant I get the chance, and I want you to do so as well."

"Huh." Dua chuckled. "That's funny. Mono told me something similar."

"He what?" Renard blinked rapidly, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, he said that if I see Finnegan, I should only put up a token effort to fight back." Dua grinned. "I mean, it'll be fun. I hear he has an aegislash now, and he was really good at fighting when I saw him last time. It'll be cool. But I don't want to hurt him. He's just a kid."

"He said Finnegan's going to be here?" Renard asked. "How does he know?"

"I dunno. Didn't ask." Dua shrugged. "But he seemed pretty certain."

"Oh." Renard tilted his head back, closing his eyes. "Dammit. He was trying to help me." He looked at Dua. "You cannot tell anyone about what we talked about here. If you do, people could die. I'm not going to ask you to fight your sister or Darrell or anyone, but I want to avoid deaths. Okay?"

"You can rely on me." Dua gave him a thumbs up.

"Thank you, Dua. That's a relief." Renard let out a shuddering breath. "This is quite a weight off my chest."

"Aww, anything for you Renard." Dua reached out with lightning speed and wrapped Renard in a hug. He winced, not just at the suddenness but also at the pain of his altered physiology being squeezed. He pat her on the back anyways.

He had done everything he could. All he could hope was that the people on the other side could hold their own long enough to take Ghetsis down.

---

A/N:

Even in Ghetsis' inner circle there are those who see him for what he is.

I don't know how long the next part of the story is going to be, but I want it to be climactic. In order to make that work, I'm going to write the next few chapters, then post them all at once. It may take me a couple weeks to get it done, but it will be done.

If there are any questions, be sure to either leave a review or shoot me a PM. If it's a big enough problem/plot hole, I'll probably go back and edit it to make sure it works.

EDIT:

Because it can be hard to keep track of who's who, I'm including a list of important characters, their current and previous roles in the story, and any named/important pokémon they have. This list will by no means be comprehensive, as even I may forget a character or one of their pokémon. Canon characters will just be listed with brief descriptions, without their teams as those are easily accessible on a wiki like Bulbapedia. Finn will also not be on the list at all.

Without further ado:

*Ratherian - A gallade who deposited all of his memories into Finn's mind. Former assassin. Following fate.

*Darrell Leifeld - Finn's childhood bully. Currently Team Plasma elite. Hybridized with a magmortar.

Team:

Christine - Roserade

Shiva - Medicham

Set - Flygon

Khione - Froslass

Rose - Probopass

Vulcan - Magmortar

*Anthony Nelson - A teen who Finn met shortly before defeating the normal type gym. Ace trainer.

Team:

Ares - Machamp

Hermes - Skarmory

Janus - Girafarig

Hecate - Mismagius. Bullied Finn for years.

Hades - Houndoom

Poseidon - Golisopod, shiny

*Ada - Normal type Gym Leader. Currently kidnapped.

*Heather - Flying type Gym Leader. Currently kidnapped.

*Carsen - Psychic type Gym Leader. Holed up in his Library.

Team:

Merlin - Kadabra

Librarian - Oranguru

Archive - Sigilyph. Known to be far older than Carsen. Possibly not a sigilyph.

*Terrance - The actual ground type Gym Leader. Currently kidnapped.

*Lorenzo - Bug type Gym Leader. Currently in Galar on 'vacation'.

Team:

Cleopatra - Vespiquen

A ton of other bugs of various species.

*Athena Ferris - Finn's mother. Steel type Gym Leader. Notorious for being an unforgiving and extremely skilled battler.

Team:

Xollen - Metagross

Kasparov - Bisharp

Clarent - Aegislash, shiny

*Daniel Blake A.K.A. Dracul - Dark type Gym Leader. Mayor of the city of Oplens. Close personal friend of the Ferris family. Spymaster.

Team:

Maria - Zoroark. Daniel's wife.

Eddy - Greninja

Lumin - Malamar

*Tyson - Ice type Elite Four member.

Team:

Boreas - Aurorus

Cream - Vanilluxe

*Aelius - Former rock star. Fire type Elite Four member. Darrell's grandfather.

Team:

Loretta - Salazzle

*Nik - Genius with technology. Electric type Elite Four member.

Team:

Alter - Xurkitree

Gauss - Vikavolt

*Lee - Martial artist. Fighting type Elite Four member. Probably a spy for Team Plasma.

Team:

Hitmonlee

Medicham

*Zane Ferris A.K.A. Tanner - Finn's father. Former champion of Toreta. Hid his identity from the public whilst in the champion role. World famous pokémon breeder.

Team:

Napoleon - Grumpig

Fezzick - Alakazam

Cookie - Scrafty

Sparks - Lucario. Was Finn's pokemon from the ages of four to eight.

Miles - Milotic

Darling - Lopunny, mega

Registeel

*Red - An enigmatic trainer who seems to know everything about pokémon. Former champion of Kanto. Best friends with Blue.

*Blue - Current Gym Leader of Viridian City in Kanto. Former champion of Kanto. Best friends with Red.

*Lance - Dragon master. Current champion of Kanto.

*Steven - Geologist. Former champion of Hoenn. Has a mega metagross.

*Cynthia - Current champion of Sinnoh.

*Iris - Current champion of Unova. Has dealt with Team Plasma in the past.

*Renard Martin - Former spy for the Kalosian government. Reluctant member of Team Plasma. Hybridized with a reuniclus.

Team:

Meobus - Reuniclus

Trojan - Porygon Z

*Mono Numer - Former ghost type Gym Leader. Priest of the church of Arceus. Elite of Team Plasma. Oldest of the Numer siblings. Hybridized with a dusknoir.

Team:

Thanatos - Dusknoir

Autumn - Phantump, shiny

Hack - Rotom

*Dua Numer - Team Plasma elite. Middle child of the Numer siblings. Hybridized with an electivire.

Team:

Circuit - electivire

*Trinity Numer - Former ground type Gym Leader. Youngest of the Numer siblings. Elite of Team Plasma. Hybridized with a rhyperior.

Team:

Tremor - Rhyperior

*Cyril - A mad scientist who want to make dangerous weapons and little else. She has no qualms hurting people. Currently hybridized with a metagross.

*The Shadow Triad - Extremely loyal followers of Ghetsis. All three are a bit more than human. Ninjas.

*Colress - A scientist who aims to maximize the potential inherent in pokémon. Currently locked in a cell for protesting against human experimentation.

*Ghetsis - A terrorist leader known for leading Team Plasma in the Unova region. Currently working his plans in Toreta.

*N - Former king of Team Plasma, though there are those who still follow him. Chosen hero of Zekrom (at least in this story). Recently seen in Toreta, though his current wherabouts are unknown.