The Robber Stoppers
Devon Corp.'s main production lab looked much more sophisticated from the outside than the main building did. The five-storey building was the type of glass-panelled, sharp-angled, shiny, chrome establishment that they'd originally imagined. The windows had gone dark and amber-like in the hard light of the setting sun. The group had been split into an afternoon shift and an evening shift, so it was only now that Tyson, Ray and Kai were approaching the main laboratory.
At the front doors there were already two people waiting for them. One was the woman they'd met earlier with Steven, who'd been introduced as Emily, a lab assistant in the main labs (Tyson was still convinced that she was a spy). Mimi accompanied her, as she always seemed to. Standing next to them was a girl they hadn't met before. She looked like she had just come from school with her pale-coloured shirt, light blue pleated skirt and dark stockings. A deep red bag with a black strap hung from her shoulder that looked more like a handbag than a travelling bag but its heavy-duty zippers and the clips for Pokéballs belied the fancy veneer. At her side stood a blue and yellow wolf-like creature, looking serious and alert.
"That creature…" Ray murmured, looking into his Pokédex, "We saw it at the Pretty Petal Flower Shop with Team Magma."
"Manectric, the discharge Pokémon. It uses its mane to collect electricity from its surroundings and discharge it. This causes thunderclouds to appear in its vicinity and drop lightning bolts."
Ray glanced over the infobox that appeared on the screen. "It says it's also an electric-type – well, I guess that was kind of obvious – so do you think it's fast?" He looked at Kai and Tyson in turn and neither of them missed the excited gleam in his eye.
"Heh! Figures that'd be what you care about," Tyson said, giving him a cheeky grin.
The new girl's brown hair was up in a ponytail that swung almost like a real tail when she turned to them. She smiled and waved, putting the bladers at ease with her friendly gesture. In any case, it certainly beat working with a jerk.
"Glad you could make it," Emily beamed. "And on time too. In a few minutes you'll go into the building and relieve the current team from duty but before that I'm going to give you another brief."
The girl cleared her throat, looking indiscreetly between Emily and the boys who'd just arrived. Emily stared at her quizzically but then started as she remembered. "Oh! Right. These boys are Kai, Ray and Tyson; they'll be working with you on this job. Boys, this is Elain."
"Nice to meet you," she said, a little shyly.
"So, remember what you were briefed on earlier today, right?" Emily instructed, getting right down to business. "Five storeys on this building and the first is just the lobby and admin stuff, not much worth protecting there. Each of you is going to an upper floor to join forces with regular security. They'll be doing their regular jobs but we have you down as a 'high alert' special force, patrolling the floor while the regular team mans the surveillance. They'll be in constant contact and your job is to act quickly if there's even a scent of suspicious activity in the lab, so be on your toes!"
"Right!" Elain interjected enthusiastically. "Count on me!"
"Good." Emily checked her watch. "The others are on duty until they're relieved and it's almost changeover time. If you're not ready now, don't suppose you ever will be, so I'll let you go. Remember which floor you were assigned to this morning, find the previous trainer and swap equipment with them. I'm sure nothing drastic is likely to happen tonight but good luck with your duty. See you tomorrow morning!"
It sounded overly official, hearing Emily refer to their friends as 'trainers' when she knew they were a travelling group but the bladers figured that it might have been for Elain's benefit. They voiced their understanding of their orders, no further questions needed to be asked. Emily handed all of them their personal temporary access badge and they headed inside. She waved them goodbye and the Meowstic purred approvingly as she waved too. Friendly human words suddenly popped into their heads: "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be fine." The bladers all started at the sudden psychic intrusion but Elain merely turned around and thanked Mimi. The Pokémon smiled and turned away to follow Emily back to the main headquarters.
"It's nice to meet you," Ray said, coming up next to Elain. "I hope we work well together. Have you done this kind of job before?"
"Several times," Elain replied happily. "Good pro-tip for a job like this is to keep one of your Pokémon out of its ball, especially one that you think will be of most help. That way you're instantly prepared if anything happens suddenly."
"That is pretty good advice," Ray nodded, releasing Treecko. Elain suddenly halted, staring at the little starter in disbelief.
"That's the Pokémon you want to have out? Are you sure you're qualified for this job?"
"The only qualification they said we needed was to be a trainer," Tyson piped up, letting his Shroomish out. Even he was already getting the hang of type advantage. "Besides, they don't think anything serious will happen so we'll probably just wander around in the dark until morning."
Elain pursed her lips. "Don't you have more powerful Pokémon than these?"
"Don't worry!" Tyson assured her, grinning widely. "These guys have taken on Team Aqua before! Well, not this guy specifically," he pointed to his Shroomish, "but we know what we're up against."
"Okay…" Elain said sceptically. "I'll be on the first floor if you run into any trouble up there."
Ray smiled awkwardly at her lack of faith. Tyson glared at her with a pout as she and Ray headed towards the stairs. He and Kai had the upper two storeys so they split off to take the elevators.
"Don't worry about us," he muttered sourly. "We'll handle it just fine."
Tyson yawned. It was really late at night and nothing had happened all evening. Despite the classy outer finishes the interior was quite boring. It was all just plain halls hosting doors that led to either labs or offices. They each had a flashlight, a radio that occasionally crackled with voices (mostly just the banter from the regular security team in their monitoring booth) and a PokéNav-like device that received information from the security system. He'd mostly had to figure it out by himself, since when Mari handed him the equipment she simply patted him on the back, told him he'd do fine and hurried off to report to someone, hopefully Steven himself.
His Shroomish suddenly head-butted him in the butt, sending him sprawling. For some reason he kept insisting on doing that every now and again. Tyson only had him out on Elain's advice but he was considering just returning him.
"Would you stop doing that?" he snapped. "Seriously, Shoom, what is your problem?"
Shroomish just snorted and waddled off ahead of him. Tyson grumbled and got to his feet, rubbing his aching butt again. His Shroomish paced the narrow corridor in front of him, meandering back and forth agitatedly. Tyson frowned at this, thinking perhaps he was just upset that he was in an environment he wasn't used to. He continued the anxious behaviour as they made their umpteenth circuit of the fourth floor and as they passed one of the lab doors a low, rumbly sound started emanating from Shroomish's globular body.
"What's your problem now?" Tyson asked sardonically. "Are you a dog?"
Shroomish didn't let up. He paced in front of the doors. He didn't like this place, where everything was quiet and the wind came out of little vents that hummed like bug Pokémon wings. He thought that there might actually be bug Pokémon trapped in the canopy. Oh well, serves them right for getting stuck in there in the first place. His ears weren't especially good by Pokémon standards and he was used to picking the vibrations beneath his feet. The stiff floor in this place was unnaturally sensitive to vibration since most of it wasn't dampened by soft soil. Their footsteps had been joined by a second set of shuffles.
Tyson was about to ask Shroomish another question but he cut himself off when he heard a murmur. It was followed by a slap and angry whispering. Tyson peered through the frosted glass on the door, squinting to see through the dimness behind it. The only lights on anywhere in the building were the security lights but then there was suddenly a yellow beam streaking across the lab. He gasped and fumbled with his equipment, searching for the radio.
"Hey, guys!" his whispered into the mouthpiece. "I think there's something weird going on up here."
The radio hissed and crackled. It took a few seconds for anyone to respond but when they did it was Elain's voice he heard first.
"What do you mean by 'weird'?"
"What do you think I mean?!" Tyson growled, keeping his voice low. "There's someone in one of the labs up here! Where's the usual security?"
"I haven't heard from them in over an hour," Ray said, voice breaking up a bit in the transmission.
"Something's up," Elain added. "Security office is on my floor, I'll check on them. In the meantime, confront those suspicious guys."
"C-confront them?!" Tyson exclaimed.
"Yeah! That's why we were hired," Elain replied with a 'no duh' tone.
"I'm going to double-check my floor and look for any way they could have gotten up there without us knowing," Ray decided. "Kai will head up there to back you up. I bet he's doing that right now, aren't you, Kai?"
There was a brief, crackly sound that Tyson guessed was Kai's usual grunt of noncommittal before the radio petered out. He gulped. Turning to his Shroomish didn't give him any more courage. The little beast was glaring at him with his sharp frown and generally grumpy expression. That's the face he usually wore by default. Geez, why couldn't Kai have wound up with this Pokémon? They'd probably get along.
"Okay, buddy, are you ready for this?" he asked. Shroomish glared at him. He was still quite inept at understanding human speech beyond the basic commands he'd learned in the past twenty-four hours but he could read the mood and recognised a serious conversation at hand. Perhaps the humans had also sensed the extra company and were thinking of a way to deal with it. Or maybe they were discussing getting him a new leaf stone to replace the one they stole (he could hope). "We're gonna jump in and confront the hell out of whoever is poking around in there, so get ready to fight."
Shroomish puffed up. 'Fight' was a word he understood. Tyson put his hand on the door handle and with an extra deep breath he flung the door open.
"Stop right there!" he shouted, channelling all of the knowledge he'd gained from watching cops and robbers crime dramas. He swept the beam from his torch across the lab. It was a big, empty engineering lab, full of the skeletal shadows of machinery for building delicate electronics. The light eventually landed on a pair in dark striped shirts and dark pants; one was rifling through the drawers of a special filing cabinet for large documents, the other was downloading something from one of the two desktop computers. "Hands where I can see them! Tell me who you are and what you're doing here!"
"You again?!" the nasally-voiced woman growled.
"That should be my line!" Tyson retorted, recognising their faces.
Josie grabbed something out of the drawer she was looking through and slammed it shut. Jake got up from the computer chair with his Pokéball at the ready.
"Don't think we're lettin' ya interfere with us again!" Jake sneered in his brutish accent. "Poliwhirl, go! Use Hypnosis!"
The lab lit up briefly with the flash from Poliwhirl's release. It landed wetly on the floor and pushed its belly out, emitting a mysterious pink ray from the swirl. Shroomish hopped to the side a couple of times, getting out of the ray's wave of influence. At Tyson's order he charged in to land a Tackle and knocked Poliwhirl off its feet.
Off the side and slightly behind them, Josie rolled up the documents she was holding. She ripped Jake's USB out of the port, interrupting the download. There were no escape routes that she could see immediately. This lab was surrounded on all sides by the building, so windows were out of the question. There was, however, one more door on the other side of the room.
"Jake, don't get caught up with this brat!" she snapped, running over to the second exit. "Let's leave before they get backup!"
She pulled the other door open, revealing a blue-haired teen with a white scarf. One hand was reaching for the door handle. The other arm was cradling a sleepy, egg-shaped Pokémon that had absolutely refused to go an entire night without her trainer. The Seedot at his side rattled. Josie leaped back in alarm and in an expert sweep, released her Corphish.
"Bubble attack!"
Corphish blew its powerful bubbles. Kai ordered Seedot to Bide and he had already hunkered down by the time the attack reached him.
"Vice Grip!" Josie shouted. Corphish charged forward, claws open.
"Unleash!" Kai commanded. Seedot rammed Corphish with the power of its own attack doubled. It was sent flying over the floor and crashed into a desk. The equipment on top wobbled and rattled with the disturbance.
"Hey!" Tyson exclaimed. On his end, Poliwhirl was now struggling to perform a solid Double Slap after being showered with Stun Spore. "Shouldn't we be careful in here? The lab equipment is really important."
"Who cares!" Jake growled, commanding Poliwhirl to use Hypnosis just as Shroomish was charging in for a tackle. This time the ray hit and Shroomish's vision became blurry. He thought that Poliwhirl's swirl was turning – it was the only thing he could see clearly. His eyelids drooped and he fell straight to sleep. Tyson didn't need to be told that this was bad. "Now get outta our way! Water Gun!"
Poliwhirl blasted Tyson with the powerful jet of water that moved so fast it stung upon impact. Tyson was thrown right out the door he came through and slammed into the wall. Josie returned Corphish and leaped over the lab desks. Kai was hot on her trail but she was fast enough to stay ahead of him. Jake dragged Poliwhirl with him as the two of them managed to dash past Tyson.
"Get your Pokémon and hurry up!" Kai scolded, running past with Seedot scurrying after him as fast as his little feet could carry him.
"I'm going, jerk!" Tyson yelled at him. He rushed back into the room to grab Shroomish and was out of there in seconds, tailing Kai.
Down on the lower floors, Elain listened intently to the radio and the crackling sounds of commands being given in battle. The regular security team was sound asleep in their office and their card keys were missing. Elain raised the radio to her lips.
"Ray? Still listening?"
"Yeah," Ray's voiced fizzed back. "I feel like I should be up there helping them."
"Find out how they got in first! The security team is knocked out." She listened carefully to the background noise hissing through the radio. Someone on Tyson's end yelled out a move. "Hypnosis…"
"What?" Ray said.
"A Pokémon move," Elain explained. "Puts the target into a deep sleep. They'll just have to sleep it out."
"It sounds like they're getting away," Ray gasped. "I'm going up."
"Wait! No point in that unless you do your job first!"
"I can't find their way in! The elevator hasn't budged from where it was left at the top floor. They must have taken the stairs but the security would have seen them if they did and the alarm on the doors for the emergency stairs would have gone off if they'd come in that way."
Elain hummed thoughtfully, glancing at the two men in security uniforms before her. One of them was leaning over the back of his chair and the other had fallen to the floor, both snoring. They had three possible routes and three possible exits. She was beginning to see how they might have evaded them on the way in.
"Ray, listen to me!" she barked, formulating the plan on the fly. "The way we are now it'll be almost impossible to block them off completely if we all just focus on going up there."
"Do you have a plan?"
"Take the emergency staircase," Elain instructed. "Only the outer doors are armed so you should be fine. I'll take care of the elevators and follow you up on the main stairs."
"Rodger."
Elain left the security team and dashed out of the small control room. Her Manectric growled questioningly and bounded after her on her way down the corridor. "Egbert, need your help to shut down the elevators."
Egbert snuffled in acknowledgement. They made it to the chamber holding the elevators for the first floor. Of the three sets of elevators to choose from, none of them had budged. Only one rested up on the fourth floor where Tyson had left it, the other two were safely on the ground floor. Elain pried one set of doors open. The pulleys in the shaft were still. She checked up and down, finding the box of the elevator below her. Sitting on top of it, next to the reels and wheels, was a little, folded piece of paper. She picked it up and unfolded it, smirking at what she found inside.
"Bingo," she murmured, tucking it in one of the pockets of her bag.
Upstairs, Jake and Josie made a bolt for the lifts. They didn't have time to take in the details as they rushed for them. Jake slammed his thumb on the button, hoping the elevator on the fourth floor would respond quickly. But nothing happened.
"Out of order?" Josie said, looking up to the number displays but they were blank. "Pry it open!"
Jake tried to push the doors apart but they remained firmly shut. Even with Josie's strength added they didn't budge.
"Jammed!" Jake exclaimed.
Josie's eye twitched. "Someone did their homework about this place."
"Stop!" Tyson shouted. He and Kai blocked off the hallway with Seedot jumping out in front and Shroomish under Tyson's arm. "There's nowhere to run now! You can be sure our friends are coming up to put you down."
"Har, har," Josie deadpanned. She grabbed onto Jake's wrist, looking down the second corridor branching off from the elevator area, beside the main staircase.
"Like we're gonna lose to kids!" Jake said. "Poliwhirl, Hypnosis!"
"Bullet Seed!" Kai ordered.
Seedot executed his move much faster and peppered Poliwhirl with stinging seeds. It groaned and toppled over, unable to lift itself back up. Jake returned it as Josie made a run for the second corridor.
"Main stairs are probably covered," she explained hurriedly. "If we can get to the emergency exit we can climb to the top and-"
"Don't think for a second I'll let you get that far," Ray interrupted, standing in the hall with Treecko crouched by his side. He had his arms folded and smirked triumphantly.
"We're blocked," Josie groaned under her breath.
"Heh, maybe not," Jake sneered, making Josie look at him confusedly. "Twerps don't seem the type to attack unprotected humans. I'll beat him outta the way!"
Jake lunged for Ray. Treecko snarled and leaped to his feet to attack but Ray got in front of him. He caught Jake's fist and twisted it. Then he went for a grapple that sent Jake spinning and dropped him on his back. Ray took a measured breath and stepped back, maintaining a fighting stance. Treecko stared at Ray wide-eyed and open-mouthed, raising his awe for his trainer to new heights.
"Don't underestimate me," Ray warned. "Even if I won't attack you with Treecko, that doesn't mean I won't attack you. The White Tiger village has defended itself for years with its own style of martial arts."
"Way to go, Ray!" Tyson congratulated him. He and Kai blocked off the other end of the corridor. Josie clutched the roll of papers tighter and Jake got back to his feet. "You guys are better off giving up at this point."
"Unlikely," Josie sassed, releasing her next Pokéball. Horsea flopped out, unable to move much without being surrounded by water. "Smokescreen!"
It didn't take long for Horsea to fill the narrow space with black smoke. Ray stepped forward to grab at Jake but felt air. Kai commanded Seedot to fire Bullet Seed into the cloud. There was no indication that it hit anything. Then retaliation came in the form of a bright, rainbow-coloured beam firing out of the smoke and hitting Seedot dead on. The nut-like Pokémon squealed and tumbled over the floor, pulling its legs up and shivering. While Tyson and Kai were momentarily distracted by that, Jake and Josie charged out of the smoke and tackled them, Josie slamming into Tyson while Jake took on Kai's heavier build. With that they had successfully muscled their way past the two and made a break for the main stairs.
Kai didn't let that stop him. He returned Seedot and called out Magikarp. "Use Bounce."
She propelled herself into the air and landed in front of the Team Aqua duo. She failed to hit anything (since Horsea was tucked under Josie's arms with the roll of papers) but it succeeded in making them pause. They turned around with peeved expressions.
"Magikarp?" Jake sighed. "You serious?"
"Dead serious," Kai replied.
Treecko was out in front of them, next to Magikarp in a flash. "We are not letting you leave the building with those documents," Ray said, taking a position next to Kai, ready to team up.
Jake harrumphed and took out a different Pokéball. This one was marked with a sticker of the Team Aqua logo. He released the Pokémon inside. A great light filled the room and lingered as it took shape as something very large. This new creature was a blue and tan ball with flippers and a wide, smiling mouth showing a large wall of white baleen. The bladers gaped at the sheer size of it; it was way bigger than any of them and yet it bounced like it was merely full of air.
"W-what is that?" Tyson asked, consulting his Pokédex.
"Wailmer, the ball whale Pokémon. While it usually lives in the sea, it can fill itself up with seawater and bounce on the shore like a ball. However, it cannot stay on land for long, as it loses vitality if it dries out. It is well known for its playfulness."
"Somehow, I don't think that should assure me in this context," Tyson muttered.
"Use Earthquake!" Jake ordered.
The Wailmer happily bounced about, causing the building to rock. The floor beneath them rippled and cracked, tearing up carpet. Dust slipped down the walls and out of the ceiling as plaster crumbled under pressure. Kai, Ray and Tyson all lost their footing but Jake and Josie seemed to have the hang of this, managing to sway with Wailmer's rhythm.
"Now Rollout on these little Pokémon!"
Wailmer ceased its bouncing and instantly began turning. Jake and Josie jumped out of the way, as did Treecko when the big ball-like Pokémon rolled towards them. Magikarp wasn't quite on the ball. She was tossed out of the way effortlessly and Wailmer tumbled into the stairwell, crashing into the wall on the landing. It made a bubbly, gurgling noise that sounded like laughter.
Team Aqua quickly raced into the stairwell, leaving the bladers who were still getting their bearings back after the Earthquake. Wailmer bounced after them. The stairwell was quite unconventional, going all the way down in a straight line with a landing at every floor (some pretentious design feature). Elain was already at the landing of the fourth floor, holding onto the handrail for dear life while Egbert was getting to his feet. She spotted Team Aqua and wasted no time.
"Don't let them get away! Discharge!" Manectric leaped up the steps.
"Aurora Beam!" Josie commanded her Horsea. It built up the light ball in front of its nose and fired it down the steps. Egbert jumped off a wall to dodge. The beam left a thin layer of ice and frost on the stairs it hit. The Manectric charged up and let out a wave of electricity. It snaked up the walls and rolled over the floor like a tsunami. The entire team was shocked, even the humans. Josie's spasms caused her to loosen her grip on the documents she was holding. Wailmer coughed and let out a huge wave of seawater that it had been holding in, sweeping Egbert back down the stairs and almost sweeping Elain off her feet too.
Treecko's Quick Attack smacked Wailmer from behind and the large Pokémon bounced uncontrollably down the stairs, rolling up the rest of the team with it. The papers slipped out of Josie's grasp. Treecko leaped onto the wall, scaled it a bit and jumped off to snare those documents. Elain and Egbert ducked as Wailmer bounced and rolled, taking the screaming grunts and Horsea with it. They fell all the way down the stairs, rebounding a bit at the last landing before tumbling out of the stairwell.
"Are they okay?" Ray asked, looking down the stairwell with concern.
"They got what was coming for them!" Tyson fumed, snorting like a bull.
"Yeah, but an experience like that can kill a person!" Ray argued. "At least, in our dimension it does."
"But hey, we at least stopped them from stealing the documents," Tyson said.
"What do you mean 'at least'?" Elain called up the stairs, approaching them with her Manectric, who seemed to be alright.
"They were downloading something as well," Kai supplied.
Elain shrugged. "Wouldn't worry about it. The electric attack would have fried any electronic device they had on them, or at the very least scrambled all the data. They probably won't be able to recover anything."
"Shouldn't we be going down there and making sure they're not dead?" Ray asked. The other stared at him. "Or at the very least not getting away?"
"Don't worry," Elain assured them with a snap of her fingers. "Pressed the panic button when I checked on the security team. If they're getting away via the lobby, the police will snap them up. Good work, gentlemen." Elain patted the shoulder of the nearest boy she could reach, who happened to be Ray. "Guess I underestimated you guys. If you're that good with basic Pokémon like that, you must have heaps of potential."
"Who's Pokémon are you calling basic?!" Tyson snapped.
"That's just what they're called when they're unevolved," Elain countered hotly. "No need to get stroppy! Anyway, if you're looking to seriously improve yourselves in the arena, pop by the trainer school while you're in Rustboro."
"Thanks for the offer but we have other stuff to do," Tyson replied churlishly. Elain glared at him.
"We might," Ray answered of his own accord as if Tyson had said nothing. "If we have time after challenging the Gym we'll definitely come around."
Suddenly, Elain burst out laughing. "After? If you're going to challenge Roxanne you'll definitely need some schooling. Are you travelling? Staying at the Pokémon Centre? Look, I'll come around tomorrow morning and pick you up for school. Then you'll learn how real trainers go about it. No need to thank me, it's my pleasure."
"Don't you mean this morning?" Ray said.
"No, tomorrow morning. Got to have a good night's rest before school. Anyway, let's get back to work until dawn when the proper security arrives. Just to make sure, you know?"
They nodded and went their separate ways. Treecko hopped off the papers he was keeping weighted down so that Ray could pick them up. He looked at them, just out of curiosity. They were blueprints – that much he could tell – but he had no idea what they were for. It was all just a mess of white and coloured lines with technical annotations that went way over his head. Yet he couldn't help but wonder what about this plan made Team Aqua desperate to steal it. He was about to hand it back to Tyson to place back in the lab but Kai piped up:
"Hold on to it. We can report it as what they were after. Plus, it'll be harder for them to get their hands on it if it's in yours." He brushed past Ray with that cool swish of his scarf that he always did. However, he skipped the landing to the third floor and continued down the stairs.
"Hang on," Ray called out, jogging down the stairs to catch up to him. Treecko jumped onto his trainer's shoulder. "You missed your floor."
"I'm going to check on those thieves," Kai replied, not even glancing back. "Just making sure they're not dead."
Ray smiled and let out a relieved sigh. "I'm coming with you."
However, by the time Ray and Kai would make it to the lobby, Jake and Josie would already be gone. They'd returned their Pokémon and stumbled out of the main doors. The authorities never came because they never got the panic response message. Outside an angry Dragonair was waiting, wearing a dark blue scarf emblazoned with the Team Aqua emblem. They got on its back, still shaking and jerking from the lightning attack and the subsequent fall.
"J-just t-take us back to th-the rendezv-vous," Josie stuttered, holding onto its neck tightly. Behind her, Jake put his arms around her waist.
Dragonair took off, flying high and swift into what remained of the darkness of the night.
The bladers and Elain stayed til the crack of dawn and a bit longer, until some more professional-looking security guards relieved them of duty. They handed over their equipment and trudged down to the lobby. They couldn't take the lifts because Elain had had Egbert disable them by taking advantage of a safety feature that caused the elevators to shut down and lock up immediately in the case of a power-out or electrical surge. It would need to be reactivated manually. In the meantime, they had to take the stairs. Emily and Mimi were there to greet them at the bottom of the stairway, giving them bright, peppy smiles and seemingly ignoring the baggy eyes and drooping eyelids of the trainers. After all of the excitement the adrenalin high became an adrenalin hangover and they all wanted nothing more than to just be in bed.
"Good morning!" Emily sang. The trainers responded with a zombie-like moan. "Great to see you all up and at 'em! Just a few more minutes of your time and then you'll be free to go. Follow me."
She took them to a meeting room on the lobby floor. Inside was as professional as professional could be, with leather chairs, indoor plants, a polished table and every digital aid anyone could possibly need in a meeting. There was even a refreshment tray complete with pot of steaming coffee and enough mugs for everyone. The trainers all perked up just a little when they noticed Steven Stone sitting at the head of the meeting table, wearing a small smile that seemed to be a permanent fixture on his face. Next to him was a squarish, slightly overweight man with hair that had long gone grey and was now thinning. His hands were folded over the handle of a walking cane and placed in front of him was a fedora to match his slate grey suit, pinstriped in purple.
"Good morning," Steven said in much calmer tone than what Emily greeted them with. "Please, take a seat."
He gestured to the chairs nearest and the trainers all filed in, casting curious glances at the old stranger. As soon as he was seated, Kai made a little nest on the table out of one of his scarf tails for Togepi to lie in. She was curled into herself and fast asleep. Emily sat down as well, leaning forwards and folding her hands on the table. Once they were settled, Steven took a microphone-like device out of his breast pocket and laid it on the table, squeezing a button on the side to activate it. A small screen on it began to display undulating waves.
"This is a recording device," he explained, noticing the stares of the trainers. "It's a protocol for our patrol security to make reports but I get the feeling you're not in the mood for a writing exercise."
"No kidding," Tyson muttered, eyeing the coffee pot.
"Help yourself to coffee, you look like you need it," Steven invited, eyes twinkling with amusement when all four trainers' arms snapped out to grab a mug.
"Um, if you don't mind me asking," Elain said, stirring milk and sugar into her coffee, "who's this old man?"
Steven's smile widened. "This is the venerable Mr Stone, former president and CEO of Devon Corporation and my father."
"Wait, former?" Tyson started. "Then who's the current president?"
Too tired to be polite, Elain, Ray and Kai sighed loudly in exasperation. "Are you kidding me, Tyson?" Ray answered. "It's Steven."
"Whaaaat?!" Tyson exclaimed. "You mean, this entire time – since this morning and then in the brief – I've been sitting in front of the guy who actually runs the whole place?!"
Mr Stone laughed. "Indeed you were!" he said mirthfully. "Sorry to butt in like this but I've spent so long caring about this company that it's hard to stop. Don't you think Steven does a fine job managing the company?"
"Sure does!" Emily agreed.
"Bit beside the point," Steven mumbled. He lifted a tablet that had been lying across his lap and made some strokes with a stylus. "So, when you're ready, I'd like whoever wants to start to give me a rundown of the night's events."
"It sounds like you already know something went down," Kai surmised, looking at Steven sideways over his cup of black coffee. Steven looked back at him.
"Other parts of our security system picked up the 'activities' of your night but I'd like to get a first-person perspective on it."
They began to go through all that had happened, mostly the exciting parts, of course, given that most of the night had gone by in terrible tedium. The waves on the recorder jumped as people spoke and Steven made notes on his tablet. At the end of the explanation he put his computer on the table and propped his elbows on the edge, netting his fingers.
"Ray, you were still holding on to the blueprints they tried to steal," he stated, glancing at the rolled up papers left in the middle of the table. He dragged them towards himself and unfurled them, pursing his lips at the full schema before him.
"Oh, that reminds me," Elain gasped. She reached down to the bag at her feet and pulled out a little slip of white paper. She unfolded it and placed it on the table in front of them. "Found this in the elevator shaft they shimmied up to get to the top floor. Must have dropped it."
The paper was covered in pencil sketches. It was a rough but detailed enough draft of a plan to enter the building. Small handwritten notes and annotations were written around the edge but Steven pulled the paper away before anyone could read them. However, Kai caught something written in slightly larger handwriting near the corner. A serial number: 9 1125T4-Q87I. Steven's eyes hardened as he inspected the page. He folded it back up and put it in his breast pocket.
"Thank-you for this," he said to Elain, sighing through his words. "I'll have it sent through to the police."
"Didn't they catch them?" she asked. "Swear I pressed the emergency panic button in the control room…"
"If you did, I believe you," Steven replied. "However, some of the system data shows tampering with the electrical equipment. Thanks to this reporting session we now know that it was you who tripped the safety lock on the elevators but there were some other electrical malfunctions, probably sabotage."
"They were gone when Kai and I went to check on them," Ray added. "I thought they'd at least be unconscious (possibly dead) but they somehow managed to leg it. It's possible that they had friends on the outside… I suppose…"
Ray shrunk a little under Steven's hard gaze as it turned on him without softening. "That so?"
Ray nodded.
"Entirely possible by all means," Emily chipped in, "which only confirms that this isn't a simple robbery – well, attempted robbery. Team Aqua seems to be up to some serious trouble. It's not worth the effort of breaking into the lab twice if they were simply going to sell it or hold the plans for ransom. The expense would cheapen the payoff."
Steven turned to her and nodded. "Right. I think this incident deserves an investigation and a lot more discussion." He put his tablet into standby mode and stood up. "As for you trainers, I can't thank you enough. The receptionists at the main building will be able to give you your paycheques if you show them your trainer IDs. Make sure you get a good rest today."
The conversation felt to be over. The bladers sighed with relief and knocked back what was left of their coffee. All of a sudden Mr Stone banged his cane on the floor, making a loud enough noise to startle them.
"Is that where you're going to leave it?" he exclaimed. "Just letting them walk away with a measly temp job payment?"
"We did what the job required," Kai shrugged, setting his empty coffee mug aside and scooping up Togepi, scarf tail and all.
"Did more than what the job required, you mean," Mr Stone huffed, heaving himself out of his chair with the help of his cane. "Defeating Team Aqua and retrieving the documents was quite a feat from novice trainers like you. Gumption like that deserves a bonus, of course!"
"Hey, it's no biggie," Tyson interjected. "We're happy to just take what you're giving. We don't really need it that much, we just want that app."
Steven chuckled. "Don't worry, father, I'm not that niggardly. I've made sure to reward them appropriately."
"Should hope so," Mr Stone said, tapping Steven on the head with the cane. "I didn't raise a miser."
Elain and the bladers exchanged glances confusedly. Curious as they were, the shift had been quite exhausting and they were prepared to just take whatever they were given. They left the meeting room in awkward silence.
They had a couple of hours to nap, since the headquarters didn't open its doors to the public until 9 o'clock. The whole group went down, eager to get paid and get the tracking app (Tyson was especially eager). They entered the lobby, half the group looking better rested than the other half, surprised to see that Elain was already there. She turned to them and waved from the receptionists' desks.
"Who's this?" Mari asked as they approached the desks themselves. "This the other girl Emily mentioned?"
Tyson and Ray nodded. At the desks, Elain and Mari introduced themselves to each other. One of the receptionists was already sorting through some sealed envelopes, marked with names and trainer numbers.
"Thanks for your hard work," she said as a courtesy more than anything else, handing out the envelopes. "These are your paycheques for the job."
"Great, now we can buy that app," Tyson remarked, already ripping his envelope open. "Cool! It's in cash."
"Before you go, there's one more thing…" the receptionist leaned down to get something from a drawer under her desk. She produced two gift-wrapped boxes. "The president sent a message down earlier this morning, wanted each group to receive one of these."
Elain and Ray each picked one up. "Wait, by each group, did he mean…" Elain began but Ray had already lifted the lid off his.
It was a shiny, brand new PokéNav. It had a slightly tweaked design compared to the one Mari already had and when Ray turned it on it had a bigger screen made of a flexible material that could be rolled up like paper and tucked into the chassis when not in use. Elain opened her box and it contained exactly the same gift.
"Waahh!" Mari whined. "It's way better than mine! Not as bulky and the screen is way better."
"Is this what Steven meant when he said there was an extra reward?" Tyson wondered.
"What? He said that to you? Didn't say it to us!"
"He said it when we reported to him."
"You reported directly to him?" Max asked. "Man, that sounds like more fun. Emily just made us fill out report forms."
Jolly laughter made them all stop their conversation and turn. The old Mr Stone approached them from the direction of the lifts, sporting a huge grin. "I see my son did hold up his end."
"Eh?" Mari exclaimed. "You're Steven's dad? Does that mean you're the former company head?"
"That's me," the old man nodded. Then he sighed. "Gosh, a job that was meant to be so simple turned out to be quite the adventure."
"And I missed out," Mari pouted.
"Hey, it wasn't that great," Tyson told her, trying to be placating. "We mostly got our asses kicked until we managed to throw them down the stairs and almost kill them. Yet they still got away."
"Good to see such enthusiastic youngsters," Mr Stone beamed. "You know, you actually didn't have the responsibility of retrieving stolen goods or engaging the crooks unless it was strictly necessary but your actions could have saved the company a lot of headaches. Or at least given them a lot less headaches."
"But Emily said…" Elain began.
"To act quickly to report suspicious activity. That was the brief."
"Oh…"
"Honestly can't thank you enough," Mr Stone continued. "When I was company president, I strived for my entire career to build this company up to deliver the means to make people and Pokémon better partners. It's a difficult slope to scale and it may never end. Even though I'm now retired I can't help but want to see my dream out to the very end."
"I guess you don't take kindly to people who threaten or interrupt the company's work, right?" Hilary said.
"Especially not those Team Aqua louts!" Mr Stone replied, pursing his lips thoughtfully. "Don't know what they're up to now but some twenty years ago the organisation was full of terrorists seeking to bring disharmony to the Hoenn region, perhaps even the entire world. Whoever's running the group now seems to be of the same vein. What would happen to the relationships people have built with Pokémon over millenniums of inhabiting the same world? You might still be green but hearing about your initiative last night gave me hope that they'll fail as they did two decades ago and inspired me to continue my work."
"Don't feel like you have to go back to work on our account," Ray said, feeling a bit uncomfortable with that idea.
"But I want to! Inventing machines and gadgets to make humans and Pokémon understand each other better has always been my passion. Gave it up all too willingly just to let Steven take my place. I'd like to thank you all for your effort."
"Thanks, dude," Tyson said, "but we have to get this app and get on the road." He turned to the receptionist. "So where do we get this tracker app?"
"The tracker app has been preinstalled on your PokéNavs," she replied happily. "The president's specifications were, well… specific. There's a manual leaflet at the bottom of the box will a full list of the apps already installed onto your device."
"Seriously?!"
"Wow, to think we went to all that effort to pay for that app," Max giggled, "and then in the end we got it for free."
"Devon Corp. and its goals mean as much to Steven as they do to me," Mr Stone replied. "Come, I'll take you somewhere you'll appreciate."
"That's alright," Hilary declined, putting her hands in front of her. "All this free stuff has already been really helpful and I'd start feeling bad if we just kept getting more."
"C'mon," Mari interjected, "what's the harm?"
"Most of you look like you could use a change of clothes," Mr Stone teased.
Hilary and the bladers blushed, especially those who had taken the harder route through the Petalburg Woods. Aside from the little rips they had sustained in the forest, the seams of their sleeves were beginning to pull apart, the soles of their shoes already felt thin, and dirt stains were settling in. Urban sportswear didn't hold up against extensive outdoor adventures, it seemed. Even Ray's rural clothes were starting to look bedraggled. So they gave into the temptation of the offer and allowed Mr Stone to take them to a boutique that he swore was the best clothing shop for trainers in the entire city.
The steady swish and crash of waves, Wingulls screeching overhead and a sea breeze swooshing across the shore set the background music for Team Aqua's rendezvous. Jake and Josie sat on the rugged rocks rubbing burn ointment on their skin for those electrical burns. Before them, looking down irately, was a woman with brown skin wearing a black tube top and a blue jacket that was torn off at the elbows and above the waist and then tied together. Her blue pants were held up by a sash belt with long fringes and red rings adorned the side of her legs all the way down to her black pirate boots.
"You two…" she ground out, "have some explaining to do. Not only are you late, you completely failed to achieve mission directives!"
Her bright, yellow afro – barely contained within her Team Aqua bandanna – suddenly broke out of its binding and the cloth tumbled to the ground. Josie and Jake cowered in her intimidating shadow. Before either of them could say anything, the woman sighed and leaned back.
"Figures that the grunts would mess everything up," she sighed dismissively. "Now it's up to the admins to fix everything, as always. Geez, even let you borrow my Wailmer for the critical mission and you still couldn't get away with anything important. He got hurt and now he's all upset."
Her Wailmer was anything but upset, judging by the way it rolled and bounced in and out of the waves and rock pools, laughing jollily. Its wounds were still healing but it was well enough to be energetic. She was about to turn on them and give them another scolding for the hell of it when a voice like a cold wind blew across from a rocky ledge.
"Don't be so hard on them, Sandy. Devon Corp. just proved to be more prepared than we thought."
Alex sat off to the side, typing away at a rapid pace on a laptop taking its power from a Chinchou sitting beside him. He had discarded his coat on the rocks behind him, exposing his long-sleeved, black turtleneck. The Dragonair that had escorted Jake and Josie to the spot was curled around both of them, glaring irascibly. Sandy turned to him, anchor-shaped earrings swinging as she did.
"Don't look leniently on failure, Alex. They tried twice and all they managed to bring back was a fried USB."
Alex grinned. "You're right… perhaps they should be dispatched to HQ for discipline?"
"Sounds good." Sandy picked up her bandanna and tied it back on. Jake and Josie visibly tensed.
"It was the only chance we had!" Josie protested. "Security would have been tightened so we had to strike before they called in professionals."
"What about the first time?" Sandy inquired.
Josie's lip twitched. "Chased down. Would have gotten away but some kid trainer got in our way. He was there at the lab too."
Sandy tutted. "Taken out by kids? Just what kind of people do we have in Team Aqua? Aren't we lucky to have someone like Alex who can hopefully salvage your miserable failure?"
Alex glanced at the burnt out data stick poking out of his laptop. The code on his screen was completely beyond the comprehension of his current companions. "All of the data on the USB is corrupted but I can recover some of it. Most of it is beyond recovery, though."
"Tell me what you've found."
"Don't order me around like the grunts," Alex snapped, glaring at her briefly. "There's probably no hope to retrieve it directly from Devon Corp. now but I have found some interesting data related to the systems of the Weather Institute. If their partnership is becoming tight enough that Devon is starting to use some of their system data then perhaps there's something bigger in the works than we thought."
"Then Team Aqua should get ready to hijack it," Sandy smirked.
A/N: So, remember how I said I was on holiday and I would try to update every week like I used to and it turned out to be a massive lie? I'm so sorry. So here: have a +8k word chapter! Although that isn't actually because I've been working on it for 5 weeks, it's just because I suddenly had inspiration and drive and I pumped this out in a few days. This is also the debut of another OC character taken from one of my real life friends. I claim no responsibility for her Manectric's nickname, that was all her :P