DC17 "Who's there?!" A voice cried out, causing all of them to jump. A shadowy figure could be seen ahead of them, not quite visible in the dim light.
"Uh... friends?" Jess called back hopefully.
"Hmm... six of you? What do you think you're doing? The pokemon will pick up six signals here together in no time! Do you want us to be fou-"
"Don't worry, we haven't got collars." Liam said. "We were just passing through town and some guy led us here..."
"Why should I believe that? No free human would be stupid enough to come into a town packed with pokemon!"
"Please, we can explain..." Keira stepped forward. A green blast of energy issued from the figure ahead of them and hit the wall next to her, and she froze.
"Don't come any closer, because the next shot won't be a warning. Now..."
Two lines of sparkling energy, one light blue and the other yellow, shot out and struck the wall on either side of the figure, freezing and burning the walls respectively. Jess spoke. "I'm fairly sure that we could find a way to stop that weapon of yours, but for general convenience I think it would be best if you threw it down..."
"You... how did you..."
"The weapon, please."
There was a pause, then the sound of something skidding across the smooth tiles. "Thank you. Now... Two people, named Judy and Russell, I believe... they told us to come down here, and that someone would tell us some great plan to slow down the pokemon operations here..."
"...Russell sent you... right, then. I... I'll explain everything... if you'll explain to me how you did that..."
"Sounds like a fair trade." Keira smiled, and held up a hand, which suddenly glowed with a greenish-yellow light, illuminating the passage somewhat better. They finally got a glimpse of the man - a tall but fairly slim man with a rather angular build and short grey hair over a rather tired but curious expression. He wore a rather dissheveled, dirty suit, with a tie which hung loose around his neck.
"They told us to give you this." Liam held out the heavy sack he held. The man suddenly brightened and walked up to take the sack, glancing all the while at the glow around Keira's hand. Once he had the sack, he bent down and scooped up the device he'd kicked across, aimed it at himself, and fired.
They cried out in protest, but the green energy had no effect, just splashed out over him and vanished. "It doesn't have any affect on humans. I'm sorry I had to bluff, but the pokemon suspect some sort of resistance, and there are some humans who willingly do the work of the pokemon, and would reveal us..." He pocketed it.
"So it does have an affect on pokemon?"
"Only certain types. In fact, only two types." He grinned and walked off further down the corridor, then turned suddenly into a doorway that was nearly invisible in the low light. Swinging open a door, he ushered them in.
"And the two types are?"
He just grinned, and closed the door behind them. He fiddled with the ties on the sacks, then opened it, showing the round, red-and-white contents to the assembled newcomers.
"Voltorb and Electrode."

~-~-~-~

Ash's Pidgeot broke out of the supersonic speeds it had been travelling over the fortress, and soared down to issue the orders given by its master. A few of the stronger grass pokemon were selected, along with some psychics to transport them, and were sent to the Safari Zone to hunt down the runaway humans.
However, he found himself with an interesting choice when it came to the others, the Vaekar. What to use to attack them? So many choices...
There was the next creation of Ash's, the new half-human he'd created... but it wasn't ready yet, and plus it wouldn't be very useful in the Vermillion environment. So something water-based, for preference... but something not afraid of lightning, and something powerful enough to fight them...
There was really only one pokemon that could possibly fit those requirements.

~-~-~-~

Over the next hour or two, they explained the theory of the amulets and Guardians to the scientist, and he returned information: They in turn learnt that he was named Jeffrey, and his story was long, complicated, and interesting.
Once a scientist at Silph in Saffron, he'd left when Team Rocket had taken over the operations, and he'd refused to co-operate. Barely escaping with his life in the catastrophic takeover, he'd run to Cerulean, closely chased by the Rocket's agents to make sure he remained silenced. He managed to get into a transport system built long ago and barely used that ran between Cerulean and Vermillion, and had hidden out here ever since.
He'd built a complicated security system around Vermillion, slowly and quietly, over the years. Tiny cameras showed many sections of both the underground and the overground of the soaking city.
"The pokemon haven't actually noticed yet that we're using their electricity to power this operation down here... I designed these a long time ago, before Team Rocket took over." He held up the energy gun he'd bluffed Keira with. "They were the main reason I didn't want to give my services over to Team Rocket. They stun the Voltorb, put them in an enforced sleep, lasts a day or so... and once they're unconscious, it opens their programming subsceptibility. We can program them to remain asleep, and explode whenever we want..."
"So you're planning to gather a few of them up, and then set them off together as a high-power bomb?"
"Let's just say... a few more than a few." He flicked a switch. Lights across the room flicked on, and metal doors clicked aside to reveal shelves upon shelves of sleeping, red-and-white pokemon. They just stared goggle-eyed at them for a while.
"How... how did you get so many without the pokemon noticing?"
"The tower you see over there, as well as many of the houses, are home to hundreds, thousands of Voltorb. They make up the majority of the pokemon here, the others just here to oversee. The entire purpose of this city is for power generation, and as you probably know, power plants are really the only places you find the things. A stray Voltorb here or there goes unnoticed, and if you'd been to the tower you'd see that this is just a stray Voltorb here and there. The Electrodes are easier to miss, but we've still collected a few."
"So when do you plan to attack?"
"Soon, I feel. We've yet to find a way to move all these Voltorb to the actual site..."
"I think we might be able to help in that regard..." Liam grinned.
"Really? You would? Thank you, that will make our job much, much easier... and I'm sure it will assist you in future too..."
"Do you know if they're planning anything?"
"The others that come down have heard rumours that the pokemon are having trouble in Saffron City, and believe that they are planning something there."
"Trouble in Saffron..."
"Yes."
"Did you say there was a transport leading from here to Cerulean?"
"There was such a transport, yes. However, it's not working at present. The rail line is broken somewhere, and I haven't got time to fix that."
"Damn... we'll have to go through Saffron anyway."
"The working around here will take some time. I'll have the word spread around that you lot are to be brought some of the coats everyone wears, so you blend in. So long as you stick in ones and twos, and don't call too much attention to yourselves, you should be fine here for a while. We have people on every level of the tower and in every house, and the pokemon haven't gotten around to detailing a list of who needs to be where and when... And since you six don't have the collars, you can go anywhere without raising too much suspiscion. The pokemon have put too much trust in the things, and that's a mistake they might live to regret..."

~-~-~-~

They stayed for a couple of days working, once they'd obtained a set of disguises. Liam and Jess worked in the howling rain around the great tower, Jess concentrating the rain around them to reduce visibility while Liam dug holes in which to conceal the living bombs.
The problem with this was that no matter how much Liam claimed to be invincible, the water to which he was weak was wearing him down, no matter how slowly. Several times Jess had been forced to assist Liam back to their hideout for recovery through rest and Patrick's healing powers, though he strongly denied needing her help.
Keira, Rob and James worked inside the tower. It was a useful fact that humans were actually required to move the Voltorb around the plant, increasing the power in some areas and decreasing it in others; It was a simple matter to put the captured Voltorb next to others - Rob and Jeffrey had teamed up to make the small remote used to signal the Voltorb nearly invisible, and program them to appear awake and normal; soon the tower was riddled with ticking bombs, waiting for Jeffrey to press the button...
Unfortunately, something else decided to butt into their little operation. It was Frank, the first person they'd met in Vermillion, who warned them of the danger, though he wasn't very clear when he burst wildly into the hidden room of the corridor. Everyone except Jess was there at the time.
"Frank, you know you're not supposed to come down here..." Jeff started sternly, but then saw the frantic look on his friend's face.
"Ash... Ash sent some pokemon here... to find the Vaekar..." He panted. "They're at my master's house, talking it over. He'll want me back. You have to get out of here! You can't let him know where you are!" And with that, he ran back off, presumably to return to do his master's bidding.
"Ash sent some pokemon here to find us?" Rob looked up from a long device he was building with Jeff's help..
"Looks like it. How could he know that we're here?" Keira pondered.
"I'm guessing he doesn't." Liam said confidently. "He's probably just traced our work so far. By all rights, we should be well on our way to Saffron by now, but we stayed to help these guys. He's probably just noticed that we haven't caused any major destruction here... if we keep a low profile, then they won't know that we're here, and they'll move on."
"So we slow down our operations a bit?" Jeff asked, thinking.
"Just stop doing things like the digging. Keep our work to the inside, stuff that's not too suspiscious. Get your other guys to do some of the work. If he's sending people to find you, it stands to reason they're going to be watching the streets, and the only reason we had so much success before is because they weren't doing that. So..."
There was a pause, then Jeff spoke again. "Frank didn't say what sort of pokemon he sent."
"Whatever it is, I'm sure we'll be able to take it."
"We've never been unable to fight something before."
"Anyway, if he's got any brains at all, he'll be using something suitable to the environment, water probably. We've got Keira and Rob here..."
"What's the worst that could happen?"

~-~-~-~

The streets were silent, and wet. Very wet. Around this area, something had clogged a lot of the drains, and one had to wade through water halfway to your knee. Not that this bothered Jess.
She knew what had clogged the drains. Many of the sewers around here were now quite well packed with sleeping Voltorb. She'd frozen them over to keep them from premature discovery - in the dark conditions, even if you flashed electricity on it you'd simply see a shiny surface, and probably assume it was water - but they'd decided that the chances of the electric-types checking the drains - especially when this much water was present - was minimal.
So the area around the tower was now rather wet. Although this only meant mild inconvenience for humans, for the usually-small electric types this was a very large problem. Voltorbs - whether the humans had been at them or not - floated around on the continually altering currents, letting out occasional electric bursts which damaged anyone nearby. Pikachu were forced to desperately doggy-paddle, and Raichu moved with much difficulty. Many houses near the tower had been abandoned by the pokemon.
So as Jess moved out of another drain, having placed and frozen another half-dozen voltorbs within, she wasn't particularally expecting to be seen by anyone. She clambered out from underwater, wrung some of the water out of her hair (only to have it immediately replaced by the rain) and almost ran into the shape behind her.
"Is that you, Liam?" She asked. She knew, before she'd finished, that it wasn't - it was far too bulky side-to-side. The darkness obscured her view, and she couldn't tell what it was...
"What is your business here, human?" A low, nasal voice sounded from the darkness. It seemed to echo in the air around her, confusing her slightly.
"Uh... my master told me to investigate the problem with the drainage system." She improvised wildly. The strange creature didn't appear impressed with this explaination.
"Your master? Who is your master?"
"Um..." She was lost for a moment as she tried to recall any clue as to a master's name, finding none, so improvised again. "They don't tell us their names. Just master."
This seemed a little more acceptable to the unknown pokemon before her. "Did you find the problem?"
"N-no. I can't see underwater, especially in this darkness." She lied. "You'll have to call in a water-type to fix it."
"Indeed." The shadowy creature said. There was a long pause.
"I should be getting back to my master... She'll want me to report..."
"Where does your master live?"
Jess, not expecting this question, waved her hand in the first direction she thought of - back towards the underground path. The air temperature seemed to drop, and she knew that hadn't been the right answer.
"That sector of the city is not very heavily populated, and those houses that are lived-in are used by Voltorb and Mangemite." It said. "While those pokemon do have some servants, I find it very difficult to believe that you would refer to them as 'she'..."
"My master takes care of the Voltorb in that area." She tried wildly - after all, it was partially true. "They were having trouble getting here, and he wanted to know-"
"You are lying, human. Why are you lying to me?" It loomed suddenly. She backed off, and suddenly bumped into something, whirled around - there was another one, very similar. She backed away to the side until she could see both of them.
"I... I..."
"Let me see your collar. They tell me that they're very useful..."
She gulped, knowing that to refuse would be as good as showing her bare neck. She'd have to fight her way out of this. She nodded carefully, letting icy energy charge up in each hand, trying to keep the ice-blue glow hidden in her coat.
One arm reached forward to move her long, sodden hair out of the way, push her coat collar down. She felt the limb stiffen suddenly, and threw one of her attacks at the pokemon.
It was blown back by the blast of ice, and let out an unearthly scream that echoed and re-echoed off everything. Windows shattered and walls shook, and Jess cried out and held her hands over her ears in shock and pain. She only just saw the other one start moving towards her in time, and her second blast of ice knocked it back too, and redoubled the awful scream.
She turned and ran as electric pokemon started moving out of their houses to see what the noise was about. Two more of the huge shadowy creatures loomed out from the gloom, and she managed to dodge around the first and knock the second out of her way with a low-powered blast of ice. Damn damn damn...
She ran quickly and seemingly randomly, letting Suikun guide her steps as she concentrated on avoiding further discovery by the pokemon. Five quick icebeams created a set of handholds which she used to climb onto the rooftops of the city. She lay on the roof for a while, catching her breath and waiting for the hype in the city to go down.
Seen... damn, they know we're here now. Have to warn the others... Suikun whispered.
What were those things? Not electric-types, no thunderer's that big. Jess thought about it for a moment. Bloody wordy for a pokemon too.
Probably the last thing we need around here. We're lucky that we're the ones that had to fight them, none of the others would've been able to do much damage...
What were they?
Probably the most powerful pokemon around, bar us Guardians and the birds... Dragonites...

~-~-~-~

"Jess, at last! We've been waiting for you for ages!" James exclaimed.
"Listen, we've just had reports of Ash sending a group of pokemon here to try to find us, we have to-"
"I know, I've just encountered them." Jess said wearily, flopping down on one of the chairs. "They're Dragonites, at least four of them. I hit two of them, but from what Suikun tells me, they've got enough endurance to shrug that off no problem."
Everyone just stood in shock for a moment, then there was a combined, dejected groan.
"That's the end of my idea." Liam noted. "If they know that we're here now, they won't rest until they hunt us down."
"You should get out of here. If they find this place and attack, then we'll lose you and the whole operation. Dragonites are about the strongest pokemon around. They're resistant to practically everything, not to mention having enough power to lay out almost any attacker..."
"And they live underwater. This rain won't affect them like it does the pokemon."
"Do we have enough of the Voltorb placed to be able to take out the tower yet?" Keira looked to Jeff.
"I'm not sure. I'd like there to be more. Most of the ones we've placed are near the top and around the base, so we're sure to do some damage... but they'll be able to rebuild it. If we could get some in the base and crumble the whole thing..."
"Well, that looks to be rather difficult at the moment. Maybe we should just set off what we've got now?"
"We could at least try to get everyone out first. And I think I'd rather have you lot out of the city before that thing goes off."
"Hmmm..."
"Guys!" A teenage girl with brown hair poked her head around the door. "Martial law's been declared. All humans are required to stay in the dwellings of their respective owners. The new pokemon are just about to search this area of town. Make sure you don't get caught. Just thought you should know." She ran off again.
"Shit!" Jeff cursed. "If the pokemon are out in force here, then we've got to move."
"Or we could make life as difficult for them as we possibly can..." Rob said. He made a few final adjustments to the device he had been working on. "I think this is finished. This thing's powerful enough to fend off at least one of the things for a while..."
"What is it?" Liam asked.
Rob grinned and stalked off towards the shelves of Voltorb, picked one out and disconnected the device that kept it docile. He carried it over to the long tube, and rolled the spherical pokemon in one end. With some difficulty, he hefted the device onto his shoulder.
"Heavy weaponry. Voltorbs programmed to explode on contact. I'm sure several Explosions in the face would slow down a pokemon, no matter how powerful."
"Nice..." Liam examined the home-made bazooka. "Can I use it?"
"Sure, but don't fire it in here..." Rob gave the weapon to him. "Point, aim, pull and hold that bar there. It has to draw electricity out of the Voltorb to gather the energy to fire it, so you have to hold it a while. I'm not sure what kind of backlash you'll get, but I'm sure you can handle it."
Liam grinned. "Let's go hunting."