This will be the last chapter before the climactic battle against Team Dark Star. Two perspectives of this plot has been shown, but there is still one that has yet to be see.
While Diego, Renée and Julia were having their gym battles. Tension seemed to be rather high in the Team Dark Star building in Celadon City.
"Things are getting kind of heavy around here." Ryan said.
"Well the boss believes that there might be a spy among his grunts, and he doesn't know it's us." Sandra replied.
"And let's hope he doesn't find out." Max added.
"I would like to see the following members in my office immediately: Pandora, Ryan, Simon, Max, and Sandra. Do not keep me waiting."
The five grunts entered the boss' office as calmly as they could. The risk that he knew about what they did was now far to great for them not to worry.
"Y-you wanted to see us, boss?" Ryan asked.
"Indeed I did. You five have proven to be very reliable in the time you've been here." The boss said, putting some of the grunts at ease.
"However!" He snapped, making them worried again. "I would like to know why, why have you decided to snoop around and go against us?!"
"Y-you knew?!" Sandra asked in shock.
"Who... who told you?" Simon added.
"You did, just now!" The boss stood up from his seat and reached for one of his pokeballs, the five trainers did the same. "Oh please, your pitiful pokemon will not he able to do so much as even scratch mine!" Before sending out his pokemon, he plucked a hair off of Sandra's head. He then sent out his pokemon, which seemed to have immediately summoned a sandstorm with its release, the sand and dark atmosphere of the room made it impossible for anyone to see.
The five grunts were suddenly knocked unconscious by something, presumably the pokemon. The boss recalled his pokemon back to its ball, which stopped the sandstorm.
"And to think, you five were some of the best this organization had to offer."
The boss pressed a button on his desk, which opened up a teleporter from where the grunts were laying. A hologram of the base then appeared from the desk, the boss tapped a large open space space in the basement on the hologram and the five grunts suddenly vanished.
Dakota and two other grunts entered the office next.
"You called for us, boss?" Dakota asked.
"I did. You, Dakota, are now the highest ranking grunt in our organization. Keep this good work up and you may become an admin."
"W-what?! Are you serious? But what about Pandora and her friends?" Dakota asked.
"Don't worry yourself about them."
"What about us, boss? Why did you call us here?" One of the other grunts asked.
"I need you two to keep watch over prisoners in the cell. We have a few new guests."
"Yes sir!" The two grunts replied, heading to the basement.
"What about me boss? Do you need me to do anything?" Dakota asked.
"I need you to prepare yourself..." The boss replied.
"Prepare myself for what?"
"According to some field agents, we may have a few intruders in the coming days. I want you to prepare yourself and have your pokemon ready in the meantime. I've cancelled all other missions until then."
"O-ok, I'll get stronger then. Nobody's going to mess with our work!" Dakota announced, leaving the room.
'He's a useful idiot. I don't suspect him to beat our intruders once they arrive, only hold them off long enough for me and my wife to get away with all of our hard work. And if the intruders get lucky and find me, I'll just use The Gauntlet to completely and utterly decimate them. But, I have bigger problems to worry about now, damn those kids for snooping around. Now, because of them, some of our top secret information may have been leaked out to the authorities!'
The five now ex-TDS grunts were teleported into a jail cell in the basement of the building. They were still unconscious after their encounter with the boss' pokemon. The two grunts that were ordered to keep watch over them had finally arrived. They opened the cell and took all of their pokemon while they were knocked out.
"Aren't these our coworkers?" One of the grunts asked.
"They are George, but the boss said they did something they shouldn't have, so now we gotta keep watching them."
"We'll alright Dusty, shouldn't be too hard. I guess the boss'll probably have us stay here until someone else comes around." George replied.
"Hey, you think you can get us some stuff from the vending machine then, we're probably gonna be here for a while." Dusty asked. George nodded and left the room, the trainers then began to stir and wake up.
"Ugh, what hit me?" Max asked groggily, he saw the bars of the jail cell and began to rattle and shake them, hoping to get out, but to no avail. "Let us out of here!" He shouted.
"Not a chance Shorty! I don't know what you did, but I cant let the boss get mad at me." Dusty responded.
"Hey, where are my pokemon?!" Sandra asked in shock.
"We can't let you get out, so you can't use your pokemon either."
"You will let us out now, or else I will burn you to a crisp!" Sandra shouted, her eyes seemed to burn with an unspeakable fury.
"You won't be doing anything." A voice called out.
"Empress!" Dusty saluted.
"So you are the traitors." The Empress said, ignoring Dusty. "My husband told me about what you did, and he allowed me to make your punishment. As such, take your time and enjoy the last twenty-four hours of your lives!"
The Empress left the room immediately afterwards, Dusty shivered in fear a bit before heading off to go find George.
"This is... unacceptable!" Max shouted.
"We're trapped, we don't have our pokemon on us, and we're going to be executed tomorrow. COULD THIS BE ANY WORSE?!" Ryan added. Pandora was sittingiin the corner having a panic attack, she was fiddling with her cube trying to calm herself down, she had already solved it several times in just the few minutes they were trapped.
Several floors above the prisoners, Typhoon and Sirius were talking to a third admin, this admin appeared to be a woman, she was in the dark shadows of the building so it was difficult to see her.
"Do you think what the boss was saying was true? Do you think we really are going to be attacked soon?" Typhoon asked, he didn't sound worried, he just sounded alert and curious.
"Most likely, yes." The female admin responded. "But with our current strength it's unlikely any Lome intruder could best us."
"You know, I joined this group because they the boss said he could help me find my son, never thought that something like this could happen." Sirius stated. Typhoon was about to reply, but the woman intervened before he could.
"Well you'd best suck it up and prepare yourselves. You're here now and there is no going back, there isn't any need for the weak of heart in this organization."
"What are you trying to say?!" Sirius hissed, even Typhoon sounded a little offended. The two male admire reached for their pokeballs but the woman just laughed.
"Hahaha, don't think you have a chance of beating me in a battle! I am the boss' most respected admin, and I can blow you away with out breaking a sweat! Now go check on the dog, he needs to be ready too."
The woman walked away, leaving the two men alone.
"Argh, I hate her!" Typhoon spat. As angry as he was at her, he knew he couldn't beat her. Sirius walked away as well before Typhoon stopped him. "Hey! You said you were looking for your son, right?"
Sirius turned back to the younger admin and nodded.
"Well... I'm looking for my dad. He disappeared one night and never came back, the boss said he'd help me find him, just like you."
"Do you... hate your dad?" Sirius asked.
"Of course not! I'd just like to now why left and if he can come back home." Typhoon said. Sirius sighed, he was going to respond but he and Typhoon got a message on their PokeNavs, which left them no choice but to go their separate ways for the moment.
The RM was in the lab receiving some upgrades, Sirius entered the lab and checked up with the scientists. The RM was thinking to itself.
'Everyone seems to be in an uproar about an upcoming invasion, which would explain the upgrades I have received.'
"So what did you do to it, Doc?" Sirius asked.
"We've installed several advanced modules into the body of the RM-24i that will allow it to perceive time slower than humans, allowing it to move about 200% faster than its top speed, this will further allow it to cause heavier damage in a shorter amount of time." The Scientist explained.
"In English, Doc..." Sirius groaned.
"It can essentially slow down time for itself, which can help it cut up its enemies faster."
"Heh, that's handy." Sirius chuckled.
'Slow down... time?' The RM thought.
"It's getting late Doc, why don't you and the other scientists stay out of here for a while."
"Are you sure? What would-" The scientist was about to respond.
"Don't worry about the boss, just stay safe." Sirius said, the scientist gave him a warm smile and a handshake before he and his coworkers clocked out and left the building. Sirius walked over to the RM and pet it's robotic head.
"Rest easy for now, things are gonna get pretty heavy."
The RM panicked a bit when Sirius touched his head, it was the first time anyone had shown him any physical affection in the weeks he had been there.
The sun was just beginning to set, Diego, Renée and Julia had just gone up from Cycling Road, exhausted from the physically taxing ride up.
"Man... I always knew that... Cycling Road was steep but... I didn't expect that!" Diego said, trying to catch his breath.
"So... Jack is here somewhere?" Julia asked.
"Yeah, but whatever he's going to do, I don't think he's going to do it now. He's probably going to wait until morning." Renée answered.
"Well find him, I know we will!" Diego said with confidence.
"But for now, can we go to bed? I'm exhausted!" Julia stated. The three of them headed to the pokemon center.
The stage is set for the climax, stay tuned.
