Satza had gathered every available field worker in the training center. Despite its massive size, it was filled with workers. Ordan told everyone about the plan.
"We will all enter the Cipher laboratory at once, using force if we have to. Once inside, we will most likely meet resistance. With our numbers, we should be able to beat them easily, no matter what their pokémon are. We will continue on, and beat down anyone who tries to stop us. We will get to the center, and the leader. Or leaders. We will beat them down, like everyone else. We will capture everyone, and take them back. After a day or so, we will free those who were turned into Shadows. It will be obvious at that point who they are. I realize that there's more to Cipher than the lab, but if we can take it down, we should be able to deal a major blow to Cipher. Even though large parts of Cipher will remain, they won't be able to produce more Shadow pokémon. Or people. Any questions?"
Khot listened carefully to what Ordan said. He knew that if something would happen, he would have to lead the group. If Darys had been here, that would fall on her, but she had decided to stay in Nenta. Someone would have to be there to capture pokémon, she had said, and he knew she was right. Ordan had finished his speech. There were no questions. Sonos workers were good at gathering information.
After noting there were no questions, Ordan continued. "Our transport will be our pokémon. Many of you have pokémon that are able to fly you to the destination, those of you who don't, may take a pokémon from the table back there." Khot thought about his current team. He had his Jigglypuff, he always did. He also had Golbat, Machoke and Nidoqueen. Nothing that could fly him anywhere. Ordan explained how everyone were to follow him, and Khot went to get a pokémon. He obviously couldn't know what was in any pokéball, and he suspected that someone had simply captured a lot of flying pokémon in Nenta and put them on a table. He shrugged, and grabbed a ball. Many other trainers did the same. Everyone went outside.
Ordan let out his flying pokémon. It was a large, bright blue Altaria. He got on the pokémon. Others released their pokémon. Khot's flying pokémon was a Pidgeotto. He didn't seem too happy about it, but he got on nonetheless. Ordan and his Altaria took off. The rest followed. Everything was very well organized, and it didn't take them long to reach the Cipher base.
Inside the base, Ein was looking out of a window. Shadow Alya had just reported to him that she had completed the Mass beam. He hadn't even heard about it, but was quite pleased when she explained its properties. He chuckled as he watched hundreds of trainers approach the lab on their pokémon.
Like Ordan had expected, there were plenty of guards outside the lab. When the first trainers landed, they attacked them right away. Though, even with Shadow pokémon, they were badly outnumbered, and beaten. Some of the workers' pokémon were defeated, and those with only a few left were to take the guards back to the Sonos base. The rest had their pokémon destroy the doors. Behind all the rubble, they could see a tall man in a lab coat. He waved at them. When most of the smoke cleared, they recognized it as a hologram. He started talking. "Welcome, Ordan. I must admit, you're disappointing me." As the man talked, the trainers kept entering the building. " I mean, I expected you to come, but to destroy the doors... I was going to open them, too." Almost all the trainers were inside. "Well, if you're going to be that way, I will have to close them again." Ordan realized what was going on a moment too late. Behind them, the doors were closing. The real doors. By the color, he judged they were made of a material that couldn't be broken down by pokémon attacks. "Oh, you were already inside?" The lab man kept talking. "Well, in that case, I guess you can come further in." Ordan sneered at the hologram. "Now now, don't be angry. Oh, and by the way, let me warn you. In here, we have a powerful beam called the Mass beam. Anyone hit by it will turn Shadow. And it can hit all of you at once, so be careful, hm? If you come too far, we'll have to use it against you. On the other hand, perhaps staying where you are isn't a good idea either." The hologram faded.
The Sonos team was in a large room with one door, not counting the one they came in through. Why wouldn't it be a good idea to stay? Then the answer came. The walls on their sides started to move towards them very, very slowly. If they didn't go through the door, they'd be crushed. At least they had gotten time to do that. He rushed everyone through. Then he saw Uness. He knew that Uness didn't have any pokémon apart from Psyduck and whatever he had used to get to the lab, but it was apparently important. He made his way to Uness, then took him aside. With the speed the walls were keeping, they'd have plenty of time.
"Uness, why are you here? I don't think you can help much here." "Never mind that, we have more important things to talk about. I brought the Psyduck. It looked at the hologram guy, and he was telling the truth. Apparently, it knows the guy. But that's not important. Anyway, it also noticed the hole in one of the walls." "Hole? Where?" Uness pointed to a corner on one of the moving walls. Although there wasn't a hole there, once the wall moved a little further, part of the other wall wouldn't be there, making a hole. "A small person can get through. That's me." "Uness, is that so smart? How do we know there's something behind that wall?" "For that wall to move, the space that opens must be filled with air. That air has to come from somewhere. And since there were no holes on the outside, the air comes from the inside. Probably from the ventilation system. And as you know, small people fit in ventilation systems." Ordan thought about it, then nodded. "It's probably a better idea than having everyone continue into their doom. Maybe you can stop that beam." Uness nodded. Ordan and the rest of the Sonos team went through the door, while Uness waited. When the walls were close enough for him to get through, he went on his knees and crawled. As he had suspected, the air was coming from the ventilation system. Not only that, but the air ducts were larger than usual. Uness would easily fit.
Ordan was curious as to how they would be forced further. The team was still pretty much intact, and they were a few hundred trainers in a small but long hallway, wondering what to do next. Suddenly, the floor began to move. Some tried to turn back, but noticed that the wall, along with the door they had entered through, was moving along with the floor. Ordan estimated that it would take the floor 5 to 10 minutes to force them to the end of the hallway. He hoped Uness would be faster.
Uness had discovered that the air ducts weren't really built to be navigated. The layout was very confusing, like a maze. After a few minutes, he had been to every single offshoot "hallway", but none of them had proven to be the right way further. The main "road" was also blocked. He realized that to get further, he'd have to get through a room. He sighed, and tried to open the shutter. The time it took was frustrating, though he eventually managed to get it open. Now he'd have to do the same thing to get back in on the other side.
By then, the hallway had forced the team to the end, and into another large room. This room was even larger than the last one, with a door directly across from where Ordan was standing. In front of that door, there was a person. Getting closer, Ordan recognized his daughter. He knew that she had turned into a Shadow, and that she wouldn't help them. As if she wanted to confirm that, she sent out her pokémon. Not one by one, like a normal battle. She sent out all at a time. Ordan told the entire team to go take her.
Uness had managed to open the shutter on the other side of the room, and was climbing into the duct. He made his way a bit further, when he noticed a major problem. The duct got a little smaller, and there was a shutter every few meters. He could still get through, but the shutters would take time. He started on the first one.
Alya's pokémon were putting up a good fight.Ordan hadn't sent out any pokémon yet, he wanted to wait until he'd face the Cipher admin in charge of the lab. He did pay attention to the battle, though, and noticed another flaw in the Shadow pokémon. They could only use one attack. Four of Alya's pokémon had already been knocked out, the ones remaining were Sceptile and Alakazam. Thinking quickly, he ordered everyone to withdraw their pokémon, and those who had a Shedinja to send them out. Seeing what he was thinking, all the trainers followed up. About 30 Shedinjas came out, ready to attack. Alya's pokémon kept trying to fight, but the Wonder Guards kept the Shedinjas safe. It took them some time, but both Shadow pokémon were eventually defeated. After withdrawing them, Alya went through the door behind her without saying a word. There was a large sound, and Ordan looked up. This time the roof was moving. Ordan sighed over Cipher's lack of originality, and ordered the antire team through the door. The next hallway was very short, barely long enough to fit the team. As usual, the door closed behind them. Alya had already gone through the door in front of them.
Uness was slowly proceeding through the air ducts. Each shutter took a couple of minutes to remove, and when there were about thirty of them, that amounted to a great deal of time. He could see the end in front of him, though. He only had two more to get through. And he could see the power cords that were connected to the beam machine behind them.
The floor started moving again. Like the last time, the door followed. Ordan, being in front of the group, was first through the door. The team entered another large room. This appeared to be the center laboratory. In the middle of the room, the tall scientist was sitting in a chair. Many people were working on computers in the room. Other doors in the back probably connected the room to other rooms, where they kept pokémon and equipment. Also, hanging in the ceiling, was a giant beam. Ordan had seen such devices before, Uness always had some in his labs. Once the entire team was inside, the door closed behind them. The man in the chair got up. "Welcome. My name is Ein, and I'm in charge of this laboratory. I see that you decided to challenge the beam, not the walls and ceilings. I'm happy to see that. So is the beam. Now, give it a couple of minutes, please. It takes some time to charge." Ein smiled even wider. The beam started charging. Ordan looked at it. If Uness didn't stop it, it would hit every single person on the team. Looking closer, he could see glass walls in front of them and to their sides. They were trapped.
Uness had opened up the last shutter, and was approaching the power wires. He knew that neither he or Psyduck would be able to cut them, but his flying pokémon was a Pidgey that knew Cut. He sent it out, hoping that it wouldn't make a sound. Luckily, it didn't. He whispered to it that he wanted it to go and cut the wires, the duct was too small for him to get close enough. The Pidgey understood.
"One minute left", Ein said calmly. Ordan glared at him, but he knew that he was powerless. He had to rely on Uness.
The Pidgey moved towards the wires. Suddenly, a shutter fell down in front of it. It panicked and tried to turn around. Another shutter fell down behind it. It was trapped. Uness couldn't get to it, and there wouldn't be enough time anyway. A third shutter fell down about Uness.
"Half a minute left", Ein said. Ordan tried to look for a weakness in the glass wall, or anything that could get them out. He could find nothing. "Fifteen seconds." Perhaps he could do something about the roof. No, there was a glass roof above them too. "Ten."
Uness looked in awe as the Pidgey picked away at the locks of the shutter. The bird had to be strong to do that... perhaps there was hope after all. It hurried over to the wires, and started to cut them.
"Five seconds. Three." Ordan sent a resigned look at Ein. Uness had failed them. No, they had all failed.
Pidgey was almost through the wires. Only a couple more seconds, and the wires would be cut.
The beam fired.