The three of them had left the Sonos headquarters and gone into the laboratory. They knew that Ordan and the rest of Shadow Sonos would return soon, but only Uness could open the laboratory, which meant that they would be safe there at the moment. They could get out through the back door that Uness had built in cases like this. Not that he had expected Ordan to be the danger, though. They had also discussed how they would work. They had decided that the old admin, Lorno, would be the leader, while Uness would stay in the background and work on his machines. Darys would help out where she could, and follow orders. Their next discussion was for an overall plan outline, and their next course of action. They all agreed that to fight Shadow pokémon, they needed Shadow pokémon. And to get Shadow pokémon, they had to fight Cipher. At this point, they noticed that Cipher peons were standing outside the gym. Lorno went out to greet them.
Uness was working on his machines. The room was, like most laboratories, dark, loud and hot. Some of the machines were radiating heat like running steam engines, while others were giving off sound that could break the ears of a medium bug. With all the machines, there was barely room to move around for most persons. Luckily, Uness didn't have the size of most persons. At the moment, his thoughts were on the Master Ball mini-manufacturing plant. He was trying to improve the little machine so that it would work faster. He had already managed to get the size down - right now, it was only the size of an espresso machine, plus a pokéball slot at the bottom, where the ball came out. He thought for a bit. If he used a faster core, it could increase the effectivity, but he was already using one of the best cores he could get, and the machine would risk overheating anyway... so he'd have to build the core himself, and get an extra fan. He sighed at the thought of it.
Darys was clearing out a small room to use as offices. They'd put in a few desks, a few chairs, and some other things they could need. She'd have to try to get Lorno to buy some chairs, desks and supplies from local stores without being noticed. They'd need it, but she was afraid he'd refuse to take the risk and just shrug her off. Well, there was a lot to clear out, Uness had apparently used the room as a storage room for everything he didn't need right away. There were metal plates, screws, tools, as well as various computers and electronical devices and parts. She hoped Uness wouldn't mind her throwing some of it out. She'd have to ask.
Onjah hadn't been doing too well lately. He had been the administrator of the Cipher lab for a while, until the higher-ups had decided they needed Ein back in his seat. This had meant that Onjah would lose his position and become just another peon. Now he had been ordered out to see if anyone were left in the Sonos headquarters, along with an old subordinate, now colleague, Lipen. Lipen had been one of his most trusted employees, but then he made friends with the captive, Alya. After he refused to Shadow her willingly, Onjah had decided to Shadow him. He was still in that condition, much thanks to his old friend's work on the Shadow program. She had made peoples' Shadows last for almost a week. Onjah had been congratulated several times for his successful capture of the valuable researcher, and had been granted certain advantages the other peons hadn't, like being allowed to walk outside the base and using pokémon of his own choice. It still wasn't an administrative position, though. Lipen came out of a room he had checked.
"All clear, sir. Nobody in the room"
"All right, thank you, Lipen. That was the last room, right"
"No, sir, there's still the owner's office"
"Ah, the owner's office, right. It's through this room, isn't it"
"Yes, sir, it is."
Onjah smiled and walked through the door Lipen had just come out of. On the other side of the room, the door leading to the owner's office was. Onjah wondered how stupid you'd have to be not to check it while checking out the room that lead to it, but then he remembered Lipen was a Shadow person now, with sharply reduced higher brain functions. He shrugged. The owner's office was a large room, with only a desk and a luxurious chair covered in red leather. There was of course the regular phone, lamp and papers that came with every standard owner's office these days. Onjah picked up the papers and looked swiftly at them. A few were about Cipher's movements. Some were lists of pokémon Sonos had captured lately. A couple of them were plans for the building next door. Onjah smiled. The building looked important, he'd be rewarded when he returned with the papers. He started moving towards the door, then stopped. Shadow people would follow their leader anywhere. Lipen was not right behind him, as he should have been. He turned around. There wasn't anyone there, not even Lipen. He turned back, and walked out of the office. He still couldn't see Lipen. He moved further into the room. Then he felt a thump to his head.
Lorno was using the back door to get out of the laboratory, like they had agreed. He knew that there were two Cipher peons inside the Sonos headquarters, and he hoped to surprise them one at a time. He had brought a couple of Master Balls, in case he could use them. He carefully entered the building. Normally, he'd need a code, but the peons had broken down the door, apparently using heavy weaponry. That wouldn't be necessary, he thought. The door was fairly weak to begin with. He shrugged. Right in front of him, the hallway split in two. He took the left way, hoping to reach whoever was in there before they reached the end, where the hallways remerged again. He realized once he got around the corner that he wouldn't. Too bad, but he could probably take two at a time anyway. When the hallways remerged, he noticed that something was wrong - he couldn't see either of them. Walking onwards, he was listening closely for any suspicious sound. He reached the end of the hallway. The door to Alya's old office was open. He'd probably find them there, or in the owner's office. He walked inside.
Uness had, by using some leftover circuits and some imagination, created a core that could get the job done a lot faster than the original one. It was a little too large to fit where the old one had, though, so he had gone back to the storage room to get a new casing. There, he had learned that Darys had been throwing out all his materials - things that he'd need to build better and stronger machines. After yelling at each other for a while, Lorno came in, carrying the two Cipher peons. Behind him came a woman.
"Lorno, who's this?" Uness asked.
"It's, uh... her name is Iris. She's Ordan's wife." he replied.
"Wait, his wife? I thought she was in Kanto!" Darys exclaimed.
Lorno hesitated, then explained.
"She retired a few months ago. She's been living with him since then"
They all knew Iris. Neither Uness or Darys had ever seen her, though, only Lorno. She was famous in Kanto - she was, or used to be, the current leader of the Elite 4.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, madam." Uness said to her. Darys turned to Lorno.
"I see the two of you managed to capture the peons"
"Actually," Lorno, explained, "when I got to them, Iris had already taken them down. She's good at that"
"I didn't even have to fight the other - I got my Marowak to club him for me." she said. "But tell me, what happened to Ordan"
Lorno hesitated again.
"You know Shadow pokémon, right? Well, they've found out how to Shadow people now. The entire corporation was caught in a trap, except a few people not there, and we're the only ones left to really do anything"
Iris thought about it for a moment. "Isuspected it would be something like that. Well, how do we plan to help him"
"As of now," Uness stated, "we have no idea. Sorry"
Iris sighed, and nodded. "I suppose I'd better help out then. First, where is your Shadow machine"
Uness looked at her, confused. "Our what"
"You know, the machine that makes pokémon Shadow. Where is it"
"We don't have one. After all, why would we"
Iris sighed. "I see your point, but there's something else to it. You know how Cipher's Shadow pokémon are much, much stronger than regular pokémon, and how they can mass-produce them almost infinitely"
Darys looked at her. "You don't mean... I doubt that's a good idea"
"You've figured it out yourself - you need Shadow pokémon to fight Cipher. But you have to realize that what you can steal won't be enough to fight off a small fraction of them. I hate the fact, but you have to make your own."