Chapter 26: Cruising Problems
The next day…
Hibiki was leaning on the railing of the Holy Symphia, looking over the port of Verdant Isle as she waited for the ship to take off. "Man, interesting few days we spent here right?" Echo asked.
"You can definitely say that again. An encounter with Team Noise, our battle against Sklye, and my encounter last night." Hibiki said, not talking publicly about last night.
"Yeah that's a lot. Here I thought our journey would be simple." Echo said. Hibiki simply nodded in agreement as the two took in the island air around them. "Being completely honest, I'm glad that we have these encounters, even if they haven't been the best." Echo commented with a smile on her face.
"Really? You enjoy the chaos we've been having?" Hibiki asked with a similar smile.
"Hey, it's better than being bored and having a regular journey." Echo told Hibiki.
"I hate that you're not wrong and I agree with you. It would have been nice to have a peaceful journey, but it would have been a little bland if it was a normal journey around the region." HIbiki said. The two continued to talk for a bit before they heard someone call them from on shore. Looking down, they saw Skyle waving to them with a case at his side.
"Hey you two, glad I managed to catch you before you all left." Skyle called out.
"Skyle, you need something?" Hibiki asked.
"I wanted to see you off and I have something for you two. A gift from the previous gym leader." Skyle said. Hibiki and Echo looked at each other before they met Skyle at the end of the boarding ramp.
"A gift from Wave? Why didn't he give it to us before he retired?" Echo questioned.
"Well, I would say that he wanted to wait till your first gym journey to give it to you and wasn't able to, but I think you both know that's not true." Skyle said with a small grin on his face.
"He forgot and left somewhere, didn't he?" Echo asked, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Yep." Skyle responded. Hibiki and Echo both sighed as they recalled Wave's usual behavior. "Anway, he called me up yesterday and asked if I could give this to you, something from Symphia it seems." Skyle told the two.
"From Symphia?" Hibiki inquired, curiosity on her mind given what she experienced last night.
"Yeah, it was something she entrusted him with keeping for you two. I'm not sure what it is as I've never looked in there myself, but he kept it safe this whole time." Skyle said as he picked up the case. The case was a medium-sized metal box with a handle on the top and a button that seemingly opened it up.
"Wow, thanks for delivering this Sykle." Hibiki said.
"No problem, it's the least I could do for you all after helping drive back Team Noise." Skyle told the two.
"We really don't need a gift for that, but the thanks is appreciated." Echo responded.
"Even if Wave didn't tell me to give this to you, I would have found something to give to you." Skyle said with a carefree smile. Echo simply nodded before looking at the box and attempting to pick it up, not able to do so because of how heavy it was. "I guess I should help you two take that on board." Skyle said.
"No, I got it." Hibiki told Skyle. Skyle was going to insist before he saw Hibiki easily pick up the box and put it on her shoulder. "I'll take this to the room, see you, Skyle." Hibiki said with a smile before walking off. Skyle simply waved goodbye nervously and let out a breath that he was holding after he saw that.
"I swear, she likes to show off that she has had Pokemon as exercise partners sometimes." Echo said with a sigh.
"Really? I've heard of people doing that, but that it's very dangerous depending on what pokemon you choose to have as your partner." Skyle asked, a bit nervously.
"Yeah, it was one of the hobbies she picked up after Symphia passed. My mom and I were nervous for her, but she pulled through it just fine." Echo responded. Skyle nodded and was about to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of the ship's last boarding message. "Ah I got to get on board, thanks for everything Skyle." Echo said as she turned to leave.
"See you amiga, give both Cherry and Sigma my regards." Skyle yelled out as he waved. Echo gave a thumbs up as she reboarded the boat and headed to her room. After a few minutes, the Holy Symphia left the port and headed out to the sea. As he stood there and watched the ship leave, he noticed something in the rudders of the ship. "Is that…? Oh that's not good." Skyle said to himself. Taking a moment to think, he quickly got out his phone and began to call someone as he walked back to the gym.
A few hours had passed since the Holy Symphia had left the port from Verdant Isle, Hibiki, Echo, and Sigma were taking the time to relax on the top deck. "You know, I never expected to be on a ship like this fancy before." Sigma said as he relaxed on one of the topside chairs.
"Really? Given what your past employment was, I would have figured you would have ridden on a cruise ship at some point." Hibiki commented as she played cards with Echo.
"Yeah believe it or not, we flew everywhere we needed to be and I was never assigned to go on the ships we did use for transport." Sigma told the two.
"Huh, shows how much we know about you." Echo said.
"I haven't really told you two about me, have I?" Sigma wondered aloud.
"Other than some basic stuff, not much at all." Hibiki responded.
"Then if you two don't mind, you want to hear about where I've come from and the general life I've had?" Sigma questioned.
"Sure, it's something to pass the time." Hibiki said.
"Ok, so I think to start, what do you two know about a region called Paldea?" Sigma asked the two. The twins both went silent as they thought for a moment before Echo snapped her fingers, remembering something.
"I've only read about it from online sites, but I have heard of it." Echo said.
"Well, that is where I'm from." Sigma told the two.
"Paldea… I feel like I've heard that name before." Hibiki said. Sigma looked ready to speak up but paused and looked over at Echo, who seemed surprised for a moment before nodding.
"It's a region that is to the west of Alaria and southwest of Kalos. While I don't know much about it, especially considering I've really only seen vista shots and pictures of local Pokemon, what I can tell you is that it's a beautiful region with various Pokemon from across the world." Echo explained. Echo kind of blushed as finished the sentence, making Sigma give a quick chuckle as Hibiki smiled at her sister's attempt.
"She's not wrong when she says that. I assume that you are familiar with the Wild Areas from Galar right?" Sigma asked.
"Yeah, we went there two years ago with our mom and Adagio to meet the champion of that region. Seeing the wild areas in real life was a thing I won't forget, same thing with the battle between Leon and Raihan we saw." Hibiki said, a smile appearing on her face.
"Sounds like you had a good time then. Back on topic though, think of Paldea as one big wild area with towns dispersed through it and a trainer school in the main city." Sigma explained.
"Really? Sounds interesting but also sounds like a pain to travel around." Echo commented.
"Believe me, it is a bit of a pain, but that is also why Cyclizar is used often." Sigma said as he brought up his phone.
"Cyclizar?" Hibiki asked. In response to that, Sigma showed Hibiki a picture of someone riding a quadruped lizard with a wheel on its belly. "Oh, that is really damn cool." Hibiki said as she looked at the picture.
"Yeah, they serve as good transportation and a good partner." Sigma said.
"That's definitely an interesting way of doing transportation." Hibiki commented.
"It was, I had a good time while I was there." Sigma reminisced.
"From what you've said, Paldea sounds like a really nice place, so what made you leave home?" Echo questioned.
"Well, I think I remember telling Echo this, but I was at a low point in my life. My studies of psychology weren't going so great, I was running low on money, and just very depressed overall." Sigma told the two.
"This might be a sensitive topic, but do you have any family around?" Hibiki asked, a bit of unease in her voice. Sigma was silent as he tilted his head down, staying silent as Hibiki simply nodded in response and rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "Yeah, that's… about what I figured." Hibiki said in a sad tone.
"It's fine, you've told me more than I was expecting about your grandmother, it seems fair I tell you two about my family." Sigma told Hibiki.
"That's more than fine with us, just don't share anything you don't feel comfortable sharing." Echo told Sigma.
"Got it. I guess the best place to start was what my parents were like. They were both nice, if a bit nit picky about my life. My dad was a mechanic and computer expert for the Paldean Trainer Academy while my Mom was a local cook that everyone loved as well as one of the Gym Leaders of the region. I also have a younger sister who I've been sending the money I've made from my old job who is currently attending the Trainer Academy." Sigma said, recalling what he could about his parents.
"Wow, it sounds like you actually had a really good family, are you comfortable about telling us what happened to them?" HIbiki questioned.
"Being completely honest here, I'm not entirely sure myself." Sigma said.
"What do you mean by that?" Echo asked.
"You see, my father and mother both left on a business trip five years ago, can't exactly remember where, and there hasn't been a peep from them since." Sigma explained.
"So they went missing?" Echo asked.
"More like they disappeared, no one has seen them and there have been no reports of any items they had or people who look like them." Sigma told the two.
"That… does seem a bit weird." Hibiki said.
"I've never stopped trying to find them, but doing that and caring for your younger sister is a recipe for bad mental health." Sigma said, rubbing his temples as he described it.
"I can imagine. How has your sister handled it?" Hibiki questioned.
"She's been doing good, obviously sad that they're not there, but still hopeful that they're alive." Sigma told Hibiki. Hibiki nodded as was going to ask something else, but was interrupted by her phone vibrating with a text from Cherry.
"Looks like we'll have to continue with this some other time, Cherry just told me that Lan is ready to talk to us." Hibiki told the two as she got up. Sigma and Echo both nodded as they both got up from their seats and grabbed their things. As Sigma was finishing up, he felt a Hug come from behind him and turned to see Hibiki hugging him. "Sorry, I just felt like doing that after what I heard." Hibiki said as she blushed.
"... Thanks, I appreciate it." Sigma told Hibiki, a smile on his face. Hibiki nodded shyly as she stopped hugging Sigma and headed to grab her stuff. Sigma said nothing as they three left the deck and headed back to their room.
When they arrived at the room, they saw Cherry and Lan sitting there, waiting for the three of them. "Sorry about the wait." Hibiki said as she put down her stuff.
"It's no problem, we're actually waiting for someone else." Lan told Hibiki. Hibiki tilted her head in curiosity before hearing a patterned knock at the door to their room. Lan got up, opened it, and Allegro entered the room with a briefcase in hand.
"Hey there you all." Allegro said.
"If you don't mind me asking, no offense by this by the way, but why were we waiting for Allegro?" Echo asked.
"He's here because of the thing you told me about yesterday Hibiki." Lan said.
"What thing?" Sigma asked. Hibiki took a moment to explain the situation to Echo and Sigam, who looked surprised and in Echo's case furious.
"Yeah, I just got the word about that, but I also got this for Lan. I also have a message for you four from Looker." Allegro told the group.
"Let's go in order and get what Lan asked for out of the way first." Cherry suggested. Everyone nodded and Allegro set the briefcase down on the bed before noting the box that Skyle had given them.
"If you don't mind me asking before I start, what is that?" Allegro asked, pointing to the box.
"It's something Skyle gave us before we left port from our grandmother, though we actually haven't looked at what it contains yet." Hibiki told Allegro. Allegro nodded before turning and opening the briefcase, getting out a stack of papers, some old looking blueprints , and an old notebook before placing them on the bed.
"Thank you Allegro and sorry for the last minute call-up. I wasn't entirely sure about this, but I figured that they have the right to know." Lan said with a sigh.
"You probably made the right call with this." Allegro told lan, giving him a pat on the shoulder. Lan nodded as he grabbed the notebook and handed it to Hibiki, who took it and carefully looked at it. As she flipped through it, she saw several song sheets and notes along with pictures of various monuments and maps of Alaria with areas circled.
"Is this my grandma's?" Hibiki asked, recognizing the handwriting as she flipped through the notebook.
"Yeah, it's a notebook that she kept about various sites that she visited throughout the region and some songs as well, though I don't know what those are for." Lan explained. A bit curious after hearing that, Echo walked up and grabbed some of the papers from the bed to look through. As she shifted through them, she saw various things like reports and diagrams, all with the Neo Cypher logo.
"Leave it to grandma to be one step ahead of us, even if it was a few years ago." Echo said with a smile.
"Huh, so she was aware of Neo Cypher before they came here, I wonder how she came across these documents. These look to be a good 10 to 13 years old, but the fact that she got them in the first place is impressive as is." Sigma commented as he walked next to Echo.
"From what she told the IPP, she had a feeling that something big was going down after the Team Magne incident 15 years ago. She theorized that while Magne was a threat, they came around too suddenly and with a surprising amount of powerful Pokemon. While it wasn't exactly uncommon for teams to start their operations suddenly, most of the time they at least had a presence in the region beforehand, usually under a shell company or something similar." Cherry explained.
"So she took it on herself to follow the paper trail and that's what led her to discovering the existence of Neo Cypher. Remember those trips to other regions she took around the time when you two were around five years old?" Lan said.
"I… vaguely remember that. Still wild that she was so busy in those three years." Hibiki said as she flipped through the notebook.
"Yeah, I accompanied her on one of those trips, specifically to the Kanto and Johto regions. I don't really remember much about the trip as that was 11 years ago, but we did encounter Neo Cypher agents there who were attempting to consort with Team Rocket." Allegro told the three.
"Wow, they really tried to get their basses covered. Did she battle her way through makeshift bases to get these documents?" Sigma asked, putting a hand to his chin.
"I would say about half stealth and half guns blazing. These documents are just some of what she collected over the three years she spent investigating." Allegro elaborated. Echo smiled when she heard that and put the papers down to look at some of the blueprints. The blueprints, though they were at least 10-13 years old, did have some interesting designs and ideas on them.
"Wow, they really had a lot of ideas for potential inventions. I wonder how long they've been planning for." Echo commented. As she shifted through the blueprints, she stopped on one that looked like a satellite dish with the codename "Shadow Emitter" at the top of the page. "Huh… that's interesting." Echo said to herself as she looked at the blueprint. As a silence fell over the room, Allegro gave a small catch to get everyone's attention before speaking up.
"If you don't mind me speaking, I can relay the message Looker if you all want." Allegro told the group.
"Go ahead, I'm curious to hear what he has to say." HIbiki responded.
"Ok, the message he told me was more of a request. For you four to head back to HQ as soon as possible, he just got word that Professor Michael and his assistant will be arriving from Oree soon." Allegro said.
"Oh they're already coming?" Echo asked.
"Apparently, I don't know how close of a connection you had with the professor Echo, but they apparently started to make plans after you messaged them. Probably helps that you mentioned Shadow Pokemon and Cypher" Allegro responded. Echo simply smiled as Hibiki kept flipping though the notebook on her own before stopping at a specific entry that caught her attention. Before she could read it, she heard a small cough from Lan as he walked over to the box which caught her attention.
"I take it Skyle gave you two this box?" Lan asked as he looked at it.
"He did, but we haven't opened it yet cause we were waiting to get to land and we're not entirely sure it would be safe to open on the ship." Hibiki responded.
"Well, if this is the box that I'm thinking it is, I'm positive it's safe to open here." Lan told Hibiki. Hibiki paused for a moment before sighing and getting up, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"Just know that if we accidentally let something loose in the ship, it's your fault." Hibiki said in a somewhat joking tone. Lan rolled his eyes as Hibiki put the box in the center of the room and pressed the button on top of the case. There were the sounds of wiring coming from the box before the top retracted, before a familiar device emerged from within with a note at the base. The device was a black shoulder pad and gauntlet pair, both with orange lines on both and a small housing for a Pokeball on the gauntlet.
"What is this thing?" Sigma said as he looked at it. After a moment of silence, Cherry let out a small gasp as she recognized what it was.
"I know what this is." Cherry said, a bit of shock in her voice.
"Really? You've seen this before?" Echo asked.
"This is the original Snag Machine model that team Snag-em used in Orre. I've only ever seen it in pictures about the incident back when I was part of Cypher 15 years ago." Cherry explained. Everyone looked very shocked and were just staring at it when Alegro noticed a note at the base of the stand. Curious, he grabbed it and read it aloud.
"Dear Biki and Echo,
I have no idea when you're going to be getting this thing, but I figure that it's probably not a good situation you're in if you're opening this case. If I had to hazard a guess, Neo Cypher has made their move on either Alaria or the world at large. Knowing you two and your want to involve yourselves in affairs you really should be involved in, I went ahead and pulled some strings to get this old thing.
It wasn't easy to get, but I feel better than having it stuck in a museum and actually having a use. Now the wiring on this thing is old, but it has been updated with parts to actually make it work, so it should be usable with minimal issues. That being said, this was the only one of this model available so one of you will have to get another somehow.
Best of luck, Grandma Symphia."
After Allegro finished reading the note, Hibiki and Echo both looked at each other before Echo walked up to the device. "Given that I already have a Snag Machine, you should probably take this sis." Hibiki told Echo.
"Yeah, probably for the best. I am a bit worried about how she managed to get this, as I remember reading that the person who had this simply left this behind and vanished, but beggars can't be choosers." Echo said as she grabbed the Snag Machine. As she worked on putting it on, Hibiki continued through the notebook and stopped on a page that caught her eye. Before she could give it a better look, everyone felt the whole ship shake and stopped moving.
"The hell was that?" Hibiki asked, looking over at Lan.
"Oh that's not good." Lan said as he took out his phone and walked out of the room. After about a minute of waiting for Lan, he reentered the room with a concerned look on his face. "So I got some bad news, looks like we've been hijacked. You can probably guess who it is." Lan told the group.
"Neo Cypher… what would they hope to achieve by holding an entire cruise ship hostage?" Sigma wondered aloud.
"I don't know, but I'm not willing to find out. Are you all ok with helping me solve this problem?" Lan asked.
"Well we are on the boat and IPP agents, so I feel that we're obligated to help you. Besides, this thing can't get moving again unless we stop them." Cherry responded.
"Perfect, now then, if you don't mind me suggesting something. I say we split into three teams of two." Lan said.
"Any reason why?" Echo asked.
"From what I was told, it appears that there is a problem with the engine computer. Seems like a virus was planted into the main computer at some point and that needs to be purged. Additionally, I would like to get back to the bridge and access the situation across the whole ship." Lan explained.
"That makes sense, but why three teams in that case?" Sigma asked.
"Two to go solve the problems with the ship and one to make sure the passengers are safe." Allegro responded.
"Exactly right, while we don't know if Neo Cypher will take any hostages, that's not a risk I'm willing to take." Lan said.
"That at least sounds like a plan for now. What should the teams be?" Cherry said. Lan was about to speak up when he noticed that Hibiki was deep in thought.
"Something to say Hibiki?" Lan asked.
"I've just been thinking about it. What if they're after a specific person?" Hibiki responded.
"That… is a good point, and given what you've all told me, there's a good chance that it is going to be you that they're looking for." Allegro said.
"Yeah, and if Neo Cypher is planning to capture a whole cruise liner just to get to me, they must want Melody really bad." Hibiki told the group, a somewhat serious look on her face.
'That does put us in a pickle. I would like to not have to worry about Hibiki, but we also need to make sure the ship is ok." Cherry said. The room went quiet for a moment before Echo coughed and looked at Hibiki.
"I might have a plan and it involves me, Hibiki, and Sigma." Echo said aloud, a bit unsure of herself. Hibiki and Sigma tilted their heads in curiosity as Echo began to explain her plan to the group.
Elsewhere on the ship…
Sitting in a private room was a woman in dark blue armor with the Neo Cypher symbol on her suit, high tech gauntlets with screens on them and a helmet with a semi-clear visor that showed a feed from a camera. "Any sign of the target moving yet?" the woman asked. After she spoke, three coms lines appeared on her monitor.
"Nothing on the main deck Mam." Grunt A responded.
"No movement in the maintenance corridors. Apologies for asking Commander Sly, but are you sure that Meloetta girl will come through here?" Grunt B said.
"If not her, then at least one of her companions. They'll need to make sure the ship is safe after all." Sly reassured.
"Reporting in now, it seems they're still in their cabin, but I can't see anything. They're more than likely preparing for something." Grunt C reported.
"Good, keep an eye on them. If they make any move to head to other parts of the ship, let me know." Sly said.
"Roger." Grunt C said. The coms then went relatively silent as Sly looked at her gauntlets and played with them a little, making three camera feeds.
"Even if they get out of their cabin without the grunts knowing, I have drones scanning the perimeter of the ship. Additionally, I've bugged just about the major hallways with hidden cameras, so they won't escape my sight for long. Given that we saw the Gym Leader in charge take a call earlier, they are more than likely forming a plan." Sly thought to herself. She was going to continue that train of thought but was interrupted by an incoming communication from Grunt C.
"Apologies for the interruption Commander, but I have a report. They look like they've made their move, but they have made our job significantly harder." Grunt C said, a bit of unease in his voice. Curious, Sly maneuvered one of her drones to where the target cabin was just in time to see what the grunt was referring to. On the drones, she saw three groups running from the cabin, each with a person in a robe that covered their whole body and one of the adults, one with Cherry, one with Lan, and one with Allegro. As she attempted to get a look at the hooded figures faces, she quickly grew annoyed as she saw full face masks on each of them
"Ok, I have to give it to them, that is pretty smart. Making the twins and Sigma wear robes to be able to hide each other's bodies is very smart with no real way to check who is who." Sly said as she put a hand to her chin.
"What should we do, have someone tail each group?" Grunt C asked.
"No, they more than likely know that we'll be following them in some form. That being said, it is possible we could use that to our advantage." Sly said as she began to think. After a few moments of silence and observing the movements of the three groups, she quickly gave a smile. "All right, so here's the plan. Teams A and B are going to head up to the main deck to intercept the two heading that direction and Team C will intercept the group heading to the engine room." Sly ordered.
"What about the group heading to the bridge?" Grunt A asked.
"I will go deal with them personally." Sly said as she began to get up.
"Are you sure that's a wise decision commander? This could very well be a trap to catch you without backup." Grunt B responded.
"That's true, which is why I can't help but want to play into it. Besides, I do have an idea in mind. Each of you send some grunts up to the bridge and hide until I get there. It's not much, but we might be able to strong arm the people up there with enough force." Sly told the team. There was a moment of silence before Sly heard movement on each of the teams comms.
"All done commander, we're going to head out to our assigned positions. Best of luck to you commander." Grunt B said before all the coms went silent. After they went silent and making sure her mic was off, Sly sighed briefly before taking off her helmet, revealing a roughly 33 year old woman with tan skin, dark blue hair, and light orange eyes.
"I swear this girl is going to be the death of me. Still, this strategy of theirs is smart, but relatively simple. Is their plan just to make me think that I know what they're doing or is there something more to this?" Sly said to herself. She remained quiet as she let that thought sit in her mind before shaking her head and putting on her helmet again. "Even if this is a trap, what else can I do? I have a job to complete assigned by the leader and I'm going to complete it, no matter what gets in my way." Sly said to herself. Sly quickly nodded to herself before exiting the room and heading to the bridge.
On the bridge…
A few minutes had passed since they left the room and Lan had entered the bridge with his cloaked figure as they hopped on the capitan's computer. Around them, the crew was working diligantly to make sure nothing else was wrong with the ship. "OK, looks everything else on the ship is good, just the engine that has some trouble. Looks like a virus of some kind, but I can't tell how to remove it." Lan said as he typed away.
"Cherry or Echo should be able to take care of it, but should we worry about Neo Cypher?" the figure asked, their voice a bit distorted.
"Definitely and more than likely their commander will be among one of the groups if we're lucky. I just hope this plan works out, otherwize we are going to be in a lot of trouble." Lan said. As Lan continued typing, he heard the communicator in his ear buzz to life.
"Allegro here, the passengers are relatively safe, just taking care of a few grunts." Allegro said as a small thud was heard over the communicator.
"Good to hear, making sure they're knocked out so we can take them in later." Lan responded.
"Roger." Allegro responded. As Allegro hung up, the communicator buzzed to life again with Cherry on the other end.
"This is Cherry, we've made it to the engine room. We're heading to the main computer now." Cherry said.
"Good, when you get there, you're going to want to pinpoint where the virus is in the system and see what you can do to get rid of it." Lan told Cherry.
"Got it, anything else you want me to do?" Cherry asked.
"Just strengthen the security and knock out some grunts for me, would you kindly?" Lan responded with a smile on his face.
"Got it, I'll report back in a bit." Cherry responded.
"Looks like the plan is going well for now, when do you think they'll show up?" the figure asked.
"Well, given my penchant for understanding criminal organizations and that they are more than likely to split up to get to each of us, I would say right about now." Lan said in a nonchalant voice. Almost as if on cue, there was some noise outside as they heard people outside the command room as Lan flicked to the security feed to see six grunts outside the room. "Told you." Lan said as he got ready to go out there.
"Wait." the figure told Lan. Lan did as the figure said before seeing Sly walk up to the group, making his sweat a bit.
"Welp, looks like the plan was right on the money. What do you want to do now?" Lan asked the figure.
"Follow the plan, you wait here and I step out." the figure responded.
"And this is the part of it that I hate, but what else can we do?" Lan said. The figure nodded before turning and walking to the door as Sly began to speak.
"Attention to the captain and crew of this, I would advise that you hand over that hooded person you have with you. If you don't, I will have my subordinates start taking hostages overboard and we know you don't want that." Sly said over the camera feed. As she spoke, the figure clutched their fist in some anger before they opened the door and stepped out. "Ah, looks like the warning was unneeded." Sly said with a smug smile.
"It would appear not. It's me you want, leave the people on this ship out of it." the figure said.
"But are you truly who I'm looking for or is your twin sister that's under that cloak?" Sly asked. The figure stayed silent as Sly walked up to get a better look at the person under the cloak, only to see a full face mask on them. "Hm, not bad planning. No matter, I can quickly figure out who is under there in a sure fire way. I would recommend you follow me else I follow through on my threat." Sly told the figure as she turned around. The figure stayed silent, but did as they were told and began to follow Sly, who motioned for her grunts to keep an eye on the cabin.
"You're awfully confident that you'll succeed." the figure said.
"It comes with the territory and the privilege of being a commander for Neo Cypher. Also, while I may be confident, that doesn't mean I'm not cautious about my enemies. I respect the plan you came up with and for you not just going after me right now. Even if you are Sigma, I can respect the abilities of a clever planner." Sly told the figure.
"Huh, not something I expected to hear from you." the figure said, looking down a bit.
"Even if we may work towards the glory of a new world, we're still human Sigma." Sly said, a small smile appearing on her face. The figure stayed quiet before taking off his hood and mask, revealing Sigma underneath.
"Ok, how did you figure it out?" Sigma asked in an annoyed voice.
"A couple of things, but honestly you didn't look that feminine when I took a closer look at you." Sly explained.
"I told them it wasn't a good plan, but they went along with it anyway." Sigma said as he scratched the back of his head. Sly remained silent as the two exited the hallway to the roof of the ship, a clear helipad sitting there. "Still even if you didn't see me, my team would have been a dead giveaway." Sigma admitted as he stopped in his tracks.
"You're right about that, no way you could have hid that from me, but that does make me wonder something. From what I heard from Strong, you always were one of the most loyal Grunts in his force, so why leave?" Sly asked as she walked to the other end of the helipad.
"I suppose you could say I grew a bit of a conscience after meeting them." Sigma said, giving Sly a mean look.
"And why is that? I'm not blind to what Neo Cypher is doing, but we both joined because we were enthralled by the possibility of a new world that we rule over." Sly retorted. Sigma stayed quiet as Sly turned and looked Sigma in the eyes. "No matter what you tell yourself, the two of us are the same in that regard. You probably told your new 'friends' some made up story to let them accept you so they wouldn't just see you as some remorseful delusionist. So, what do you have to say about that?" Sly said as a devilish grin grew on her face, knowing that she had made her point. Sigma stayed silent for a moment as he thought about what to say before tapping on his ear three times.
"...You want to know something Sly? You're not wrong when you say that we're the same, but I think it's in a different way." Sigma responded, a hint of anger in his voice.
"Oh? What way would that be, you insignificant worm?" Sly questioned. Sigma took a moment to breathe in and sigh before coughing and giving a confident smirk as his eyes turned a gold color.
"The two of us are excellent planners and deceivers." Sigma told Sly, his voice becoming more feminine. Sly's eyes went wide with surprise as Sigma took off the cloak and his face shimmered, revealing a now revealed Echo.
"What?!" Sly exclaimed as she felt her hand tremble.
"Looks like our plan worked without a hitch and it got just the reaction I was hoping for." Echo said, a smug smile appearing on her face.
"How?!" Sly questioned, venom dripping from her voice.
"Looks like you didn't research us well enough. After all, we aren't normal people." Echo said before quickly changing her voice to sound like Sigma's.
"... Of course, how could I forget that detail?" Sly said, cursing herself for forgetting about their supernatural powers.
"I will admit that it was a bit of a long shot that this plan worked, but I'm happy that it did in the end. The look on your face right now is priceless." Echo told Sly. Sly quickly reached up to open her communications, but only heard static on the other end. "Oh, did I forget to mention that we jammed your communications? You really should get better security." Echo said, her smug look growing as she put a hand to her chin innocently. Sly was silent for a moment before chucking and bursting out in laughter as she clapped.
"Well done, honest and truly, well done. You pulled the wool over my eyes and I can't help but be impressed even though I absolutely despise you." Sly said, a tinge of crazy in her voice. As she spoke, Sly grabbed part of her left gauntlet and pulled out a small device with a button from her gauntlet, holding it up to Echo. "Which is why, I'm so glad that I had a back up plan ready." Sly said before pressing the button.
"What did you do?" Echo asked, a quick panic rushing in.
"Oh nothing much, just activated some bombs on the ship." Sly said, a devilish smile on her face.
"WHAT?!" Echo exclaimed.
"I didn't think I would need them, but here we are." Sly said. Echo glared at Sly for a moment before putting a hand to her communicator.
"Lan, did you catch that?" Echo asked, urgency in her voice.
"Heard it loud and clear, I'm already heading to look for them. I'll relay the info to the others, keep Sly busy in the meantime." Lan told Echo. Echo nodded before getting out one of her Pokeballs and looking at Sly.
"Still looking for a battle? Well since I'm in the mood to crush your hopes, don't mind if I do." Sly said as she got out one of her Pokeballs. The two looked at each other before tossing out their Pokeball and getting ready for a battle.