Jewel: *sitting on Tyler's lap* So, this makes it go forward? *presses throttle with feeler*
Tyler: Woop, yeah it does. Easy, easy. Now you need to change gears, so press down that one right there and move the gear stick.
Jewel: Got it! Yay! *presses throttle harder*
Tyler: Hold on! Easy, easy! *removes Jewel's ribbon from the throttle, steps on brake* Phew, alright. Hey there, everyone! Welcome back to another chapter of Roadtrip. This is a special one since it's a two part! Hope you all are staying safe and washing your hands! Recently, the second lockdown wave was issued in my country so it seems not enough people get the memo. Anyways…
Tyler: We're about to break 20k views! Good god, that's a lot! Thank you all so much! To celebrate, expect a bonus chapter to come up next week, alongside with that week's upload! Now, let's get this show on the road!
Jewel: Floor it?
Tyler: Yes- No no, don't floor it.
Jewel: Floor it?
Tyler: NO NO, DON'T FLOOR IT
Jewel: OKAY FLOOR IT.
Disclaimer: Gluten free bread doesn't taste good.
Tyler inhaled the nice smell that lingered throughout the suite. It was a pleasant mixture of morning air and pancakes. Though, this smell started to foul after a few moments as the pancakes smelled a bit burnt. It was at this moment that he realized that he was the one cooking them.
"Shit!" He exclaimed as he quickly flipped the pancake to avoid burning it anymore. Thankfully, it was only partially burnt which was easy to pick off.
Vince and Samuel were at the dining table snickered as Tyler exhaled in relief. Josh and Amanda were in the living room, talking about their cars while their Pokemon and Tyler's were hanging out nearby. Except for Jewel and Autumn as they were eagerly awaiting breakfast.
"And that's the last one. Alright, let's dig in." Tyler announced as he finished stacking the pancakes into appropriate servings. Needless to say, it didn't take much to get everyone's attention.
After finishing their breakfast, the group decided that it was the perfect time to discuss their plan of action for today.
"Alright, we should head out soon. The sooner we find out what in the distortion world's happening to the electricity, the better. I'm sure the citizens missed steady power by now." Tyler said as he clasped his hands together as Jewel sat on his lap, her head in the space between his arms. Samuel rolled his eyes.
"Look at you, playing hero even before we do jack shit. Doesn't mean you're wrong, though." Samuel said with a shrug as he petted Helios. Tyler chuckled with a smirk accompanied by Jewel sticking her tongue out.
"Anyways, here's a document of certification to search the power station. Without it, you won't be granted access to the area. From what I heard, the city officials haven't got a clue what's causing the outages as well." Josh explained as he pulled out a brown envelope and handed it over to Vince. He unwound the string and pulled out a sheet of paper filled which contained their clearance and permit to explore the place, including a signature from Lucas as confirmation.
"How did you get your hands on this, anyways?" Vince asked back.
"Late last night, Lucas texted me. He told me that he might not be able to make it and had already wrote a permit letter. He told me to check my item inbox for it." Josh explained as he leaned back in his seat. Then, Amanda tapped Vince rapidly on his shoulder.
"Lookie 'ere, a map of the whole power plant!" Amanda spoke as she opened the map on her phone and showed it to Vince and the others. The map showed the sprawling power plant in all its glory, which was impressively large. Vince nodded as both he and Amanda took a closer look.
"Hey Ty, how are we going to enter the observatory? Don't we need a permit or whatever as well?" Samuel said as he leaned forward. Tyler tapped his chin in thought.
"We can try asking them for access. If that doesn't work, we sneak in." Tyler suggested with everyone looking at him with confused and 'what the fuck' looks. Even Jewel and Autumn looked at him with a confused look.
"What? Did I say something wrong?" Tyler asked incredulously as Josh shook his head. He took out another document from the brown envelope and handed it over to Tyler. Upon first glance, it looked identical. That was before he noticed that it was for access to the Observatory.
"Oh" was all he said as the others laughed.
Roughly thirty minutes after, the group entered their cars and split up as accordance to their plan. Group B went down a road that lead to the suburbs of Veilstone, while Group A proceeded down the main street. For some odd reason, the roads where basically empty save for only a few cars. Almost immediately, Samuel had an idea pop into his mind.
Veilstone was a pretty unique city in terms of physical layout. While other big cities are largely flat and uninteresting aside from Oreburgh which was dusty and bumpy at times, Veilstone had ungulating hills, steep inclines and high slopes on both sides of the city, the side nearest to Mt. Coronet and the side furthest from it and closest to the sea. There was also an enormous hill in which the Observatory stood on which was affectionately called 'the Slope' by the locals. Pair that with winding roads made driving through Veilstone a fast and fun experience, if the roads were empty of course.
Which they were.
"Oi, race you fucks to the Observatory!" Samuel yelled as he put his foot down with the V10 BMW jerking forwards a bit before picking speed up rapidly. Josh smirked and followed, his Porsche's flat-6 screaming down the road. Tyler looked around inside his car to the various smiles and the singular frown before putting his foot down.
Not long after, the three cars reached the front of the Observatory. Surprisingly, Tyler was the first to reach the Observatory considering his car. He was followed closely by Josh and finally Samuel. They exited their cars with Tyler bearing a big grin.
"Shut up." Samuel muttered as he and Helios walked past Tyler, the latter catching up to him. Tyler and Josh chuckled before Tyler noticed Noir's disappointed look which he replied to by shrugging his shoulders.
The group caught up with Samuel as they ascended the stairs towards the Observatory. Lucas had told them a brief history of the Observatory. In short, it was built under Cynthia's permission by a person that stayed anonymous for unknown reasons. Since then, it had been instrumental in the plentiful discoveries of various celestial bodies. It was even one of the few observatories in the world that caught a glimpse of Rayquaza over Hoenn even though Sinnoh and Hoenn were incredibly far apart.
"Honestly, now that I think about it… This observatory has been here for a long ass time. So why the fuck is it only screwing up the power now?" Samuel inquired. Tyler and Josh thought about it since it made perfect sense.
"Don't know, actually. Also, it might not be at fault, you never know." Tyler added with a shrug as the group entered the lobby via one of the three doors. Though, Tyler made sure to return Ava and Epsilon where were a bit too large for the building.
The lobby was as expected as it was well furnished with plenty of sofas and ottomans strewn about, with accompanying coffee tables to boot. There were a couple of vending machines on the right side of the lobby with a cafeteria area on the left of the reception desk.
The group walked over to the front desk where the receptionist greeted them with a smile on her face.
"Good morning and welcome to the Stratos Observatory, how can I help you?" The receptionist asked gleefully which contrasted against the gloomy nature of the citizen of Veilstone. Nevertheless, Tyler pushed that thought aside.
"Hi, we're here to-" Tyler was about to say before being interrupted by a scientist who walked over.
"Aha! You must be here for a tour, yes? C'mon, follow me!" The fairly old scientist said with vigor which was still a tiny bit odd. The group looked at each other for a bit before Samuel shrugged and walked forward, the rest following him and the scientist.
As the group ventured further inside the observatory, they took in the sights that sprawled before them. Plenty of researchers hustled and bustled around expensive looking equipment. They passed by plenty of doors with each of them being important in their own ways.
"…And this one is the break room…." The scientist explained as he had been doing so for the past half hour or so. Everyone in the group apart from Autumn who was interested in learning looked miserable. Tyler yawned silently as he looked around.
Out of the corner of his eye, Tyler spotted a door that was different from the others. It looked to be of better quality steel than the others and had a keypad on the side of it. Fortunately, it was close enough for Tyler to get a good look at it. Quickly he hatched a plan which he whispered to the others.
"And that over there is the main telescope itself! Look at how big it is!" The scientist explained as the group listened diligently. Meanwhile, Tyler and the others were sneaking quietly towards the door. Noir looked comfortable as she casted the illusion, though they knew if someone came by, it wouldn't end well for them.
"Alright. Now, how do we get this open?" Tyler asked Josh quietly. Josh thought about it for a moment. Josh looked back at the keypad before trying various inputs.
12345
Incorrect PIN
24680
Incorrect PIN
69420
Incorrect PIN
13337
Incorrect PIN
11111
Incorrec-
Ruby slashed at the door with her horn, cutting it in half. Thankfully, minimal sound was produced so their cover wasn't blown. The Absol grinned as everyone was watching her with stunned silence, even Noir who was still busy casting her illusion.
"Well, that works." Tyler acknowledged as he entered the door, followed closely by the others. They descended an incredible long staircase which eventually ended after roughly ten minutes.
The group found themselves in an adequately lit hallway, though it was made entirely of unpainted concrete, unlike the flat and smooth walls of the observatory. Jewel shuddered as she trotted alongside Tyler.
"This place gives me the creeps." She stated accompanied by a quick shudder. Autumn, who was right beside her nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, i-it's really different compared to the observatory." Autumn muttered as the group kept on walking. Soon, the heard footsteps in the distance. Frantically, Noir ended her illusion on the top floor and casted a coverup for them. Not long after, a guard accompanied by their Skuntank walked by. As they passed, the group let out a sigh of relief.
"That was way too close. Thanks Noir." Tyler muttered with Noir giving a silent thumbs up. The group continued on their way before the path branched into three.
"Well damn, guess we'll spilt up." Samuel nonchalantly suggested and walked off without waiting for a response. Tyler and Josh looked to each other before shaking their heads.
"I thought this might happen, so I've made some preparations. I've fitted a radio comms system on all of our translators so we can talk to each other." Josh explained before pressing a button on his translator.
"Hey, Sam. Can you hear me?"
"Woah, shi- How do you do that?"
"Just press the bu- Wait a minute…"
"Hehe."
"And that's how you do it." Josh finished as he let go of the button. Tyler tried it himself by pressing the button on his, a light static filling his ears which meant that it was picking up audio. He turned it off and nodded.
"Great job, Josh. Now, let's hustle." Tyler said with a nod as he went down one of the paths, leaving Josh to take the other path.
Tyler, Jewel, Autumn and Noir walked silently with Noir still casting her illusion. The hallways seemed endless to them as they had been walking for some time. Tyler glanced back at Noir who was closing her eyes in focus and then towards Jewel and Autumn who seemed uneasy.
"Hey, relax. We've got this." Tyler assured them with a smile while stroking Jewel's chin, getting her to giggle slightly. He made sure not to leave Autumn hanging and stroked her as well, with the Fire type blushing slightly.
"Yeah, I know. It's just… this place doesn't feel right at all." Jewel muttered as Tyler looked around. They were now in a large hall which had an enormous screen and a stage on one end. Unfortunately, the hall was not empty as roughly a dozen people walked to and fro. Their appearance sparked bitter hatred to arise in Tyler. They were Team Galactic grunts.
"Motherfuckers." Tyler growled as he almost began running, hell-bent on punching each and every one of them in the face. Before he could manage to do so, Noir and Jewel held him back. Thankfully, he only managed a few steps and made little noise, even though his sneakers squeaked on the smooth floor.
"Tyler, I know how much you despise them but we shouldn't blow our cover. There's nothing good to come out of being aggressive now." Noir rationalized with Tyler sighing in defeat. He nodded a bit before sneaking out of the hall, followed closely by Jewel, Autumn and Noir.
"Hey, Sam? Josh? You copy?"
"Right here, bud. Anything?"
"Plenty, Sam. Turns out Team Galactic's behind this all."
"Heh, no shit. Those fucks were torturing a Pokemon a few rooms back."
"You said it, Sam. Ruby and I just passed by a testing chamber of some sorts. Don't know what it is for, but it doesn't look very nice."
"Right, thanks for the info guys."
Tyler continued walking, passing plenty of wooden crates and unused rooms. Although the facility was incredibly high tech as shown by the various expensive machines strewn about, there lingered an eerie feeling of lifelessness. It was mostly quiet, only disturbed by the occasional yelling and banging of both Pokemon and human variety in the distance.
All of a sudden, the lights flickered briefly and a loud whirring sound filled the air. Tyler and the rest looked around for a possible source. Autumn's ears lifted towards the direction of the source.
"I-I think it's coming from there!" She whispered yelled to the others. Tyler nodded and shuffled quickly towards the suspected source.
As they ran, a loud piercing scream rang out through the halls. Due to the construction of the place, it echoed strongly from one direction, making it easier to pinpoint the source. Thankfully, it came from the same direction as the whirring itself so they could kill two birds with one stone.
"That doesn't sound good. We have to hurry!" Jewel half whispered. Tyler nodded and they all picked up their pace. Tyler internally thanked Noir's ability to both mask sight and sound which minimized the amount of noise they made.
Just then, they reached a room with large glass windows and a seating area right in front of them. Quietly, they shuffled to the edge of the room to eavesdrop as the room was partially full of grunts. Tyler then recognize Jupiter and Saturn from their encounter, which caused him to grit his teeth.
Behind the glass windows was a huge contraption. A clear test tube sat in the middle as various control panels surrounded it. A system of cables and wires connected the top part of the test tube to the set of control panels on the bottom. Inside of the test tube was a creature that Tyler had never seen before. It mostly concealed by the fluid inside the test tube while it screamed bloody murder.
Tyler clenched his fist as he was barely able to contain his anger but with the help of Jewel's ribbons and his own self control, he managed to barely keep it together. Not long after, the whirring stopped and the creature stopped screaming. A loud panting could be heard.
"Hmph, that wasn't as expected. How long do you estimate to have it under control?" Jupiter asked with an air of authority. The nearest scientist scratched his chin.
"We should be fine tomorrow." He answered before Saturn groaned.
"Hurry the fuck up, will you? Cyrus is about to explode and I don't intend to perish in the blast radius. So pick the shit up and hurry!" Saturn yelled animatedly as he stomped out of the room. Jupiter sighed but still looked displeased.
"I hope he was clear enough to all of you." Jupiter muttered as she exited the room, accompanied by the grunts. Now, there were only a team of scientists left.
"Dicks." The scientist said while turning to the control panel. Then, he was suddenly punched squarely on the side of the head, knocking him out. Before the rest could react, they were quickly knocked out by a variety of punches, whips, shoves and headbutts.
After Tyler and his team was done, they made their way into the room and towards the test tube. Thanks to Noir's ability, they managed to avoid being caught on the surveillance cameras.
"Nice work. Now…" Tyler said before trailing off as he looked at the machine, thinking of a way to possibly free the creature. Tyler focused hard on the control panel, looking for any indication at how to release the test tube. With the current level of technology, it would be dif-
Jewel pressed a big red button labeled 'Release' which allowed the test tube to split in half. Though, the fluid was drained before it could do so as to avoid a spill.
"Oh." Tyler said as the others facepawed.
As the test tube fully opened, Tyler could finally get a good look at the creature. It had green claw-like front legs, a dark coloured torso and rear legs, an aquatic tail and most prominently a copper coloured mask with some sort of blade on it's head.
The creature slumped over and fell, unconscious. Unluckily, it was this moment that the alarm blared as the intercom announced.
"WARNING, INTRUDERS IN LOWER LEVEL. LOCATION UNKNOWN."
"Shit." Tyler muttered as the rest scrambled to help the creature.
"At least it couldn't get any worse for the others." He finally said.
…
"Arceus, damn." Lucas muttered as he, Vince and Amanda looked around at the enormous pack of Magnemites and Magnetons with three Electrivires in front of them.
And that's the end of part 1! Stay tuned for part 2 and stay safe! Bruhmeister, out!
Noir: I'm going to be sick.
Jewel: *presses throttle again*
Noir: NO STOP