Brendan and company could not believe the sight before them. The trio had only recently arrived in Rustboro City and found that the place was rather quiet. Too quiet, some might say. In an instant, the young group of trainers suspected something was wrong. Their suspicions were only confirmed when they finally reached the Devon Corporation building only to find that somebody had forced their way inside. Indeed, the doors lay a few feet away from the entrance, detached from their hinges and looking utterly mangled and charred. Stepping inside cautiously, the team inspected the lobby and found many grunts from both Team Aqua and Team Magma strewn about the room. Not one of them moved. Wally nearly fainted before May checked one grunt's pulse to make sure he was still alive. Whoever had passed through here certainly had a bone to pick with the infiltrators. Wait a minute…
"Why would all these grunts smash open the door only to faint in here?" Wally inquired. "Did someone knock all of them out?"
"Or maybe they were here the entire time and somebody else passed through," Brendan reasoned.
"… Well, not gonna save Dad standing around here," May stated plainly with an oddly cheery smile, even for her. "Let's get going!"
Without warning, the brunette sprinted ahead into the building, her friends close behind.
"Huff… Is she… always like this?" Wally nearly choked. Though his asthma had mostly gone away since moving to Verdanturf Town, he occasionally had fits of it, this being one of them.
"Always, buddy," the boy in the white hat confirmed with a smile as he watched May sprint past numerous unconscious grunts. "Always."
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Shelly sighed as she recalled her last Pokémon and put up her hands in defeat. When the lower grunts had told her that the Champion was on their way, they really weren't kidding. Said Champion still hadn't recalled his signature Pokémon, Metagross, and both he and the Steel-Psychic type were now glaring daggers at the Team Aqua admin.
"Easy now, Silver. You beat me fair and square," she muttered, attempting to reason with the man before her. "What more do you wa-"
"Release them."
This caught Shelly off-guard. "What?"
"Release Mr. Stone and all of the other Devon employees, as well as anyone else you cretins might have taken hostage," Steven growled, not taking his fierce eyes off of her. "Right. Now."
"Yes, well…"
Shelly paused. Steven's Metagross looked very unhappy, and if the battle it had recently been in was any indication, there was still carnage to spare. She needed to be careful about how she would word the next thing to come out of her mouth.
"Normally, I'd be more than happy to oblige, but it's just…"
"It's just what?"
"Team Aqua has already taken the hostages to our secret base for further interrogation and research purposes. Even if you were to get there in a flash, I'm afraid they'd already be all used up."
Steven fell completely silent, his head lowered and his facial expression unreadable.
"Looking back, that didn't sound nearly as horrible in my head," Shelly muttered, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. "Well, if that's it, I guess I'll just be going no-"
"Metagross, use Metal Claw."
Wait, what?
The large crab-like supercomputer turned to look at its owner as if to question him. Its red eyes glowed as it tried to reach Steven's mind and telepathically communicate with him, but was only shut out in response. Shelly, meanwhile, was slowly backing away, trying to appear invisible.
"Do it. Now."
Shelly gulped. She wasn't one to cower, but this was definitely not a bad time. "No… Wait… Please!"
The Metagross advanced on the Team Aqua admin, who was now running and hiding behind several desks and various pieces of furniture. Unfortunately for her, the Pokémon merely hurled some of them away with its psychic abilities or simply crushed them with its heavy limbs. Finally, Shelly was backed into a corner of the room, the Pokémon showing no signs of slowing its approach.
"Well, I suppose I had a good run. If only Archie and I could have met with Jirachi one last time," the Aqua Admin muttered, shutting her eyes tightly. Metagross raised its forearm high above its body and turned slightly to look at Steven, as if to ask him, "Really?" The silver-haired man's stone-cold expression did not change.
"Do it."
"Steven, wait!"
Suddenly, the Champion was surprised to see that some guys had rushed into the room! Steven was even more surprised to see that those guys were none other than Brendan and May, accompanied by a small boy he didn't recognize.
"Steven," Brendan stated in a tone barely above a whisper. "What are you doing?"
This hit Steven hard. Just what was he doing? This wasn't like him at all.
"Steven, I know it's hard to have your family taken away from you," May stated, tearing up a little bit. "Believe me, I know! But this… This just isn't the right way."
Steven looked back to see Shelly still slightly cowering in fear. Metagross had backed off for her and was gazing at Steven with a strange expression on its face, a mixture of sympathy and disappointment.
"I… You're right… All of you. I'm sorry, my friends," Steven apologized profusely, ashamed of what he almost did. The Champion nearly jumped when he felt a reassuring hand reach his shoulder, belonging to Brendan.
"It's okay, Steven," Brendan stated with a smile. "We can still save Professor Birch and your father!"
"Right," May chirped in her usual perky tone of voice, "And we'll do it together!"
Wally was about to say something when he spotted in the corner of his eye a soundly defeated Aqua Admin attempting to sneak away. "Hey, wait!"
His friends turned towards the door and saw Shelly nearly make her way outside the door before being levitated by Metagross's Psychic attack, the Pokémon crying in triumph.
"H-Hey! Put me down right now!"
"Not yet," Steven said with a stern expression. "Now, this Aqua base of yours. Where is it?"
"I'll never tell," Shelly stated with a smirk.
"It's in Lilycove, isn't it?" Steven asked dryly.
"Wha-?! Alright, which one of you twerps peeped?"
"Don't look at me," May commented while putting up her hands defensively.
"What base?" Wally questioned innocently. It wasn't as if he knew where the base was located; he honestly had no idea they were even a thing.
"Well, it doesn't matter now," Steven piped up. "Let's go save our fathers and the Devon employees!"
With that, Metagross unceremoniously dropped the Aqua Admin and was recalled into its ball as the four trainers made their way out of the Devon Corporation building and began walking north of Rustboro, getting ready to fly to Lilycove on the backs of their trusty Pokémon.
"Do you guys think it was really a good idea to just leave her there?" Wally asked his companions.
"I don't see why not," Brendan shrugged. "Besides, it's not like she can do anything to us now!"
~Meanwhile, on the top floor of the Devon Corp building~
Shelly let out a grunt as she pulled herself along the floor, trying to get her bag that sat on the other side of the room. Who would have guessed that Pokémon attacks could affect the human body even when used non-aggressively? This was definitely going to have to be researched…
Suddenly, a whoosh sound filled the air as a mysterious cloaked figure suddenly appeared in the room, a few feet from Shelly. "I take it you'll be needing my services once more?"
"Grr… We've already payed you to snatch up those Key Stones, some of which we still haven't even received yet!" Shelly barked irritably. "What more do you want?"
"You know what I want," the figure responded, reaching Shelly's bag before she could and pushing it over to her with a foot. "The real question here is, what do I need in order to get it?"
Shelly sighed in frustration. "You're not making any sense… But fine. If you're so bent on making yourself useful to us, go hunt down those twerps that were just here and put an end to their meddling vigilante nonsense! I hear one of them may even have a Key Stone, so consider that a 'kill two Tailow with one stone' kind of deal."
"And my pay?"
The Aqua Admin huffed once more as she reached into her bag and pulled out all the Poké Dollars left in it. "Here. Just take it all and go!"
"Yes… This will do nicely," the figure almost purred, counting the bills. "Consider it done. They'll be out of the picture by tomorrow noon."
With that, the figure seemed to disappear into thin air as Shelly all but passed out, thoroughly exhausted by the day's events. At least she could rest knowing those meddling kids and their champion were about to disappear...