Buizel stood in front of a desk, tapping his foot impatiently. Rio was behind the desk searching the messy papers for one file in particular.
Buizel's work assignment.
He'd just recently arrived at Sinnoh Home, and had been directed to his friend Rio to get a lab and work assignment. There were many labs in Sinnoh HQ, after all, that was where Tech Division did all their research and development.
And it was just his luck that Rio happened to lose his assignment file.
The Water-type glanced around the room, refamiliarizing himself with the Sinnoh Home environment. Rio's small, rarely used desk was standard-issue, like all the others in the other cubicles. The two of them were in a massive, even-busier-than-usual circular room. Two-thirds of the wall was actually made up of enormous windows, sunlight streaming through and clouds visible outside. The leftover third of the room was one hallway entrance after another, several of them leading to docking bays, like the one he'd landed in.
The ceiling was slightly curved, and made of shiny, white-painted chrome, just like the walls and floor. And the cubicles. Each office cubicle had at least one Pokémon rushing about inside, searching for lost papers, important mission documents, the latest developments with Sirai's glitching, and, for the most part, another cup of coffee.
Sinnoh Home, sweet home. Buizel thought wryly, with an ironic twist to his grimace. Busier than usual because of the glitching, but other than that, same old Sinnoh Home. There's something impressive about the madness of this place. Besides the fact that we're a good twelve to fifteen kilometers above the ground.
Indeed they were. Sinnoh Home was no stereotypical underground base. Or even a tree-based Rescue Team Base. Sinnoh Home was a flying fortress, hidden in the clouds and living in the stratosphere. Even the aquatic transports that Rescue Home maintained in the ocean were hardly remarkable compared to the regional home bases. Sinnoh's headquarters just so happened to be one of the newer flying ones.
If you were to look at it from the outside and above the clouds, you'd see a gleaming silver-white dome with a row of tall, polished windows and great, fantastical wings with propellers, something brought to life out of science fiction. Of course, it'd be a little difficult to make out Sinnoh Home from the actual cloud (generated by the enormous construct's cloud engines). Even the windows would just reflect light to seem invisible.
If you were to look at Sinnoh Home from outside and on the ground, you'd see a lazy, slow-drifting cloud, shaped vaguely like a city as a result of excess steam being released out of engine pipes at irregular intervals. In fact, if you overlaid an image of that city-cloud on top of a bar graph of engine temperature, they'd look very similar.
Buizel was thinking about this as he waited. Eventually, that train of thought grew dull, and he instead decided to bother Rio about getting back to Team J's base.
"Just so we're clear," Buizel began irritably. "I'm only staying here for the absolute minimum time required in the rule book. Three hours. And if that time started when I landed on the base, right now I've got an hour and a half left of being here."
Rio ignored him, grabbing a few sheets of paper that seemed to be what he was looking for and stuffing them in a manilla folder.
"Are you listening?" Buizel asked, uncharacteristically annoyed. "I'm going back to my team's base in an hour and a half-"
Rio still ignored him, grunting in response while grabbing a pen and writing something on the folder.
"No more than that." Buizel demanded huffily and, it must be said, in a rather Eevee-like manner. "That is the minimum amount that any field agent is required to work at Sinnoh Home in a non-emergency but still time-sensitive situation. I won't stay here any longer than I have to."
Rio held the folder out to him, Buizel's name and ID number scribbled messily on the corner, and an ID card on top. He smiled knowingly and somewhat smugly as he replied. "Just take a look at your assignment before you say any more."
Buizel stuck the ID card in his rescue scarf and opened the folder, looking at the paper that had his lab assignment on it. "VISION lab?!" he exclaimed excitedly, all trace of annoyance abruptly gone. "They actually completed the VISION lab project!"
Rio's cheerful grin was somewhat self-congratulatory as he responded. "Yup. So, how long are you planning on being here again?"
"Erm…" Buizel seemed hesitant, conflicted between going back home to his teammates and staying longer to play with new tech. "Well… I suppose a few days here won't make a difference in the long run."
"Good." Rio replied. "Now get going to the tech labs!" He shooed the Water-type away.
As Buizel walked down one of the hallways, passing several small Steel-types rushing about, he mused on Rio's choice of lab for him. Why is it that the cheerful ones are always so manipulative? Ah, well. I can't believe they completed the VISION project! Wonder how the rest of the team's doing…
Zorua sneezed as she bounced on her bed. "Hey! Sirai!" she called out, waiting for a friendly reply as usual.
"What is it?" Sirai's voice echoed around the room. It wasn't the same voice Team J was familiar with though; this voice was flatter, colder, crueler. Like someone had replaced Sirai with Hunter J.
Zorua, while oblivious to quite a few things, picked up on this. She suddenly stopped bouncing, a worried and very confused expression flitting across her face. "Sirai?" she asked tentatively. "You alright?"
"Of course. What is it that you want?" The AI's voice was just as icy as before. Formal as well.
Great. Zorua thought sarcastically. Sirai's turned into a mix of Hunter J and Karai. What's wrong with her?
"Er, nothing." Zorua replied to the AI. "I forget what it was." She bounded to the door, and, expecting it to slide open as usual, didn't expect to slam into it face first. "Ow!" she exclaimed, rubbing her nose. "Sirai! What's with the door?"
Sirai's voice echoed around in the room when the response finally came. "My apologies. I expected you to know how to open a door manually." Instead of the joking tone and false British accent Sirai would've normally used after a prank, her voice was instead mocking and falsely submissive.
Zorua grumbled under her breath while pulling open the door manually and running down the hallway. Something's really wrong. I've gotta find Buiz-wait, Buizel's not here. Alright, Eevee then. She's got to know something about Sinnoh tech. Well, more than me at any rate.
Eevee was pacing back and forth in her own room, muttering under her breath.
"Zorua, don't pound the floor down," she yelled, hearing the Dark-type's footsteps, but it was only half-hearted. The Normal-type was distracted by other things.
There was a shout of "Ow!", some angry muttering, and then the door to Eevee's room was pulled open by Zorua. The illusionist ran up to the Normal-type and whispered into Eevee's ear. "We really really-really-really need to talk! Now! Outside the base! It's about Sirai!"
Eevee hesitated. She opened her mouth, about to snap something about not pulling pranks, when she caught a glimpse of the look in Zorua's eye. This is serious.
Without a word, she followed Zorua out of the base.
"What is it?" she said in a low voice, facing the smaller Pokémon once they were out of the base. Eevee was starting to get really worried now. Buizel's barely even been gone, and we're already apparently having issues! Just my luck!
Zorua glanced around with narrowed eyes, warily watching the giant oak that was their base. She loved that tree and all it meant, but the new Sirai… Zorua had barely talked to the AI, but it was already obvious that something was very, very wrong.
The Dark-type whispered hastily, paranoid that the base's AI could be listening in. "Sirai's gone wrong." She paused, but before Eevee could give a snarky reply, Zorua continued. "It's not just the glitches, it's her… personality. She's not the Sirai we know."
A hollow gust of wind blew through the clearing and the rumbling echo of a crack of thunder was heard. Looking up at the mostly blue sky, the two members of Team J could see a tall, gray, lightning cloud towering over the horizon. A storm was coming.
"Ugh, the weather looks horrid," Eevee mumbled under her breath before turning back to Zorua. "Are you sure…" She paused. "Are you sure it's not just another prank of hers? Or maybe it's got something to do with the work they're doing at Sinnoh Home?" Why would there be any reason for Sirai to go wrong? She technically doesn't have a personality… does she? It's just… extremely realistic programming…? She shivered as a cold wind ripped through her fur. At any rate, as long as she's functioning okay it'll be alright. For now.
"We should get inside," Eevee said, putting a protective paw around Zorua and guiding her back into the base. The wind slammed the camouflaged hatch closed behind them, louder than Eevee would have liked. "Look, I'll have a talk with Sirai myself later, okay? Now run along."
Zorua pouted in an old, unused, odd-smelling room. "Pfft! 'Run along', she says. I'm not a baby Pokémon!" She didn't want to go back to her own bedroom. Not with Sirai the way she was. The usually upbeat Pokémon was in a dark mood. She wasn't even sure which room of the base she was in. Glancing around, the Dark-type noticed shelves. Bookshelves to be exact. And they all appeared to be empty.
The room was carved out of the wood of the tree, like all the rest, but the shelves… they were derelict, ignored. Not neglected though, they were kept clean and dust-free, likely thanks to Buizel, the resident cleaning maid. Zorua didn't particularly like to read, but she didn't like lonely places. And this empty library was, if anything at all, lonely.
She was curious though, and poked her head around several desolate shelves.
The floor creaked. "Eeeek!" Zorua jumped, before telling herself off for acting like Cyndaquil. She shook her head off to get rid of the lingering shadows of fear. Zorua looked at the creaky spot on the floor. Silence in the library. she thought sarcastically. Then, she noticed that the creaky spot was actually a square wooden tile. That's weird. Nothing's cut out in this base… It all just grows here.
Nosing the niche open, Zorua shoved the tile to the side. In the square hole was a neat, Sirai-blue book.
'Sinnoh Rescue Artificial Intelligence - A History, A Mystery'
Eevee padded down the hallway, a little uneasy despite herself. I wonder… what Zorua was going on about… She tried to put the matter out of her head, as she did with most other unpleasant things. Anyways, I hope she's okay.
Going around the base, Eevee methodically closed all the windows in preparation for what looked like it was going to become a huge storm. Outside, she could faintly hear the Staravia calling to each other urgently. The base seemed very silent all of a sudden, even though raindrops had begun to patter against the leaves outside the base, making a lonely percussionistic sound. Eevee sighed and pulled the curtains shut with a needlessly harsh snap.
She knew she shouldn't have blown Zorua off that way, but… but she just couldn't take it anymore. Buizel was the parent, not her. For all their capability and maturity, she found herself treating Cyndaquil and Zorua like little kids every once in a while. It was stressful, having them come to her with their problems; Buizel had always been the one that they would go to. Eevee had felt a little sad that they never confided in her. Idiot that I was.
Turning away from the window, she was startled by a loud creak. It sounded like it was coming from somewhere deeper inside the base. She hesitated for a moment.
"This old place must be falling apart," she muttered. "What the heck was that?
But, being Eevee, she disregarded the odd sound, unaware of what was being discovered.