Obligatory Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.
QUICK WARNING - Scroll to the first page break if you want to start reading the story. My response to Jordinio's review goes on a while.
As I said last time, this chapter will focus neither on one of the two groups touring Hoenn/Kanto, but will instead focus on a few other characters that were left behind earlier in the story, and some who haven't been mentioned, leading on from the hint at the end of chapter 20…
On reviews; thanks again, J.F.C! You know me; I do love a good cliff hanger…
Thanks also Eclipse Wing and Agent of Fire, glad to see you've enjoyed it so far.
Sprinter; I thought Charizard's move selection was a bit confused too, but it's still good just to have him back on the show again. Thanks for the review.
Garm; I'll assume you mean just prologue 1 and not 2, but I can understand where you're coming on. It's not supposed to make sense yet, and I certainly don't intend to spell out the link too soon, but it will be relevant by the end of the story. Hope you've enjoyed the rest if you kept going, though.
And then we come to Jordinio. Working blue, huh?
As much as I doubt that you'll deign to read my responses to your criticisms, I'll reply anyway. You raise good points about Ash, although I'd say he performed quite well in chapters 8, 10-11 – even if it eventually fell to Iris to win for them in the latter – and more distinctly in chapter 20. I'll accept that he doesn't come off at his best in the earlier battles, which I intended to use for other purposes; to progress Iris and Dragonite's story and to do the same for Cynthia and Cameron. Ash kinda fell by the wayside at times in these, even as the story would return to his thoughts. Thanks for pointing this out, and I'll be sure to be more careful about depowering him – accidentally or not – in the future. Still, this is a journey, and there's plenty of time for him to have his moments.
And the fact that this is a journey explains my inclusion of "filler" like the Golduck chapter. Things don't just go from one major event to another on a journey – we don't just see Ash's gym battles in the show, for example. While I could have used – as I often do – the tried and true method of a few paragraphs of narration to explain them travelling all the way through the forest to the bridge, I chose to use the opportunity afforded by the distance they had to travel to develop or reinforce some of their characters, balance Cilan's roster with Iris' (given that he never received a fourth Pokémon as Iris did), reveal more of Cameron's party and introduce Braviary to Cynthia's. Did it have anything to do with the main plot, other than advance their position in the arc? Not really. But I still had a purpose for this "filler", whether you believe I succeeded at it or not.
On Dragonite, and on Charizard for that matter; as I said, I began this fanfic when Dragonite had been announced but before the episode aired. I had no idea what its full moveset aside from ThunderPunch and Flamethrower would be like, and chose not to rewrite it upon its actual reveal. Its use of ExtremeSpeed is consistent with that. Similarly, I had no idea that Charizard would be returning when I wrote the scenes at Oak's lab, and in particular did not expect it to be quite so easy for Ash to recall it from the Charific Valley. I might well have plans for Charizard to return later in the story, but that will now have nothing to do with the way the anime has panned out.
On Jigglypuff and Krokorok; looking back I can understand how it seems a tad unrealistic that a newly caught Jigglypuff could beat a well-trained Krokorok. Then again, Cilan was far more focused – and confident – in that fight than Ash, especially after Sing. Having a status move also gave Jigglypuff an advantage over the offense-oriented ground/dark-type. Food for thought either way, and I'll keep in mind your comments.
On Ash and Team Plasma; while Ash was travelling in Unova with the stone he was accompanied by a champion, an ex-champion and three of his friends. I'd call that fairly secure – and at the time of writing he hadn't demonstrated the inclination to put Pokémon from Kanto into his party in the anime as he later did with Charizard. Once in Kanto, he immediately gave the stone to Oak. He had no reason - from what Cameron had told him - to think that remnants of Plasma would be interested in him, merely the stone. As for N, my intention was to mirror the games with N's departure – that he had realised that he had been manipulated by Ghetsis and broke from the fold as a result, flying off on Reshiram. Cameron's explanation – second hand as it may be – leaves much to be desired there; I'm tempted to change it. If nothing else, chapter 20 confirms N's removal from Ghetsis's good graces.
Furthermore, surely it's more in character to assume that Ash isn't thinking quite that far ahead? Indeed, that's what I aimed to show with his thought processes in the earlier chapters, which I intend to revisit next time we're with A/C/H/M, and that he wants to try to change this after the near-disaster in the forest. Also in character, it's hardly like Ash to think about his some of his Pokémon being "elite" – they're all strong to him, and he promised them in chapter 9 that he would rotate them.
I don't want to take Ash out of what makes him who he is, as little as the anime goes into his fundamental character traits (his courage, compassion, drive and perseverance) but I want to getting him thinking more and maturing naturally. That's been my intention with his character.
On girls; as I've said, nothing about that is as clear as it seems. I'll be dropping hints for a while yet.
Lastly, I have to say that while I appreciate your comments, I don't appreciate the aggression with which you conveyed them. A little civility goes a long way, and swearing nearly every review for emphasis hardly makes your criticism more likely to have an effect. I also note that you say nothing about the technical aspect of my writing; such criticism can be helpful for future works outside the original. Still, I thank you for taking the time to comment, wasted though you feel your time to be.
That turned into a bit of an essay, didn't it?
Blooms; don't worry about it. While I don't agree with many of his criticisms, I agree that he has the right to say them – until they become insulting – and they've still been on the right side of the line so far.
This will be a bit of a long chapter, partly given the length of my responses to reviews.
Chronologically speaking, this chapter takes place across the same day as chapter 20.
Unova
"Bianca, I swear, if you go off the track once again I'm leaving you behind!"
"It's not my fault! I saw a wild Camerupt and just had to catch it!"
"But you didn't." Georgia noted. "And Camerupt don't even live around this part of Unova. Or any part of Unova!" Well, as far as I know.
Bianca shifted on the spot, shrugging weakly. Georgia sighed deeply at her travelling companion's actions, staring down as the blonde resumed her climb.
Only a few more hours 'til we're in the city. I'd feel bad about leaving her on the road, but she'll be fine there.
Bianca had attached herself to Georgia just as the dragon buster had been leaving Icirrus City, and had insisted on accompanying her because she didn't want to "get lost on the road". Despite having supposedly completed the route before.
The blonde had finally managed to pull herself back up on to the wide path they were advancing across that made up Unova's Route Nine. It hadn't been a steep hill, but her backpack, and the distance that she had managed to tumble, had made Bianca's climb take some time.
After all, she hadn't run off the track when she saw the "Camerupt". She had turned and fallen, bouncing all the way down.
"Sorry about the wait!" Bianca beamed, straightening her skirt and brushing off the dust and dirt from the floor off her hands. Georgia sighed and shook her head, then moved off quickly in the right direction.
"Let's go."
In fairness, Bianca wasn't bad company, certainly not as bad as Georgia had first feared when she had first asked to come along. She wasn't useless; she could cook well, she understood the land and she could look after her Pokémon and herself just fine.
If anything, Georgia felt a little bad for being surprised. And she really didn't like that feeling.
What's happened to me? She mused wryly. 'Couple of months ago I'd have just left her the first time she slowed us down. Now - this must be the twentieth time she's gotten distracted. How've I changed so much?
She knew the answer to that too well. Damn, Iris…
Iris. The girl she'd hated, then tolerated, and then grown to respect. Grown to like, even, especially after the incident at Ferroseed Research… And her friends were nice, too. Not that she'd say that to their faces.
She's all right, for a "dragon-master". Pity we didn't get to have a proper showdown after the Junior Cup was cancelled.
Practically the first thing Bianca had told Georgia after literally running into her (again) had been that Iris, Ash and Cilan had left the region for a little while, unsure as to when they would be back. Georgia had huffed about being kept out of the loop, but had accepted that the group had asked Bianca to spread the word to those they had met across Unova.
She realised that she only cared at all about not knowing until after Bianca because she considered Iris and the others to be her friends. It was a little annoying to admit that to herself, at first, given how she had felt about the dragon-master to be to begin with, but had no trouble with it now.
That went for Burgundy, Stephan, Trip and Luke, too. Even Bianca.
Bianca kept chatting as they walked; it was another annoying facet of her personality that Georgia had learned to tolerate. Or at least tune out, at times.
"No, we're not stopping at the mall, you can come back later!" Georgia had to drag the other girl past Shopping Mall Nine, desperate now to reach the city ahead.
"Okay, okay!"
Another ten minutes passed before Georgia could finally sigh in relief; they had reached the outskirts of Opelucid City.
"I've got some errands to run, but I'll meet you down at the Pokémon centre at five for dinner! Don't be late!" Bianca cried, tearing off through the streets.
Georgia adopted a thin smile as she watched her fellow trainer go, narrowly avoiding other pedestrians like a car swerving through traffic. She could be annoying, but Bianca was sure fun to watch from a distance.
It wasn't like Bianca to be late.
Well, not this late, at least. She was never actually on time, per se, but reliably, fashionably late, like a train that you could time to always arrive two minutes after it was supposed to.
Five minutes max. Never thirty-five.
Pokémon centres were always relatively large compared to other buildings in their areas, a necessity built upon the possibility of accommodating large numbers of trainers. Unova's were no exception, but it seemed unlikely that Bianca wouldn't have been able to spot Georgia's table even through the crowd.
Could she have forgotten? Unlikely. Bianca was scatter-brained, but not when it came to turning up to things arranged with friends. Especially not when if she arranged them.
Georgia had at first been confused, then angry, then a little concerned, at being stood up for so long. True worry had been starting to form by the time someone else to Bianca's place at the table. Someone else that Georgia knew.
"Long time, no see, Georgia."
"Trip." At least we got each other's names right…
"Knew" was about as far as she could go when it came to her experience with Ash's green-haired rival. They had never battled before, not even in the myriad of Battle Club tournaments that they had participated in alongside Ash and co.
She wondered what he was doing in Opelucid City, but supposed that he would be waiting for the Vertress Conference grounds to open up in the north-east; there was precious little else to do now that the Junior Cup had been cancelled. She would have Undella Town, personally, but…
"Is this seat free?"
"Go ahead."
He sat down opposite her and looked around, scanning the room.
"Were you looking for someone?"
"How could you tell?"
"I saw you looking around before I came over, it wasn't too hard to figure out. I'm pretty observant." He shrugged. She recalled the camera that he had wielded in the past; he probably had it stowed in his bag for now. "So who were you looking for?"
"Bianca. She was supposed to meet me here for lunch half an hour ago, but she never showed!" Georgia explained crossly, folding her arms. Trip shrugged.
"… Huh. I thought it might have been Iris. She was always complaining about how you were always one step ahead of her on the road."
"Oh, then you haven't heard?"
"About what?"
Georgia told him that Ash, Cilan and Iris had left the region and travelled to Kanto.
"But they'll be back for the conference?"
"That's what Bianca said."
"All right."
Trip didn't seem annoyed at learning this information second-hand, but his face was shaped in the same disdainful frown that he always wore, so it was hard to tell.
"You don't find that aggravating? They could have at least told us." Georgia said crossly.
"Meh."
The awkwardness in the situation was almost palpable.
What to say? They were friends by association with others, little more than that. Georgia wondered if this was how people who mutually knew Iris and the others always felt if they met.
The poor waitress who noticed them shortly after sitting without food in silence couldn't have known that, of coure.
"Hiya! Can I get anything for the happy couple?" She smiled, utterly oblivious. Trip sighed. Georgia was a little more livid.
Ohhhh, this is going to be a long night.
An hour later and Georgia had become properly worried about her absent friend. She tried calling her Xtransceiver multiple times, but had no luck on the pickup.
Sure, Bianca could be a bit scatter-brained, but she'd never displayed this level of forgetfulness before.
The dragon-buster gave up waiting and decided to go look for her. Trip offered to help; when asked, he had shrugged. "Not like I've got anything better to do."
She wondered if he'd grown to admit to himself that Bianca was a friend in the same way she had. Hell, if I can…
So they set off to look for her. It didn't take them long to sweep the whole city; Opelucid was frequently described as a bastion of tradition in the face of the overwhelming modernity of the rest of Unova, and this had led to it being expanded upon less – and thus being generally smaller – than many of the other settlements scattered across the region.
They started off looking around the shops, which didn't take long. Georgia had guessed that Bianca would be found at a toy or gadget shop, but such inquiries turned up nothing – the owner of once particular enticing store selling both said that he had never seen anyone matching her description.
With that proving fruitless, they started to sweep the streets of the quiet residential suburbs, just in case she had managed to get herself completely lost, but again turned up empty.
It would have been impressive for her to have gotten lost, really; the city was no maze, planned simply in ordered streets with signs leading back to the start point like a light revealed the presence of the sun. Georgia didn't see how it could have been any more obvious.
"Maybe she went back in after we left?" Trip tried to keep a positive frame of mind up as they trudged back to the Pokémon centre and stood outside its inviting entrance. The sun was clearly beginning to go down now as the last shops finished shutting and people began to appear less on the streets; the presence of summer could only hold back the oncoming night for so long.
"Maybe…" Georgia muttered, turning to look inside the Pokémon centre. "I guess we should ask around inside like we have been out here and tell Nurse Joy that she's missing if no-one's seen her."
"Sounds good." He agreed, and they moved to go inside. The doors slid open and they passed a man in a grey overcoat wearing sunglasses, walking quickly, his face and movements matched in their focus. Georgia didn't recognise him, but she paused in the doorway anyway, deciding it best to ask everyone and not wanting a potential lead to get away. She motioned to Trip that she would talk to the man, and he carried on inside to speak to Nurse Joy.
"Hey, excuse me, have you seen-" She started.
"No, sorry." The man accelerated, looking uncomfortable, and she had a feeling that he would be gone into the shadows in mere moments.
"Wait, please!" She said desperately, and he lingered a moment longer. "I can't find a friend of mine and I was wondering if you might have seen her."
"I really doubt that, miss." He turned to go again.
"She's blonde, wears orange with a green hat, her name's Bianca-" Georgia hurried, but stopped mid-sentence when the man did a double take upon hearing her name.
"Bianca?" She noticed a shadow of recognition flash across his face.
"You know her?"
"Does she have an Emboar for a partner?" The man faced her now, and she nodded. "Can be a little excited at times?" Another nod.
"I'll say."
"Then yes, I know her."
"She was supposed to meet me at five here for dinner, but never showed."
"Maybe she was distracted by something?" The stranger offered, but Bianca shook her head.
"We've looked absolutely everywhere and haven't had any luck. Are you sure you haven't seen her recently?"
"Not since I met her. That was a few weeks ago, over in Mistralton City." He took his shades off and looked across the road, out towards the path leading to Route Nine. "I wonder…"
Trip chose this moment to make his reappearance.
"Nurse Joy said she hasn't seen anybody matching Bianca's description, but that she'll ask people to keep an eye…" He trailed off, staring at the man in the coat.
Georgia had heard from Iris that Trip had a side to him that he rarely displayed, acting at times almost like an overexcited child. She hadn't seen it herself before now, but watching him now she could understand what Iris had meant.
"You're-" Trip spluttered, and the man groaned. "You're-!"
"Yes, please shut up."
"Georgia, do you know who this is?!"
"… No?"
Trip inhaled for breath, intending to start a new sentence, but the man grabbed them both by the arm and pointed inside.
"Not in the open like this!" He muttered, and hurried them inside to a quiet table.
"Cameron? Who's Cameron?"
"He is! How can you not know who he is?" Trip whispered indignantly as they sat down. The man had told them to wait while he ordered them drinks.
"Because I don't, all right?" Georgia huffed, utterly stumped. Trip sighed.
"He was the champion of Unova before Alder came back! Do you pay attention at all to the news?"
"… Not really?"
"… Hopeless."
Georgia bit back as Cameron returned, holding drinks for all of them. The restaurant was nearly empty now, and they had been prompted to the area furthest from the bar.
Trip opened his mouth, buzzing excitedly, but Cameron held up a hand to stymie him.
"Yes, I am. But please don't shout it out. I can't afford the attention with the situation I'm in at the moment... A situation that might be tied to Bianca."
"You were walking around earlier, don't people recognise you if you were so important? That can't be helpful if you're meant to be sneaking around." Georgia pointed out, and Cameron chuckled.
"You'd be surprised how quickly people forget you if you give them half the chance. I was never really a "public" champion, anyway, that's how Lance and Alder have preferred to operate…"
"Too right." Trip muttered. "You've never given an interview to any magazines, barely ever appeared on TV…"
"Anyway, we digress…" The ex-champion took a sip, and then resumed. "On our mutual friend, Bianca; how did you come to know her?"
The two trainers looked at each other; it was a strange question. Trip answered first.
"We met on the first day of our journeys."
"We met through other people; a girl called Iris and two guys called Ash and Cilan."
Cameron nodded, seemingly expecting this answer.
"I had a feeling. I was much the same; I saw those three off to the airport having just met Bianca, then had a friendly battle with her before we parted ways. That was over two weeks ago. And you say she's gone missing in the last couple of hours."
They nodded.
"You seem like you know something that might help us?" Georgia pressed.
"What do you know about Team Plasma?"
"Never heard of them." Georgia admitted, and Trip groaned.
"You really don't ever watch the news…"
"Why should I? It's so boring!"
Trip glared at her and continued.
"They're a terrorist group, they attacked the Pokémon league nearly a month ago, that was when the new champion was crowned… Hilda, I think?"
Cameron nodded.
"Yes. Speaking of Hilda, she's currently travelling with Ash and a few of his other friends right now, in Hoenn… Strange how the paths of his friends seem to converge, almost as if we're being played in some huge game…"
"Uh, anyway, you were saying? Team Plasma?"
"Right. As is public knowledge, agents of the Pokémon league – including myself – and the International police have been clearing out Plasma hideouts for the past few weeks. However, there's quite a bit more that isn't public knowledge; I'm assuming I can trust your discretion based on the fact that you are friends with Ash?" He asked.
"Of course!" Trip said hurriedly, proud to be let in on a secret, and Georgia agreed, eager to hear what he had to say and what this had to do with Bianca.
"What isn't public knowledge is that Plasma has been disappearing off the map almost faster than we've been taking them down. We've ran into more abandoned bases than occupied ones. From what we can tell, my target tonight is their last base in Unova."
"All very interesting, but what does this have to do with Bianca?" She asked, wishing he'd get to the point.
"I'm getting to that. Something that Plasma has done frequently as we've tracked them – here and in Hoenn, where they have also had operations – is to take hostages, to kidnap people and Pokémon presumably as cover while they escape."
"Wouldn't that draw more attention to them?" Trip pointed out, ever the logical thinker.
"We know where they are anyway; it's only a matter of time before they get taken out. Their tactic has bought them time and enabled them to evacuate quite a number of their bases while we've been hesitant and wrong-footed."
It wasn't that surprising to hear that a terrorist group had been doing this, really. She didn't see how it was important, and was beginning to lose her patience.
"And this relates to Bianca… How, exactly?"
"Georgia!" Trip stared at her, exasperated.
"What?"
"Are you an idiot?"
"Hey! S-shut up!" She snapped back. Cameron stared at the two, eyebrows raised.
"Think about it!" He held his arms out, raising one at a time. "If there's one of these Team Plasma bases in the area, and they've been known to kidnap people, and Bianca's gone missing…"
His mocking, patronising tone made her blood boil – she had a feeling he was showing off for the ex-champion seated at the other end of the table – but then it clicked.
"Oh. Oh."
"That's right. She may have been kidnapped by Plasma." Cameron finished.
Georgia took a big gulp of her drink, while Trip sat stony-faced.
"So what can we do?"
"We?" Cameron rose from the table, having finished his beverage. "There is no "we". I'm going to go and stop them, and I'll rescue Bianca on the way if I find her. Simple as that."
"Woah there! We're not just going to sit back hoping that she'll turn up!" Georgia shot to her feet, colour coming quickly to her cheeks in indignation. "She's our friend and we have to help her!"
She suddenly realised that she'd been talking openly about Bianca as her friend throughout the entire conversation, but was too fired up to think further about it now. She still wouldn't admit it to Bianca, though.
"That would be… unnecessary."
"It can't hurt though, can it?" Trip put in. "There's strength in numbers."
"Well…" Cameron looked uncomfortable.
Three Days earlier, Castelia City suburbs
He cursed himself for having missed it earlier. They had nearly cleaned out all of Plasma's strongholds in Unova, and one just turns up in the largest city in the region?
Burgh had received a tipoff earlier that day, and had notified the League immediately. They'd sent a rapid reaction force to deal with it.
That happened to be Cameron and the eleven men with him.
They filled up two unmarked vans, standard civilian models, purchased cheap and untraceable, with a specialised command truck following behind for anyone they managed to apprehend. Parker's squad normally managed to get a few.
They were all dressed in black fatigues with no nametags, just rank slides on the left shoulder. They were all tired, having been called away from their first hours of leave in over a month, and morale wasn't particularly high.
Not that Sergeant Parker would let any of them show it.
Cameron was distinctly aware that he was in the awkward and common situation of being the least-experienced and yet highest-ranked person there. The man beside him was the one really running the show.
"Good night for this, sir." Parker commented, looking out the rear window at the inky darkness. The men and women around them hadn't said a word, sitting still and silent with only the occasional twitching towards the Poké balls at their belts.
"Pity we don't have the chopper." It had been useful in previous raids. Having Zekrom would have helped, too, but Hilda was off gallivanting around in Hoenn, so…
"We'll just have to hit 'em hard and fast, then, sir." Parker was ever the optimist, despite his twenty years of gruelling active service.
Their radios crackled as the drivers up front reported in on the command net.
"Party in two, ladies and gents! Let's show these terrorist scum how the league deals with trash!" Parker roared. The agents cheered back, and Cameron cheered with them; the adrenaline was starting to build.
"You know the plan." Cameron added. "Work in pairs, push them back, capture any you can."
"Coming up to the estate now, second building on the left." The driver of the lead vehicle droned in. "Wire mesh gate ahead, accelerating to break it down."
There was a crash ahead as they pushed something aside, but the van proceeded unimpeded.
Plasma was apparently holed up in an abandoned building on an industrial estate uncommon to the quiet Castelia suburban experience. How they had evaded justice here for so long was beyond Cameron.
The vans ground to a halt, followed seconds later by the command truck.
"Let's go!" Parker shouted, roughly pushed the doors open as agents from the other vehicles did the same. "Safeguard Unova!" He screamed the battle cry as they rushed out, and Cameron went with them.
Their transports' lights flickered on as they surged towards the unassuming building. If anything would have given away the element of surprise, it was the running engines.
The agents started sending out their Pokémon; Herdier, Watchogs; Parker had a Stoutland. One or two even had Lampents and there was a lone Growlithe in the mix. Cameron called out Metagross and Volcarona and pointed the latter towards the locked door of the building's loading dock.
One second filled with brilliant light later and their improvised entrance was clear.
Resistance was immediate and strong, and any doubt that this was the right place was quickly eliminated. Dark- and poison-types duelled with normal- and fire-types as black-fatigued agents fought hand to hand with black-fatigued grunts. The only way to tell people apart was the beret and the insignia – or lack thereof.
It was a lot easier, Cameron decided, when Plasma had worn white. But they weren't such a problem them… Or we just didn't know it.
Ten minutes in and they had successfully cleared the loading bay and a few corridors, capturing several grunts and pushing the remainder back into several large rooms, where the cowards and fools had barricaded themselves behind metal boxes.
The casualty reports and shouts of "man down!" had begun to pile up. When the time came to sweep the last room, only Cameron and Parker remained uninjured.
After that room, Parker was wincing on an injured leg, a few tendons severed by a stray air cutter, and Cameron had been bundled the ground thrice by the last desperate Plasma operatives, saved by the intervention of three of his Pokémon.
They had been successful, with eight grim-faced captives filling the command truck, and three terrified hostages rescued from the bowels of the forgotten factory… But with all of their brave agents injured in the process.
"It's better if you leave it to me, really. Last time we went for a full frontal assault, it was painful for everyone. I'm taking a subtler approach tonight." We're not having a repeat of Castelia again.
"That doesn't matter, we're coming with you." Georgia growled.
"No, you're not." He turned to leave.
"Yes, we are! Tell him, Trip!"
The trainer from Nuvema Town looked unsure, his concern for Bianca warring with his respect for one of his idols. Georgia realised that she had to take matters into her own hands.
"If you don't let us come…" She called after the champion. "We'll just have to let everyone know that you're in town, and where you're going."
He stopped by the door.
"You wouldn't."
"You won't have to worry about it if you let us come with you…" She grinned sweetly.
Cameron turned on his heel and marched back to the table, catching her with a piercing gaze.
"This is not going to be safe, and it's not going to be a game. Either of you – hell, even I – could get seriously hurt doing this. These aren't nice people we're talking about here."
"She's our friend." Georgia replied coolly, and stood her ground.
Cameron held the stare for a few seconds longer before conceding and waving his hand dejectedly.
"All right, all right. You win. Let's hurry." He walked to the door and out again into the centre proper. Georgia and Trip exchanged a glance and followed him. Catching him up at the door, Georgia could have sworn she heard him muttering. "Cynthia's going to kill me for this…"
They proceeded at a brisk pace down the road out to route nine, diverging off the main route down a side road five minutes into the walk. Shortly after that, Cameron took them off the path, and he seemed to know where he was going.
There was very little light left by the time they made it into the treeline, and it was hard to see the roots and rough terrain.
Cameron stopped them after fifteen minutes an hour of trekking; it was now almost impossible to see him as he whispered, especially under the thick tree canopy.
"I spent all yesterday scouting out their position. This is where their patrols stop." He indicated just beyond their position. "Every half hour. Two minutes and the next one will arrive, stop and return to their base on a ten minute loop. We'll follow that patrol and sneak past them when they turn around."
"Then what?"
"We go inside, find Bianca and sabotage their base."
"That's it?"
"It doesn't need to be complicated to work. Now quiet, here comes the patrol."
Georgia bit back an angry retort and followed Cameron's gaze. Sure enough, a black-clothed guard walked out in front of their concealed position, yawning and stretching. They were clearly extremely bored, and took barely a cursory glance at their surroundings before turning around walking back the way they had come; Cameron motioned for the others to follow.
They moved carefully out of the guard's sight, which meant walking over roots and bushes that the guard had not needed to cross. Once, Georgia accidentally snapped a massive twig lying on the ground, and all three had been forced to duck back into cover as the guard had wheeled around. Despite that display of alertness, the poor sentry apparently decided that the noise must have been nothing, and had continued on as before.
Cameron made them aware as to when they had finally reached the Plasma base and directed them to move far out of the way so that the guard could pass unimpeded. She walked back on the route well-trodden on, even more bored than before, and they quietly slipped past them to a point just before the base.
"No need for guards outside when you've got security cameras linked to the base controls, which is why I've mapped out a blind spot if we just knock out that one camera for a short time." He informed them, indicating a well-hidden observation point across the small clearing.
"I can have Serperior use Frenzy Plant and obscure it." Trip offered.
"Do it, but dial it down."
Trip nodded, and whispered a command to Serperior as he sent it out. Remotely sending out the thorns, the grass-type erected a temporary barrier over the camera's lens.
"Run where I run!" Cameron urged, and set off with the others puffing to keep up.
They made it across to a small bush, which Cameron slipped through quickly. The others barely had hesitated as they dived into it, unexpectedly tumbling down a tunnel into the ground. It was a steep drop, and Georgia bit down on her arm to stop herself whooping as they accelerated. They crashed down into a safe landing; Cameron and Trip more gracefully than Georgia, who skidded painfully into a metal box. Trip recalled Serperior as they took stock of where they were, keeping low. They had emerged into a large hall filled with unpacked boxes and crates with two exit corridors leading outwards; it was mostly plain and unornamented. Three grunts stood chatting in the centre of the hall, observing Gurdurr dutifully lifting items down the centre corridor.
"This layout seems consistent with previous Plasma bases we've hit in this region that have been underground." Cameron told them. "Left lies their supplies and prisoners, so that's where we're going first. Right has critical systems, which is our secondary target. Centre is probably the teleport systems, so that's our final destination."
"Teleport sys-" Georgia began, but Cameron hissed at her to stay quiet as two of the grunts walked closer to their hiding spot while the other walked up the middle tunnel.
"No time!"
They could hear what the guards were saying as they got closer.
"I know these orders make no sense, but Lord Ghetsis has commanded it…"
"Which worries me the most. Come on, but a complete evacuation?"
"They've got us on the run, so we haven't got much choice…"
For a second, Georgia feared that they would lean over the boxes and spot the trio, but the moment passed and the grunts walked away again.
"Damn right we have you on the run." Cameron muttered. "A full evacuation, huh? That'll help us move undetected if this place is so empty, but we should make sure they don't want to come back either way. Let's go!"
Finding Bianca actually proved to be relatively uncomplicated. They took the short left tunnel, which turned at a corner into another small corridor with two foreboding metal doors and a guard on the latter.
"Lax security." Cameron commented as they peered around the corner.
"You think she's in one of those rooms?" Trip asked.
"Let's be sure." A flash of light later and Jellicent hovered among them. "Scout out those rooms for us, old friend." The Pokémon gave no sign of acknowledgement but floated towards the walls nonetheless, passing through one in a burst of intangibility. They didn't have too long to wait; it returned two minutes later out of the wall adjacent to them, scaring the life out of Trip in the process, but fortunately not causing him to shout.
"Did he find anything?" Georgia asked. Jellicent stretched a blue tentacle lazily towards the second door with a guard, and Cameron nodded.
"Something interesting in there, apparently. Maybe Bianca…"
"I'll deal with the guard then. Frillish!" Jellicent's prevolution appeared on the scene from one of Trip's Poké balls and greeted its elder with surprise. "Float through the walls and paralyse that guard with Thunder Wave!"
Frillish moved ahead, copying Jellicent's trick to get past the guard, then passed out of the wall again behind him and scraped the top of her head against his pack. He jolted upwards from his semi-awake stated, and then sank to the ground, his face etched in a rictus grin.
They hurried past as Trip returned Frillish, but the door required a key card.
"My turn!" Georgia proclaimed, and unleashed Vanilluxe. She commanded it to freeze the door's lock, and easily snapped it off once it did so.
"Maybe I was right to let you come along…" Cameron conceded, smiling.
"Only because we forced you to!" Georgia reminded him, pushing the door open. The room turned out to be a tiny cell, albeit well lit and with a sink and stone-hard looking bed. Sitting dejectedly on it was-
"Bianca!"
She looked unharmed, if a bit upset, but then she had only been gone for a few hours. Other than the dried tears clustered around her face, she looked the same as she had a few hours ago when Georgia had last seen her.
"Georgia, Trip, you found me!" She jumped up and tackle-hugged them to the floor before they had even properly crossed the doorway. Her voice was also as loud as Georgia remembered… "How did you find me? And it's you! Cameron, right? I remember you!" She looked up to see Cameron standing above them, looking impatient.
"We'll explain if you get off us!" Georgia snarled, muffled beneath two bodies.
"Sorry, sorry!"
"Are you all right?" Trip asked as they climbed up off the floor. "
"I'm fine, and no, they didn't! They left me with all my stuff, but they did keep telling me that they'd take my Pokémon soon. That was why I started crying. Who are they, anyway? I mean, who goes around kidnapping people, and-"
"We can explain later, now we need to move." Cameron pointed back the way we came. He looked a little alarmed at how loud Bianca was speaking.
"But I have so many questions, like-"
"How did they not gag you?" Georgia pushed her roughly towards the door, smiling amusedly. Bianca huffed but quieted down as they returned to the main hall.
The same two grunts from before remained there, their backs turned. The four made their way back to the way they had come in, sticking to the shadows.
"Now what? Are we getting out of here back up there?" Bianca asked, keeping her voice to what passed for a whisper and pointing to the slanting tunnel.
"We can't climb that!" Georgia looked mortified, and Trip shook his head.
"No, and no. We're not leaving yet, we need to sabotage this base down that tunnel-" He pointed right. "-Before heading down the central tunnel."
"Well, how are we going to do that?"
"We're going to damage the base's heating system; they won't be able to work down here once we do that. Then we damage the teleporters."
"Teleporters?" It was Bianca's turn to ask the question.
"Not now…" Cameron grumbled. "Anyway, we need a distraction. Like the remote detonation system I rigged up while you were having your little reunion. Should keep 'em busy."
"What?"
"Huh?"
He smirked, pressing a button on a small device. A small explosion sounded off in the distance, still large enough to cause them to jump. And the guards certainly noticed – they scurried off down the left corridor to check the source of the noise.
"You could've told us!" Georgia spat indignantly, but Cameron was already moving down the right corridor, and the others had no choice but to follow in his wake.
By the time they caught up, Cameron had sent out Metagross and breached the door into a larger space filled with wheel- and piston-covered machinery
"Meteor Mash!" He commanded over and over again, and Metagross had soon ripped great tears into the important technology. Sirens embedded in the walls began to blare as the damage racked up.
"Nice…" Trip whistled.
"That's enough, cheers mate!" Cameron called, returning the bulky Pokémon to its ball.
He led the way back down the corridor, where it became apparent that the wailing sirens had spread across the base.
The grunts heaved as they hefted the prone form of the prison guard along the central corridor to the teleporters. The sirens meant that something was wrong with the base's temperature system, and that effectively wrote the base off for good.
That hadn't been in the evacuation orders. In fact, Ghetsis had specified the need to keep them for the possibility of return in the future.
He wouldn't be happy at all.
The teleporters were limited to one departure every five seconds, so they pushed the injured man through the glowing green light first. Next went the male grunt, pushed forward by the female on the basis of her possessing seniority by a slim three months.
She waited two, three, four seconds, expecting the cycling red light to return to green any second.
It never came.
Instead, the console was destroyed in a burst of flame from the way the grunts had come from. Looking back, coughing in shock and surprise, she caught sight of four humanoid figures through hazy eyes, and one rotund, pig-like Pokémon.
"No-one kidnaps me and gets away with it!" One of the figures yelled, and the shape of her hat and skirt revealed her to be the prisoner that they had been keeping only minutes before.
Panicking, the grunt slipped her hand down to her waist and unclipped a smoke bomb, which she hurled at the group and began ambling to the far door – the emergency exit.
The bomb burst just as she reached the door; it was a cheap trick and she knew it wouldn't last long, but hoped it would provide enough of a diversion for her to get away.
It hurt to climb the ladder inside, but she pushed through the pain and ascended the iron rungs one at a time. She'd rather face Ghetsis than the league, anyway.
She had to get away. She could ditch her incriminating clothes in Opelucid City where the tunnel came out and escape. She had to get away. She looked down and could see them at the bottom, smiling slightly when she realised the extent of her head start.
No time to be complacent though. She had to get away. She just needed to climb a few more steps and she'd be free. She just had to get away…
Suddenly the grunt was at the top, gasping for hair. The room was dark and small; it was essentially a tiny closet in a flat on the outskirts of Opelucid's limited shopping area. She took a few deep breaths before reaching for the door, hearing her pursuers on the ladder below. She tossed her beret back down the hole, hoping it might hit one of them on the way down, then burst through the closet door, following well-rehearsed drills of emergency escape…
None of which involved being confronted by a burly, unsmiling man dressed in unmarked black, a Stoutland at his side.
"W-who?" She spluttered.
"No escape, Plasma." He thundered, and she slumped to the floor.
Sometime later, Georgia was slightly peeved to learn that they could have simply climbed down a ladder in the place they had originated in to reach their intended destination.
"You knew they had another exit in Opelucid and yet we walked all the way through that forest?" She yelled incredulously. They had all returned to the Pokémon centre to get Bianca some food, while Sergeant Parker escorted the captive grunt into league custody. The centre was now completely empty, Nurse Joy aside, which suited them immensely.
"If we had gone straight down there we would have entered a pitched battle, which I wanted to avoid. Instead, I had Sarnt Parker wait up here to catch anyone who tried to escape the only way they could." Cameron replied.
"It was the best tactical decision." Trip admitted.
"Don't take his side!" Georgia rounded on him. "Aaargh! Idiots!"
"Thanks again for rescuing me, guys. And for the food. This is delicious!" Bianca had her Pokémon out to refuel, too, and they echoed her approval.
"Hope so, because you're paying for it." Georgia snarked.
"I'm fresh out of cash." Trip lied through his teeth.
"Aww, but, I-"
"They're teasing you." Cameron told her. "Centres offer free meals, subsidised by the league."
"Oh, right!"
"Duh…" Hopeless… But she's our friend. And Georgia was now sure that Trip agreed.
They chatted for a little while longer before Cameron announced his departure; he needed to help Parker with their captive, and then get some much needed sleep.
"Before you go, let's swap numbers!" Bianca suddenly declared. "You might need our help in the future!"
"Why would he need your help, you spent most of tonight locked up!"
"Aww, Georgia, why are you so mean to me?"
"Shut up!" But her subsequent smirk was one of amusement, not malice.
Cameron took their numbers.
"You've earned my respect tonight, all of you. That might have been Plasma's last base in Unova, but it can never hurt to be able to contact people that you can rely on. Ash has good taste in friends." With that, he was gone into the night.
"Iris was right; you are such a fan boy around Champions!" Georgia burst out laughing at Trip as soon as Cameron was out of earshot. Ash's rival blushed bright crimson.
The banter – most of it from Georgia – lasted long into the night.
Far away in one way, and yet in others not at all, Ghetsis learned of the Opelucid base's destruction.
"I'm sorry, my lord. We have failed." The grunt prostrated himself as was custom after a failure in front of the leader of Team Plasma.
His guards expected him to erupt at the man; he could see it on their half-concealed faces. He was half tempted to, in fact.
But that would never do.
"Leave us. Return to your brothers." He said instead. The grunt bowed and all but sprinted from the room.
The loss of Hoenn earlier today was a concern. It happened too soon, far earlier than we had predicted.
But Unova…
Unova was right on time. The league has swept our bases as we had expected, and they no doubt expect that their task is done.
And they are right. As far as most of our grunts know, that was our last base in Unova.
And to a certain extent, it was. It was our last base in central Unova, and the south was cleared out days ago.
But the frozen north, on the other hand…
Ghetsis grinned.
Neurok spies carry devices that let them look a few moments into the future, giving them an almost insurmountable advantage.
- Infiltration Lens, Scars of Mirrodin