Chapter 9: Power

"When fate throws a dagger at you, there are two ways to catch it;

By the blade, or by the hilt."

~ Chinese Proverb

AN: If you only got one alert, I'll tell you now that I posted this chapter at the same time as chapter 8, so you might want to go back and read that first.

Darius grimaced as he stood literally leaning on the vicious winds. His feet were planted solidly on the dry cracked earth below him and he was leaned back at such an angle that, without the wind, he'd have already dropped to the ground. Around him, sand and grit and dead twigs flew through the air, carried on the winds. No wonder they called these the Luminose Badlands. It was also pretty warm, what with the sun beating down mercilessly and the ground absorbing the rays. Add that to the member of Team Flare Darius had spotted outside the entrance to one of the Power Plants, and that made for a very grumpy agent. He'd had his team out of their Pokeballs with him earlier, but Ryuushi's wings kept collecting all the grit in the air, and Kuraishi's dark fur was causing the canine to overheat fairly quickly.

The agent was currently debating his options. He could head directly to Luminose like he'd originally planned. He could also head to Luminose simply to wait out the windstorm and return later. The one member of Team Flare at the entrance of the Power Plant was quite obviously there as a guard, meaning there were others inside. And if Darius waited until the storm blew over, there was a chance that they could finish whatever they were doing and disappear.

That left him with what seemed the most logical solution. Beat the Flare grunt, take shelter inside the Power Plant, and defeat whatever other members of Team Flare were inside while he was at it. Content with this course of action, Darius shifted carefully, twisting around so he was facing the wind and beginning to walk towards where he'd seen the grunt. This was going to take a while.

"Wait!" The Flare grunt yelped, backpedalling as quickly as he could with the wind's interference. Titan smirked at the man as best he could with the grit flying into his face. It really had been too pathetically easy to take the man's Pokémon down. In fact, it was almost harder to restrain the amount of damage they did, so that the other Pokémon only fainted.

"I've lost my Power Plant Pass!" The Flare grunt continued, not noticing that the agent's mind had wandered. Titan said nothing, waiting for the man to elaborate, which he did surprisingly quickly. "I must have dropped it by that really big rock about nine feet that-a-way." The man said, his emotions an odd swirl of guilt and rebelliousness as he pointed at a large boulder off to Titan's right. "If some hypothetical person were to find it, and then hypothetically use it to get into the Power Plant, I'd be hypothetically in hot water!" And then he simply stood, his gloved hand still pointing at the boulder. Slowly, the former commander of Team Galactic smirked.

"That would put you in a lot of hypothetical trouble." He commented, gesturing for Ayashii to go check out the rock. The Gardevoir returned quickly, slipping the plastic card into Titan's hand. "If I were in that hypothetical situation, I'd make myself scarce before my hypothetical boss realized what had happened, or the hypothetical law enforcement arrived."

"You're letting me go?" The man yelped, the guilt and rebelliousness shifting into surprise and hope. "Uh, hypothetically?" He added quickly at Titan's raised eyebrow.

"Hypothetically, I can tell you're dissatisfied with how Team Flare is running, and you aren't just helping because you're afraid of me or the law." Titan shrugged. "Now you should hypothetically scram before I hypothetically decide that this conversation has gotten too ridiculous." A flare of surprise, hope, and pride preceded the man running past Darius, his flight sped by the tailwind. The young man smiled and shook his head, thinking of all the Team Galactic agents that had followed him when he'd gone against his uncle. Shaking his head again to dispel the thoughts, Darius recalled his team once more and pressed forward, heading towards the small entry house.

Darius had just finished tying up the handful of grunts that had been guarding the power plant workers when he heard the distinct sound of roller skates echoing down the long corridor to the exit. He left one of the scientists to finish the last few knots while he exited the room to check the hallway. It wasn't very long before he spotted the black ball cap, red flannel over white t-shirt, and dark blue jeans of his fellow agent.

"You got here surprisingly quickly." Darius commented as way of greeting.

"Literally crashed into a Flare grunt in the gatehouse to the north." Michael grumbled. "He started babbling about how his fellow agents were at the Power Plant to the west, not the east, and that the door was unguarded and probably unlocked already. Said 'hypothetically' every other word, I swear." Darius couldn't help but snicker at the younger agent's confused energy and not-quite-scowl.

"Anyway, it's a good thing you're here; we can tag-team this now. You have any info on what they're doing here?"

Darius waited while Michael's energy flared in surprise and fear before settling once more into the usual wariness and calculation the teen had when he spoke of what he knew.

"The device in Genosage; they've probably got some kind of converter that will let them use the raw electricity to power it."

"Alright." Darius muttered, thinking. "We don't know how long they've been here, or how much energy they need. This machine is powerful though, probably at least the same power level as the Galactic Bomb, maybe stronger. So roughly the same or larger energy requirements. Size ratio between this power plant and the Valley Windworks, means more power generated in less time, probably higher output rate as well. The length of time Lumiose has been having power issues probably hints at how long they've been siphoning energy, which means they're probably almost done here. Which means we need to take them down now, before they can slip away."

Darius ignored Michael's confusion, grinning sharply as he slipped once more into the mind-set of Titan.

"Let's go hunt some grunts." He said, releasing his Pokémon and striding towards the heart of the power plant.

Michael couldn't help but feel somewhat nervous. He hadn't been able to hear all of what Darius had been muttering, but he'd heard the word 'bomb' at one point, and wondered just what the older agent was talking about. Either way, he was somewhat frightened at how easily they were progressing though the power plant. In most cases, Titan's Pokémon only had to land one hit before the various Croagunks and Golbats fell. Anyone that Darius missed, Archangel stepped forward to deal with. As such, they made quick work of all the grunts.

Before long, the pair of agents were climbing the stairs towards the main reactor. Before Ark could approach the two people standing by the reactor however, Titan put a hand on his shoulder, holding him back.

"Different uniforms generally imply different rank with organizations like these." Titan muttered, keeping his voice low to keep from alerting the pair to their presence early.

"I take the one on the left, you take the one on the right?" Ark suggested, watching the pair on the platform conversing too quietly for the pair of agents to hear.

"That's going to have to be the plan." Titan muttered as he climbed the last few stairs. At the same time, the woman in red gestured in their direction, and the bald man in the white suit spun around in surprise.

"How did you get in here?" The man demanded, releasing a Houndoom. Ark didn't reply however, releasing Broga in preparation for a battle. Beside him, Titan had also released Kuraishi to face off against the woman's own Mightyena.

"I am Aliana; one of Team Flare's scientists." The woman introduced, miming a curtsy. "Unfortunately for you, I intend to eliminate you."

"We'll see about that." Titan smirked, crossing his arms over his chest as though he hadn't a care in the world. Ark couldn't spare any more thought to his fellow though, barely bringing his attention to his own opponent in time to see the Houndoom spitting a spray of embers at Broga.

"Water Gun!" Ark commanded, and the frogadier spit out a small jet of water, easily snuffing out the tiny flames.

"If your flames won't work, use your fangs!" White-Suit commanded, flinging his arm out in a rather ridiculously overdramatic motion. The houndoom snarled, bounding forward towards Broga, who darted out of the way on Archangel's command.

"Use Water Gun again!" Archangel commanded, watching the distance between Houndoom and Broga carefully. The flames weren't too much of a problem, but the young agent didn't want to know what kind of damage their opponent's teeth could do. Broga dodged another lunge, striking the Houndoom with a narrow blast of water before being forced to dodge again. Both Pokémon were extremely fast, and when the little frog stumbled, Archangel almost missed it. But the effect was instantaneous; Houndoom immediately taking advantage of that loss of speed as he pounced and pinned the frogadier almost faster than Archangel could blink. Across their impromptu battlefield, the man in the white suit smirked.

"Now Houndoom, use Thunder Fang!" Sparks danced in the snarling muzzle seconds before Houndoom bit down on the back of Broga's neck, causing the water-type to squeal in pain. Before Archangel could even try to withdraw Broga from the fight however, a blur of black and grey fur came flying through the air, smacking into Houndoom's flank and knocking him off of Broga, who scrambled away from his attacker with a wince.

Archangel glanced over at Darius and Aliana; whose battle he'd been ignoring in favour of his own. The Mightyena that was still standing padded up next to Broga, sniffing the wounded frog gently before snarling at their collapsed attackers.

"It appears this battle is over." Titan said with a dangerous smirk. Aliana recalled her fainted Mightyena, the part of her face not hidden by the visor unreadable. Beside her, the unnamed Flare also recalled his Houndoom, glaring at the two young cops in front of him.

"Stupid brats." The man growled. Aliana giggled and shrugged.

"It is not of import." She said calmly. "We have diverted enough electricity for the project to proceed anyway." Archangel barely saw the tiny metal ball fall from her gloved fingertips before the flash bomb struck the ground, and he was forced to shield his eyes against the light. When he could see again however, the two were already gone, and Titan was striding over to Broga and Kuraishi, absently checking their injuries and applying basic medicines, which Archangel did as well after a few seconds of glancing around.

"Let's head out to Lumiose." Darius finally said after both Pokémon were fully healed. "There's nothing left here for us to do."

AN: Please tell me I'm not the only one who was suspicious of the grunt who was 'guarding' the entrance! I mean, he tells you exactly where he 'lost' his key! So I played with that.

Also! If anyone out there plays Zombies, Run!, I've posted a little drabble too! Yay zombies!