Chapter 43 - Break
Sootopolis.
It loomed up ahead, not five kilometers from our current location, the volcano's titanic cone seemingly reaching up to bring down the sky on us. The armada was primed for assault, but we held position as per our orders from above.
Forty seven days ago, the military had ordered the blockade of Sootopolis when they uncovered evidence that no less than three hundred of the city's million-odd inhabitants were actually terrorists. Negotiations and threats had apparently failed, and twelve days ago, Grand Admiral Jonathan Treacher had issued his ultimatum; surrender within forty eight hours, or else.
'Or else' turned out to be him sending in no less than four mixed commando units to infiltrate the city and extract the dozen or so ringleaders of the terrorists hiding there. Mixed commando units consisted of humans, pokemon, and digimon, and so had the potential to be frighteningly lethal. Treacher had expected them to simply acquire the terrorist leaders, and do away with their underlings.
Fortunately for the terrorists, and very unfortunately for the twenty three commandos sent in, it turned out that almost everyone living in Sootopolis sympathised with the terrorists. Treacher's commando units were, ironically enough, mobbed to death once they moved in for the kill, taking down over a hundred people, pokemon, and digimon with them. Cue the extended blockade of the city, while the government struggled to think up a solution to what was turning out to be a colossal clusterfuck by Intelligence - before Sootopolis, we'd never seen so many promotions happening in so short a time frame in that department.
Where was I during all this? Well, for the most part, I was confined to Coronet base camp with the Inkblots, both to keep me contained and to allow me to recuperate after Crazy Geezer and Nurse Batsu interrogated me. I recovered well enough, although my back and forearms were covered liberally with scars thanks to her slicing me open with that scalpel of hers.
During my brief yet deeply scarring stint as a human pincushion, Zachary Harding had vanished completely, along with a several other high-ranking personnel all over the continents. Fen Siow Loong, Moira as well as Aloysius Hew, and a veritable bucketful of generals were also among those who went AWOL. Naturally, this meant that they were stripped of their rank, and put so high up on the government's wanted list that they'd have needed an oxygen tank to breathe up there.
Admittedly, I couldn't care less about any of them except Zachary Harding. Not because he was close to me, but because when I was recovering from my interrogation, some officers from Intelligence had paid me a visit.
With just a folder of documents that I hoped, wished, prayed were falsified, they showed me just how little I'd known about the man I thought I'd befriended.
Zachary Harding. Former general at Canalave Port Control, affinity for water. Originally from Sootopolis. Black hair, blue eyes, height one hundred and ninety one centimeters, weight seventy eight kilograms. Former registered Pokemon League challenger at the Championship level, former gym trainer with Wallace of Sootopolis, and also a brief stint as Crasher Wake's assistant over at Pastoria. Known homosexual and no recorded criminal offenses save for repeated incidents of recklessness, indecent exposure, and contempt for officers of the law while driving an automobile, which resulted in the loss of his license.
I knew all that, and more. What followed made me wonder if I'd really known him at all.
Suspected of having terrorist sympathies and anti-government sentiments. Suspected involvement in several digimon hate crimes. Suspected of leaking government supplies and intelligence to interested parties. Suspected involvement in the deaths of several prominent government officials as well as military agents - he only retained his rank since the investigations went nowhere, and he was ruled to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, repeatedly.
Most damning of all: suspected involvement in the terrorist attacks on Jubilife.
I was numb by then, not believing what I heard. He had been with me, keeping me from going back to my parents' place that night! How could he have been involved? He couldn't be in two places at once, right?
And then they showed me the photographs from some surveillance cameras, taken just prior to the Jubilife attack. They weren't exactly clear, but in one of them, the person they said was Zachary Harding had turned to look over his shoulder, and there it was, a face I recognised almost as easily as my own. I saw it every day at work, didn't I?
By the time they left our barracks, I was more confused than ever, Armando the hypno was having massive headaches thanks to stress he claimed I was emanating, and I felt like I wanted to hurl.
Had Zachary somehow had a hand in the bombing which killed my father and indirectly, my mother? That had killed Bruiser and Amy as well?
xxx
Forty four days after the blockade began, three additional commando units were requested from Coronet base camp, among them the Inkblots.
It was time, the powers that be said, to end the terrorist problem at Sootopolis once and for all.
"Carriers, breaker formation is in place, you may commence takeoff," rasped one of the hagurumon crew members at the communications console. "Proceed with extreme caution."
We watched as numerous aircraft, pokemon, and digimon took flight from the massive aircraft carriers at the center of our formation. They ascended in staggered waves, and headed for Sootopolis itself. Our job was to prevent anyone from getting out by sea in the event of a dogfight, theirs was to lock down the airspace above the volcano.
The communications console chimed. "Primary squadrons are moving into position. Second wave is on standby. All hands, to your stations.
"Commencing Operation Etna in tee minus three minutes, and counting."
We visibly tensed up as we headed to our stations. This was it, and soon, the battle for Sootopolis would be starting.
I might have appeared in control of myself, but inside, I was shaking like a leaf. What if Zachary was here?
Could I face the man who might have, could have been one of the many hands that pushed the button on my parents' lives?
And if he was guilty of that, why did he keep me alive instead of letting me go back to dinner with my parents that night?
Just as we Inkblots arrived at the speedboat that was supposed to bring us right up to the coastline, a minor commotion started up at the bridge. We glanced up and saw the bridge officers gesticulating wildly, while the hagurumon techs scuttled about the consoles.
"All surface assault units," growled the Captain through the speakers in our helmets, "be alert, sonar's just detected a massive movement beneath the surface. Ops says it looks like a school of aquatic pokemon but the signal's fuzzy, so be extremely cautious. Repeat, proceed with extreme caution."
Even as our speedboat was being lowered into the water, I saw that the sonar operators had been correct - there was a massive shadow under the water's surface. I nudged Balrog and gestured towards it, while we crouched down and kept our firearms ready.
"See that?"
He adjusted the wavelength filters in his visor, and nodded slowly. "Yup. You're the water expert, so what is it?"
I looked at the shifting shadow, noting that it had stopped moving and was now maintaining position between us and Sootopolis. "Definitely an aquatic pokemon of some sort, but as to what-"
Before I could finish my sentence, a booming voice sounded in my mind, nearly making me drop my pulse rifle. By the looks of it, everyone heard the same thing.
"Cease this madness, and back off before anyone else gets hurt. We are willing to negotiate in a civilised manner.
"You have five minutes to comply."
Silently, we continued with the operation. We were already thirty four seconds behind schedule, and time was of the essence here. Our light craft sped towards Sootopolis, the helmsmen trying their best to skirt around the shadowy thing between us and the city.
Strangely enough, when we drew closer, we saw the water above the shadow starting to froth and roil. Just as we got to within a hundred meters of the coastline, the mass of churning waves all but exploded. Dark projectiles soared through the air in all directions, wriggling and flailing about wildly as they tumbled through the air.
Inside my helmet, my jaw dropped about as far as it could go. It couldn't be, but it was; the flying objects were none other than masses of chinchou, goldeen, lanturn, and even a few seaking.
As our helmsman veered hard to port to avoid a seaking which landed almost directly in front of us, the sky started to darken. Clouds rolled out overhead like a curtain of smog, and thunder rumbled.
The telepathic voice spoke again, this time just saying one word.
"Alas."
And everything went to Hell.
With a deafening thunderclap, a lightning bolt surged down from the roiling storm clouds above us, striking and destroying one of our other speedboats. Even through my visor, I saw spots in the wake of the explosion.
"All units, move for land and get out of the pokemons' range!" snapped Grand Admiral Aegis. "They've seeded the water with lightning rods, move for land!"
More lightning strikes came, and at least three other craft were destroyed. Some hit the water, which lit up with eerie luminescence as the aquatic pokemon absorbed the terrific energy in the bolts.
"Shoot them!" cried our helmsman. "Too many of those fucking fish in my way!"
"No use, get us to land!" Ginger shouted in reply. "The water's absorbing the shots!"
It was as he said - the pokemon were all shielded from our bullets by the water they swam in, and from what I saw of the other light craft, others were realising this as well. Less and less shots were being fired, and the helmsmen were working themselves into a frenzy trying to dodge the numerous lightning bolts that were still raining down on us.
As if it wasn't enough, the skies opened up, sending down torrents of rain with a thunderous roar.
"Almost there!" yelled the helm. "Brace!"
We grabbed hold of the sides of the boat, even as he crashed it to shore. He turned us hard left, and the boat skidded up onto the pebbly beach, and a furious wave slapped us broadside almost hard enough to flip us over.
"Move!" bellowed Ginger, but we were already out of the boat by then. We ran for the base of the volcano, which was so close I could see the sealed blast doors nestled into the solid rock.
Not a soul was in sight as we neared the blast doors - it looked like the terrorists were all going for a siege.
"All landed units," came Aegis' gruff voice over the communications units, barely audible thanks to the pouring rain, "prepare for deployment unassisted. Extreme weather has grounded all air squadrons, marine units have to pull back. Commence solo deployment."
We were on our own.
Ginger signalled for us to stop once we had shelter near a rocky outcropping close to the blast doors. "Here's the plan: we're going to scale the slopes and go in through one of the natural openings at the side. Intel says there's a few about a hundred meters above sea level, and that they shouldn't too heavily guarded. Questions?"
"Intel hasn't been too hot of late," retorted Balrog, shaking his head. "And the Tango have set this one up well - the climb's going to be near impossible."
"That's for sure," Lizard said, "and I think they've got a team of pokemon in there controlling this storm. NiceGuy?"
I nodded. "Definitely, given the number of lightning rods they have out there."
"Well then-" Ginger spoke, right before there was a distant sound of thunder, followed by a muted explosion. We turned as one accord to look in the direction of our retreating marine corps, and what we saw was nothing less than shocking.
Somehow, the terrorists had managed to aim a lightning bolt at one of of the aircraft carriers, and had done so well enough to hit the bridge. The massive ship started to list and drift, entire aircraft visibly sliding along the flight deck.
"Fuck this, let's move," snapped Ginger.
With that, we ran up the slope, staying as low to the ground as possible, while strong gusts scissored around us and sheets of rain beat down on us as if it were a hammer and the volcano, an anvil. More thunderclaps and explosions behind us told us enough about the armada having its own problems, and it wasn't long before we reached the first opening on the volcano's side, about a hundred and forty nine meters above sea level.
As quietly as we could, we crawled towards it, stashing our firearms and drawing the long-bladed combat knives we kept on our persons for melee combat. Their blades were tough enough to saw through ariados silk, and long enough to stab clean through a human torso.
Just beyond the opening's mouth, a shadow moved. So it seemed we had company there. Thankfully, the storm was keeping the person inside.
"Gas," Ginger said softly, nodding to Lizard.
Nine seconds later, tear gas was spewing forth from the opening, after the smoke bomb Lizard threw into it detonated. We swarmed into it, our visors set for infrared and knives in various combat grips.
There were four beings in the tunnel - two human, a slowbro, and a hyogamon. All four of them were choking on the tear gas, and it didn't take a moment for Balrog to disable the slowbro, while the rest of us took on the other three. I hit one of the humans right between his eyes with the handle of my knife, and he dropped to the ground, unconscious.
A terrifying bellow, cut short, told me that Lizard had slit the hyogamon's throat.
"We don't have long, so we need to find the eye of the storm!" Ginger hissed. "Balrog, NiceGuy, you two know weather assaults. Where do you think they'd be?"
"Line of sight," we replied, almost simultaneously. Ginger nodded, and gestured to Lizard.
"Any openings for that?"
He consulted his wrist-mounted mapping unit for a moment before answering, "Through this tunnel, then up another fifty meters, and there's a larger opening there. Line of sight as they said, but shielded from view by overhanging rock."
"Let's do this."
xxx
Strangely enough, Sootopolis appeared to be deserted as we made our way to the elevated opening which Lizard deduced would be the terrorist's vantage point for the weather assault.
The opening we'd entered through turned out to lead to one of the numerous wall-mounted constructs on the inside of the volcano, and so we made our way through the ancient corridors, watching out for the many holes in the floor and walls. Occasionally, the dilapidated, brine-saturated wood would creak and groan alarmingly, but the sound was masked by the sheer force of the thunderstorm around the city.
It felt wrong, that the terrorists would guard the entrances but not the insides. But then again, Sootopolis' interior was fiendishly complicated, and for all we knew, they had rigged it to blow us sky high if we took a wrong step. Occasionally, we did encounter trip-wires, motion-triggered explosives, and pitfall traps, but we avoided or disabled them with relative ease.
At the base of a rickety flight of stairs, Ginger halted us, and nodded towards a large hole in the wall. We all cautiously gathered around it, and I saw why he'd asked us to stop there instead of just sneaking past it - the hole was angled such that we were looking down on Sootopolis city itself.
Far below us, the city was visibly flooded. Many of the lower areas were swamped with surging waves, and what appeared to be sheets of metal somehow staying still in the mass of white water. I squinted a little, and realised with mounting shock that the sheets were actually roofs, and that entire blocks of houses had been submerged by the storm unleashed by the terrorists.
"Gods above," whispered Balrog. "Where's everyone?"
Lizard tapped him on his shoulder. "The city's loaded with water-types. Don't be surprised if half of them are underwater."
Ginger nodded. "Sounds legit. Let's move up, it's not that far now, Lizard?"
"Yup, pretty close."
"Let's do this."
It took us just under twenty minutes to make it to the opening, and when we drew close, switching to infrared revealed six distinct life forms at the opening.
Slowly, silently, and painstakingly, we crept closer to the opening, but this time, we were the ones coming from the inside. Just as Ginger readied a smoke bomb, a familiar voice drifted out towards us from the tunnel, its owner raising his voice a little to make himself heard over the thunderstorm.
"Now, now, gentlemen. Put that away, and let's talk like adults, shall we?"
We froze, and my three comrades turned to look at me, their shock evident. A full six seconds passed with us standing there, just the three of them watching me expectantly.
"NiceGuy," Lizard said, barely managing to suppress the tremor in his voice, "is that-"
I nodded, feeling nauseous. Why did this have to happen? I mean, it was definitely something we, had expected. Something I had expected, but still-
"We don't have all day, you know."
He spoke again, and this time, his voice sounded... Tired. We could barely hear it through the roaring storm around us.
It was only when Ginger nodded, clipping the smoke bomb back on his belt, did we step up to the mouth of the corridor.
I switched my visor back to its default settings, and saw them. None other than Zachary Harding, Moira Hew, and four of their pokemon were there in the tunnel.
Zachary, looking much more haggard than I ever recall seeing him, waved at us. "Why, hello. It's certainly been a while."