Gardevoir and the others prepared for an ambush. The plan was simple, Aggron, and Garchomp would burst through and cause a distraction while Gardevoir entered from the rear to rescue Infernape, Lopunny, and any prisoner that they could find. Audino's plan was also in effect. Aggron cracked his knuckles with Garchomp and Blastoise close by. Garchomp met up with Gardevoir,
"I'll see you once justice has been served," Garchomp said as she hugged the psychic type.
Two goons were in charge of defending Infernape. A Golurk and a Scolipede to be precise. Infernape struggled to break free of his chains with fire and force, which made the Scolipede laugh.
"What's the matter? Can't break free of your chains?" he taunted the fire type. Infernape stared daggers into them. The Scolipede continued to taunt the fire type,
"I bet you wanna see your girlfriend, do you?"
"No, I need to check on my goldfish," Infernape growled, his iris glowing red. Scolipede grinned a sadistic smile,
"Oh, you want to see her? Well, then how about we bring her here screaming." The Golurk was disturbed,
"Wait, whoa, our orders were to make sure they were safe." Golurk shuddered. Scolipede scoffed at Golurk before looking back at Infernape, whose sclera was now red, leaving only his pupils. Golurk stepped back as he noticed the red eyes,
"Stopping with the fucking 'we' shit!" Golurk demanded, "You always do this shit and it never goes well!"
"Shut the fuck up," yelled Scolipede, "Now where was I. Maybe you can watch as we-"
Infernape's pupils disappeared into the red and he roared as he lunged at the two. The chains holding him back broke.
Aggron and Garchomp burst into the facility to the surprise of the guards, it was a basic warehouse with shelves and boxes. Aggron immediately struck two, sending them flying. Meanwhile, Garchomp rushed ahead into the facility, hoping to cause as much damage as possible in order to buy time for the others to find the two. However, she were stopped by a figure shrouded in shadow. The figure clotheslined Garchomp, sending her back.
Trevenant revealed himself to the two with Electivire behind him.
"Who are these guys? Damn it! Their probably with the monkey!" Trevenant moaned. Electivire charged up his electricity,
"That doesn't matter, We have the type advantage," he pointed out. Garchomp and Aggron prepared to fight the two, despite the obvious disadvantage.
Garchomp rammed into Electivire before firing a burst of draconian energy. Electivire crashed into a shelf from the impact. She barreled towards at blistering speeds. Seeing this, Electivire jumped up on top of the shelf and forced it to crash onto the dragon type. With the additional weight of Electivire, Garchomp was just barely holding it up. She saw Electivire through the other side, who smirked as his fist was encased in ice. The chilling attack struck her square in the face, ice-cold pain screaming through her head. Despite this, she held strong and in response, Electivire kept striking her. Then a quick but powerful burst of water forced Electivire off of the shelf, giving Garchomp much-needed breathing room.
Aggron turned his focus back onto Trevenant, who shrouded himself in shadow again. Trevenant unleashed a flurry of attacks to strike the steel type, but he dodged them with relative ease. Roots then grabbed on his feet and allowed Trevenant to land a significant blow into the water type. Gasping as the air was blown out of him, Aggron composed himself and landed a headbutt into the sentient tree. Whilst Trevenant was recovering, Aggron jumped up, and slammed him to the ground. He shock off the pain and thought to himself,
"This is gonna be harder than I thought."
Gardevoir ran through the facility, looking around for her friend. Using her WristOn, she asked Toxicroak,
"Do we have any idea where they might be?"
"It's not hard to assume that the Phantom Corp made a few lower floors. We should check those." Drapion suggested. Gardevoir nodded as she found the stairs. She descended rapidly and went onto the first of what could be many floors.
Infernape found himself in a hallway he didn't recognize, adrenaline running through him. He looked back to see his former cell, the chains shattered and poison had melted the bars. There was also some debris but he couldn't see what was inside this cell.
"What just happened?" He asked no one in particular. Looking at the poison, he deduced that the Scolipede must have attacked him. As for the chains, he didn't know what happened. Maybe some poison landed on them, then, in a moment of fury, Infernape then rushed Scolipede. He couldn't afford to waste any time, so he had to find Lopunny. As he left, unbeknownst to him, were that his wrists were bleeding and the burnt, bloodied bodies of Golurk and Scolipede were in the cell.
Aggron had Mega Evolved and was now engaged in combat with Trevenant. He blasted Trevenant with a hyper beam, which Trevenant dodged with ease and the blast crashed into the shelves. Trevenant grabbed onto some parts and used them as makeshift knives, slashing and stabbing at Aggron. Trevenant managed to pierce Aggron's guard and stabbed him. Surprisingly, the piece of wood plunged deep into his wrist. Before he had time to process this, Trevenant grabbed him and threw him into the ground.
Garchomp looked back for a brief moment but then focused on Electivire. Electivire smirked as his fur began to crackle with electricity. He unleashed a lightning bolt at the shelves. Naturally, Garchomp was befuddled as to why Electivire would do this, however, that soon became apparent as small bolts of lightning crackled in the air. Electivire disappeared into a bolt and reappeared next to Garchomp, striking her with an ice punch. Garchomp screamed in pain and Electivire continued his onslaught. Electivire then swiped Garchomp off of her feet and pinned her down.
Pain seared throughout Garchomp's body and she lay face down.
"See what happens when you disobey," said a sinister voice in Garchomp's head. Garchomp was horrified as she recognized the voice. For brief moments that room flashed by, Mawile's body laying there. Garchomp could do nothing but lie there motionless. Tears stained the floor, unable to say anything. Electivire was somewhat confused at this but raised his hand to finish the job.
Gardevoir continued to run when screams echoed from above. She recognized the voice,
"Garchomp's in danger!" She yelled in worry. She told the others,
"I'll go and help her, you need to continue the search."
"You won't make it in time!" said Toxicroak. Gardevoir disregarded his words, raising a hand upward and charging a psychic beam. Sceptile nodded and ran with the others. Gardevoir charged up her beam and fired.
An explosion erupted through the facility, forcing Infernape off of his feet. He got back up and ran until he ran into what looked like a security room. He saw the guard watching the cameras and threw him to the ground.
"Where is Lopunny?!" Infernape demanded. The guard fearfully obliged,
"Don't hurt me! There's a bunch of buttons to free the prisoners. She's button 66!" Infernape then punched the guard unconscious and ran to button 66. He was about to slam on the button when he saw a free all prisoners button. Hesitating, Infernape is not sure which button to press first. It made no sense for a group operating in secrecy to keep prisoners, meaning this were likely criminals. Obviously, releasing these people into the world would only make things worse. However, they would also serve as a decent distraction. Finally, he pressed Lopunny's button first before pressing the free all prisoners button before running off. Little did he know that Lopunny had already been freed.
The explosion of energy forced Electivire off of Garchomp. Garchomp herself was thrown into the air but she was caught by psychic energy. She saw Gardevoir rising out from the lower floor, fury in her eyes.
"How dare you?!" Gardevoir seethed at Electivire. The latter smirked at the psychic type,
"Oh, great, she has a fucking girl-" he then gasped as Gardevoir threw a chunk of concrete into his stomach. Gardevoir landed on the ground and walked towards Electivire,
"Give up. This is the only chance I'll give you," she said. Electivire chuckled,
"Oh, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna cry like her?" Fury burned in Gardevoir's eyes as more chunks of concrete floated.
Gardevoir threw these rocks at Electivire, the latter of which began to use them as platforms to leap towards her. He struck her down and she tumbled to the ground. His feet became engulfed in electricity,
"How pathetic? A psychic type that can't even make a barrier." he mocked as he slammed into the ground. Gardevoir rolled out of the way and shot a blast at him. He remained unaffected and stomped over and over again, trying to crush her. As such Gardevoir continued trying to attack Electivire. She realized that this wasn't working and quickly charged up a powerful blast. This worked and shot Electivire back several feet.
Using her creativity, Gardevoir raised her hand and launched a pulse of psychic energy. This pulse pushed Electivire into a pile of boxes. As the cardboard crumbled around him, Electivire realized that this was that package. His goal had changed. The Senshi couldn't figure out Operation Amnesia. His twin tails then stabbed themselves into a wall and sent thousands of volts into the systems, specifically, he sent all of that power straight into the lights.
Every row of LED's in the room then exploded. Glass shattering all over the warehouse. Gardevoir quickly focused her energy and telekinetically grabbed every shard she could see, but this was a distraction. Electivire unplugged his tails and then punched Gardevoir into the ground, cracking the concrete beneath his victim. Just before he could follow-up with anything, Gardevoir then flew away and then rose into the air, hoping to avoid his close up attacks and tire him out at range.
A thunderbolt from the lights then shot directly into Gardevoir, severely shocking her. Initially, confusion was the first emotion she felt. He was no longer connected, how was he doing this? Then it hit her. She looked at the lights as she fell from the sky and saw that all of the voltage that Electivire had sent in was staying inside the lights. Electivire had effectively turned the entire lighting grid into an anti-air weapon. Just as she processed all of that, Electivire threw her into a wall.
Lopunny was now running through the halls at full speed, trying to find where Infernape was. She had to leave Sunday behind in order to not arouse any suspicion. Internally, she was thanking the fairy type for helping her escape. She decided to try and go to the lower levels, she saw the stairs. As she ran through the facility, she saw dozens of empty open prison cells. It was quite a surprise to see that many cells with no one in them. If there was a crowd, she would've heard them. Lopunny fell down and heard a familiar voice,
"LOPUNNY!" Infernape yelled as he ran up the stairs.
"INFERNAPE!" Lopunny yelped in shock as she jumped towards him.
"Anyway, we need to get out of here." Infernape pointed out.
"Sounds to me like we have a fight on our hands."
"We are leaving," demanded Infernape. Surprised with how threatening her sounded, Lopunny nodded and they began to run up the stairs.
Once they got to the next floor, Lopunny noticed something about Infernape. Something immediately more pressing,
"Infernape, what happened to your wrists?" she asked Infernape raised an eyebrow before looking at his wrists and yelling in surprise,
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" He couldn't help but panic considering his wrists were bleeding out without him noticing it. Lopunny immediately grabbed his wrists and concentrated. Ice formed around the wounds. It was a temporary measure, but one that was needed. Lopunny asked,
"What happened?!"
"I don't know. I was in chains one minute and the next, I'm free." This news further alarmed Lopunny but she decided to keep her concerns to herself for now was not the time for that.
Gardevoir was thrown back into a wall, the concrete cracked from the impact. She slumped down onto the ground and looked up at Electivire, who smiled. Trevenant was continuing to distract Aggron. Electivire picked up Gardevoir by the throat,
"Oops, sorry. Was I too much?" he asked condescendingly. Gardevoir struggled to try and break free. To her horror, she then saw ice spread from Electivire's arm to her chest. The ice began to spread all over Gardevoir, the cold coating her in her eternal prison.
Electivire screamed in pain as he felt something stab him. He looked back to see Garchomp, holding a piece of the broken shelf, stabbing him with it. Garchomp then threw Electivire away and grabbed Gardevoir,
"Are you alright?!" she worriedly asked. The ice had coated Gardevoir up to the neck.
"I-I-I... ow." Gardevoir shivered. Aggron ran over,
"I'll cover you guys! Run while you have the chance!" he yelled. Garchomp nodded and carried Gardevoir with her as she ran. Garchomp looked to her left and yelled,
"INFERNAPE, GUYS RUN!" The escaping duo nodded and ran as fast as they could to catch up.
Lopunny stopped and unleashed a trail of ice. It flowed towards Trevenant and Electivire, trapping them by their feet. Trevenant and Electivire would eventually free themselves but they now had to deal with their former prisoners. Aggron ran back towards the others and the group ran over and finally united. The group ran and ran as far as they could out of the town and into the bog. However, they weren't heading in some random direction. Before the rescue group left, Drapion told them to meet him in a certain location. The group arrived at a small cliff overlooking a quagmire. They ran into that quagmire before prompting sinking below the ground. However, instead of dying a horrible, painfull, disgusting death, they fell into an underground chamber. There, Drapion, Sceptile and Blastoise were waiting
"Jeez, what did I miss when I was gone?" Infernape asked as he stumbled over to Gardevoir.
"We tried to rescue you guys," Aggron groaned, "Those Phantom Corp guys beat our ass." Infernape nodded and looked over to Blastoise,
"Can you teach me how to heat up my hands?" he asked, gesturing over to Gardevoir. Blastoise agreed, seeing what Infernape intended, and sat beside Infernape.
"I will, However, it's difficult, and as a water type, I can't give the best advice. Are you ready?" Blastoise questioned.
"Of course," Infernape said and they got ready.
"Do we really have time for this?" Aggron asked.
"We don't have many options," Blastoise explained, "The Phantom Corp is probably already sending men to the hospitals."
"Alright. Now, ignite your whole body." Blastoise ordered professionally. Infernape did just that and flames encased him. Lopunny watched on curiously. "Now focus on keeping those flames inside of you." Infernape closed his eyes and focused. However try as he might, he couldn't get it.
"Damn it," Infernape exclaimed frustratingly.
"Don't be discouraged," said Blastoise, "come on, try again." Infernape looked at Blastoise with reluctance but did as he was told. His body burst into flames again and this time he was making some headway. The flames began to retract into his body. Finally, the flames disappeared inside of him, he even glowed orange from below the skin.
"Whoa," said Lopunny as she watched.
"Now reduce the temperature, and focus it entirely on your hands," instructed Blastoise. Infernape, now more confident, let some of the fire burn out inside him. He did as he was told and his hands began to glow orange. He hovered them over the frozen body of Gardevoir. The warm feeling washed over her as the ice began to melt. Gardevoir closed her eyes as she fell asleep.
Garchomp looked at Infernape warmly,
"Thank you," she said as she held Gardevoir close.
"Where is Toxicroak?" Lopunny pointed out. The group looked around and found the agent was missing.
"He must be continuing the work here," explained Drapion.
"In any case, I think we need to take our attention back to that fight," Aggronsaid, "They were way more powerful than any of us could've prepared for."
"Yes," began Blastoise, "We could barely hit them, much less actually fight."
"That just goes to show we gotta get stronger to fight the Phantom Corp!" Lopunny declared enthusiastically.
"Do not get involved." said Blastoise seriously. Lopunny immediately protested,
"Grandpa, I can fend for myself!"
"You are lucky to be alive! I can't imagine what would've happened to you if they found out you were a hybrid. If you didn't happen to be dating the man who destroyed the Black Masks. If Donquixote himself was there!" Within seconds, any rebellion in Lopunny was crushed. Unable to say anything back, she just frowned and looked away from her father figure. Blastoise took a breath to calm himself before he turned to face everyone else, "That goes for the rest of you as well. Don't open doors if you don't know what's behind it. You are going to lay low until Sunday can confirm what they are going to do about this. After however long it takes, we'll let you go back to your lives. Do. Not. Get. Involved."
Gengar teleported into the warehouse to see chaos, the warehouse was torn apart with shelves broken and shattered. Bodies from attempted escapees were piled up.
"Goddamn," he exclaimed, "The guys did some damage." He then heard something and ran over. Electivire and Trevenant were carrying two dead bodies into the warehouse. Electivire looked over and saw the ghost type,
"Wow, just in time to save the day, here comes Jester!" he mocked, "Where the hell were you!"
"Oops, I'm sorry. Our teleport guy got lost," said Gengar sarcastically. Trevenant then stood up and hissed with the venom of a cobra,
"When did you grow a spine?!" Visibly hesitating, Gengar remarked with,
"Just never mind," before walking towards the warehouse, "Did you protect the package at least? Or were you too into the role of ooga-booga caveman?" jested Gengar.
Electivire then slammed Gengar into the dirt. Prying the ghost from the floor, Electivire reminded him of his place,
"I don't know what those Senshi did to you, but you better knock it off! We've got a plan and I am not going to let you ruin it!"
"How did that plan go, huh? Is that Infernape dead right now?" Gengar seethed, "Oh, that's right, he's not, cause you're dogshit!" This anger was met with a sudden shock of thunder. Gengar hissed in pain before collapsing onto his knees. He panted and heaved as he looked up venomously at his 'family,' who were glaring down at him,
"Now, can you just help us take this shit out before the police arrive? We've already got bunch of memories"
"But of course, but I need to have a few questions answered," Donquixote said, making the other agents jump in surprise. They bowed and Don gestured for them to follow him. They agreed and walked behind him and the warehouse began to repair itself.
"Firstly, how did they know we were here?" Don asked.
"Sir," Trevenant began, "The Senshi must've gotten some sort of lead. Dammit, It was probably fucking Mawile." he suggested.
"A quaint theory, but those papers don't exist, and if they do, we'll destroy them. Even if the Senshi had them, they wouldn't make the connection." Don countered. Gengar walked up next to Don,
"Don, maybe Infernape or Lopunny gave some sort of hint to the Senshi?"
"Enel and Teach are elite officers, they wouldn't allow a message to slip through." Don again, countered,
"I have my own theory: we have a mole among us." he elaborated.
The three froze at the thought of a traitor but Gengar was the most terrified of the three. He was with the Senshi for a while, he'd be suspect number one.
"Sir, what do you mean?" Electivire asked worriedly.
"Someone had to have helped Lopunny escape on her own."
"Sir, how do you know all this?" Trevenant asked.
"I had Vida set up a live feed of the security cameras here. With such an honored guest, I wanted to keep an eye on him. Turns out I was right." Don explained.
Suddenly, Sunday came into view. Her expression was horror-stricken as she bowed. Don looked at her with disapproval,
"Where were you?" Don demanded. Sunday gulped, she had to come up with a convincing story,
"I-I tried to help but the crowds of prisoners escaping created a stampede. Thus I couldn't help." Sunday said. Don looked suspiciously at the fairy type. Sunday noticed this,
"Sir, please. I tried my best but there was nothing I could do." She pleaded. Don took a step towards her and walked past Sunday before whispering,
"I am going to trust you. Don't abuse it." Sunday then collapsed onto her knees,
"Thank you sir." She whimpered in gratitude.
The foursome arrived at Infernape's cell. Don looked at the broken chains,
"Second question: how did Infernape escape?" Don asked as he walked through the broken bars.
"Sir, we don't know." Gengar pointed out. Don was now focused on two things, the chains, and the two brutalized guards.
"These chains were designed so prisoners couldn't use their full strength long enough to break free. He must either have absurdly high pain tolerance, or it's something else." Don mused to himself and he looked at the two guards.
He raised a hand and their burns began to heal at a rapid pace. Scolipede and Golurk then awoke, incredibly tired. They froze at the sight of their boss,
"Sir, it is an honor-"
"What happened?" Don asked menacingly. Golurk immediately answered,
"We were watching Infernape and then Scolipede started to say really nasty things to him. Then his eyes turned red and he broke out." Golurk blurted out terrified. Scolipede tried to smack Golurk but a hand stopped him. Don placed the other on Golurks head, the latter frozen in terror. Don let the ghost type go.
"He's telling the truth," Don began, "which means..."
Donquixote's foot crashed into Scolipede's stomach. The poison type screamed in agony and he collapsed onto the floor. Golurk cringed at the sight but was too tired to move away.
"You let a prisoner escape. Consider yourself lucky that I only shattered your rib cage." Don seethed at the measly bug.
"However, to be fair to you, none of us realized that we were dealing with someone who can't control Blaze."
Don turned around to the others and told them,
"While I wish I could trust Lee, that isn't a risk worth taking. We aren't in a position to reveal ourselves. Not yet. Find him, and send him a message he won't forget."