After liberating the Kanto region, the alliance was now soaring over the skies of the vast desert that was Orre as they headed to the location of a lab that supposedly belonged to Cipher. It wasn't long before they noticed the structure sitting right in the middle of the vast desert.
"Definitely looks like a lab. Matches the picture Revali sent us." Jin said.
"I can't believe this lab is still up." Aria said.
"Do you know about this place, Aria?" Yoko asked.
"I haven't personally been here, but I heard talks about it back when I was still working with Snagem." Aria said. "Apparently Flux originally owned but sold it off to those creeps in Cipher after striking a deal with that Shadow Drug."
"So odds are we might find something here." Jexi said.
"Be ready for anything." Homura said.
"Like that weird scene down there?" Ulrich said pointing to the front entrance.
Standing there were six Cipher grunts each dressed in red, blue, brown, yellow, purple and green.
"Okay…Roll call." the one in red said.
"1"
"2"
"3"
"4"
"5"
"Wait…are we missing one?" the one in red said. "Greesix, you start."
"Okay. Roll call." the one in green said.
"1"
"2"
"3"
"4"
"5"
"Okay, we are definitely missing someone." the one in red said.
"O-kayyy." Rebecca sweatdropped. "Who are they?"
"They are known as the Hexagon Brothers. A group of six Cipher grunts who are usually picked for mundane missions like guard duty and such. They aren't all that bright honestly." Aria said.
"Yeah, we can kind of see that…" David said.
"Are they imitating Super Sentai or something?" Kido asked.
"Well, I guess in a way, they kind of are." Mayumi said. "But I can definitely see some charm in how quirky they are."
The group soon saw the six brothers noticing them.
"Who goes there? I mean…run along. This place is abandoned and no one is supposed to be here." the one in red said.
"Okay…so why are you guarding it?" Eddy asked.
"Oh…a wise guy huh? Get out before we rough you up. There's at least 5-6 of us…maybe…" the one in blue said.
"Okay, let's see if I can get your specialties down. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong." David said. "The one in red specializes in Fire-types, the one in blue specializes in Water-types, yellow specializes in Electric-types, brown is Normal-types, purple is Poison-types, and green is Grass-types."
"Ha! Wrong. I specialize in brown colored Pokémon." the one in brown said.
"Eh, 5 out 6 isn't bad." David said.
"Wait…we aren't missing someone after all! You just forgot to count yourself!" the one is green said to the one in red.
"Again…" the one in red said. "Wait, you didn't count yourself either when you started."
"Yeah, well, you did it first!" the one in green yelled.
"Guys, can we stop arguing?" the one in blue asked.
"Stay out of it, Bluetwo!" the one in red yelled.
"Hey, don't take it out on him! You know he's sensitive!" the one in purple said.
"Again with this?! We had this argument yesterday too!" the one in brown said.
"Oh boy, here we go! Buckle up for the lecture train with mister holier than thou!" the one in yellow said.
"...Should we just send our Pokémon out now, or wait for them to finish?" Kieran asked as the Hexagon Brothers continued to argue.
"Maybe we can sneak past 'em while they're busy." Eddy said.
"Besides, we can beat them for their Shadow Pokémon later." Aria said.
The trainers and some of the group slipped past while the rest waited on the ship. The infiltration of the lab soon began as they started to move through the lab's inner workings.
"Not a speck of dust. It's true. This place isn't abandoned." Twilight said.
"We'll need to be careful…no telling where the enemy might strike." Jexi said.
"Yeah, I've heard the stories." ZS agreed. "Those grunts can jump down on you from the ceiling! One even did that on an elevator! Better keep your eyes up."
As the group transferred the lab, they came into conflict with several Cipher peons, each of them having at least one Shadow Pokémon. Spinarak, Numel, Carvanha and Shroomish being the ones they have encountered. Kieran made quick work of capturing Spinarak as his sister was quick to capture Numel. Carvanha was quickly apprehended by Mermista as Perfuma snagged up Shroomish.
They soon reached a small research space with a monitor and a few files.
"Whoa…what is all…" Twilight said as she found a box of files. "Video diaries of…Amadeus Flux? These must be research diaries!"
"Oh, those will certainly come in handy!" Double D said. "We should play these as soon as possible!"
"There's a monitor here." Twilight said as she slipped in a disc as Flux appeared on screen.
"Okay…Day 1. I've established this lab in the middle of Orre in order to carry out my secret research. After my failure to destroy Jexi at CHS, I ended up splitting in two and sent to different multiverses, don't even ask how I managed to undo that mess. But it enlightened me…about the potential of Pokémon…if I could make them work right. Utilizing the darkness of creatures known as Heartless as well as some of Darkrai's special darkness…I can effectively shut off their emotions and make them powerful machines meant only for fighting and violence. I'll call them…Shadow Pokémon." he said.
"So it all started after you fought Flux at CHS?" Mark asked Jexi.
"Yeah. He fused himself with Kyurem and became some freakish monster. It was the hardest fight of the early days and one of the closest he came to finishing me." Jexi said.
"Are we sure this guy isn't part cockroach?" David asked. "Because he said that he split into two multiverses. How the heck does that even happen, and how does something like that get undone?"
"He split into two separate people when his fusion got undone. As for how he got back…yeah, don't have any idea." Jexi said.
"Day 8. It's been a week since I began and progress is going swimmingly. I've already converted a number of Pokémon species since I began. Although, it seems the process is not permanent as sacred or purified light or energy can purge it. So…maybe I should consider a more….permanent form of this process." Flux said.
"Is something like that even possible?" Tenko asked.
"I'm afraid it might be. There was a news report a few days ago. A cargo ship was lifted out of the sea through some sort of psychic force." David said. "Even worse… The Pokémon carrying it…looked like a different coloration of Lugia."
"Like a shadow?" Mari asked.
"I wonder…" David said as they kept watching.
"Day 32. Project XD001…this is what I'm calling this. I've got it all figured out…but…if I manage to make it permanent, no one will bother to come back for the temp version of my shadow drug. So I've decided to scrap the project for now. Besides, from what I've seen, normal Pokémon are still unable to handle the power of the process and I had to put them down. Seems like it's possible only Legendary Pokémon could handle it. Not like I can obtain those as easily as I did Kyurem that one time. So…no go on the permanent shadowfication." Flux said.
"Flux tried to make a permanent shadow drug, but it didn't work out. But now it seems like these guys are trying to capitalize on him ditching the project, by perfecting the formula." Hope said.
"And if the news report adds up, it seems like they may have gotten it." David said.
"Damn it…these guys are worse than even old Flux…" Mark said with an angry expression.
"I don't think you realize how accurate that comparison is." David said.
"Last day…so…I sold the drug! An organization called Cipher has decided to buy a lot of my drug as well as this lab. So…this will be my last entry. I wish them luck…and they'll need it if they wanna deal with that punk Jexi and that blue haired sidekick of his called Hopeless. Hope they have better luck with this than I did. I'm going for an upstanding citizen angle now. So I won't get in trouble even when I do evil. That'll be fun. Anyway, bye bye." Flux said as the tape ended there.
"Oh…this must have been during that first visit to Republic City." Hope said.
"Well, that told us a little, but not enough to get a proper location." Scarlet said. "Perhaps if we could find that cargo ship, it could give us a lead."
"We'll tell our scout team to be on the lookout." Mark said. "Anything else here we can use?"
"Nothing I can see." Hope said.
"For now, while our scouts locate that cargo ship, we should continue disrupting Cipher's regional operations." Jin said.
"Right. Giovanni lost Kanto, but he still has Johto as a backup. Makes sense though. The original Team Rocket tried moving on without him, even attempting to contact him so he could lead them again." Miu said.
"We'll just beat him again. Without that Shadow Mewtwo to break the game, he's just another Gym Leader." Emo said.
"We shouldn't let our guard down." Bardock said. "Cipher isn't the kind of organization to rest on its laurels. They probably have another Shadow Legendary ready for him, or someone else has it."
"But, we have the Johto Beasts and Ho-oh. What could they possibly use to try and take us down?" Glimmer said.
"Quite a few things I can think of, actually." David interjected. "If they were able to snag another Mewtwo, I don't see any Legendaries being off the table."
"We really shouldn't talk about this right now. There's a chance more agents could…" Starlight said.
"Be on their way?" a voice asked.
They looked back to the entrance to see a girl with long pink hair done in pigtails standing in the way of their exit.
"So we got a couple of nosy kids trying to infiltrate our labs now." the girl said.
"Given you aren't like these other guys, you must be an admin." Rainbow said.
"Got it. I'm Lovrina. So…you all were trying to sneak in and steal XD001 from us huh? Sorry to disappoint, but we've already moved it before you even arrived." she said.
"Funny, considering it seems like you stole the formula for it from Flux first." Hope said.
"As if. The bastard didn't even bother keeping any notes about it. We had to go off his stupid video diaries and some trial and error just to get it together." Lovrina said.
"Oh…so…you're gonna let us go…right?" Bow asked.
"Okay, you guys cannot be this stupid." Lovrina said as she drew two Pokéballs.
"Right…" Himiko said as she stepped up and sent out Meowscarada and Hattrem.
Cipher Admin - Lovrina
"Let's go! Luvdisc! Beautifly!" Lovrina said sending out both Pokémon. "Attract! Both of you!" she commanded as both Pokemon sent out hearts to the two. Hattrem was hit by Beautifly's attract and fell in love. While Meowscarada got hit, nothing happened with it. "What?!"
"Wait…Meowscarada is fine?" Bow asked.
"Attract usually only works on the opposite gender." Twilight said. "Since Hattrem was effected, Beautifly must be male and Luvdisc is female."
"Wait…so…You're a girl?!" Himiko said in surprise at Meowscarada who smiled.
"(I thought you knew that from the start.)" Meowscarada said.
Himiko gave her usual groan before snapping out it. "Oh, we'll talk about this later! Use Flower Trick on Luvdisc!"
"(You got it!)" Meowscarada said as she threw a bouquet of flowers at Luvdisc. The bomb hit Luvdisc for Super Effective and Critical damage, knocking it out..
"Return! Take its place, Roselia!" she said switching out to Roselia. "Poison Sting!" she called out as Roselia fired poison stingers at Meowscarada as it blocked while taking damage.
"Himiko, be careful. Meowscarada is very weak to Bug-type attacks. If Beautifly gets a hit in, it's in trouble." Shuichi said.
"Right…but first…Hattrem, return!" Himiko said recalling Hattrem. "Go, Magby!" she said switching to Magby. "Flamethrower!" she said as Magby breathed flames on Beautifly, taking it out.
"Return! Now…you'll be facing real power. Go, Delcatty!" Lovrina said as she sent out a large cat with some purple fur as darkness seeped from its aura.
"Shadow Pokémon here. You know what to do, right?" Tenko asked.
"Yeah. Gotta keep Roselia busy first before I snag it." Himiko said.
"Shadow Wave!" Lovrina said as Delcatty sent out a wave of darkness as powerful damage was dealt to both Meowscarada and Magby.
"What the… We've never seen a Shadow Pokémon use that move before!" Hope said.
"We've…improved…on Flux's formula. Shadow Rush is no longer the only shadow move in existence." Lovrina said.
"Not gonna stop me." Himiko said. "I just need to weaken it. But…Magby! Flamethrower!" she said as Magby burned down Roselia as it was recalled. "Meowscarada…Thunder Punch!" she called out as Meowscarada socked Delcatty in the face, knocking it back.
"(Himiko, now! While it's paralyzed!)" Meowscarada called out.
"Got it. Now watch in amazement as I make this Shadow Pokemon…disappear!" Himiko said as she threw a Pokeball at Delcatty. Delcatty was hit as it was pulled inside. The ball twitched and rattled for a little bit before it finally clicked.
"No!" Lovrina said.
"Yes!" Emo fist-pumped. "Nice one!"
"Can't believe I lost to some little magician. Master Greevil is going to be so very cross with me." Lovrina said. "I'll let you all owe me this one but least think about this plan. If you ever see XD001, you all will so wanna help us." she said before taking off running.
"Does she mean Lugia?" Klonoa asked.
"She must be. There's only one XD001, and if it looks like a duck, flies like a duck, and quacks like a duck…it's a Lugia." ZS stated.
"Uh, what?" Klonoa asked with his eyes as x's.
"It's better not to question it and just roll with it." Sonic said.
"Anyways…we should head out and over to Johto." Mark pointed out. "We've done all we can here, and Giovanni is still out there."
"Right. But first!" Cap-P declared, getting everyone's attention. "...We have to apprehend the Hexagon's Shadow Pokémon."
"...Oh yeah. Forgot about them." Carmine stated. "...Beat 'em up and swipe 'em?"
"Beat 'em up and swipe 'em." Amethyst agreed.
"That's not…you know what, yeah." Mark said after a moment. "We're on the clock."
After knocking out the Hexagons and taking their Shadow Pokémon, the group soon took flight to the Johto region.
"So, Lugia. I… don't think anybody's caught him yet." Glimmer said. "Think we can do it?"
"I dunno. We're talking about a Legendary Pokémon capable of creating devastating hurricanes that span whole oceans." Moltar said. "One time, I even heard Lugia divided the sea!"
"Many of us here were able to catch Legendaries." Roy said.
"And Jexi got the one that started them all." Dan said.
"It's not that big of a…" Jexi said as a message was being sent to him. "Huh…it's from Lillie. Wonder what…" he said before looking it over. "Change of plans. We're going to Sinnoh."
"Something bad?" Mark asked.
"Seems Team Galactic has become more active within the last 24 hours and are making major moves across the region." Jexi said.
"...Yeah, that's bad." the half-angel nodded. "Sinnoh it is."
"Let's go." Mari said.
The ship quickly changed coordinates as they headed for the Sinnoh Region.
