Chapter 15: A Plan in Motion
Back in Fairy Tale Grove in their hotel room, Cherry and Echo were both waiting for their signal. "I still can't believe we're about to do this, this is so dumb and risky." Echo said.
"Weren't you on board with this idea or is this just anxiety?" Cherry questioned.
"This is probably just anxiety speaking, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least regretting all of this just a tad." Echo responded, a hint of nervousness in her voice.
"That makes sense, I'm a bit less of that, but I totally get that." Cherry said. There was a moment of silence as they continued to wait before Echo remembered something.
"By the way, was there any reason aside from keeping them safe that these two are with us?" Echo said, motioning to Helios and Selene sleeping on the floor.
"Honestly, it probably is just that. After all, they are basically all the Myth has left of that cave." Cherry told Echo.
"That is true… and that makes me wonder something." Echo said. Cherry looked at Echo, her head tilted in curiosity. "Considering the cave was just thought to be a fortune telling cave, what could they have wanted from there?" Echo questioned aloud.
"That is something I have no clue about, but we might find out as the plan goes on what it was going to be used for at least." Cherry commented.
"Speaking of, are they all ready yet? I'm kind of getting a bit bored of waiting." Echo said. Almost as if one cue, a signal came in from their laptops to let them know to get ready. "I seriously think there is something out there that is just waiting to do stuff like that sometimes." Echo said as she remembers the various media she's consumed.
"You're probably just imagining things." Cherry said as she got to work. Echo simply shrugged as she began to do the same and silently prayed for everyone's safety.
Myth sighed as he walked up to the meeting place where Wind told him to meet at. "This better not be a trap." Myth thought to himself. After waiting around, he saw someone in armor walk up to him.
"H or M?" Wind asked cautiously, Myth recognizing his voice.
"M." Myth responded.
"So you weren't able to get her after all? I thought for sure they headed this way." Wind said as he rubbed the back of his head.
"About that… we kind of have our own plan, so just trust me on this. You'll understand when to start playing along." Myth told Wind. Wind tilted his head in confusion, but shrugged and figured that he would understand soon enough. The two walked to the front gate of the facility and were greeted by another grunt who stopped them.
"Sorry about this, I need to pat the two of you down. We're moving out of this base soon and we don't want to risk anything." the grunt said. Wind and Myth were silent as they let themselves get patted down and a truck drove up. "You two are good, go on ahead or help me look through this truck." the grunt said.
"That won't be necessary." Sigma said as he hopped out of the truck. Wind felt a small bump from wind before he heard a mental click and nodded.
"There you are Sigma, I was wondering where you were." Wind said as he went about checking the truck.
"Sorry about the long time away, the mission took a bit of work for no reward." Sigma responded.
"So you failed then." The grunt said as he looked on top of the car.
"Hey, it's not my fault command didn't warn me about the fact that she is a powerful psychic or at least one with potent potential. Damn girl nearly killed me." Sigma said as he showed his back. The grunt was spooked a bit as he saw the fairly deep claw like scratch on the back of his armor.
"Yesh, fair enough then. Should I let Strong know you're going to meet him?" the grun asked.
"Tell him I'll be there in 40 minutes, I do want to make sure that I have everything packed up before we head out." Sigma said. The grunt nodded and turned to both WInd and Myth, who had just finished looking under the car.
"Everything is clean." WInd told the grunt.
"Good, head with Sigma and get all your things ready." the grunt told them. They both nodded and the three hopped into the truck before driving into the facility. As they drove through slowly, they saw several grunts moving various things like boxes and a few machines to containers.
"Wow, they really are moving out, I wonder why if they had such a good operation here." Myth commented.
"It's standard protocol for Neo Cypher, never stay in one place for that long and take everything useful with you. It usually starts with all the mechanical stuff and documents first before they move the Pokemon." Sigma responded. Myth simply nodded and explained their plan in more detail as they drove into a garage full of trucks and parked the card. After getting out and making sure the coast was clear, Wind banged on the side of the truck.
"You're good to come out, the coast is clear." Wind said. A small thud was heard as Hibiki rolled out from under the truck in her own set of grunt armor that was completely covered in grease.
"Ugh… thank god these things are durable, that sucked. Who came up with that part of the plan again?" Hibiki said, groaning as she stood up carefully.
"I do believe that was you." Myth said, a small smile on his face. Hibiki nodded as she popped her back and looked at Wind, who had an impressed look in his eyes.
"Ok, I'll give that one to you, that was pretty impressive. You are a crazy girl for doing this, you know that right?" Wind told her. Hibiki simply gave a thumbs up as Sigma opened a nearby electrical panel and connected a small box to it, closing the box afterwards. After a few seconds, the communication devices in their helmets went off.
"Annnnnd, we're in. Can you four hear me ok?" Echo asked.
"Loud and clear sis." Hibiki said.
"Is Wind connected as well?" Cherry asked.
"Yes I am. I'm surprised that you all were able to come up with this plan so quick, even if it is a very rough one." Wind responded.
"We did the best with what we had, even if it was very little." Sigma responded.
"Anyway, now that you all are in position, let's get the plan started properly. Wind, Myth, Hibiki, see if any of you four can figure out anything you can do to get the Pokemon free and anything to do with the plan. If you see Strong, act natural and don't engage for now, we don't want our job to be more difficult when we've just started. As for Sigma, try to keep up appearances and report to Strong." Cherry ordered.
"It would be a wise idea to split up, correct?" Sigma asked, just to confirm the plan.
"That is probably for the best, it covers more ground so we're more likely to find what we're supposed to look for. Might not be the best solution, but it's all we got. Might be a good idea for me and Wind to stay together cause he knows more of the facility and so I don't fuck anything up." Myth said, Wind nodding in agreement.
"Well, we'll just roll with it. If the plan goes down the shitter, see if you can get out unnoticed. If you need any of us, We'll chime in whenever you need us or find a safe place and let us know." Echo communicated. The group nodded as they all went off in their own directions to handle their own part of the plan.
Wind and Myth went off to the northern part of the facility, looking for any info they could. "So is there any reason why Neo Cypher switches bases so much? Cause it seems like this is a thing that happens a lot." Myth questioned.
"Well, I'm not part of the organization, but from the past few months I've spent with them, they do this because they don't want the IPP to catch them or to hide their tracks preemptively." Wind responded.
"That makes a lot of sense." Myth said as they entered a side room. The side room had a couple of boxes and few computers as well as no grunts or cameras in it.
"You know, I always wondered why there are just completely empty side rooms in all these hideouts." Wind asked aloud as he looked through the computers.
"Ok look… villain groups are dumb. Speaking from when I was in Cypher, we built some very complex bases and all the excess stuff needs to go somewhere. The side rooms are usually there so we could just store stuff… even if that stuff is important at times." Cherry commented over the coms.
"I swear that is the story of every adult's life, just putting all your important shit in places where you forget about them." Myth said, earning a chuckle from Wind. After a few minutes of searching through the computers and boxes, the two eventually came across a map of the facility. "I found a map, but I have no idea how up to date it is. It should still work for what we're doing right?" Myth reported.
"Yeah that should work, take a picture and send it to me." Echo told the two. As they waited, Wind was looking through the computer and found something interesting.
"Hey Cherry, I found this weird text document behind a few walls of security that looks to be written in some sort of cypher, think you can make heads or tales of it?" Wind asked. After a few seconds of silence, Cherry pulled the document on her screen and hummed with curiosity.
"This does look interesting, I'll give it a look later. If it's important, we'll find out at the end, though given that this is an encrypted text document out behind security, chances are that this is a good find." Cherry responded. Wind nodded and turned to Myth, who was still looking through various boxes.
"Did you find anything else in there?" Wind asked.
"Nothing really of note, I think we can move on." Myth said. Wind nodded and got up to leave when they heard movement on the other side of the door. They both quickly moved to grab some boxes as the door opened and a grunt walked in.
"Oh there are already people in here. You two need any help with those boxes?" the grunt asked, completely oblivious to what they were doing.
"We would appreciate the help." Wind said, playing along. The grunt picked up another box of papers as they all walked out of the room. "Something I've been curious about for a while, do these boxes have anything of importance in them or are they just there to fill out space?" Wind questioned.
"These things? It's honestly nothing much, just old reports from past members, what happened to them, and just other random stuff. We mostly keep them around to act as decoys to the real stuff." the grunt explained. Wind simply nodded as they entered a big loading area and set the boxes down on a plank with other boxes. "Well then, come on you two, we have some activities to do. You two look new here and I feel obligated to bring you both to the celebration party." the grunt said, putting his arms around the two of them.
"Celebration party?" Myth asked.
"Yeah, we got that stone from the cave nearby like the boss asked us to and we're holding a pre-leaving party to celebrate." the grunt elaborated. Myth clenched his fist before he calmed down and looked at Wind.
"Do you have any idea about what the stone does aside from the fact that we needed to get it?" Wind asked.
"Not really, mainly because that kind of stuff is kept to the higher ranking officers and grunts. I completely understand why you would ask, why we uprooted all operations to the Alaria Region is beyond me." the grunt said. Wind simply nodded as the three of them walked to the party, the information they learned being transmitted to Echo and Cherry to stew over.
Meanwhile in the eastern part of the facility…
Hibiki was currently not having the best time of her life as she leaned against the wall and scratched at the armor she was wearing. "You look miserable in that armor." Melody commented, currently invisible.
"This is definitely not the kind of scenario that I imagined this mission going, I can tell you that much." Hibiki responded.
"I can imagine, so what are you on the lookout for, the Pokemon Storage?" Melody asked.
"Yep, if I can find it. No clue about the layout of this facility." Hibiki responded.
"...Couldn't you just use your psychic powers to sense wherever the greatest concentration of psychic energy is?" Melody inquired. Hibiki was silent for a moment before she closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. Eventually, she was able to locate a large amount of various energies to her north east.
"Don't know why I didn't think of that one sooner. This is exactly why I kept you out Melody, cause you know what to do when I'm panicked or anxious." Hibiki said, as she shook her head. Melody simply smiled as they headed to the direction that Hibiki sensed the energies at. Eventually, they came to a hallway with two doors at the end of it, one on each side of the hall, both looked very high tech and one had a keypad next to it. "Hey Echo, I might need some help here." Hibiki said as she walked to the end.
"It wouldn't happen to be a locked door would it?" Echo asked.
"That is exactly it, but I also think I've found the Pokemon storage. Do you have a map you could check with to make sure I'm right?" Hibiki responded. After a few minutes of silence as Echo looked on the map, Echo simply nodded on her end.
"You're right on the money Hibiki. According to this map, there is also a 'Snag Research and Development' room right across from it. Let me see what I can do to get it open or find out what is inside." Echo said as she began typing on her keyboard.
"Got it, I'll worry about the Pokemon then." Hibiki responded, a slightly worried tone in her voice.
"Be careful Hibiki, there's no telling what Pokemon you'll find in there or even if they're in a mood to help. If any of them start to cause trouble or act wildly, leave immediately." Echo told her sister.
"But -!" Hibiki started before being interrupted by Echo.
"No buts… you're my sister first and foremost, and I'll be damned if I let anything bad happen to you." Echo shot back in a caring tone.
"...Fine." Hibiki said before she sighed.
"You know she's just looking out for you right?" Melody commented as Hibiki breathed a little.
"I know that, and I honestly don't blame her in the slightest. It's just… this is something that I can't just ignore, Pokemon in trouble or pain. I've always had a soft spot for them and leaving them alone while they're in pain just isn't like me." Hibiki said, a sad smile creeping on her face.
"...You're a good person and nothing will change that, you know that right? Sure you might not be able to help them now, but what we find here could save so many other Pokemon in the world." Melody told Hibiki
"Yeah... Yeah, I guess you're right." Hibiki responded as she entered the room. Upon entering the room, she saw several solid cages with bars on the front and heard a lot of various Pokemon cries, some of pain and others agitation. "Ok… didn't expect it to be this chaotic." HIbiki said aloud, covering her ears through the helmet. Melody simply nodded and started to do the same before she got an idea and began to sing a soothing song. As she sang, the cries of the pokemon began to fade away as a few approached the front of the cages to see what was going on. "Huh, didn't know you could do that." Hibiki said, a bit more calm herself.
"It's a move that I created myself, I call it Heal Song. Think of Heal Pulse, but more suited to a singer like me." Melody explained. Hibiki simply nodded and begun to go around to each of the cages and look at each of the Pokemon, Melody doing the same while still singing. As time passed, Hibiki and Melody continued to help out as many Pokemon as they could, eventually helping about 80 total. "Wow, I knew they were efficient, but I didn't think they would have this many." Melody said, a bit exhausted from using Heal Song a lot.
"Agreed, what do we do with them?" Hibiki asked. Melody was going to respond when Hibiki got a call from Echo.
"Hibiki, we have a problem." Echo said, panic in her voice.
"What's going on?" Hibiki asked.
"Strong definitely thinks something is up as there are a lot of grunts converging on your location specifically. The plan might go to shit if we don't do something fast and figure something out, but I don't know what to do." Echo said. Hibiki slapped her knee as she cursed herself for not being able to foresee this and started to come up with a solution. As she did, she was tapping on one of the cages before stopping as a light bulb went off on her head.
"I have an idea, but it's going to mean our way of stealth is going to go completely out the window." Hibiki told Echo.
"... You know what, let's hear it." Echo responded. Hibiki smiled as she explained her plan to Echo, Melody getting ready to do her part.
In the Central Command of the base…
Sigma sighed as walked out of the hallway he had taken to get to the command center, a large room with a few computers on the walls and a desk at the far end with a lot of gym equipment behind it. Behind the desk was a black man standing about 6' 3" with white hair and blue eyes, wearing a version of the Neo Cypher suit that was more flexible and showed a bit of skin. "Ah Sigma, there you are. I heard about your arrival from the grunt at the gate." Strong said in a friendly tone.
"Apologies about my late arrival, I had some issues and wanted to make sure I was mentally ready for a dressing down from you." Sigma responded.
"See… I was going to do that til I heard about the fact that the girl you encountered was psychic. Mind showing the result of that encounter?" Strong asked. Sigma nodded and turned around, showing the scar in the back of his armor. "Yesh, that looks bad. Did it pierce all the way through?" Strong asked as he stood up.
"No, from what I could tell, the girl was in a fit of rage and not in control of her psychic powers fully. This happened a little after I attempted to catch the Meloetta and resulted in me getting what looked like a Shadow Claw to the back. Thankfully she seemed to be able to hold herself back before actually hurting me." Sigma explained.
"Must be a powerful psychic then if she's able to manifest a Pokemon Move and do this with it." Strong said.
"Yep, I was lucky to get away alive, but I understand that I failed my mission and am willing to accept any punishment you have planned for me." Sigma said, putting on his loyal facade.
"Now now, there will be no punishment of the traditional kind. I actually thank you for bringing us this information, it will be useful in the future." Strong said. Sigma simply smiled as he heard the door open behind him and two other grunts walked in. "That being said however, I do have something to ask you, how much of what you're telling me is true?" Strong questioned.
"What do you mean?" Sigma asked, a bit nervous.
"Sigma look, I may not be the brightest, but I can tell when something is off." Strong told Sigma, a serious look on his face. Sigma was silent for a moment and sighed a bit in defeat, the grunt moving forward to Sigma before being signaled to stop by Strong. "I know you're one of the hard working grunts Sigma, so why did you lie about running away?" Strong questioned.
"...What would you have done after fighting a psychic girl who seems like she has issues?" Sigma responded, famking a bit of anxiety.
"You make a fair point, but why abandon the mission?" Strong asked.
"Because I'm tired of being a part of this organization!" Sigma snapped. The grunts flinched and instinctively reached for their Pokemon, but were stopped by Strong, who let Sigma say his piece. "When I joined this organization, I did it because I wanted to see if I could make a difference in this world. After these past 4 years, I can safely say that I have never felt more like the villain in my life. I am thinking about saying goodbye to this organization, but because I have respect for you Commander Strong, I'm willing to stay." Sigma said, tears going down his eyes. There was a palpable silence for a moment before Strong ordered the two grunts to leave the room, which they promptly did.
"...You don't know how long, I've waited for someone here to say it." Strong said as he gave a small smile and walked over to his desk. Sigma looked up at his commander, a bit confused by what he meant. "I've been here since the founding of Neo Cypher 10 years ago and it has changed me. It is good for an old man to see the young ones not be inclined to repeat the same mistakes. Obviously I am beyond the point of saving and I don't expect your pity, I just... wanted to get this off my chest." Strong said as he sighed and got out a briefcase.
"You don't intend on letting me stay?" Sigma questioned.
"No, but I also would say to not attempt to get sappy on the other commanders if you come face to face with them, they're more devoted than I am." Strong said as he walked up to Sigma. Strong simply hugged him before handing him the briefcase he held.
"What's this?" Sigma asked.
"Rough plans for what Neo Cypher is going to be doing. I wouldn't give this to you if I didn't trust you put this to good use. Now then, go on and get out of here." Strong said. As Sigma turned to leave, more than a bit conflicted about what was happening, an alarm sounded as loud sounds could be heard outside. "Sounds like your new friends have been up to trouble." Strong said, his usual commanding tone back.
"Yeah… made some pretty great ones, didn't I?" Sigma said with a smirk before he ran off. Strong simply smiled for a moment before he turned to his computers, a determined look in his eye.
"Status report." Strong yelled as he got on the mic.
"Commander, the Pokemon are loose. I repeat, the Pokemon are loose!" a grunt said over the radio. Strong groaned as he simply nodded and got ready to head out himself.