Chapter 27: Sly Spy With my Little Eye
"Let's take her down, Shock!" Echo said as she sent out Shock, who looked ready to fight.
"Come on out Sableye!" Sly said as she sent out hey Sableye.
"Spark, use Electroball!" Spark nodded and generated a ball of electricity before launching it at Sableye.
"Dodge and counter with Shadow Sneak!" Sableye quickly dodged and let loose a shadow that hit Spark, causing him to wince in pain. "Follow it up with Shadow Ball!" Sableye nodded before conducting a ball of darkness that it launched towards Spark, who quickly dodged on instinct.
"Electric Terrain!" Spark did as she was told before gathering electric energy around himself and discharging it into the ground, causing the helipad to become engulfed in a statically charged field. "Use Thunderwave!" Spark quickly emitted a surge of electricity that managed to paralyze Sableye.
"Annoying pest. Sableye, fight through the paralysis and use Dark Pulse." Sableye attempted to follow the order and was about to get the move off, but was unable to due to the paralysis, which made Sly very annoyed.
"Perfect, use Electro Ball again." Spark nodded as he let loose another ball of electricity, this one finding its mark as Sableye screamed out in pain due to the intensity of the blast. "Follow it up with Thunderbolt." Spark quickly let out bolts of lightning that jumped towards Sableye that also hit, making Echo surprised that it was still standing afterwards.
"Your Sableye has some impressive endurance, shame that it has to serve Neo Cypher for its goals." Echo said. Sly was very clearly annoyed by that but quickly calmed down as she thought of a plan.
"Sableye, get as close as you can and attempt to use Shadow Claw." Sableye nodded as he dashed as fast as he could to get close to Spark.
"Use Discharge to stop him from getting closer." Spark let out a wave of electricity that seemed like it would hit Sableye before Sly simply smiled.
"Phantom Force, now!" Sableye immediately vanished as the Discharge passed over where he was. Echo kept an eye out as she knew that Sableye could come out from anywhere and immediately take care of Spark. "Emerge now." Spark braced for a hit, but was surprised when he saw Sableye appear a bit ahead from the spot he had vanished from. "Shadow Claw!" Sableye proceeded to dash as fast as he could before getting up to Spark and forming a shadow claw, getting ready to strike.
"Use Protect!" Spark attempted to do as it was told, but was too late as the attack connected and sent him flying. As Sly breathed a brief sigh of relief, Echo quickly returned Spark to his Pokeball before getting out another one of her pokeballs.
"Ok I have to admit, I'm impressed with that move. Using Phantom Force to get closer and avoid Discharge wasn't something I expected." Echo told Sly. Sly gave a confident smirk as Echo sent out Psy, who looked at Sableye with a confident look. "Careful Psy, this one is tricky." Echo told her Pokemon.
"Phantom Force." Sableye grinned as he disappeared into the shadows again.
"Close your eyes and focus on the Terrain around you. Don't even move, just focus." Psy nodded at the order and closed her eyes, focusing on the area around them as she searched for her target. After a few moments of nothing, Psy back flipped as Sableye emerged from the shadows and attempted to slash at her. "Shock Wave!" Psy yelled before letting out a wave of electricity that managed to hit Sableye, knocking him back. "Follow it up with a Quick Attack."
"Use Protect." Sableye quickly put up a barrier around himself as Psy smashed into it, before recovering herself quickly. "Use Shadow Claw." As Sableye attempted to follow the command, he winced as he felt his body tense up from the paralysis. Psy, seeing this, took the opportunity to dash towards Sableye as she looked at Echo.
"Thunder Punch!" Kirlia nodded as her right hand was enveloped in electricity as she continued to dash forward.
"Dodge out of the way with Phantom Force again!" Sableye once again started to fade into the shadows, but stopped as his body froze up again, causing Sly to fume out of annoyance. The slight pause was enough for Psy to get up to Sableye and land her attack, knocking him out of the shadows and back towards Sly. As Sly looked down at Sableye, she sighed as she returned him to his Pokeball and got out her second one.
"You know, I'm actually glad that I'm not fighting your sister." Sly told Echo.
"Really? Having second thoughts now are we?" Echo questioned in a somewhat teasing tone.
"Now wouldn't that be nice for you and your sister. No, you being the head of the spy division that always gets stuff done makes you complacent. It's not often that I personally get fooled easily, so you have my respect in that regard even if it is a small amount." Sly said, a small hint of appreciation in her voice.
"Oh? Didn't expect to hear that from you." Echo responded.
"Don't get used to it, as it's the last positive thing I'll say about you. Let's go Dhelmise!" As she sent out her next Pokemon, the electric field dissipated, returning the surrounding area to normal.
"Start off with Swords Dance!" Dhelmise nodded as it proceeded to spin its wheel as swords formed around it. Psy kept her distance and observed, knowing that it would be unwise to approach after that Swords Dance. "Trick Room!" As Echo raised an eyebrow, the area around them distorted as Dhelmise swung back and forth.
"How?!" Echo exclaimed, knowing that Dhelmise couldn't learn that move.
"Just a bit of genetic modification courtesy of the science division. After all, everything is fair when you're trying to take over the world." Sly said gleefully, a sick grin crossing on her face.
"...We can work with this. Psy, use Psybeam!"" Psy nodded, struggled to move like she used to, and launched a beam of energy at Dhelmise, only for it to dodge the attack and rush towards Psy.
"Shadow Claw." Dhelmise quickly dashed up to Psy and swung at her as she managed to barely dodge in time. "Follow up with Heavy Slam." Dhelmise floated into the air above Psy and dropped down on her location.
"Dodge it using Teleport." Psy nodded and quickly teleported away as Dhelmise slammed into the ground, leaving a small crater where Psy was. "Ok… Psy use Imprison." Psy did as she was told, chanting for a moment, before psychic locks appeared around her and Dhelmise.
"Trying to stop me from using some of my moves? Not a bad play, but sadly will not help you. Dhelmise, use Anchor Shot." Dhelmise nodded and let loose an energy anchor that Psy wasn't able to dodge, causing her to get tangled in a chain but not being damaged much by the attack.
"Heavy Slam!" Dhelmise floated above Psy again and sped down to slam down on its target, finding its mark this time as Psy was unable to move.
"Teleport now!" Psy teleported out of the chains it was in before wincing in pain as she felt damage she had taken. "Shock Wave!" Psy stood up and immediately let out a burst of electricity that Dhelmise took with no issues.
"How many times do I have to tell you, you can't win. Shadow Claw!" Dhelmise dashed forward and went to attack, but stopped when it saw that its attack wasn't working. "Suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you know that move. In that case, use Brutal Swing." Dhelmise quickly did as he was told and swung its anchor around to hit Psy who was getting ready to dodge when the area around the two returned to normal.
"Dodge and follow it up with Quick Attack." Psy nodded and backflipped effortlessly out of the way before quickly dashing up to Dhelmise and giving it a quick smack. "Now use Psybeam." Psy quickly adjusted and launched a beam of psychic energy right in Dhelmise's face, knocking him back a bit and causing him to whine. "Finish him off with a Fire Punch."
"Not if I have anything to say about it. Trick Room!" Dhelmise attempted to use the move in question, but it was unable to do so as Psy got close and punched Dhelmise in its face, causing it to cry out in pain as it was knocked back onto its wheel unconscious.
"You… you actually know Trick Room?" Sly asked, a bit in shock.
"Yeah, I was lucky that my grandma had a Technical Machine for the move. Honestly, while it's a hindrance to Psy, I have a few team members in mind that aren't the fastest, so I figured I should teach it to her." Echo said with a smile.
"Then the Imprison was…" Sly said.
"To stop you from using the move again? Why yes it was. While I figured that you might have known that I knew Trick Room, I was banking on you not knowing that." Echo said.
"So I lost Dhelmise purely on a gamble." Sly said to herself. After a moment of silence, Sly chucked before throwing her head back, beginning to laugh and clapping, startling Echo and Psy. "I should have expected no less from one of Symphia's granddaughters. You really do take after her smarts." Sly said as she finished laughing.
"Thanks… for whatever that means coming from you." Echo responded awkwardly. Sly immediately stopped clapping as she grabbed a Great Ball and looked at Echo with a somewhat crazed look in her eyes.
"Truely, someone I can call an equal even if you are a pompous bitch. Let's turn the tide, Mismagius!" As her last Pokemon came out, Echo felt a shiver down her spine as she felt a sinister aura coming from the Mismagius.
"A Shadow Pokemon…" Echo said as she glared at Sly.
"I see your powers can help you tell them apart, that's good to know. In any case, take care of Kirlia with Shadow Ball." Mismagius nodded before quickly conjuring and launching a ball of shadows at Psy, who barely managed to react and dodge in time.
"Psy, stay on your toes. Something about this one is different aside from her being a Shadow Pokemon. Use Thunder Wave." Psy nodded and let loose a surge of electricity, only for Mismagius to effortlessly dodge.
"That's not good enough. Mismagius, use Shadow Blitz." Mismagius immediately charged at Psy, a shadowy Aura appearing around her before slamming into Psy and knocked her back a bit as Psy winced in pain. "Follow up with Shadow Claw." Mismagius attempted to swipe at Psy, but she managed to dodge out of the way.
"Shock Wave!" Psy let out a burst of electricity that managed to hit Mismagius, causing it to flinch a bit as Psy put distance between the two of them. "Now what to do… Psy, use Trick Room then follow it up with Focus Energy and stay still PSy looked at Echo with a look of confusion before realizing what Echo had planned and nodded, before holding her hands together and distorting the space around them once again, closing her eyes as she did so..
"Ok, I don't know what you have planned, but I'm not letting you get it off. Use Shadow Rush!" Mismagius nodded and charged towards Psy, who simply followed the order and stood still. As MIsmagius got closer, Psy opened her eyes and looked back at Echo for a moment before sighing, closing her eyes, and giving a big smile as she clenched her fist.
"Thunder Punch!" Psy's eyes shot open as she saw Mismagius about to tackle her and punched Mismagius head on. The two attacks collided and sent a shockwave across the helipad, causing the two trainers to hold their ground. Eventually, Mismagius managed to overwhelm Psy and sent her flying backwards before being caught by Echo.
"Sorry about that Psy. You did good though." Echo told her partner. Psy gave a weak smile and nod of understanding as Echo returned her to her pokeball.
"I told you, useless." Sly said in an aloof tone.
"We'll see about that, I still have one more Pokemon after all. It's up to you Leaf!" Echo sent out her last Pokemon, who looked around and immediately got a handle of the situation. "Use Energy Ball!" Leaf nodded and conjured a green ball of energy before launching it at Mismagius, who attempted to dodge, but was a tad caught off guard by how slow she felt and ended up getting hit by the attack.
"Oh, taking a page out of my book are you? Well I'll take that challenge. Use Shadow Ball." Mismagius fired the attack at Leaf, attempting to compensate for her slowness, but ended up missing due to the compensation. "Ok, a close brawl it is then. Use Teleport and follow it up with Shadow Claw." Mismagius obliged, quickly phasing out of reality before popping up behind Leaf and slashing at her, managing to hit her target.
"Razor Leaf and follow it up with Double Team." Leaf immediately launched a barrage of leaves at Mismagius, hitting her, and backed off before splitting into multiple forms that all started to move erratically.
"Ok, not dealing with this. Use Shadow Half." Mismagius just glared at Sly before sighing and concentrating for a moment before launching a shadow orb into the sky. The orb hung there for a moment before quickly launching streams of shadow all around the battlefield, hitting all of Leaf's clones, Leaf, and Mismagius as well as creating a smoke cloud on the ground.
"Leaf, are you ok?" Echo called out. Leaf called out in a somewhat pained tone as she shook off the damage and looked towards Mismagius, who was definitely more damaged than before and looked incredibly pissed. "Hey Leaf, have you noticed it?" Leaf looked confused for a moment before she nodded in response and Echo looked at her Snag Machine. "Good, then use Solar Blade and end this." Leaf obliged and began to chanell sunlight through itself, starting to form a blade of sunlight as the Trick Room faded.
"I don't know what your plan is, but I can tell you're desperate. Mismagius, end this with Shadow Rave." Mismagius simply nodded as her aura flared a bright orange and was about to launch the attack, but stopped as felt her muscles seize up from paralysis. Sly's eyes went wide as Leaf brought down the fully formed blade on Mismagius, causing the Shadow Pokemon to scream in pain.
"All right, now let's see if this old thing still works." Echo, thinking quickly, grabbed the Snag Ball she had prepared and lobbed it at Mismagius, which managed to capture it. The ball quickly returned to Echo as it shook three times and clicked, catching it as Sly's eye started to twitch.
"You had another one? And one of the original models to boot?" Sly said in disbelief.
"What's wrong? A bit peeved that a pompous bitch is constantly getting one up on you?" Echo taunted, feeling more than a bit confident. As she heard that and began to take out another Pokeball, the two were interrupted by the sound of an explosion and a huge pillar of water that was erupting from the ocean.
"WHAT?!" Sly said as she looked towards the pillar. Thinking quickly and taking the opportunity, Echo dashed to the other side of the platform and grabbed Sly's arm, dragging her to the ground as she did so. Sly attempted to wriggle out, but was unable to due to Echo's surprising strength and ended up letting the Pokeball fall from her hand
"How the hell did this go so wrong?!" Sly asked as she continued to struggle.
"Turns out that your plan had a few problems with it, amiga." a familiar voice said. The two trainers looked up and saw a Swanna touching down on the Helipad, with Skyle hopping off of it.
"Skyle, what are you doing?" Echo said as she put more of her weight down on Sly.
"I came because I saw an unmarked ship following you all. If I had to take a guess, it was probably some Neo Cypher grunts." Skyle told Echo as he walked over to help hold down Sly.
"And here I was thinking we were in the clear when we left port." Sly muttered to herself.
"I had immediately reported my suspicion to the IPP and I flew over to help out. Turns out it was a good thing as Lan ended up contacting me for help with the bombs." Skyle explained.
"So you manage to get here on time and take the bombs out to sea, where they exploded and caused that big pillar. Given the size of that thing, that was more than enough power to bring the ship down." Echo said, shuddering a bit at the thought.
"Yeah, now come on, let's take her to the front deck. That's where Lan is having all the grunts grouped up." Skyle said, returning Swanna to her Pokeball. Echo nodded and got a pair of cuffs on Sly before picking up the Pokeball the Sly had dropped. She looked at it for a moment before putting it away and recalling Leaf to her Pokeball.
"This isn't over, Neo Cypher is still around! They'll come to retrieve me no matter where you put me!" Sly barked out.
"Whatever you say." Skyle told her. The three then proceeded off of the Helipad to meet up with the others.
After a few minutes of walking, Skyle and Echo ended up on the front deck with Sly, putting her with a group of grunts that Lan was watching over. "Yo Echo, glad to see the plan worked." Lan said, a proud smile on his face.
"Yeah, I was worried that it wouldn't, but it looks like it went off mostly as planned." Echo said with a smile.
"The bombs were certainly a challenge to find, but we managed to get them all." Lan told Echo.
"Of course the captain of the ship found them all." Sly said from her position.
"As much as I would love to take full credit, it wasn't all me." Lan said as he turned to a nearby table. Echo looked over and saw Sigma and Allegro resting at a table, both covered in grease and sweat.
"Hey Echo, good to see you're doing well." Sigma said, an unusually happy smile on his face.
"I see that you took the help of our friends to gather the bombs." Skyle said, chuckling a bit.
"Yes he did, and man they were in some hard to reach places." Allegro told Skyle. Echo giggled as Sigma got up and walked over to the grunts before stopping in front of Sly.
"So, I take it that you're smug that you didn't have to take me on, traitor?" Sly told Sigma.
"A tiny bit as I know that I wouldn't be able to take you down easily. No, I'm more smug in that I got you to say that we're similar in a way." Sigma said. Sly immediately tried to lunge at Sigma, but was held back by Lan and Skyle. "Yes I did hear that whole conversation you had with Echo and I do have something to say to you about it. You're right in that I joined because I agreed with the vision Neo Cypher was aiming towards. Where we differ is that I joined because I wanted to try and make the world a better place, you joined because you have a massive ego and wanted to be a part of something bigger than you." Sigma told Sly.
"You traitorus fuck! Don't talk like you know me or the grand vision of Neo Cypher. WIth the Shadow Blaster, this world will have no choice but to bow to us!" Sly screamed out, Sigma having hit a sensitive nerve.
"Oh? And what pray tell does this Shadow Blaster do?" Sigma questioned, a hint of confidence in his tone. Sly immediately realized what she said and simply leaned back, just glaring at Sigma in silence. "Thank you for your cooperation." Sigma said with a smile. Sigma turned and walked away from Sly, Lan and Skyle simply looking at each other and nodding.
"Damn, Sigma really did just get her to spit something out by provoking her, didn't he? I didn't realize he had it in him." Echo said.
"He doesn't seem like the intimidating sort to you?" Allegro asked.
"No, he seems like a total sweetheart. Not to discredit him of course, he was in Neo Cypher and damn good at his work. He just doesn't seem like the kind of person to get up to someone and do that." Echo responded.
"I can say he was the right pick for helping with the passengers. Not only was his Pokemon handling excellent, he was damn good at getting the grunts to just surrender without battling." Allegro told Echo. Echo simply nodded as she looked at Simga, her heart fluttering a bit as she did before hearing footsteps approaching and turned to see Cherry approaching with a few more grunts.
"Good to see that you're doing well Echo." Cherry said as she pushed her grunts towards the pile.
"Hey Cherry, how is the ship doing?" Echo asked.
"It's doing good, managed to purge the virus that was in the system and got the system rebooted. I also increased security, so it's very unlikely that the ship will be hacked again." Cherry responded with a smile on her face. this will happen again." Cherry responded. Echo simply nodded happily as she looked behind Echo and got a tad worried. "If you're wondering where Hibiki is, she said she needed some time to herself. Didn't explain why, just said she needed some alone time and that you were worried about her, to go back to our room." Cherry explained.
"I see, did she seem fine when you left her?" Echo questioned, in a slightly worried tone. Cherry was silent for a moment as she thought about how to respond.
"She seemed a bit out of it and did tell me that it wasn't anything serious, just that she wanted to think about something. If you want to go check on her, she's fine with it." Cherry said. Echo paused for a moment and sighed as she stood up, cracking her back as she did.
"All right, I'm going to check up on her." Echo said. Cherry nodded before going to join the other adults as Echo walked towards their room.
Hibiki, a few minutes earlier…
Hibiki and Cherry held onto various pipes in the engine room for dear life as the ship shook from the explosion, letting go as they felt the movement calm down. "Well, I see the bombs are taken care of." Hibiki said looking at her greasy hands.
"Yep, could have done it more elegantly than just dropping them in the ocean, but it works." Cherry said as walked back to the computer. She typed a few things to make sure that what she had implemented had gone through before smiling as she logged off. "Ok, everything is back up and running." Cherry told Hibiki as she went to help round up the six unconscious grunts that Hibiki had beaten.
"Good, I'm getting kind of sick of this place." Hibiki said, holding her head out of some exhaustion. Cherry simply nodded in agreement and the two headed out of the engine room. As they did so, Hibiki felt herself stop for a moment, but pretended like nothing happened as she didn't want to worry Cherry.
"How many grunts did you fend off? I know I had to leave them to you to focus on purging the virus, but when did they stop coming?" Cherry questioned.
"Um.. I think I went through about 12 before they decided to just run. Though, that's being generous as half of them just gave up and ran the moment they saw Melody come out." Hibiki said, smiling in confidence.
"Ah, the weak ones ran. I will give these ones credit, they didn't immediately run when seeing Melody. Granted, they did get beaten badly I imagine." Cherry told Hibiki. Hibiki simply nodded in response as the two got to the inner halls of the ship. Hibiki was going to ask something when she felt herself start to tremble a bit, causing her to put a hand to her heart as she closed her eyes.
"Hey Cherry, I think I'm going to head back to the room for a bit." Hibiki said in a casual tone, not wanting to worry Cherry.
"That's fine, are you feeling ok?" Cherry responded.
"Yeah, I just need some time alone to think about something. If Echo is worried about me, tell her to come find me." Hibiki told Cherry. Cherry stayed quiet, but simply nodded and walked away with the grunts in tow, leaving Hibiki to walk to the room. When she got to the room, she quickly laid down on her's and Echo's bed, just laying there as she breathed in and out. "Why is this happening to me now? Maybe thinking about everything too much and realizing that I could very easily die at any moment?" Hibiki thought to herself as she closed her eyes. As she breathed in and out, she started to feel her panic recede, but also started to feel a bit weird.
"Biki…" a familiar voice called out. Hibiki's eyes immediately shot open as she started to look around for the source of the voice. As she looked around, she found herself not in her room on the ship, but on the Pokemon League Plateau with the colors drained from it.
"Hello?" Hibiki called out as she looked around.
"Biki… why didn't you help me?" the voice called out.
"Grandma? What do you mean?" Hibiki said as she began to walk towards the voice.
"You could have helped me Biki, but you didn't." the voice told Hibiki. Hibiki immediately started to run toward the voice as she felt something behind her.
"Where are you?!" Hibiki called as she kept running. After no response, she ran in silence, only hearing the sound of her shoes hitting the pavement. Eventually, she rounded a corner and found a section destroyed, very similar to what she remembered from her childhood. "Grandma?!" Hibiki called out.
"Biki… You will never be good enough to be useful." the voice said in a taunting tone.
"What do you mean? You told me you were proud of me, that I was going… " Hibiki began to say, but stopped as she realized something. She immediately stopped moving and closed her eyes, focusing on her thoughts and controlling her breathing. "This is not real, this is just a daydream of your negative emotions. Don't focus on them." Hibiki thought to herself.
"Are you really sure about that?" the voice asked, now sounding right next to her ear.
"Oh, you actually have a voice. What do you want?" Hibiki questioned.
"Simply enough, for you to give up on your journey. After all, I am your inner doubts." the voice told her.
"Sorry, but it's not happening. I've waited too long to start this journey and I'm not letting this stop me." Hibiki responded.
"But look at where this journey has gotten you so far, into a mess of an organization that is more than willing to kill to get what they want." the voice retorted.
"You know that I took Melody in to protect her from them. Even if I do have my doubts about it, I'm more than happy to help her. Why does that matter to you anyway?" Hibiki said, a hint of frustration in her voice.
"Oh you really don't get it, do you Hibiki? Open your eyes and see what you doubt. After all…" the voice said, trailing off at the end. HIbiki sighed and decided to humor the voice, opening her eyes only to be stunned as she saw a Melody with red eyes and a shadow aura around her. "...you will never be good enough to protect us, no matter what you do." the Shadow Melody said in Symphia's voice, a devilish smile on her face.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Hibiki said, punching the Shadow Melody. Her fist went through the fake Melody as she woke up, taking a deep breath as she heard a yelp and heard someone hit the floor.
"Christ sis, watch where you're punching." Echo said, a hint of surprise in her voice.
"Echo? Are you ok?" Hibiki said as she shook her head.
"Yeah I'm good, managed to dodge out of the way in time. Though I should probably ask you the same question, you looked really spooked and passed out on the bed." Echo responded.
"Well… there are several ways I can answer that. That being said, I think you know the answer given what you saw." Hibiki said with a sigh, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Panic attack followed by you passing out and having vivid nightmares?" Echo asked.
"Yep, I think I've been thinking about too much and I honestly think the bombs made me start to panic when I realized how far they were willing to go." Hibiki said, her hands shaking a bit.
"Yeah I figured it would be something like that would happen eventually. What are you thinking?" Echo questioned.
"Being 100% honest with you… I'm terrified. I don't think the scale of what Neo Cypher was really hit me until when we infiltrated Strong's base and even then, it really only clicked with me after hearing about the bombs. I just wanted this to be a fun journey and look at us now." Hibiki responded. The two were silent as Echo let that sink in and thought of a response to say. "I'm positive that I did the right thing by helping Melody, but am I really good enough to keep her safe from monsters that won't stop til they get what they want?" Hibiki questioned in a quiet, unsure voice.
"You definitely are good enough, you're one of the bravest people I know. I won't deny what you said about Neo Cypher, they are completely terrifying. Hell, for as confident and cocky as I was when I battled Sly, I was utterly terrified when I heard that she had activated bombs on the boat. Even then, I knew I had to take her down to stop her and I did. You make a good point, I was honestly expecting a regular journey myself. However, I can't say that this has been a bad one even with all the Neo Cypher stuff." Echo told Hibiki in a reassuring voice. Hibiki was silent for a moment before smiling and letting out a chuckle.
"At least you know how to speak your mind." Hibiki said in a more jovial tone.
"Hey, one of us has to be a rational thinker at times and it looks like it's me for now." Echo responded. The two laughed at each other before Hibiki patted her knees and got up.
"All right, let's head to the meeting point before- " Hibiki began to speak, but was quickly interrupted as she heard a familiar roar in her head. Hibiki looked to Echo, who looked a bit confused before heading out of the door and looking around. "Magnelyryu? Was that you?" Hibiki called out as she looked around.
"Did you hear him?" Echo asked as she joined Hibiki.
"I thought I did, at least in my head. What about you?" Hibiki responded.
"I heard something different. Not Magnelyryu's cry, but one that sounded like a tiger." Echo said. Hibiki was about to ask more, but stopped as she looked up and saw the sky turn a mix of red and blue, crackling with electricity.
"...Talk later, move now." Hibiki said as she started to sprint to the front of the boat. Echo joined her as they dashed to the front of the boat, arriving just in time to hear a scuffle as they approached. They rounded the corner just in time to see Sly dashing for the edge of the boat and both Sigma and Allegro on the ground writhing in pain.
"Stop her quickly, she's trying to get away." Allegro called out. Hibiki went to go help Allegro as Echo dashed to catch up to Sly, joined by Skyle flying above her to hopefully catch up.
"You all have been such fine hosts, but I have to bid you adieu for today. As for you Echo, I will come and get my revenge later." Sly said as she reached the edge of the boat. Sly then quickly tossed a Pokeball over the edge as she jumped off the side and dived into the water. Echo looked over to see if she could find Sly only to see her target riding away on the back of green fish pokemon with a red, spirit-like tail.
"Sklye, can you catch her?" Echo called up.
"I don't know how long I can go or how safe it is, but I'll go as far as I can." Skyle responded as he followed Sly. Echo watched the two disappear from view before she quickly went to check on Sigma and Allegro, who were already sitting down thanks to Hibiki.
"What happened?" Hibiki asked, wanting to get a grasp on the situation.
"Well, after the Blackout event started, Lan and Cherry went to the bridge to make sure that everything was going to work properly, leaving Skyle, Sigma, and I to watch the prisoners. Unfortunately for me, Sly somehow managed to get out of her handcuffs and kick me in the back, knocking me to the ground." Allegro began, rubbing his back to make sure it was ok.
"After that, she managed to push Sklye onto the ground before he could react and tried to punch me, but I managed to dodge. I attempted to fight back for a few seconds before she got a gut punch in and took me down right as you two arrived." Sigma finished. Hibiki nodded as she looked at the sky and noted the Blackout Event.
"Still, it is really inconvenient that this happened now of all times." Hibiki said.
"Yeah, it almost seems like they knew it was going to happen." Allegro said. When Echo heard that, her mind thought back to the roar that she heard earlier and was about to say something when Skyle returned.
"No good, whatever pokemon she was riding was too fast for me to catch up to." Skyle told the group.
"We're just going to have to live with that for now. Besides, we can hopefully get some of these grunts to say something." Echo said. The group simply nodded as they all looked at Skyle to tell them what to do.
"Ok, since the best plan of action seems to be just getting back to land, here's what we're doing. Hibiki, keep watch on the grunts with Allegro. Echo and Sigma, go make sure the passengers are ok. As for me, I will inform Cherry and Lan about the developments." Skyle told the group. The all nodded before breaking and heading to go do their respective tasks.
"So, what do you want to do? It's just going to be us for a bit." Hibiki asked.
"I honestly kind of just want to chat. Like I said when we were going to the island, sorry if I seemed like a jerk when we first met." Allegro responded.
"Hey, it's fine. What do you want to talk about?" Hibiki asked as she sat down within sight of the grunts.
"I don't know, do you want to just talk and say what comes to mind?" Allegro said. Hibiki nodded in agreement and the two proceeded to think about what to talk about.
"Oh yeah, I've been wondering. What kind of team do you have?" Hibiki asked.
"Of course Pokemon is something you would bring up. Though that is something I don't mind sharing." Allegro said as he took out three Pokeballs and threw them out. From them emerged a Hariyama, a Golurk, and a Pokemon that Hibiki had never seen before. The Pokemon in question looked like a walking pyramid made out of salt, with a small face near the top of the pyramid.
"Never seen that one before, are they from another region?" HIbiki asked.
"Yep, from Pladea specifically. I just returned from visiting the school there and managed to catch a few pokemon while I was there. This is Gargancil, he's a big boy." Allegro said as he patted his pokemon's leg. Gargancil gave a quick thumbs up in response and an affirmative grunt as he turned to watch over the grunts.
"You seem to have a type of Pokemon you use." Hibiki said, a small smile crossing her face.
"Hey, I like Pokemon that can protect what I care about." Allegro responded. Hibiki nodded as she got out Melody's Pokeball and looked at it in silence. "Got something eating away at you?" Allegro questioned.
"A little bit of personal stuff, but nothing I can't get over." Hibiki said as she put away the Pokeball.
"Look, I won't pry into your emotions, I just…want you to know something." Allegro began. Hibiki looked over at Allegro and saw that he was blushing a bit. "If I had to bet on how far you're getting in this journey of yours, I think you're going all the way." Allegro said, a confident smile on her face.
"Really? That's nice of you to say and I'm surprised you have that much faith in me." Hibiki told Allegro.
"Hey, I know talent when I see it. Even if you weren't the granddaughter of the longest reigning champion, you still have a talent all your own. Hell, I doubt my sister would be able to win when you get your final team assembled." Allegro told Hibiki.
"Now that is a bit too much praise." Hibiki said as she rubbed the back of her head, a bit embarrassed by the comment.
"Just giving credit where it's due. Again, I don't know what you're going through and I don't want to pry, but you need to understand that whatever is bothering you doesn't make you any less of a good person." Allegro said. Hibiki stayed quiet for a moment before nodding and smiling at that comment.
"You're a good friend, you know that right?" HIbiki told Allegro. Allegro blushed at that comment and the two then talked about various other things to pass the time. Eventually Hibiki noticed the sky turn back to normal and the two waited for Cherry to arrive.
"Sorry about the wait, you never can tell when those things will end. Hope you two haven't been bored." Cherry told the two.
"Far from it, Allegro has been a nice person to talk to." Hibiki said.
"Allegro, being easy to talk to? Now I've heard of everything." Cherry said in a fake shocked voice.
"Hey, I can be nice to talk to if I want to… I just usually don't want to." Allegro admitted. Hibiki simply giggled at that as the ship started to move again.
"You two go ahead and rest, I can take over from here." Cherry told the two. They both nodded and walked back to the room to rest and take in what had happened.