Hey there, been a bit since you've heard from me. Nothing too serious to say, just that because of how long I picture/plan this part to be, this chapter will be split into two parts.
Chapter 32: Debriefing & Talks (Part 1)
IPP Headquarters, Alaria City…
About an hour had passed since the incident at the Desert Tera Dome and Hibiki's group, along with Adagio, were walking into the IPP Headquarters, all of whom were exhausted. "I get that we have to go and debrief Looker and Anabel about this, but do we all have to go?" Hibiki asked, completely exhausted from her experience.
"They did ask and it would be rude to not report about this incident. Plus, we do have to talk with Michael about Shadow Pokemon." Cherry responded. Hibiki simply nodded as they walked through several hallways and went up an elevator before arriving at the debriefing room. As they entered, they saw Looker and Anabel waiting for them with Michael and Jovi also there.
"Ah good, you all made it. Please, take a seat and we can discuss what happened at the Tera Dome." Anabel said, motioning for the group to sit down. The five nodded and sat down at various chairs as Looker waited for a few moments before clearing his throat.
"Before we start with the debriefing, I want to start off by saying thank you to you four for being responsive in regards to Neo Cypher. As much as it pains me to say it, they operated completely under our radar here in Alaria. The fact that you all have been able to not only find out about them, but interrupt their operations so far is very commendable." Looker began.
"We appreciate it and it really wasn't any trouble." Echo said with a weary smile.
"Either way, there is still more to take care of. Speaking of that, I believe that we should get along with this debriefing so you two, well mainly Hibiki and Adagio, can get some rest. If you two wouldn't mind starting off." Anabel said. Hibiki and Adagio both nodded as they began to recount their experience at the Desert Tera Dome, along with what happened there. After recounting all the events that took place there, Looker paused and absorbed all this information.
"That is a lot, thank you. Ho boy, this seems to have gotten more than a bit complicated." Looker said.
"Complicated is a bit of an understatement given the rampaging Shadow Garchomp and Shadow Hydreigon." Jovi commented.
"True enough, but what does Neo Cypher hope to gain from all of this?" Adagio questioned.
"That is true, given what I was told about their operations at Fairy Tale Grove, they seem to be researching something. If I would hazard a guess at what they were researching, it would possibly be a way to prevent purification or utilize it in some way given Hibiki's Valkenshi." Michael thorised.
"True enough there, thought why still go after the citizens? Going after Hibiki makes sense as she stole that black harp from their base." Sigma said.
"Black Harp?" Michael asked, a bit curious.
"Yeah, it was a thing she recovered that was sent here for analysis. Speaking of, we just finished it up and found nothing of real note." Anabel explained.
"If there was nothing special about it, then why take it in the first place?" Jovi pondered. The others pretended to ponder for a few seconds before Hibiki coughed and brought out Melody, who looked around before floating next to Hibiki.
"She might be why." Hibiki said, as Melody floated over to Jovi and Michael.
"A shiny Meloetta… now I can see why they are after you. I take it that there's a legend that involves her?" Michael asked as Jovi held out an Oran Berry for Melody, who took it and began to eat it.
"There is actually. It goes a little like this: 'When the shadows rise, light will cease. When the moon becomes eclipsed by darkness, the world will fall into chaos. When all hope seems lost, the child of light and shadows will appear. When the shining songstress and the child of legend sing in unison, the shadows will fade and light will shine on.' " Hibiki told Michael. Michael nodded as he thought about that for a moment before Looker coughed.
"Apologies for the interruption, but if I may ask you something Hibiki? You said that you could see the auras of the Shadow Garchomp and Shadow Hydreigon without needing to use your goggles, correct?" Looker asked.
"That is correct and I have to say, I was incredibly surprised when I learned that fact." Hibiki said.
"Yeah the fact that Neo Cypher has made Shadow Pokemon that are capable of that is a bit unnerving, especially since they've only recently come back. The only way they could have done that is if they had someone with previous knowledge of Shadow Pokemon as part of their science team." Echo added. Michael thought about that for a moment, thinking of the admins he faced, before remembering something.
"There is one person I can think of and he is probably the impetus for this, a man named Ardos. He was one of the Cypher Admins that I had fought back when I dealt with Cypher and probably one of the most loyal to the organization that managed to evade capture. It's been long enough that he probably could have accrued enough resources to rebuild." Michael commented.
"Probably the best lead we have at the moment, so we'll start looking into that. In the meantime, you four deserve a break so you're welcome to excuse yourselves and get some rest or you could stay and help us." Looker offered. Hibik nodded and was about to get up but felt her legs give out from under as Echo caught her.
"Yeah, I think I'm going to rest. This day has been exciting enough for me." Hibiki said, a weary smile on her face.
"Probably for the best. Before you do leave, may I ask that you leave Skuld and the Shadow Garchomp with me? I want to study them a bit, nothing major in mind as I mainly want an understanding of what Neo Cypher has been doing, but I just want to make sure that's ok with you." Michael told Hibiki.
"Totally fine with me." Hibiki responded as she called out Skuld. After explaining what Michael has said, Skuld nodded as Hibiki handed her the Pokeball she used for Shadow Garchomp.
"If you don't mind Professor Michael, I would like to help you with the analysis and study." Cherry offered.
"The help is fine with me, though if I could, I would also like Sigma to come along." Michael said.
"Why me?" Sigma asked.
"Honestly, I want to hear about your experiences in Neo Cypher. I got to talk with some of the grunts who were a part of Cypher a few years after it had collapsed and I'm curious to hear what your experience was like." Michael explained.
"...Sure, why not." Sigma responded.
"Since you have that covered, I will go talk with Break. Made a promise that I intend to keep for her helping us out." Adagio said.
"Guess I'll go with Echo to help Hibiki rest." Jovi chimed in. Echo simply nodded as she remained quiet the whole time, something that Hibiki and Melody noted.
"If any of you need us, we'll be in our office going over the information we have." Looker said. Everyone nodded as they all left the room and headed in various directions to go take care of what they were going to do.
R&D Division, IPP Headquarters…
Adagio and Michael were at the various monitors of a machine that Skuld was hooked up to, having electrical sensors connected to various parts of her body. As for Sigma, he was sitting next to Skuld to make sure she was comfortable and holding her hand. "Ok, everything is hooked up. How are you holding up Skuld?" Cherry asked in a caring tone. Skuld simply nodded as she shifted, a tad uncomfortable being hooked up to a machine.
"Remember to go easy with the tests, I don't want her to feel uncomfortable." Sigma said.
"Don't worry about that, I'm making sure that everything is gentle. I take it that you know how Shades are made?" Michael questioned.
"Not the full process, just a general overview of it from Strong. From what I remember, the admins knew the exact process and mostly carried it out themselves. He only told me because I asked and he was feeling good that day." Sigma responded.
"Interesting that would be the case, I would have imagined that the admins would leave that to the grunts." Cherry said.
"I'm not entirely sure why they do it like that, I kind of just accepted the information and kept quiet afterward." Sigma told Cherry.
"Probably better that you stopped where you did, even if you were a favorite of Strong, there is no telling what he could have ordered if you had continued to ask questions. I would like to think you would be ok, but you never know." Michael said.
"Given that I heard rumors of some people being… "disappeared" after asking too many questions, you probably are right." Sigma said. Michael only gave a sigh before looking at Skuld with a look of hesitation.
"Ok Skuld, I'm about to start the analysis. The analysis will be harmless and you shouldn't feel a thing, but given your situation, I'm not 100% sure. If it ever gets too much for you, let us know by yelling or squeezing Sigma's hand really hard." Michael told Skuld in a kind voice. Skuld gulped nervously before nodding in understanding, mentally preparing herself for the analysis.
"Wait, why do I have to be the alarm?" Sigma asked, a tad concerned about his hand.
"I mean, do you have a better option?" Cherry questioned.
"A few… but I think I'll just deal with this." Sigma responded. Cherry gave a thumbs up as Sigma sighed and Michael started the machine up, it slowly whirring to life as Skuld breathed in and out. At first, Skuld didn't feel much from the various sensors, but eventually felt some various shocks coming from the points, which made her squirm as she started to recall some not so pleasant memories.
"You're going to be ok Skuld, just calm down and relax." Sigma comforted, slightly squeezing Skuld's hand. Skuld simply nodded as she gritted her teeth and stayed silent through the analysis. After a few minutes and some more reassurance from Sigma, Skuld breathed out as the analysis was finished.
"And that should be it. Thank you Skuld and apologies if that brought up any bad memories." Michael said as he turned off the machine. Skuld gave a thumbs-up, at least as best as she could, before being helped out of the machine by Cherry and Sigma.
"I have to admit, that was excellent calming Sigma. You said you were studying to be a psychologist before joining Neo Cypher right?" Cherry asked.
"Yeah, I was studying on both the Pokemon and human sides as I was unsure of what direction to go, but it looks like that helped out." Sigma responded with a smile.
"I appreciate the help Sigma, it was nice to make sure the experiment didn't go fully off the rails. Now, if you don't mind, I would like to talk with you about your time in Neo Cypher, if that's alright with you." Michael said, compiling the data.
"I mean, I may as well. All I would ask is to keep this between us as I have some stuff I would rather not talk to Hibiki and Echo about. I trust them and all, but I feel like keeping what I'm about to say close to my chest." Sigma requested.
"That can certainly be arranged." Michael said with a smile. Sigma nodded and was thinking about where to begin when Cherry coughed and walked towards the door.
"As much as I would love to hear this, I should go do the tests on the Garchomp and Hydreigon." Cherry commented.
"Right, sorry about this Cherry." Michael said before he tossed Hydreigon's Pokeball to her, which she caught.
"It's no problem, I'm just happy to help where I can. This is not my area of expertise and I"m more than happy to learn about analyzing Shadow Pokemon. If my guess is right, it's probably going to be a good idea to learn about this." Cherry said before walking out of the room. Michael, Sigma, and Skuld all sat in silence as Sigma thought about where to start his story from.
"Ok, I'm going to talk about every little detail about my time there, though I can if you want me too, but I should still have a good amount to talk about. Feel free to interrupt and ask questions at any time, I will answer them to the best of my ability." Sigma told Michael. Michael simply nodded as Sigma sighed and he leaned forward slightly. "Probably best to start at the beginning of this whole thing, I think I got my first offer to join roughly five years ago, back when I was still in a relatively good position and didn't need help. Of course I didn't join immediately, but as time went on and life kept beating me down, I eventually took the offer a few months later." Sigma began to say.
"What exactly happened to you that made you want to join Neo Cypher?" Michael asked.
"Well, a lot of things were making my life miserable, but the main one is not being able to pay my rent and almost losing my childhood home. Only reason that I didn't was the payment bundle that was part of the initiation package for joining Neo Cypher." Sigma responded.
"A sad, but very understandable reason. Apologies for that, continue." Michael said.
"It's fine, anyway continuing from where I left off, after joining the program and being put through the initiation, we were told to wait for orders. At that point, I figured I had made a terrible decision, but I stayed on because I didn't want to seem weird or suspicious to anyone. A few days later, a group that included myself were told to head to Kanto and do two things: catch Pokemon for the organization and keep a lookout for potential members. Obviously I was nervous, but it went off without a hitch save for an encounter or two with Team Rocket." Sigma continued.
"Sounds like an experience, I take it you did that often?" Michael asked.
"Not initially of course, but definitely later on it did happen more often. Starting out, it was fairly simple stuff, mainly learning how the Snag Machines worked, being taught what we would do, things like that. Eventually, I was assigned to Strong's division, which mainly focussed on making a foothold in a region and stealing what Pokemon we could. We did this song and dance in a few regions, Kalos, Valguard, Galar, and Johto, before coming here to Alaria. Each set-up took a few months to get everything set up as we had to be subtle with what we did as most of the regions had their own tensions after their various incidents. Of course, after arriving in Alaria about four months ago, I spent my time doing what we would usually do until recently and that's about it." Sigma said, taking a breath as he finished.
"I see, that is a concise telling of your time. I suppose now is probably the time to ask, when did you start to have major grievances with Neo Cypher." Michael questioned. Sigma thought about the question for a moment as he thought back and remembered a particular memory.
"That is a bit hard to pinpoint for me. Yes, I did think the whole thing was shady, but it was a bit before I suspected something. I think around the time that we were in Kalos, sometime last year, that I started to really have my doubts and that's mainly because it's the first time the Shadow Pokemon I was using… had killed someone. I had always assumed that the Pokemon were just really aggressive and I had managed to keep them calm up to that point, so you can imagine my shock and horror when that happened." Sigma responded, his voice taking a more shaken tone.
"Ah… apologies for bringing that memory up." Michael said, mentally slapping himself.
"It's fine, after all it's part of the reason why I was slightly keen on finding a way out of there when I could. Of course, I didn't really get many chances to attempt to escape as they have pretty tight security in the bases so no one can leak stuff to the outside world." Sigma commented.
"That makes sense, though I do wonder if there were others that have tried to run?" Michael said.
"Oh definitely more than a few, they're why the security was put up in the first place. Granted, there are some that successfully did escape, I even ran into a few over the past year. Still, I do wonder if I made the right call by staying for as long as I did." Sigma responded.
"Hey, you did end up in a good place by staying for as long as you did." Michael pointed out.
"True, the day I ended up becoming part of Hibiki's group wasn't exactly planned, but I did end up better for it." Sigma said. Michael simply smiled at that as Skuld coughed, making Michael remember his he got up.
"I take it that you've shared all that you need to?" Michael asked.
"All that I can think of, but I will be sure to let you know if I think of anything else." Sigma responded.
"Got it. If you need me, I will be helping Cherry to make sure she gets the correct data. With the two of us and a bit of luck, we should have the data ready before you leave the city tomorrow. Make sure you get some rest and Skuld gets back to Hibiki." Michael told Sigma. Sigma nodded before Michael left the room, waving goodbye as he did so. As he left, Sigma let out a sigh as he was left alone with Skuld, who simply put a hand on his shoulder.
"Do you mind not saying anything about this to Hibiki?" Sigma asked. Skuld simply nodded with a smile, making Sigma give a small smile himself as he got up and the two left the room themselves, heading back to the hotel.
Interrogation Rooms, IPP Headquarters…
Adagio walked up to the door of the interrogation room that they were holding Break in before sighing and walking in. "Hey Break, how are you doing?" Adagio asked in a friendly tone.
"Doing good, thank you for the leniency by the way." Break responded, eating from a bag of chips that she had.
"Don't mention it, I doubt that Hibiki could have handled that Garchomp on her own and you did seem very confused about what was going on." Adagio said, taking a seat.
"Well, suppose I did deserve it in hindsight. Still you're right about that last part, I was totally misled by Nel." Break said, pouting a bit at the end.
"I guess that's a good place to start this questioning session, why exactly were you sent to the Desert Tera Dome in the first place?" Adagio asked.
"A part of Nel's latest plan, she said what she usually says about her plans 'make the people suffer for abusing Technology' using her words. You know how she is, spiteful that the Pokemon League made the decision to make Aria the Gym Leader after the restructuring, so she causes trouble for the rest of the region." Break began to say.
"She's a bit of a bitch to deal with anyway, even on good days. Can't imagine why she would keep bearing a grudge this long though." Adagio commented.
"I might have a theory on that, I'll tell you about it after I'm done answering your question. Now where was I? …Ah right, so she was specifically looking to see about making the Terra Domes malfunction for a bit. As you can imagine, a lot of us were not exactly thrilled by the mission since it meant messing with the homes of the Pokemon. Nel assured us that we would just be messing with them for like 10-20 minutes and leaving them be." Break said. Adagio simply nodded, making a mental note to check the Blizzard Tera Dome later, before motioning for Break to continue.
"After assigning the teams to their respective domes, she gave the leaders of each team the Pokemon they would need for the job." Break continued.
"She gave you Pokemon you say?" Adagio questioned, a bit of a suspicion forming in her mind.
"Yeah, it's something that she often does for her missions. Usually we trade some of our Pokemon so she watches over them while we use some of her personal Pokemon. That being said, she has been a little weird recently with that." Break explained.
"How so?" Adagio asked.
"Well, she's just been giving us Pokemon to use on the missions. No trades or anything, just giving them to use and letting us keep them. Before you ask, yes the two I got for this mission would happen to be the Shadow Pokemon." Break responded.
"That explains where Discord got his Shadow Pokemon from. Did Nel give you any other orders?" Adagio inquired. Break paused as she thought back to the orders that Nel had given her three days ago.
"Actually yes, after she gave the Pokemon to my other members, she leaned close to me and told me to just leave the Pokeballs and run while the others did their job before giving me the Pokeballs." Break said.
"That snake." Adagio said as she clenched one of her hands in anger.
"Agreed, especially seeing what those two managed to do, I dread to think of what they could have done if left unchecked." Break commented, putting a hand to her chest.
"Out of curiosity, were you about to go and fight them when they arrived?" Adagio asked. Break meekly looked away and blushed out of embarrassment, letting Adagio know exactly what she meant. "At least you were willing to correct your mistake." Adagio told Break, a soft smile on her face.
"More than willing." Break confirmed. Adagio was about to get up to leave when she heard the door open slightly and a guard poked her head in.
"Sorry for the interruption, but someone is here to speak with you, Miss Adagio." the guard said.
"I'll be right out." Adagio told the guard as she got up.
"Actually, you may want to stay here, said he wanted to speak with you and Break." the guard responded. Adagio tilted her head as the guard fully opened the door and let Discord into the room before leaving and closing the door behind them.
"Discord?" Break asked, a bit shocked to see her friend.
"Hey Break, Miss Champion." Discord said casually.
"Surprised to see you here Discord, I thought at your team's base." Adagio commented.
"I was, until Nel told me to come get Break and the grunts sent with her, that there had to be "some mistake" when we got word she was in IPP custody. She seemed pretty panicked when she found that news out." Discord said, putting his hands in his pockets.
"You don't need to worry about that, we were just about to let them out. Though given what the guard said, I doubt you're just here to gather your members." Adagio told Discord.
"That is correct. Here, something I've been meaning to come turn in." Discord said as he walked up to Adagio and handed her two items. The first was a Pokeball and the second was a flash drive with a label that said "activity" on it.
"What are these?" Adagio asked.
"The Pokeball is the Shadow Pokemon that I was given by Nel for the mission at Verdant Isle. I did return it to her, but after doing some digging, I changed my mind and managed to steal it. As for the flash drive, after I got back from that mission, I started to get a little suspicions of Nel's recent wealth and massive amount of Pokemon, so I decided to do some digging. That is the result of what I was able to find discreetly." Discord said, pointing to the Pokeball.
"You realize that Nel is going to kill you when she finds out about this, right?" Break mentioned, raising her eyebrow a tad.
"Hey, wouldn't be the first time I had to weasel my way out of a scolding from her. Plus, I think you and I both can agree that something has changed with her and it's getting to the point where I'm not comfortable with her being the leader anymore." Discord responded.
"True enough." Break said with a sigh.
"I take it you're talking about the recent string of crimes that Team Noise has been doing?" Adagio asked.
"Yeah, we joined cause we just wanted to cause small trouble, not actually commit crimes." Discord said, sighing as she did so.
"Fair enough, I never really saw anything wrong with Team Noise at first. I respected the opinions that Nel had, mainly because I did agree with them to an extent, and it was getting a tad too quiet so it was nice solving problems for a change, tiring as it may have been. Do you know when exactly the shift to the more 'modern' style of Team Noise?" Adagio told the two.
"I would say about a year ago, shortly after the last League Season ended. It's like something or someone managed to convince her that we should be getting more aggressive with our approach to getting our message across." Discord said.
"I see, thank you for the information you were able to tell me. Discord, you're free to take Break and her grunts" Adagio said as she thought about something. Discord simply bowed as Break got up and the two headed out of the room.
"You think it was a good idea to tell her as much as we did?" BReak asked curiously.
"To be honest, I'm fine with it. I think we can both tell that something is going on and it's probably better to let the IPP take care of it." Discord responded.
"True, I just want this to be behind us." Break said. Adagio watched as the two members walked down the hall and thought about something before running to catch up to them.
Hibiki's Room, Hotel Resound…
As Hibiki, Echo, Melody, and Jovi entered the room, they breathed a sigh of relief as Hibiki made her way to the bed. "Thank you two for bringing me here, sorry about being a bother." Hibiki said as she laid down.
"Don't mention it, you seemed like you needed it." Jovi said with a smile.
"Well I am known to push myself way too hard." Hibiki said in a somewhat joking mood. In response to that, Echo walked over to Hibiki and pinched her cheeks.
"Very much so, to the point of worrying me. That being said, I can't deny that you did a good thing by being so reckless." Echo told Hibiki in an annoyed tone. HIbiki weekly tried to get Echo to stop as Jovi giggled and Melody floated over to the bed and sat next to Hibiki. After a few seconds, Echo stopped and hugged Hibiki tightly, which Hibiki did return. "I honestly don't think I would love you as much as I do if you weren't an impulsive hero." Echo said.
"I love you too." Hibiki said, a soft yet sad smile on her face. Jovi stayed quiet as the interaction happened, before Echo let go and walked over to Jovi. "Sorry if this seems like a sudden ask, but do you mind if I am left alone for a bit?" Hibiki asked.
"... You know what, I don't see why not." Echo responded after thinking for a moment.
"Are you sure that's fine Echo?" Jovi asked.
"Trust me, it's better if she's left alone to sleep. Plus, this gives us a good excuse to finally talk in person." Echo told Jovi. Jovi paused for a moment, wanting to think of something to say, before simply nodding as she got ready to leave. "We'll be back in a bit, try to get some rest until then." Echo told Hibiki.
"I will, you two have fun." Hibiki said in a polite tone. Echo and Jovi waved goodbye as they left the room and after the door closed, Hibiki sighed before letting her head fall back on the bed. "Are you doing good Melody?" HIbiki asked her partner.
"Aside from the nervousness about being shown to people, I'm doing good." Melody responded mentally.
"Sorry about that, I figured that letting the Professor know about you would be smart, but I didn't think about how you would feel." Hibiki said.
"It's fine, they seemed pretty chill all things considered." Melody said. Hibiki simply nodded in understanding before attempting to get up and immediately just flopping right back onto the bed. "Actually feeling pretty tired this time?" Melody questioned.
"Unsurprisingly yes, grabbing onto the back of a Garchomp will do that to you." Hibiki told Melody.
"So I take it you're going to sleep for a bit?" Melody questioned as she floated over to the window.
"Yep, feel free to keep yourself occupied by going around town. Just make sure to keep yourself hidden, don't want Neo Cypher finding where you are." Hibiki told Melody. Melody simply nodded as she opened the window, turned invisible, and flew off to explore the city, closing the window behind her as she did. After Melody left, Hibiki simply sighed as she quietly looked to the scaling and closed her eyes, quickly drifting off to sleep.