"How we gonna get out of here, Ash?" Hilda asked, examining the room. "We're locked in. No way we're going out the way we came in."
"Who said he had to?" Ash asked, hoping on Silvally's back, offering his hand to Hilda. "Shall we?"
"Ah, my knight and his steed!" Hilda chuckled, getting up on Silvally with her Master.
"Let's see what you can do, Silvally!" Ash commanded it.
With a metallic roar, Silvally raised its front legs, it's sharp talons forming blades of energy at the tips of the claws. Tearing through the elevator doors, Silvally lept into the elevator shaft, digging its claws into the shaft as it ascended.
"Don't let go!" Ash shouted as he and Hilda clung for deer life as Silvally continued to ascend.
Reaching the top, Silvally smashed through the floor of the elevator above it, reaching the main floor of the complex. The tearing, screeching sound of metal alerted the guards immediately, turning to face the commotion.
"Sound the alarm! The Subject has broken free!" A Prospect guard yelled, running to a button on the wall.
As sirens rang out in the night, Silvally barreled through the compound, knocking over anyone who tried to intercept it.
"Who are they?!" A grunt noticed, pointing at the two masked individuals riding the chimera.
"Who cares?! Shoot!" Another yelled, reaching for his sidearm.
As gunshots rang out, Silvally perceived the threat, erecting a barrier of energy to protect him and his riders.
"Protect! Way to go, Silvally! Now use another move!" Ash commanded.
Suddenly, Silvally opened his mouth, a trio of energy beams comprised of Fire, Electricity, and Ice fired out at once, obliterating a line of guards defending the front gate.
"That was Tri Attack." Hilda explained to Ash as Silvally ran for escape. "Wait! What about all those caged people?!"
"I'm afraid they'll have to wait a while, longer. We need to get Silvally back!" Ash shouted as he steered Silvally out of the compound and into the desert.
"Rosa, we're moving out!" Hilda called over the radio to her sister.
"Don't worry, I see you. I'm bringing the van down the plateau." Rosa replied, climbing into the driver's seat.
As Silvally continued its trek through the badlands, Hilda turned and noticed several vehicles coming out of the compound in hot pursuit.
"We're gonna have company!" She said, noticing the cars quickly catching up.
"Silvally, use Tri Attack!" Ash commanded.
Stopping and turning around quickly, Silvally fired a trio of elemental energy beams at his pursuers, taking out the front tires of the closest vehicle. Skidding out of control, the car began to slow, with the car behind it smashing into it, causing a wreck.
"YEAH!! TAKE THAT, ASSHOLES!!" Hilda jeered, yelling back at the Prospects as Silvally began to run off.
As the group got away, the man in red got out of the last car, watching helplessly as his quarry escaped.
"Fuck!!" He shouted, ripping off his goggles and throwing them to the desert ground.
After making sure they were no longer pursued, Ash and Hilda met up with Rosa. Recalling Silvally back to his ball, Ash and Hilda got in the van, taking off back towards the city. Getting on the phone, Ash contacted Lusamine to give her the good news.
"Miss Lusamine, we did it! We got Silvally back." Ash said with a grin, giving his girls a thumbs up for their hard work.
"How splendid! I knew I sent the right person for the job! Leave it to the Leader of the Vipers to step up to the plate." Lusamine smiled. "Now as to our rendezvous location, I am a bit on the short side. I had hoped to plan this out ahead of time, but I just can't find a good place to meet up."
Thinking of a place to meet Lusamine, break her and make her his slave all at once, Ash remembered the perfect place to suggest for him and his soon to be servant to meet up.
"There's a place I know. It's in the East District. That might be largely Prospect's turf, but that just means it's the last place they'd look." Ash explained. "It's called The Scarlet Cabaret. It's a little club I've been frequenting, made friends with the staff. Just tell them I sent you and then ask them 'If you could use their pay phone.' That code phrase will be the proof that you are cool with them. Sending you the address now."
"Perfect, I'll be awaiting you there, darling. Oh, and before I forget, Lillie will be accompanying me! I'm just about to pick her up from the campus, and I'd figured the three of us can go into greater detail in regards to your relationship and how I promised my family possessions to you once you two will be wed." Lusamine added in. "Lillie has done nothing but sing your praises, and I more than can understand her passionate love for you, especially after the news tonight! I'll be seeing you soon, dear!"
Hanging up, Ash took some time to relax and close his eyes as the van continued down the desert road. As time went on, and the trio finally made their way back to the city, heavy rain began to fall, the pattering of rain drops hitting the van's roof. Bolts of lighting lit the night sky, with the accompanying thunder booming relentlessly. The downpour began to flood the streets, causing traffic to slow down.
"Been a while since it's rained this hard..."Hilda sighed, sitting in the back with Ash as Rosa continued driving.
All of the sudden, Hilda's phone began to vibrate in her pants. Taking it out, Hilda noticed the caller ID and her facial expression became stern.
"Sorry, I gotta take this." She apologized, answering the phone.
"What? But when did we-? From the truck raid? But they weren't listed in the shipping manifest!" Since when have I allowed that?!" Hilda shouted into the phone, Ash unable to hear who was on the other line. "Where are you right now?! Hold on, sis and I will be there."
"Something wrong?" Ash asked as Hilda hung up.
"It's Calem. He just called me to let me know he's taken a bunch of our Vipers for a 'training exercise'." Hilda explained.
"What kind of training we talking about?" Ash replied in concern.
"Target practice. That jackass claims that a few of the crates we stole from that truck had firearms in them. He's at the far end of the north district, training our newest recruits how to shoot." Hilda spat. "Those weapons were definitely NOT listed on the manifest we took from that flash drive. I'm sorry Ash, but I need to see to this now. Could we drop you off at the closest subway station? We're in the North District right now, and I don't want to waste any more time to getting to the bottom of this."
"That's fine with me. Seems like you got something big going down." Ash replied, fine with his slave leaving him on his own.
After dropping Ash off at a nearby station, Hilda and Rosa drove to the location Calem gave his leader. Pulling up to a condemned, abandoned building, Grabbing an umbrella from the back, Rosa held it over her sister as the duo exited the van, thunder still incessantly booming overheard. Walking behind the building, Hilda noticed a line of Vipers, all crouched down with rifles and pistols in hand, firing across what appeared to be a makeshift shooting range, targets spray painted onto the derelict brick wall at the very end.
Calem was positioned behind them all, arms behind his back, letting the torrential downpour soak him to the bone. As he noticed Hilda approached, he turned to the other Vipers.
"Cease fire!" He commanded, the lot of them ejecting magazines and setting the weapons to their sides. "Go take five inside, everyone."
"Just what the hell is this?!" Hilda shouted. "Are you out of your damn mind, Calem?! Guns?!"
"I'd thought you'd be more impressed that our fellow Vipers are such good shots..."Calem chuckled, pacing back and forth.
"This isn't a game! Where did you get these?! I never said these were ok to use!" Hilda yelled, leaving the cover of the umbrella to scold Calem face to face.
"Where I got them is of no import. The only thing that matters is we have the means to fight back." Calem replied, looking proudly at several crates next to him. "We may have a few people in our group that have Pokémon, but not many of us have that luxury. Most of us are helpless against Prospects, and as time grows, they continue to gather strength. I made the call to give us a fighting chance, and I took it."
"What did you do?" Hilda asked him, grabbing him by the collar of his soaked jacket. "What did you do?!"
"I just happened to make a deal with a certain smuggling group I knew back when I ran my own gang. They brought us in some fancy toys from the Galar Region. Turns out those blokes know how to make a good peacekeeper." Calem answered, looking up onto the second floor balcony of the nearby building.
Turning to see what he was looking at, Hilda noticed a pair of men, dressed in black trench coats and fedoras. A bigger, bulkier man was carrying an umbrella for who appeared to be his boss, his facial features barely lit by the light of his cigarette butt.
"You must be our Man's boss." The man above said with a gravelly, Galarian accent. "Don't pay me no mind, lass. I'm simply an 'on sight investigator', to make sure our client is pleased with the product."
"You made this decision without me! You didn't even once think of telling me you had this in mind, did you?" Hilda spat at Calem.
"While you've been off doing who knows what, I've been thinking of our future. Do you think I brought all these guys out here for no reason? Tonight is a perfect training night. The constant thunder and this downpour mask the shots we've been firing, and this condemned industrial plant is where my old gang use to hang." Calem explained to Hilda, his eyes looking directly into Hilda's. "Don't talk to me like you know how things are-how the world works! I know how these Prospects want to play their game. It's those with strength that come out on top. I see no future for our people if you continue to ignore that some things need to change in order for the Vipers to come out on top. I know it, and they know it."
Looking back at the group taking shelter inside, Hilda shook her head. Though she saw merits to Calem's rhetoric, she knew just how treacherous that path would be.
"If we escalate things, we can be looking to no future at all. If we change our tactics, then how do you think Prospects will respond?" Hilda asked him curtly.
Without a word, Calem reached for his pokeball on his belt, calling out his Greninja. Reaching for a pistol he had holstered to his leg, Calem pulled back the hammer, raising the weapon down range with one hand. Simultaneously, Greninja and Calem began opening fire, with Greninja slinging Water Shuriken and Calem emptying his entire magazine into a pair of targets. As the slide to his weapon locked back, the barrel still smoking, Hilda looked on and saw both Calem and Greninja hit the bullseye on their targets, every single shot they made. Reloading the gun, Calem returned his attention to Hilda.
"That's what they'd be looking forward to if they tried." Calem said, handing Hilda the firearm, walking over with his Greninja to join his peers in the shelter. "Instead of you running off to play with that brat who joined us on the raid like you did today, why don't you give yourself some time to practice, 'Boss'. You'll be needing it if you want to set a good example for the others."
Looking at the gun placed in her hand, Hilda paused for a moment, noticing from the window to the building how the others inside warmly greeted Calem. Hilda could tell they shared his point of view, his radical passion. Sensing what her sister was thinking, Rosa walked back over to Hilda, shielding her sister from the rain with her umbrella once more.
"What do you think, sis?" Rosa asked. "You don't think the Vipers will begin to flock to Calem, do you?"
Hilda looked up at the men in the black trench coats, the duo now walking off, content with what they saw. Looking back at the pistol in her hands, Hilda looked up at her sister.
"The more time we lose, the more I fear the Vipers will be led down a path none of them can return from. I don't care about being a leader, it's not my thing, but I do fear the longer we wait, the more people in our group will begin to lose hope and see things go Calem's way." Hilda breathed, shaking her head in admission. "Calem's rhetoric is becoming more popular with them by the day, I can feel it. We need to let Ash know about this. If Lusamine can offer us help on taking down the enemy, then maybe we can save them all before it's too late. We can't let them lose hope for a better, peaceful future."
"We still don't even know what Prospects is planning though... Mind control experiments, a stolen Chimera, and control over a clandestine resort ship for the rich and influential, all the while running turf and extortion rackets like a generic mob?" Rosa pondered. "What do all of these things have that Prospects needs?"
"I don't know...but I know this is too big for us alone. We need all the help we can get before things become too unstable." Hilda replied, still clutching at the handgun. "Ash...Master...we hope you can help us..."
Author's Note: Hello once again, dear readers. I'm back with yet another entry to the high school hypno harem. I was kinda in a slump for a while, trying to figure out what to do with the story going forward, but then I got excited when I noticed that Lumiose City will be returning again to us quite soon. I hope you all will be as excited as I will be once we find out more news about the game as time goes by.
Until then, I only hope my stories will continued to amuse and entertain you all. In the next chapter, Ash will be breaking Lusamine, and sharing her with his other slave, Lillie. If you're eager to see some Lillie on Lusamine action, then prepare yourself, as that chapter will be coming quite soon. In any case, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and I hope you all have a great day. Happy reading!