Room 181 Ch. 20

'Hey there, Jack!'

Jack looked up suddenly at the sound of my voice. 'Oh...' he said shyly, 'Hey, Alice...'

'So, how's my favourite gadget-man doing?' I said playfully as I walked up alongside my oldest friend. It was a warm late summer's day and I was on a good mood. 'Built a new flying machine?'

'You make it sound like I have an old one.'

'Don't you?'

Jack laughed and ruffled a hand through his hair. I smiled. I'm allowed privileges to make him feel awkward.

'To be honest,' Jack said as we walked along to the path, 'I haven't been working on anything lately. So no, no death rays.'

'Why not? You're normally all over your strange devices.'

'Well...' Jack paused and seemed internally conflicted, then said 'If I show you, will you promise not to laugh?'

I smiled. 'Oh, Jack. Did I laugh at you the time you fell down a hill on your bike and broke your collarbone?'

'Yes you did. Loudly.'

'Ok, I suppose-'

'And then you told all your friends.'

'Yes, but that was a long time ago.'

'It was last month!'

'Just show me already!' I commanded. Jack seemed indecisive, then went with it. 'Well, for a while I wasn't feeling very well, but yesterday this happened...' He took his other arm out of his jeans pocket. At first I didn't see anything, but that was because the cream-coloured patch blended in well.

I frowned as I rubbed a finger on it. 'It's furry.'

'Yeah. Um, I've been growing fur.' Jack looked me in eyes. 'Please, Alice. I don't know what to do, but if we stick together I'm sure we can do something about this.'

I looked down, unsure, then slowly lifted my long hair to reveal a smooth patch on the back of my neck that was an almost vibrant shade of pink. I'd thought that letting my hair down would hide it nicely, but if Jack was in the same boat then he may as well know it.

I heard Jack try and form some words behind me, but none were coming. I turned back to look at him and we stared into each other's eyes, trying to show without words that at least we were both having the same kind of problem, even if we couldn't fix it.

Then I slowly realised that all the passers-by on the street had gone very still and very quiet, and were staring straight at us.

And then a Trophius descended from above and all hell broke loose.


---


The Munna pressed on. The cold temperature was biting her soft, exposed body but she could not stop. If she did, they'd be on her in a flash. And she would not like the consequences.

She could hear the barking. She didn't look back, because that wouldn't make them any further away. She clung to the memories of everything she was running to, and everything she was running from, and kept going.

The snow had fallen impossibly deep this year. At times she had to raise herself higher in the air to keep herself out of the banks. Her mind was numb, and that was a problem when you are a Psychic who relies on levitation.

Keep going. Do not look back. She didn't have a plan, just a hope.

But tiring, tiring. She couldn't keep up much longer. The barks were closer now. The Mightyenas weren't hampered by the weather at all. But she was. She stung her eyes against the wind, tried to ascend above the snowline, tried to ignore the creeping sub-zero temperatures. But to no avail.

'Dammit Jack,' she muttered as she collapsed weakly into the snowbank. She didn't get up.

Several miles away, Commander Graves of the Epsilon Pokextinction base watched the aerial visual feed from the security centre. The escapee was down.

'This time, girl, you will not be so lucky,' he said with a smile as the first of the Mightyena patrols closed in on the Munna's prone, freezing body.

But that was in the bleak midwinter, long, long ago.


---


'Achoo!'

I groaned and rubbed my nose tenderly as I felt the sneeze pass. For the first time in months, though, I didn't have to brush two huge lengths of fur out of the way first.

Normally I would be a Kadabra, but this situation I was in now definitely wasn’t normal circumstances. Normal circumstances would not involve the five of us being in a Pokextinction base to chase an eleven-year-old master criminal, separated from the accompanying PRT officers and then splitting off on our own. In the particular case of Kieran Hart (me), that wouldn't involve me wearing Stuart's humanising ring and trying to pass as a drone human. But hey, guess what happened.

I sighed as I wandered almost aimlessly down the corridors. I was trying to find the power centre of this whole base, and as a result potentially cripple the whole facility in one go, but I wasn’t actually making a very good job of it. All the corridors looked about the same, and there were no directions anywhere. I mean, it’s hardly surprising – anyone who works here either has to know the way by heart or would have intrinsic brainwashed knowledge. I sighed and rolled my eyes. Of all the ways to hamper intruders, this was in fact a pretty good one.

Where are the others now… Are they safe? Have they been caught? Were they-

My mind was wandering again. I forced myself back into focus. Me worrying in a completely different end of the base is not going to keep them safe, even if they are at risk. Until I can get to this elusive power centre, there’s no way I’m going to be able to help them.

Pretty big ‘if’. This plan seemed a lot better in our collective heads. Despite myself, I smiled. Now that was normal circumstances.

One thing about this place that was disturbing me (of many) was, well… the lack of people. Where was everyone? Occasionally I’d bump into someone on the way past who just shrugged me off, but other than that there didn’t seem to be anyone. The hallways were eerily silent. This is a productive base full of people, right? I imagine Mr. X wouldn’t let it be any other way. Where would they have put all of the people?

Was it in preparation for something?

Again with the wandering. As if often the case, my hands had drifted as I thought. Now that I had clothes again, I had pockets to fiddle with, and I was using the opportunity well. Yes, here was my spoon, thank goodness I've still got that, and a few pens and things I keep on my person around Long Island, and the humanising ring on my finger that still doesn’t fit properly, and this-

Huh? What's this?

I produced the strange object from my pocket and peered at it. It was a black cylinder about the size of a cigar, flattened at both ends. Now what on earth was I carrying this for? I frowned in thought Something about the small tube sent alarms of in my memory. Something that had got us in trouble before, perhaps?

The lightbulb went on. Oh of course, that's what it was. Wow, that was a long time ago, wasn't it? In reality, it was a matter of weeks, but it felt so much longer. I'd taken it away so that I could do my 'thing' with it, but then they'd all forgotten about it, and then so had I. Psychic energy, eh? And then I just kept hold of it, because that’s what you do.

Better keep this safe. When I see Jack next, I need to give it him back-

In my peripheral vision, I saw something black flutter and, in the way that something in your peripheral vision does, it attracted my immediate and total attention. Against my better judgment I turned my head to look, but there didn’t seem to be anything there. Oh. Well, never mind, I-

I turned my head back again to see a tall, pitch-black figure in the corridor I’d just come down. I frowned, openly curious now, and turned to face it fully, resecuring the cylinder on my person. It could wait. The figure didn’t seem to register me or my movement. It just looked around, slowly, taking in first the environment and then its own body. It didn’t make so much as a sound. Its back expression was unreadable, but its shape was easily recognisible. After all, I’ve lived with one of its kind for a while now.

Testing the water, I took a tentative step towards the black Ampharos in the hallway, a mixture of confusion, fascination and downright fear mixing up within me. The Ampharos still didn’t seem to notice me. It just looked at its hands, turning them over as if it had never seen them before. Experimentally, I took another step. Still no notice. Shiny Ampharos are pink, so it couldn’t be that... Was it a Pokextinction experiment? A new form of disguise? Some sort of illusion?

‘What are you?’ I muttered softly, thinking aloud more than anything else. However, that seemed to be some sort of trigger, because the Ampharos suddenly snapped its head up to look at me directly. I stopped, partially unsure of what was going to happen next and partially terrified to be the centre of this strange thing’s attention. The thing had a piercing glare, and it didn’t seem to blink. Unconsciously, I started charging Psychic energy in my mind to form either a protection or an attack. The black figure, though, just turned its head side to side as it looked at me, as if scrutinising me. The movement was odd, but also strangely familiar. In fact, the way it was moving, and standing, and, well, everything it did was worryingly recognisible to me in a way I wouldn’t have thought possible.

‘Cameron?’ I said nervously, not letting the energy go. The figure before looked exactly like my friend right down to the fine details, but the colour was wrong and it acted funny. ‘Is that you? What are you doing here?’

The Ampharos still didn’t respond. Its movements had stopped now, as if it had reached a judgment. I swallowed. ‘Cameron?’ I tried again nervously.

The Ampharos looked at me, seemed to smile, and said, Almost.

And then it was gone.

I blinked, unsure of what just happened. Did- did that just happen? It seemed almost fantastical, like it wasn’t a natural thing. Did I just imagine it? It could have been. I waited several seconds, but the black Ampharos that looked and acted so much like my friend didn’t reappear. Slowly, I let my guard down. Then I turned, and strode with extra force away into the base. To heck with it. The sooner we can get out of this creepy old building the better.


-Cameron-


It had been slow going, creeping throughout the base, constantly on the lookout. Jess and I were now truly on our own. Danny was in the vents, Kieran was somewhere in disguise and Jack had worryingly disappeared off the face of the earth. Just the two of us, left together by random events, hare-brained plans and the fickle hand of fate (not to mention that of Lizzy). Now we were moving onwards, already aware of the overwhelming impossibility of success and actually defeating our enemy, but not having any choice. And besides, there were two enemies here - Lizzy, and Pokextinction. And one of those was at least worth a shot at. So, we were going solo.

And in circles.

'What- AGAIN?! I shouted in despair at the sight of the same bland hallway for the third time. I didn't understand how anyone could find anything here - all the halls looked completely the same. Maybe the monotony was part of the brainwashing procedure.

I rested my head against the wall and groaned. 'The third time now! Someone help my sanity!’

I heard Jess groan in frustration. The Togetic was getting less and less serene and more and more flustered as our ‘wander round and see what we could find’ plan was turning up nothing once more. Well, she wasn’t the one seemingly in charge here, or the one whose damn idea it had been in the first place.

‘This is getting us nowhere,’ I continued to complain, not caring who heard me. ‘Why can't anything be marked out or anything? This place is about as user-friendly as a bear trap.'

'Calm down,' Jess said reassuringly. She couldn't hide it from me, though - she was frustrated too. 'At least there hasn't been any trouble with security. There was only that one, and they breezed past us without a thought.'

'But... We haven't got anywhere. All we've done is waste valuable time.' I pressed my forehead further into the wall as if trying to break it down with my face and gestured at her voice. 'So much for the silent and subtle entry. We may as well storm the garrison, that way we'd get a result.'

'Said result would be capture and death.'

'I could go for some of that right now.' This was hopeless. We weren't getting anywhere. Our friends could have been cornered and subdued by now, we were fighting a hopeless cause, and we weren't even doing it well. Who knows how little time we have left? Oh yeah, that’s right, Lizzy does. She could be anywhere in this base, and we could never find it.

But giving in won't help anything. The problem was, our current plan wasn't helping anything either.

I didn't look up, but I heard Jess lean against the wall next to me and sigh. 'Oh, this is a mess... I wish Shadow was here, he'd know what to do.'

'Who's Shadow?'

'Did I not tell you that story? Remind me to sometime.'

'How many time have I heard you say that now?' I finally stood up and gave deep sigh. 'Ugh… Come on,’ I said, because I had to say something. ‘We may as well stay stealthy for now, but let's… find a trail to follow, or something, and take it to the top-'

And I paused. I had a strange feeling all of a sudden. There was something there, or rather something not there. Like a sound that you don't notice until it stops, but not a sound. It was hard to describe. When I took my head off the wall, there was something very faint that had suddenly disappeared entirely.

I held up a hand, stopping Jess mid-sentence. 'Ssh,' I said. 'There’s something odd here. I don’t like it.’

'Well, yeah. The lack of people, for one. I mean, they've got to be somewhere, so where have they put them-'

'No, I mean there’s something odd right here. Can you feel it?'

'No. Sorry to disappoint.'

'So… maybe it's an Electric type thing then...'

I looked at the wall, which stared back at me blankly. Something about it… I didn’t know, I didn’t like it, and I didn’t like the fact that I didn’t know. Carefully, as if operating a palm scanner, I flattened my hand against the surface. At first I couldn’t spot it, but then there it was. Yes, definitely. It was very, very faint, but if you knew it should be there then it was just about noticeable. And unmistakable.

'Electricity,' I said almost to myself. 'In the wall.'

'That's called wiring,' Jess answered.

'Then why's there so much? I can feel it even through the brickwork, or concrete or whatever the heck this is. You have a higher level of tuning to this kind of thing as an Electric type.'

'Do you?'

'Well, evidently.'

Huh. As per usual, I'd been chasing around some dumb plan instead of sitting down and doing some thinking for once. This is why I need people like Kieran around me.

On the upside, we'd found that lead I wanted.

Jess appeared alongside me. ‘Well?’ I heard her say. ‘Found anything?’

I frowned and took my hand off the wall. 'There's something nearby,' I thought aloud, more allowing Jess to listen than actually directing it at her, 'that's using a lot of electricity. A lot. I dread to think of their monthly bills. If there's something that needs that much energy, I’m guessing it has to be important in some way. And from that, breaking or otherwise impairing it should be a good thing for us. This could be the lead we needed, and it's better than stumbling around any more.'

Jess frowned. 'I guess... Wait, what if it's the current keeping the electric locks to all the rabid mutated experiment subjects' cages?'

I winced. 'Thank you, Jess, for creating that image in my mind. I didn't need to sleep tonight anyway. In answer to your question, we didn't see any lab-like rooms in the area, so I'm guessing that this won't do anything like that.'

'Guessing?'

'Educated guessing, the best kind. As for breaking it...' I pressed the wall to see if it could yield further information. '...I think it's close. It might well be in this corridor. So if give off a big enough blast I can overload it with electricity, if it's in the vicinity. That should easily break it.’ I smiled contentedly. ‘Then we'll be able to see.'

I looked at Jess to see her arms folded and her glare pointed at me. I frowned in confusion at first, then realised. 'Oh, yeah. You're in the vicinity.'

'And have already been struck by lightning once today, thank you. But if you're insistent, I'll just take cover and hope it doesn't go through doors.' Without saying anything else, or needing to, Jess turned and walked off to inspect the doors along the hallway. I slapped my forehead gently when she wasn’t looking. Of course I forgot to think of that little fact that I was moving around with a Flying type. Well, never mind. She was perfectly capable of coping, and her bad mood was just put on to make a point. I know her by now... I think.

'This one's empty,' I heard Jess' voice say. She was stood by the open door of what could well have been a broom cupboard for all I knew. 'I'll stay in here while you play with fire.'

'Please, Jess. It's electricity I play with,' I said with a smile. Jess just smiled and ducked into the room without further comment. I took this as vague approval and turned to the task in hand, rubbing my hands together. It could be anywhere in the nearby area, so...

So I could blast it out freely. I always liked this kind of plan.

'Fire in the hole!' I called, closed my eyes and let loose. I heard the bolts of lightning crackle as they arced through the air, buzzing and setting my fur on end. I just pushed on, purposefully pushing it out in all directions, trying to cover all the possible space in the hall. If Jess had been out here, she'd have been fried chicken.

Eventually, I decided that enough was enough, and cut the charge. Then, I opened my eyes. Then I tried again. Nope, they were definitely open this time. I still couldn't tell any difference.

The hallway was pitch black. For a second I was confused, but then I realised what it was. I would have trashed any and all electric systems in the hallway, but had forgotten to account for a few crucial things that would go that couldn't have been the cause of the electricity surge in the wall. Like the strip lighting. Which I had just destroyed. I waved a hand in front of my face. I couldn't see it.

Dumb mistake number two, right? That is, the second one recently.

After blindly stumbling for a while in the general right direction, I finally found the right door and managed to let Jess out. She took one look at the darkness outside and looked up at me.

'I leave you alone for thirty seconds, and this happens,' she said half-jokingly. I blushed and looked up at the roof sheepishly. In reality, we might not have much time anymore. This wouldn't go unnoticed by the base’s security, although I had to wonder if the security here was working at present anyway. Fingers desperately crossed that it wasn't.

'Don't worry,' I said as reassuringly as possible as we huddled together in the centre of the corridor. 'It's not as bad it looks.'

'It looks like a gaping void. I can't see a thing.'

'I can fix that.' I focused the electricity I had left, aware that my internal supplies were good but not infinite, and created a glimmer of light, lighting up the area around our feet and paring back some of the seemingly infinite dimensions the tunnel-like corridor had taken on the dark. That was some relieved, but not much.

'Ok,' Jess said, 'now you've done the first phase of your brilliant plan. Now what?'

‘Now, searching time.’ I cast my eyes around from where I stood, expanding the pool of light until it filled up most of the corridor. There was clear damage to the area, strong damage to the lighting strips and some curiously dark patches on the wall, but worryingly no broken machine lying in plain view. For a while I couldn't see anything different at all and was going to have to admit to Jess that I had needlessly destroyed a lot of ceiling lights in the wrong area, at which point she would have (quite fairly) ripped my head off, when I spotted it. I pointed at the wall, where there seemed to be conspicuous patch of shadow the light couldn't penetrate, and not just an electrical burn. ‘Over here,’ I said and hurried over to the patch on the wall. Or, as it turned out, not on the wall. I waved my hand in the dark shadow and shone my light into it, but there was nothing there. There should have been some wall there. But there was nothing.

My eyes lit up almost as bright as my tail as I looked at Jess again. ‘Looks like we’ve found it!’ I said more excitedly than I probably should have done. ‘This is brilliant. A secret tunnel!’

‘Wow!’ Jess stared into the void with a look of anticipation. ‘Ok, I’ll hush my mouth. That really did work. Credit where it’s due, Cameron.’

‘Of course it worked. There was never any doubt,’ I lied.

‘Well, congratulation then! We- Hang on, what was all the electricity in the wall for?’

‘Um…’ I thought hard. ‘Well… We couldn’t see it before, could we? It was only after I… That’s it! Holographic projectors! There was a missing space in the wall, and they projected a hologram of the wall over it so that we couldn’t see the difference. Oh, Lizzy’s good at this. I’ve heard of hiding in plain sight, but that takes the biscuit.’

‘And I’ve heard of the walls having ears,’ Jess added. ‘So you reckon this is her hideout?’

‘If not, then it leads to it. That’s what tunnels are for, after all.’

‘But… aren’t we trying to avoid her?’

‘We’re also trying to avoid being captured and brainwashed,’ I pointed out, ‘and it won’t take long for them to realise that the power has gone weird in this area soon. I say we just hide away in these shadows here, and if they get too close we run like we stole something.’

Jess looked like she was thinking. ‘Well,’ she said in reasoned tone, ‘I guess Lizzy will have more than one point of escape than this entrance. It’s a big base and the chances of bumping into her down there are really quite small.’ She nodded, pleased with this. I smiled. I recognised that tone. It’s the tone of ‘This is a bad idea, but let’s come up with an excuse for doing it anyway.’ It is, of course, a voice I know well.

‘And we can use it to find the others,’ I chimed in.

‘Mm, good point. And we were looking for a lead.’

‘Sounds like a plan then,’ I said. I moved to face the hole in the wall, but stopped halfway through. ‘Y’know,’ I said slowly, ‘I feel we’re missing something. Something like this is the point where we look each other in the eye and say something terribly sincere before embarking.’

‘What, like ‘Are you ready for this?’ and ‘I was born ready’ in response? Something like that?’

‘Yeah. That’ll do.’ I bit my lip, paused, then turned my head back to Jess. ‘Jess,’ I said sincerely, looking her in the eye, ‘are you ready?’

Jess smiled. ‘Heck, no.’

‘Oh, good. Me neither.’

We lined up next to each other, took a deep breath and then in an act of solidarity took the step into the unknown in sychronisation. There was a light somewhere below, the feeling of a large, empty space and a rush of cool air.

There wasn’t, however, a floor, but by the time we figured that out it was a bit too late.


-Danny-


‘I don’t like this,’ Jack said as he turned the signed chit over with his hands. ‘Guys your age getting involved in the PRT just makes everything harder for them. You’ve got classes and stuff to do as well, spying work just doesn’t make sense for a teenager who already has a lot on their minds.’

‘Or,’ Harry said with a faint note of smugness, ‘you could just take advantage of natural talent. And the time isn’t a problem, I’m only on as a part-time member anyway.’

‘You can be a part-time policeman?’

‘No, but you can be a part-time recon agent. Look, it makes sense. Sudowoodos are natural disguise artists, just for very specific disguises. Just go in, disguise yourself as just another bit of furniture, acquire info, report back. Easy. And that way when an actual mission takes place, they know about the building already.’ He paused, then added ‘You’re welcome, by the way.’

‘For what?’

‘Well, the info that I passed on about this base for one. And no summoning Max and Stuart Yeah, that’s right,’ he said on seeing our surprised faces, ‘I’m the third PaRTy Guy. I’m normally in touch with them in the field, although I lost their signal recently. Because I’m not an adult, the PRT had to give me an operational codename. Y’know, confidentiality reasons. They call me The Triffid.’ There was another pause, then ‘Because it’s-‘

‘Because you’re a walking plant, ha ha,’ Jack said flatly. I was stood next to him, staring up at the debate happening a long way above my head. However, Jack had passed the chit down to me to read, and as much as I was weirdly annoyed it was real. Harry was a part-time operational reconnaissance (don’t quite know what that is, might have something to do with mayonnaise) member of the PRT. Signed and approved by Commander Sarmen Cuczoff.

‘Do your friends know?’ I asked. ‘Alex and that lot? Do they know about this?’

‘To be honest I’m not sure what they know, and neither is the The Author. They’re aware of the fact that occasionally I get called away for long periods of time in which they don’t see me, but weither they know what I do during that time I neither know nor particularly care. They don’t make a deal out of it. Stuff happens.’ Harry turned to Jack. ‘All right then pal, I’ve spilled my secrets, you spill yours. I checked all round this room before putting down my roots and I didn’t see any way you could have got in, except the door and the vents. How the heck did you do it?’

Jack smiled. ‘Well, funny you should ask, because you obviously didn’t look very hard. Did you check the fireplace?’

Harry looked at him blankly. ‘It’s a fireplace,’ he said as if it was obvious. ‘They’re not going to be keeping intel in a fireplace.’

‘Why would a Pokextinction base, which is effectively a giant concrete block designed to be unassuming, with no features to attract attention and no chimneys have a fireplace? On top of the fact that it’s out of place, it’s literally impossible to have if you were to ever light fires there. It’s a secret entrance.’

Harry sighed. ‘Great. There’s going to be a cave behind a waterfall at this rate.’

‘Come on, I’ll show you.’ Jack moved over to the fireplace and Harry and I followed. Being smaller I got there last, in time to hear Jack say ‘…and it’s such a small hole, only something the size of a Deino can get through without crawling. I nearly threw my back out getting through myself. It makes sense. Lizzy could use this to get to the secret tunnels she’s got all over the building. If she needed somewhere to hide in a Pokextinction base where they can’t find her or interfere with her planning, this sort of thing is ideal. Who’d look back here?’

‘Not Harry, evidently,’ I said cheerfully. Harry just scowled and looked away.

‘I say we follow this path,’ Jack said courageously. ‘It’s practically guaranteed to bring us to Lizzy’s hideout, and from there we can take her down. And if it leads all over the base, there’ll be somewhere we can meet up with Cameron and the others.’ He smiled. ‘Heh, I wonder what he’ll say when he sees this! Bet he didn’t see it coming!’

‘I wonder what Jess will say!’ I said excitedly. I’d been safe, and done well, and I managed by myself and helped achieve our goals. She’d be so proud of me. I blushed, a warm glow spreading through my iron cheeks. ‘Come on, let’s go!’

It took a few seconds for the significantly taller Jack and Harry to maneuverer through the fireplace, but I trotted through no problem. Then, with Jack’s flickering flame as a guiding lamp, we set off into the unknown.


-Max-


‘And next left,’ I read out from the intel. The two of us turned at the end of the corridor and sure enough, there was a door with a sign marked ‘Power Centre’, followed by several ‘Do not enter’ and ‘High voltage’ markers. On the whole, the place just needed a few patrolling Dobermans to make it as humanly unfriendly as possible. However, we were both Ground types. Electricity means nothing to us.

‘Brilliant!’ Stuart exclaimed, then remembered and hushed himself. The Excadrill didn’t have his humanising ring, and was therefore still a Pokeuman. I, however, had mine, and therefore was assuming the role of a captor. It wasn’t a perfect disguise, but it got the job done for short periods of time.

‘Alright,’ I said to my colleague and friend, ‘shouldn’t be hard. All these power centres have some sort of big, easily destroyable machine. Every Extinction base I’ve been to so far has at least one, if not several. It always works. May be a few technicians, but they’re not normally a problem. Just be ready to start fighting as soon as someone remarks on how strange it is for you to be here.’

‘Got it,’ Stuart replied. I smiled, and slid the door open.

And frowned again. ‘Oh. What? That’s not right.’

There was no big, easily destroyable flashing machine. There were no dynamos. There were no generators. There were, for goodness’ sake, no people. Instead there were just rows and rows of computer banks, busily whirring away and flashing screens of data. If it wasn’t the sign on the door I’d have assumed we’d walked into the server room.

‘What the heck is this?’ I said as I moved into the room. It was comparatively small, but spacious enough to move freely between the terminals. I took off my ring as Stuart walked in, returning to a Garchomp – there was no point hiding anymore. We’d bumped into a few people on the way here that had made me glad I’d had it on but there no-one here at all. ‘Where’s all the fancy dynamos? I feel downright cheated.’

‘Everything’s automated,’ Stuart said somewhere to my right. ‘There’s no-one here, just loads of computer processing stuff. Where’s the fun in that?’ I nodded agreement as I read one of the print-offs. There were distribution charts, and scales and balances and co-ordination diagrams. No big flashing machines. What a let-down.

‘I thought this place was where the power was generated, right?’ Stuart’s voice came again. ‘If it’s not, then where’s it all coming from?’

I peered at a large screen. ‘It says ‘solar power’. Solar power! What kind of villain uses solar energy? That’s for climate change fearers, not megalomaniacs!’

‘You sure?’

‘Says here. And look, there’s something here about geothermal energy! What is this, a war base or a hippie club?’

My ranting was cut off suddenly by the sound of the door sliding open behind us. Both our heads turned panickedly to look as, lit up by the blue display screens behind us, a young human figure walked through the doorway and marched into the power centre. At first his back was rigid and his expression scarily blank, but as soon as the door closed and he realised there was no-one here but us he seemed to slump forward in a relieved sigh.

‘Phew,’ he said in a familiar voice, ‘am I ever glad to see you guys for once. Does this ring even fit either of you?’

‘Wha- Kieran?!’ I spluttered. ‘What the heck are you doing here? How are you a human?’

‘Ah, well, erm, the thing is…’ Kieran raised his hand as if apologising to a teacher. The blue light from the screens glinted off the large ring on his finger. ‘We never had the chance to give it back to you… so we thought we may as well use it. I guess I can’t make apologies here.’

‘You might not,’ I growled, drawing myself to my full height, ‘but Cameron sure can. Didn’t I tell you to stay in the corridor where we left you?! I even made you promise, because I knew something like this would happen!’ Next to me, Stuart folded his arms and gave a strong glare.

Kieran looked at the floor. Almost ashamedly the ring slipped off and the human turned back into a Kadabra once more. ‘We figured we were safer split up,’ he mumbled. ‘And we could maybe help you. That’s all, really.’

‘And where are the others now?’

‘Er… I don’t know. We put Danny in the air vents, but apart from that I have no idea. This isn’t helping my position much, is it?’

‘No.’ I sighed. ‘But you’re here, and sending you away again would just mean we don’t know where any of you are. Just… stay here and do something helpful. That’s what you wanted, here’s your chance.’

Relief blossomed on Kieran’s face. Immediately he hurried over to where we were stood. ‘Thank you,’ he said sincerely. ‘And don’t worry about they others. I know them, they’re smart enough to keep themselves safe.’

‘Assuming they don’t try to storm the garrison. I’m guessing you’re here for the same reason as us.’ I gestured to the screens. ‘Trying to disrupt Pokextinction’s power supply? Well, us too. But it turns out there isn’t any power supply here for us to disrupt.’

Kieran peered at the screen, his face full of concentration. ‘Yeah… I’m not sure what I was planning to do exactly,’ he confessed, ‘but I’m guessing you guys were expected a machine to smash. Hmm…’

‘I just don’t get it!’ I reiterated, turning back to Stuart. ‘Why is there just a load of screens? Where’s the activity? Solar power, really?’

‘Well, if it gets the job done,’ Stuart mused, ‘it’s at least cheaper. This is an organization, and that’s pretty much just like a business.’

‘Oh, great. Bureaucracy. I knew they were bad, but I didn’t think Pokextinction was guilty of all the minor vices too. So how exactly are we going to disrupt anything if there’s nothing here?’

'What makes you say that?'

I looked back at Kieran, who was still staring at the monitors. 'Because we can't exactly go up to the roof to shut off the solar panels, let alone this geothermal thing that could be kilometres below us,’ I said.

'You don't have to. You just have to stop the distribution. Didn't you guys read these displays?'

I blushed slightly and rubbed the back of my scaly neck. 'I, uh... Time is precious on these missions. We were looking for a summary or conclusion somewhere.' From experience, that's a safe alternative to 'Yes, but I'm blowed if I know what these charts and stuff mean.'

'You'd be looking for a long time in an entirely automated process,' Kieran said off-handedly, apparently not noticing my cover. 'Looks like I came in at the right time. If you've got an IQ with four decimal places, this sort of stuff is easy to understand. See?' He gestured to the screen and the two of us moved up behind him.

'These bars here,' Kieran said as he moved about the interface, 'show how the power is being distributed around the base. All we have to do is tell the computers that it doesn't want to distribute the power at all. Or, which might be easier, just do it randomly and uncontrollably. That'll cause just as many problems as no power at all.'

I was suddenly aware of how much the roles were being reversed, but kept quiet about it. This guy had a better plan than I do. Maybe Cameron and his friends are worth more credit than I give them.

'So all we have to do is press random buttons?' Stuart said with a cheerful note. 'This is going to be easier than I thought!'

'Yeah, that should do it. And flip a few switches and maybe some levers, big levers always do something exciting.' Kieran stood up fully and spread his arms. 'I'll let you do the honours. After all, it's your job.'

I smiled. 'You're a good kid, Kieran. Cameron needs someone like you.'

'Yeah, well, once we're done here I should probably get back to him. But for now, let's blow some fuses.'

'Alright!' I stepped up to the computer bank and eyed a few interesting-looking big buttons. I raised a hand. 'Decode this!' I said, feeling in the mood, and-

And there was darkness. All the room lights vanished, and the computer screens disappeared. The soft blue light from the displays was no longer projecting onto us. My hand was still in the air.

'Um, guys?' I said a touch nervously. 'That wasn't me.'

Beside me, an unsure Stuart and a nervous-looking Kieran were perfectly and totally visible. Everything else in the room, though, was gone. All around us there was just blackness, and a void that seemed to suck at you. The whirring of the computer banks was no longer audible.

Unconsciously, the three of us grouped together until our backs were touching. I swallowed, trying hard to keep my nerves from showing, but I couldn't. I was starting to seriously panic. What happened? Were we still in the same room? In one instant we had suddenly and totally lost control of everything. I couldn't hide it, not in plain view in the darkness. I was afraid. Whatever this was, we were incapacitated. Beaten. And in serious, serious trouble.

And a sweet, sugar-coated little girl's voice in my ear said 'Dark in here, isn't it?'


-Danny-


The tunnel may have been relatively wide before, but now it was feeling cramped. Jack had to walk ahead of us so that he and Harry didn't clog up the whole passage. Fortunately as a very small species it was easy for me to slip through, but it was still somewhat tight. And cold. And dark. Jack's back flames were the only light as we walked.

'So,' Harry said after a while, 'this is your area Jack. You know the most. Where does this go?'

'I have no idea,' Jack replied cheerfully. 'I'm just assuming that if we keep walking we'll eventually get to somewhere interesting at some point.'

Harry sighed. I said nothing. I was just following in faith. The monotony of the tunnel was faintly getting to me, but it was better than the air vents.

We ended up wandering quite a bit, despite Jack's best intentions. There were turning points and junctions, and we accidentally managed to get back to the 'normal' part of the base at least three times and had to double back quickly. After a while we figured that we may as well just follow any path that lead down, so we were effectively infiltrating the villainous lair by guesswork. But, I put my trust in the others. I've gotten good at that lately.

It must have been about ten or fifteen minutes before Jack turned a corner and with a shout suddenly went flying over an unseen object lying in the way, landing in an undignified sprawl. Harry and I immediately slowed to take more care, but then the object dragged itself up and in the light of Jack's flames resolved into a familiar figure.

'Ah, my aching head…' Cameron moaned as he clasped his temple. 'I feel like something-' He stopped and his eyes opened, seeing us for the first time. 'Guys? Wha- How did you get down here?' He frowned. 'And why the heck am I seeing Harry here? Is he a hallucination?'

'Gee, do you start all your conversations like this?'

'Cameron?' I exclaimed, ignoring the Sudowoodo's dry remarks. 'Are you alright? Where's Jess?'

'I'm alright... I think. I just fell through the wall and I think my internal electrcity's running low, that’s all. As for Jess, she moved off ahead, so she should- Ah, here she comes,' Cameron amended as over his shoulder the Togetic on question hurried into the light, stopped in surprise, then with full composure helped Jack sort his fur out from his tumble.

Now the group was (almost) all reunited, it was time to exchange our stories.

'Alright, let's get this straight,' Cameron said once the voices had died down. 'These are Lizzy's secret tunnels leading to her secret base, of secrecy. They're hidden in the walls, covered by hologram projections. Right. Danny came out in the same room as Jack had been hiding. It turns out Harry here is a secret PRT agent-'

'Part time.'

'Part time PRT agent, whose job is to perform recon. We are now currently on our way to Lizzy's secret hideout... despite her being much too strong for us. Yes?'

There were nods, but also an exchange of looks. Cameron's report of Lizzy's power was a shock to us all. I suddenly wasn't excited. I was really, really frightened.

'Has anyone seen Kieran?'

Shaking heads. The Kadabra could be anywhere. Not good.

'We're in way over our heads...' came mutterings.

'There is just no way we can pull this off...'

'This was a bad idea from the start...'

'Maybe we should back off and-' was all that Jack managed. It was all that was needed for justification as Jess, stood next to him, gave him a slap that echoed around the tunnel. 'No, don't be stupid!' she shouted freely. 'We can't just back out now! That is… it’s just not an option! There are more of us now, and if we know not to go head-on against Lizzy then we can... think of something else, I don't know! But we have to try! Someone has to take the stand, Jack! This is real life we're talking about!'

'Well, actually-'

'Shut up, Harry.' Jess' glare smouldered at us furiously as she dared us to deny what she was saying. It didn't matter, we couldn't anyway. But we just needed someone with the force to say it in the first place.

The silence was broken by Cameron saying 'Well, what she said. Come on, guys. Let's do something, just to prove we tried. Come on' He turned down the corridor to stop again and look back. 'Erm, actually… I think I'm running low on internal electricity. Jack, can you lead the way for me?'

The Quilava just sighed, but sure enough took his place at the front of the gathered procession. 'What would you do without me, eh?' he said with a limp smile as Cameron just breathed deeply with clear gratitude. I just filled in my place as we moved off once more, now a full unit. I had a feeling that what we'd all had so far was just the calm, and the tenser the calm the more powerful the storm.