Kalini stood before us in the conference room. The conference room was a new thing. We'd shoved a table in the center, placed a whiteboard at the back of the room, and a projector in the ceiling. With our new work, we needed a meeting room.
We sat on stone chairs while Kalini finished writing on the board. Well, most of us did. Slugma was sitting in a pool of magma within a stone pillar, watching the proceedings with wide eyes. I sat at the head of the table, Grace was sitting on my right, Mimikyu was on my shoulder, and Alakazam sat to my left.
Kalini finished drawing and turned to look at us. "Okay. As some of you know, I'm a criminal."
"...You are?" Grace asked, blinking.
He didn't skip a beat. "Yeah, but I'm growing out of it whenever I'm in front of people," Kalini turned to look at the board. "My sordid present gives me some advantages for this hero gig! For example, I've forgotten more about smuggling routes than anyone else in this city. I may not have handled anything harder than weed and gems for the Dragons, but they use those routes for all sorts of things. One of them being the kind of thing I hated about them."
The joviality faded a bit.
"Human trafficking. It's a big business, folks. Fuckers still want to own people, and the Dragons are Hawaii's pipeline from certain unnamed countries to the United States, and from the US to certain unnamed countries."
"Unnamed?" I asked.
"Not much point in stealing a person if you admit they had a history," he said darkly.
"Kyuuuu," Mimikyu said sadly.
"You're not wrong," I whispered to her. "Okay. I can see why you want this warehouse to be our target."
The 'target' was a warehouse in Honolulu, pointed out to us by the Foreman of the Construction site we'd saved the worker at. While the Silicon Dragons were situated all over Hawaii, Honolulu was the big one for all their bases. So striking there for a good while made sense. Force their defenses there, then switch targets.
Kalini turned back to the board. "Well, the place is only sort of a warehouse. It's been many things. First, the Hawaiian Home For Wayward Boys before it shut down due to allegations of abuse by staff and older students. Then it became a Wireless Station during World War 2, used in the war effort. Most recently, it was a Seismograph Station before newer ones were built to replace it. Place is haunted."
"You believe in ghosts?" Grace said skeptically.
"Kyu?" the actual ghost in the room asked.
"Um, not like you," Grace said with a kind smile to Mimikyu, who nodded understandingly.
"I believe in spirits," Kalin's voice took on the tone of . "The ancestors keep demanding this place stays cleared out. There's bad energy. Locals say huaka'i pō walk around the place at night," he said, referencing the local legend of ghost warriors who marched to battle sites.
"But even if there aren't spirits, the Silicon Dragons have captives there. Good reason to head in and clear them out," I growled.
"Gurdurr!" the fighting-type agreed, coming a bit out of the fugue state his loss had put him in. Tyrunt let out a little sound, but didn't say anything else.
"There's more reasons besides that actually," Kalini turned back and tapped a word on the board. "Experimentation! ...I think?" he gave us a helpless smile. "This is mostly a rumor. The guys would talk about it. People disappear. The Dragons never had a reason to use 'em, but you always heard about them having super-soldiers."
Alakazam asked, tapping his chin. "I can confirm some form of medical research is being done there. I've taken a look at purchases in the area. While I have no real talent for hacking, I've found some discrepancies. An inordinate amount of medical equipment being ordered by one hospital and two veterinary offices near shipping routes that pass by it. Beds, surgical tools, various medicines. Too much. Likely we'll have to have whoever works at those places investigated for misappropriation of funds."
"Do you think…" Grace winced when we looked over at her. She shrank a bit. "It's just… I sent them some of my research. Do you think they might have been testing it on people there?"
"Yes," I said without preamble. She sunk into her seat, her whale-hybrid features twisting with sadness and shame. "They're evil fucks. So if they have been torturing people to test your serum, we're going to get the chance to make sure they stop using your research to make soldiers. But yes. I think we might run into oceanic hybrids there."
"..."
"Kip," Mudkip said, giving me a look, eyes narrowed. When I shrugged, he raised an eyebrow.
Okay, fine, I'd been a bit harsh. I had to be. I couldn't be gentle here. This was a 'Robert Oppenheimer watching a nuke blow up' type situation. A scientist watching their research get ready to be used on innocent people. Nothing that could be done about it but work to take down the bad guys using it.
I doubted Grace would have taken that explanation well right after I'd been an asshole about it, so I continued talking.
"This will take us a bit. We need to perform some basic recon, find out what we're dealing with in there. Alakazam will take position outside the base and read the minds of everyone there as best he can-"
"As best I can?" Alakazam asked pointedly.
"Shields that can block psychics are theoretical, as far as I know, but the Silicon Dragons may be able to surprise us," I explained. Alakazam frowned, but didn't disagree. "So just in case, Slugma and Mimikyu. You two are our stealth units."
"Slug?"
"Kyu?"
"You two are small enough to sneak in, and can hide better than all the rest of us. Slugma can dig her way in, Mimikyu can hide in the shadows. Mudkip is going to be with Tyrunt, Gurdurr, and me. Once we have more info, we'll be able plan out an assault. If Slugma and Mimikyu are on the inside, they can cause some chaos to open things up for us a bit. And if all goes wrong, Alakazam will use Hyper Beam to destroy the building."
"Whoa, what!?" Kalini said, shocked. "He can do that!?"
"I try not to," Alakazam said humbly.
"Those are our options, either beat up people or destroy the whole place?" Grace asked me.
"Those are the options we know are possible. But that's because of a lack of information. If there are any innocent people in there, destroying the building gets removed as a possibility until we can guarantee their safety. If there is any info in there on the other bases, that has secondary priority to saving innocent people. If we can capture any superhumans, that takes third priority. But right now, until we can verify things, the options are to beat everyone up, or go nuclear."
Grace nodded. Gurdurr was scratching his chin thoughtfully, grumbling.
"Grace, can you come along and stay close by?" I asked her. "Kalini is driving us and keeping a lookout, but we may need a scientists perspective."
"I'd be okay with that," she crossed her arms. Then she adjusted the placement of her arms. Once, twice, then finally she seemed comfortable with it. That happened sometimes. Grace getting used to the new body. It was happening less and less, but it did happen. "So I guess I wait in the van?"
"And the rest of us wait. Slugma, Mimikyu. This is your show," I looked between them. "Fire and Shadow. I'm gonna need you two to keep a cool head in there. If these guys are as massive assholes as I think they are, you're going to see some horrific things. I trust you to keep safe. But avoid killing anyone if you can help it."
"Slug," the tiny fire Pokemon nodded seriously.
Mimikyu hesitated, but nodded her Pikachu head. As the yellow costume bounced, I thought of something.
"Also, we're going stealth. Might want to break out the Batman costume."
"Kyu!"
The former home for wayward boys, a wireless station, and a seismograph now turned gangster hideout looked like the kind of place zombies would come out of. It reminded me of a zombie map, actually. When I was kid… the first time around I was a kid, my brothers and I would play Call of Duty Zombies a lot. The place looked like… I don't know, the maps that took place in abandoned prisons, military bases, that kinda thing. There was even an airfield behind the place. The main building was large, made of a combination of ancient stone, rusting metal, and vines, sections falling apart. It was shaped like a giant 'L'. Graffiti covered the place, some artistic, some garbage, all colorful.
I stood in the woods away from it, panning my eyes across it. I was wearing a new costume. An actual costume, to be clear.
I'd ditched the long coat and hockey mask for something a bit more hero-like, though the hockey mask was now hanging in a place of honor back in the cave. My new mask still had the half-red and half-white coloration, but was much more stylized. Mimikyu had designed a mask that reminded me of Casey Jones' mask from TMNT. Deadshot had some shady type who made gear for him send one in, and Mimikyu completed it with paint. It was still basically a temporary thing, but it looked good!
The rest of the suit did too. But I felt like a dork wearing it. I felt like I was cosplaying outside of a con. Black undersuit that covered, dark red and white vest, a white belt around my waist, and a pair of white boots. Well, I say white. But every section of my suit that should have been way too bright was sewed and colored in just the right way by Mimikyu to be classy rather than garish and annoying.
I reminded myself to look into online fashion school for her at some point. If that was even possible.
I put the question of fashion aside when Alakazam pressed his mind against mine. "What do we got?" I asked him.
"I am… unsure," he said through our link. I could sense him shifting through the air, hiding in the trees. I kneeled down and closed my eyes, focusing on the links between us.
"Grace? Kalini?"
"I'm here," Grace said. I felt her shifting through the link, taking a deep breath. "I'm just getting used to this. Talking without talking. Are you sure you guys can't read my mind?"
"I'm far too skilled for something like that to happen," Alakazam said. "The only thoughts you can send are those you transmit deliberately."
"I can't wait to find out what sort of biological systems allow you to do that," Grace mumbled mentally.
"How do you get used to this?" Kalini asked me, his mental voice more grating than Grace or Alakazams. "Talking in yer own head?"
"I read a lot of comic books, so the idea isn't too far out for me," I said honestly. "Now, focus on the mission and keep an eye out. Slugma, Mimikyu, how close are you to the target?"
Slugma/The Lava Pokemon
"Slugma," the small red Pokemon whispered to her friend as she dug through the earth. Well, burned through the earth, really.
Mimikyu hummed to herself, then nodded. "Kyu."
Slugma thought about that. True, they were supposed to dig their way through. But honestly, she wasn't sure what the best place to enter from would be. Just under the place and up. Hopefully they would find somewhere that wasn't full of bad guys…
Fine. Up they would go.
Slugma reorientated herself and went upward as fast as she could. After six feet, she wasn't above ground yet. But… The dirt was now concrete. Had she dug herself into a wall? She frowned, then experimentally poked her head to her right, where she could sense an open space. After a bit, she was through the concrete. She looked around experimentally, confused.
The man on the other side of the wall stared at her from less than a foot away, shock in his eyes. Slugma and him blinked in unison.
"Wha-"
"Slugma!" with that tiny battlecry, she smashed her way out of the wall and smashed into the man's gut like a dodgeball. He flew back into a wall with a loud smacking sound. His eyes crossed as he passed out. Slugma didn't need prompting to follow up with a Yawn, a bubble full of knockout gas leaving her mouth and popping against his unconscious face.
"Kyu?" the costumed Pokemon plopped out after Slugma, looking around. Both felt the mind of their master looking through their eyes, but he didn't say anything, only peering through the mental link. After a moment, Mimikyu and Slugma shared a look.
They would have to part ways now.
After a second, Mimikyu wrapped her shadow limbs around Slugma's body. Slugma closed her eyes with a smile. The tiny Pokemon hugged each other for just a second in that room before separating.
"Kyu."
"Ma."
With those last well wishes, they parted ways, heading deeper into the base in opposite directions.
Author's Note: So. This one is extremely late. But in my defense, I had a LOT on my plate.
For those who may not know, my house burned down, so I've been dealing with that. Bouncing from place to place while working on getting a new place. And one big issue is that my PC is currently chock full of soot, so it's not going to be usable until I can get that cleaned out.
Which is why the chapter looks rough and unformatted. I'm posting this on a phone. Tried editing it, didn't work. I'll try fixing it later. For now, just imagine Alakazam's speech in all italics as usual.
But, I'm working my ass off. Hopefully, I can get back to writing again asap. Next chapter should be Dial, but I'll try to add more to MOMO as well while I'm at work. In the meantime, I hope you all have a great rest of your day, and a Happy New Year!