Cipher Under headquarters - 'Indoctrination Room' - 0935 hours local time
The armor was uncomfortable and he wanted to take it off almost immediately, but Ash knew he needed it to remain incognito.
Pikachu gleefully ruined all the electronics in the helmet, including the magnetic field that would turn Ash into a sociopathic monster, Riolu assisting in removing the high-powered magnets themselves. They were taking no chances in assuring Ash's safety.
His body was one thing. His mind and soul were even more important, because for some reason, Giratina kept spitting him out of the underworld. But if his mind was corrupted...it was a thought they didn't want to think on.
"Pika." 'It's good.' Pikachu said, smacking the helmet with his tail, sending it sliding towards Ash, who picked it up and grimaced. The only way to deal with the enemy was to become it.
Or at least look like it.
"Nothing for it." he said before slipping the helmet on his head. Now he looked all the part of a Cipher Peon.
"Pika." 'Hopefully there won't be any more complications,' Pikachu said before the door opened.
Robin was lucky someone managed to take out the guards at the entrance and Cipher's gross incompetence when it came to security in the Under (they did dominate the region, but if they were perfect dictators, they wouldn't have an insurgent movement against them, would they?) Cipher's security inside their bases were comical, all of them focusing on their outside.
Then again, most of the upper leadership of Cipher were over a century old, only alive thanks to the same Chansey revitalization process forced on the leader of her cell.
Old, insane and worshipping the most insane legendary. No wonder they were all out of their minds.
And she was going to sabotage the indoctrination process before looking for her ma-Ash.
She forced the door open, finding someone putting on Cipher Peon armor, about to put the helmet on. She pointed her revolver at him before he raised his hands, dropping the helmet and she saw his face. "Whoa, whoa, it's me!" Ash Ketchum yelled, making her get her finger off the trigger and pointing the barrel at the roof, allowing him to lower his hands. "Please don't shoot."
"Pika." said his Pikachu, who was more then likely annoyed that she pointed a gun at his trainer, judging from the sparking he was doing.
"I was… concerned." she said, lowering her weapon.
Ash nervously chuckled as he picked up the helmet. "I, uh… found the cell." he said, gesturing to the dead bodies on the torture racks, all with an occasional twitch.
Robin's opinion of Ash changed. She thought him too cowardly to do what must be done. No, he merely did not wish to end life unnecessarily. All of them were dead men and women walking.
This was not murder. This was mercy.
Her master-where did that come from?-put the helmet on his head. "Robin." he started, her spine tingling at him speaking her name. "This place needs to be destroyed. Those people… they were being tortured and turned into mindless, suicidal pawns. We can't let this place remain in Cipher hands. It has to be buried."
Robin sighed. "M-Ash…" she started, substituting one word for another. Calling him 'master' would unnerve him until he was ready. "We can't just bury it. They'll just dig it out, using forced labor. There's only one way to deny them this place." One she would somewhat enjoy, as she smiled grimly.
Ash blinked and gulped. "…How?" he asked.
"Irony. It was the signal of Cipher's rise to dominance." she said. "A nuclear explosion will destroy this place, salting the earth and preventing them from this… place again."
It destroyed Agate Village. Fitting that the very thing that brought them to power, the threat of nuclear bombing, would be used to bring Cipher low.
Ash gaped at her, horrified. "W-What?!" he yelled. "Robin, even if this place and all the grunts in it need to go, what about Pyrite?! There are hundreds of thousands of innocent lives up there! You want to unleash a fraction of a sun's power on them?!"
Robin sighed. "There is no innocence in Orre." she said, quoting an old Orrean maxim. "Only varying degrees of guilt."
Ash glared at her. "Bullshit." he snapped, surprising her. "Those people aren't involved in your war. Inconveniencing them with your attacks on Cipher is one thing, but killing them will turn you against them!"
The white-haired woman closed her eyes. "There is no one in Pyrite that doesn't support Cipher. There's a psychic beacon here-" she said before Ash grimaced, Robin knowing immediately. "You've noticed. I'm immune, even if I can hear it. No one here doesn't support Cipher. They're slaves, shackled to their will. No matter how much they consciously complain, they subconsciously serve and will until their end." she then gave him a very pointed look. "Would you deny them freedom, even if that freedom is death?"
Ash looked notably uneasy at that. She didn't blame him. Death was easy enough to deal with in combat: either your enemy killed you or you killed them. But destroying a city was… not a choice one wanted to make lightly. Only three regions had the power to do so.
Unova's bomber force was long since grounded. Ferrum's airship-based missile platforms were...impractical, but feared for their payloads. And of course, Orre was the place nuclear weapons were developed and used in massive numbers, both before and during the Cipher War.
Ash mulled it over before sighing. He saw the logic in her argument, even if he didn't like it. "How do we set off a nuke?" he asked, uncomfortable with the idea.
"There is a storage facility in the base." Robin answered. "This place was used to store nuclear warheads before the Cipher War. And they're still here. We simply need to gain access to the nukes."
"Oh, boy," Ash moaned. "At least one of us can blend in."
She'd rather see him out of that uniform. And the confusing part is, she didn't know whether or not she wanted him in his old outfit… or in nothing at all.
Insanity had limits. Especially to the sane.
Or the ones to recently regain sanity, in the case of Lovrina.
There was a time where Lovrina looked up to her great grandmother, viewing her as an idol for what she's done for Orre and its culture. She was adored by her family, so much so that they even named her after her ancestor - and encouraged her to try to look and act like her.
But ever since she came back… she's found herself looking at her idol a bit… differently… she wasn't evil, she knew that for certain - but she would be a fool if she didn't acknowledge the fact that her popularity is what helped kickstart… well, everything that happened afterwards.
From XD-001's rampage to the kidnapping of Professor Krane, her ancestor laid the seeds for what would lead to the Failed War of Expansion, what the rest of the world called the Cipher War.
All for nothing.
Millions of human lives and billions of Pokemon, all dead because of her. No more.
Her namesake wasn't evil, but her actions assisted evil. And she would no longer be associated with that as she looked in the mirror, her naturally pink hair tied in the same twintails as her namesake.
Lovrina undid her twintails - allowing her long hair to flow out naturally behind her back. She spared a moment to brush her hair a bit, checking herself in the mirror… she actually looked pretty different now, its surprising what a simple hair style change can do. And she ditched her own uniform as well - wearing something a bit more… plain. After all, if she was gonna escape… she had to look a little different.
But her hair… pink was too recognisable. It would take a few hours, but a darker color would help. Hair dye… well, that was in her supplies. She never got to use them because she was so busy in the intelligence department.
Maybe pinkish-red?
Ash wanted to ask why the handcuffs were necessary. But Robin said they were for dealing with any guards that had more than a single brain cell.
No love for the grunts, it seemed. Still, the base was deserted, for the most part.
"So, any idea where the nukes are kept?" he asked, keeping her in front of him to make it look like he was keeping a gun to her back to 'encourage' her to keep moving.
"Near the bottom of the installation. There's a larger cave system under it that would assist with the destruction." she explained softly. "Have you ever heard of air bursts?"
Ash shook his head, but she didn't see it, taking his silence as a no. "An air burst is an explosion going off in midair, using the ground effect to increase the destructive power of the explosion." she then looked back. "It's how the first use of one wiped a city off the map."
"I am still not comfortable with the idea of using something like that." Ash muttered before they heard rushing footsteps from a few corridors away.
"Come on, we have to get to the indoctrination room!" the leader of the approaching group said as they got close to the corner.
"Damn it." she muttered before grabbing Ash's hand and pulling him towards a door, both of them slamming into it as she remembered her hands were cuffed and he was behind her. And she needed him to open the door. "Open it!"
Ash wrenched his hand free, hitting the button on the panel beside the door, both of them falling into the room and on the floor as the Peon squad turned the corner, the door closing before they even noticed. Of course, Ash had… bigger problems.
Notably that during their fall, they got turned around and she was now on top of him. And breathing on his face.
It was a good thing he was wearing a helmet, otherwise she would've seen the blush on his face.
Sadly, someone else was going to notice, as a Pokeball fell from a loose clip on the uniform's belt, his own outfit in Robin's bag along with his own. And out of it came Pikachu, who was sparking mad about being forced to be put in a ball for more than ten seconds.
"Pika!" 'If I didn't like you-' Pikachu said, stopping as he noticed the position his trainer was in. "Piiiiiikapi." 'Well, well, well, Ash. I wasn't expecting THIS. If you wanted some privacy, you could've just asked. Have fun while I was in the ball?'
Ash's blush became more pronounced as he looked at his starter. "Pikachu!" he admonished.
Pikachu just smirked. "Pika." 'Hey, I still want my Ashlings,' he said, shrugging. "Pi." 'Sabrina doesn't count. I want actual kids to spoil later.'
Ash groaned as Robin refused to get off. "Do you MIND?" he asked, somewhat annoyed. The girl didn't get it until she remembered the plan. "Oh. Right." she said, rolling off him and getting to her knees.
"Pika." 'She's a weird girl, but a fine addition to my collection.' Pikachu said, cackling as he quoted that robot guy with the multiple arms.
"Must you?" Ash asked as he got up, dusting himself off before Pikachu climbed on his shoulder.
"Pika." 'Until you get over your issues? YES!' Pikachu retorted. "Pi." 'Now, I ain't getting back in that ball. It hurt before. Now it feels like it wants to kill me.'
"It probably does." Ash replied before looking at his… companion. "How long until we get to the nukes?"
"Depending on security checkpoints, about 45 minutes." she answered pointedly.
"Arceus, do I hate my life." he said, hoping the Creator would make his life easier for once.
Cinnabar Island - 1106 hours local time
(BGM: OSTINATO - Great Monster War March)
While chaotic as hell at first, the naval forces of the former… No. Lance thought about it. They were united once more. It would take time to get the old government on its' feet again, but they were together again.
Fitting. Cipher broke it up. Now it would unite them again.
"Well, you got your wish." Lance turned at the sound of old Gaffery's voice, wearing the plain dark blue uniform of the Rotan armed forces once more, having been discharged years ago. Apparently, Rota wanted to have an observer. He volunteered and was reactivated. "It only took a war. Then again, it always takes a war."
Lance sighed. He wanted the URN back. He didn't want it to be brought back as a result of war. "I didn't want it like this. And it's not done." he said. "Johto is almost feudal. Why do you think I'm marrying Whitney? It's not because of her great tracts of land."
Gaffery rose an eyebrow. "I'm going to assume that one wasn't a comment about Goldenrod's territory." he deadpanned.
The old man was half-right. Goldenrod had the largest land territory in Johto, even including the former capital, Ecruteak. Those 'tracts of land' would also fall under Blackthorn's control and give him a much easier time to unify the region and truly bring the URN back.
That said, Whitney had 'large tracts of land' herself. He often wondered how her back hadn't given out. He shook his head to clear THAT out of his head. He would find out later.
For NOW, he had to take the reigns of this fleet and take it to the most life-abhorrent region on the planet.
Janine managed to get them onto the hastily-refitted RMS Olympic by abusing her authority as Fushcia's Gym Leader, but Misty was sure they would've gotten on board anyways.
"So, who wants to kick Ash's ass for leaving us behind?" Iris asked, somewhat mad that Ash left without a word. "I mean, he goes to the most dangerous place on the planet-"
"At the moment." Janine interjected.
"And leaves us behind!" Iris finished before glaring at the kunoichi. "And since when did you start talking more?!"
"When the customary three-month mourning period ended." Janine deadpanned before growing more and more pissed off. "We do not speak unless our opinion is requested and we remain silent. My father DIED, Arajar."
Misty got between them to prevent… attempted murder, now that she thought about it. 'Mistake, bigger me,' her mental counterpart quipped. 'Iris is a lot like you, only with a massive insecurity complex. Kinda why she kept calling Ash a kid even though he was two years older than her in the old timeline.'
The far-more-suited-for-peacekeeping Anabel joined the 'preventing of attempted corpsifying' session. "Ladies, can we focus?" she asked gently. "Ash left us in Kanto because he knew we needed to recover and that we'd be after him anyways."
"And he assumed Cipher would send more assassins after him, not even deeming us a threat," Janine said before smirking. "After all, none of you have started vomiting in the morning."
Serena's eyes seemingly turned red. "What," she demanded. Astral Misty got behind her real self and began tugging to get her the hell out of there. 'RUN! DO NOT STAY HERE!' she yelled, not being able to move the real thing. 'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! FLEE! FLEE FOR OUR LIVES!'
Janine looked at Serena. "Well, Cipher didn't consider any of us a threat because they probably knew Ash wasn't sharing his bed with any of us," she said matter-of-factly. "And you don't exactly have any signs of a baby bump, Baroness."
The red seemingly glowed before Serena's expression turned from absolute rage to...seductive. Misty had seen this before. And she was unwilling to be around it.
"Well, after we get to Orre, we can spend time rectifying that problem…" the seemingly-possessed Kalosian suggested suggestively. "Together, if you want."
Iris and Janine actually looked at each other and backed away as fast as they could, yet as slowly as possible to avoid losing face. "That's...not necessary…" the kunoichi said slowly.
"Yeah...what she said…" Iris added, wanting to get away. They didn't want to see what she would do.
Serena seemed to pout. "Shame. It might be fun." she said before her eyes turned back to blue. Was Serena a psychic or something?
'Maybe she's a latent psychic. Wouldn't be the first time we ran into one.' Astral Misty quipped. The city with the Xatus, the guy that claimed to able to understand Pokemon...yeah, there was precedent.
The girl blinked, as if she was confused. "Should we head to our room?" the baroness suggested. "We'll be heading out soon, no?"
No one wanted to spend any more time then necessary around her until they were sure she wouldn't do anything. Without their permission that is.
They were aware something might happen, they just didn't want it to happen without their permission.
Sublevel 23 - Cipher Under Base - 1026 Hours local time
Ash did not mind walking. He enjoyed it, actually. The fact you were going places on your own power was something that was kinda amazing.
What he minded was stairs. Forty. Flights. Of stairs. He didn't mind the incline or the distance, but the monotony of one stair after another? THAT he minded.
"I hate this security nonsense." Ash muttered as he continued the attack of the stairs. "We would've gotten to the nukes by now if we could use the damn elevator!"
Robin sighed. "As I said before, those require an Admin's security pass." she replied as she followed him, seemingly enjoying the view. "We don't have one of those."
'If I weren't trying to AVOID detection, I'd have Charizard blow the damn shaft up and we'd fly down!' he thought, incredibly annoyed. But stealth was required if they were to keep the Peons and their equipment in the base. Charizard would set off alarms and they'd evacuate.
Ash wanted all of their torture toys here. The people, he knew, were beyond hope. Didn't mean he liked it.
They finally reached the bottom of the facility, a door slightly ajar waiting for them. "What the hell?" Ash asked, confused. "I don't think a door on the level where nuclear weapons are stored should be open, do you?"
Robin jumped off the stairs, climbing over the rail and landing in front of the door, drawing her silenced revolver, having long since ditched the cuffs floors above. "No." she deadpanned before opening it, finding an empty space with a massive vault door, one you would expect in a bank, somewhat open. Ash joined her, Pikachu and Riolu at his side as they approached the home of Orre's nuclear stockpile.
Stepping inside… they found a reddish-pink haired woman currently kneeling over a nuclear warhead, wiring up the WMD to another one. A quick glance around… and they could find similar wiring across every other warhead in the storehouse - all connected together. As the door opened, the woman jumped a bit - hastily pulling out a sidearm with one hand, her other on the controls.
"Whoa!" Ash rose his hands up, as did Robin - neither wanting to mess with the lady over a nuclear warhead.
"Don't… move…" The woman stated, looking between them. "One inch, and I'll blow this whole place up - I've rigged every Arceus-damned nuke in this place together, and it'll reduce the whole base into a crater - don't you test me!"
Ash slowly reached for his helmet, removing it under the redhead's supervision. "Actually…" he started. "We were kinda planning to do the same."
She blinked in confusion. "What?" she said, her gun pointing away from them as she said it.
"This place is FILLED with torture devices and Arceus knows what." Ash explained. "We're… with the resistance. And we were planning on destroying the place. And as burying it would be… impossible-"
"I suggested we nuke it." Robin said, lowering her hands as they were clearly not enemies. "But you seem to have done most of the work for us. And I'm thankful: I might be good at making explosives, but nuclear ones are a bit beyond my level of skill."
THAT got Ash to look at her in horror. "You're KIDDING," he stated in shock before the look on her face said it all. "No. You're not. You were going to risk our lives messing with a city-buster?!"
Robin shrugged. "When you're in the resistance, on-the-spot training is a must." she seemingly quipped. Her flat tone made him confused on that front. "At any rate, she's solved that problem for us. All of the nukes are set to blow. All we need is to set the timer and get the hell out of here."
"Uhh… r-right…" she nodded. "So… h-how long should I set it for?"
"That depends." Ash said as he withdrew a ball, releasing his most common travel method lately, the green parrot appearing on his head.
"Natu." 'Ash, I can't teleport.' the bird said, annoyed.
"Thanks, Natu. that's all I need to know." he said, returning Natu and thanking Arceus for foresight to transfer Gligar for Pidgeot. The redhead blinked in confusion. "Set it to 90 minutes. We'll need to get out the base before those things go off. I'm no expert, but that looks like more than enough to blow this place and the city to kingdom come."
"Alright…" she said, nodding as she knelt back down - as she finished connecting her wires, as an ominous beeping noise could then be heard from the warhead. "90 Minutes - let's go!"
Many floors above, Mirror B was doing his disco thing. Dakim, having lived as long as the afroed idiot, was not in the mood to have their assassination head dancing like it was over 200 years ago.
Disco was long dead and few wanted it back.
"Don't you have a prince to kill?" the martial arts master demanded as the head of the assassinations section of Cipher stopped dancing.
"Can't help bu' dance, man." Mirror retorted. "'Sides, he's prob'ly here in Orre. All we gotta do is lock it down! Mayb' get som' o' those grunts from Ferrum to comb th' desert!"
"They have their own problems." the master replied. Ferrum had their own growing insurgency to deal with. So much so that when asked, Nascour was rebuffed and told to deal with his movement on his own.
Godless heathens. Once they were done with the Nihon regions, the Region of Iron would face their wrath next.
"I will be heading to our refining facility. I expect to see Ketchum's head the next time I see you." the muscle-bound man said before alarms started going off.
"What in the hell is that?!" he demanded before he got his answer on the PA.
"Evacuate the base! A team just went down to the storage facility and found that someone hotwired the nukes! They're set to blow!" a panicked sounding peon said over the PA. "Evacuate the base! We only have 15 minutes!"
Dakim roared in rage. The insurgency found their way in and set the nukes to blow and Orre didn't have the ability to make MORE thanks to those Unovan bastards. And fifteen minutes? There was no way in hell they'd be able to get anyone out of the Under in time!
"Damn it. I'll shut off the teleport dampeners!" Dakim yelled as Miror B ran off, likely to get the only teleport Pokemon in the facility.
Damned Abras. What he wouldn't give for Shadow Natus.
The lift exploded as a Hyper Beam went straight through it, Pidgeot and an Altaria flying up the shaft and through the hole in the building's roof made by the beam, flying higher and higher, Altaria struggling to keep up and only keeping pace because of Pidgeot's tailwind.
The aerodynamic effect, not the move: Pidgeot didn't know Tailwind.
Ash rubbed the side of her head, signalling Pidgeot to slow down just enough to allow him to talk to Robin and the girl they were helping, who called herself 'Lacus'. She looked familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "How far should we go?!" he yelled at her over the wind.
"Farther!" she answered. "Are you familiar with Castle Bravo?!"
Ash had no idea what she was on about, but Robin seemingly was, the horrified expression on her face being enough to make Ash want to get out faster. And there was only one way to do so.
"I hate doing this…" he muttered as he pulled out his Key Stone, reacting with the Pidgeotite that his first bird still wore on her neck, hidden by her feathers as she Mega Evolved, changing form.
"What in the name of the gods?!" Robin demanded before Mega Pidgeot beat her wings, a sonic boom forming behind her, the tailwind dragging Altaria along for the ride as they went further east.
Then the flash. The horrifying flash that signalled the peak of man's might on this world, destroying an entire city in the blink of an eye before the smoke rose, forming that infamous mushroom shape.
Ash couldn't stop looking at it. In the end, it was his fault. More dead to add to the countless beings his inability to stop Cyrus cost.
Robin wrapped her arms around his torso, both to hold on for dear life...and to comfort him. She did say they were all trapped and dead anyway.
Maybe if he repeated it enough times, he'd believe it himself.
KMS Heart of Indigo - Cinnabar Island - Day 142
Lance Wataru made his choice as he walked onto the bridge of the Kanto Fleet flagship, saluted by the sailors aboard, despite the fact that he wasn't military and was not the head of state. But the Emperor and Prime Minister were in Johto and not in any shape or form to give orders.
That was the result of being dead for almost 62 years, but that was here nor there.
"May I?" he asked the captain, gesturing to the ship-to-ship radio transmitter.
"Of course." he replied, Lance heading over to the phone-like receiver, picking it up. "Put me on fleet-wide, please. This needs to be heard by everyone in the fleet."
One of the officers flicked a switch on the overhead control panel, transmitting fleet-wide. "You're on, sir." she said, Lance nodding as he pressed the button on the handset.
"This is Grand Champion Lance WAtaru." he started, working up the nerve. Public speaking sucked. "As you all know, we're going to Orre, to put an end to an organization that caused ruin, destruction and decay to our regions. But we do not do so as a mindless rabble. We are not Kanto, Johto, Hoenn or Sinnoh! We are united! Cipher has made a mistake, because they have brought what they sundered apart together again! We are the United Region of Nihon! And we will know vengeance!"
The bridge crew seemingly agreed with him, with radio calls coming in from every ship in affirmation as Lance nodded to the captain and left the bridge.
"Bit premature, don't you think?" Lance paused to see Gaffery, in his Rotan military uniform, his Natu sitting on his shoulder. "You don't even have control of Johto. Cynthia will gladly hand you the reigns for Sinnoh and Steven won't argue, but Johto is a feudal cesspool. You might be from a cadet branch of the old Imperial Family, Lance, but you don't have the right to make any proclamations."
"Maybe. But it's not like we had much choice." Lance retorted. "And Whitney's the last known member of the Royal Family, so me being engaged to her makes it more legitimate, doesn't it?"
The old man shook his head. "You're very lucky she's so far removed you're not even cousins." he said before leaving, climbing down the stairs, leaving Lance to look at the ships as they began moving. The invasion had truly begun now.
He could only hope Ash was still alive when they got there.