The whirrrr of the massive ventilation turbines grew from a hum to a deafening drone, vibrating up through the metal walls and into Anne's bones.
She controlled her drop with the ascender, slowing to a stop every fifty feet to let her pokemon catch up. Decidueye descended with silence, its claws barely skimming the metal. Alpha Scraggy simply braced its arms and legs against opposite walls and shimmied down with grating scrapes. Staravia fluttered beside her, its small body buffeted by the powerful upward draft.
After what felt like an eternity, the shaft opened into a vast, cavernous space—the main ventilation chamber. It was a cathedral of machinery: colossal fan blades, slowly rotating, moving vast quantities of air through grated tunnels that branched off like arteries into the mountain.
Anne unclipped, dropping the last ten feet to a narrow maintenance gantry that circled the chamber. Her boots clanged on the metal mesh. She signaled her team to gather.
"Decidueye, scout the tunnels."
Decidueye nodded and melted into the shadows of a large duct.
Alpha Scraggy sniffed the air, its face scrunched in distaste. Staravia landed on her shoulder, its eyes wide as it stared at a particular tunnel entrance.
Decidueye returned moments later, pointing a wing decisively towards a medium-sized tunnel on the eastern wall. It was one of the few with a light glowing from within, not just the ambient gloom of the chamber.
"That's our road." Anne said, her voice barely a whisper under the mechanical roar. She pulled a small, palm-sized device from her bag—a portable signal scanner, synced to Decidueye's tracker disc. It showed a basic schematic of the local area. The signal from the disc was stationary, not far from their position now. Decidueye had stayed hidden, watching the main hangar door. But the scanner also picked up other encrypted pings—Rocket comms, security systems. And one massive, concentrated cluster of signals… directly below them.
"Alright. Let's move."
The ventilation tunnel was cramped, forcing Anne to crouch. Condensation dripped from the cold metal, and the air was warmer here, carrying the faint smell of a populated space. They turned a corner, and Staravia froze, letting out a barely-audible chirp of warning. Ahead, the tunnel opened onto a larger grate overlooking a well-lit hallway. Two Rocket grunts stood guard at a reinforced door, looking bored but alert.
"That room must be important if they are guarding it."
Anne's eyes narrowed behind the grate. A direct fight here would be loud, messy, and would bring the entire mountain down on their heads before they could even get the door open.
Silence is the only way.
"Decidueye, use Shadow Sneak to knock those two."
Decidueye form melted into the deep shadows cast by the grate and the hallway lights. One moment it was beside Anne, the next it was a living patch of darkness streaking across the floor of the hallway, utterly silent.
The first grunt was mid-yawn when a solid, feathery fist materialized from the shadow at his feet and connected under his jaw. There was a damp thud. His eyes rolled back, and he crumpled without a sound.
The second grunt had half a second to process his partner falling when the owl pokemon solidified behind him. Its other wing came down in a swift chop to the back of the man's neck. He dropped like a sack of potatoes beside the first.
Anne pushed the grate open and dropped lightly into the hallway, Staravia fluttering down beside her. Alpha Scraggy dropping with a thud. She quickly checked the grunts—both unconscious and still breathing.
"Good work." Anne whispered.
She stepped over to the reinforced door. There was no keypad, just a heavy magnetic lock and a card reader. She glanced at the unconscious grunts, then began patting them down. On the second one, she found it: a black keycard with a crimson 'R'.
She swiped it. A red light.
"It's the wrong one." She said, putting both of her hands on her waist. "Maybe only high ranking executives can open it."
Anne stared at the glowing red light, frustration a hot coal in her chest. She looked at the heavy door, then at Alpha Scraggy, who was idly cracking its knuckles, its gaze fixed on the obstacle.
It took two heavy steps forward, planting its feet wide in front of the reinforced steel. It reared back, its fist glowing with a sudden, violent surge of energy.
KRA-KOOOM!
Alpha Scraggy's fist penetrated the door. The reinforced plating around the lock assembly buckled inward like tin foil, and its arm vanished into the door up to its elbow.
Sparks erupted from shattered electronics within. The red light on the card reader died with a fizzle. A sharp clang echoed as broken locking bars fell away inside.
Alpha Scraggy grunted, wrenching its arm back out. It left behind a ragged, fist-shaped hole, edges glowing red-hot from the friction, wires dangling and spitting sparks. Through the hole, they could see the dim interior of the room beyond.
"Uh... nice work?" Anne said.
She pushed the mangled door open the rest of the way, wincing at the shriek of twisted metal. The room beyond was not what she had expected. Banks of screens lined the walls, most showing static or dormant system readouts, but a few flickered with live feeds—cavernous hangars, empty corridors, and one that showed a blur of purple and black movement amid chaos.
Her eyes swept the room. It was empty of people. But in the very center of the floor, a circular hatch was open, revealing a steep, metal staircase plunging down into the mountain's deeper levels.
Something glinted in the low light from a console to her left, catching her eye.
A single pokeball, resting on the edge of a monitor's housing.
She darted over and snatched it up. Her fingers traced the familiar marks—the scuffs from being clipped to a specific belt.
It was Elias's pokeball.
"Must be Krookodile's."
A cold wave of understanding washed over her. They'd taken it from him. They'd stripped him of his partners, leaving him defenseless.
Before the fury could fully ignite, Alpha Scraggy blur shot past her.
It had seen the open hatch. It had seen the stairs leading down. With a guttural roar, it launched itself headfirst into the opening, not even bothering with the stairs. It simply dropped, its massive form disappearing into the darkness below with a series of deafening, metallic clangs as it bounced off the stairwell walls on its way down.
"Scraggy, wait!" Anne hissed, following down.
Decidueye and Staravia followed after her, leaving the room in silence.
***
Chamber A, Hangar Corridor...
The air was thick with smoke. Caesar stood his ground, but his breathing was ragged. Noivern hovered before him, one wing hanging slightly lower, a deep gash across its chest weeping dark liquid.
Before them, the battlefield was littered with the evidence of a brutal fight. Petrel's Weezing lay in a deflated, gassy heap, its toxic core dim. Two other of his pokemon—a Muk and a Electrode—were sprawled unconscious nearby. All that remained for the lanky Admin was his Mimikyu, its ragged disguise twitching with malicious energy as it skittered behind a shattered console.
Proton had fared no better. His Granbull was groaning in the corner, and three other pokemon—a Gyrados, a Hitmontop, and a Drapion—were still on the floor. But his Crobat still lived, hanging from the ceiling, its supersonic screeches having taken a heavy toll on Noivern's focus and stamina.
"Tiring out, Monarch?" Proton taunted, though a vein throbbed in his temple. He'd expected an easy capture, not this grinding war of attrition. "Your dragon's about to fall out of the sky. Surely this last attack will decide the battle."
Caesar gritted his teeth. He knew they're at their limit. Noivern couldn't take another combined assault. He was out of options, out of time. The distraction had worked, but the cost was going to be everything.
Then, a wave of blistering heat washed over his back.
A jet of orange fire, slammed into the diving Crobat from the side. The bat pokemon screeched, veering off course and crashing into a wall in a tangle of wings and smoke.
From the ruined corridor behind Caesar, Makarell trudged forward, looking even more exhausted than before, if that were possible. His Charizard landed beside him with a thud, smoke curling from its nostrils, its eyes fixed on the remaining foes.
"Why'd they woke me up?" Makarell mumbled, rubbing his eyes. "I don't want to fight..."
Caesar stared, a stunned, grudging relief cutting through his fatigue.
"Hold on—"
"A cavalry?!" Proton cutted in, interrupting Caesar. "Hey, Petrel! We can't afford another battle. We'll get destroyed!"
Just as the words left Proton's lips, the world itself seemed to rebel.
A deep, thrum vibrated through the mountain, sending loose rivets dancing on the floor. It was followed by a colossal, distant sounds of tearing metal and shattering rock. The entire structure of the Mala's Spine shuddered violently. Cracks raced across the ceiling, raining dust and debris.
The sudden cataclysm broke everyone's focus. Petrel's Mimikyu shrieked and retreated into a shadow. Proton stumbled, his hand flying to the wall for support.
"What was that?!" Petrel yelled over the groaning mountain.
***
Outside the mountain...
Inside the cockpit of the Xycle airship, chaos of a different kind reigned.
"Viktor, I said a slow approach! Not a flashy one!" John shouted, clinging to his command chair as the ship listed violently to starboard. The panoramic viewport showed the terrifyingly close, rushing face of the Mala's Spine.
The massive man at the helm, Viktor, wrestled with the unresponsive controls, his knuckles white.
"The wheel is not responding, Commander! It's not me!"
"Then do something about it! We're going to crush!" John shouted, clinging tightly as his mind played the scene of them crushing and popping the mountain.
With a final, sickening lurch, the airship kissed the mountainside. The sound was apocalyptic—a scream of composite hull grinding against rocks. Viewports spiderwebbed. Alarms whooped a frantic chorus. The ship bounced, spun lazily, and came to a jarring, tilted rest, wedged against a jagged outcrop halfway up the peak, its engines dying with a pathetic whine.
John unstrapped himself and stood, brushing dust from his green velvet suit. He looked out at the ruined cliff face now inches from the cracked glass, then at Viktor.
"Well..." He said, his voice deceptively calm. "At least we're still alive, and... my imagination did not happened."
***
The quaking subsided into an ominous creaking. Proton, seizing the distraction and the sudden turn in fortune, didn't hesitate. He recalled his fainted Granbull and remaining pokemon in flashes of red.
"This isn't over, Monarch!" He spat, but the bravado was gone, replaced by the sharp need for survival. "Petrel, we're leaving! The boss can handle the rest!"
He didn't wait for agreement. He and Petrel turned and fled back through the secondary doorway, disappearing into the smoking corridors, abandoning the fight to the greater chaos.
Caesar didn't give chase. He was staring at the new cracks in the ceiling, his mind connecting the dots. The timing, the sheer scale of the impact… that wasn't an attack on the mountain. That was something crashing into it.
"Whatever it was... it crashed." He said, approaching Noivern to recall it back to its pokeball. "I'm heading further inside, X Legion Operative. Follow if you want."
"For the last time, man. It's Team Xycle. Not X-whatever-you-keep-saying." He pronounced it with exaggerated slowness. "We're not a legion, we're... well, it's complicated. And I'm too tired to explain."
He waved a dismissive hand towards the path deeper into the mountain, the direction Proton and Petrel had fled.
"But yeah, fine. I'm following. The girl's there. My job's not done until she's back..."
***
Mala's Spine below... The foot of the mountain...
The ATV looked like a mess. Twigs, leaves, and torn strips of bark were woven into its grille, wedged under its wipers, and plastered against its windshield. A young, tenacious pine tree, its roots ripped from the earth, was snagged on the rear bumper, dragging behind them.
Rein slammed the brakes. The ATV skidded to a halt in a shower of gravel and pine needles at the very foot of the Mala's Spine. The engine gave one final, shuddering cough and died, steam hissing from its overtaxed radiator.
Silence, for the first time in hours, broken only by the wind and the distant, unsettling groan of the mountain itself.
Ellen practically fell out of the passenger seat, her Pikachu leaping to the ground beside her. She stared up at the peak, her eyes wide.
"We... we made it."
Faith emerged from the back, picking a leaf from her glasses. She scanned the mountainside with an analytical gaze.
"The vibration we felt three minutes ago originated from approximately two-thirds up, to the other side. Something big must have crashed."
"I think the base is under attack." Robert clambered out last.
Rein's eyes is fixed on the mountain. He saw the hangar door, now a twisted, blackened maw thanks to Caesar's assault.
"I've found a way in." Rein said, a sharp, eager grin splitting his face.