heyyy

it's rio & quill back with our sequel to Kickstart: The Adventures of Rescue Team J. If you haven't read that, this story won't make much sense x"D s/9320531/1/Kickstart-The-Adventures-of-Rescue-Team-J

sorry it took me so long to post this! x_x i've been having life issues hurrr but finally, the first chapter is up!

hope you enjoy~

As usual, Eevee was the first to hear the ring of the video phone. Again, as usual, she didn't go to answer it, instead allowing Zorua to barrel past her as she sorted the mail from yesterday. The Dark-type seemed to obtain a strange glee from being the first to greet visitors, and Eevee didn't begrudge her that quirk. She smiled a little, but only once she was sure the Dark-type had disappeared down the hallway.

It had now been two weeks since Cyndaquil and Zorua had joined Rescue Team J, and Eevee had to unwillingly admit to herself that she had never been happier. It wasn't quite like having Buizel all to herself, or … She shook the thought out of her head, as she was accustomed to doing. Not going to think about that, not now. She hated to admit to herself that her past still bothered her. This is me now, this is my life! she reminded herself, jerking her mind forcefully back to happier topics.

The two kids had taken to adventuring like Water-types to a swimming pool, and although none of their excursions since they had joined had been quite as thrilling and dangerous as the Zoroark rescue mission, Eevee had noticed the extra spark and fervor the two kids had added to the most normal jobs.

Buizel seemed happier as well, too, she thought, tossing a piece of junk mail into the wastebasket absently. He loved to joke around and play with the kids, especially Cyndaquil, who liked to listen to him talk about new technologies. Eevee herself preferred to practice battle moves with Zorua outside the base, but she was glad that Buizel had finally found someone willing to hear him out.

All in all, she was happy, she decided, stacking the jobs she and Buizel would go over later on the counter. The team had planned a berry-picking excursion that afternoon, which would end with lunch at Zoroark's house in the woods. Eevee was looking forward to it, although initially she had grumbled.

"Hey? Eevee?" The Normal-type perked up, snapping out of her thoughts, as she heard her name being called. Cyndaquil poked his head around the door. "Buizel wants you…"

Eevee tilted her head. Why would Buizel want her? Maybe the callers were important. She stood up and followed Cyndaquil down the hall curiously.

Buizel was in what had recently become the "workroom". Basically, they'd taken the room that Cyn and Zorua had flooded, cleaned it up, and started shoving tech in there. He was often found in the room fixing things that had been broken, or just tinkering. The Water-type was currently talking on the video phone.

"I don't see why I have to! I never even worked in that division!" he exclaimed.

Rio was on the other end, more weary-looking than the cheerful Pokémon should've been. "I know, but the higher-ups are calling in anyone who has tech knowledge and experience with Sirai."

"There aren't any glitches here!" Buizel shot back.

Rio sighed tiredly and replied. "Just come, please." The call ended.

Buizel kicked the crystal growth next to the video phone, the same one that had grown to block the flood. He then rubbed his foot and berated himself for doing something Eevee would've done.

Eevee just stood in the hallway, shocked. Buizel never acts like this! She stared at her partner, who didn't look at her, Zorua, or Cyndaquil, choosing instead to stare at the floor angrily. Cyndaquil and Zorua stood off to the side, looking like they didn't know what to do.

Eevee stepped forward. "Hey, what's going on here?" she said, directing the question to the group in general.

Buizel sat on the ground and leaned against the wall, his arms crossed irritably. "They've called me back to Sinnoh Home."

Eevee gaped for several seconds.

"W-what?!" she spluttered, actually taking a step back. "They did what?!" Several disconnected thoughts raced each other through her head at the same time. "That's not funny, Buizel," she said testily, glaring at Cyndaquil and Zorua as if expecting one of them to shout "April Fool's!".

Buizel shook his head dejectedly. "Not a joke." He stood up and said. "I need to get there within two days or they're shutting us down."

After the door closed and Buizel left the room, Sirai spoke up. "I guess this is a bad time to make a joke-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k~" The lights, which were glowing white globes that hung from the ceiling, flickered on and off in time with the AI's stuttering voice, which crackled into static before silencing completely. All power in the base had been cut off. The only light came from Sirai's crystals, which had their own natural luminescence.

Zorua was the first to voice everyone's thoughts. "What the heck?!"

Outside in the hallway, Buizel noticed the lights flickering and cutting out. There was a crystal growth on the wall a foot away from the door he'd just exited, casting it's illumination out about a yard. Fortunately, there was a window carved out nearby, letting in the sunlight and brightening the area considerably. Buizel immediately turned back around and pounded on the door, yelling. "Hey! You guys okay?"

"We're fine!" came Eevee's voice from the other side. "It's really dark in here!"

"What happened?" Cyndaquil's scared voice piped.

"Are you okay?!" yelled Eevee. A clattering sound indicated that she was yanking on the old-fashioned doorknob, apparently with no success. "The door won't open!" she reported with a hint of growing panic in her voice.

Zorua's irritated voice was heard next. "Stupid power cut!" At that moment, everything turned on again and the automated door slid open. The three Pokémon inside the room quickly ran out, letting the door close behind them. Buizel glanced at one end of the hall and looked at the other where the staircase was.

"This is odd. It shouldn't be possible…" he muttered, following a disturbing train of thought. "The base…power cut… impossible…"

Zorua scowled and exclaimed. "What is it?! Just explain it already!"

Buizel shook his head and replied. "Complicated. Easier to show you, but first-Sirai!"

The chipper AI responded as usual. "What's up? Something the matter?" At the group's blank and disbelieving stares, she asked. "What? Glameow got your tongue?"

How could she have not noticed a power cut? Zorua wondered.

"Sirai," Buizel began. "What just happened?"

Sirai somewhat confusedly, but still very snarkily, replied. "Er, well, Eevee was pounding on that door so the motion sensor opened it, and then those three ran out of that workroom, and then you started talking, and then you yelled 'Sirai!', and then-"

Buizel cut her off. "Yeah, we get that, but what was the power cut?"

There was a brief pause. "Power cut? There wasn't a power cut." she said with complete certainty. "Nothing happened with the system-I think I'd know, I kinda live in it. Well, partially, at any rate. Mostly I'm at Sinnoh Home, but I like it here."

That response sidetracked Zorua and sent her imagination whirling away. Oooh! I wonder what it's like to live in a computer system thingy… Hmmm, I'll ask Sirai later.

Eevee blinked and then looked at Buizel for advice. How could Sirai not have noticed that she just completely- went haywire?

"You didn't notice… anything?" she asked disbelievingly. "Like… we're standing in different places. Sirai, don't you remember? How d'you think we got in that workroom in the first place? Do you remember us going in there…?" She trailed off, hoping that Sirai would realize something.

Sirai paused, obviously confused.

"I don't know… I wasn't paying attention," she said in a frustrated voice. She then seemed to become angry and hurt. "Are you guys trying to trick me or something? It's not very funny, you know." The AI's screen flickered out, Sirai apparently being done with talking.

The four Pokémon looked at each other in stunned confusion. Then, Buizel tried to talk to Sirai again. "Sirai? You okay? Sorry if we upset you, but… this isn't a trick. Something happened."

Sirai's screen didn't pop back up into existence, but her voice was heard in the hallway, coming from somewhere that Buizel would probably be able to explain away but no one else understood. "I don't know if this is a trick or not, but it isn't very nice." she said harshly, an upset tone in her voice. "You don't know what it's like, you'll never know what it's like-to be glitching!"

Buizel muttered under his breath. "Looks like Sinnoh Home was right… glitches in Sirai's system… and she's upset about it…"

Sirai-sobbed? Was that a crying sound? She almost seemed to take a deep breath before continuing. "I'm sorry I lashed out like that… It's just… At Sinnoh Home, they've partially shut me down because of glitching, but… I never thought the problems would follow me to rescue bases." She started yelling. "And the glitches! I hate them! I'm there one second and next thing I know time's passed without me! I get left behind against my will… and I never know what happened! I hate it! Once is enough, but now they're happening again and again!"

Sirai's really upset… Buizel thought, And if Quill and Rio are right, these glitches have been happening on and off in different areas for the past three weeks.

Cyndaquil looked worried, while Eevee simply looked lost. None of the team had ever heard Sirai yell before; the sound crackled and warped like the system wasn't supposed to take that much noise. And what use would there be for an AI to shout, anyways? Eevee decided there wasn't enough time to think about it. She turned to Buizel desperately, hoping he could do something, but before she could say anything the base was plunged into darkness again.

It didn't last very long, maybe five seconds, tops. Not long enough for anyone to say anything, anyway. Everything lit up again and Sirai's holoscreen appeared. "It happened again, didn't it…" she said shakily. It wasn't a question.

Buizel began walking to the stairs as he said to Sirai. "Can you let us into the root system?"

Sirai didn't answer verbally, instead nodding the holoscreen up and down.

Zorua irritatedly exclaimed. "Hold on, what the heck is going on?!"

Buizel made a motion with his arm to get them to follow him down the stairs as he explained. "You see those crystals?" He pointed at a cluster at the base of the staircase as they passed it. He didn't wait for an answer. "They grow as part of this tree. Leaves absorb sunlight, and some of it is always passed onto the crystal system. The crystals are based down in the roots of this tree." They were on the ground floor now, and Buizel was walking towards the slide entrance.

"Uh, where's this going?" Zorua asked, confused.

"To the root system." Buizel answered. The small crystal clusters on either side of the slide blinked twice, and then the ground between them shifted open to reveal another, secret slide.

Eevee stepped up to the hole and peered inside.

"I've never seen this before," she remarked, jumping in. The rest of the team followed.

The tunnel was dark. Eevee could feel the surprisingly smooth surface rushing beneath her as the four Pokémon zoomed through the slide.

"This is really long," she yelled to Buizel. "When is it going to end?" Before Buizel had a chance to reply, Eevee found herself being unceremoniously dumped into a large room.

No one spoke for a moment, instead completely shocked by their surroundings. The large room was really more of an enormous cavern. The shape of it was like a hemisphere, but the walls were rough and damp rock. The floor was soft dirt, a little dry, but smooth and brown. What really caught their attention was in the center of the cavern. It was an enormous crystal cluster, shaped almost like a flower, jutting up about ten feet. It was the same blue-green crystal that grew throughout their base, but this one was clearly the root of them all. The cluster's soothing glow was enough to light up the entire cavern, not brightly, but enough to see everything by.

Eevee blinked.

"So this is the root system, huh?" she said slowly.