Chapter 12: Aqualotic

"Please be careful, Ash…"

As Serena turned around, she was met with teasing smirks from most of her new friends, except for Lillie and Brock, who were simply smiling. Dawn approached her and put an arm on top of her shoulder and leaned in toward her. "I see you, girl! That was so cute!"

Mallow walked over and leaned on her opposite shoulder. "So, you and Ash, huh? You two would make a pretty good match, and it was super cute when you kissed him just now."

Serena was blushing heavily, looking embarrassed. "You guys…"

Lillie and Lana stood beside Mallow and Dawn, respectively, smiling over at Serena. Lillie was the first to speak up. "You two are so cute together! I love it!"

Lana cracked a sly grin. "I ship it."

Kiawe shrugged, chuckling. "I honestly didn't think he had it in him."

Sophocles nodded, looking up at Kiawe. "Me either."

Brock laughed. "You two have no idea."

Professor Burnet blushed bashfully, squealing in delight. "Oh! How adorable! Ash and Serena would make such a great couple, right, Kukui?"

Kukui nodded thoughtfully. "They sure would."

"S-shouldn't we focus on getting into Team Sigma's base?" Serena asked, smiling sheepishly as she tried to shake off her embarrassment with all her female comrades surrounding her.

"Serena's right, you guys. We have a job to do." Brock said, becoming serious.

Dawn sighed. "Alright, I hear you."

She then leaned in close to Serena. "But you're not off the hook yet, sister. After this is all over, I wanna see some progress."

Serena laughed nervously in response. "R-right."

As everyone began to shift their attention away from Serena, they formed a huddle as Brock began the strategy meeting.

"Alright, everyone. Here's how I think we should go about this." Brock started.

"We'll start by taking a submarine down into the ocean. I doubt anyone is really leaving Sootopolis right now because we're protected by the rock formation that surrounds the city. So the citizens aren't in any real danger unless it breaks." Brock started.

"And there's only one real way out of the city, right?" Dawn asked.

Brock nodded. "Right. There's only one underwater passage out of the city. If we swam from here, we'd only waste our limited oxygen supply. But once we get out, the base could be anywhere. And we don't even know for sure that it's underwater at all. It's only our best guess. Though I'd go as far as to say it's fairly likely. Once we're out, we'll split up into three or four groups. Each group needs to have a water-type Pokemon if we want to split up. Any suggestions for the groups?"

Lana quickly piped up. "I can take Kiawe and Sophocles since neither of them have a water Pokemon."

Mallow was next to speak up. "I want Lillie with me. But neither of us have a water-type."

Serena smiled at them. "Then I'll go with you two. Mudkip can help us out!"

Lillie smiled at her, relieved. "Thank goodness! We'd love to have you along, Serena!"

Dawn smiled at Brock. "I guess that leaves you and me, Brocko. Piplup and I will do our best!"

"Piplup!"

Brock smiled back. "Thanks, you two. That all sounds good. Everyone good with those groups?"

"Yes!"

"Alright. From there, each group will go in different directions. We should try to get too far away from each other. If one group spots the base, have your Pokemon use a move to create some kind of disturbance that the rest of us will feel. From there, we'll need something to create a bright enough light to see from a distance underwater." Brock concluded.

"Don't Chinchou live here in Hoenn? Would that work?" Lillie asked.

"That's a great idea, Lillie, but I don't think they'll be hanging around right now with Groudon and Kyogre storming about. Plus, if they used an electric-type move, we'd probably all get hurt by it." Brock said.

Lillie's eyes widened, and she immediately closed her eyes and shook her head, as if wondering to herself why she had brought up such an idea at all. "I hadn't even thought about that."

"Here."

Everyone's attention was caught by Nurse Joy handing them three fairly large flashlights. "Take these with you. They're completely waterproof and have an SOS mode where it will shine extra bright and flash really quickly. That should work."

Brock took them from Nurse Joy gratefully. "Thanks so much, Nurse Joy. You really are a huge help."

Nurse Joy giggled. "Think nothing of it. It's the least I could do."

Brock handed one flashlight to Mallow and another to Kiawe. "This will work just fine. Once we all meet up again where the base is, we'll work from there to get in. It's probably fair to assume that we shouldn't use the main entrance, as it's likely guarded heavily just inside. However, if push comes to shove, we'll do what we have to."

"Question, Brock. What the heck are we supposed to do if we do manage to get our hands on one of the orbs?" Dawn asked.

Brock brought his hand to his chin, deep in thought. "Hm, good question. I'm not sure we can just smash them. We don't know what the effects of that would be or if it's even possible."

"I'm thinking that those scientists that we saw in the cave are probably monitoring them around a bunch of expensive equipment. Since, you know, they're right in the middle of reacting with Groudon and Kyogre, right?" Sophocles spoke up.

"Right, and they're not gonna give those up without a fight, too." Brock nodded. "Plus, if we just smashed them, we'd be destroying some pretty damn important artifacts that date back who knows how far."

"The creation of the freakin' planet!" Dawn shivered at the thought. "That's a long way back!"

"So you're saying we can't smash 'em?" Kiawe asked, upset.

"Then I suppose we should just take them from their places and escape? That seems like the best way to go about it, since I can't imagine we can just stop them from reacting with Groudon and Kyogre by asking nicely." Lillie said.

"And then at least Team Sigma won't have them anymore. We can turn them in to Wallace or something. He probably knows what to do with 'em, right?" Mallow asked.

"Wasn't he formerly the Gym Leader here? I'm sure he does. That's probably the right idea." Serena agreed, smiling.

"Alright, then. Everyone know the plan?" Brock spoke up, looking around at everyone.

"Yes!"

"One last thing: whatever you do, do NOT go above the water. Groudon and Kyogre are out there, and they're gonna be making all kinds of disturbances in the water and it will only be worse if you go above the water. We need to keep our risk of getting hurt minimal. Hopefully we won't be close enough for them to really affect us, but only time will tell." Brock said seriously.

Brock then grinned and put his hand in the middle of the huddle. "Now let's band together and get this done!"

Everyone smiled and put their hands in.

"Let's do this!" Dawn encouraged.

"I'm ready for a real fight! It's been a while since I've gotten to go all out. The flames of Wela Volcano are burning inside of me!"

"Ash is out there right now doing his best. Let's all make sure to do our best, too!" Serena piped up.

"Then let's stop stalling and get out there!" Brock finished.

"Right!"

"You all sure you know what you're doing?"

"That's a bit generous." Sophocles said, sweat-dropping.

"Oh, wah wah, boo hoo. You're part of this too, man. We've got no time to think about that now. We've got some evil villains to stop!" Kiawe yelled pointedly.

Mallow stepped between the two. "Now now, boys, we all have to work together here! Let's not argue, okay?"

Kiawe calmed himself down. He took a deep breath. "You're right."

Brock turned back to the submarine pilot. "We'll figure it out. Thanks for bringing us down here."

The pilot smiled sheepishly. "Sure thing. Just as long as you guys know what you're getting into. I sure don't."

Suddenly, Lillie seemed to perk up. She faced her friends. "Guys, I think I have an idea. Maybe we can take the main entrance after all."

Brock looked over at her, puzzled. "What do you mean, Lillie?"

Lillie retrieved Ash's Pokeball and let Zorua out. The Tricky Fox Pokemon materialized on the floor of the submarine right in front of Lillie. It looked around for a moment, confused, before recognizing all of Ash's friends.

Lillie knelt down and scratched the fox Pokemon's head. "Hi, Zorua. Ash entrusted you to me for a while. Won't you help us out, please?"

Zorua smiled and nodded. It was typically mischievous, but, just like its trainer, it knew when it was time to flip the switch to become more serious.

"Okay, here's what I want you to do. All of us are going to be swimming to find a secret underwater base. Our hope is that we'll be able to sneak in through the main entrance somehow. If that happens, the next time I let you out of your ball, I'm going to give you a thumbs up. If you see that, I want you to disguise yourself as a…" Lillie pondered for a brief moment. "Gorebyss, and find the nearest guards. They likely won't suspect anything. Then, when they get close, you let them have it with Night Daze!"

"That's a great idea, Lillie!" Mallow chimed in.

Zorua nodded, understanding the plan. Lillie gave Zorua a sweet smile and scratched its face. "Okay, perfect. Be prepared, okay?"

Zorua nodded, giving Lillie a grin in return. Lillie returned Zorua to its Pokeball and stood back up.

"Depending on what that entrance is like, that could definitely work." Brock agreed.

"Here's the thing, Brock." Sophocles started. "The more I think about it, the more I think that the base has something like a carrier extension; a mailbox of sorts. Something that will bring in outside cargo or even people from the water up to the main entrance. That's probably the only way to really get in. I doubt they have any use for windows; and besides, even if we did go in through a window, we'd only be screwing ourselves over because the whole thing will just start flooding. We'd have to be in and out fairly quickly. We can't put ourselves at risk like that."

"Hm… I see what you mean. If that really is the case, then Lillie's idea really could work. We could all find a way to sneak into that mailbox or whatever it may be, preferably with some cargo so we could hide, and then let Zorua loose on the guards." Brock pondered aloud.

"And if the entrance isn't like that, we can always just barge in from the front!" Kiawe added, almost yelling.

Lana sweatdropped. "You're a little too excited about this, aren't you?"

"Hey, that's always been Ash's strategy and it hasn't failed him yet." Dawn chimed in.

"You're certainly not wrong there, Dawn." Serena added, giggling.

"It's always nice to have a backup, I suppose. Even if that backup is just barging in. We'll do what we have to." Brock agreed. "Alright, now that that's settled, let's get moving. Everyone, let's find that base!"

"Yeah!"

A hole in the floor of the submarine opened up, and one by one, everyone put their oxygen tanks in their mouths and entered the ocean. They split up into their groups, with each going a different direction. Lana, Kiawe, and Sophocles held onto Primarina. Mudkip easily towed along Serena, Lillie, and Mallow, while Piplup took Dawn and Brock. By holding onto their Pokemon, they were able to actively search the area, and at a much faster rate, since their water-types were able to swim much faster than any of the trainers could.

They saw wild Pokemon all over, though most were actively frightened. Every so often, they could all feel a small disturbance, like an underwater wave pushing or pulling them slightly. They all knew it was Groudon and Kyogre, battling it out. Despite them being a good distance from them, they could still feel the effects of their battle. It only motivated them to find the base and put an end to all this as fast as they could.

It didn't take that long to find the base, maybe a minute or two. After all, it's hard to miss a huge building floating in the middle of the ocean. When Sophocles spotted it, he grabbed Lana and Kiawe's attention, pointing to it. Primarina stopped as Sophocles turned around and put his flashlight into SOS mode. The other two groups had their attention caught by the bright flashing light. The remaining five made their way toward the flashing light, and quickly found the source.

Once everyone was close enough, Sophocles pointed to the big building. It was no small feat to put something so massive into the water at all, not to mention the architectural unconventionality it must've taken to allow the whole thing to float in the middle of the ocean. It was pretty far away, probably almost a kilometer. And the ocean itself was fairly dark, so it was already hard to see; and yet, the base was impossible to miss. It was that big. The base itself was pitch black, but it stood out from the blue and dark blue of the deeper ocean. It had no particular shape; if anything, it just looked like a big black box.

They all began to swim toward it, as a big clump of people and Pokemon. They all made sure to stay close together, so as to not lose anyone. After about another minute of holding on to the water-types, they made it close enough to the base to see what was going on.

Just as Sophocles had predicted, they could make out a relatively small box that extended out from the main base. They also saw a much smaller submarine, and two people dressed in all black taking out cargo from the submarine. They watched intently as the two guys pushed half of their cargo - which was a substantial amount - towards the box that was heading toward them. The cargo itself seemed to stay almost perfectly still underwater, only moving in the direction it had been pushed. The box opened up from the middle and closed around the cargo. After that, it retreated back to the main base, likely to be received by whoever was waiting inside.

Brock immediately saw that this was their chance. The 'mailbox' was fairly large; definitely big enough to fit eight extra human passengers. If they swam up to hide amongst that cargo, they would be brought immediately up into the base, where they could then unleash Zorua.

Brock made as much noise as he could with his mouth to draw everyone's attention. He pointed at the submarine that had brought cargo, and then back at the retreating box. He motioned to everyone in the group, and then at the box. Sophocles pointed at himself, then at the box, with his eyes wide, as if asking if Brock was sure about this. Brock nodded grimly, as if to wordlessly say that it might be their only chance. The group shared worried glances, before steeling themselves. They all looked back to Brock and nodded seriously, and Brock nodded back.

As the box began to move away from the huge underwater structure once again, the group of eight and their Pokemon slowly began to approach it. Luckily, the deeper ocean was fairly dark, so it hid their approach to the two delivery guys well enough to keep them from being spotted easily. The big box eventually stopped about five meters from the delivery guys, and they began to push their cargo - all in waterproof boxes - into it. One by one, each group made their way into the box, and hid amongst the boxes of cargo that were being shoved into the box. As Dawn, Brock, and Piplup entered the box, it began to close. The group all shared looks of relief that they had made inside safely.

Eventually, the box they all had inhabited stopped moving suddenly. This threw them all off balance, so they all grabbed on to boxes or each other to keep themselves from falling over. Just as they were recovering, the box was drained. Once it was all gone, they all simultaneously removed their oxygen tanks from their mouths and breathed out in relief. However, they all quickly became vigilant again as Brock whispered.

"Alright, everyone, lay low. Lillie, you ready with Zorua?" Brock looked over to Lillie.

Lillie, who was kneeling down with Mallow, Serena, and Mudkip in a small huddle, nodded to Brock. As the box began to ascend into the structure, everyone ducked down in the midst of all the cargo and Lillie let Zorua out of its Pokeball. She smiled at it encouragingly and gave it a thumbs up. Zorua grinned in response, and it immediately disguised itself as a Gorebyss.

The box eventually halted its ascent and opened up on all sides. The group could hear muttering at first and eventually it became more clear; it was the guard grunts talking amongst themselves. It seemed like they weren't actually talking about anything of note; there was one conversation going on between female voices about how much they disliked guard duty, and another between two male voices that seemed to be arguing about the sports leagues held in Unova. They seemed pretty relaxed given the rampaging legendary Pokemon going wild just a few kilometers away.

The four guards approached the cargo casually, unsuspecting. As they were chatting amongst themselves, their voices cut out suddenly as they all spotted something bright pink flailing about. It was a Gorebyss.

"Looks like we got another wild Pokemon. And a Gorebyss this time!" One of the male guards commented.

"Man, we're really on a roll! First that Huntail a couple hours ago, now a Gorebyss!" One of the females chimed in.

"Too bad we can't keep them. It's so pretty, I want it!" The other female voice said.

"And I wanted that Huntail." The other male voice added. "Oh well. Off you go, fishy."

One of the male guards approached the 'Gorebyss', which had stopped flailing. Before it was touched, the 'Gorebyss' let loose a nasty Night Daze, stunning all the guards and sending them crashing down to the floor. They weren't knocked out, but they were certainly going to be dazed for a while after taking Zorua's move from such close range.

"Go, go, go!" Brock yelled, directing traffic.

"Let's move it!" Dawn added.

Everyone stood up and took off past the incapacitated guards on the floor. They were in a fairly large room; all black with a huge sigma character taking up the far wall. On either side of that sigma, there were halls, left open; no doors or anything. The one on the left was blue, the one on the right was red.

Brock spoke up as the group began to separate. "Alright. We'll take the Blue Orb."

Dawn pumped her first. "And we'll take red!"

"How are our groups?" Brock inquired.

"Looks like we're five and three." Serena responded quickly. "Should one of us go with the boys?"

"Give us Lana. That way we have our group all here in case of an emergency." Sophocles spoke up.

Lana turned the rest of the girls and nodded. The girls all nodded back. They didn't really have time to argue. They needed to move fast. Lana sprinted over to join the boys' group.

"Alright, good luck!" Dawn grinned.

"Good luck to you all, too!" Brock responded in kind.

"We gotta move, before those guards wake up! C'mon!" Mallow grabbed Lillie's hand and took off running into the red hall.

"Ah!" Lillie yelped in surprise. Reacting as fast as she could, she grabbed Serena's hand. Mallow didn't stop running. "Serena!"

"Lillie?" Serena looked down to see that Lillie had grabbed her hand. Quickly, she felt herself being pulled in the direction of the hall and yelped in surprise. She turned to the last member of their group and grabbed her hand. "Dawn!"

"Huh?" She turned to Serena, puzzled. As Mallow continued to run with no sign of slowing down, Dawn's eyes widened in fear before she yelped as she almost fell over, being dragged along by Mallow's brute force. She quickly adjusted and started to run after her female friends.

"You're not fooling around, huh, Mallow?!" Dawn exclaimed as she struggled to find her footing and keep up with the girls in front of him.

"Well, in her defense, we couldn't exactly just stay there and let those guards wake up." Serena said in between strained breaths.

"Who knows how long until an alarm goes off, too?" Lillie spoke up.

Just then, a blaring alarm sound sounded out throughout the base, and red lights start to flare around them.

"Perhaps I shouldn't have said anything…" Lillie said sheepishly.

"A stupid alarm's never stopped us before, and we ain't gonna let it stop us now!" Dawn proclaimed. "Keep movin' girls!"

"Guess they know we're here." Brock said, running alongside his comrades in the blue hall.

"FINALLY!" Kiawe shouted.

"You're a little bit too into this, aren't you?" Sophocles spoke sheepishly.

"Stop where you are!" A voice called out to the girls. A group of uniform-wearing Team Sigma grunts exited a hall from the side to block their path. "It's time you surrender before you get hurt!"

One of the grunts threw up and caught a Pokeball, snickering, cocky. "It's a shame, but you pretty ladies are gonna have to be turned over to the bosses."

The girls all recoiled from that specific grunt. Mallow sighed. "Some guys really disgust me."

"We don't have time to waste here!" Serena called out. "We've got to move!"

"You're right, sister, so let's show these a-holes what these pretty ladies can do!" Dawn yelled. "Mamoswine, let's go!"

Dawn's massive mammoth Pokemon materialized in front of the group of girls. Dawn didn't hesitate. "Charge through, Mamoswine! Take Down!"

Mamoswine charged straight toward the group of grunts with no sign of slowing down. The grunts' eyes all widened in fear as they froze in place, unable to change the course of the massive Pokemon charging straight at them. Mamoswine sent them all flying to the walls, clearing a path for the girls.

Dawn pointed. "Let's move!"

As the girls all took off running after Mamoswine through the path it had cleared, Serena turned to Dawn. "That was ruthless."

"And they deserved it, too." Dawn answered rashly, flipping the bird to the guys on the floor as she ran by.

However, it wasn't long before more Sigma grunts blocked their path, immediately sending out their Pokemon for defense. A couple Lairon using Iron Defense were able to stop Mamoswine's charge.

"Braixen, come out!" Serena called out her first Pokemon.

"Flygon, let's go!" Mallow called for her Ultra Guardian ride.

"Altaria, you too!" Lillie followed Mallow's lead.

"Quick, Braixen, Fire Blast!"

Braixen wasted no time to launch a Fire Blast at the Lairon in front of Mamoswine, knocking them both backward and out of Mamoswine's way.

"Use Dragon Breath!" Mallow and Lillie called simultaneously. Their Ride Pokemon both fired the move at different Shelgon, knocking them both down for the count. Mamoswine continued to charge forward, pushing aside the grunts in their way, rendering them down for a while as well.

As the girls continued to push forward, more and more Sigma grunts confronted them, soon greatly overwhelming them in numbers. The girls finally had to come to a stop, surrounded by the enemy. Dawn grit her teeth, while the other three and their Pokemon continued to look determined to push forward. They weren't going to stop here, and they'd make sure of that.

In the blue hall, the other four found themselves in a similar situation. With Swampert, Charizard, Vikavolt, and Primarina all out by their trainers' sides, they were surrounded by Team Sigma grunts. There just seemed to be no end to them. They were vastly outnumbered. Brock grit his teeth. "We've got to get through somehow."

Kiawe seemed to be building up pent up rage and intensity. "These guys DON'T STAND A CHANCE!"

Sophocles and Lana stood back-to-back. Lana side-eyed him. "Scared, Sophocles?"

"Not a bit." He grinned, despite shivering ever so slightly. "I'd be more worried about you, Lana."

In both halls, all eight human brains weren't filled with much else other than thoughts of getting past the grunts in their way. However, one girl in the red hall was thinking of someone far away.

'Oh, Ash… I know you're out there doing your best… so we're going to do the same. We'll get to those orbs, no matter what. I promise.'

I promise I haven't forgotten about this! I've come this far, I'm going to make sure this gets finished. I recently got the urge to write again, so hopefully I can ride that wave and finish this story up. Sorry this one was a little slow, it gets better from here.

I've shortened this up to 17 chapters plus an epilogue, btw. Just to let y'all know. It's not really losing anything important, it's just for convenience. I'll go into more detail about my future works in the very last chapter.

Song: "Aqualotic" by Hello Meteor from their 2018 album "The Coastal Obscure"
Got some more synthwave action for you. Hello Meteor is just some really chill stuff and I highly recommend any of their albums for chilling or studying or what have you.