Chapter Text
A girl and her Delphox are standing on the roof of a building, the wind blows the girl's hood of her faded black cloak off, revealing short black hair with honey blonde roots showing through.
On the street below, Team Flare banners hang off the lampposts and Flare grunts patrol the streets.
Almost two years ago, Team Rocket and some volunteers attempted to take a stand against Team Flare, that night's death count had been higher than it had been in a long time.
Now the residents of Lumiose City and the rest of Kalos live under the total control of Team Flare. No one is allowed in or out.
The girl takes out a nanodex from a pocket, returns her Delphox, and then jumps the gap between this building and the next.
As she lands on the next roof, the earpiece in her right ear beeps, indicating a communication came in.
"Code?" she demands, not slowing or stopping
"BEC 3 Omega 7-9," the person tells her before continuing, "you're needed back at base," the girl jumped again and continued across the darkening skyline of Lumiose City, although it was almost dark.
"I'm coming," she says as she stops briefly to glance at Flare Tower (formally Lumiose Tower).
"Hurry up," the other person grumbles before she ends the comm.
The girl stealthily moves down a fire escape until she's on the ground level, she quickly flattens herself against the side of a building as a Flare patrol unit moves past, before moving to a manhole, removing the cover and slips down it, replacing it behind her.
She moves through the sewer system following a route she has traveled countless times, paying the stench no mind.
After half an hour of constantly changing directions through the sewer system and she stops in front of a section of the wall that is different from the rest. The girl pushes on a brick in the top right-hand part of that section of the wall and it spins around, taking her along with it.
It reveals a large room that has two corridors that branch off and a narrow spiral staircase. There are several people that are going about their business, crisscrossing the space. A younger girl with lemon blonde hair is waiting by the staircase for her, she is also wearing a black cloak but unlike the first, it is not
"Took you long enough," the lemon blonde grumbles as they both ascend up the staircase to the second level which contains the bunk rooms. The room they enter has four people inside of it.
"When's Clemont supposed to be coming back?" she asks as she unbuttons her cloak and chucks it on her bunk as the other brushes her hair and a Dedenne climbs out from underneath the thin grey sheets of his trainer's bunk, it jumps onto the lemon blonde's outstretched arm
"I don't know as he's working U.C this week," the lemon-blonde answers, putting her hairbrush down.
"There seem to be more and more people working U.C lately," she says.
The lemon-blonde turns to her, an expression of shock on her face.
"You haven't heard?" she asks.
"About what?" the black-haired girl asks, distracted with a lock of her black-dyed hair.
"We're trying again, to fight against Flare," now the other is in disbelief
"Bonnie, you're joking," she jokes.
"I'm not. The real reason you were sent out today is so we know the number of grunts in the street patrols," Bonnie says, her voice lowered to a whisper, "on that note, you should go give your report to Sycamore," she adds, her voice back to its normal tone.
Because of Team Flare, kids like Bonnie matured faster than they should ever have to, they learned the harsh side of life earlier than normal. Bonnie handled it rather well. She had to, because if she didn't she'd be dead.
The girl sighs, Bonnie is right, she does need to give her report
"Fine, I'll go now," she turns on her heel and leaves the bunk room, descends down the staircase and enters the left corridor before coming to a stop outside the first door in that corridor.
She rapped on the door quickly twice. A male voice yells "Code!"
"SEY 13 8 Theta 2 6," she answers and the door swings open.
"SEY, you went out this afternoon, correct?" Sycamore asks as the girl-now identified as SEY- nods.
"Yes, there were groups of four grunts, each with a Pokemon, all were Zubat or Crobat, on every street," SEY tells him.
"That's not good. You, BEC and CWC are to go out together when CWC returns from his U.C," Sycamore tells her.
"Three of us? Together? Is that a good idea?" she questions.
In SEY, BEC, CKC and ARS's bunk room
Bonnie (BEC) is sitting on her bunk, playing with her Dedenne when the door swings open, revealing two boys, one with the same lemon blonde hair as her while the other had black hair, they both have black cloaks on.
"Clemot, Alain!" Bonnie (BEC) exclaims as she gets off her bunk and ran over to them.
Clemot greets her warmly but Alain (ARS) says nothing, he hasn't since Marin was murdered over a year ago.
They don't take their cloaks off they just dump their nanodexs and leave again, not before Clemot (CKC) tells Bonnie that they're going to give their reports to Sycamore. They pass SEY in the left corridor as she returns to their bunk room.
Time Skip
Later that night, the four of them, SEY, Bonnie (BEC), Clemot (CKC), and Alain (ARS) are sitting in the main room, eating out of survival ration packs, something they do so often now that they pay no thought to the less-than-pleasant taste.
They have to eat from the ration packs as having regular food requires valuable resources to be put together.
There is no sound as no one can afford to spare the energy to talk anymore.
The scraping sound of the section of the wall spinning around makes everyone turn to see who has entered.
It's Malva, her Houndoom close behind her, she's frantic as she sprints in the direction of Sycamore's office.
Sycamore is going through the recorded reports from that day, SEY's, CKC's, and ARS' along with others, when Malva bursts through the door.
"Sycamore! Flare is planning something big! I saw both Zygard on top of Flare Tower!" she exclaims as she bends over, panting.
"Both Zygard?" he questions as he stands up.
"Yes, I was returning from border patrol when I saw them, Flare grunts also. We can't afford to sit around any longer than already we have," she says as Sycamore nods.
"Come with me, I'm going to tell everyone what you just told me," he says as he walks around his desk and out of the room.
He steps onto an upturned crate before he gets the room's attention, "What we have been preparing for, is about to happen. Malva saw the Zygards and Flare on top of Flare Tower. They're planning something big and we're the ones who have to stop it," a cheer started up. But everyone was silenced when Sycamore loudly clapped his hands.
"Organise yourselves into units of four. We are leaving in the morning, so I expect everyone to be well-rested," he tells them before stepping down off the crate, afterward, there is a considerable level of excited
"It's about time," Bonnie (BEC) says as she finished her ration pack. SEY has a faraway look on her face, a dead giveaway that she isn't paying attention.
"I agree with you." Clemont (CKC) agrees as he picks up the group's now-empty ration packs and throws them in the box and they are burnt to a crisp by a Charizard who stands nearby. Alain just nods to show that he approves.
"What do you think, Serena?" Bonnie asks, her question snaps SEY-now identified as Serena- back to the present.