Chapter Text
Delia Ketchum wakes up to a quiet house. This is unusual normally, made even more so by the fact that it's Max's 13th birthday. Delia was expecting to be bombarded with noise from downstairs coming from her 2 charges. Curious, she gets out of bed and wanders downstairs. Sure enough, the downstairs part of her house is empty. She looks around that part of her house, calling Max and Bonnie's names. No response. Figuring they're still asleep. She climbs back up the stairs to check on them. But then, she reaches Max's door, and her heart comes to a complete standstill. The handle of Max's door has been blown off.
Delia quickly rushes into the room, expecting to find it in ruins. Instead, it's basically untouched. Max is nowhere to be seen, and neither are his bag or his notebooks. His audio logs are still there, as well as 5 of his 6 pokéballs. Vey worried, Delia quickly runs over to Bonnie's room to check on her. Sure enough, she's gone too, as well as her bag, and 3 of her pokéballs. Panic completely overtakes Delia now as she runs out of her house and looks around, as if hoping to be able to see the 2 of them in the distance. No such luck. So, she runs back inside and picks up her phone, before calling Serena. "Hi dear," she says. "We have a huge problem!"
Serena mobilises her friends so fast after this phone call it's as if they all got it themselves. Within 2 hours of Delia waking up, all of them are gathered in Ash's home in Galar to talk about this problem. Paul is already pacing the floor as Serena explains, once again, exactly what Delia told her. "So that's it then," he says finally. "Team Terra have won!"
"Not necessarily," Cilan replies. "They haven't made any announcement on it. With all of their showboating, I'd say they'd do something like that."
"I doubt that," says Clemont. "They did all that showboating as a means of luring Max and my sister out. If they have them, or even him, they wouldn't go showboating. Otherwise we'd know about it, and stage a rescue to save them."
"Plus it wouldn't make a good impression on the general public if they learned that the team was putting all of that effort into kidnapping a child," May adds.
She and Clemont are probably the most worried out of any of them for the 2 missing kids. They were the first to arrive at the place after Serena's phone call, and had grilled her to find out everything they could about it all before the others even arrived. If it wasn't for Serena using her Amaura to block the door, they would've run out of it and started scouring the world for their little siblings as soon as Serena had finished telling them what had happened.
Cilan looks disappointed at this. "You make a good point," he says. "Still, I simply can't believe that they've been kidnapped. It doesn't add up."
"In what way does it not add up?" Kiawe asks. "Max's door handle was blown off, half of his and Bonnie's stuff is missing, and so are they. All evidence points to them being taken by Team Terra!"
But Cilan clearly doesn't think so. "What doesn't add up is the fact that Mrs. Ketchum couldn't tell anything was wrong until she checked the bedrooms," he points out. "If Team Terra had broken in, then there would've been a struggle that almost certainly have woken her up. There would've been some signs of one in the house, or at least of forced entry. But there isn't. It's more like the 2 of them got up and left in the middle of the night than it is that they were taken out of Ash's home."
The others think about Cilan's words. "I suppose it makes sense when you put it like that," says Dawn. "But that still doesn't explain where they've gone. Or why only some of their stuff is missing. If Max were to leave in the middle of the night, I highly doubt he'd leave without his audio logs at the very least."
May shakes her head. "He most certainly would not," she replies. "Plus the fact that he only left with his partner. It's almost like he was planning on coming back, but didn't if anything."
At May's suggestion, the group begins to puzzle over this particular riddle. "All we can say for certain is that something happened to them last night," Goh says finally. "But whether it has anything to do with Team Terra remains to be seen."
"I can find that out for you," says a voice from the window, as Camo materialises before them, making them all jump.
"Palkia on a stick!" Iris cries. "How long have you been there?"
"I basically just got here," Camo replies, taking off her mask and revealing the face of Megan. "I came to report some suspicious movement of shipment out of Sinnoh, but this is clearly much more important."
"Everyone stares at her in shock for a few seconds, before they move on. "How do you plan on finding that out?" Sophocles asks. "If Clemont's theory is true, I doubt you'll be able to learn any of this in just a regular Team Terra base. I'd say that this would be pretty high up in their list of secrets."
The others nod in agreement. "Considering this was a top priority mission for them, I'd say the only place they'd keep this stored would be their main base in Sinnoh," Lillie comments. She then looks to Megan. "Do you have any idea where that is?"
To their surprise, she nods. "I was a recruit of Team Terra after all," she points out. "How do you think I became one?" No one comments on that. They just agree that she should be the one to go in and investigate.
"But please, whatever you do, do not get caught," says Paul. "And if you are, do not reveal to them that we know Max is missing." Everyone looks at him with utter bewilderment. Upon seeing this, Paul explains his line of thinking. "While this is unlikely, there is a small chance that Cilan could be correct, and they left on their own. If Team Terra aren't behind their disappearance, and their just as unaware of where they are as us. But, if they learn that we lost them, they'll be able to completely mobilise their forces across the world, and track them down 50 times faster than us. So please, for the love of Arceus himself, do not get caught."
Megan nods, then slips her helmet back on. "I promise I won't," she says. "I'll have this information for you as soon as I can." Then, before Sophocles can protest that this is a much too dangerous plan, and that they should think this through more carefully, she disappears. The window shakes a bit, implying that Megan is gone.
"What about the rest of us?" Brock asks. "What should we do?"
"Isn't it obvious?" May asks. "We start scouring ourselves while we wait for Megan to return. We go out searching for my brother, and Clemont's sister, and we do not stop until they are found!"
Some of the others are quick to agree, but Clemont shuts them down. "Wait," he says. "What if Megan calls to tell us they have them? If we're all separated, it would take us too long to mobilise a rescue."
"But what if they're out there all alone?" Lana asks.
"Then we go at once to find them," Misty says, siding with Clemont. "It would be wiser for us to remain here. Until we know for certain what the situation is, I think we should stay here and wait for Megan to call us." The others agree with this plan.
It takes Megan half a day to reach The Team Terra base in the Sinnoh Region. The base is an old fortress from the days of the Seven Great Regions that had fallen into disrepair in the forests of the region near the northernmost point. However, ever since The Boss found it and made it Team Terra's official base, it had been redone and refurbished, making it just as grand as it once was, the the addition of modern day security measures. Megan approaches the wall and turns invisible, hoping to Arceus himself that they didn't install heat sensing technology since she quit being a member of Team Terra. Thankfully, as she reaches the front entrance, no one moves to apprehend her.
She taps a button on her helmet, and her visor allows her to scan the security of the front entrance. Just as she thought, it's heavily armed and alarmed. So, she ensures that the wall isn't the same way, before stepping back, and raising her right arm. She taps a button on her sleeve, and a grappling hook of her own shoots out of it, attaching itself to the upper part of the wall. Sending a mental thank you to Max for giving her the idea to attach one to her Camo suit, Megan begins to climb up the side of the wall. She reaches the top, then reattaches the hook to the launching part in her sleeve, before activating her visor once again.
She scans the fortress, which has many different buildings within its walls. Megan is looking for the records room, or anywhere where important files or debriefs would be held. Eventually, she finds it, and of course, it's on the opposite side of the facility to where she entered. So, she attaches her grapple to the wall, and makes sure it's secure, before abseiling down the wall, slowly and carefully so as to not loosen any stray pebbles or make too much noise. Once she's at the bottom, she detaches the grapple and retracts it quietly, before beginning her walk through enemy territory.
As she quietly walks through the facility, she finds herself reminiscing on when she came here to be recruited. How she and the others were brought into one of the buildings and being told about all of the great work they would be doing to protect the world. "How deluded we were," she thought to herself. She thought about how they were going to be assigned small tasks to prove their worth, only for Admin Homura to personally scout her out because of her knowledge of technology, and how useful she'd be in an upcoming plot to truly save the world. All she needed to do was this one task, and she could skip all the formalities and be a fulltime agent from there.
She's so absorbed in these memories that she fails to notice the loose tile. She stands on it and it clatters, alerting a nearby agent. "What was that?" he says aloud. Megan swearing to herself and moves a bit quicker as the agent approaches. He looks around, gun raised as Megan stands stock still, hoping he didn't see her. "Nothing," he mutters to himself, before he carries on with what he was doing.
Megan breathes a sigh of relief, then she hurries away, reaching a set of stairs that leads to the area marked as the centre of the fortress. From here, she activates the scanner on her visor again, and looks around at the buildings. She finds the building she's looking for, then runs over to it, ducking and weaving through some more agents to try and reach it. At one point, she thinks she bumps into one by mistake, but that person just glances at the person next to him, allowing her to keep on going. Eventually, she reaches the building, only to find that it's being guarded by someone. After making sure she's still invisible, she carefully approaches this person by sliding along the wall. Once she's certain he can't see her, she pounces.
She grabs him by the neck and starts to strangle him, cutting off his ability to scream, he flails wildly, trying desperately to throw her off him. But he can't do it, due to the fact that he can't see her. Soon enough, he's unconscious, and her way is clear. She carefully hides his body, then steps over to the door. Unfortunately, it's locked, and requires a keycode to enter it. "Please tell me they didn't change the codes," she mutters to herself, before she inputs the code she remembered. Unfortunately, this is the wrong code. She swears to herself, then runs back to the unconscious form of the guard, and rifles through his pockets.
She finds the code, then inputs it into the machine. Thankfully, the door opens. She slips inside and closes it quickly, before activating her scanner once more. She finds the room she needs, and heads towards it, keeping her feet light to avoid the echo of her heavy boots. She reaches the door and slips through it, finding herself face to face with many different files, and a few computers. Hoping that the information she was sent to gather is on the computers, Megan sits before them and turns one on. Then, she begins to scour through them. At one point, she has to take a risk and remove her mask, deactivating her invisibility in the process in order to be able to properly see the screen. As she does this, she makes sure to lock the door.
Then, she scours this computer for any information she could about the disappearance of Max and Bonnie. Luckily for her, she doesn't have to search far. She quickly uncovers the botched attempt at capturing the boy, and their subsequent escape from the airship. "Now we're talking," she mutters to herself.
She continues to search through this file, hoping to find any information on where they might've escaped to. But it's clear that those on the airship had no clue which way Max and Bonnie went after they escaped. She grins to herself as she finds this out. Team Terra don't know where they are either. Grinning to herself, Megan shuts off the computer and grabs her helmet. At that moment, the door comes swinging in, as several Team Terra agents storm into the room. Megan has just enough time to slip the mask on before they all arrive, so that none of them could see her face. But, this doesn't give her enough time to disappear before she's completely surrounded. Then, a Sub-Admin walks over to her.
"Turn invisible, and we'll shoot," he says. Megan nods, nod daring to speak in case any of them recognise her voice through the distortion.
She's led out of the room and the building, being guided towards the holding cells. She has guards all around her, ready to unleash the Reverse World upon her should she so much as blip out. She subtly taps the button on her visor, hoping it would show her a way out, but no luck. That is, until she looks around her, and spots some repels hanging off some agents belts. Remembering something Max told her about years ago, she sneakily swiped them from the belts. By the time someone noticed, she already has enough. She slams them to the ground, creating a smoke bomb, before ducking to the ground and going invisible.
The agents shoot around blindly, trying to get a shot at her, but she's already gone. She darts out of the cloud of repel smoke and runs over to the wall, using her grappling hook to scale it as fast as she can. Then, she leaps into some trees, scrambles down them, and disappears into the surrounding area before anyone in the base even knew she was gone.
The second Paul's phone rings, he's quick to gather everyone into the room again. As soon as they've all gathered, he answers the call. As quickly as she can, Megan recounts all that she learned while scouring that base, informing them that Team Terra is just as clueless as they are about Max's whereabouts. This brings great relief to everyone, as Paul thanks her and ends the call.
"So, I don't think I need to say this, but I'm going to anyway," he says. "Let's get out there and find those 2 at once!" Everyone cheers in agreement, as Paul begins to inform everyone on their side about what's happening. The race to find Max and Bonnie before Team Terra is on, and by Arceus, he was going to win it!