The ship slid slowly through the poorly lit waters, navigating primary by the dull glow of the moon and the three Pokémon at the bow. All lighting on the ship had been turned off in an effort to make the large vessel stealthier, and unfortunately leaving Freya with little in the way of visibility. She could barely make out the swimming pool on the main deck below her, and everything beyond it was out of her field of view, which forced her to rely on the three Pokémon at the bow for directions.

The three Pokémon were constantly sending reports to Ziva, over the intercom, who would pass the information over to her sister as quickly as she could. This process was both effective as well as dangerous, and had resulted in a small collision when Ziva wasn't quick enough to tell Freya about a small rock on their port. The damage to the ship extended to a small dent and some chipped paint, but didn't deter anyone from stopping nor slowing down; they only had a few more hours before their nighttime cover abandoned them, and they still had a ways to go.

Much like Ziva and Freya, Greninja was hard at work planning and preparing for their attack on Saru's old castle.

"We should be able to scale the south face of the cliff here, but that leaves us vulnerable to any patrols here." Saru said as she pointed to two spots on a detailed map of her island. They had been lucky enough to have three cartographers, in the group of rescued village Pokémon, who were more than happy to provide their queen with a map of the island.

"Then how about we come in from the west rise and make our way to your castle." Greninja suggested, outlining the path with his finger.

"That would keep us away from the patrols, but we'd be to far from the castle to make any use of our cover." Martin said as he scanned over the map. "How about here. It's out of any normal patrol route and close enough to the castle to give us enough time to get in undetected."

"Unfortunately that's two hours out of the way, which would take away some of our night time cover, and the cliff has a sheer face at a nearly ninety degree angle. I don't know about you but I can't climb something as steep or smooth as that." Saru said, slightly frustrated with their problem.

The group starred at the perplexing paper for eighteen minutes of tense silence as they all thought up possible solutions. Their silence, and concentration, was eventually shattered when Rosemary burst into the room, carrying a large brown box labeled: Caution Explosives: Keep away from open flames. She set the box on top of the table, that was harboring the map, and grinned wildly at the three other Pokémon.

"Rosemary. What's in the box?" Saru asked as she backed away from the water type; partly because of the boxes warning and partly because of Rosemary's crazed smile.

"A solution to our, invasion, problem." Rosemary said as she began to open up the brown box. "I found several dozen containers full of these in the cargo hold of the ship, apparently they were meant to be used during a variety of festivals," Rosemary pulled out a three foot long flame painted cylinder, on a spike, with a red cone at one end, "but I thought we could find a more... useful, purpose for them."

Rosemary's idea clicked into Greninja's head at the sight of the cylinder, and he quickly returned Rosemary's grin with an equally ecstatic smile. "I think that could work, and if we head in from the north face of the cliff like Saru suggested, we could be in the castle before anyone realizes we're on the ground."

"We'll need to have the village Pokémon help out with the firing, and our timing will have to be spot on, but I think it's possible." Rosemary said excitedly.

Saru and Martin didn't understand why Rosemary and Greninja were so excited over a flame painted tube on a stick, and required a more detailed explanation.

"This," Rosemary held up the tube, "is called a firework. Lighting the end of one of these causes it to rocket into the air, where it explodes in a shower of colorful light shortly after liftoff. Humans made them to celebrate important events, I guess they get some joy out of watching things explode, but we're going to use them for a more important purpose." Rosemary said as she repacked the fireworks.

"While we scale the cliff, we can have the villager Pokémon shoot off a bunch of these rockets. The light and sound will cause confusion amongst the castles defenders, which will provide us with an easier chance to get into the castle." Greninja said as he looked at the map again. "If we can get the ship positioned here, in the center of the bay, the Pokémon aboard might even be able to hit some of the castles defenses."

Martin and Saru nodded, their understanding of the plan coming to full fruition.

"Sounds, like a pretty sound plan." Martin said, smiling at the terrible little joke he'd made.

"Yeah sounds good. Martin, why don't you go with Rosemary and Greninja, to collect some more fireworks, while I go tell everyone the plan." Saru said, completely ignoring Martin's humor.

Martin's smile disappeared, and was replaced by a slight frown, as he silently followed Greninja and Rosemary to the cargo hold. Both water type Pokémon noticed Martin's odd silence, but waited until they'd begun working before asking him what was bugging him.

"I'm worried about Saru. She didn't laugh, complain about, or even mock, my joke earlier."

"You made a joke?" Greninja asked skeptically.

"Uhh, yeah. I said the plan sounded sound; I was poking fun at the fact that we were using a lot of sound in the plan."

"That's really not much of a joke." Rosemary commented, handing Martin a box of Fireworks as she did.

"Alright it wasn't that good of a joke, but that just proves my point. Saru normally would have called me out on it, or made an equally bad joke, but she didn't; she just agreed with me and dismissed us."

"Okay so she's acting a little weird, she's probably just worried about her sister." Rosemary said as she passed Greninja another box of fireworks.

"Saru knows Shula can take care of herself," Martin said, giving a name to Saru's sister, "heck Shaula's freed herself from at least seven prisons in the past eight years, so I highly doubt Saru's too concerned about her. Her concern is most probably centered around her kids. They've never been in a situation like this and might do something... regrettable." There was a slight catch to Martin's voice as he said what was undoubtedly his concern for his future nieces and, or, nephews.

Greninja and Rosemary looked at Martin sympathetically for a brief second before doubling their work effort. "Don't worry Martin, we won't let anything happen to them." Greninja said as he stacked another box into a large metal cart.

"We'll do everything we can to get them back safely." Rosemary added as she handed Greninja the last box. "Now come on, we've got more work to do."

"Thanks, that means a lot." Martin said as he helped the two water types cart their combustible cargo through the ship.

They arrived on the deck just as Saru finished lining up twenty Pokémon, who'd volunteered to blow stuff up, into four rows.

"Alright here's the drill, you each are going to be given...", Saru looked to Rosemary who mouthed the number five to her, "...five fireworks. You will take aim at my castle and the five of you in the first row will fire your fireworks, when Freya sounds the ships fog horn." Saru pointed at the bridge for clarity, "You will then retrieve your second firework, and wait behind the last row. During this time the second row will advance forward and take repeat the actions of the first row. This same process will be repeated with rows three and four, and will continue at the sound of the fog horn. You are not to fire unless you hear the sound of the fog horn, am I understood."

"Yes my queen!" The twenty Pokémon responded, though most of them looked giddy and ready to fire all five of their fireworks right then and there.

Saru saw this and spoke slightly colder and more authoritative to them. "My life, the lives of my family and my friends, reside in the actions you take. So when you say you won't fire until you're told, I hope you mean it." The Pokémon who had been gung-ho to start firing all their fireworks, held looks of shame on their face and quickly gave their queen a more sincere promise.

Satisfied with the village Pokémon's compliance, Saru quickly walked off towards the stern of the ship.

Greninja looked at Saru for a second before following her, and leaving the distribution of the fireworks to the villagers up to Rosemary and Martin.

"Saru." Greninja said as he jogged up beside her, "Where are you going?"

Saru looked at him oddly for a second before pointing pointing to the lifeboats. "I was going to climb into one of those and wait until you guys were ready." She said in plain simplicity.

"We still have to wait until we arrive at the bay so it could be a-" Greninja began saying.

"Hey Greninja," Lector said jogging up to the blue frog Pokémon, "Freya wanted me to tell you we're nearly at the castle, about fifteen minutes she said."

Greninja didn't turn around but still knew that there was a smirk on Saru's face. "Thanks Lector, are you and your partner ready to go?" Greninja asked, referring to the third guard as Lectors partner.

"Partner? Ohh, you mean my younger brother Jackson. Yeah we're ready whenever you are."

"Great I'll meet you guys by the boats in fourteen minutes." Greninja said as he started to walk back to help Rosemary and Martin.

"Wait, I have one more thing for you." Lector said as he reached into a bag slung across his shoulder. "Ziva said to give you this." Lector handed Greninja a folded up piece of paper, before leaving him.

Greninja opened the paper and began reading the, barely legible, writing inside.

"Going with you. -Ziva"

Greninja was curious as to why Ziva wanted to go on this mission, and set out to find her. He walked around the ship for nearly twelve minutes before he found her and Martin, talking with Saru, at nearly the exact same spot he'd started his search at. As he approached them he noticed something was off. Saru had her arms crossed and was staring intensely at the deck, Martin had a look of pity on his face and Ziva stood precariously on the ships railing, a small bag slung across her back and a fierce fire in her eyes.

"Saru, is something wrong?" Greninja asked.

Saru looked up at him with pained and regretful eyes, that held a raging battle behind them.

"Greninja, I can't go on the mission." Saru said suddenly, completely surprising Greninja.

"What!? But you were so adamant on saving your family, I'd have thought you'd be the first up there."

"I definitely would have, but Martin and Ziva have pointed out that the flames on my head could give us away," Saru's hands clenched her arms, and her tone shifted to a slightly darker and more urgent voice; "and it's because my family is on the line that I won't risk us getting spotted just so I can be there." Saru looked up and at Ziva, "But you're still going to need as much muscle as you can get, so I want Ziva to go in my place."

Greninja looked at Ziva for a second, Saru suggesting Ziva go in her stead after Ziva said she was going with him was far too coincidental. But he didn't have too much of a choice given he was now short one member, "Alright, Ziva, you ready to fight beside me again?"

"Yeah, but let's hope things don't end like they did last time." She said before jumping into the nearest lifeboat.

Greninja frowned at Ziva's comment, and felt a slight bit of resentment directed towards him. He didn't have too much time to dwell on that topic though, for barely a second later the ship stopped and the rest of the team showed up. They wasted no time in loading up into the lifeboats, riding three to a boat; Rosemary, Lector and Jackson riding in one boat, and Greninja, Martin, and Ziva riding in the other. Each boat could hold up to forty Pokémon, but they had decided to take two for safety.

Once everyone had gotten situated in their respective boats, Saru began lowering them to the water; but not before leaving them with one last piece of good news. "By the way, since I can't go with you guys, I'm going to help in another way by leading the villagers in their firework display." Saru smiled at the Pokémon just before they disappeared below the ships side.

The boats hit the water and shortly after Greninja and Rosemary had dove in, taking up their roles as the water crafts' engines. The two water types quickly began swimming forward, changing their course every once in a while as Jackson corrected their trajectory with a glow-in-the-dark compass he'd found in the ships gift shop. Despite its origins, the compass led them true, as the cliff they had to scale loomed into view. They could only see about ten feet of it jutting out of the water, but that ten feet was enough to let them know it was going to be a long climb. Good hand holds appeared to be in fairly good supply, but due to the darkness of the night they couldn't be sure what was safe and what lead where. Meaning they could potentially grab a loose piece of earth, and plummet to the cold dark and stony waters below, or climb to an area that offered no further access and force them to try again, costing them precious time.

The group tried not to let these thoughts consume their minds and quickly began scaling the rock, leaving the boats anchored to some boulders below them. The climb was exceptionally grueling and exhausting, costing Ziva so much energy that she had to be carried on Greninja's shoulder just so she wouldn't fall. Their stamina testing climb continued for nearly an hour before they managed to see the top of the cliff. A collective feeling of relief washed over the Pokémon, until they heard footsteps and two chatting voices growing closer to them.

Everyone pressed themselves as flat as they could against the stone face, attempting to make themselves invisible to the faceless voices. The volume of the voices grew louder and louder as they approached the cliff edge; concern for their cover quickly manifested in Greninja's and Martin's minds, and both of them detached and arm from the rock, ready to fight from their current positions if they had to. Luckily for them Ziva was hard at work casting an illusion around them and when the owners of the voices eventually made it to the cliff, they saw only the darkness below. Satisfied that there was no one there, the owners of the voices walked away but not before saying something that Greninja and the group found interesting.

"So when do you think we'll finally be leaving this freaking island?" A slightly gravelly female voice asked.

A mans voice, with a slightly high pitch that indicated him being young, responded,"A day or two at most, the higher-ups already got what they wanted, we just have to wait for word that the queen of this Island is dead, before we can go."

"I'm thinking a week at least. We aren't allowed to leave until the entire royal family is gone, and we've still got a bunch of those Pokémon barricaded in the-."

The groups information was cut off as the two guards walked out of listening range, but this didn't matter to Martin and them. At least some of Saru's family had managed to barricade themselves from the enemy, and was still secure. It didn't matter, to the group, that they didn't know where Saru's family was, all they cared about was that there were survivors.

The group quickly began climbing up the rock wall again, the news of the castle Pokémon's survival filing them with the need to rush into battle. Luckily Ziva stopped them before they could blow their cover. She then reached into the bag on her back and put on a black and red headset.

"Command, this is Zulu-one, come in Command, over." Ziva said into her headset.

A second later, Freya's voice came through the headset. "Zulu-one, this is Command. What can I do for you? Over."

"Command, we've made it to checkpoint alpha; requesting support to advance to checkpoint bravo. Over."

"Standby Zulu-one, artillery fire is on the way. Watch your six out there, over."

"Ten Four."

A second later a loud horn cut through the night, drawing a great deal of attention to the blackened waters. Then, appearing to come from the depths of the bay, a bright streak of light screamed into the sky before exploding into a giant glowing Pikachu face that seemed to smile sinisterly at the castle for nearly four seconds. A heart beat later and four more streaks of light came screeching out of the darkness; but the group didn't happen to see what the other fireworks were, they were too busy scaling the last few feet of the cliff and leaping onto the edge.

The fireworks seemed to be giving them a rather good distraction, for the owners of the voices, they'd heard earlier, didn't even notice when Lector and Johnson had descended upon them. The two humans barely had time to register that they weren't alone, before two fists flashed in their faces, knocking them out cold. Two guards down and plenty more to go, the group raced forwards. In the colorful light of the fireworks they were able to make out a large stone wall with five watchtowers, barring their path to the castle.

The wall was fairly tall and would have take them too long time to climb over. They already knew this though, and had already decided to attack the wall at its gate, where it would be weakest. As they drew closer to the wall, they prepared a variety of attacks, ready to tear through the stone; only to have a lucky firework fly over and behind the wall, where it exploded into a Poké Ball that seemed to absorb the section of wall.

Having an opening provided for them Greninja rushed through the wall, his friends and allies following close behind him as they charged into Team Shade's stronghold.

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Hey guys I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I just want to say thanks for getting this story to 2k,(I know it happened awhile ago but I was so focused on writing that I forgot to acknowledge it), all of your support of my writing means the world to me. And I hope you'll stick with my stories because I've got some "fun" stuff planned 😁.
Anyways thanks for reading and I'll see you all next time.

Shoutouts: GamingEmpire Assassin25 mallowfangirl AlyssaHardesty1 AmourAuraGaurdian19