Hey! Quick note here! Sorry for not publishing more chapters sooner. I hope that I can make up for it soon. Anyway, enjoy!

The group walked as silently as they could through the tunnels. They were unable see anything outside and could just barely hear anything at all. Most of what they heard that didn't come through the walls was their attempt at silent steps. (Y/N) would probably be the first to say though that the steps of either Guzma weren't exactly silent in comparison to the rest. She supposed it didn't help that they were big dudes.

The Gladions led the group in a single file line, after all there wasn't much room to do anything more than that. Despite not being able to see, the pair of black clad boys seemed to know their way quite well.

After what felt like an eternity of walking through the dark halls they stopped and the Alter Gladion began messing with a panel on the wall, pushing it out and off to the side slightly. Light lingered in through the small crack. Given (Y/N)'s position she wasn't able to see through it.

"Ok," Gladion said as his Alter continued to keep an eye out, "We are on the Conservation Room level. If we can make it to the lift we can go down to the first floor and get outside. Once out we should be clear to go to the house thanks to Hau's distraction."

Guzma objected to this but kept his voice down as even he knew what getting caught could lead to, "I thought the reason to take these tunnels was to keep us from being spotted! If we go down to the first floor we'll be spotted for sure!"

"Leave that to me." Alter Gladion smirked before giving his counterpart a thumbs up. He moved the panel to the side and quickly slipped out if the tunnel followed by (Y/N)'s Gladion. Everyone carefully filed out of the tunnels and onto the main floor of the Conservation Room.

(Y/N) looked around. It had been a while since she's last been in here. Come to think of it she almost never visited Aether Paradise. She didn't know of it was just because of some bad associations or because every time she did at this point something bad seemed to happen. Associating with the Aether family brought many interesting consequences, but for Gladion, (Y/N) found every single one worth it.

There were a few of those uniformed weirdos walking around however there didn't seem to be quite as many as before. They should probably thank Hau and Lillie later. The group tried to stay low as to hide amongst the trees or the bushes which was a lot easier said than done. The group did their best to be patient as a guard passed out of view or to a place where the infiltrators couldn't be seen.

(Y/N) looked around a bit, trying to be aware of the positions of as many guards as possible. She kept her hand near her bag, ready to grab a Pokéball from it at battle. That's usually what happened in these kinds of missions anyway. When trying to get in someplace it wasn't uncommon for trainers to just brute force their way through it. (Y/N) was not only alert of the guards positions but also on how the rest of the group was doing. Both Gladions and Aireona seemed laser focused in the goal, Alter Guzma looked annoyed and Guzma just seemed on edge and Midnight was shaking like a leaf.

It's strange, how Midnight seemed to be the alternate version of (Y/N) and yet was so different. The Gladion's acted the same, the Guzma were pretty similar before (Y/N)'s Guzma went to jail and (Y/N) had never even met Aireona.  Midnight seemed shy and reserved, scared of quite a few things, meanwhile (Y/N) tended to be a lot braver and more outgoing.

That was a question for another time though. They were so close to the lift, they just needed to get a little further. After that it didn't matter if they were spotted up here as they could just make a mad dash to the lift and start down before they could be caught.

The group walked carefully and the closer they got to the lift the more nervous they became. The tension could be cut with a knife.

"Hey! Intruders!" A voice called. A guard had spotted them and was now running at them.

"Go!" (Y/N) shouted. At her command the group began dashing to the lift. They weren't close enough to completely avoid being caught but if they ran fast enough they could make it. (Y/N) saw Midnight and Guzma run past her and could hear the footsteps of the guard approaching rapidly. Just as she reached the lift she felt as though some presence had been lifted and looked behind her to see Alter Guzma had brought out his Golisopod and was physically holding the guard back.

"Guzma get over here!" Alter Gladion called.

Alter Guzma chuckled as he pushed back a little harder, causing the guard to slide across the ground slightly. "It's alright kid, I've been itching for a fight all day anyway. Besides, no one gets to tear you all to shreds but me."

"Was that supposed to be motivational or something?" Aireona asked quietly and Midnight shrugged.

"Alright but be careful. They might try to call for backup or something." (Y/N) said. The guard had yet to bring out their Pokémon, but they would have to pull away from Guzma in order to do that. Something about that look in the Skull Leader's eye told her that that wasn't happening.

Gladion began working on the lift and the guard rails came up just before the lift started to move down. As the Team Skull Leader disappeared from sight he grinned.

"Golisopod! First impression!"