“Hm? No, I don’t believe so—”

Music of the most obnoxious kind exploded from his laptop’s speakers. Barnaby jolted back in his chair and the office seemed to collectively jump up in surprise. Everyone turned to the back of the room, eyeing the pair of journalists as if they were crazy. Some even covered their ears to emphasize their discomfort.

“My apologies!” Barnaby blubbered as he grabbed frantically at his computer to try to stop the noise. However, despite hitting all the usual buttons, the music continued to blare out. “What in the—”

And then it happened. Dozens of images of PORYGON2 filled the laptop’s screen, obscuring the script that Barnaby had been reading. For comical effect (although this wasn’t funny in the least to Barnaby), the little PORYGON2s’ all had on mini-DJ headphones and were bobbing their bodies along with the music. If that wasn’t enough of an insult, the journalist could see that in the background his script was being corrupted. Words were being distorted and entire paragraphs wiped from the document.

He tried everything he could think of to close out of the word processor or even just shut down the laptop completely, but again, none of the usual prompts were working. Finally, Barnaby just slammed the top panel closed. Mercifully, there was silence.

“Merde! Did you see that, Munn?”

Percival Munn
mission: DATA LEAK

☉

Well didn't this put a damper on the morning? A damn technological invasion.

It didn't take long for the uproar to begin: employees across the bullpen uttered out in shocked surprise... which quickly devolved into rapt chaos. Their computers, filming equipment, anything even remotely attached to the company's Wi-Fi - had all been infiltrated.

The news never stopped, but when the news outlet did... well, they were losing money. If this situation wasn't solved swiftly, they'd be out a substantial amount.

Barnaby heaved a laborious sigh.

"Yes. In the basement."

Pushing his rolling chair away from the desk, the journalist got to his feet and began striding toward the stairway. Not the elevator, for obvious reasons. His signature pink and lavender-checkered coat billowed behind him as he walked.

"Come along, Munn. Let's solve this quickly and get back to work."

Were they truly equipped to handle this situation, though? Should they enlist the help of an IT professional? Or, like, a Pokémon Ranger or something?

Percival Munn
mission: DATA LEAK

☉

"Good call." He gave the compliment begrudgingly, but it was deserved. Barnaby definitely didn't have a Pokémon like ROTOM that could invade electronics in a similar way to PORYGON. So, having Percy around was actually beneficial. Who would have thought?

The echo of descending footsteps filled the small stairwell as they made their way into the belly of HNN.

"Once the Porygon have materialized, I have a few Fighting-types that should be able to take care of them."

Smack the PORYGON around a little, enough so that the journalists could get them into Poké Balls and be done with this technological fiasco.

Soon enough they reached the basement, which was surprisingly well-lit by rows of incandescent tube lighting. Off a main hallway were several doors, likely leading to rooms which housed HNN's many servers.

Glancing over to Percy, Barnaby asked in a stiff voice, "Ready? We can take one room at a time."

Percival Munn
mission: DATA LEAK

☉

As the ROTOM shot off into the first room, Barnaby mulled over his coworker's question with an unbothered expression on his face.

“Hard to tell. We’ll know more once this is taken care of.” He responded flatly, glancing Percy's way before returning his attention to the servers.

“By then there might be more information available. If they escaped, there’s likely to be a notice sent out saying as much.”

As the last word left his lips a flash of light appeared before them, revealing a mischievous PORYGON-2. Barnaby had already decided which of his Pokémon would be used for this task and, with a casual flick of his wrist, a HAKAMO-O and HITMONLEE entered the room.

It was an easy matter thereafter. Systematically, the pair of journalists cleared out each room, weaseling the PORYGON and PORYGON-2 out of the servers one by one and capturing them accordingly. ROTOM providing the opportunity, HAKAMO-O and HITMONLEE the brawn needed to subdue the Virtual Pokémon.

Finally, the last and largest of the rooms loomed at the end of the hallway. Emboldened by their success thus far, Barnaby passed through the door with far too much confidence. What greeted him was not only several rows of servers, but also walls lined with television screens. On those screens the image of a PORYGON-Z zipped around frantically, stopping only when it noticed the two humans by the door.

That was when the overhead speakers came into play. Suddenly, ear-splitting sounds erupted into the room, causing Barnaby to clasp his hands over his ears in pain. Pixelated "HAHAS" and "GOT YOU LOSERS" began scrolling across the screens.

"PERCY." Barnaby managed to yell above the uproar. "DO. SOMETHING. NOW."

Percival Munn
mission: DATA LEAK

☉