So, I finally got myself to finish the second chapter! It's a bit longer, and chapter three will probably be even longer. Oh, and a little warning before the chapter begins- there is a bar and a small mention of alcohol, so if you really don't want to read it because of that, you can skip to the next chapter... when it's complete, that is. If not, it'll probably be a week or two from the time I'm posting this chapter. Well, hopefully, assuming that I can actually motivate myself to complete the next chapter in a timely manner. Enough of my babbling, though, time to get on with the chapter.

Mars wasn't quite sure where to start looking for information on what had become of Charon, but she knew that she had to start somewhere. Thus, she started out by using some of the money she had earned by working odd jobs in Unova to rent a small apartment in a rather run-down section of Eterna. The one-room apartment was dirty, cramped, and smelled like something in it was rotting. It didn't even include a bathroom, and the shared one down the hall must have only been cleaned on rare occasions- Mars had to make a point of holding her nose when entering it to prevent herself from gagging. While the tiny apartment wasn't anything like things had been back at Galactic, it was at least a roof over the former commander's head and (hopefully) protection from law enforcement.

Making headway seemed like an impossible task- how the heck was Mars supposed to figure out which prison Charon was being kept in, and how exactly was she supposed to go in and break him out? She couldn't just waltz into a prison complex and demand to have him let go. For all she knew, he could be dead anyway. Still, Mars prowled the town for information day and night, but always wearing the same brown wig. The wig was actually a Team Galactic wig that had happened to come in the wrong color, which Mars had taken with her after clearing out her bedroom post the Spear Pillar incident.

Nothing came out of her search for information at first, which seemed more hopeless by the day. After all, she had no contacts now that she had moved away from the region for several years. Utterly frustrated, Mars decided to take a break from searching one night and order a drink or two at a nearby bar. Little did she know that this was where she would catch her lucky break. As it happened, Mars was simply minding her own business and sipping her drink when the person next to her spoke.

"Y'know, lady, that hair of yours... there's something about it that looks familiar." Mars looked at the man next to her that had just spoken. As far as she could remember, the man, who looked to be twenty-two or so, had been in the bar since before she had walked in. Mars was just about to brush him off as a creep and change seats when she realized exactly what he must be saying. He recognized the wig she was wearing as a Team Galactic wig! Well, either that or he thought it really was Mars' hairstyle and it simply reminded him of Team Galactic.

"It does?" Mars responded warily, ready to get up and leave the establishment if the man happened to out her as a Team Galactic member.

"Yeah, the way you're wearing it... my little sister used to have her hair like that, too. Pretty sure it was part of the organization she joined, Team Galactic. I didn't really see much of them, was still living at home in Sunyshore, and for some odd reason the Galactics never really came there. Well, except for my sister, but that was only to see us- erm, her family. She sure wore that green bowl cut proudly, though. Now that I think about it, it might have been a wig, but she didn't ever say."

"Um, yes, it could have been," Mars replied, not sure if this conversation was going in a direction that would get her into trouble or not. However, Mars was kind of curious as to what the man had to say, so she let him keep talking.

"Now my older brother, he didn't like her prancing around with that bowl cut on, oh no. You see, he was a new recruit for the Sinnoh police. They never much got along, but after that they would hardly even talk to each other! He told her that she'd end up getting arrested if she hung out with that silly little space cult any longer. She never did, and as far as I know the only one that they actually arrested was some creepy old scientist." Mars had been getting ready to walk out before something bad happened, but at the mention of Charon, she froze.

"They arrested a creepy old scientist, did they? And here I thought that the Sinnoh law enforcement were completely useless... no offense to your brother, I mean." If this man knew something, anything about Charon, this could potentially be a lead. Of course, Mars told herself, she shouldn't get too excited, it could be that the man only knew about Charon's arrest and nothing more.

"It's okay, never did think too highly of my showoff older brother, and I assure you, he's as useless as the rest of them. Actually, I don't even think it was the Sinnoh law enforcement that arrested the old man, I heard it was actually some guy from the Interpol. All the Sinnoh Police did was take him to jail and helped to testify against him in court. I forget exactly what my brother said, but I think they took the prisoner to somewhere off of Route 215 or something after the trial was over. Said something about fifteen years and solitary confinement. I say that old man will never see the light of day."

"Well, that's very interesting, I uh, never followed up on that trial." This would certainly be some helpful information. Still, one question remained.

"Do you know if he's still alive? I mean, the old Team Galactic scientist, that is." This really was the question now. If Charon was dead, there went that plan, and Cyrus might never be taken out of the Distortion World. Come to think of it, Mars had no idea if Cyrus was still alive in there, either. Still, Mars needed to take the plan one step at a time.

"I'd think so, at least he was last I heard, but really, who knows? Anyway, I guess I shouldn't really be telling you all of this, but I figure it can't hurt if the only one I'm telling is a pretty lady like you." It seemed that the time had come to leave the restaurant. As helpful as this man Mars met had just been, he was rather repulsive, at least by Mars' standards.

"Wow, that's really fascinating, and- oh, I just noticed the time, and I really do have to get back to my apartment now, or I'll be late for work tomorrow." Mars quickly paid her bar tab and got up to leave.

"Wait lady, I never got your name... or your number!" By this time, however, Mars had already made her way out the door and into the street on her way back to her apartment.

Now that Mars had gotten a lead, the next day was much more productive than the last few. She found out exactly where the prison was located, and from what she could find, it seemed pretty likely that Charon was still alive.

There was, however, still a question that Mars had no idea how to approach- how exactly she would break into the prison and get Charon out. The task itself seemed pretty impossible considering the place's amount of security. Besides, she still didn't know where in the prison Charon was being kept, other than "solitary confinement". Hell, she didn't even know where "solitary confinement" was in the prison. It wasn't as if she would have time to roam around the prison and look for Charon, that is if she could even get in at all.

The idea finally came to her when she was passing by the Underground Man's house and had overheard two people walking out and talking about their shiny new underground kits. Having completely forgotten that the Sinnoh Underground existed, Mars hadn't once considered it as a method to find her way to Charon without being seen. Now, however, it seemed like the perfect place to start enacting her plan. She wouldn't even need an underground kit, since she had caught a Drilbur in Unova that had now evolved into a Excadrill.

Once she had gotten back to her apartment room, Mars used her laptop to look up a map of Sinnoh and a map of the Sinnoh Underground. She then put the Sinnoh Underground map under the region map on an image editor and drew the path she wanted to take over the picture. Once this was done, Mars opened up the text document she had been recording information in and started to write up a plan.

First, Mars needed to acquire a car. Preferably a van, since that would most likely come in useful once Cyrus was taken out of the Distortion World... that is, if her plans succeeded. Anyway, once she had a van, Mars would need to get said vehicle into the Sinnoh Underground and park in a place where she could make a clean getaway. Then, she would command Excadrill to dig upward and right into the prison. Next came the tricky part- Mars would have to carefully watch the hole dug by Excadrill from the Sinnoh Underground side while Mars' Zoroark would make his way into the prison illusioned as a guard.

Next, Zoroark would look around the prison as fast as he could for the solitary confinement area and then proceed to find a way of getting Charon out. Of course, this would be rather difficult especially considering that Mars' Zoroark didn't speak human, not to mention the fact that getting Charon out would most likely require a key. Still, Mars was determined to go through with the plan, and was sure that there was some way to make it work.

Once the planning phase was complete, Mars got ready to put her plans into action. She uploaded the map of Sinnoh and the underground onto her phone, packed up, and left her dirty apartment, probably once and for all. She then found a used car dealer who wouldn't ask too many questions and spent a good half of her remaining money on a van. Finally, it was time for Mars to start on her mission. Sure, there were a million ways that it could go wrong, but since this might be the only way to get into the Distortion World and find Cyrus, it was well worth a shot.