Alolan Region - Haina Desert

12:00 AM

The midnight desert was cold. Ken was following his Garchomp through the desert maze as he clutched his jacket tightly. He covered his eyes whenever the harsh winds blew the sands off the ground. While Garchomp was unfazed by it, Ken couldn't help but shiver. Ken's breathing became heavy, and his movement became unsteady. When he fell forward, Garchomp caught him on its shoulder. Ken coughed when he landed, making Garchomp concerned.

"Thanks, buddy. Glad you don't have rough skin" Ken said woozily as he reached for the mic on his headset. "King. You there?"

"Slowking" The Slowking responded through the mic.

"Great. Garchomp and I are gonna rendezvous with Weavile in a moment or two" He said as Garchomp helped walk him across the desert, "Remember the plan: Once you regroup with Manectric, use surf to carry him to Kala'e Bay. If officers see you over there, they won't care since shelders are nearby. If they see Manectric, who shouldn't be over there, then it's game over. Out"

Exhausted from shivering and outrunning the law that night, Ken nearly passed out. His Garchomp hoisted him over its shoulder to keep moving. Garchomp shook Ken awake as he walked deeper into the desert. When Garchomp turned right, it was greeted by a familiar group of Pokémon surrounding the mountain wall. Weavile was crouching on top of a small boulder, and it was spinning a folder as if it were a disk at the tip of its sharp, bloody claws. Also at the rendezvous point was both Slowking and Manectric. Manectric was curled up and snoring, and Slowking was staring directly at Ken with a blank expression. Seeing the two of them, Ken's fatigue went away in an instant.

"What the- why are you two here!?" Ken blurted out as he jumped down from Garchomp, "That wasn't the plan, Slowking!"

Manectric woke up alerted, and Weavile snickered with an jolly grin. Slowking, arms folded behind it back, simply nodded calmly. Garchomp shook his head, and Ken facepalmed as he paced back and forth.

"Okay, okay, great. Now I have to be on alert 24/7. Just fine! Great" Ken said as he clutched his jacket, "Let's see... Someone could have sent a flying-type pokémon to track any of you guys, but they wouldn't be able to fly through or over here since the maze prevents people and pokémon from doing so. Someone could have followed you guys on land, but they could have got lost in the maze trying. But maybe the IP-"

Before he could continue his list of pessimistic ideas, the cellphone in his pocket rang. When he pulled the phone from his pocket, he saw that the person calling him had an unknown number. He stopped pacing and realized that the unknown caller was his boss. Silently swearing, he returned all of his pokémon present except for Garchomp to each of their pokéballs and answered the phone.

"Hello~!" Ken said in an almost comical voice as he picked up the file that Weavile dropped, "How's my least-favorite boss in the world?"

"Stop speaking like that" The boss said through a very processed voice over the phone, "If you care about payment, then you'll address me properly"

"And if you cared about what information I have to give about what the cops have on us, you'll grin and bear it" Ken responded, "I mean, they could know about the regeneration project you're working on. Maybe even your identification too since International cops are on my ass now"

"Let's... let's not continue wasting time" The boss said as if he was growing a headache listening to Ken, "If you're at the rendezvous, another worker holding the payment should be there within five hours. Give him the file and-"

"K thanks bye!" Ken said enthusiastically as he turned off the phone. His behavior switched back into a relatively normal one afterwards, "Asshole..."

Ken tossed the phone to Garchomp, and Garchomp caught it and crushed it with its teeth. Garchomp clearly disliked the taste of batteries and metal shards as it spat out the junk almost instantly. It gave Ken a sour look as if it were silently demanding something, so Ken pulled out a handful of oran berries and held his hand close to Garchomp's face. Garchomp's sour expression faded as it shoved it's face into Ken's hand to eat all of the berries at once. Garchomp roared loudly with a smile, or at least as close as it could muster one. It's mouth was open, but the corners remained where they were.

Ken weakly laughed at his Garchomp's attempt, and Garchomp huffed as it ruffled Ken's hair with one of the fins on its arm. Suddenly, Ken coughed and started walking over to the mountain wall to lean against it. As Garchomp knelt next to Ken, Ken pat its head twice before coughing again and sitting down. Ken opened the file to look through what was inside, and Garchomp leaned over to look as well. Inside were the same photos that Jenny showed him during the interrogation and more next to detailed notes fully explaining the situation, date, and surroundings. Next to it all, there was a rectangular camera tucked in a pocket of the folder.

"Pretty sure that camera's important, so I'll check it later" Ken said as he yawned and set an alarm on his watch, "I'm taking a four-hour nap. Night, Chomps"

Garchomp laid down on its stomach and snored the moment Ken said 'nap'. Ken sighed, and he then laid his head Garchomp's back, ready to sleep. Garchomp instinctively turned onto its side so that Ken could lay on its softer stomach, and both of them eventually slept the midnight away.

Alolan Region - Haina Desert

4:00 AM

At the entrance of the desert, a woman in a hood and sunglasses was holding a briefcase. She was nervously looking around as if she was expecting to be followed. After turning left, right, and around for a minute, she bolted into the desert, only to get pounced on by a large pokémon. A Stoutland had wrestled her to the ground and forced her to drop the briefcase. As she was held down, Captain Jenny commanded the Stoutland to keep her pinned as she placed her in handcuffs. The Stoutland got off of the woman the moment Jenny had finished, and Jenny forced the mysterious person onto her knees.

"Where the hell did you come from!?" The woman asked, trying to break free of the handcuffs to no avail, "Goddammit, when Ken finds out that you got me like this, he'll-"

The Stoutland growled and barked at the captive scarily, taking a step forward. The captive shrieked loudly as she flinched onto her side. Jenny ignored the captive as she opened the briefcase. Inside of the case were neatly stacked pokédollars in a quantity that would make someone rich over night. Jenny immediately reached for the radio attached to her shoulder.

"Jenny to Checker, I found a partner of Ken's, and she was carrying around 10 million pokédollars" Jenny said, keeping her eye on the flipped over captive, "I'm going in disguised as her to capture the criminal, and I'm leaving you to bring this one in with the police"

"Copy" The woman over the radio responded, "Good luck"

To be continued