It occurs to Archie and Maxie that the things they do on their team might not be for good when, about a month or so later, they see none other than Beval, his very pregnant wife, and their daughter, Winona in Lilycove. Realizing who is near them, Archie and Maxie take a closer look and notice a Swablu flying around Winona's head and a person they can't identify walking close to Beval, trying to talk in a hushed voice but failing as more passion goes into their words.

"…bad things, Beval! The houses of Fortree have to be guarded better. Your house has to be guarded better!"

"Gia, I am on vacation with my wife and my child. We are on our way to the Concert Center so Winnie can enter her first contest. We are also in public. This isnot the time to be talking about this." Gia doesn't speak for a moment, a scowl on her face.

"…You're right. This villainous team, though…it worries me, you know?"

"Yes, I do know."

"Dad," Winona says, looking up at Beval with big eyes, "is everything going to be okay?"

"Everything's going to be just fine, Winnie," Beval says with a smile, patting Winona on the head. Archie and Maxie exchange concerned looks.

It's not long after this incident that Archie and Maxie leave their team. They don't make a big deal about it; they slip away in the middle of the night, not telling anyone about their plans.

Oh, and plans they have.

"Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus," Maxie says, for all purposes shoving a book into Archie's face.

"What about Shaymin?" Archie asks, thwacking Maxie on the arm after taking the book. He starts reading as Maxie makes a few half-assed objections to being swatted on the arm.

"That is a good idea, however," Maxie says after his protests.

"Do you think we're too ambitious, Max?" Archie asks.

"Are you backing out on me, now?"

"No," Archie says, "I'm prepared to fly as high as I can, melted wax in my wings or not. I'd like to hope that we can touch the sun, though."

"Together." Maxie forces Archie to shift the book, awkwardly, into one hand as he threads his fingers through the other. "Are you finished reading the page yet?"

"Yep. Summoning all of these legendary Pokemon, though…it'll be really hard."

"Of course it will! That's why they're legendary Pokemon!"

"Do you think we could summon Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus all at once somehow?"

"I like the way you think."

"I like you period." Maxie kisses him, buzzing with excitement.

The kiss really does start out as a simple little thing, but soon Archie is placing the book he's holding onto the table and letting his hands slip down the back of Maxie's pants onto his ass, and Maxie's hands are making their way under and up Archie's shirt.

When Maxie and Archie move to their bed, there is no pushing involved; both of their feet start moving, and they guide themselves to it like it's an instinct, like it's their nature. One of them (which one? They're so lost in each other that they can't tell) is shoved back onto the bed and the other follows shortly after. Archie's lips are on Maxie's neck and Maxie's hands are undoing Archie's jeans, little noises of pleasure squeaking past his lips as his hands work.

"I think," Archie says, pushing Maxie's shirt to the side and sucking a hickie into his collarbone before continuing, "that I'd like for you to fuck me today."

"I was thinking that I'd like to fuck you as well." Maxie rubs at Archie's penis through his underwear. "Also," he says, "I don't feel like spending a lot of time taking off your clothes. Or taking off my clothes for that matter." Maxie gives Archie a sweet, gentle kiss before moving himself off of the bed and stripping himself. Archie whistles at him.

"I didn't know I was getting a show."

"Don't you always consider it to be a show when a naked me is involved?"

"What can I say?" Archie moves off the bed and starts to strip himself now, "your body is like art."

"I'm gagging." Archie laughs.

"We're never going to get anything done at this rate," Maxie says, lazily, as Archie kisses his neck.

"You started it," Archie says.

"That much is true."

Maxie flips himself onto his other side and gives Archie a kiss on the lips.

"I think that I recall an old legend claiming that Shaymin makes its home in Sinnoh in a place called the Flower Paradise," Archie says, rubbing his nose lightly against Maxie's, making him smile.

"Shaymin seems like it'd be easier to get than Tornadus, Thundurus, or Landorus. I've read that they roam around Unova."

"We've got our work cut out for us, hmm, Max?"

"Fucking Hell if we have enough money to get a boat ticket all the way to Sinnoh," Maxie says, kicking at a leg of the table in their secret base in anger, which, in all reality, does no good.

"We could earn it, though."

"Doing what? I went off and joined some villainous team instead of going to college like a…like…I don't even know what." Maxie sits down and sighs. "None of this was supposed to happen."

"Hey, Maxie, I'm sure there's something you can do." Maxie sighs.

"You're right." He pauses. "Let's go get jobs." Archie and Maxie both grimace.

One day, while Archie and Maxie nap after working, an important news broadcast comes onto TVs all across Hoenn, though, not Archie and Maxie's TV because their TV is turned off.

The broadcast starts with footage of two men, one looking older than the other and riding a Skarmory alongside a younger looking man surfing across the ocean on a Linoone. A news broadcaster's voice comes on along with the footage.

"Actions by Fortree gym leader, Beval, and Littleroot native, Norman, have led to the defeat of the villainous team that ravaged Hoenn! Coming up shortly, we will be interviewing these heroes themselves!"

The broadcaster talks more before the interviews, but a lot of it is stuff that will fall out of the minds of Hoenn residents almost as soon as they hear it; what they want to hear, and what is the most important part of the broadcast, are the interviews.

"I guess you could say that my motives were kind of selfish. Some members of that team stole some of my blueprints, and it got to a point where my daughter was worried and people kept bringing it up to me, so I decided to do something about it. Really, Norman's the one you should be talking to."

"Beval," Norman says, looking a little sheepish, "I'm just a guy from Littleroot! You're a gym leader. They should be talking to you."

Looking a little agitated, the interviewer cuts in before the conversation can go on, "Well, we've heard Beval's reasoning already. What about yours, Norman?"

"Not to sound full of myself or anything, but I really, honestly did it because I felt that what the team was doing was wrong, and, well, I figured, if no one else is going to do something, why not me? And, then, I just sort of met Beval along the way."

The two of them talk more about exactly all that they did together, and then, the interviewer asks them something rather unconventional.

"If you could offer any advice to everyone so that this won't happen again, what would it be?"

Beval and Norman are silent for a moment, thinking. Then, Norman says, "I just think that, sometimes, things need to be left as they are. Humans…we're not meant to wield the amount of power that a lot of us like to think we are. A very careful balance is kept between us and Pokemon, and we need to always remember never to overstep it." Beval nods.

"Stop and think is what I'd say," Beval says, "think for a long time, if need be."

"Wonderful advice," the interviewer says with a small nod. Then, she says a few things to wrap up the interviewing segment and signs off. She thanks Beval and Norman for their time, and then goes over to the camera crew to talk to them. Norman stands.

"It was nice to see you again, Beval. I'm afraid that I can't stay and talk for very long, though, because I've got a date with my girlfriend coming up in an hour!" Norman grins from ear to ear and Beval congratulates him, smiling back at him.

Surprise might be a good term to describe the emotion that Archie and Maxie feelwhen they discover a teenager, a few months later when they almost have the amount of money they'd like for their adventure, positioned outside of the entrance of the construction site for New Mauville, holding up a poster with an angry look on his face.

"Kid," an angry construction worker says, covered by a sweat soaked shirt and sporting an oddly patterned sunburn, "please leave. I'm just doing my job. If you want to talk to someone about how you think this project is 'endangering the habitat of certain types of Pokemon', then talk to Wattson. Don't waste your time out here pissing us off."

Archie and Maxie, having come to the construction site for the same reason as the teenager with the poster, apparently, raise an eyebrow at each other, wanting to see how the interaction plays out before they make their own attempts at getting the project cancelled.

"Why don't you leave me the fuck alone," the teen says, words dripping with so much malice that Archie and Maxie can feel themselves double taking, "I'm protesting peacefully. I'm not bothering you."

"You've got some nerve; you're lucky I'm on the job right now." The worker leans forward until his nose and the teenager's are only a few inches apart. The teen scowls, looking murderously irate.

"Excuse me," Maxie says, "what exactly is going on here?" Archie tries not to laugh at Maxie's method of going about things.

"I am peacefully protesting," The teenager says, quickly, before the worker can speak, "and this brute seems to have an issue with the fact."

"This kid is an obnoxious brat who needs to take this somewhere else. And who are you to be talking? You don't look like you're very far out of your teens."

"I'm 22," Maxie says, spitting out the information just a bit too quickly in well-masked agitation, "and I do believe that you have work to do, do you not?" Grumbling, the worker says a few choice expletives, then hunkers back off into New Mauville. Maxie turns the teenager. "I admire your sentiments, but you need to work on that temper of yours. You'll get nowhere if those that you're opposing beat you up. My name is Maxie, by the way."

"And I'm Archie."

"I'm Tabitha," the teenager says. Maxie looks as if he is about to continue the tangent he was on before he told Tabitha his name, but Archie can see that Tabitha is absolutely not up for it at the moment, so he cuts in.

"Hey, Tabitha, do you want to go to Mauville with us to see if we can try to talk to Wattson and get this project shut down?" Maxie steps on Archie's foot, but he pays him no mind.

"Yeah!" Tabitha says, his eyes lighting up already.

Right before the three of them go to talk to Wattson, Maxie tells Tabitha, quickly, to watch his temper. Tabitha nods, but Archie knows that something like that isn't something that can be changed in a short period of time. He's prepared for Tabitha's temper, though, whether Maxie is or not is something unknown to Archie.

The conversation that Maxie, Archie, and Tabitha have with Wattson goes much more smoothly than any of them would have expected. Wattson seems to honestly have never thought that the New Mauville project may be dangerous to Pokemon in the area and says that he will look into it. He thanks the three of them (sincerely from what they can tell), and they leave.

"It was that easy?" Tabitha asks, shocked.

"I'll admit, I didn't expect it to be that easy either."

"Maybe this'll be a lesson to both of you about," Archie puts on an over exaggerated Maxie voice, "'not losing your temper'."

"You're one to talk!" Maxie says, "I seem to recall a time when you nearly punched someone in the face because they bumped into me and didn't apologize!"

"Who's losing their temper now?" Maxie lets out a breath of air, pointedly ignoring the bemused look on Tabitha's face.

"You're infuriating."

"You love me anyway." Archie gives Maxie a smug grin and Maxie blushes just slightly.

"…That I do." He turns to Tabitha, "I can tell that you love the environment, just like us. We have some…plans that we're working on, and, maybe when they're more developed, you could join us."

"I would love to!" Maxie and Archie say their goodbyes to Tabitha and leave Mauville.

"I think Tabitha fell in love with you," Archie says.

"Yes, well, then, you two have something in common already. I don't blame you either. I am really great." Archie rolls his eyes.


I keep saying 'villainous team' because I don't want to name the team; I feel like I don't have that kind of power.

Also, yes, Norman's girlfriend is indeed our dear protagonist's future mother!