They were only on their journey for a few days and already everything was getting much more complicated than Juleka had bargained for. She thought, perhaps naively, that they'd find Adrien, maybe battle with Gabriel, and in the end everything would wind up okay.

Well, not okay. Gabriel would be in jail, Adrien would still probably be upset, she and the others would need to support him but that's not anything outside what they would do anyway. It would end as well as it could. She didn't think something like this pokémon, this fascinating amalgam of a sabelye and vaporeon, was even possible. And yet there it was, nuzzling into Joshua like an excited puppy.

"Well…" Marinette said. "I see what you meant, now."

Juleka did too. She would've been hard pressed to describe this pokémon to someone who'd never seen it, or at least had not encountered another hybrid like it. Something like this only proved that nothing was quite how they imagined. How far does this go? We still don't even know why Gabriel was causing the megas. And now there's this…

Joshua at least seemed fond of it, in a weird way. He smiled and petted it. "It really likes attention." He said. Understandable. It was on its own for probably about three months. "Come on, give it a pat."

Nino shifted uncomfortably on the balls of his feet, and Alya and Marinette seemed likewise put off by the creature. So, Juleka rose to the occasion. Luckily, she'd always liked things most people found scary. Horror creature it may be, but it was a cool one. "What do we call it?" She asked, kneeling next to Joshua.

Alya leaned over her shoulder. "It's like a… sableon."

"Vaporeye." Marinette offered.

Joshua laughed. "I'm calling it H-1, for now. Hybrid one."

"That's a bit impersonal."

"Honestly, I don't think it can tell the difference." Joshua said. Juleka reached out to touch it and was taken aback by the rough fur. Doesn't that hurt when it's cuddling like that? "At least, it doesn't seem to recognize simple phrases."

"A more basic pokémon, then?" Alya asked. "Neither sableye nor vaporeon are particularly dumb, though."

"No, but the fusion process may have left it… well, let's not assume anything just yet. It's only a temporary name at the moment, anyway. More identification than name, even."

Alya knelt down as well and gave it a gentle pet. "It's so rough."

"Hmm." Joshua worried his lip. "Yeah. I'm obviously not a biologist, but I'd guess something got mixed up with vaporeon's fur and sableye's gemstones. Its fur has been crystallized."

"You know, Josh, I feel like you know more about this kind of thing than you let on."

"Haha, well, my mom wanted me to be a scientist like her. I grew up around this kind of thing. Or, well, not this, obviously, but anatomy and physiology."

"And you ended up as a model?"

"I wouldn't say ended up. I'm still young. Who knows what I'll end up doing, but, yeah. After she took off, I found out modelling was a good way to help Dad support us so…" He shrugged.

"Oh. Sorry."

Joshua laughed. "No worries."

"So," Alya asked. "In your scientific opinion, how does this little guy fit into all this with Gabriel and the megas?"

Joshua frowned at H-1 for a moment before speaking. "In my very unscientific opinion, I doubt we've seen the last of these hybrids. At a guess, and I think I told Nino this, I think the one behind the devices that triggered mega evolution is also behind this. Likewise it's fair to assume at this point that this is far beyond Gabriel's ability alone, but you guys would probably know better than me."

"Gabriel is a fashion designer." Nino said. "And Adrien never mentioned anything even remotely like an interest in this."

Joshua nodded. "And this is just speculation, so please don't put too much stock in it, but I think it's possible that this was the goal all along. The hybrids."

Marinette finally approached and knelt near the small circle. "What do you mean?"

"Mega evolution is a phenomenon that still isn't extremely well understood, from what I've read. But, it is a form change that's called on at will and can be reverted, which makes it unique among evolution. Next to ditto, and ditto is impractical for this kind of study for a variety of reasons, it is probably the easiest access to that kind of form change. Still, Mega Stones and Key Stones are rare. If hybrids were the goal, finding a way to induce mega evolution is not an unreasonable step in the process. It's likely that hybrids are easier to make if one or both pokémon is already in a state of transition. Normal evolution is too unpredictable to get the timing right for something like that, and assuming the specimen survives, it's not repeatable, which just means you need even more specimens for the research. That's both expensive and impractical."

Marinette nodded. "So, the megas in Lumiose… were what? Experiments?"

"Maybe. Not many pokémon are recorded to be capable of mega evolution. Testing on the ones you find would be… economical. Unethical, obviously, but cost-effective."

"It didn't seem like the devices were still in development."

"They might not be. Gabriel was most likely the one actually putting the devices on the pokémon. It could have been already finished and just part of the deal was he got to use them."

"In return for money?"

"Most likely. Assuming that situation in the first place."

"But why make hybrids in the first place?"

Joshua shook his head. "No clue. Recognition? Power? Maybe they're trying to make the strongest pokémon; people have tried that before."

"But the problem," Alya said, "is that we still can't link anything together. We can guess how the mega devices and H-1 are related, but what do either of those have to do with Hideaway Massage? Why did Gabriel have that ledger?"

"I think that's something we'll have to go to Hideaway to find out."

"Speaking of." Marinette said. "What did you find on it?"

"Honestly, not much. The place is basically off the grid. No website, no address, nothing. I'm starting to doubt it's even in Kalos."

"There must be some way to find it." Juleka said. "There are customers."

"I'm thinking it's a real niche place. Kind of an 'invite only' thing, you know?"

"Could there be a clue in Gabriel's emails? Now that we know a little better what to look for?"

"Nothing obvious, girl."

Marinette cut in. "Didn't he talk about some sort of deal in one of them?"

Juleka pulled out her phone to check the pictures she took of the emails. She saw Joshua hold H-1 protectively, covering its eyes. Oops. Forgot. "Sorry. But here." She said. "But it's not really helpful. 'Money has been sent. We will meet soon to renegotiate these prices.'"

"Doesn't sound like he was buying a massage." Nino said.

"No." Juleka locked her phone again and put it away, not wanting to cause problems with H-1 by keeping it on. "It doesn't."

"There's no address?"

"No, just his signature."

"What about the ledger itself?"

"What about it?" Alya asked.

"Well, it had names on it, didn't it? If we can find where the customers or employees are, we're that much closer to the Hideaway itself."

"I thought that too." Alya dug the ledger out of her bag and opened it to a page closer to the middle. "A few of the names here later on are circled, so I tried digging into them."

Marinette sighed. "Let me guess. No luck?"

"None."

"Ignore the circled names for now, then. Let's go through the ledger to see if we can find repeat visitors instead. If they go often, they must live nearby. And if we're careful, we may even be able to ask them to get us inside."

"Good idea. Let's get back to the Pokémon Center and get to work. Josh, how's H-1 doing?"

"It should be fine so long as it's in the pokéball. I wish I could let Nurse Joy give it a checkup, but it at least seems fine. I'll keep an eye on it."

"Good. Let's get going. It's going to be a long night."

And a long night it was. Desperate to find a direction by morning, they took turns entering the dates and names in the ledger onto Alya's laptop so they could easily organize the entries by customer. The problem being, of course, it was a very thick book and well over three-fourths full with entries.

"Jules." Juleka awoke groggy and unfocused. Eventually, her eyes focused on the perhaps even more tired eyes of Marinette. "We're almost there. Think you could finish up? I'm about to collapse."

"Sure." She stood and moved into the pale glow of the laptop screen, the white searing her tired eyes. I know how H-1 feels. With a small desk light illuminating the ledger, and her sleeping friends around her, Juleka continued where Marinette left off.

September 17, Rudolph Hudson, Bertha. September… this is more recent than I had thought. That was when the attacks in Lumiose were going on. Don't know why I figured this thing would be more outdated.

Whatever. September 17, Travis Baker, Malinda. September 18, Diana Muldooney, Rex.

Something feels weird about this. I feel like there's a pattern I'm not seeing yet. Hmm. September 18, Johnathan Harris, Bertha. September 18, Travis Baker, Kady. Twice in two days, Travis? Someone's busy.

September 18, Reese Reaman, Showers. Odd name. Also Reese, I'm so sorry about your name. September 18, Yvonne Smith, Sable. September 18, Robert Muldooney, Showers. Circled this time. And Muldooney… relation to Diana, maybe? Weird that they came the same day but are so far apart on the list. September 18, Peter Newman, Kady. September 19, Travis, really? Ugh, and with Malinda again.

Wait… Travis with Malinda and Kady. Peter with Kady. Diana with Rex. Rudolph with Bertha. Johnathan with Bertha. Aside from this "Showers" and maybe "Sable", too, just because I don't know who might have those names, all of the customers and employees are paired by opposite sex. But even then, Showers is on here twice, both with men, and Sable seems to only be paired with women. This is a little too common to be just random. She looked around to her slumbering friends and caught sight of a paper and pen with a small list of its own. "Match Male-Female". So, it's not just me, then. One of the others noticed too.

On top of that, it looks like most of the customers are men in the first place. Juleka continued entering the names until she came across another circled employee name. Sable. But the customer is Diana Muldooney. Showers was first circled on Robert Muldooney's entry, wasn't it? Odd. She wrote down her observation on the paper as well and continued in her task.

December 25, Travis Baker, Malinda. Even on Christmas. Get a life, Travis. December 26, Greggory Duchannes, Noel and Bertha. A few of those doubles. Maybe it's just the specific massage they got? Don't know much about massage.

It was five in the morning when Juleka finally finished entering all the names, a good three hours of work, but it was done. And now we just… sort. She clicked the button, and the intense catharsis she felt seeing the rows rearrange themselves into an actual order was priceless. Thank Arceus. Now, we're looking for patterns. Who's gone the most? Travis, typical. He was there almost every day for like three months, and that's just the bit I did. Of course, he's the most popular customer. How did you even afford that?

I should probably wake up Alya. If we want to get anywhere today, we need to know where we're going. Now that this is done, hopefully it won't take long to find a lead.

She rose, stretching to relieve her muscles from the hours spent hunched over a desk, and gently shook Alya awake.

Alya reached sleepily for her glasses. "How's progress?"

"Finished typing up all the entries. Now we just need to find out where to go."

"Perfect, let me see." Juleka backed up quickly to allow Alya to jump out of the bunk and claim the desk chair. That was fine, of course. Juleka could use a few minutes standing, anyway. "Yeah I noticed that Travis guy was pretty obsessed with the place." Alya said. "Let's see if I can't find him."

Juleka leaned over her shoulder to watch as she searched for Travis on the internet. "Some rich heir." She observed. "Think Chloé knows him?"

"That's… actually a really good point. Text her for me, will you? While I look into some of these other people."

"Uh, sure. You think she'll even respond? It's pretty early."

"Worth at least texting her."

Juleka just shrugged and pulled out her phone.

JC: Hey, we want to ask you something. A follow up from something we found in the Agreste's old place.
CB: Any other reason and I would strangle you for texting me at five in the freaking morning.
CB: Well? What is it?
JC: Do you know someone named Travis Baker?
CB: What on earth do you want with that loser?
JC: So you know him?
CB: Unfortunately. I've had the displeasure of running into him on occasion. His father is very wealthy so we sometimes go to the same galas. He's a creep at the best of times.
CB: What about him?
JC: He frequents someplace called "Hideaway Massage Parlor", but we can't figure out where it is. We think Adrien may have gone there after he left here.
CB: Ew. Anyplace Travis frequents is bad news, trust me.
JC: Why's that?
CB: I told you!
CB: He's a freaking creep!
CB: He's been flirting with me since I was like eight.
JC: Wow, that is concerning.
CB: Shut up, Couffaine. What's creepy is he's almost ten years older than us.
JC: Yikes.
CB: Exactly. I hope Adrien had a good reason for going somewhere he'd hang out.
JC: Now I kind of hate to ask, but do you think you could get the location for us?
CB: Please. Who do you think I am? I'll have it to you ASAP.

"Alya, Chloé knows Travis. She's going to get the location of the Hideaway from him."

Alya laughed. "That's my girl."

"She also says he's a huge creep and anywhere he hangs out is sure to be bad news."

"Yeah, well, given we're chasing an abusive father who literally carried out terrorist attacks on Lumiose City, and probably also a mad scientist who's experimenting with pokémon fusion, I'd be surprised if this wasn't bad news."

Juleka snickered. "That's fair. Anything else?"

"Nah, girl. I'm trying to follow up on the Muldooneys. Good eye with the circled employees, by the way, but I'm not finding anything. No social media, no professional accounts… Hmm. They could be pseudonyms. We don't know anything about the Hideaway, so we can't say whether pseudonyms would be allowed on the ledger. That's if the Hideaway even knew."

Juleka felt her phone vibrate, and opened Chloé's text. "That was fast."

"Chloé works fast. Can't deny that."

CB: I'm just going to send you the screenshots.
CB: But you're welcome, and I told you so.
CB:

CB: Travis. Wake up.
TB: woah clo wats up
CB: 1) You are literally 26 years old. Try spelling like an adult for once in your life.
CB: 2) Where's Hideaway Massage Parlor?
TB: wherd u her abt tht
TB: shit what do u want
TB: who told u
CB: All of that is my business. The only thing you should worry about is giving me the location. Now.
TB: wait why do u want to know where it is
TB: oooh thats hot actually
TB: tell you what how abt i take you huh
CB: How about you tell me where it is, or I tell your parents you go there almost every day?
TB: u woulnt
TB: ud expose urself to
CB: Try me. I've obviously never been there. But I have evidence of just how often you go.
TB: shit
TB: ur dad wouldn't stand for it
TB: just admitting interest is enough and ive got the convo to prove that
CB: I have deniability. Thanks for confirming it's a shady place, by the way.
TB: fuck u dnt evn kno do u
TB: uv no idea what the hideaway is
CB: Not a clue.
TB: ur lyin
TB: howd u hear about it
TB: why do u want to find it
CB: Again, that's my business. Now are you going to tell me where it is, or do I have to take the matter to your parents?
CB: Or maybe the press?
TB: dont! our rep would be ruined!
CB: Then you should probably get with the telling me what I want to know.
CB: Five minutes.
TB: its in shalour!
TB: plz dont squeal
TB: theres an alolan malasada shop a few blocks down from the pokemon center closest to the route 12 gate
TB: if u head behind it and knock with a code on the red door, theyll let u in
TB: there now u promised to stay quiet
CB: What's the code?
TB: it changes every month
CB: What's. The. Code?
TB: love!
TB: its love in tap code
TB: 3 knocks, then 1, 3, 4, 5, 1, 1, and 5
CB: Thank you.
TB: chlo i promise its not what u think
CB: I thought I made it clear that I don't even know what this place is. All I know is it can ruin you, and that's all I need to know.
TB: no plz
TB: look im gonna tell u
TB: if u promise not to rat me out
CB: Why on Earth would I promise that?
TB: shit
TB: well ur gonna find out eventually if ur goin there
TB: just please take time before saying anything
TB: think about it
CB: I'm listening.
TB: its not really a massage parlor
CB: No shit.
TB: its a
TB: fuck
TB: its a brothel
CB: I knew you were the type to spend your father's fortune on hookers.
CB: Is that supposed to surprise me?
TB: no its a pkmn brothel
TB: like the hookers are pokemon not people
TB: chlo?
TB: still there?
TB: plz don't squeal i wont go anymore just plz dont tell anyone
TB: please
TB: i swear the pokmna re into it 2
TB: i swear u have to at least look right
TB: just consider it?
TB: better u hear it from me than walk in there without knowing whats going on right
TB: so i did u a favor by telling u yeah
TB: so please dont tell anyone
TB: pretty plz

CB: It takes a lot to make me speechless but this might just take the cake.
CB: Serious question, how do I even respond to that pathetic display?
JC: Holy shit.
CB: Yeah, that does seem an appropriate response.
CB: Obviously I'm ratting the place out, but I'll stay quiet as long as you guys need to get a lead on Adrien.
JC: Hold on, I'll ask Alya about it.

"Alya."

"What'd Chloe get?"

Juleka worried her lip, unsure how to put it into words. "Uh… you know what? Just read it."

She handed the phone to Alya and watched as her expression shifted from amused to disgusted. "What the fuck does Gabriel have to do with this kind of place?" She shook her head. "We should tell the police immediately."

"But…" Juleka felt dirty saying it. She felt like she needed to clean her tongue with bleach. This is a horrible thing to do. "If the police get there before we do, we'll hit a dead end."

Alya growled audibly. "We can't let this keep happening. But you're right. The police would cordon off the area, and any evidence of Gabriel or Adrien being there would be gone before we get the chance to look around."

"If there's any evidence."

"So do we leave these pokémon in this situation for a few more days on the chance of finding evidence?"

Juleka curled into herself. The thought itself was disgusting. She knew what the right answer was. Of course she did. "What's the chance the pokémon aren't abused?"

"Asymptotically approaching zero. Girl, you know that shit is illegal."

I do know. But I want to find Adrien. And if we tell… we may lose our only solid lead. Desperately, she searched for an excuse. "Lots of pokémon are intelligent enough to consent. Maybe-"

"In the underground, illegal brothel, the pokémon working there are totally there of their own free will. Yeah. Definitely." The sarcasm dripping from Alya's words seeped into Juleka's heart. "But even still." Alya's voice was softer, quieter. "What other lead do we have? It's only a couple day's journey, right? Just a few days."

Rocco would have killed for a few days out of the ring. She didn't think it consciously, but the knowledge of that statement nagged at her. "Just a few days." She repeated. It was an impossible decision. The pokemon, who are strangers, or one person, their friend, both who need their help. It was almost laughably cliché. A perfect Trolley Problem. And Juleka was frozen solid.

Bzzzt. Juleka's phone, in Alya's hand, buzzed. She and Alya both looked at it.

CB: Find Adrien. Once you get what you need, say the word and I'll have the feds on it faster than you can say "Fuck this place".

"Well, we know where Chloé stands on the issue." Alya said.

Juleka looked at the others, still peacefully asleep. "What do we say to them?"

"We have to tell them. We can't have them walking in there without knowing what to expect."

"But would they tell? Have we decided not to?"

Alya groaned loudly. "I don't know. Maybe we should…"

Juleka had thought often of what she'd do if she found out about a street fighting ring. Knowing Rocco, she couldn't excuse not immediately reporting it. But she'd never even considered this situation. And it's not so simple as just the abuse. Would I report a ring if it was my only lead to finding my best friend?

I wish Rose were here. Except I don't. Not really. I don't want her to be in this situation. She's too empathetic.

But that right there tells me what I want to do, doesn't it? Does this make me a bad person?

"Until we get to Shalour…" Juleka said quietly.

"Just to be safe." Alya said. "It's our secret."