If Brendan hasn't thrown things into a volcano to see what happens, even he knows it's a bad idea.

Their new badges safely put away, and Jerry and Shuppet freshly healed, Brendan and May decided to pay a visit to the Mossdeep Space Center before heading out to the final Gym city, Sootopolis. May wanted to know the probability of finding life on other planets, and Brendan was interested in rockets. It was a win-win situation.

They weren't the only ones with that idea. Almost as soon as they left the Pokémon Center, they met a familiar face, dressed entirely in a shade of red that matched his hair and surrounded by an army dressed in that same shade.

"This is starting to become a chore," Brendan complained, picking out Adam's ball. "Clean your room, sweep the floor, defeat an evil team bent on destroying the world, take out the trash..."

May disguised a laugh as a cough, but gestured to Team Magma. "They might hear you," she said, in a tone that implied she really couldn't care less.

"Good." Brendan started on his way, Adam still in his ball for the moment but kept tightly in his throwing hand. "Then it's time to cross this chore off our list for the day."

May's smile was almost as bright as Lisia's. "I love it when you say things like that," she told him, practically skipping along at his side. "It makes me feel like we're in a spy movie."

She clearly didn't consider Team Magma a threat anymore. She must have assumed Steven had taken care of Groudon like he'd promised. If only Brendan could have that kind of blind faith.


The Space Center was crawling with Team Magma grunts. The scientists, janitor, and visitors were all huddled in the corner, not even bothering to warn the new arrivals to stand down.

"We're here for the rocket fuel," a grunt said when May asked. "Our boss has plans for it."

"Moving you all to the moon, I hope," Brendan said, more to himself than to the grunt or even May. Then he unleashed his Breloom to sweep the floor with the grunt's Baltoy.

The grunt guarding the stairs wasn't any better. He was expecting to see them, and he was not happy about it.

"Four," he said softly. "FOUR kids getting in our way now. I thought that the Contest star would be a pushover in battle, but the brat caused some kind of distraction with that Altaria, walked right into our huddle, stole my buddy Jake's sandwich, diverted our speech from making land-expansion plans into a High School Musical sing-along, and danced out!"

Dancing Shadow. Lisia's codename was officially Dancing Shadow now. Brendan was sure he'd heard it from somewhere, but the story of her first unauthorized Team Breakneck mission was perfect for it. "I didn't tell her to do that," he said, trying not to laugh.

The grunt didn't seem to believe him.

"I don't believe you," he said, reaching for a ball. "But I'm here because Maxie said so, and I'm going to do what he told me to. Mightyena, go!"

Brendan reached for a ball of his own. "Adam, do the thing!"

As Brendan battled, May turned to the shocked citizens of Mossdeep City and gave them a reassuring smile. "Don't worry," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "We do this all the time."

"All the time?" a woman dared to ask. "Why?"

"Because," May answered bluntly, "we're the only ones who seem to care."

"But we care!" a scientist complained. "We just aren't that good at battling, our Pokémon are assistants in our jobs!"

"Then it sucks to be you, doesn't it?" May turned her head back to the battle. "Don't worry, Brendan's got this."

And even if he didn't, she had his back. That was the most important thing.


Adam had refused to go back in his ball after the battle. Brendan and May no longer cared. So, it was with a Blaziken trailing after them that they wandered right into an ambush, three Magma grunts to two kids.

"There's even MORE of us up ahead," one grunt taunted. "Maxie took precautions this time."

Adam felt his talons twitch into a fist, but he kept the urge to punch under control. "You really think it's a good idea to pick on kids with a BLAZIKEN bodyguard?"

The grunts didn't even acknowledge his presence. "Two against three. What do you think of that?"

Brendan nodded toward his first Pokémon, and stepped aside to allow Adam to take his place in front. "I think that it's still not enough to give you an even chance."

May called Jerry to the field, and the two starters shared a look of pure determination. When the three grunts all sent out a Pokémon, leaving Brendan and May outnumbered, Brendan sent in Grumpig to cover the gap.

Two minutes later, the kids were moving past the grunts, and the grunts were complaining loudly about their loss. In the back of the room, they found familiar faces. One was a scientist-looking guy with an obnoxious amount of red, another a heavy guy in a red hoodie, and the third was young and pretty, with silver hair and a fancy, impractical suit.

Steven saw them before Maxie did. "I was wondering when you'd be here," he said, his eyes flicking between them and Maxie. "You really are danger magnets, aren't you?"

"Troublesome infants," Maxie corrected, giving Brendan and May a disgusted look. "They don't know when to quit."

"Neither do you," Steven pointed out. "Releasing Groudon without a plan for stopping it wasn't enough for you, so now you're trying to steal rocket fuel? Calling them troublesome seems a little hypocritical, don't you think?"

"The rocket fuel plan is brilliant!" Maxie snapped. "We'll jettison the rocket fuel into Mt. Chimney. We don't need it anymore now that Groudon is gone. So we'll use the fuel's power to make the volcano erupt!"

Three people stared at him, all voices failing. Even Tabitha seemed surprised, as if he hadn't been told of the plans for the rocket fuel once they'd stolen it and had finally realized that his boss was insane and not to be trusted.

"That," Steven said after a moment, "is the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

"No it isn't! It's foolproof!"

May didn't even bother to try. "I've beaten this guy in every confrontation we had," she told Steven. "I can take him again."

"And what about him?" Steven gestured to Tabitha, still standing in stunned silence to the side.

"He's all yours, if you want him."

Steven laughed. "You are used to this, aren't you?" May rolled her eyes, the You have no idea unsaid. "Fine, then. May, let's show them what they're dealing with and keep the rocket fuel out of their incapable hands."


Brendan and Adam didn't know why Maxie had expected a different outcome for this match. Maxie had a Camerupt, and May had a Swampert. Even the Crobat falling to Pikachu didn't seem to do much to stop his determination. But May had a better plan for the Mightyena, and had been saving it for this very occasion.

"Latias, take the stage!"

The look on Maxie's face was worth it. "Impossible," he whispered, his voice gone.

Tabitha made an incomprehensible noise, finally choking out, "She's got a legendary on her side?" He turned to Maxie, fear on his face for the first time. "We have to get out of here, dude. There's no telling what that thing can do."

"But you'll miss all the fun!" May complained. "After all, you're very lucky right now. You get to be among the first to see Latias at her full power!" Latias turned her head back to her trainer, and May smiled back and raised her hand. "Latias, Mega Evolve!"

It was hard to tell if it was the energy from the stones, the psychic attack from Steven's Metang, or Tabitha's shout of creative profanity that shook the windows, but when the light cleared and Mega Latias stared her opponents down, you could almost hear the sound of Maxie's Mightyena wetting itself in terror.

May pointed directly at it. "Dragonbreath!" she commanded, and Mega Latias followed the order with no further delay.

"Metal Claw!" Steven commanded at the same time.

Both Maxie's Mightyena and Tabitha's Golbat crashed into a pile of Pokémon on the floor of the Space Center. Mega Latias returned to normal and high-fived Steven's Metang, before doing the same for her trainer.

Maxie looked almost furious. "If you think," he hissed at May and Steven, "for even one fraction of a second...that you have ended it here..."

"I'd say we have," Steven said shortly. "This was pretty clearly grasping at straws."

"I know, right?" May gestured to the equipment behind her. "You try to force a volcano's eruption with a meteorite, only to let your musical gene influence you - by the way, I'd stick to singing in the shower if I were you, that's how my mom and I work." Maxie grunted, but didn't interrupt her. "Then you take the Blue Orb from Mt. Pyre, hoping that it would let you control Groudon, and instead you just make it angry. Then you try to launch rocket fuel into said volcano? I'm not a rocket scientist, but I am a scientist's daughter and a research addict, and I can tell you that it would not have expanded the land mass at all and instead just wiped out Lavaridge and Fallarbor, maybe even Mauville." She crossed her arms over her chest and glared, looking almost like a tiny mother. "Any more brilliant ideas, Maxie?"

There was a moment of silence from Team Magma's leader as he comprehended the fact that a twelve-year-old girl had seen the fault in his plan where he couldn't. "I'm done," he said, keeping it short and to the point. There was some kind of emotion, but he wasn't angry, and that confused them all. He turned to Tabitha, almost apologetic. "If we failed to control Groudon, and still failed to force the volcano to erupt...then it seems we have to face the possibility that we were -"

"Completely out of your minds?" May suggested.

"Certifiably insane?" Steven cut in.

"Homicidal morons?" Brendan offered, rounding out the trio of heroes speaking at once.

"...Misguided," Maxie finished. "Not wrong, in that humans do need land to live and the land-based Pokémon population would increase in such a situation, but misguided in how we went about making room for an increasing population." Then the smallest hint of a maniacal grin was on his lips. "And if we were misguided...then there is a chance that Archie is completely wrong."

"So we'll give up on the rocket fuel, right?" Tabitha asked hopefully.

"We have more important matters to discuss," Maxie agreed. "We need to find Courtney and see if she can find these...holes. Or, better yet, hire an annoying preteen or two as advisor."

"Or you can swear your eternal allegiance to Team Breakneck," Brendan suggested.

"No," Maxie and Tabitha both answered, and then they left, taking their grunts with them.

May seemed concerned. "Do you think that's the last we'll see of Team Magma?" she asked.

"I doubt it." Even so, Brendan couldn't stop the little bubble of hope. He ignored the feeling anyway. "They've got to have another evil plan sticking to a wall somewhere. The important thing is that we're prepared for when they or Team Aqua strike next."

"Well said." Steven started to leave himself, then turned around halfway across the room. "Follow me to my house," he ordered. "I want to thank you for this, but I just don't seem to have your prize with me."

A prize? He said it like defeating Team Magma was a kind of carnival game!

But, accustomed as they were to having no choice in what they do, they followed him anyway. At least Steven had proven himself trustworthy.