Bona Fide

William was quiet for the rest of the ride. Katy supposed he didn't have much to say after they had just agreed to let this new character in on their mission. Grae, on the other hand, was quite chatty. According to him, he was essentially a trainer nomad like the rest of them, specializing in Ghost Pokémon and he apparently had an extensive collection of them. It took a while to accumulate the number of Ghost partners he had mentioned so far; Katy believed he was older than he looked.

Ghost Pokémon were rare. And more than that, they were expensive, if one were to purchase one. Katy wondered if he had caught all of his partners or even most of them. Katy didn't even have one. She'd only seen a wild Polteageist before. Quite the story, actually. When she had spied a lone antique teapot in a dumpster, she assumed as much and tried to catch it. But the Pokémon ran and after Katy had pursued it for a while, she eventually lost it. Grae hadn't mentioned a Polteageist in his collection of teammate, but he did mention who would be helping them.

The four of them stepped off the bus, having arrived at their destination, and made their way down the street. "So, who do you plan to have help us get into the research facility?" said Christian.

"Marilyn and Monroe!" He said proudly, walking up to a street PC and waiting in line for his turn to use the machine. "One specializes in invisibility and the other specializes in phasing through objects.

"Marilyn and Monroe," said William dryly.

"Yeah! They're awesome!" Grae stepped up to the machine when the person in front of him left with a Poké Ball in their hand. He typed in his trainer license number, navigated to a specific Box and chose two items. Under the PC started another machine, this one like a 3D printer, creating one Poké Ball out of pixelated light and then another. Grae took both the spheres, one in each hand after logging out of the PC, and turned back around to the other three. "I've had them for a while—not as long as most of my other Pokémon, but long enough." He pressed the buttons in their centers and the Balls cracked open, light leaping out and into the air.

Two Drifloon fabricated from the light and began floating upward. One with a yellow bow at its neck and one with a yellow bow on its head.

"Guys, meet Marilyn and Monroe! Marilyn and Monroe, meet the guys! Plus a lady." He winked at Katy.

But she didn't giggle this time. All three of them watched as the two Drifloon continued floating upward, without pausing, without slowing down.

Grae looked between their faces and whirled around, looking up. They were getting smaller and smaller. "Ay. … Ay, guys!"

And there they went. Rising forevermore into the sky, into oblivion.

Grae used his hand as a visor and he squinted up at the Pokémon as they became specks in the vast blue that was beginning to turn orange as the sun had begun to set. "Huh." He looked back at the other three. "Haha! They're… they're such kidders." He waved a hand. "They'll… they'll come back. They always do." He looked up again, his hands on his hips.

"Baay." Chuckey stared at nothing, letting his chilling voice slip through the zipper on his face.

"Tch," William turned around and began walking. Christian hesitantly followed.

Katy smiled at Grae. "I like them."

He smiled back at her. "Really?"

"Yeah. They're super cute." She pulled her shoulders up closer to her jaws.

Grae laughed. "Yeah! They are pretty cute, aren't they?" He looked up again. They were nowhere to be seen now.

"Come on. I think William's heading to a motel." Katy walked with him behind Christian and William.

The first motel they found was the one they checked into. They rented two rooms for Katy, William, and Christian. Grae rented his own room. The rooms were all right next to each other and the four of them went up a couple floors and down a hall, shifting to the right for a trainer leaving with their Whirlipede leading the way.

The four dropped their baggage in their rooms and then went back downstairs to the café across the street for a late dinner. Christian couldn't stop talking about his chicken and waffles from the time he ordered them through the trek back to the motel.

Katy enjoyed listening to him talk. About anything, really. Especially food, but mostly anything that invoked his passion. He was such a passionate person, and it seemed to be spread so thickly over so many areas. How could one person have so much love and happiness to share with everyone else? Someone who seemed like he had reasons to not have so much love and happiness. His mom and dad had split up. That could be hard on a kid, no matter what age. Maybe that wasn't it. Maybe it was something else. There was a fixer in Katy and one way or another she would find out and do what she could to help.

Marilyn and Monroe had floated their way back down to planet Earth and somehow miraculously found their trainer on the way back from their late dinner. William shook his head as Grae returned the Pokémon back to their spheres. Tomorrow it seemed these two balloon heads were going to be their guides through a security ridden facility. Katy hoped they were everything Grae touted. He had a confidence about him that was hard to deny, kind of like Christian in that respect. But this confidence exuded a potency that surpassed anything fabricated to keep one appearing as such. It was genuine. Bona fide. Grae really, truly believed in himself and his Pokémon that much. And to Katy, that was admirable.

The next morning, Katy turned over in her bed and sighed contentedly. It was probably about time she got up. They had a big day ahead of them anyway. She opened her eyes and jolted out of her skin.

Chuckey, that Banette of Grae's, was lying next to her on his back, staring at the ceiling.

"Jesus Christ," Katy sat up and rubbed her face.

"Bay," said the Ghost Pokémon.

"Yeah, you scared the shit out of me. You are the creepiest little son of a bitch I've ever met." She slapped her pillow and flipped the other way out of bed, leaving Chuckey laying against her other pillow. Katy put on some clothes and left her room, walking just across the hall to Grae's room where she knocked abruptly on the door.

It took a long moment for him to answer. "Hey, Katy!" he said brightly. "Good morning!"

"Morning. Your Banette is in my bed."

"Do what?" Grae scratched his head. His silver hair was delightfully disheveled.

"Look." She turned back around and walked into her room and stared at him, gesturing to her bed.

Grae blinked at the bed. "My Banette, you said?"

"Yes! He's right—" She did a double take at her bed. It was empty. Katy blinked. She looked back to Grae. "I swear, he was right—" And when she had turned her attention back to Grae, she found the Banette standing next to his trainer, some of his red-yarn hair stringing in his face.

Grae looked down beside him, then back to Katy. "Yeah, he does that. Sorry."

She scoffed. "Whatever." Katy started putting her shoes on. "Come on, let's go wake up the boys."

"The boys," Grae mused, "I like the sound of that. Maybe one day I can be included in that sentiment." He put his hands on his hips happily.

"Uh, I don't know about that. William's condition was you could help with this mission but afterward you were, uh… not around anymore."

"So, all I have to do is convince William and you and Christian are okay with hanging out?"

"Heh. Yeah, sure. If you can convince William to let you hang out, you will have my utmost respect." Katy stood up. "Okay. Let's go get them."

When the group had convened, they all skipped breakfast to go straight to the research facility. None of them knew why they were in such a hurry. There was no time to keep. Nothing but pure excitement and curiosity drove them.

They arrived at the building and went around to the back where the loading docks were. Grae released Marilyn and Monroe and this time they only floated up to the overhang. "Ha HA!" he laughed. "No where to float off to. Okay, you two. We need your help." He grasped a string from each balloon and pulled them down. "So, this only works if we're all touching. So, William, you hold onto Monroe. He's responsible for making us invisible. And I'll hold onto Marilyn. She will make us walk through walls. The rest of us will hold each others' hand in a line. And we'll just take this nice and slow."

William looked up at the Drifloon and took one of its two strings then turned his attention to Katy. She took his hand and then Christian's. Christian took Grae's hand and the latter insisted on laced fingers for some reason.

"All right, Marilyn, Monroe… do your thing!"

One of the balloons made a whistling sound. The other waved one of its strings. And that was it. Quite anticlimactic.

Katy blinked. "Did it work?"

"Let's find out, shall we?" Grae took a step forward and put his hand out to the building's wall. It passed right through. He looked up at Christian with a wily smile as he walked through. He pulled Christian along, who pulled Katy along. The blonde looked back at Katy just before his face disappeared behind the wall.

She wanted to move slower. She flinched as the imminent impact closed in proximity of her nose. Katy squeezed her eyes shut and waited to smack her face against the concrete. But it didn't happen. When she opened her eyes, they were inside the building, people in uniforms passing by without paying them the slightest bit of attention. Katy blinked and looked behind her. William stepped through the wall after her, pulling Monroe with him. They were inside. And no one could see them except themselves.

Grae put a finger over his lips, directly between his snake bite piercings. He motioned for them to continue on.

They didn't know where they were going, but they all seemed content to just follow Grae in a single file line, still holding hands. Grae figured the further they went in and the tighter the security seemed, the closer they got to finding the test subjects. And soon enough, they reached a steel locked door with red, caged bulbs over the top. They easily passed through the door and stepped through to the other side.

There were no Advancement employees in here and the lights were off but little lights glowed all the way around the room. In the dimness, Katy made out a sight she could never unsee. She let go of Christian and William's hand.

An Oranguru sat in a cage that was so small it couldn't turn around if it wanted to. Its fur was gray and matted. Chunks were missing and the bottom of the cage was lined with loose hair. It wore a headband that went over its forehead and this is where the little lights were coming from. Because it wasn't just the Oranguru. Cages lined the whole room, many stacked on top of each other. There was a Girafarig in a cage shorter than it was tall. An Oricorio had lost most of its feathers, making it appear like a skinny, naked, beaked rat. Its fans were frayed and dropped to the bottom of the cage. A Gothorita turned its head to them, blinking its large, blue eyes slowly.

"Oh… my God," breathed Christian.

William sighed. "I think we found the test subjects."