Hello guys!

And finally, our favorite Dexholders are back in the game! Time to definitely say goodbye to Kalos, and welcome in Unova! You can be sure that a lot of surprises wait for them here!

Anyway, I hope you will enjoy it and, once again, thank you to Hilda for beta-reading it.

oOo

This is Gear Station. This is a transregional train between Lumiose City and Castelia City via Couriway Town and Gear Station. Change here for the Battle Subway and the National Rail Services. Please watch out for the gap between the train and the platform.

The feminine voice in the speakers resonated in the car as the train from Kalos to Unova eventually arrived in Nimbasa City. The blue sky that could be seen from behind the window was now hidden by the beige curved walls and the metallic roof of the station. The screech of the train's wheels announced the end of the railway journey. Soon enough, the vehicle stopped, and the silent platform was filled with voices, steps, suitcases rolling on the gray tiles and the bumpy yellow stripes.

After the other passengers got out of the car, a group of people got out of the train. They did not look like a normal group, more like a rather strange mix of people. A little girl with short red-pink hair was playing with a punk man happily, the older of the group. A girl with blond short hair chatted cheerfully with two other teenagers of her age, but deliberately ignored a boy with middle-length raven hair, who was speaking with a young man with spiky brownish hair. On their side, two other teenagers, slightly older than the other ones, but clearly younger than the young man and the punk one, were looking around, examining the faces of the crowd. The man with the spiky hair also began looking around and, even if he was good at hiding the fact that he was lost, it was clear that he was not from this area, and was not familiar with this kind of station. He was about to ask something to the hostess in her blue uniform in her futuristic stand when one of the two older teenagers, a girl with two buns, noticed something near the notice board and brought the attention of the group to two silhouettes that seemed to be looking for something - or someone-.

"Ah, here they are!" the girl smiled, already walking toward the two people, a large smile on her face.

The rest of the group followed in silence, the major part of it is clearly unfamiliar with the other people, and the area. Near the map of the railway network, the two individuals noticed the rather strange assembling of people and came to them.

The girl of the couple, a young woman with a wavy and imposing ponytail, was the first one to speak.

"Whi-two! Lack-two! You returned quickly from your trip to Kalos!" she started, looking at the former member of the Team Plasma and the International Police Officer before she looked at the rest of the crew. "Are you the people they told us about before? As in the other Dexholders that are trying to catch the one responsible for those attacks?"

"Yes, we are," the man with spiky hair nodded. "I am Green Oak, from the region of Kanto, and here you have X, Y, Shauna, and Tierno. And those two are..."

"I'm Edward Beadle, Head of Office in R&D, and this young lady here..."

"I'm Daddy's daughter, Ann!" the little girl interrupted with a large smile on her face. "Nice to meet ya!"

"Nice to meet you too, Ann!" Black grinned. "So, you're all here for the terrorist attack thing, right? Are you sure that they came all the way from Kalos to here?"

"More than likely," Lack-two sighed. "They've already attacked all the labs in Kalos, there's none left. And from Couriway Town, the closest region is Unova. Not to mention that Green and I saw them getting on a train to Unova with our very own eyes."

"Couldn't we have some rest, after the freezing town incident from two years ago?" White complained. "Why do people keep doing this kind of stuff?"

"Who knows..." shrugged Green. "But what we're sure of is that we have to arrest them before they harm more people."

"Do you have any idea of where their next target will be?" asked the Unovan Champion.

"We do," Edward nodded. "There was an incident with some merchants in Driftveil City this morning, a whole group of people went to the market and stole some goods. According to the different witnesses, this group of thieves and our group of terrorists are probably the same. If they're in Driftveil City, we can already exclude Castelia City's lab, and they would've left the train here. There's only Virbank City and Icirrus City left. And to make sure where they would go, we already set somewhat of a plan for it..."

"What do you mean?" White frowned.

"We want to make them only have one choice for a lab to attack, and the easier way for it is to simply make sure that they can't go to the other ones," the Officer explained. "Thanks to our contact with Roxie, the Virbank Gym Leader (he clarified to the Kalosians and Green who stared at him in confusion), we could stop the traffic between Driftveil City and Virbank City, as her father is the boss of the main shipping company that watches over the journey between those two cities. So they now don't have any choice but to go to the third lab of the region, in Icirrus City."

"So they're already on their way to Icirrus City? Do you think we can try to get in their way before they arrive?" Y asked.

"The police and the different gym leaders of the cities between Driftveil and Icirrus are already aware of their presence, so they're already trying to stop them," Edward responded. "But as the Head of Office of the R&D, I'm expected to head to Icirrus when I arrive in Unova. Of course, you don't have the same responsibilities, so the plan for what's coming next is completely up to you all."

"The question is how do we get to Icirrus City before them?" Shauna pointed out.

"What if we ask Skyla?" Black proposed. "If we use her plane, we'll be able to arrive in Icirrus in no time!"

"It may be a good idea, I'll call her to see if it's possible for her to pick us from here!" White agreed.

"In that case, would it be possible to add five other people?" Green asked. "Some of my friends are going to join us, and I think they're already in town. They might want to come with us."

"Some of your friends? Do you mean the other Dexholders from Kanto?" Shauna suggested.

"Yes, there are also others from Johto. I told them about the situation, and they thought it would be a good idea for them to come here as well. According to their last message, they're already in town. I'm going to pick them up."

"Do you want us to accompany you to your meeting point?" proposed White. "I worked for some time a few years ago in this town, so I know the area pretty well."

"Thank you for your offer, but I think it would be better if I go alone," the Viridian Gym Leader replied. "I already know where I have to go, one of my friends wanted to visit one of the fast-food restaurants that's here, so he decided that our meeting point would be there. I already found out that it's near the amusement park's entrance, so hopefully, it won't be too hard to find."

"If you say so..." Black laughed. "Just go to your meeting, we're going to book the plane and all of it!" He looked at the four people from Kalos. "You know, I was always curious about Kalos, how does..."

oOo

Thankfully, the restaurant where Gold had organized the meeting between the Kantonian and Johtonian group was not hard to find. The large billboard with a countdown clock about a hot dog eating contest helped a lot. What the young man was not expecting, however, was the long delay of his friends. He had assumed, according to their latest messages, that they arrived in town before him, so why was he the one that ended up waiting for them? Why was he the one that had to handle the absolutely not discreet stares from children that asked their parents, why was the young man with a strange accent sitting at a table alone?

He just wanted to end this meeting, so they can take the plane and decide on their strategy already. And especially about how to avoid the disaster known as the last attack, because even though they ended up capturing one of them, there were no other words to describe what had happened in Couriway Town. Because even though they were all Pokédex Holders, and even though all of them had already fought regional or world-wide crises on their own, it was not what made them a group that could immediately work with zero mistakes. Sure, the group from Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn could work well together, because they knew each other for a long time now, but it was not the case for the other regions.

Although he had already worked with X and Y, it was a really short time, and their teamwork as a group was not that good. Not to mention the ones from Unova, that he barely knew. And the more of them there are, the more difficult it will be to act like one group. With time, it would be easier, but that was the problem, they missed time to train or even only learn to meet each other, when they were facing a terrorist group that, even if they had some issues with each other, were probably working with each other for a long time now.

Green was thinking about it when a familiar voice interrupted him, "Here you are, Senior Green! Wah, that hot-dogs look so good!"

Sitting in front of him without thinking about manners, Gold looked at the menu, muttering to himself about the different options available. Apparently, the Breeder still had his habit of tasting the culinary specialties of every place he visited. Near him, two embarrassed coughs could be heard, and the Trainer did not even have to look to recognize the two other Dexholders from Johto, Crystal and Silver.

Behind them, Blue and Red were smiling, waving their hand as a sign of greeting. The Gym Leader sighed as the whole group sat at the table, with a clear annoyance behind it that says 'you are late.'

Red was the first one to dare to apologize for the delay, "Sorry Green, we were in a lot of traffic and..."

"Well, if traffic means Gold looking at every single attraction, Senior Red signing autographs for every single people who recognized him, and Gold flirting with some people, yes, we were stuck in a lot of traffic," Crystal moaned, annoyed, the way she rolled her eyes giving away her level of exasperation.

"But we're here now," Blue tried to take control of the situation. "So maybe we should speak about what brought all of us to Unova, shouldn't we? Green, do you have anything else to tell us that you haven't said when you called us?"

The Viridian Gym Leader started to fill them in about the details he was not able to bring up on the phone and the more recent news while they ordered some food for themselves. The five other Dexholders silently listened to the different tricks the terrorists used to escape, all the problems they encountered with the group coordination, how they manage to capture one of them during the last attack but according to what was said to them, the terrorist they caught did not give any useful information about his group's plans or their location, and what they thought would be the terrorists' next move.

"... And it was at this moment that I called you all and Sapphire, Ruby and Emerald..."

"Wait," Gold interrupted. "You also called them? Why aren't they here?"

"I already told you about it Gold, haven't I?" Crystal sighed. "They have to finish some research on a wild Pokémon first, and they'll come when they're done if we haven't stopped the terrorists."

"Also, Silver, Crystal, Gold," Blue said. "Do you know some things about Testsuch? Aren't they from Johto?"

"Yes, I already heard of them," Crystal replied. "They were originally founded in Cianwood City, but when they grew, they decided to move to Goldenrod City. Their work is mainly to promote scientific research in both human and Pokémon fields, by providing financial help and free access to their different laboratories. In exchange, the scientists that work with them have to give them some parts of their research or participate in other projects."

"How do those guys even get their money?" Gold mumbled.

"You know, some of their research results in inventions, that they decide to sell, and, well, people buy them, and thanks to the contract they have with the scientists, Testsuch gets a part of the different benefits. Actually, they even have some brands that sell those products, and some of them are somewhat famous, so they get a lot of money from that. And, of course, they receive some donations from other regions, because they also welcome some public and academic research."

"Do you know what kind of research they do?" Green asked, and none of them; except maybe Gold, missed his frowning face.

"From what I heard, they're doing a lot of research in different fields, so it's hard to tell. But their laboratories are generally specialized in different kinds of research. For example, for the three laboratories that were attacked, the one in Coumarine City was working on water Pokémon bio-diversity and the different energies that influence Pokémon, Lumiose City specializes in pharmacy and cosmetics, and Couriway Town studies the effects of natural products like plants, stone or mineral water on the health, if I'm not wrong."

"And do you know if there was anything in the Lumiose Badlands? They said there were some measuring machines from Testsuch there, but I still don't understand why it's the first place that was attacked," the Gym Leader continued.

"I never heard of a link between the Lumiose Badlands and Testsuch before," the Catcher replied. "But about your question from before, do you think the reason for those attacks is one specific research?"

"Who knows?" the Trainer sighed. "Edward, one of the managers of Testsuch, suggested something like that, but I don't know what kind of research the terrorists are looking for."

"Maybe they don't know where the lab that has this research is and so, they're attacking every lab until they find the right one?" Blue suggested.

"I don't really know myself," Green sighed. "But back in Couriway Town, according to the different traces they left behind, they're most likely looking for something. And they took the faster path to reach their goal, so they probably already knew the lab, or at least the architecture of those labs, so they're probably already familiar with Testsuch."

"But in that case, they probably know, or at least have an idea of where the thing they're looking for is located, shouldn't they? So why would they attack so many places?"

"Maybe the thing they're looking for is split between different labs?" Silver suggested. "In that case, it would be logical for them to attack all the labs until they find everything."

The table became silent, the group looking at the red-haired boy, who looked at them with a "was I seriously the only one who thought of it?" expression. A thing split between different laboratories... What could it be? Green mentally recalled the event of Coumarine Town. Was there anything he missed? He remembered the destroyed room, of course, but the furniture inside was pretty simple, and they didn't have any equipment in it that could store anything related to their research. However, the door of the room was such a strong door, too strong for what he saw inside. There was also the crystal he found on the ground, but even though it was rare to find them in Kalos, they were common enough in Alola so there was already scientific research about them. Plus, if the crystal was that important, there was no way they would just leave it on the ground like that. What else?

Maybe the underground thing... Back in the train, when he questioned Edward about it, he answered that the underground was not mentioned in the plan because they were staff-only places and that the major part of their labs does indeed have some underground floors. He also added that, because it was a staff-only place, they could not let the Dexholders freely enter it, for the safety of the samples, and that if the group wanted to visit the underground to prevent a future attack, they would have to ask a few hours before and they have to be accompanied by some scientists while they were in it. After the punk scientist stated it, he could hear Shauna mumbling about how security protocols were a pain and he could only agree with the brunette.

"Green? You went to Couriway lab, do you have an idea of what their goal can be?"

"I don't really know... We didn't really have the time to analyze what had happened back during the attack, and we left for Unova immediately after the attack. I do remember some things, but nothing concrete, and I can't find a link between all of them yet. I just hope that we'll have the time to visit the lab in Icirrus City before the next attack so that we can find some answers. Also, I think you'll have to talk with the others, they might've noticed some things that I didn't."

"The other... Our juniors from Kalos and Unova?" Blue frowned. "I don't think that we've met them yet."

"Yes, they should be waiting for us to take the plane by now. Speaking of that, if we want to have time to visit the lab, we should leave now, shouldn't we?" the Trainer said before he asked for the check.

Without another word, the group of Kantonian and Johtonian Dexholders left the restaurant.

oOo

Fact of the chapter: For the more observant, people, you may have noticed a sentence of this chapter, "Couldn't we have some rest, after the freezing town incident from two years ago?". This may be a good time to speak about the timeline.

Pokéspe is rather long, and after Emerald, the timeline is more or less to be interpreted. But of course, when you write a fic when a lot of Dexholders from different regions appear, you have to establish one yourself, and I did it, even if the interpretation I did to make this fic a little bit logical (to me at least) and that this interpretation is rather free.

So, if we start from the RGB arc:

Year 1: RGB arc

Year 3: Yellow arc

Year 4: GSC arc

Year 5: RS arc

Year 5 + 6 months: FRLG arc

Year 6 (so +6 months since FRLG): Emerald arc

Year 10: BW and DPPt arc

Year 11: XY arc

Year 11 +5 months: SM arc

Year 12: BW2 arc

Year 14: Time of the fic

So yes, in my fic timeline, XY and SM happened during the time skip between BW and BW2, and the present time of the fic happened 14 years after the first adventures of Red, Green, and Blue.

Also, other "fact": the train announce at the beginning is largely inspired by the ones of the London Underground (or Tube) because well… Spending between two and four hours a day in it, even for only two months, makes you know it by heart.

See you in two weeks!