"Hey Excadrill! You done yet?!" Locke shouted down a recently excavated hole in the earth in front of him.

"Patience, now. I'm sure he is working as efficiently as he is capable of," Mawile replied to the shinx, standing around the same hole and on the same sod.

"He's been at it for a few minutes. I hope he's able to find his way down there," Rustin expressed out loud. "I have had my eyes on this mission for so, so long I swear to Arceus if we're not able to do this just because-"

"You as well," Mawile interrupted Rustin. "Let's just wait for him to do his work without putting any extra pressure on him, or anyone else."

Rustin wordlessly replied, only looking at Mawile and then away, intentionally avoiding having to gaze at Locke.

Heeding to Mawile's advice, the three waited in silence as they stood and sat in a triangle. The scene was loosely lit, mostly in shade except for a few spots where the sunlight managed to pierce through the thick foliage above them. Disregarding the brown dirt below, a coloration of dark green surrounded them from all directions. It wasn't any mystery dungeon they were in, which gave the area a certain aura of calmness and feeling of safety. They could breathe in and breathe out the non-stagnant air without their throats being chilled. Perfect for those seeking out a sanctuary, rating for adventures seeking to keep on the move.

"Can't you use telepathy to talk with 'em directly?" Locke asked the meowstic across from him.

"Well, technically I could if I tried hard enough, but it's not practical at this moment," Rustin began explaining. "I don't have much of a personal connection to excadrill, which is often required for complex psychic interactions directly to the mind. Moreover, I lack the eye-to-eye contact to focus on what I need to, I don't know his exact location to aim my psychic energies and thoughts at, which is absolutely needed, made worse by the earth all around that muffle my connections like how sound is muffled. Then there's also the factoid that it's a generic psychic type ability rather than one meowstic are specifically adept-

Actually, you're probably not following what I am saying. Hmm..

Well in layman's terms, I can't do it through the dirt."

"Jeeze, alright, alright." Locke said.

"Yeah I don't believe insulting his intelligence is the best course of action in this scenario," Mawile scolded Rustin.

"I understand, but I'm trying my best to balance things here," Rustin replied, distastefully looking at Locke from the corner of his eye. "We all know of his feral behavior..."

"Nah, it's alright. I personally think I'll keep my mind and its instincts with how it is. At least my behavior is honest about what it is and I have less to worry about. Better that poorly hidden rudeness and constant passive aggression, eh?"

"Oh listen here you little-"

"Oh would you look at that, I think Excadrill is finally ascending back up now," Mawile interrupted.

Right on her queue, the ground pokemon sprang up from the hole they were gathered around. The three others saw where he was directed to land, and strafed to avoid collision.

"Impeccable timing. Did you manage to find the entrance into the building?" Rustin asked Excadrill.

No verbal response came from the pokemon's mouth. Nor grunt or sigh, or any sounds at all. He simply nodded his head up and down whilst he provided a small, shy smile.

"So the tunnel should lead straight inside with no forks or blocks?" Rustin asked.

Excadrill repeated the action.

"Perfect, that's exactly what I needed from you," Rustin said, smiling, but his eyes still showed stern and seriousness. "Alright, get your rope tied up somewhere so the rest of us can slowly climb-"

"Alright, I'mma head down now," Locke said.

"Wait," Rustin said.

"Don't jump in and crush me when I'm going down," the shinx said to Excadrill.

"Don't-"

Locke hopped straight into the hole while unsheathing his claws. He latched onto the wall of the pit with his paws, having the claws dig into the side to slow his descent. Every second he went deeper into the hole, disappearing into the darkness below.

"Don't you dare go too far ahead!" Rustin shouted while leaning over the hole.

Locke continued going downwards until he felt the tunnel shift into being horizontal and a floor of hard earth below him. His eyes readjusted for night vision and he took a few steps forward so he wouldn't be squished by the excadrill jumping down, but didn't go farther.

Above ground, Excadrill withdrew a spool of rope from his bag to unravel. One end was tied around the closest tree stem, the other tossed down the hole. Mawile and Rustin climbed down using the rope, holding to it while keeping their feet against the wall. It took a minute, but they descended down to the bottom as well, seeing the eyes of a shinx looking back at them.

"Glad to see you didn't run off, but do try to stay closer with the group," Mawile said to Locke.

"Never do that again!" Rustin scolded him. He didn't raise his voice too much, but the sound reverberated against the thin tunnel walls to make it sound louder.

"I know you have claws, you could have down climbed the exact same way I did," Locke flatly pointed out. "I expected you would."

"That's besides the point!" Rustin said again. "Never do that again, wait until I give an order to you before you do anything."

"Got it. Just never give me the order to die, so that way I'd am immortal," Locke replied.

"Enough. Just stay still," Rustin said, indignation still present in his tone of voice.

The meowstic reached into his backpack and pulled a red leash out from it. It was hanging out of his bag in a place that he could quickly grab without needing to remove the pack.

He got his paw close to the end of it and approached Locke with it. The shinx leaned back and gave an unnerved expression, but he did not step back, abiding by Rustin's command.

The meowstic reached forward and clipped the leash onto his harness, giving a quick tug to make sure it was connected. Locke was brazenly uncomfortable about this, but all he did was sigh when he saw it, nothing to directly resist.

"Now stick close to me," Rustin said directly into the shinx's ear.

Locke looked at the leash with a disappointed expression, then at Rustin's face, then beside him towards Mawile. She looked forward with an expression mostly neutral. If it did show anything, it was intrigue and observation, nothing indicating overt disapproval- nothing Locke wanted to see.

Beside them, Excadrill got to the same level the other three were on.

"Alright, let's move on now," Rustin said. "Mawile, can you light off a flare to give us light?"

"Already on it," she replied.

She grabbed her own flare and lit it off while pointing it up the pit, trying to avoid filling the claustrophobic tunnel up with smoke. With illumination, the four travelled onward, Rustin positioning himself in the lead while keeping the shinx in tow.

After a minute of walking through the tunnel, they began to see something other than dirt ahead of them. Getting further, they saw the tunnel ended as it reached a room in an underground facility.

Broken glass littered the white concrete floor along with fallen ceiling tiles. On the ceiling, only a little over half of the tiles remained. There were electrical lights on the ceiling, the exact kind that one would imagine would create a hum buzz when turned on, but many of them were loose, fallen, or had exposed wires dangling. The only things that stayed intact was the drywall, which was durable enough to remain undamaged; aside from a few mold patches.

All four of them hopped down from the tunnel into the building, all of their eyes locked downward to avoid stepping on the glass. Once they had gotten a good footing, they took a proper look around.

"Yes, yes! This is exactly what I wanted to see," Rustin said, smiling.

"Yes, the lab does still seem to be in great condition," Mawile affirmed.

"This place looks a lot newer than most of the places we go to," Locke pointed out.

"Correct. Fourteen years old, to be precise," Rustin stated. "It was a secret laboratory that was originally made with the intention to be hidden from the public. But natural disasters buried it underground, thereby making it a lost secret to everyone. But recently, there was some indication that it's location had been found.

The mission was given to the guild a few months ago, and I wanted to take it so badly at the time, but it was still winter. I waited for the ground to properly soften, and in the meantime, I planned out the perfect team I would need for this mission.

So far, so good. Things are going according to plan, and there are likely no ferals in here. We can start investigating and mapping this place out."

"Perfect team? According to plan? You've been reading some heist novels recently, haven't you?" Mawile asked Rustin.

"Well, umm, yes," Rustin said, a slight blush appearing on his face. "But the point is that we're here now. I brought you along so you could appraise the machinery, chemicals, and possibly potions left here. So I'd like if you got started on that. I can draw out the map."

"Sounds alright to me, sweetie," Mawile said.

Rustin blushed harder and turned his head away from her to avoid eye contact, and to keep her from seeing his face turn red. "Let's just start searching and mapping this place out," he said.

The meowstic repositioned the leash to hold it with just his elbow and shoulder, and then used his paws to retrieve a small notepad and pencil from his bag. At the same time, Mawile re-holstered her flare to return it to the bottom of her backpack and used her paws to pull out a similar notepad and pencil.

The four stood put for a moment as Rustin quickly sketched a map of the room they were in and every exit out of it.

"Alright, let's press on," Rustin said.

He picked a random doorway to go down, and pulled on Locke's leash to get him to follow. They kept going through the lab's hallways and rooms, stepping around the various elements of wreckage that littered the ground, Rustin mapping the rooms while Mawile took inventory of all that she recognized.

"So what went down at this laboratory?" Locke asked.

"That's part of what we're trying to figure out," Rustin said, eyes shifting between the paper he was working on and analyzing his surroundings.

"So there could be anything in here?" Locke asked to confirm.

"I suppose," Rustin said without thinking as he drew.

"Wait, so-so could there have been experiments on pokemon here?" Excadrill asked, suddenly getting scared. "Like, mutants?"

"Mhm- wait, what?" Rustin articulated as he lowered his notebook.

"Okay, not literally everything," Mawile explained. "The tech here would be behind compared to what we have today. I personally expect some potion labs, maybe some earlier designs of flares in here."

"Potions? Wouldn't they have had to t-test those on pokemon?" Excadrill asked.

"I think you're being too frightened about this," Mawile said. "It's just a typical laboratory."

"Yeah. Don't worry, they didn't forcefully give pokemon potions to test them."

"Oh, okay," Excadrill said, calming down.

"That'd be a waste since they made the potions out of the pokemon," Locke said, a cheeky grin forming on his face.

"AH!" Excadrill screamed.

"N-no, that's not what happened here at all." Mawile attempted to explain through his panic. "That's not even how those are made, I would know."

"Hey, if you're going to die, you might as well die for science. That way you'd make for a special drink after you're gone," Locke said, trying to continue his joke. "Y'know what they say: 'ethics are the primary slower of scientific progress'."

"Locke, stop," Rustin said. "We do not need to make these sorts of jokes."

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeee," Excadrill failed to properly articulate.

"Calm down, now. Breathe in, breathe out, think of things rationally," Mawile told Excadrill. "Do you honestly think those things would exist here? No."

"Hey, I'm just trying to make our job more interesting," Locke defended himself. "A lil' bit of the macabre is in our job description, isn't it? I think I heard that death is the only thing that gives life any meaning. So I'm just adding a little bit more death to the current atmosphere! Makes the mission more interesting than just wandering around a random building."

Rustin slapped the shinx on the back of his head with his paw. "Enough," he said in an authoritative tone.

He endured the blow without much pain at all, but Locke did silence himself.

"Still makes the mission more interesting," Locke thought to himself.

Rustin snickered, then turned back to his paper.

The group continued on, roaming through the lab as they weaved in and out of different rooms, shining the flare light against the walls and objects to make them visible in pitch black. Mawile carefully documented each and every thing she could recognize. While the glass was shattered, the metal was left in sufficiently good condition that the machines were salvageable. But as they lacked the equipment to loot the heavy machines, all Mawile did was take inventory of what was there for their client.

Almost every device was what Mawile expected- almost every device was one she had personally in her laboratory at the guild. But on the first floor they searched, there were a few that did captivate and catch her eye. Most notably was a large machine with a cylindrical glass chamber, evidently made with hard enough glass to endure while other things broke. She needed to scrutinize it, but after a few seconds of being stupefied, she had an epiphany. It was a fossil reviver machine, still usable if it was given sufficient power. Mawile brushed off dust to look at what engravings it had and check what design it was.

"Interesting, I didn't think I would see one of those. Didn't even know any of those were on this continent," Mawile thought. "Though I suppose it makes sense given how many mining operations occur here, so there would be a reasonably high amount of fossil discovery rate. Maybe when I get back I can research if there were any fossil pokemon appearing in this region."

They spent longer in that room than others, being far more meticulous as she wanted to see if there were any documents on it being used. But any documenting records were scarce, and they lacked the time to read them on the spot, so Mawile just took a few books and carefully stored them in their backpack.

It took over an hour to go through the first floor and every room which was not locked, and Rustin kept Locke on the leash through all of it. Locke wanted to head into the locked off rooms, for "that's where the really interesting stuff's gotta be," he said, but Rustin was determined to leave the lab in peak condition so he shot down the idea of breaking into areas.

They went up a staircase to reach the second floor. But right after getting up, they saw the route blocked off by massive tree roots.

"Huh, looks like we weren't the first ones to breach into this place," Mawile said. "The roots got in through the windows… Or they got out through the broken windows."

"Out?" Rustin asked.

"They could have been experimenting on plants in here with growth accelerating formulas, leading to the plants inside of the building sought out for the closest source of soil, having to go through the facility's windows to get those," Mawile deduced.

"True, very true." Rustin replied. "We can investigate that later. For now, we do need to get through this or find a second way up."

"It'd be nice if we still had Braixen. He could of burned through those," Locke commented.

"Even if he still was in the guild, I would not have brought him along in this team," Rustin answered to the shinx. "I don't play with fire when we need to keep this place in good condition, even when little around us is flammable and it's an experienced fire type. Not to mention that everyone currently on this team has a distinct role I planned out, and five man teams are discouraged for their inefficiency."

"Well hey, if we set this building on fire, we could pass that off as dying in the name of science. Just with a little lot of stretching the term," Locke said.

"L-let's not," Excadrill said.

"Nothing is getting set on fire," Mawile stated. "Although I will say that it is a shame that Braixen withdrew from the guild not too long after Yuki was caught. We've dropped from three fire types in the guild to just one in a single one in a week's span."

"Yes. It is a big disappointment for the guild," Rustin said. "Anyways, we could get through this. Excadrill, cut us a path through this, just don't harm the laboratory's infrastructure."

"I can also help by gnawing through this with my posterior jaw," Mawile followed up.

"Perfect. Go on, now"

"I can-"

"Just stand back, Locke," Rustin interrupted Locke.

After a minute of labor, they carved their path through the giant roots, being careful with their actions to avoid damaging the walls, floor, and ceiling, and moving the broken off pieces out of the way. The wood was living, and strangely strong despite lacking proper nourishment. They carved a path through that was narrowly large enough for Excadrill to get through but plenty wide for the other three, so they continued onto the lab's second story.

The second story was similar to the first, redundant even. Rustin still enjoyed managing a team and sketching out a map while Mawile enjoyed looking at all of the scientific contraptions from a past year, but Locke was mostly just bored as he was dragged around on a leash. Excadrill was the only one on edge, as his mind couldn't shake the idea that these were ghosts of dead experiments haunting the building, and he had his head constantly turning to look for those hypothetical ghosts. He was constantly alert, and had his mind set on mysticism rather than science in what he searched for.

"So, Excadrill was the brute force in this 'perfect' team you planned out?" Mawile teasingly asked, shining a flare to give visibility to the room for Rustin to analyze.

"I just needed someone to initially get us inside, since none of us could do anything without it. Though it is nice he can still help us with other tasks," Rustin replied.

"Ah, right. Right," Mawile said.

"...Okay look, I know you've seen me reading some heist stories recently in my freetime, but I promise this isn't just me trying to live out that fantasy the best I can. I'm here for the knowledge itself," Rustin explained, coming off as slightly awkward. "I've been reading plenty of other kinds of books as well."

"Anything horror that you've been reading?" Locke asked.

"No, I haven't been reading any of those," the meowstic answered.

"Ah, makes sense. We wouldn't really want more of that stuff in our lives," Locke said.

"Anything romance?" Mawile said, stepping closer to Rustin.

"No, none of that either."

"Really? What about that book with the cinderace I saw?" she asked.

"Well- umm- okay I read one last winter," Rustin said, his tails suddenly dropping down in embarrassment.

"Ah, what I hypothesized," she said with a smile. "I figured it would be good for you to see at least one."

"Why?"

"As a reference. Because I think if you really tried, you could write a lovely romance story of your own someday," Mawile said as she reached one of her paws down and twirled it around one of Rustin's tails.

"I-I- c-can you please not flirt with me here? Not on the job," Rustin said, his face blushing a bright red that managed to even overcome the blue fur on his head.

"Alright, we can wait for when we get back to the guildhouse then," Mawile said. "But I will say that you don't seem too great at flirting yourself. I think you need to take some advice from your sister."

Rustin bit his tongue, closed his eyes, and looked away. He couldn't bear to look at Mawile anymore and let others see how embarrassed he was currently. But while his face was away, his tails still moved on their own accord and unveiled what his true emotions were by themselves. All the while, Locke had a stupid smile and was doing his best to not say anything. While he didn't normally find enjoyment in seeing others be embarrassed, it being Rustin in specific did make him happy.

They had entered the second floor from near the edge of the building, and Rustin guided them to the second story. They saw a sort of lobby area there, possibly a cafeteria as it had an assortment of tables and a higher concentration of mold then anywhere else in the formally sterilized building. After mapping that out, the next room they went to was a utility area.

On the other side, they saw a large industrial generator that was not rusted nor broken, just coated in a layer of dust. Countless cables were attached to the engine and spread out to various walls and sockets surrounding the room. It would take well over a minute to count them all, yet none were entangled. The machine was lifeless, yet at face level looked functional.

"Oh here we go: the heart of this place," Rustin commented as the four looked at the generator. "Mawile, want to try your handiwork and give us a machine diagnosis?"

"Of course," she replied.

Rustin and Mawile entered, forcing Locke to come with them as well because of the leash that was still being held firmly. Excadrill remained outside of the door, not wanting to come in as he wasn't confident in his ability to avoid damaging anything with his sizable claws.

She spent a couple minutes inspecting every cable, panel, and podding at the machine to analyze it. Mawile was far from the best machinist on the continent as psychology was her main discipline, but enough time in trying to figure out how to manage a small lab gave her a basic checklist.

"Can't find anything wrong. I think this was durable enough to survive the natural disasters that buried this place, unlike the windows and ceiling panels," Mawile said. As she searched around, she managed to find a specific piece she was looking for: an input cable attached to a different part of the generator that had a sharp, syringe-like end to it. "Steller; I was hoping it'd have one of these."

"Think we can try to bring the lights on here back on then?" Rustin asked.

"Wait a second… I have a bad feeling about where this is going," Locke said, his instincts going on alert and causing his hairs to rise up.

"Yes, I just need to make this safe."

Mawile took her backpack off, and began digging through its pockets. Simultaneously, Rustin got a firmer hold on Locke and pushed him down to get him in a laying position. Reluctantly, the shinx compiled, but did grunt and give the meowstic a sour expression. The mawile pulled a vial of disinfectant that she had brought along, took the vial off, and then inserted the special cable into it. She lightly moved it around in a circular motion, and gave it time to sterilize the metal.

After giving some time for the potent chemicals to do their job, she took the cable out and came towards Locke with it. "Hold still now, this shouldn't hurt too much…"

"Hol' up," Locke said.

For a moment Locke seriously contemplated the odds he would have if he fought back. "Rustin is in melee distance so I could handle him real quick and Mawile would have to turn around to properly fight, giving me a grace period with her. But if I do fight them, will I get kicked out of the guild? Will I end up where Yuki is?"

Before the shinx made any action, Mawile found the perfect place on the shinx's anatomy. She thrusted the cable past his fur and into his flesh, directly tapping into the organs that handled electricity. Once it made contact, electricity coursed up through the cable and into the generator, then up through the various cables from it. The generator emitted a buzz, and a few seconds later, the building's mechanical lights sparked to life once more.

"Eureka!" Rustin proclaimed. "This is just about the best case scenario I could imagine. Do you know what this means, Mawile?"

"What are you thinking?"

"This facility can't just be salvaged, it can be restored- reclaimed. And we're going to go down as the pokemon who led to that happening."

"You're right, we can look forward to something like that," Mawile said before turning her gaze back towards the shinx. "How are you feeling, Locke? Both physically and mentally."

"I… feel… fatigued," Locke said, his speech slowed.

"That's expected, you will be fine," Mawile said as she pulled the cable out of him. "And mentally?"

"...Annoyed," he said.

"Right. Hey Excadrill, would you be willing to watch this room while Mawile and I scout out the rest of this place? Shouldn't take much longer to complete the mission now that everything is lit up, and Locke isn't going to be able move for a bit."

He nodded.

"Thank you. It won't be much longer," Mawile said.

She took off her backpack and placed it beside the downed shinx, figuring that he might want the food and medical supplies she had in it. Mawile then walked out of the room to return to the cafeteria, with Rustin following after.

"W...wait," Locke managed to say right before Rustin had disappeared from his line of sight.

"Hmm?" Rustin said as he stopped and turned back to look.

"Is...was...this the… entire reason...you brought me… here?" Locke asked, talking still slowed and separated between heavy breaths. "Was...this my role… on your team?"

"Well of course it was," Rustin answered in absolute earnesty, devoid of reluctance. "I knew this place had to have its own generator since it was originally hidden, so I wanted to bring some energy with me to test out the condition of its electrical systems."

"I… don't get it… if you just want...ed me for being… an electric type… why not take Olivia?"

"I could have, and did contemplate between you two. I ultimately decided you'd be best for the job since you're less likely to go out of control and do something to screw the mission up."

"So wait… you think I'm less… crazy than her?" Locke asked.

"Oh, almost certainly not. Olivia never clawed at my sister or made a fuss the first time I met her. I just can't keep her on a leash like you."

"Wh...what?"

"Anyways, toodles. I have a facility to chart and these lights won't last for very long,"

"Wait."

Just like that, Rustin was off. He walked out of Locke's line of sight and provided zero response to further inquiry. As he was gone, the shinx was left in the utility room without the energy to go around, and minus an Excadrill too shy to talk, he was effectively alone. He withdrew himself to the concrete ground, little to do besides think while illuminated and hearing the hum buzz of fluorescent lights powered by himself.

As Locke rested there, he regained his strength and focus. He noticed there were some objects on a metal shelf that were reflecting the recently activated lights heavily. It wasn't just a small glimmer, it was like an oddly shaped mirror bouncing so much light off of it that it was like its own light source. Locke couldn't even tell what the object was from his position, and needed to look away as the glare was getting into his eyes.

Only once he regained more strength was he able to get up and check out whatever was producing the potent glare. Putting his paw over it to block the light from it, he saw it was a gemstone. It has a yellow core, and the rest of it was a greenish-yellow. He wasn't any expert on sensing energies within things, but he could feel that some kind of energy was emanating from it. It wasn't electric or fiery, it felt normal.

Locked grabbed the stone and pocketed it into his harness, knowing Excadrill was too shy to speak out against him.

Meanwhile, Mawile and Rustin completed the mission by themselves, happily chatting with the occasional flirt along the way. They managed to finish scouting the entire lab an hour after they left Locke behind and after thirty minutes, the lights eventually went out and the duo came back to pick them up. Soon after, they made their trek back to the guild.

End of chapter 25.