Chapter 22

"Come on little guy." Breccia stood outside in the spitting snow, her coat zipped and buttoned to the top. With no gloves, she had a pair of socks on her hands. "Get him, go on!"

Koffing stood a ways off, serving as a bored, yet reluctant, sparing partner.

Breccia had been trying, in vain, to copy the incident in the capital. Sitting Nibs on an abandoned skid facing Koffing, she egged him on. "Show him who's boss! You got all that strength in that tiny body, come on."

Nibs wasn't interested, choosing to sink into the snow and shiver. It would seem he knew the difference between a real battle and a fake one. (And he wasn't interested in playing make-believe.)

"Koffing." Breccia pointed to her other Pokemon. "Throw something at him...something small."

Koffing gave what accounted for an eyeroll before going to Nibs and blowing a tuft of smoke in his face. Nibbles wasn't having it, but instead of attacking, he snapped out with his newly grown 'big boy' fangs and backed away.

Breccia grumbled and grabbed the bridge of her nose.

"Breccia." Tess was on her way to the lab with Neil when they saw the pathetic display. "So...is this how you wanna spend your weekend?"

"Sure." Breccia sneered. "Lets build a snowman." She gave Koffing a loving pat on the head before returning him to his ball. "I was hoping to recreate what happened when we were in the city." She added. "He blew that Amphros away, I've never seen anything like it."

Tess took a look at the shivering, pathetic bat and snickered. "You mean Nibs?"

"Yeah."

"Did you hit your head?"

Picking up her Pokemon and holding him close to warm his frail body, Breccia started inside. "Guys, I'm serious. Morice and Riker were there too. They'll tell you." Lifting Nibbles up to look directly at him, the Zubat flapped his useless wings and stretched his neck out to chomp his trainer's nose. "Maybe it needs to be a dire situation?" Putting him back on her shoulder, Breccia went indoors with the others. "I hope this doesn't cause any bad blood."

"Why would it?" Neil unlocked the lab doors to let everyone in.

"Well, I mean, if one of you wanted the position... I've only been here a month or so."

Tess flicked the lights on and retrieved her lab coat off one of the hooks. "We aren't Lars. Riker knows what he's doing and he promoted you for a reason."

Breccia was wondering what that reason was. (Though, from personal experience, she knew better than to question any decisions Riker made).

Her top concern right now was to find a way to combat Lars' new 'mutant' Pokemon. "Did Lars leave any blueprints behind for his little project?"

"We could look, but I can't promise you anything." Neil said. "He was anal about his research. He wouldn't even let Caleb near his projects when they were working together."

Breccia snapped her fingers. "Did Caleb have a locker here?"

"We all do." Tess answered. "We haven't had the heart to clean his out yet..."

Neil reacted to his friend's comment by shying away, scratching at his neck and casting his eyes to the floor. "...If he had something, we should look."

"Tess, I think you should do the honors." Breccia gave Neil the best break she could. "How about you check out Lars' locker. I'm sure he took everything, but it's worth a shot." There was a knock. "You two report back if you find anything."

Going to greet whoever was in wait, there was a short, thin woman on the other side. She came up to Breccia's chest with shoulder length, black hair and thick rimmed glasses that matched. "Can I help you?"

"I'm reporting for duty." The girl said, freezing in her rain slicker and boots.

"Duty?" Breccia shouted behind her: "Tess, you know anything about a new person coming on?"

Tess called from the back. "Yeah, we need someone to take your old job."

Then Neil shouted: "And someone to get my coffee!"

Breccia turned back to their new add on. "You better come in." She moved as the frigid being shuffled in. "You have a name?"

The girl wiped the fog from her glasses. "Maddie." She rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm up. "Father mentioned it'd be cold, but I wasn't expecting it to be this bad."

"Where you from?"

"For the last few years, I've been on Iron Island for training. But I was born in Rustboro. My dad was a Tech in the Hoenn branch."

Breccia smiled. "Keeping it in the family?"

"Much to my mother's disdain. She wanted me to be a professor."

Tess came up with a bag full of random items. Neil followed with a few crumpled papers.

"You were right." He said. "Lars did pretty good about cleaning things out." He tossed the scraps on the table for Breccia to see. "Gimme a minute, I'm gonna let Skarmory out to stretch his wings. He's been cramped in his ball for a couple days."

"I better do the same." Tess let her Magnemite out and left it with Neil's Pokemon to socialize.

Breccia, in turn, plucked Nibs from her shirt collar. "Alright buddy, big people have to talk, go make friends." She sat him next to the other Pokemon before going back to the technicians.

She started shifting through the crumpled papers. "Anything salvageable?"

Tess was reading through a few pages from one of Caleb's notebooks. "Nothing I can see, it's mostly just statistics and to-do lists." She shuffled to the back, spying a folded piece of paper dropped out. Picking it up, she noticed the creases were worn and fraying at the ends. "What's this?" She saw Caleb's name written on the front in flowing cursive. Before she could investigate, Neil snatched it from her grip.

Tess almost said something in the vein of 'rude', but she stayed silent when Neil placed the paper in his pocket.

Smoothing the documents out over her knee, Breccia found most to be useless with hastily scribbled equations and doodles. Plucking up the last one from Lars' pile, she was ready to pitch it when she saw Riker's signature in the bottom left corner. Opening it the rest of the way, she realized it was more than just garbage. It was a confirmation notice sent directly to Lars. The first half was torn away, leaving the letter to start in the middle.

'She'll be retrieved tomorrow, before your trip to Verandi. I want her to be introduced to the rest of the team with the same complacency as you would the others. I've already informed Caleb of my intentions. He knows the girl personally. Considering who her father was, I feel she will be an asset to your team. I DO NOT want any complaints about mistreatment towards her or your transfer request to Kanto will be denied.'

Breccia noticed a staple in the top right corner and another paper attached. It was dated 3/15, a day before their trip to the capital and four days before the attack on the island.

Lars,

I have been made aware of your ignoring of my request for civility towards Breccia's attendance in the Lab.

I've had multiple members, including people within your own team, file complaints against your treatment of her and I will not tolerate any sort of insubordination when it comes to the betterment of our division.

I have decided that, as of now, I will approve your transfer request. However, due to your issues with not only your fellow man, but with your superiors, you will be transferred into a grunt position upon touching down in Kanto. I plan on pushing Breccia up to the position of Head Lab Coordinator. I understand your want for the promotion, but unlike she and Caleb, you lack tact and are more than willing to endanger our organization in order to appease your gluttony for control.

Your transfer will be completed within the month.

I still expect cooperation.

I have contacted the executive in Kanto and she is more than willing to promote you into a Lab position if you prove yourself.

You've done good work for us, I don't want to terminate you completely but I refuse to put up with any more problems regarding your attitude and your work ethic.

Consider this mercy, as Kelly has no issue kicking out insubordinate grunts, so please take this opportunity for self reflection."

Folding the notes, Breccia set them aside. No wonder Lars reacted violently to Riker's previous conversation with him. Anyone would feel a cold shoulder if they were to receive such a scathing note.

"Check it out." Tess said, moving to the other side of the table when Maddie came through with the broom. "A blueprint copy. Looks like Caleb snuck it when Lars wasn't looking."

"I figured he would." Breccia skimmed over it. "It's dated 6 months ago. Lars was constantly working on this damn thing. It won't do us any good."

"Lemme see." Maddie poked her head in. "What's this for?"

"It was supposed to cut down on labor." Neil commented. "Plant it on the Pokemon and they can fight and work without exerting themselves. It also gives them heightened strength and was an attack on our building yesterday and it took several men to take the intruder's Pokemon down." He shook his head. "This is an old copy. The damn thing had problems up to the day Riker canned the project. If Lars managed to perfect it, he did so without us knowing."

Hearing a commotion, Breccia looked up and saw Nibs playing with Neil's Skarmory. Every time it would flap its wings, Nibs would follow in suit but with less progress.

"You were able to take the Pokemon down eventually?" Maddie asked.

"Yeah, with multiple men." Tess responded. "We don't have the labor or the will power to bum rush a single Pokemon and beat on it until it submits."

Remembering the incident in the capital, Breccia nodded. "Even before they were chipped, their Pokemon were a nightmare to handle."

"Were they able to get the chip from the battle yesterday?" When she received nothing but silence, Maddie said: "It's worth a shot. Clean up efforts are still underway, maybe you could check in the rubble?"

"I'll get with Morice." Breccia concluded. "He's heading the repairs."

Neil chuckled. "Sure, go ahead and call your boyfriend."

Breccia reached into her pocket. "Shut up ginger." She heard Nibs hissing and shifted her attention to their Pokemon.

It would seem Tess' Magnemite was being none to nice and Nibbles wasn't appreciating the attitude. "Nibs play nice." He answered by lifting himself on his wings, perching his head higher and opening his mouth as wide as he could make it. It wasn't until she saw the light glowing within that Breccia realized what was happening.

Luckily, Tess' Magnemite got out of the way. Not so lucky were the two tables that got caught up in the blast. It was so powerful that it blew a nice sized hole out of the wall. It kept going beyond that and bent the light pole outside.

"Holy shit!" Neil exclaimed.

Nib's, blown by the blast, rolled off onto the floor, landing on his back.

Breccia retrieved him. "That was AWESOME!" She cleared her throat. "A-and BAD. We do not murder friends!" Nibs answered her reprimand by yawning and rolling into a ball in her palms. "What am I going to do with you?"

Inspecting the damage, Tess sighed. "You weren't lying after all...I guess we'll add this to the clean up efforts. Maddie, get the plywood."

Going back to her Transceiver, Breccia's thumb as hovering over the buttons when an idea popped into her mind. Glancing at Nibs she put her phone away. "Hey Tess?"

There was a pause. "Yeah?"

"I'm heading up to see Riker, keep an eye on things while I'm gone."