Khot had been a field worker in the Sonos corporation for 26 years. After a while, his potential was noted as strong, and soon after, he was promoted to a specialist. He suspected that the process might have been speeded by his sub-par social skills - even though his battle abilities had made him popular among the workers who didn't know him, those who did tended to avoid him. He couldn't blame them. He had always spent his free time training himself and his pokémon, even as a kid, while the others were outside playing. His father had caught him a Jigglypuff when he was 2, expecting him to play with it and keep it as a pet, like all other children. He did for a while, but the games gradually turned into training and battles. The day Khot started school, Jigglypuff was stronger than all the pokémon in the school, even the teachers', only beaten by the principal's Arcanine. Khot didn't abuse it, however, but kept training it. A few years later, at the age of 11, he challenged the principal to a battle and won. Not because he didn't like the principal or wanted to beat him, but because he wanted a battle with someone at his own level.
A regular specialist stayed in Orre until he or she was called to travel to Nenta and capture a specific pokémon. Khot, however, was one of the few specialists whose job it was to stay there and capture certain popular pokémon. He would stay there for two weeks, and go home for four, then repeat. There were six specialists who had this schedule, so there were always two of them in Nenta at any given time. Usually, they would be located far from each other, wandering around the region looking for pokémon. Then, approximately two hours before, Koht had been called by the other specialist, Darys. She had told him her location and requested his presence. It was apparently urgent. Of course, the location was pretty far away, so Koht had to abandon the hunt for a rather large Sunflora to make it.
When he arrived, he didn't spot Darys right away. Which wasn't too strange, considering she was hiding in a particularly dense bush. When he got closer to her, she made a tiny sound, to alert him to her presence without alerting the rest of the world. He crouched down behind her, and asked why she had called. He could see that she was hiding from something, but he couldn't see what. He knew Darys, though, and he knew that it was something serious for her to have called him, even more so since she had waited for him for nearly three hours. She didn't make a sound to reply, but moved her arm to point at something. She was pointing at her hover bike. Confused, he looked at her for a moment, then he realized. He looked closer. A tiny, grey pokémon was sitting on her bike, eating her supplies. She had apparently left it for a moment, and noticed the pokémon when she was about to go on. It hadn't noticed her, though. But why did it take so long to eat some food? He decided it was probably storing it, for some reason, perhaps to eat later. He had seen Pelippers doing that many times. That wasn't important, though. This was a previously unknown pokémon. He whispered to Darys, "Should we try to capture it?" She nodded.
Darys sent out her Parasect. It had been trained specifically for catching pokémon, or so she claimed. Among the specialists, Darys' Parasect was the best pokémon at this, closely followed by the admin Ordan's Smeargle. Khot himself sent out his Golbat. The surprised pokémon jumped off the bike and started running away. Golbat, being the faster of the two, ran after the little thief. Khot didn't have to say anything to it, it knew what to do. After catching up to it, it used its mean look. Parasect and the two trainers quickly caught up. The pokémon seemed to be afraid. Darys ordered her Parasect to use its spores. Parasect approached the pokémon, and released a cloud of tiny spores, and thopened. To the surprise of both trainers, the pokémon was awake. It started running away. Khot looked at it, unable to realize what happened. How could it wake up... and escape from Golbat's stare? He ordered Golbat to go after the pokémon again. Golbat didn't respond. Neither did Parasect, when Darys ordered it to follow. They looked at the two pokémon. Both were asleep.
After withdrawing both pokémon from battle, Darys and Khot looked at each other for a while. Khot was the first to speak. "We need to report this." Darys nodded.
Ordan and Satza had gone back to their offices. Uness had stayed behind to work on the complex, trying to think of new ways to improve it. Ordan had told Satza to call all field workers back from Nenta, while he himself tried to put together rescue and infiltration teams for the attack on the Cipher base. Satza knocked on his door. He knew it was Satza. Even when it was a visitor, Satza would be the one knocking on the door. He told her to come in. "Sir, the field specialists have something to report. Apparently, they've spotted a new pokémon species with... interesting abilities." Satza always knew how to get Ordan's attention. "Very well. Let me speak to them." "Yes, sir." Satza went back into her office, and put the call over to Ordan's phone. A male voice was heard.
"Is this Ordan of the Sonos corporation?" "Yes, it is. So, Khot, I hear you have something to report? I trust you know that my daughter's been kidnapped, then?" "Yes, sir. I do. I'll be brief. Darys saw a pokémon today, stealing supplies from her hover bike. It's a species of pokémon not seen before, but it matched the description you gave of the shape and behaviour of the pokémon you saw. We had a Golbat use its mean look, and a Parasect use spore, in an attempt to capture it. However, it escaped the pokéball, and somehow woke up while putting our pokémon to sleep. It then escaped." "It... put your pokémon to sleep when it escaped? That could be useful against those Cipher snaggers... anyway, is that all?" "Yes, sir. Thank you for your time, sir. I'll return to the base now, sir." Khot hung up.
Ordan considered the new pokémon for a while. He decided that he'd try to find it after rescuing Alya, since it'd take time. Time that they didn't have now. He resumed setting up teams.
Alya regained her senses again. She was quite used to that by now, after having gone through the process countless times. She noticed the tall scientist again. She decided to hear him out this time, maybe he knew something interesting. He spoke. "May I speak now?" She nodded. He spoke. "My name is Ein. I'm a Cipher admin, and I'm the one responsible for this laboratory." She knew the name, but she couldn't quite remember from where. "I've been with Cipher from the beginning. You probably know that, though. Either way, it doesn't matter. I just came to offer you a unique chance." He paused again. When Alya didn't say anything, he continued. "We've completed the Shadow process on your pokémon. Though, since they're rather strong, they have a certain level of resistance. They won't listen to anyone but their original trainer. That happens to be you. So, would you like to keep your pokémon with you while you work?" Alya had expected her pokémon to be turned into Shadow pokémon. As sad as it was, she couldn't do anything about that. What she had not expected was to get them back. She raised her head slowly, then replied. "I accept."