Chapter 4: Mosswater Industrial

"Hey!" Vero heard a lowered voice, but one still very threatening. "I'm not going to ask you again. Where. Is. Your. Base?"

Intrigued, Vero peeked around the corner of the large building he was walking past. Sure enough, there were two people, one of them shoved into the building. The other sported pale green hair with glasses. And to Vero's surprise, the man shoved into the building looked identical to the people he'd seen attacking the Grand Hall a week and a half earlier.

"We've got to figure out where those bastards are coming from. That guy interrogating him seems to be trying to get that info, but he's not getting anywhere…" Vero thought to himself, before an idea occurred to him. Remembering what had happened during his battle with Seacrest, Vero pulled out Spinarak's pokeball and opened it.

"Spinarak, there's a man in a black suit on the other side of this building. I need you to attach a strand of silk to him so we can follow him back to his hiding spot, and hopefully where the rest of his team is hiding too. Can you do that?" Vero asked, and the little spider clicked his teeth in understanding. Without even the slightest sound, Spinarak skittered towards the wall of the building and began to scale it while Vero walked around the corner, taking cover behind a barrel.

Out of the corner of his eye, he waited and waited as the green haired boy continued interrogating the suited man with little success, even after he had started physically beating him when he got an answer he knew was false. "If you knock this poser out, we won't need to track him back to his friends, you idiot…" Vero muttered under his breath.

A few seconds later, and Vero noticed the red and black spider crawling noiselessly down the wall of the building, and he grinned. Spinarak crawled behind the man and attached a tiny strand to his back, before crawling back up and around to where Vero was waiting. "Nice work, buddy. I'll take it from here…"

With the trap set, Vero walked intentionally behind the green haired man like he was turning a blind eye to them, interested only in seeing if he could find anything interesting around them. "Hey! Kid in the black shirt! Help me! This lunatic thinks I'm some kind of criminal!" the suited man shouted. The green haired boy turned around and looked at Vero.

"What do you wa-" was all he managed to say before the suited man shoved him into Vero and ran off. "Hey! Get back here!" he shouted, but the man was gone. "...Tch. So he's a bit faster than he looks," he muttered, before looking over his shoulder at Vero. "So what's your problem, huh? You with that guy? In cahoots?"

Vero shook his head. "You weren't getting anywhere with your little interrogation, so I stepped in," he explained quickly.

"Oh really? Do you have any idea who I am?" the green haired boy sneered.

Vero shook his head. "No. Should I?"

The boy nodded once. "You should, unless you've been living under a rock. Name's Fern. I'm the cool cat around these parts, the top dog. Got it memorized?" he asked, and Vero's response was a mental roll of his eyes. As much as he could already tell he wouldn't enjoy working with the cocky guy in front of him, he knew he'd need the help. Whoever it was that attacked the Grand Hall and the train station, they clearly weren't a solo individual. That meant they were a team, like Team Rocket back in Kanto, which meant they were dangerous. Very dangerous.

"I'm the one at the top, the king of social hierarchy, so it's my job to make a difference. Clean up others messes, give people a reason to smile, that kind of thing," Fern ranted. "So how am I supposed to do that if some bumbling fool like you comes along and jacks everything up? I don't really appreciate you getting in the way of my work. I'm trying to catch that guy and the rest of his buddies, get it? You know, the ones responsible for the attack on the Grandview Station and the Grand Hall?" Fern went on to the irritated Vero.

"Oh, I'm aware. I also know things about them that you don't, such as the location of their base, or at least I will soon enough. Now come on," he added curtly, kneeling to the ground and picking up Spinarak's strand, the tiny spider using the opportunity to climb up onto his shoulder.

Fern shook his head. "All right, that's it. Get out your pokeballs," he said, calling a Budew onto the field. "Time for you to get schooled."

Vero grinned. "Thought you'd never ask. Spinarak, you're up!" Vero said, extending his arm. As Spinarak leapt to the ground, rain drops started to fall, until it was a downpour. "Hope you don't mind if I go first. Spinarak! Trap it with String Shot!"

"Stun Spore it!" Fern retorted.

As Spinarak dodged the spores and glued Budew in place, Vero had the little spider skitter up close and jab it with it's Poison Sting while the little green pokemon was trying to pry itself free from the webbing. "Nice work," he said. "Now, use Infestation!"

Spinarak clicked his teeth, and a swarm of miniaturized insects and spiders suddenly appeared around Budew before crawling up the small seed pokemon and biting into it, chipping away at it's health every few seconds. Fern scowled. "Damn you! Budew! Use Natural Gift!" he said, and the tiny seed-like pokemon glowed with energy before firing off a small, bluish green orb at Spinarak, who easily jumped out of the way.

"Gonna have to do better than that," Vero warned him. "Spinarak! Use Poison Sting two more times!"

In a flash, Spinarak had latched onto the flailing Budew and was clawing at it, his poisonous stingers digging into his foe's leafy body. In seconds, the Budew had fainted, and Fern gnashed his teeth together with anger. Pulling out another pokeball, he threw a pokemon called Rowlet into battle, commanding it to use Peck on Spinarak. Unable to dodge the lightning fast attack, Spinarak was sent flying into the air, defeated.

"Pah, that all you've got?" Fern taunted, but Vero ignored the barb.

"Not even close. Pansear! Let's go!" Vero shot back, sending out the fiery monkey.

"Peck!" Fern called out.

"Drive it away! Use Incinerate!" Vero exclaimed. The Grass and Flying type owl flew at Pansear, who in return let loose a wide blast of fire on the pokemon, successfully keeping it at bay and dealing a large amount of damage.

"Don't give an inch! Incinerate, once more!" Vero added, and moments later, Fern recalled the defeated Rowlet to it's pokeball and sent out a Sandile, which quickly defeated Pansear with its Sand Tomb attack.

Returning Pansear to his pokeball, Vero grinned as he pulled Ivysaur's pokeball from his bag and threw it. The grassy saurian pokemon roared as it hit the ground, extending all six of it's vines in intimidation. "All right Ivysaur, let's do this. Use Vine Whip!"

Ivysaur's vines streaked towards small, ground typed crocodilian, before slapping it multiple times in repeated succession, sending it flailing onto its back. After that, Ivysaur had no problem lashing its stomach until it fainted.

"Ha! Way to get lucky!" Fern mocked Vero as he recalled Sandile. "Looks like now I'll have to waste more time before catching that perp. So thanks for that."

Vero had had enough, and he hadn't even known Fern for five minutes. He'd always thought it took more than this to push his buttons, but either Fern was really skilled at pissing people off, or he just got really lucky. The only thing Vero could think of that Fern could do to upset him even more would be to talk bad about his family or friends. For Fern's sake, Vero hoped that the boy in front of him was wise enough to not cross that line.

"Ok first, you're the monkey wrench that insisted on battling in the first place, so you have nobody to blame but yourself for making us spend more time here than we needed to," Vero reminded Fern. "Second, if you consider healing your pokemon a waste of time when compared to using them in an injured state to try and topple a potential criminal organization, then you're not fit to have pokemon at all."

It wasn't until after he'd finished talking that Vero realized he had grabbed Fern by the collar of his shirt and had him against the wall behind him. Releasing him with a long sigh, Vero walked over to where Spinarak's nigh invisible line of silk was waiting on the ground, lifting it up with a single finger. "Now what are you doing?" Fern asked with a huff.

"This," Vero responded in an agitated manner. "is why I let that guy run off."

"What, for a strand of of string?"

Vero rolled his eyes. "It's Spinarak silk?" he pointed out. "Like Ariados, Spinarak will trap prey in their webs and then let them go, but not before attaching a tiny wire of silk to them while they're unconscious from their venom," he explained. "Once the prey retreats to its den, Spinarak and Ariados will follow and feast on not only their original target, but any other prey they find hiding with them too. This is the same principle, only instead of pokemon prey, we're following a human, get it?"

Fern scoffed. "Well yeah, of course I do. I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were doing."

Vero rolled his eyes again. He had no idea that it was possible for someone to be so insufferable. "Look, just follow my lead and stay quiet. That guy probably thinks he got off scot free, so we'll follow him and see where he leads us. If he doesn't go to their main base, then he'll at least go to a safe house. After we know where he is, we'll go get our pokemon healed up and then we'll storm it. Think you can do that, top dog?"


With both of their teams fully healed, Fern and Vero walked quickly back to the building where Fern had originally cornered the suited man. Following Spinarak's silk line to the tracks, they soon realized their trail was leading them straight to the entrance of the Mosswater Industrial plant.

"Mosswater industrial?" Fern mused. "That building was abandoned long ago," he muttered.

Vero shook his head. "Seems that just what these punks wanted everyone to think. Hiding in a building as decrepit and run down as that, no wonder nobody thought to check. It looks like it's about to collapse."

Fern smacked one fist into his palm. "Well then let's finish the job and get out of here. I've got places to be."

Vero shook his head again. "Nah, I'd rather see what kind of info we can dig up on these guys before we bury them. If they were able to bomb both Grandview Station and the Grand Hall, I get the feeling they're a rather large spread group. Not to mention the fact that the bomb was hidden on each of the train cars when they attacked Grandview, which means they likely have members in Unova that rigged the train while it was in Nimbasa Station," he surmised. "All in all, I highly doubt this is their only base of operations, and they might have information on where we can find the other bases in there."

For once, Fern seemed to agree with Vero, and the pair snuck over to the fenced in area. A quiet patter of footsteps in a puddle from the rainstorm caught Vero's attention, however, and he tackled Fern behind a dumpster.

"What's your pro-" Fern started to exclaim before Vero held a finger up to his mouth to get him to be quiet. With a tilt of his head, he indicated that someone was behind them, and that they hadn't seemed to see them. As they looked behind them, two people in hooded suits just like the one that Fern had cornered walked by, oblivious to the presence of the two interlopers in their midst. As Vero and Fern watched, the two hooded people walked up to the massive steel door, and one of them slid a small keycard to open it, before they walked in and shut the door behind them.

Fern and Vero got out from behind the dumpster and looked at the door. "So… how do you propose we get in without one of those keycards?" Fern asked, when out of nowhere, there was a shout.

"Flashbang entrance!" Julia exclaimed, leaping over them to land in front of the door. "Dynamite throw! Go, Electrode!" she said, throwing a pokeball at the door. Before any of them could even see the electric type pokemon emerge from the ball, there was a large explosion, followed by the sound of the door being blasted off of the wall. "Hocus kaboken, the door is now broken!"

"What the hell, woman!? You nearly blew us up too! And where did you even come from?" Fern exclaimed in shock, and for once, Vero shared his sentiment. He had heard that Julia had a tendency to like making things explode, but this was the first time he'd seen it happen. He had a feeling it wouldn't be the last time either.

"Ask your sister when you're older!" Julia fired back with enthusiasm.

Fern shuddered and turned away. "Yeah, I'd rather not," he replied, making a gagging motion. Then, the three of them heard footsteps approaching, and Fern sighed. "But speak of the devil, look who decided to show up… So what are the two of you doing here anyway, Flobot?"

Julia pumped her arms into the air and whooped as another green haired person who bore a striking resemblance to Fern stepped passed them and stood beside her. "Stopping the bad guys! Duh!" Julia exclaimed, before gasping. "Oh, right! I forgot! Vero, this is Florinia, who sadly has to be Fern's sister."

Fern scoffed. "Yeah, and she's allergic to words with less than three syllables. Hence the name Flobot."

"Well, I call her Rini, because she's not a Flobot! She's a Rini through and through!" Julia retorted with a huff.

"Recent police intelligence suggests multiple large scale destructive operations are being coordinated from within the given industrial facility," explained Florinia, and Fern rolled his eyes.

"Like I said," Fern repeated. "Three syllables or more, take it or leave it."

"Anyway," Julia said, trying to break up an argument before it started. "Like Rini said, we got a report saying that a group here is plotting to blow more stuff up than just Grandview Station and the Grand Hall. Like the gym. My gym, to be specific," she informed Vero and Fern. "Which, come on. The only one who blows up my gym is me! Everybody knows that!"

"So I was on the money," Fern pointed out with a snicker.

"Need I remind you that I was the one who actually led us here, Fern? All you did was hold us up with a needless pokemon battle," Vero reminded him.

"The previous statement indeed matches the personality and habits of the individual named Fern Sevillia," Florinia remarked, earning her a side eye and a scowl from Fern. "Regardless, despite traditionally good intentions, breaking and entering property without proper warrant and procedure remains punishable by law."

Fern shrugged. "Hey, Flobot. Ever heard of not being a wet blanket?" he scoffed rudely.

Julia jumped to her friend's defense. "Hey, Rini is right! As average citizens, you could both get in serious trouble for trying to barge in on private property unauthorized," she pointed out, before grinning. "Fortunately, we're both Gym Leaders, so consider yourselves authorized! Now let's get in there and get to business!"

Vero nodded gratefully. While he was aware of the risks, having grown up in an era when Team Rocket's admins were attempting to rebuild the criminal syndicate in Kanto, and thus placed no restrictions on the activities of their grunts as long as they brought in stolen pokemon or other things the organization could profit off of, he also knew that this group had already attempted and succeeded at killing dozens of innocent people in the short time he'd been in the Reborn Region. Somehow, despite barely knowing any of them, he felt like doing what he could to protect them was the right thing to do.

"So," he said. "What do we know about this group?"

Julia peered through a darkened glass window. "According to super top secret ultra ninja intel, this building belongs to a group called Team Meteor," she replied, looking over her shoulder at them with a goofy grin. "Weird name, right? Like, why does everyone have to be 'Team' something? It's like they're trying to tell everyone they're bad news! Duh doy."

"Not to mention wearing all black like these guys appear to," Vero added with a snort, remembering the strange outfits the attackers were wearing when they attacked the Grand Hall. "What, are you trying to be the next Team Rocket or something?"

"I know right?! Honestly, these people need some originality," Julia agreed. "Maybe we'll give them some when we knock some heads!" she exclaimed, before rushing inside the building.

"Tch, leave it to the Electric leader to steal our thunder," Fern said, rolling his eyes again.

Vero looked at him out of the corner of his eyes. "Wow Fern, you're so funny I forgot to laugh."

"Whatever, just don't slow me down, Vero," Fern retorted. "Who knows, maybe you'll figure out how to be slightly helpful while we're at it. That'd be a sight to see," he added with a sneer, before walking into the plant.

Vero rolled his eyes at the insult as Florinia walked up behind him. "This speaker advises you simply ignore Fern's verbal attacks. It is merely his preferred method of entertaining himself, and he will undergo no permanent side effects through being deprived of said entertainment."

Vero, not entirely understanding Florinia but getting the gist of what she was trying to convey, nodded. "Sure," he responded simply, and then the two of them walked inside the building. Immediately, the overwhelming stench of toxic waste flooded past them, and Vero recoiled from it. "Wow… that's just…" he muttered, not even knowing what words could describe the smell.

"Terribadtastic!" Julia exclaimed, and Vero slowly nodded.

"Yeah… that," he agreed, shutting his eyes and shaking his head in an attempt to focus out the stench. "What's that? On the screens over there?"

Florinia walked towards the screens. "Unknown, however the observed wine red hue is indicative of exorbitant levels of pollutants. Toxicity level is likely at least ninety percent, or more," she thoroughly explained.

"Great… So these chumps are not only bombing people, but they're also causing the lake to turn into shit too," Fern realized. "What wonderful rays of sunshine they must be."

"Can't imagine they're too friendly to unexpected guests either," Vero pointed out, pulling out Ivysaur's pokeball. "So what's the plan then?" he asked Julia and Florinia.

"Rather than a source of active pollution, this facility appears to simply be a monitoring station, to collect data on the water, as well as-" Florinia started to say, before being cut off as the screens in front of them suddenly began to shut off.

"Wait wait wait wait wait!" Julia exclaimed. "Where did all the teeny tiny words go?!"

Florinia simply stared over at a door to their right. "Data purge suspected," she explained. "Hypothesis: facility operatives have begun procedural deactivation of non critical systems to avoid divulging any gathered data and information."

Fern walked towards the door. "The let's stop twiddling our thumbs and get our asses in gear already," he said, before looking back towards Julia. "It's not like we have the privilege of stealth after somebody announced our presence by blowing up the entire front door."

Julia made a confused expression. "What, am I just supposed to not blow stuff up? Don't be ridiculous!"

Florinia walked between them. "The path diverges ahead," she pointed out, gesturing to a less visible door. "The most efficient course of motion through the facility for thorough investigation and reclamation of property necessitates a similar bisection of the party."

Fern huffed. "Could you try speaking English for just once in your life?" he asked.

Vero rolled his eyes. "She means we should split up," he explained for him, and Fern huffed again.

"Well, yeah I could tell that much," he retorted defensively.

"So why did you ask then?" Vero replied, but Julia got between them.

"Let's get back on topic, I wanna blow something up. Fern, I know you're going to be a spoilsport about that, so do you think you can deal with him, Vero? Rini and I will go together on the side route."

Vero shrugged. "Not my first choice, but I'll deal with it," he said, already knowing he wasn't going to enjoy teaming up with Fern. Hearing this, Fern scoffed.

"Excuse me? You should feel lucky," Fern asserted, only for the other three to roll their eyes at him again.

"Fern, just shut up and move already. We're wasting time," Vero said, before walking away from him as Florinia and Julia went through the side door. Fern jogged over to Vero, looking around as they saw the room they had stepped into.

As soon as they walked inside, a voice called out to them from above. "So, the esteemed guests of honor have arrived!" they said with a laugh. "I know they say you should knock before you enter, but I don't think anyone meant you should knock the whole door down!" they pointed out. "But it is kind of you to announce your calling though…"

Fern narrowed his eyes at the source of the voice, a strangely clothed person with an even stranger style of hair, half spiky swept blue locks on one side, a ponytail on the other. "And just who are you?" Vero called out in reply.

The strange person smiled. "The name's Ace! First rate agent, statistician, systemic admin, master magician, professional dead end to meandering little vagrants like you, and so, so much more," they answered with a flip of their hair. "As I said, it's very kind of you to make your presence so well known. Although it's of little concern what with how we were already packing up to leave!"

"You what?" Fern exclaimed, and Ace nodded.

"Yep! Although I will admit, I had expected the police to come knocking before your little band of heroes did, what with the tip we got from them," Ace revealed with another sly smile.

Vero narrowed his eyes. "So there's a mole in our ranks, is that what you're saying?"

Ace nodded. "Ten points to the boy in boring black! Oh, wait, that's all of our grunts too. But look at the time, it seems I've spent too long telling you things you should've already known!" they exclaimed with a dramatic flick of their wrist to look at a non-existent watch. "And speaking of time, thank you again for giving us such ample amounts of time to drop a few bippity-bop-bop buttons and…" they said, quickly typing a on a keyboard behind them. Numerous screens all around the room went black within seconds, and Vero nodded to Fern.

"I'll keep this punk distracted. See if you can figure out a way up there," he whispered, and Fern nodded in agreement, putting aside their differences to get the job done.

But before Fern could sneak off, Ace glanced down at them from the corner of their eyes. "Oh, dearie, dearie me! Whatever could my little friends be muttering about? Perhaps a plan to keep me occupied while the other splits off to look for clues?" they exclaimed. "But look at that! Data was released to the wild. Bye bye, data!"

Vero narrowed his eyes. "So you are smarter than you look," he called out to Ace.

"Well, I am an admin for Team Meteor after all. I need to have some sense about me," they replied with a smile. "You should know, I'm more steamed than a sauna that we have to go around dumping all of this carefully collected information. I mean sure, it's all on our network, because who doesn't use cloud storage these day, but still! It's just such a hassle, and there's so much to go through and delete, this poor computer doesn't know how much time it'll take!" Ace exclaimed. "Two hours? Two minutes? Ten days? Who knows! Sooo… Grunts! And that's such a rude name, but you never complained about it, but I digress! Please slow our guests down!"

Out of nowhere, two hooded figures stepped in front of Vero and Fern, each of them with a pokeball in hand. "Well, this isn't what I had in mind," Fern mused, sending out his Sandile as Vero sent in Ivysaur.

"And just what were you expecting?" Vero answered, commanding Ivysaur to use Vine Whip on one of the grunt's pokemon, a Lillipup. The small canine flew into the air and slammed into the other grunt's Alolan Rattata. Both pokemon grunted with the impact, and then they looked up in surprise as Fern's Sandile Trapped them both in a swirling cyclone of sand from Sand Tomb. Before long, both grunts had been defeated, and Fern had his Sandile bearing it's teeth at one of them while he attempted to intimidate the other.

"Some kind of sinister evil organization, not this cheery fruits basket," he answered, before grabbing one of the grunts. "Now let's try this again," he said, holding the man against the wall, his arm up to his neck to keep him from escaping. "What's going on here?"

Vero shook his head. "Fern, they probably don't know much more than we do. If we want intel, we'll get it from that Ace fella. Come on," he pointed out, before walking away. After a moment to decide, Fern scoffed and spun the grunt around before slamming his head into the wall, knocking him out. Catching up to Vero, he found the black haired boy peering down at a keypad.

"What's that?"

Vero narrowed his eyes. "This elevator's locked, and I'll bet this keypad is what we use to unlock it," he said, pressing the enter key, only for the green screen to flash red twice, and then reset to four zeros. "I don't have a clue what the code is though…"

Fern shoved Vero aside. "Let me try. In the meantime, go trash those grunts and see what you can dig up," he said, and Vero nodded, reminding himself that he had more important things to worry about than Fern's attitude.

"Sounds good. Here, you've got a scanner, right?" Vero asked, and Fern nodded. "Link yours with mine. If I come across any clues to help you get in, I'll send them to you," he said, holding out his scanner. Pressing a few keys on the small button pad on the side of the lens, he and Fern added each other to their scanners contacts, and the Vero slipped the scanner back onto his ear and headed in the direction he had been going before getting sidetracked by the elevator.


"Vero, that last digit did the trick, head on back over here," Fern said through his scanner. Vero nodded, pulling his datachip from the terminal. With two more Meteor grunts defeated, he'd been able to stick the chip into one of the still functional computers and download whatever information was still there. Though there was nothing complete, he'd found references to numerous entries simply labeled PULSE machines, going up to a total of five, or six when he included the prototype, which simply was overwritten as "Unit lost."

Making his way back over to Fern's location, he tapped two buttons on the scanner and forwarded the information he'd found to Fern. "Fern, look through those files and tell me what you think. They look like bad news to me," he said, before another Meteor grunt surprised him by grabbing his arm from a hidden corner. "Blast!" he exclaimed, kicking the grunt in the face as another sent out an Aron, which was sent back to it's pokeball after two back to back Incinerates from Pansear.

"Are you coming?" Fern called through the scanner impatiently. Vero clicked his teeth.

"Yeah, hold your horses, I'm almost there. I got held up by two grunts who got the drop on me."

Fern nodded. "All right, well, here's our ride," he replied, walking into the elevator and waiting by the buttons. A few moments later, Vero ran inside the elevator and closed the doors behind him.

"Punch it," he said, and Fern grinned.

"Gladly."

With that, the elevator began to rise slowly when suddenly the lights went out and it stopped in the middle of the shaft.

"What the-" Fern started to say, before being cut off by Ace's voice over the intercom.

"Whoops, sorry little wannabes! I'm afraid I pressed the wrong button and stopped you in your tracks!" they mockingly apologized. "Why don't you be good little fledglings and stay put there until the show is over and we've dealt with your gym leader friends? Ooh, or better yet, since you're both obviously brimming with justice and urgency, what say you join us?" Ace offered. "Sure, our methods aren't exactly popular, but that's kind of the point, you know? But I promise, we're the ones looking out for this region, and we even come with great insurance and a family plan!"

Fern scoffed at the offer, but Vero narrowed his eyes. "Ace, I know we just met and all, but trust me. If you so much as mention my family and your team in the same sentence again, I promise you at least one of those cards that's plastered onto that silly hat of yours will find it's way into your eye," he warned, calling out Pansear. "Pansear! Get us our of this elevator! Melt that door with Incinerate!"

"Nice going, Vero!" Julia's voice rang out through the intercom. "Don't worry though, Rini's got the door situation handled."

As if on cue, the doors immediately opened to a dimly lit elevator shaft. "Primary security overridden. Freed allies should ascend up the remaining section of the shaft by exiting the elevator and climbing the adjacent ladder to the door," Florinia's voice informed them.

"Thanks, Florinia," Vero replied, recalling Pansear and nodding to Fern. "I'll go first. Watch your step, yeah?"

Fern nodded, and after Vero leapt across the shaft and grabbed onto the rungs of the ladder in front of them, Fern followed suit and did the same. The two climbed up and up until they were next to a large door. "Flobot, we're at the door," Fern said through his scanner.

"Acknowledged. Stand by," Florinia answered, and then moments later, the doors opened and the two boys stepped off the ladder and into the room, coming face to face with Ace, who was battling with Julia's Electrode while Florinia operated on a computer.

"Drat! One, I could take, and two's a fair bout, but three's a whole crowd, and four is just right out," Ace exclaimed, recalling a blue Roselia and running back through the door that was across the room from where Vero and Fern had entered. "So darlings, consider this a tactical, if temporary, retreat!" With that, Ace shut the door, and moments before Julia could follow with her Electrode, a massive gate slammed down and stopped them in their tracks.

"Oh no you don't! Electrode! Blow that gate to pieces!" Julia retorted. Her Electrode rolled forward as it glowed with stored energy, before exploding as it was right against the gate and sending it crashing to the floor. Immediately after, Julia tossed a small, pale white and star shaped object at the fainted pokemon, which shattered into a cloud of glowing dust in the air before spiraling around Electrode, and reviving it to full health. "Fern, stay with Rini and make sure no more of those grunts get to her! Vero and I will go after Funky Hat and blow their face off!"

Without waiting for an answer, Julia raced off across a metal bridge after Ace, and Vero followed after her, Ivysaur's pokeball in hand.

Running inside the room at the end of the bridge, the pair saw a black haired man wearing a red, metallic patch over one eye facing them, a Seviper coiled beside him as they stood in front of a strange machine with a black fox-like pokemon trapped inside, it's face tight with pain. "You! Are you the one in charge here?" Julia asked, to which the man merely stepped forward, a menacing expression on his face.

"And if I am?" he replied.

"If you are, then we're going to blow your face off for what you did to Grandview Station and the Grand Hall!" Julia warned, sending out Electrode as Vero took the hint and sent out Ivysaur. Suddenly, two more grunts appeared out of thin air behind them.

"Amusing. And it appears the Pulse Zorua worked just as planned. This has been a successful day, all things considered," he said. "So tell me, just what power do you think you have to… you say, blow my face off? One of you may be a gym leader, but you?" he said, looking at Vero. "You're just a target to me. And even if you were both gym leaders, we outnumber you two to one."

"Oh yeah? And just who do you think you are, anyway?" Julia shot back, while Vero shook his head, wondering if he'd misheard the man in front of them. "And what did you mean by Vero being 'just a target?'"

So he hadn't misheard him after all. Vero had been sure he'd misunderstood the man, but he had indeed called him a target. "Surely not… Surely they didn't bomb the train and the Grand Hall to kill me, right?" he wondered, pressing his back to Julia's as the man, Ace, and the two grunts surrounded them from both sides.

"You know already who we are," the man said. "We are Team Meteor. Though few would understand, we are the keepers of history, the shepherds of the region. As for your other question, simply put, the revival of the Reborn League poses a threat to our plans. But with no trainers to challenge it, or no Champion to lead it, then the whole attempt to revitalize Reborn city will fall through and be forgotten."

"So what game are you playing then? Some shepherds you must be, since we've practically torn up your base already," Vero exclaimed, staring both grunts in the eyes.

"You misunderstand. Like a toddler who will kick, scream, and cry themselves to eventual sleep, you've been allowed to do as you pleased. In fact, we overestimated you. We expected you to be able to glean more data from our computers, but you took longer than anticipated. Time was ample. Your efforts are forfeit."

Ace grinned at the computer screen they were watching. "We've got metrics on everything from water quality to Pokemon populations, to the lives of the individual people here. If it exists, we know about it, and just like that, it's all off the system!"

"You are outmatched, and I tire of this dalliance. Aster, Eclipse, Ace and I are more than enough to defeat the two of you," the man said, pointing at them with one hand. "Seviper. Deal with them."

The black snake slithered forward and hissed at Electrode, who rumbled around as Julia sent out an Oricorio to back it up. Ace pressed a button on the computer behind them, and the latches securing the Zorua to the machine released while the two grunts in front of Vero each sent out a Rockruff to face Vero's Ivysaur.

Suddenly the Zorua began to glow with crimson light. "Oh, what's this?" Ace mockingly wondered. "A Zorua shouldn't evolve so soon, you might be thinking. Which is why it's not. The Pulse is mutating it, and enhancing it's power," they explained, stepping aside to allow Julia and Vero to watch as the Zorua did exactly that. Strange, matte black scales formed over its fur, and with it's eyes shut tight in pain, its red markings glowing with blue light. "We give you… Pulse Zorua!"

"What the hell…" Vero breathed in horror as the Zorua collapsed, before pushing itself up and cracking open it's jaw. A sudden blast of black energy shot from the pokemon's mouth towards Julia's Oricorio as it used Dark Pulse, sending it flying into the wall behind them.

"Oricorio!" Julia shouted, recalling the fainted bird before narrowing her eyes at the mutated Zorua. "Don't worry, Zorua, we'll save you!" she called out, ducking under another black beam and recalling Electrode to it's pokeball. "Vero! I need you to keep the others busy! We can't let them keep hurting that Zorua!" she called out, and Vero nodded, sending out his shiny Poochyena and Espurr to reinforce Ivysaur.

"Ivysaur! Use Vine Whip and reel them in!" Vero called out, turning to Poochyena and Espurr. "Poochyena, when Ivysaur pulls one of those Rockruff close, give it a good Bite. And Espurr, blast that Seviper with Psybeam!"

With a yowl, Espurr immediately spun on her paws and launched a powerful psychic beam at Seviper, who recoiled in pain as the super effective attack hit home right on it's forehead. Ivysaur wrapped his vines around one of the Rockruff's legs and dragged the canine close, where Poochyena bit it's other legs with a powerful Bite. At the same time, the Zorua let out a loud howl, and suddenly the room went dark. When the lights came back on, all of Team Meteor's pokemon had vanished, and Zorua's glowing patches were now even brighter.

"You've got to be kidding me! It's created an illusion over other pokemon? But that should be impossible!" Vero realized, and Ace grinned.

"Pulse machines! Making the impossible possible, one pokemon at a time!" they replied as Julia somersaulted over the still unnamed man who was commanding the Seviper to grab her with it's tail. Julia nimbly jumped away and called Electrode back onto the field to battle the serpent, whose bladed tail now appeared as a barely noticeable shimmer in the light.

Suddenly, Poochyena yelped from behind Vero as one of the invisible Rockruffs threw a boulder at him with Rock Throw, which was then followed up by another boulder from the other Rockruff, who had freed itself by biting Ivysaur's vines and was now attacking the hound from the other side. "Poochyena!" Vero exclaimed, following his instincts and throwing himself over the whimpering Poochyena, taking the brunt of another Rock Throw.

Vero grunted in pain as the small boulder slammed into his arm. Hearing his trainer in pain, Ivysaur flailed his six vines around, trying to catch either of the Rockruffs by surprise by sweeping their legs out from under them. Remarkably, he actually hit both of them, and as the vines wrapped around each other their paws, Ivysaur scattered a massive cloud of pink, flowery spores from his budding flower which painted the canines and the Seviper a bright pink color.

With Vero on the edge of unconsciousness from being pummeled by the Rockruff's attacks, Julia narrowed her eyes and kicked off of the black haired man's face into the air. She pointed at the machine, and her Electrode rolled around the bright pink silhouette of the Seviper, coming to a stop in front of the device.

"Use Explosion!" Julia shouted. Before Ace, Aster, Eclipse, or the black haired man could even blink, there was a massive explosion. Zorua dropped like a stone, its body glowing with the same red energy as before while it returned to its original form. At the same time, Ivysaur was beating the two Rockruffs relentlessly with repeated Vine Whips, while Espurr kept Seviper at bay away from Vero's body with a sustained Psybeam.

Ace gasped in surprise, but before they could register what had happened, Julia called out a Plusle and a Minun, ordering them both to use Flash to blind the four Meteor members while she returned Electrode to its pokeball. Leaning down low and scooping up the unconscious Zorua, Julia helped Vero to his feet and returned his pokemon to their pokeballs.

When they got back to Florinia and Fern, Vero's arm had begun to bruise badly, and he hurt with every step to the point that Julia was supporting him with one arm under his, the comatose Zorua in her other arm. "Rini! I need some help here!" she called out to her friend, who helped Julia set Vero down on the ground.

After a moment, Florinia felt around Vero's shoulder for a few seconds, before nodding. "Joint dislocation detected. Recommended treatment should be administered by trained professionals. Suggestion: Vero should be taken to see Nurse Joy," she said, and Julia nodded.

"Hey, Vero. You okay to walk a bit more?" she asked, and after a moment, Vero nodded slightly.

"What… What happened to the others? Poochyena… I was basically laying on top of him…" Vero groaned. Barely a few seconds later, Poochyena, seemingly having heard Vero say his name, emerged from his pokeball on his own and nudged his trainer with his nose. "Hey buddy…" Vero whispered. "You okay?"

Poochyena began to growl, and then suddenly, the white wolf began to glow with blue light as he suddenly grew almost twice as large. Two long tails of hair grew out from behind his ears, and when the light dissipated, the massive canine licked Vero's face twice and then pushed under his body to try and lift Vero up onto his back. With Julia's help, Mightyena rested Vero's injured form on his back, both hands wrapped around his neck to keep him from falling.

"If we're done with the emotional stuff, can we get moving? I doubt Team Meteor's gonna leave us alone just because one of us decided to take a hit for our pokemon," Fern callously pointed out, earning him a stern glare from Julia.

"Fern, I have just about had it with you!" she said, storming over to him. "Don't you realize he could've been seriously hurt? We're lucky he's able to move at all!"

"Julia is correct. Your previous statement was uncalled for," Florinia agreed, and Fern threw up his hands.

"Well fine. I'm getting out of here. Have fun coaxing that mangy flee pelt into the elevator," Fern said walking into the elevator with a long sigh. Julia then turned to Mightyena and Vero.

"Mightyena, are you okay with the elevator?" she asked the canine, who growled protectively in affirmation. The pokemon would make sure his trainer got the help he needed, or he'd die trying. Julia thought to herself how remarkable it was for Vero to have already formed such a bond with the pokemon he'd known for less than two weeks.

"All right then, let's get moving," she said, dropping her usually carefree act in lieu of a serious determination. It was time to get out of this building.


Vero woke with a start, gasping for air as he felt like he'd been asleep for over the better half of a week. Immediately, Ivysaur, who had been resting underneath Vero's head, looked up in surprise, and Mightyena padded over from where he'd been sitting by the door, like an ever vigilant guard dog.

"Hey, easy there. You've been through a lot," said a familiar voice as Vero looked around.

Vero groaned in pain, trying to move his left arm to no success, quickly realizing that it was wrapped up in a sling made from a mesh-like material.

"Urgh… Victoria? I thought you were at the Grand Hall still…" he said sleepily to the girl sitting at the other end of the couch. She nodded, rubbing Mightyena's head behind his ears.

"Yeah, I was, but Julia asked me to come and make sure you didn't push yourself too hard too fast after what happened in Mosswater," she explained.

Slowly, Vero's brain began to collect the dots. "Wait… Mosswater…?" he mumbled, before his eyes suddenly shot open. "Team Meteor! What happened to them? And the Pulse Zorua, and… how long was I out anyway?" he asked. Victoria shook her head, smiling.

"Don't worry, that's all taken care of. Unfortunately Team Meteor got away, but they won't be able to use that place as a hideout anymore. Not only do we know about it, but Julia managed to sneak off earlier with some explosives called… I think she said verdignite?" Victoria explained, trailing off in confusion as different types of explosives were not something she was very knowledgeable in. "Either way, the building… yeah, it's not looking too good anymore."

Vero laughed slightly. "From what I've heard, that definitely sounds like Julia," he agreed. "So how long was I out anyway?" he asked again.

"Eh, day and a half or so. You were in pretty rough shape when Mightyena carried you in with Julia and Florinia. Florinia said something about going back to Obsidia ward to deal with some kind of strange overgrowth of the vegetation… I'm not to sure what she meant, but it sounded urgent," Victoria explained. "Oh, and speaking of Florinia, she asked me to give you this," she added, handing Vero a small, disk-shaped device.

Accepting it, Vero turned it over in his hands to get a better look at it. "What is it?" he asked.

"It's called the Field Notes app. You're familiar with the effects of moves Electric Terrain, Grassy Terrain, Misty Terrain, and Psychic Terrain, right?" Victoria asked. When Vero nodded, she continued. "Well, in the Reborn Region, not only do those four terrains get a wide range of additional effects besides just empowering moves of the corresponding type, but there's a bunch of additional terrains that can only be found here. This app is a sort of catalog for each other them, but it's unfortunately a work in progress, so there isn't much data."

Vero nodded. "So, how do I use it?" he asked.

"Here, hand me the disk and your scanner and I'll show you. Florinia said she's also working on adapting something else to the scanner. Something about Team Meteor's Pulse Pokemon or something. I didn't understand most of what she said, but from what Kiki's told me, not many people do," she said absentmindedly while she fiddled with the scanner. Eventually, she figured out where the right button was, and upon pressing it, a small tray that Vero didn't even know existed popped out, and she slid the disk inside before closing it up and handing the scanner back to Vero. "There, try it on now."

Doing so, Vero instantly noticed a new function between the communications icon and the clock and weather icon. A small, diploma resemblant design was in the middle of the new square that had been added to the list of the map, the jukebox, and the other two icons, bringing the function count up to five. "So I just blink over this like I would the others, and it'll pull up information on the different terrains?"

Victoria nodded. "Pretty much. The only ones Florinia had on her was the terrain data for the Electric terrain, and the Factory field, guessing that those two would be terrains you'd find inside the Mosswater facility. But while I was waiting for you to wake up, I added one of my personal favorite terrains, the Ashen Beach. It's the one I grew up with while I was training with Kiki."

Hearing that name again, a name that Victoria clearly held in high esteem, Vero was more than intrigued. "You keep mentioning that name, but I don't know many people here yet. Who is Kiki?" he asked, and Victoria blushed slightly in embarrassment as she realized Vero wouldn't have had any reason to know who Kiki was.

"It's a long story, but we've got plenty of time right now. Kiki is… well, she's my teacher. Not just for pokemon battles, but for my martial arts skills, and just life in general. Remember how I tricked that boy into lowering his guard so I could give him a black eye, when we were helping that pokemon on Opal Bridge?" Victoria asked.

"Yeah. Was that something Kiki taught you?" Vero guessed, and Victoria nodded.

"It was. That wasn't the first time I'd had a run in with those three boys… There was… another incident… when I was younger. I'd rather not talk about it now though…" Victoria said, her face appearing suddenly rather anxious and depressed. Vero nodded understandingly.

"Hey, if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. I've never wanted to be someone who likes to pry," Vero reassured her, wincing as he tried to push himself into a more comfortable sitting position. Victoria saw this and reached out, gently pulling him up with his injury free arm. "So, skipping over that part, you really look up to Kiki, don't you?" he said, in an attempt to move to something that he hoped Victoria would be more comfortable with.

Victoria nodded, smiling gratefully. "Well, like I said, Kiki is my teacher. When she found me living in the Obsidia Slums, she offered to let me come live with her at her home, on the other side of Azurine Lake. You saw that big volcano across the lake when you came out of the Grand Hall, right?" she asked.

"I think I know what you're talking about. I couldn't see much because of the clouds, but there was an island over there, yeah? It has these big, rocky mountains, right?" Vero answered, and Victoria nodded.

"That's the one. It's called Apophyll Island, and it's where Kiki teaches as the Sensei of Apophyll academy. I'm just one of her many apprentices, and all of us look up to her, since most of us came from difficult places. It's kind of like a home, therapy hospital, and training dojo all rolled into one. In fact, you'll actually be going there at some point too."

Vero tilted his head. "Why's that?" he asked, and Victoria smiled with excitement.

"Because Kiki's also the Fighting type gym leader of Reborn."

Vero nodded. "Gotcha. So, how are you doing? Last time we saw each other, you were still recovering from those burns you got the day we met. And how's that Zigzagoon doing? Is she all right?" he asked, and Victoria grinned again.

"Don't you mean Linoone?" she said, holding out a pokeball. Opening it, the brown colored pokemon emerged from the ball, but not as Vero remembered her. "She evolved last night while we were training outside the Grand Hall. I also found a Pichu, a Ralts, and a Pancham since we last met up. Maybe we can battle again after you fight Julia? I beat her yesterday while you were still asleep, but I asked her to record it in case you wanted to watch the match after you woke up."

Vero nodded. "Definitely. I've got some new tricks up my sleeve too, so just let me know the when and where," he said confidently. "And sure, I'd be down to watch it if I get a free moment."

"Great. Then I'll be sure to wait for you to be fully recovered from taking multiple Rock Throws to the arm," Victoria replied with a sly grin, and Vero sighed.

"Ouch… that's just cold, Victoria."

Victoria laughed. "Well, that's what you get for trying to fend off the pokemon of a criminal organization with your own body. Seriously, what made you think that was smart?" she asked, and Vero shrugged.

"I don't know. Heat of the moment I guess, but they were hitting Mightyena after he was down, so I had to do something," Vero pointed out.

"Well then maybe next time you should just recall him to his pokeball," she suggested, playfully reaching over and slapping the back of his head.


A/N: And here we are, the first of many encounters with Team Meteor! For those of you who have played or watched a playthrough of Pokemon Reborn on Youtube, then you already know I made a rather large change to Mosswater, in the form of an additional Pulse Pokemon, the Pulse Zorua. I tried to write that fight in a way that made the Zorua appear like a small scale experiment, since unlike every other Pulse Pokemon you fight in the game, Zorua can still evolve into Zoroark, while the others are at their final stage or never evolve to or from anything else. In short, this Pulse just takes Zorua's ability to make itself appear like something else, and forces it to project that ability as a cloaking screen onto both other people and pokemon, which is how Aster and Eclipse seemingly appeared out of nowhere behind Vero and Julia.