[Nate]

Unsurprisingly, Rosa, Hugh and Samantha all have questions about Mister Jaw's behavior. Without any good reason to keep this to myself any longer, I spill the beans about the refinery. I try to gloss over the more brutal details, but when I get to what the Nidoking did…there is no way I can talk about it and leave a nice mental image.

Any and all sign of cheer leaves Rosa when I'm finished, her mouth agape and her blinking eyes filled with shock and horror. Samantha, too, seems disconcerted, if her widened eyes are any indication. As for Hugh…

"You have got to be kidding me," he snarls as he grabs me by the jacket, face set in a scowl. "Not only did you almost get your Pokémon killed, you also sent him in a fight while he's still recovering?! What kind of trainer are you?!"

As his eyes bore into mine, I'm not able to muster a retort. Because he's right, Mister Jaw was not ready for this and I should have realized that before I even set foot in the Gym, but I didn't.

Still…

"I have messed up," I admit. "I've messed up big time, and there is no way for me to go back and change it all. But that doesn't mean I can't do better."

Hugh's snarl widens for a moment, but then he lets go of me, lightly shoving me aside.

"You had better," he growls. "Your Pokémon depend on you looking after them just as much as you do them. Do not ever forget that."

I let down a gulp. "I won't."

He doesn't reply, only sparing me one last glare..

After that exchange, Samantha calls everyone's attention to her. She congratulates Rosa and Hugh on their success against Cheren, although her words lack some of their usual bite. More concerning is how forlorn Rosa looks as she pays attention, all of her usual cheer absent.

Meanwhile, Samantha continues by saying that now their next objective would be the Toxic Badge at Virbank City, that they had better take a couple of days off to prepare for the journey and say their farewells to their families.

When they are dismissed, neither of them says anything to me. Hugh ignores me altogether, but Rosa manages to spare a weak nod to me, the corners of her mouth twitching up slightly.

Now, it's just me and Samantha, who crosses her arms as she regards me with a look more…sedate than I think I've ever seen her with.

"So," she says, "I assume that's the 'very bad beating' you mentioned before."

I nod. I'm not sure what to expect as her remark on that, given the kind of person she is. It certainly isn't what she says.

"Well," she scratches the back of her neck, "while my point that other day stands, I admit I may have underestimated your situation. I had assumed some other trainer had humiliated you, not…that."

"I know," I reply. "Like you said, you had a point even so." I grab Mister Jaw's and Mary's Poké Balls from my belt and look down at them as I hold them. "Still, today proved my team is not in as good a shape as they were before. I need to figure out what to do."

Samantha has nothing to say, and soon I tune her out of my perception entirely as I focus solely on the Poké Balls in my hand.

They are afraid, both of them. Afraid that what happened to them then would happen again. How can I help them fight that fear?

"What's your group going to do now, by the way?"

Samantha's question returns my attention to her and her emotionless face. "Excuse me?"

"Your group," she repeats. "I'm going to assume Eugenio got the same deal as you did. I asked for help to get Rosa started and I got it." She furrows her brow. "The only reason the three of you still have to stay on the peninsula is getting your Toxic Badge. What then?"

I, uh…I hadn't thought about that.

"We first came here with the intent of protecting Rosa, though we didn't really have a solid plan on how to go about it," I confess. "I…suppose you have that covered now."

She lets out an amused snort. "You bet I do."

The only thing I can do at that point is shrugging. "In that case, I don't know. I don't even know whether Eugenio won either badge. I guess I'll have to ask them the next time I hear from him and Dawn." I arch an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"

Samantha brings a hand to her chin in a pensive pose and then murmurs something under her breath. I'm about to ask her what is on her mind, but she speaks properly before I can. "Have you heard of Floccesy Town?"

I run that name over in my head a couple of times but come up blank. "No?"

"Not surprised," she chuckles, "It's a tiny town between Aspertia and Virbank. One I thought of taking Rosa and Hugh to while they look for new Pokémon to catch." She arches an eyebrow. "Want to tag along for now?"

Well… I don't really have a reason not to. The only way I can see Eugenio and Dawn needing to come here is if Eugenio loses to Roxie, and I doubt that's going to be the case.

"Sure," I tell her.

[Eugenio]

As soon as Dawn and I get out of the Gym, I grab the casket with the badges and look at its content, still unsure whether what just happened was real or a fever dream.

When I do see both the Toxic and Basic Badge, the rational part of my brain scolds me for doubting it. It's not enough to completely dispel my bewilderment, though.

"Still confused, are you?"

I turn to Dawn at that question. Her mouth is smiling, but it is strained and her eyes don't match that smile.

"Yeah," I admit. "Was this…stuff about a tougher challenge for two badges a thing in Sinnoh too?"

Dawn shrugs. "Back when I was the Champion, it wasn't. Considering that was years ago, I don't know whether it is now or it's just a Unova thing." She turns her head toward the Gym and lets out a sigh. "I'm more out of the loop than I thought, it seems."

Upon hearing that, I decide to wrap an arm around her shoulders in a comforting hug. Her neck relaxes and her head leans on my arm.

"Sorry," she then says. "I didn't want to be a downer."

"It's alright," I tell her. "I understand how frustrating it is when things are different from what you remembered." Boy, do I ever.

"Yeah," she sighs. "Thanks."

We stay like that for a few moments still and then turn away from the Gym. While walking away, we decide to call Nate and see how his 'special challenge' with Cheren went.

He doesn't answer our first call, worryingly enough. He thankfully answers when we call again a few minutes later, but the fact he doesn't look that happy sends some pretty bad feelings about how it went.

"Hi guys!" He still tries to sound cheery as he says that. Tries. "How…" he chuckles nervously, "how did it go with Roxie?"

Yep, it definitely went badly.

I proceed to recount my fight against Roxie. The fact Nate doesn't look surprised when I mention the altered terms or the additional badge dispels any doubt I may have had about him having a traditional fight.

When it's his time to tell us about his challenge, he hesitates for a bit and then tries to elongate how well Rosa and Hugh fared. Only a stern look gets him to stop stalling and tell us about his own fight. And how poorly it went.

"Hoooooly sh…" I mutter under my breath when he's done.

Dawn is faster to recover, though. "Nate, I'm so sorry about all this."

"I-it's fine, guys," he replies, rubbing his hair nervously. "I should have been the one to think about my Pokémon's state. And I, uhm…" His gaze goes down somewhat. "I'll…"

"We can help you with them," I intervene. "You don't have to do it alone."

"Yeah," Dawn chimes in. "Also, we don't have anything else to do here. We can reach you in Aspertia if you want."

Nate looks up again at that, his expression first one of surprise that soon melts into a grateful smile. "Thank you guys. Really."

"Although," he continues, "could we meet in Floccesy Town in a couple of days actually?"

Uh? Where?

[Wes]

A mistake that rookies in my line of work often do is how to handle interrogations. Some think beating them up until they start talking is the most efficient way to get a confession.

They are wrong. The way to get them to tell the truth is to put them in a corner where spilling the truth is in their best interest. That may sound like the same thing, but there is a subtle difference between the two. One relies on brute strength, the other on being cunning.

An example would be the leader of the Plasma group captured in Aspertia as I sit in front of him in an interrogation room. I could have tried beating him up, he certainly is jittery enough that a strong wind would be enough for him to wet his pants. Instead, I did something that assured he'd say the truth: I told him we already captured someone with knowledge of Team Plasma's plans and that if he didn't tell me something I didn't already know, he'd be tossed somewhere he'd never see the light of day again.

I doubt Ghetsis trusts him any more than he does Courtney, but at this point I'll take anything that can confirm or - more hopefully - discourage my suspicions.

Yesterday, we may have had a breakthrough. He mentioned something about the Pokémon taken by Jupiter at Relic Castle - Hikari's Pokémon. Now I'm trying to squeeze the rest out of him. Even if this buffoon is making me work for it.

"So we are in agreement, yes?" he says for the umpteenth time, much to my annoyance. "I'll tell you all I know and I'll get a light sentence, yes?"

It takes all my willpower not to roll my eyes, or groan or just do anything that expresses my frustration with this guy.

"Mister Petrel," I grunt, thankfully shutting him up, "how light your sentence will be is going to depend on what you have to say. So far, that's only been vague allusions, and for the record, I'm starting to think you're merely wasting my time."

That gets a nervous chuckle out of him. "Y-yes, I see. My apologies, I merely wanted to make sure. Ghetsis is not a really forgiving person, you see and-"

Arceus, end me here and now…

"Start. Talking. Now."

He stops stalling, and after a gulp, the next words coming out of his mouth are something slightly more concrete.

"So…those Pokémon. Really tough customers, those six, I'll tell you. When we first got them, we thought they'd break like any normal mon, but despite it all they always refused to follow orders. Or worse, when it came to this Eevee made of ice. You know what an Eevee is, right? Small furry-"

"Everyone knows what an Eevee is, get to the damn point!" Arceus, how did anyone put up with him?

"Right, right," he replies, fidgeting his hands. "Anyway, since we weren't making progress, we didn't really know what to do with them. That is, until Colress - the scientist the higher-ups hired - came up and seized them, saying he needed them for some experiment."

Hearing the word 'experiment' sets off my alarms while the Poké Balls with Meganium, Typhlosion and Feraligatr shake.

Regardless of that, I keep a straight face and ask him, "What kind of experiment?"

He shrugs, "I dunno, I wasn't privy to the details."

Suddenly, I feel an urge to pull him by his stupid goatee and headbutt him. I opt for something different instead.

"In that case," I say as I get up from my chair, much to his bewilderment, "It sounds like you were only wasting my time."

"Hey hey, hold on!" he frantically tells me. "I didn't say there wasn't more!"

Good.

I sit down again. "Speak."

He clears his throat before speaking again. "Aboard the frigate, there is a training area for Pokémon. Some time after those experiments started, Colress began secluding it for himself at times and took one of those Pokémon there." He pauses for a moment. "They all were…strange. Much more docile than they were before, empty gazes all the time, stiff bodies and a way too perfect rhythm when they walked…I swear, at one point I thought they were robotic doubles or something."

I pay little attention to that last comment while I clench my hands, anger starting to bubble within me. They did it. These bastards brought them back.

"Where," I growl, Petrel slightly wincing at my tone, "are they now?"

As he stepped through the golden ring, Colress couldn't help but be amazed by its power. One moment he stood within the hall of Team Plasma's frigate, and a step later the cold and hard steel of the floor was replaced by the soft grass adorning the forest around him. Where there were steel walls before, now it was just large trees, bushes and - in the distance - the wooden structures of the Floccesy Ranch beneath a clear morning sun.

Of course, sightseeing was not his reason for being here, as the giggles of the Pokémon called 'Hoopa' quickly reminded him. He turned to the Pokémon in question, who watched with glee as more and more recruits of Team Plasma came out of his rings.

From the very moment Colress' eyes landed on the Pokémon, he found his behavior to be…curious, to say the least. In the past, many groups were known to have tried to control legendary Pokémon and failed. Team Plasma itself had attempted to use the power of Unova's dragons to their advantage. That now one would so readily help of its own volition was unheard of. Ghetsis and Zinzolin were convinced there had to be the hand of some hidden benefactor behind the Pokémon's actions, but Colress disagreed on that notion.

Regardless, Hoopa's motivations mattered little in the grander scheme of things. Its powers were a great asset to Team Plasma and it had no qualms about sharing it. Maybe in the near future Ghetsis would have Colress' latest creation used to make sure it stayed that way, but that was of no concern to him.

Speaking of which…

"Hey, four-eyes. Stop ogling, we're all here."

Colress suppressed his need to sigh or shake his head. As crass as he found the woman to be, the two of them needed to work together for the good of the mission.

"Of course, Commander Jupiter," he told her. As he turned to her, he managed to get a last look at Hoopa turning away and flying off in the sun's direction.

When he was face-to-face with Jupiter, he saw her look in the direction where Hoopa was earlier, face set in a frown with her lips pursed and her head shaking.

Colress tilted his head. "Do you have an issue with our benefactor?"

Her reply came in the form of a scoff. "Nothing I haven't already voiced to Ghetsis. Or tried to, thanks to a certain crusty fossil."

Ah, she must have been the one whose complaints Zinzolin mentioned.

"Whatever," she said before returning her attention to Colress. "You sure your trinket is going to work?" she asked while raising her now gauntleted left arm.

Colress nodded. "Positive. Before her unfortunate capture, Purple Eyes provided enough data to suggest the technology works. All I need now is a field test of the application."

"Hrm," was Jupiter's response. "And do you have a plan on how to draw our target out?"

"Our leader actually requested you take care of that. That was why you were provided a file about him. I am only here for tech support and observation." Colress arched an eyebrow. "You have read the file, have you not?"

Jupiter did not respond to him. Her lips pursed and her eyes rolled to the side as she hummed in thought before turning to the ranch. She then grabbed a Poké Ball from her belt and started juggling it in her hand, all while letting out a low sinister chuckle.

"I may have skimmed over it a bit," Jupiter said after a bit, "but I read enough to recognize the type. And what draws their attention. Luckily, we have just the thing out there."

Jupiter nudged toward the ranch. Colress suddenly felt a shiver go down his spine.

"Wait, what? Why did two chapters come out? And why so much earlier?"

Long story short, I realized keeping backlogs is not for me, so from here on we go back to chapters being uploaded when they're ready (although it's likely they won't come out as quickly as before for multiple reasons).

Anyway, thanks to Softandhappy and Krosrodes for betareading. You can find us at the Fanfiction Treehouse discord server at: 9XG3U7a

See you guys next time!