Well that was a hiatus much longer than I intended it to be. I moved again and I focused on other things. But I decided to continue chipping this away. At last, here we are with Chapter 39. This one is short compared to the others, and it's the first chapter not to feature our protagonists. This one is written a little differently due to that every character is an adult in this chapter. This chapter has some minor suggestive language and tense situations. Enjoy!


Bradley arrived at The Cinders after traveling west from Fort Lexing two weeks ago. He was sent there, per Aria's request, to investigate what caused the fire pokemon living there to travel east.

The result of the unexpected migration nearly caused an ecological disaster. If he, Aria, and Team Mystic had not stopped the flames from spreading any further in Cheron Forest, the damage would have been astronomical, and it could have spread all the way to Fort Lexing itself.

Bradley entered a barren landscape with dead trees and shrubs. The ground was charred, and there were nearby nests and caves that once housed fire pokemon. Normally, the temperature would be much hotter from the flames produced by the inhabitants. Fires would be sporadic, used as warmth and even deterrents to intruders or even natural predators. But there was nothing, not even evidence pointing what caused the fire pokemon to leave in the first place. It was as if they all decided one day to get up and leave.

Bradley surveyed the area, using his tablet to document footage.

"As you can see, no clear visible sign of anything that would force the inhabitants here to migrate east," he observed. "There are no sudden ecological changes in the environment, with no evidence of internal or external factors in play. I'm going to survey the area in depth to search for a possible cause for the migration."

As Bradley ventured deeper into the scorched landscape, he decided to call out his pokemon, hoping they would sense or spot anything he was missing.

"Growl!" Bradley's growlithe began sniffing the ground for any recent traces.

"Yu!" Staryu began surveying the area.

Last to be released was Shelgon. Just a few days ago, he evolved from Bagon just from battling an aspiring trainer in a practice skirmish. It would still be quite some time before Shelgon evolved into Salamance, Bradley assumed. Oh that would be the day, he thought. I'd love to see the look on Aria's face!

He wondered how his relationship with Aria would carry on once he got back. Team Mystic didn't have a strict fraternization policy; members would go out to arcades, clubs, restaurants, and pokemon contests all the time. But dating the chapter leader was a different story, one that can easily infringe upon workplace conflict of interest from Aria's perspective.

The thoughts of missing her crossed Bradley's mind on several occasions. It made his mission that much simpler: document what's going on and return to Fort Lexing. He only wished he was allowed to borrow the helicopter.

Suddenly, he heard distant, faint echoes from people behind him. He quickly turned around, startled. Nothing was there.

"Huh," Bradley scratched his head. "Could've sworn I heard something."

Bradley proceeded onward, heading further west with his three pokemon. He spotted a tent and what appeared to be some survey equipment on top of a small hill overlooking the area. Curious, he trekked uphill, reaching the tent. It appeared to be larger than he thought, big enough to host a mobile workplace for several people at most.

With his pokemon behind him, Bradley proceeded inside. There, he saw three men, presumed to be researchers of some sort, all wearing different color shirts, vests, and cargo pants. They seemed to be distracted with some sort of handheld device at the far end of the tent.

"Uh, hello?" Bradley tried to get their attention.

This completely startled the three men.

"A visitor?" a short man with glasses and wearing a gray shirt, brown vest and cargo pants stumbled before facing Bradley.

"Will, I thought you had clearly stated there were no wanderers here today," a taller, older man wearing a red shirt, deeper red vest, and black pants seemed annoyed.

"That was as of the time of that statement!" the third man snapped, wearing a blue shirt, orange vest, and brown pants.

The shorter man and the man presumed be will had short, dark hair, while the shorter man had even bangs. The taller individual had curly gray hair, and he seemed rather disinterested in a visitor to their tent.

"Someone deal with it. Now," he demanded.

The shorter man approached Bradley. "What are you doing here?"

"Name's Bradley," Bradley held his ground. "I'm a Pokemon Ranger employed by Team Mystic in Fort Lexing. I came to investigate the area as

some follow up recon."

Bradley was initially suspicious of the researchers' behaviors, but he dismissed those thoughts, knowing that the science personalities can sometimes be odd, not known for general socialization.

"Of course she'd send someone," the middle man sighed.

"What'd you expect?" the taller man turned his head to face him. "If she weren't busy dealing with the fallout, their entire Ranger division would be here right now."

"You guys obviously know something," Bradley crossed his arms. "Who are you, anyways?"

"Recall your pokemon," the middle man requested. "They cannot be disrupting our work."

"Fine," Bradley rolled his eyes, recalling Staryu, Growlithe, and Shelgon. "Now, who are you?"

"I'm Will," the middle man introduced himself. "The guy in front of me is Tim, and the guy in the back is Rafael."

"And who do you represent?" Bradley took a step forward.

"The future," Will replied with a smile.

"Well, he meant to say was we're a group of researchers set out to uncover the mysteries of Inventum," Tim quickly chimed in.

"Uh huh," Bradley gave a nod. "Like the group of explorers several years back?"

"Yeah, I guess you can say that," Tim replied, his tone showing slight nervousness.

"That group was directly funded by the government but was disbanded following the death of James Kyar," Bradley continued. "Nothing was ever found from their efforts, anyways."

"Well, the efforts are rebooted!" Will spoke. "See, there have been discoveries made. Did you know that people and pokemon existed in Inventum before we even settled here? And how could they disappear just like that? The answer: war. And we want to prevent another cataclysmic event from happening.

"Okay," Bradley slightly nodded. "Meeks has you guys beat by decades."

"And what did disarming the world give us in return?" Tim argued. "Criminal syndicates. Yes, gone are the days of entire regions waging wars and changing the course of history, but evil will always find a way to spread chaos. Where chaos reigns, we must bring order upon that chaos."

"Team Order?" Bradley took two steps back. He knew of the vigilant organization in the western reaches of Inventum, operating from Redholt City. They focused on preserving balance and the natural order of things, but only in the desert regions of Inventum. Nonetheless, he was somewhat relieved to see these scientists. "Well, why didn't you say so in the first place?"

"Team Order has taken it upon ourselves to uncover what is truly happening," Tim ignored Bradley's question. "The Cinders used to be a thriving town. The fire pokemon made their home here centuries after the inhabitants' disappearance. Once we figured out our ancestors were not the first ones to settle in Inventum, we needed to figure out what happened."

"So what did happen?" Bradley asked. "I've heard noises like I was nearby a settlement back there."

"We believe a war broke out," Will explained. "The results were cataclysmic. All inhabitants and pokemon were wiped out."

"Still doesn't explain the noise."

"It's haunted," Will continued. "The paranormal dimension essentially connects to our reality due to some really bad stuff in the past."

"And we're communicating with the inhabitants," Tim added.

"We needed the fire pokemon to leave," Will began to spill too much information, to the dismay of Tim and Rafael. "So we used sonic disruptors to force them to flee. The frequencies first affected the local ghost Pokémon, so we needed to alter the density and impact of the disruptors."

"So you've caused the fires in Cheron Forest?" Bradley stepped forward, intimidating Will with ease. "How careless are you guys!?"

"Oh, Will," Tim had his palm over his forehead, embarrassed for his colleague. "You're an idiot."

"I'm documenting this and reporting it back to Aria," Bradley began to step outside. "Good luck explaining this to the Cabinet!"

"You morons run your mouth and now he knows too much," Rafael spoke up, turning around as he reached for something underneath his vest.

Bradley heard a noise that stopped him in his tracks - the sound of a gun cocked.

"Hands up," Rafael demanded. "You're not going anywhere or telling anyone."

"All right, guys," Bradley glanced at his pokeball belt, addressing his team. "Stay inside. Don't do anything rash."

Bradley complied with Rafael's demands, and put his hands over his head.

"Take his pokeball belt," Rafael instructed towards Will and Tim.

"Yeah, right," Will approached Bradley, "Sorry."

"What in the world are you guys planning?" Bradley asked, clearly angry. "It's not like I'm going anywhere anytime soon."

"Simple," Rafael kept his pistol aimed at Bradley's back. "Order and control. Meeks left us defenseless, as you will soon find out. We will help prepare Inventum for the future."


Brie was in her office as a starry night set over Richland Port. She was studying through the photographs Joe took before the explosion he narrowly escaped from, when an empowered lapras unleashed a lethal Hyper Beam.

Hooking the camera to her flat screen computer through a connection cable, Brie browsed through the files. The brunette kalosian leaned forward, squinting at the slightest of details through each photo.

"Is that a cargo ship?" She asked herself, realizing there are no marks on the ship.

She continued through the photos, up to the point where the empowered lapras emerged from the depths and fired upon Joe's boat.

"Oh, Joe," Brie sighed. "Why did you put yourself in danger like this?"

She then realized she needed to research any missing ships in recent years. Perhaps there could be a connection, she thought.

Assessing the conservation database on the extranet, which documents all sudden environmental changes or occurrences that could affect the ecosystem of a particular area, she entered "missing cargo ship" in the search bar.

Sure enough, a handful of articles appeared matching the description. The most recent incident, and closest by location, was a missing cargo ship out of Stellarport three years ago. It was presumed to be sunk from violent storms, and its crew were never found.

Glancing at the pictures of the ship, known as the ICS Corsola, it looked similar to the one Joe took photos of.

"I remember this," Brie muttered. "We've looked for weeks and called off the search. But they sent an SOS signal when they were in trouble."

Taking a deep sigh, Brie knew she had a theory to go on. Now she just needed to convince the right people to investigate further, and reopen the case of the missing cargo ship. With Joe still in the hospital in critical condition, Brie silently vowed to follow through with her partner's findings and help bring those responsible to justice.


The next morning, Bradley woke up, still in his Team Mystic attire and confined to a small space within the mobile post. Upon his capture, the scientists quickly converted Will's narrow room into a makeshift prison cell, even removing the cot to provide a miserable experience.

Bradley tossed around all night, worried about his Pokémon who were taken away, still in their pokeballs last he checked. Then he thought of Aria, and wondered if he would ever return to her.

He stood up, feeling the sudden natural pressure in his bladder. He figured his captors really haven't thought through how to keep prisoners here, but to be fair, he also figured they hadn't planned on keeping prisoners. If only they were heartless enough to kill him. Then no one would really know what happened.

Using this as an opportunity, he walked out of his makeshift cell, only to be facing the barrel of a pistol held by Tim.

"Nuh uh," Tim gently shook the pistol. "Back in."

"Is that the only weapon you have?" Bradley asked.

"You think I'm dumb enough to answer that for you?" Tim scoffed.

"Yeah, actually."

"Very cute. Back in your cell."

"Listen. I gotta piss. You're not gonna let me lose my dignity if I go in here, are you?"

Tim sighed, and turned his head. "Hey Raf!"

Rafael approached the two. "What do you want?"

Bradley could not see a visible weapon on Rafael.

"Our friend here says he needs to take a piss," Tim addressed.

"Fine. Take Will with you and make sure Bradley actually goes. Shoot him if he tries to escape."

"Got it," Tim nodded.

"Will!" Rafael yelled.

"Yeah!" Will ran right over.

"Walk with these two outside."

"Yes sir!"

Rafael then walked away.

"Well," Tim looked at Bradley. "Come on."

Bradley walked out with Tim and Will following him. He turned to the right, proceeding around the corner to a nearby tree. Tim and Will looked away as he began to go.

"You know," Bradley mentioned. "Back in Cheron Forest, there was this trainer who tried taking a piss one night and got nabbed by a gastly. Turned out fine, of course."

"Really?" Will became curious.

"Yep, right in the middle of the night."

"You'd think he'd known better," Tim said. "With an advisory going out and all that."

"Yeah, well, he shares a tent with a twin sister, so he wasn't gonna piss himself. You gotta do what you gotta do."

Tim and Will looked at each other after that comment.

"Twins, eh?" Tim asked.

"Yeah," Bradley finished up. "You got a place where I can wash my hands?"

"We have water and soap inside," Tim approached Bradley. "Now you mentioned twins. Anything we should know about them?"

Bradley didn't respond. In fact, he was confused as to why Tim was suddenly interested in the kids he mentioned in a harmless story. But he saw this as an opportunity to make a move. Perhaps not answering would entice Tim to come just a little closer.

"Hey," Tim walked forward. "Answer me, Bradley," he tapped his shoulder.

Bradley suddenly butted Tim's face with the back of his head, before turning around to twist the arm carrying the gun.

"Agh!" Tim yelled, the pain too unbearable for him to hold onto the weapon.

Bradley used both hands to retrieve the weapon from Tim before taking a few steps back.

"Woah," Will did not hesitate to put his hands up.

"Damn you!" Tim held onto his injured hand.

"You two will retrieve my pokeball belt," Bradley demanded. "And I will be on my way."

"Ugh!" Tim grunted in pain and frustration. "Fine. You win. Let's go."

Tim and Will led the way back inside the outpost. Upon entering, they caught the attention of Rafael, who stood at the opposite end.

He sighed. "Why did I let you two go out with him? I should've done it."

"Yeah, who's the idiot now?" Bradley pointed the gun at him.

Rafael smirked, and slowly put his hands up but only up to his shoulders. "Think this through, Bradley. How are you possibly going to get out of here your way?"

Bradley took that as a threat. He was outnumbered three to one, even if there was the off chance the pistol he held was the only one these guys had. He wasn't planning to shoot anyone. He didn't even know if the weapon was loaded, or even real. Firearms existed in Inventum and were available to the public through training and licensing but only a handful of rangers and farmers carried them.

With the odds still against him, he knew he had to do something. So he walked right over to Will and grabbed him, using him as a shield while still pointing the gun at Rafael.

"Hey now," Will trembled. "I'm engaged!"

"Good for you," Bradley responded. "Tim. My pokemon. Now."

Tim walked over to a nearby table where Bradley's belt was placed. He tossed it to Will, who caught it with both hands.

"Thank you," Bradley stepped back. "Step back with me, Will. Slowly."

"Wait, what?" Will replied nervously.

"You're coming with me, all the way to Fort Lexing."

"Wh-why?" Will complied, but was terrified at the prospect of being kidnapped.

"Come on," Bradley insisted. "Let's go."

Both men slowly backed out of the outpost. Rafael slowly reached for his vest but decided against it. This led Bradley to believe there was another gun, and he had to get out of there quickly.

"Why do you have firearms out here anyways?" Bradley asked Will as they stepped outside.

"Isn't that ranger protocol when going into the unknown?" Will responded. "Why don't you?"

"Because I have pokemon, and they're more effective than a measly pistol, just as long as you don't catch me off guard with one."

The two slowly backed away to a treeline, where Bradley made Will proceed in front of him. From there, they bypassed The Cinders and continued east towards Fort Lexing.