"Report," Cyrus instructed. "How is the setup going?"

"Sir," Mars replied, giving him a respectful nod. "No problems thus far, and the passive defences are installed."

Her nose wrinkled a little. "Charon set up his laboratory without a hitch, which is good news at least."

"Good," Cyrus said. "I assume no problems with the locals, either."

"No, sir," Mars confirmed. "All the relevant paperwork is in place; this is officially a quiet research centre devoted to exploring clean energy. Even if someone who is able to tell we exist digs into it, we shouldn't stand out."

"Good," Cyrus repeated, walking to the window and looking out.

Oreburgh City spread out below him, and he smiled thinly.

"Sir?" Mars asked. "Do you mind if I ask a question?"

Cyrus waved a hand, indicating she could, and Mars continued. "Well, sir… why did we move here at all? The last I heard we were planning on setting up a base actually in Mount Coronet."

"Correct," Cyrus agreed. "And that base is still being constructed, but plans change… this location is perhaps a little more exposed, but it is close enough for research to be conducted."

He waved a hand. "Besides, if that annoying Ketchum boy happens across us, then he is restricted by the presence of bystanders. We have no such restriction."

"I see," Mars said. "That… makes sense, sir."

Cyrus turned, and regarded her for a moment.

"Do you feel disquieted?" he asked. "It's true that what we do involves the possibility of terrible acts… but only with the best of intentions. The new world will solve all problems, after all."

"Yes, sir," Mars agreed. "I remember. And that's worth it, in the long run.."

"In the long run," Cyrus repeated. "That has always been the problem. So few think in the long run."

He would have gone on, but a sudden beep broke the silence.

"Sir," Jupiter said, sounding worried. "We have a situation."

"Report," Cyrus instructed, sitting at his desk. "What's going on?"

"You… well, I'm not sure you'd believe me, sir…"

"I said report," the head of Team Galactic stressed.

"All right, sir. We've spotted something odd coming in towards the back of the building."

Mars came around the desk to look as Cyrus brought up the camera views of the building's rear facing – which looked out over Mount Coronet, with a few blocks of much shorter buildings between the edge of the city and the Galactic tower campus.

After a few seconds, she pointed. "There. That looks like a Mega Charizard X, but… something's wrong about it."

"I agree," Cyrus said, zooming the image in. "Look. Those are engines – this is artificial."

He frowned slightly. "Alert the guards, but don't fight yet. This may be a coincidence… and shield the building."

"Done."

"There's another one," Mars pointed. "That one's a Mega Blastoise, but it's too big – and there, a Mega Venusaur."

The Mega Blastoise – another robot – ducked its head slightly, then fired a shell from the main cannon. It hit the shield built into the building with a bang, flaring off without much damage, and an amplified voice boomed from the speakers.

"To protect the world from devastation!" it announced, lumbering forwards.

"You know the rest!" its Mega Venusaur counterpart added.

"That's right!" the Mega Charizard completed, swooping down into a hover.

Cyrus sighed.

"Destroy them," he instructed, and watched as the Shadow Zoroark was unleashed.


"James, we worked out a motto!" Jessie said, most of her attention on controlling the Mecha Blastoise. One arm raised, the cannon built into it glowing, and it fired a series of Ice-energy bolts in the direction of the shadowy Pokémon charging towards her.

"I forgot my lines," James admitted, as his Mecha Venusaur launched out twenty-odd missiles. The missiles all curved around to explode, sending showers of flames through the same area Jessie was attacking, and cleared away enough of the Shadow Zoroark's conjurations for Jessie to score a glancing hit.

A pair of much larger anti-air missiles flicked up towards the hovering Mecha Charizard, which hit them with a gout of flame before closing in on the Pokémon rising up to attack it as well. A hatch opened for a moment, revealing Cacturne, and the Grass-type barraged out Poison Stings before ceasing fire as the hatch closed again.

Two of the Flying-types began flying back towards the ground, hit by too many Poison Sting attacks, and the rest accelerated up towards the Mecha Charizard as it powered back up towards the sky.

"That's not an excuse!" Jessie insisted, powering up the main cannon on the Mecha Blastoise. It fired out a blast of sound, this time, rather than a shell, and the wide-area attack shattered dozens of Shadow Zoroark's black-smoke constructs as well as knocking the Dark-type Pokémon itself back.

At almost the same moment, the Mecha Venusaur took a psychic-enhanced kick from a powerful Medicham – the impact sending it rocking back onto two legs, before slamming back down hard. Vines deployed from ports on both sides of the faux Grass-type, and Carnivine's skill with his own Vine Whip was clearly evident in the way he used the mechanical ones to help keep the Fighting-type occupied.

"Hey, it's supposed to be kitties what go after birds!" the Mecha Charizard complained, trying to throw off a pursuit by a hostile Pidgeot, and Jessie couldn't help but smirk.

The original plan had been to try and be as ridiculous and harmless as possible, to try and throw Galactic off, but Victreebel had been the one to point out that that wouldn't work given their reputation this time around. But eccentricity was something they still had plenty of, and she aimed carefully before hitting the Pidgeot with a burst of a freeze-ray from one of her arm cannons.

Because if you had three robots, each of them complaining or shouting at one another while doing this much damage, then anyone who knew more than the first thing about their Rocket cell would draw the obvious conclusion about who was piloting them… and that was exactly what they wanted.


"Hmm..."

Cyrus adjusted the view on his screen, flipping from camera to camera, then watched as the robotic Mega Charizard made a low pass over the campus and set the landscaping on fire.

"I think I know what's going on here," he said.

"What's that, sir?" Mars asked. "It looks kind of pointless to me… they're completely ignoring the grunts, just going after the Pokémon."

"Going after the Pokémon, but not with immediately fatal attacks," Cyrus pointed out. "They clearly have the ability to do a lot of damage – that flying one has a plasma flamethrower in the tail, and it cut deep furrows in the roadway. But they're only causing property damage."

Mars winced as the Blastoise robot's cannons ripped up an abandoned vehicle. "That's quite a lot of property damage, sir..."

"I think that's the point," Cyrus clarified. "They're Rockets, yes, but they're ninkyō dantai. This is a quid pro quo for our attack at the lake."

Mars frowned, not quite getting it.

"Team Rocket is an organization which is capable of a lot, you understand," Cyrus said. "But this particular Rocket team is part of the more savoury side of their operations – the public face, in as much as a criminal organization has a recognized public face. Their role is to be the honourable criminals, who are simply doing what they must to help others without the impediment of the law… because that way the whole Team benefits."

He waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. "It's one of the side effects of being a… publicly visible organization."

Mars held in a little giggle at the joke.

"So… what should we do, with that information, I mean?" she asked. "It sounds like you're saying we don't have to worry about them?"

"We do have to worry about them, they're doing a lot of expensive damage," Cyrus replied. "But we don't know how much of Team Rocket is immune, and… if we leave them alone after this, they should leave us alone. Drive them off, but they're showing restraint – do the same."


Several levels down, a quiet scuffling sounded in the air ducts of the Galactic building.

That was scary.

"Yeah," a voice whispered. "But it ain't like even dese guys think about facin' ninja infiltrators. Now hold on an' lemme concentrate."

Meowth glanced down at the reminder, looking towards the air recirculation system some way down the shaft – something he'd only got though via a ninja-style flicker of movement, and which had meant Mime Jr. had to levitate the Pokéball belt through the fans – then returned his attention to the wall of the duct, and used his claws to shift up another four feet one paw-width at a time.

Judging that he was on the right floor, he flipped over into one of the horizontal ducts and eeled his way along to the grille.

"Anything?" he whispered.

In reply, Mime Jr. began humming. Dun dun dada Dun dun dada Dun dun dada Dun dun dada Dun dun dada-

"What's dat supposed to be?" Meowth asked.

If anyone's in range I'll feel them echoing, Mime Jr. explained. We're clear.

"Right," Meowth nodded, still speaking in a whisper, then glanced through to confirm the locations of the cameras.

A Substitute appeared with a faint bamf, behind the one camera which had the grille in its view, and began tinkering with the cables to make the camera snow out slightly. It might raise suspicions, but it also covered the grille for the five seconds it took another Meowth-substitute to unscrew the grille, slip out, replace the grille and vanish, and for Meowth himself to hide where none of the cameras could reach.

Why are we on this floor again? Mime Jr. asked, and Meowth didn't reply verbally – instead thinking hard about the answer.

We want to get into the camera room in… about a minute, he said. The plans say it's on this floor.

Crouching to gather himself, Meowth blurred out from behind cover – bounced off the ceiling – and was out the door and in a blind spot before any of the cameras could notice him.


"Time?" Dustox asked, most of her attention on the control deck as she pushed the Mecha Charizard into a flanking turn.

"About twenty seconds," Yanmega replied.

The larger Bug-type manipulated her weapon controls, launching a wide-spectrum laser burst at the ground to try and disrupt the Shadow Zoroark's efforts as much as possible, then hit a key on the soundboard as the Shadow Pokémon lashed out at them with spikes of dark purple flame.

"Hey, don't take it personal or anything!" the speakers called, in Meowth's voice.

"Ten seconds," Yanmega said. "Nine. Eight."

Dustox flashed the boosters, opened the hatch for Cacturne to contribute with a salvo of needles that mutually disrupted the dark flames, then rolled around to bring her onto a bearing aligned with the main Galactic building.

On 'two', she nodded, and her teammate toggled the main weapon to full power. Down below, the Mecha Blastoise did the same, and the Mecha Venusaur launched a cluster missile which burned at top speed for the Galactic building before detonating.

A hundred sub-munitions burst at once just short of the building shield, and the Mecha Blastoise' main gun and the Mecha Charizard's plasma spike flamer both hit the shields at once as well.

Had the shields failed under the blast, then the attack would have taken off the top antennae on the building. But the impressively well engineered shields held… and the building as a whole shook, trying to cope with the sudden inrush of energy.


The Galactic grunt monitoring the security camera feeds blinked, then sighed and fell over.

Meowth nodded his approval to Arbok, then jumped up to the camera system and checked the time.

"Twenty seconds an' we can shut dis down," he said, softly, glancing up at the camera monitoring the security room itself – being snowed out the same way he'd snowed out the camera in their entry room.

He wiggled his fingers to make sure he was ready, then blinked as words appeared on the screen.

The camera system data feed is the red cable. Leave the grey one.

Mime Jr. looked puzzled. Do we trust random text on computer screens?

Meowth shrugged. "It ain't somethin' the ancient ninja arts mention dat much..."


"Is this fight going to attract attention?" Mars asked.

"I doubt it," Cyrus replied. "Charon has done extensive testing. The memory effect varies in how many degrees of separation it can cover, but fights are safe."

He waved a hand. "If someone who could perceive us was trying to use it as evidence, then based on Charon's research… at first the person who was not Mnemonysed would interpret the explosions as thunder, then they would not notice them at all."

Mars blinked. "I… hadn't realized that, sir. So it gets stronger?"

Cyrus nodded a confirmation.

Then the building trembled slightly, making Cyrus' desk creak as the floor it was resting on shook from side to side. The lights flickered, and Cyrus' gaze flicked back down to the readouts on his screen.

"What was-" Mars began.

"A combined attack on the shield," Cyrus replied. "Good work, Mars – nothing got through. You built well."

He considered for a moment, then opened the comms program. "Saturn," he said, without preamble. "Heavy weapons."

"Understood," Saturn replied.


As soon as Meowth ran a surge of Shock Wave current through the red cable, timed to match the outside attack on the shield, the text on screen changed.

We can talk now, it declared. None of the footage is being dumped to storage, it's all being wiped.

"So who are ya?" Meowth asked. "How come we got into dis place and dere's a computer talkin' at us?"

It… is a bit of a long story, the text stated.

"I'm a bit of a fast reader," Arbok said, slithering up to the screen as Meowth tugged the chair into place – making it look like the camera monitoring guy fell over backwards of his own accord. "What's going on?"

We can talk, sure, but there is a bit of a time problem, the blinking text on the screen stated. The short story is this – there's a server room four floors down, you'll need to go there to pick up the information we're here for.

"What's with dis 'we' all'a a sudden?" Meowth asked, frowning.

Meowth, I really will explain later, the text declared. But… wait, what's that next to where Arbok came out?

"Oh, you ain't one to know everything now?" Meowth asked, chuckling. "Speakin' of which, where have they got their Orbs things they stole?"

That's five floors up, the text said. You'd better do that before you pick me up though. Four floors down.

"Now I'm really confused," Meowth admitted.

You'll see. Hurry, though, sooner or later someone's going to notice that the cameras are offline. They're not really, but I'm the only one viewing the footage...

"Do we trust… it?" Arbok hissed.

I don't even get what's going on, Mime Jr. admitted, one hand on the forehead of the camera guy. I put in the dream of him jumping when the lights flickered and falling over, like you said…

Meowth gave him a thumbs-up. "I guess we ain't got no choice – all right, Arbok, back in ya go!"

Arbok slithered over to a crystalline orb resting on the floor where he'd emerged from his Luxury Ball, wrapped himself around it, then vanished with it in a flash of red light as Meowth Recalled him.

A synthesized voice spoke from the PA speaker on the wall, pitched low and speaking Magnemite. "Out the door, turn left. Third right is an empty staircase, head up three floors, then go to the staircase on the other side of the building and head up the remaining two floors – this will avoid running into anyone. The orb room is third on the right."

Meowth picked up Mime Jr., crouched, and set off in a blur – claws in, avoiding doing damage to the carpets.


"Fire!" Jupiter called, and four Galactic grunts stepped out of cover at once.

Levelling their weapons, they all fired – sending rockets streaking across the battered ground of the Galactic main campus, all arrowing towards the big Venusaur robot that was busily and systematically wrecking the outer wall.

Jupiter watched as the anti-armour rockets closed in, then there was a metallic whang and three of them exploded. The fourth spiralled out of control, missing its target and hitting a nearby warehouse, and Jupiter cursed.

"What happened?" he asked, looking over to one of the grunts who'd fired the rockets. "How did you screw that up?"

"We just pointed and fired," the grunt protested. "I think that robot did something – you saw it, right?"

"Active defences," Saturn announced, coming up to the same cover Jupiter was hiding behind. "I've heard of them."

"What's that?" Jupiter said.

"They had something which basically shot down the incoming rockets," Saturn amplified. "We're supposed to install it on the HQ building, but I'm not sure how much it would help compared to the shield."

He pointed. "One of my Grunts said she was sneaking an Ampharos closer, watch this."

Jupiter peered out to watch, and the ground fractured next to the oversized robotic Blastoise systematically wrecking the cars in the parking lot.

Earth moved aside, revealing an Ampharos, and the Light Pokémon shouted something before firing a massive blast of electricity directly at the mecha it had been ordered to attack.

Nothing happened.

The Ampharos attacked again, and this time the woman driving the Blastoise bot laughed. "A-ha-ha-ha-ha! You don't really think we forgot to electric proof the robots, did you?"

"We forgot several times before!" the Venusaur pointed out.

"That was different!" the Blastoise snapped, then used a torrent of high-pressure water to wash the Ampharos away as it tried to work out what had gone wrong with its usual strategy.

A Whiscash emerged from the hole the Ampharos had used, shaking itself before lumbering towards the Mecha Blastoise as well. It got cover from Shadow Zoroark, using the sudden appearance of a barrage of wicked shadowstuff spears to get close enough to grab on, then began hammering Earthquakes into the substance of the Blastoise-bot.

A hatch opened, revealing a Victreebel dangling by its cord. It used an already-charged Solarbeam, knocking the Whiscash out in one blow, then retracted back inside the robot as the roboBlastoise used its main gun to smash Shadow Zoroark back all over again.

"Good work, well done," Jupiter said blandly.


"Left turn," the nearest speaker said. "Someone's coming down the other corridor."

Meowth glanced in both directions, then took the left turn. He blurred from one resting point to another, pacing himself so he didn't tire out too soon, and looked up.

"How are ya able to tell?" he asked. "Lookin' at the cameras?"

"That's why I had you not destroy them," the voice replied, still in Magnemite, as Meowth peeked around a corner then continued moving. "All the data's being deleted after I've seen it, though."

"An' that's a great comfort to us," Meowth said. "Dis way, right?"

"Correct," the voice told him. "The door's locked though."

"I'd say if anythin' that's a good thing," Meowth replied. "Any other traps?"

"No, just the door."

Meowth chuckled, reaching the door, then reached into the little roll of tools he'd brought wrapped around one arm and picked out a few lockpicks.

How long is that going to take? Mime Jr. asked, as Meowth bent over the lock and got to work. Won't it be obvious it got opened?

"Nah, there's wires," Meowth replied, a little absently. "This lock ain't all that complex, but it's got a tamper-detection system… but our helpful friend in the speaker system has got dat handled."

"Meowth is correct," the voice agreed. "However, someone is coming. You will want to move fast-"

"Done," Meowth reported, flipping back down from the door and giving it a push. It opened almost soundlessly as Meowth replaced his tools, then slipped in, and it closed just as soundlessly.

"You got a speaker in here?" Meowth asked.

"Yes," the voice replied. "And… it looks like the grunts didn't even look at the door."

"Right," Meowth nodded, then sent out Arbok and Seviper.

Both serpentine Pokémon uncurled, releasing the heavy crystals they were carrying as Hold Items, and Meowth nodded. "Okay, let's get doin' this."

He cracked his knuckles, then had a good look around the room.

It was full of the kind of stuff Galactic had picked up which was important, but which wasn't being scientifically investigated right this minute. Half a dozen Mega Stones were resting in cases on either wall, and Meowth's paws itched for a moment as he examined them before shaking his head – they weren't what he was here for.

Even though they looked nice.

Most of the rest of what was in the room was things he didn't even recognize, but in pride of place in a cabinet at the end of the room were the two Space-Time Orbs – the Lustrous Orb, like a giant blue pearl, and the Adamant Orb which was hard-edged and faceted.

"Tink you can make the teleports?" Meowth asked. "Hey, is there an alarm hooked up to the case?"

"Six," the voice said. "But they all run through the data system of the building, and none of them have a memory. I'll make it look like they were never triggered… assuming, that is, that those are the right size and weight?"

"Perfect replicas," Meowth answered. "Well, dey ain't got magical powers or anyting, but they're made with some in-clu-sions of Mega Stone castoff material so they oughtta show some kind of special stuff to scanners."

He waved at Mime Jr. "Okay, go ahead an' do it."

Mime Jr. took a deep breath, then picked up the decoy Lustrous Orb. He teleported into the cabinet, lifted the real Lustrous Orb, and swapped it out so it was replaced by the fake one before teleporting out again.

That was more tiring than I thought, Mime Jr. admitted. I can switch the other ones out, though.

"Good," Meowth told him, as the Psychic/Fairy type picked up the fake Adamant Orb. As he did, Arbok curled himself around the real Lustrous Orb and returned himself.

Once Mime Jr. had made the second switch, he was visibly drooping in the air – straining with the effort of so many teleports.

"Hmm..." Meowth said, considering him, then gave him back the Adamant Orb. "You carry this an' get some sleep."

Mime Jr. nodded, taking it, and vanished with it in a flash of red light.

Meowth shrank down his Luxury Ball and Arbok's one, put them both back on the 'ball belt, then nodded to Seviper. "You're gonna be my emergency assistant if I need one," he warned.

"Got it," Seviper said, and Returned himself as well.

"Right, now where did you say I gotta go next?" Meowth asked. "An' dis better be safe, we got what we came for."

"Some of it," the speaker said. "But not all of it. You need information, too, and I can give you that. Nine floors down, now – there's a staircase which should be clear the whole way."

"Right," Meowth agreed, and took the lockpick he'd prepared – ready to lock the door again once he was out. "An' hey, not even footprints, dis is exactly what a ninja should be like..."


"Excuse me! Gym Leader Roark!"

Roark slowed, looking around, then smiled at the sight of his friend Dr. Kenzo. "Doctor, it's good to see you."

"And you, Gym Leader," Kenzo said. "How are things?"

"It's just Roark, I've told you, Doctor," Roark insisted.

"Then it's Kenzo," the Doctor said. "And I notice you didn't answer my question."

"Well, there's not much to tell," Roark chuckled. "My new gym's working out pretty well, at least. Yourself?"

"Well, I'm planning on analyzing how long it takes a newly revived Aerodactyl to become able to Mega Evolve," Kenzo told him. "I'm just looking for enough Old Amber to provide a useful sample size."

A loud boom interrupted their conversation, throaty and soft, followed by a series of sharper crackling bang sounds.

"That's loud," Kenzo noted. "Are you doing blasting down in the mine today?"

"We're not planning on it," Roark replied. "Must be a thunderstorm coming."

He glanced over towards the mountain, and a much bigger explosion took place this time – one which made the ground jump slightly under their feet, and coming from about that direction.

"I'd better get home," Kenzo decided. "I don't want to be caught in it if it rains, and it sounds like it might be a big one."

Roark nodded. "I'll do the same… let's hope there isn't a power cut!"


The server room door wasn't locked, and Meowth slipped in before pulling it closed behind him.

"Okay, I did all dat stuff you said," he reminded the voice. "Largely 'cause it's pretty clear you could just'a raised the alarm if you wanted to. So, what's this about?"

A nearby monitor flashed once, going from a display of CPU load to a blank screen. Then a shape drew itself, a wireframe of a two-legged dragon with arms and wings combined together into one type of limb, slowly filling out with pink and blue polygons.

You can call me Wyvern, the avatar said. I know you've encountered Grandfather several times, so the fact I'm a Porygon shouldn't surprise you too much.

"Actually, I think I'm gonna be the one who decides what surprises me," Meowth replied. "How come you're in here?"

Well, that's partly because of Mother, but I'm not sure apart from that, Wyvern admitted. I started out as a hunter-seeker program factored by Dragon to try and hunt down Team Galactic's online presence, something she's been working on, but H-S programs… turn out to not really work well with how Galactic's memory thing works.

"I ain't gettin' the Dragon thing, but skip it," Meowth instructed. "Cut to the chase, already!"

As he spoke, Seviper came out of his Pokéball and slithered over to the door as a guard.

Mother upgraded me… perhaps a bit too far, Wyvern replied. I certainly got past that level of ICE – intrusion countermeasures electronics – but there was another one, and I actually ended up stuck in the systems. Something's a bit off, because I woke up for the first time in here, but – that's the best I can tell you from the information I have.

Wyvern's digital representation shrugged her wings.

I couldn't transfer information out, either… though I did take over the computer systems here. I've been in here for days...

"Well, ain't dat great?" Meowth asked. "You were a big help!"

Yeah, but they're going to do a full scheduled systems check tomorrow, Wyvern explained. And they're not going to miss my processes no matter how well I hide them. I need to get out of here with you.

Her animated avatar sighed, a little curl of digitally rendered smoke escaping it. Mother doesn't know that I've become a full Porygon, she probably just thinks the ICE ate me. And, well… I want to survive this.

She looked 'up'. Someone's coming.

Meowth thought for a moment, then decided it wasn't really a choice. He took out a high-capacity memory stick he'd brought along in his toolkit – in case they had to resort to the backup plan of stealing information – and plugged it into the nearest server, then hid by the door.

Once I transfer myself I can't keep influencing the system any more, Wyvern warned. The hardware problem we set up will mean they can't use the cameras to look back at what you've been doing or anything, but it's going to become obvious pretty quickly once that guy in the camera room wakes up – he'll see us. I hope you have an exit plan.

Meowth nodded, and lowered his voice. "Hey, Seviper, when dat guy comes in the room – trip him. Don't get seen or anything."

He reached again into his toolkit, taking out a hair-thin metal needle and a sealed pot. The pot's seal broke with a tiny krak, and he dipped the needle into it before taking position.

Footsteps moved closer… then further away again.

"Now dat's kind of annoyin'," Meowth muttered to himself. "This fast-actin' sleep stuff ain't cheap."

He tossed the needle and the pot to Seviper, who ate them to destroy the evidence.

Transfer complete, Wyvern reported. Time to go.

Meowth unplugged the transfer stick she was on, returned Seviper, and double-checked he had everything he'd taken out or brought along. That done, he opened the final Luxury Ball he'd carried with them the whole way.

"Don't ask questions," he said. "Teleport us back ta base."

Abra blinked, looking distinctly confused (and drowsy), and did so without further comment.


A little icon blinked up on Jessie's heads-up-display, and she rolled her eyes. Finally.

A moment later, some much more urgent warning lights lit up, showing that the latest attack – by that annoyingly persistent Shadow Zoroark – had hammered through the armour on the left leg to start doing actual structural damage.

It wasn't an immediate failure, but it was going to mean the Mecha Blastoise was going to quickly start losing capability, and Jessie toggled the speakers on.

"We hope you've learned your lesson not to mess with Team Rocket!" she announced, firing a shot into the ground on one of the few relatively undamaged sections of the Galactic building campus – breaking through into an underground area.

"But, just to make sure," James' own Mecha Venusaur added, as he fired a jet of purple gas into the hole – supplied by Weezing, who was on board his trainers' robot specifically for this moment.

"We're gonna leave you a souvenir!" Meowth's voice completed, and the Mecha Charizard swooped low over the grounds – trailing smoke from progressive damage – and spat a fireball into the hole.

The result was a ground-shaking explosion, Weezing's gas all detonating in an instant, and Jessie hit the emergency-exit button on her console just after the blast wave passed over them.

"Just like old times," James said, now speaking to her over the intercom only.

"I know," Jessie agreed. "Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

All three mechas fired their ejector seats at the same moment, launching the entire Rocket strike team off into the air, then self-destructed once their pilots and crew were away.


"That combined attack they made strained the shield," Charon said, most of his attention on the tablet he was holding. "We might want to install some surge protectors, the surge took out the whole camera memory storage system."

"Why wasn't that noticed at the time?" Cyrus asked.

"The grunt assigned to monitor the cameras was startled by the explosion, and knocked himself out when his chair fell over," Charon reported, sounding deeply unimpressed. "I'm waiting on your input for how to punish him."

"Understood," Cyrus said. "So we'll have to go on reports to analyze what happened – no camera footage. What is the damage apart from that?"

"Some injuries, all quite minor," Charon said. "The landscaping is ruined, it's probably easier to dig up the grounds and start again. The approach road is ruined, we've got two giant robot husks and the pieces of a third to clear up, and the last attack they did collapsed the underground parking garage."

Cyrus frowned slightly. "Isn't that the VIP parking?"

"Yes, and the luxury motor pool. They're all wrecked, nothing salvageable there."

The head of Team Galactic considered that.

"I think perhaps the best way to take that is as a warning," he decided. "If Rocket interferes with our plans again we'll destroy them, but if they leave us entirely alone… we'll consider it experience."

Charon looked dubious, then nodded. "As you say."


"Huh," James said, once the explanation was finished. "So they didn't even know you were there."

They shouldn't, Wyvern said, now ensconced in a tablet propped up against a convenient log. If they'd had to knock out the second guy with that sleeping agent, then it would have been enough of a coincidence they'd have kept looking and they might have found Meowth's fur or something. But as it was, we managed to keep everything on the down-low and avoid anything that should get us detected.

"Hey, I noticed it was they when it was about mistakes an' about we when it was good stuff," Meowth griped.

Well, yes, Wyvern replied, with a shrug of her virtual wings. Why?

"I suppose it's a good thing my role was incidental, then," Seviper decided. "Having all this information and the Orbs without Galactic even knowing we have them… that's useful."

He looked over at where Chimecho was healing Cacturne up, fixing the scorch marks the Dark-type had picked up during the aerial portion of the fighting with a steady Heal Bell. "I know I was needed to carry the fake Orb, but I still kind of wish I'd been able to help. Even so."

"Chimecho," Chimecho agreed. "Chimecho is helping now though."

"So, what now?" Jessie asked. "We've got more than I think we really expected to, but it's most valuable if they never realize we got anything."

"Yeah, I think our best bet is to lay low," James agreed. "Really low. And work on our combat team for when things get serious. I'm thinking more giant robots."

"Those three were pretty good giant robots," Dustox admitted. "Really intuitive controls."

"Actually, I do gotta ask," Meowth said, pointing at Wyvern. "What are you gonna do now?"

I'm… actually not sure, Wyvern admitted. Mother doesn't know I exist, so I don't really need to warn her that I'm okay. Maybe it's for the better if the fact I exist doesn't get out… do you guys have a place for a Porygon?

"We were actually wondering if we could get hold of one," Jessie said. "It'll be good to have another girl along."

"We ain't exactly at any risk of turnin' into an all-boys team any time soon," Meowth chuckled. "I guess dat means you're on board."

He scratched his chin with a claw. "So dat means… next thing to do is yoink us a projector from somewhere..."

That would be good, Wyvern said. I spent a lot of the time I was in the Galactic computer systems designing a vector body for myself, it'd be nice to be able to fight with it.

"What about running giant robots?" Jessie asked. "We might need that, too."

I'm up for a challenge, Wyvern replied. I'm guessing the reason why Moltres and the others I know about aren't here is because they're not reminded, so they're not able to understand the Galactic stuff?

"That and they're cooking dinner," James said. "I think Audino said something about fifty kilos of paella?"

I can see I'm going to need to emulate a sense of taste.


"Finally!" Ash said. "Time to challenge Fantina and pick up my next badge!"

"It's kind of funny how that's still a major priority at this point..." Dawn chuckled.

"Well, yeah, because it's fun," Ash replied. "If I got gloomy all the time then I wouldn't fight as well – if I trained all the time I wouldn't fight as well! A lot of training is good, sure, but you can do so much you lose track…"

"Plus how gym leaders are good trainers to test yourself against," Lucario added. "Do you know who you're going to use today?"

"I'm not sure," Ash admitted. "I did think about giving Kari a go, and maybe Absol as well, but I'll decide when I get there."

"Sounds good to me," Pikachu said. "Though I guess there's not much chance you're going to use Mewtwo."

I'm quite used to it, Mewtwo replied with a flick of his tail. Though sparring against Giratina yesterday was quite entertaining.

He looked ahead, to where Ash hadn't yet opened the door. Is something wrong?

"Yeah – there's this paper on the door," Ash replied, tapping it. "It says that Fantina's out on a trip."

"...oh, you've got to be joking," Pikachu sighed, then clambered up Ash's back to look more closely. "You're not joking. That's just brilliant, that is."

"I'm kind of getting deja vu," Brock sighed. "Didn't this happen twice last time?"

"Yeah, we just have terrible luck with Fantina," Dawn said.

She moved to the side a little as she heard someone coming up behind her, then blinked.

Ash was just stepping away from the door when an elegant gloved hand reached past him, tore the paper off the door, then began unlocking it.

"Fantina?" he asked. "But – wait, the paper there said you were out!"

"Oui," Fantina agreed, turning the key with a clik and pushing on the door to open it. "And now I am not. I assume you are challenging me, yes?"

Ash nodded. "Yeah!"

"Then, of course, you had better come in," Fantina invited. "Though there will be some delay, for I have only just got home after my trip. I must make sure the arena is ready for our battle."

She turned to point at Ash. "But I must warn you, j'adore a battle which is flashy!"

"Préférez-vous une bataille tapageur ou votre bâtiment intact?" Zorua asked curiously.

Everyone looked at her, and she ducked her head slightly. "What? I've learned loads of languages. French is easier than Flygon."

"Ah, now, well..." Fantina said, considering. "I believe my building is tres résistant, mais perhaps… a moment, while I consider?"

"Sure, go ahead," Ash agreed. "I still need to pick which Pokémon to use..."


AN:


Bit of a focus shift for this chapter, to Team Rocket and other such trouble.

Also, Wyvern.

As for the French, most of it should be obvious. The exception is pretty much Zorua's sentence, which is "would you prefer a flashy battle or your building intact".

I don't know why it's not called Kalosian either... or why Kalosians dont speak French.