Moon quietly steps into the dark motel room, the door clicking behind her as the automatic lights flicker on. Exhaustion was the feeling that should've overcome her as her back hit the frame of the door, but instead all she felt was pent up tension. Rotom gives the girl a confused look until she takes one big breath in and screams.

Loudly.

"Agent. It's rude to be that loud at night. You have neighbors, bzzzt," Rotom complains as she parts her body from the door and begins frantically walking around the room.

"Agent."

"ROTOM. WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" She didn't bother to drop her volume.

"Age-"

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Moon points at Rotom.

The Pokemon narrows its eyes. "Well that's rude."

"YOU STARTED READING THE MESSAGES. YOU'VE BEEN HOVERING OUT IN THE OPEN. MAYBE THEY CHECKED THE CAMERAS," she throws her arms everywhere in her panic, eventually her hands landing on both sides of her cheeks.

She gasps.

"I have to tell Looker and Anabel."

She paces around.

"I'm going to get fired….or worse," she stops. "They're going to send Sun to replace me!" Another groan escapes her lips as she begins pulling at her hair.

"Is that really what you're worrying about, Agent?"

Her mouth drops in response to Rotom's question. "Oh no, you're right Rotom" Moon says sarcastically. "It's not like blew my cover to an administrator AT THE PLACE I'M SUPPOSED TO BE INVESTIGATING," Moon throws her hands up and continues to walk around aggressively.

Rotom flies into her face "AGENT."

Moon was forced to stop in place, she lets out a huff of air. "Not. Now. Rotom."

"You were trained for these situations, Agent and here you are panicking like some kind of rookie."

Moon glares. "I AM A ROOKIE."

"But you were assigned this mission so clearly there's more to you than just that. Up until this point you've been nothing but collected and professional and one small slip up should not revert you back to your trainee days! Worried about a replacement, seriously?" Rotom scolds as Moon furiously watches on, her mouth twisting as she evidently was trying to bite her tongue.

"Besides, I'll have you know Agent Moon," he emphasizes the title, further trying to get it through to her head that she was beyond a newbie. "Looker and Anabel know already. Bzzt."

Moon scoffs, as her arms cross around her torso and eyes roll. "Looker and Anabel already know puh-leaseee." But when Rotom doesn't retort back, it all hits Moon suddenly. A small 'o' forming with her lips as two and two come together. Moon sets herself down on her bed as the stress begins to fade away slowly.

"Sorry…"

"Apology accepted dear girl," Rotom replies. "But for your information, their message did come in late."

"I still should've never reacted this way," Moon murmurs as she lets her back hit the mattress. Her arm draping across her eyes as she continues to take long languid breaths in.

"True…" Rotom confirms as he comes a little closer to the Agent, "but while we're on the topic of your actions, don't think I didn't notice your little slip up back there, Agent."

Moon doesn't bother moving or glancing at the Pokemon. "hmmm?"

"You've been to Alola? That's a piece of information not given to you by headquarters, but also not in our database about you" Rotom says pointedly.

She braces herself for the scolding of a lifetime.

"You've lived in 6 regions, not 7. Bzzt," his screen pulls up Moon's statistics and it zooms into the fact.

"It was just like I mentioned, Alola was a fleeting stop in the middle of a trip, okay?" Moon snaps as she sits up; now watching Rotom's screen flash every page of her immense profile. Realization strikes Rotom as he stops on one piece of vital information. "You used to have a Decidueye…"

Moon's hands clench at the bed sheets beneath her.

"Can we not bring that up, Rotom?"

Rotom looks at the girl and lets out a sigh. Sure she had potential. Looker saw it. Anabel saw it. Even he could see it, but Moon really was young, freshly trained, and not yet seasoned enough to know the full effects of her mistakes.

Maybe it was time to be a proper mentor…

But that didn't mean he had to let up.

"Do you know why I was assigned to you, Agent?" Rotom quietly asks Moon. It was the friendliest Moon had heard Rotom be with her.

Moon changes her gaze to her feet.

"To make my life a living hell?"

At least the girl had jokes, his screen dropping into a more annoyed glance. "Agent…"

"To make sure the mission is completed without casualties," she begrudgingly responds, well aware of why new Agents were tasked with Rotoms of all Pokemon.

"And casualties are caused by what, Agent?"

The ticking of a nearby clock could be heard as silence overcomes the two. Moon knew the answer, but admitting it would be owning up to it.

Rotom continues to stare as he repeats albeit more slowly.

"Casualties are caused by what?"

A sigh. "Careless mistakes."

Rotom flies in front of Moon's face, forcing her to look up as he mutters "I can only do so much. Don't let your first mission, be your last, Moon. " before floating off into another corner, leaving Moon to take in the thinly veiled threat.

Moon throws portfolios onto her desk and slumps forward in her chair at the end of her shift. Whilst her contract said normal days would end by 6PM, Moon found herself in her office at 11:47PM. Truly the result of an understaffing.

Her fingers rub small circles on her temples as rustling could be heard from her bag underneath her desk.

"Is the coast clear, Agent?" Rotom asks through Moon's earpiece.

Moon makes a small noise of affirmation, allowing Rotom to scurry about of the bag. "I don't like being hidden for 12 hours, Bzzt," Rotom whines, but Moon only gives Rotom a weak smile as she removes the earpiece.

After last night's talk they both agreed they needed to be more cautious. Rotom had to be less careless, had to stop being rough with Moon whilst Moon wouldn't do things of her own accord. A forlorn earpiece was their compromise, allowing for them to be in reach even at a distance.

Rotom floats up to Moon, noting the exhaustion in her features. "Agent do you not enjoy this work anymore?"

A quick shake of the head. "No, it's nothing like that," Moon responds as she reaches forward to put the folders in a neat pile. "I dedicated my life to this once you know? Helping Pokemon. They're worth every minute in this field, but sometimes a lot of work is a lot of work," she murmurs as she opens up her desk drawer.

A box was inside.

"You would assume an office would be cleared out when someone leaves…"

"What's wrong, Agent? Zzt" Rotom asks as he zooms next to Moon. Moon narrows her eyes as she lifts the attached tag.

"Saving you a trip downstairs - W"

Moon quickly opens the box and pulls out the contents. Folders, news clippings, and piles and piles of research papers could be found, but there was one that piqued Moon's interest. "THE ULTRA BEAST PROJECT" in bold lettering could be found on the front of a seemingly harmless manila folder. A small smirk appears on her face as she taps Rotom playfully. Exhaustion was now a forgotten feeling.

"Looks like we won't be going home for a while, Rotom."

"I'll go keep guard, bzzt."

Hours had passed and Moon had gone through several documents. Conceptions, findings, blurbs on their origins. It was here, yet information seemed incomplete. As if at a certain point the research just halted.

To Moon's disappointment; there were no leads to Lusamine. And nothing in the box's contents led her to believe she was the one doing the physical research.

"Probably had her minions do the dirty work," Moon murmurs as she sifts through box to find one final folder. On the front there were only two hand written words: 'T Y P E: N U L L'. Moon didn't know what to expect. But when she opened it up all she saw were words. No pictures, no blueprints. Just a description of a genetic makeup. Several warnings. The dangers of working with the Chimera, the 'Beast Killer' were emphasized in red. Intensely focused, Moon continued to read, her finger dragging along the words carefully as she sees Faba's name credited to the creation.

"He deemed the poor Pokemon a failure," Moon begins to read outloud when the door to her office open suddenly. A panicked Rotom zooms screaming "Agent, we need to leave now!", but before Moon could even ask why a loud crash could be heard from outside.

"What was that?"

"Our sign to leave!" Rotom urges as he head back towards the direction he came. Moon, however, reaches for the Pokemon and pulls him back.

"How are we going to leave if the source is out there?"

"We can't just wait here bzzzt," Rotom pleas as both them look at each other for some sort of guidance or solution.

"Looks like we have no other choice..." Moon says through gritted teeth as she quickly stuffs the folders back into the box and crams it back into the desk.

"Null, everything is going to be okay. You need to remain calm."

The muffled voice could be heard from right outside door. Moon quickly looks around the room, looking for a hiding spot, but the room was so sparse there was only one option. Moon pulls Rotom along with her to hide behind the only bookcase wide enough to cover them. Her hand pushes against her mouth and nose in an attempt to be silent, while Rotom's own humming ceased to exist right as the door slams open. Several noises followed suit. Crashing chairs, metal being hit, several glass jars shattering as they hit the floor. But then a loud cry fills the small office, followed by the insistent shushing from who Moon assumed to be the trainer.

"Null, please calm down, you don't want to injure yourself more," the voice begs, but the cry only becomes more and more shrill.

Distress. That's all Moon could identify as the trainer continued to talk, and as her heart clenched and the itch to step in increased she could hear the trainer sympathize with the Pokemon. "I'm sorry buddy we're going to have to wait until Wicke is here to get you some help."

Another groan. One full of pain and suffering.

Moon swallows the lump in her throat.

"I know it's not ideal, but Null retu-"

Moon glances at Rotom, ready to accept her consequences, before she lunges out from behind the bookcase and screams, "WAIT!"

Green meets gray almost instantaneously.

Tall, blonde, dressed in all black, and clearly dumbfounded at her presence. Moon, however, had little time to worry about him when her eyes caught sight of the Pokemon. Helmet encased head, strange body features, eyes that looked like it was suffering, and an injury currently going unchecked. Blood was pooling underneath the clawed foot rapidly, the Pokemon seemed to be barely holding on, and as Moon tried to approach it she found her path blocked by the very defensive male who almost growls…

"Who the fuck are you?"

"AGENT," Rotom quickly tries to mutter into the forlorn earpiece, but Moon had to fend for herself. She looks back up and is meet with two angry piercing green eyes. "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?" the blonde repeats, except this time his hand began reaching for a Pokeball on his belt.

Shit.

"Your Pokemon is injured and needs proper treatment, immediately," Moon talks back, hoping her response would distract him from the Pokemon battle he wanted to insinuate. And her plan seemed to work as she notices his hand hesitate, but both of them are pulled out of the high tension situation when the Pokemon lets out another weak cry.

There was no more time to wait.

Moon jumps into action.

Pushing past the pissed off blonde, she grabs a pair of clean gloves and quickly gets on her knees in front of the Pokemon. She wasn't as close as she needed to be, but she could feel the Pokemon grow rigid. This wasn't going to be an easy situation. "I only want to help you," she whispers softly as, her hand reaching into her pocket to pull out a berry. An incentive that ideally would allow her to get closer.

"He's not going to approach you. He doesn't trust others," the male says roughly, forcing an annoyed tsk to leave Moon as she carefully examines the Pokemon. He really wasn't budging.

"I promise I'm not going to hurt you," she pleads, only to see the Pokemon's sad eyes glance over at his trainer. He was asking for permission. Moon throws a narrowed glance at the blonde, his own eyes darting between her and his Pokemon. "You don't have time!" Moon scolds as he hesitantly nods, allowing the Pokemon to limp towards Moon. His helmet landing right into her hands.

"Poor baby, at least you can walk a little," she whimpers. "Is it okay if I check your leg?"

A much quieter cry fills the room as Moon begins to examine the leg, wrapping it in an attempt to stop the blood flow. There were several cuts, many bruises. But the one responsible for the bleeding was a deep, just narrowly missing major arteries, but exposing tissue and bone. What struck Moon as odd, however, was that these legs weren't one of a regular canine Pokemon.

Some were scaly. Bird-like. Others were more mamamilian. But other things started to pop out as Moon's eyes scanned the creature.

The tail. The fur.

This single Pokemon was made of several parts, just like Type: Null.

Moon swallows the lump forming in her throat as she recalls the warnings, the dangers. But another whimper brings back her focus to the task at hand. Moon slowly stands up, removing the soiled gloves before throwing the sharpest glares at the trainer.

His own sharp gaze falters.

"You. Sit," Moon says as her finger points to one of the knocked over chairs. The blonde automatically scowling at the demand, as if silently telling her she couldn't boss him around, but Moon wasn't going to back down. "If you want your Pokemon to return to battling you better wait patiently," Moon announces as she walks to the door. "I'll be back, I need to find the suture tools somewhere in this building."

His eyes widen as if something in her phrase made things click into place.

"Are you the new hire?"

An unamused expression makes it way to Moon's face. "That's information I would rather not give a total stranger breaking into a building." He opens his mouth to protest, but Moon had already walked away. It would've been a fruitless attempt anyways.

He was dressed like in all black, in an empty building, at 2AM.

With a dejected sigh he approaches Type: Null who only barks. Even when injured the Pokemon was trying to make sure he was okay. "Null, next time we come face-to-face with an Ultra Beast, we leave. Don't jump into battle, I don't want any of you getting hurt." The Pokemon lets out a guilty whine. The male shakes his head, gently patting Null's back in the process.

"I know you were only trying to protect me, but that's my job, not yours."

It takes Moon about 10 minutes to return, once again pointing towards the chair. This time the blonde listens, much to his disdain, as he hears Moon gently coerce Null to move to operating table. A pat and another whisper later she tells Null he was about to go to sleep.

Moon concentrated as the sound of clinking metal and faint beeping filled the room. It wasn't a complicated procedure by any means, but disinfecting the wounds and stitching them up still took time, especially when the Pokemon's skin texture varied so much across the limbs.

If this really was a Type: Null, Moon was going to need to see it often.

It was about an hour later that Moon did one final glance at the injuries, all of them stitched up nicely. "Feel free to return him to his Pokeball," Moon murmurs as she places the tools down, disconnects the Pokemon, and turns off the machinery. "He won't be 100% for a while," she says as Gladion approaches hesitantly. His Pokemon layed there completely serene. His injures no longer bleeding profusely. "If you bring him back I can check the process of the laceration across his calf."

It was an attempt on Moon's behalf that's only met with a tight lipped response. "No. It's fine. I got it," he mutters, calling in the Pokemon as he turns to make his departure.

Moon feels the irritation boil up inside her. Pride was one thing, but disregarding a Pokemon's health? That was unacceptable. "You really shouldn't be that negligent," Moon says from her side of the room, not even bothering to glance up at the blonde.

His hand pauses on the door frame, his head whipping to look at her over his shoulder.

"You don't know half of the story."

Moon's eyebrows furrow. "Does the other half really matter when your Pokemon gets injured?"

He scoffs and leaves the doorway, but a few moments later Moon catches him walking back to the entrance.

"By the way, you could get fired for working overtime without permission."

Moon only stares in disbelief as his back fades into the darkness of the corridor. A scoff escapes her as she half accepts failure, and half accepts never have to cross paths with that horrid male again. But the frustrated train of thought was lost when she's met face-to-face with a seething Rotom.

Moon swallows nervously.

"I-I swear I can explain all my actions…"

"AGENT!"

After another lecture from Rotom, buzzing thoughts about the strange species of Pokemon and his trainer, sleep was a lost cause for Moon. Dazed and completely dependent on caffeine, Moon was simply moving through the motions at work and decided that reading up on her caseload was all she could do to not think about the events that unraveled last night.

A knock, however, pulls her out of her trance.

"It's open!" Moon says, not looking up from a newborn Mareanie's profile.

"Miss Moon, can we come in?"

Moon turns in her chair to see Wicke standing in the door frame with a nurturing smile. "Yes, of course. Can I help you with something?" Moon asks with a small tilt of her head.

"There's someone here to meet you," Wicke states as a figure steps into frame.

Moon's mouth drops.

Right in front of her was the same male from last night. Same vibrant green eyes and pale blonde hair, only this time he was in a white tailored suit embellished with a small green and black Aether symbol on his right hand lapel.

Wicke gestures between them. "President Gladion, this is Moon, our newest veterinarian. Miss Moon, this is President Gladion and all three of us need to have a long discussion about last night."