Previously in Pokémon: The Lost Child. After Magmar's death, Empoleon wanted to go after The Brotherhood and prove he could by taking on whatever Pokémon he could find. Grovyle knew this was a bad idea but was unable to stop him. Empoleon was faced with a massive challenge which Grovyle was able to save him from by evolving into a Sceptile. Now, Empoleon has learned a new lesson and is ready to continue on with their journey.
However, something is brewing inside of The Brotherhood that is about to change everything. Aegislash is hanging around in the base when suddenly a Pokemon starts hanging down from the ceiling. It is a Greninja holding on with its tongue.
"So if it isn't Aegislash, the top assassin of The Brotherhood, I will admit the place is not what I expected," the Greninja said.
"What are you doing here?" Aegislash says, getting his sword ready for a fight.
"No need to panic. I am not here for a fight," Greninja replied.
"What do you want then?" Aegislash asked.
"I don't want anything either. I am here to help you. You see, I have some information you will want to hear," Greninja replied.
"I am listening," Aegislash replied.
"There is this Zoroark. Her parents were killed by your organization some time ago and she wants revenge. She has been training day and night to get ready for a fight with you guys. I know her exact location and I will tell you so you can deal with the problem before she becomes too powerful to deal with."
"And in exchange?" Aegislash asked.
"Oh, there is nothing I want in return. I am only here to help," Greninja responded.
"So you are just willing to give up the location of one of our enemies for no return. I find that a tad suspicious," Aegislash responded.
"I want to be on the right side of history and I don't care about anything else. Are you going to take this info or not?" Greninja asked.
"I will take this, but if you are trying to lure me into a trap, be warned, I will be ready for it," Aegislash replied.
"I have no doubt you are."
Meanwhile, Empoleon and Sceptile have arrived in a new town. They had been walking without any food for some time, so they knew they needed to take a rest there while they could, but little did they know something was different about this town.
"Greenwood Town is the name according to this sign," Sceptile said.
"Nice that they put the name up on this sign," Empoleon remarked.
The two went inside the town; however, the place was quite empty. There were houses, but it seemed like everyone was inside them instead of outside. It wasn't particularly dark outside, so this naturally confused the two. After wandering around for a few minutes, Empoleon stumbled across a wanted poster with Zorokark on it and called out, "Sceptile, take a look at this."
Sceptile walked up towards the poster and saw what it was, "Is that the same Zoroark?"
"It's possible, if so, what could she have done to get this poster put up," Empoleon wondered.
"Maybe we could find out if we could find a Pokémon to talk to in this town," Sceptile responded.
"Look over there, it's a..." Empoleon said he was not sure what it was.
"That is a Cacturne, Hey Cacturne, can you tell us what is going on?" Sceptile shouted.
"What do you want from me? I just want to be left alone." Cacturne asked.
"It's not much, honestly. We just want to know what is up with these wanted posters for Zoroark," Sceptile responded.
"Oh yeah, this. The town received a report that this Zorokark is a dangerous criminal willing to kill for fun. It has gotten everyone pretty terrified," Cacturne answered.
"You don't look scared though," Sceptile commented.
"I am skeptical about it. Nobody is willing to say where this information is coming from, yet everyone believes it blindly," Cacturne responded.
"Well, thanks for your help," Empoleon said.
"No problem, I need to get back to work."
Cacturne left to do something in the distance while Empoleon and Sceptile were left wondering what to think about this.
"It can't be true, can it?" Empoleon wondered.
"It doesn't make sense why Zoroark would be doing this kind of stuff. When we met her, she was a nice Pokémon. Something is very fishy about it; it's like someone wants to find her," Sceptile said.
"Do you think The Brotherhood might have had something to do with that?" Empoleon asked.
"It is very possible, it would explain this. If that is true, it means The Brotherhood has some major control over this entire town," Sceptile responded.
"If that is true, that is very bad," Empoleon commented.
"We should get out of here as quickly as we can. It is not safe here," Sceptile said.
"You two, Empoleon and Sceptile, I have some stuff to tell you to follow me," a Toxicroak sneaking up from behind said.
"Ahhh, you got quite the jump on me. What do you want?" Scpetile asked.
"I see that you are interested in Zorokark. Follow me and I will give you the answers." Empoleon and Sceptile considered Toxicroak's offer, and while they were skeptical, they did decide to come along since they wanted to know what was going on.
They followed Toxicroak into a cave that looked like someone had set up as a hideout. Could it possibly be this Toxicroak's hideout? they both wondered.
"I'm sorry for the secrecy, but I don't know who I can trust," Toxicroak says before revealing herself to be Zorokark in disguise, which both Empoleon and Sceptile felt they should have predicted.
"Zorokark it's out," Empoleon said.
"Could you possibly tell us what the heck is going on here? Why are there wanted posters all over the village?" Sceptile asked.
"I don't know how, but somehow The Brotherhood found out about me looking into them and now they are trying to get rid of me," Zorokark said.
"Wait, so this is The Brotherhood's doing. Do they have that much power over this town?" Sceptile wondered.
"Yeah, they do. I need to be very careful around here, I don't know how they also figured out that this is where I have been hiding out," Zoroark responded.
"Zoroark, do you have anything to help with taking The Brotherhood down?" Empoleon asked.
"Um, why do you ask?"
"We recently had a tragedy; Magmar was killed right in front of us by Aegislash," Empoleon said with a tone of sadness.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. That must have been hard. Also, congrats on evolving," Zoroark responded.
Just as Zoroark was talking, though, suddenly multiple needles were launched from the distance. Zoroark spotted them just in time and dodged out of the way while Empoleon and Sceptile turned around to see what was going on. It was the Cacturne they encountered earlier that was firing those things.
"Cacturne, what is going on?" Empoleon asked.
"You have led me right to what I was looking for. Thanks for your help," Cacturne replied.
"This is someone trying to collect the bounty. I should have been more careful. Are you two going to help me?" Zoroark asked.
"I will help," Empoleon said, and Sceptile responded with, "Me too."
Cacturne shot more needle arms at Zoroark, but Sceptile slashed them up with his leaf blade. Empoleon rushed forward with his aqua jet and started hitting Cacturne with it, which Cacturne tried to block. Zoroark started firing off a dark pulse at Cacturne, which threw off his balance and allowed Sceptile to come in and slash him with a leaf blade.
Cacturne was overwhelmed by having to deal with three at once and started fleeing. Empoleon and Sceptile saw that as enough, but Zoroark started chasing after Cacturne. She caught up super quickly due to her faster speed and started shooting fire out of her mouth, which hurt Cacturne really badly.
Zoroark eventually had Cacturne pinned to the ground, now showing no mercy at all, "What is your deal? Who sent you and why are you after me?"
"Please don't hurt me. I swear I don't know anything," Cacturne said.
"Perhaps this will persuade you to talk," Zoroark begins using her flamethrower again, slowly and painfully burning Cacturne until he finally decides to speak.
Empoleon, having come outside, sees what is going on and yells, "Stop Zoroark! This is not needed. You already took him down."
"He knows something and I am going to find out what it is no matter what I need to do," Zoroark continues torturing Cacturne until he eventually has enough and starts talking.
"Okay, okay, I was hired by this Pokémon with a sword to take you down. I don't know much. He wants you out of the way due to what you are pursuing. He is going to want me dead after this, so please kill me."
Zoroark, without hesitation, obliges and murders Cacturne on the spot. Both Empoleon and Sceptile are shocked, and Zoroark is okay with doing this. Zoroark walks away back to her cave, saying, "Now that my location has been compromised, I need to get going."
"I don't understand," Empoleon said.
"I got to do what I have got to do, you will understand," Zoroark responded.
Meanwhile, Aegislash was getting a report from a Honedge, "Sir, we don't understand what happened. We just found his dead body like that."
"Thanks for the information. I will need to think about this," Honedge leaves while Aegislash is there contemplating what this means.
"I don't want to be the one to say I told you so," Greninja says, showing up from nowhere again.
"Well, I do have to admit you were right. Clearly, this Zoroark is a bigger danger than I first thought. It's time for me to up my efforts."