Sera was able to deliver the parts with little problem. The captain wasn't in at the time, but fortunately it wasn't as though she needed to deliver them to him personally for any reason, and she was able to leave them within the secure confines of the shipyard rather than parading around town with them. She sure was glad everyone had been reasonable and didn't make the delivery harder than it had to be.

Once they were secure, she reported her success to President Stone and sent the Salamence back to Devon through her Nav.

Of course, that gave her a few days to kill, during which time she should probably keep training to a reasonable level to be fair to Morgan. Sera knew Morgan would be doing some herself, and wouldn't avoid training outright, but since her rival had more travel time being stuck on a boat, Sera would try to tone it down… which suited her just fine, honestly.

Slateport was so bustling and vibrant. Petalburg sort of tried to be a city, but it was still pretty rustic in a lot of places, slummy in others, and kind of mediocre even in some of its nicer places. Rustboro was huge and busy, and there was a lot too do, but it was also crowded and heavily polluted. Sera didn't tend to mind too much while she was there, but the bright clean atmosphere of Slateport with it's sprawling layout and more relaxed energy was really noticeable by comparison. Sera just might have to consider moving here after her journey was done.

As she strolled aimlessly through town trying to decide what attraction to devote her time to first, a large cluster of bright red caught her eye. Lined up outside the Oceanic Museum was a large group of people in identical outfits, red and black… with horns? She gasped. Zinnia!

Sera's heart jumped a little higher in her chest before she managed to talk it down. She'd taken a pretty quick flight out here, after all, and it had still taken a few days. Unless Zinnia had similar transportation, she probably wouldn't be way out here so quickly. ...Then again, nothing was to say she didn't, and Sera had taken a pretty indirect route, so it didn't hurt to check, right?

If nothing else, maybe she could learn a little more about this… Team Magma, was it? Heh. What an unfortunate name, though. It almost made them sound like those Team Aqua thugs.

She took a place in the back of the line, but after a few minutes of not moving, she asked herself aloud, "How busy is this place?"

A man in front of her turned to answer. "Oh it's not busy, it just doesn't open for a few more minutes." He looked her over carefully then and squinted. "Look, kid, not for nothin' here, but you know the boss is really strict about uniforms. You should really change before he sees you."

Sera blinked, shocked, before looking down at her red and black outfit and up at his. "Oh, uh, it's not- I'm not a-"

"Ahh," he interrupted. "New recruit, eh? He'll probably let it slide, then. Just be sure you get your measurements submitted to the Team's tailor as soon as possible if you haven't already done so."

. . . "Rrrright," Sera agreed. "I'll definitely do that." She preferred not to think of it as 'lying' so much as 'seizing an opportunity.' "So what else should I expect as a proud… cadet?"

He laughed. "Try a grunt. Militant as Magma is, there's not much room for ranks. Leader Maxie expects everyone to be giving it his or her all at all times, with no expectation of reward or promotion, and authority is assigned on an as-needed basis. Though you might get some nicer Pokemon if you do really well. What've you got now, a Poochyena?"

"... Yup," she answered, bringing out Spitfire.

He frowned. "Why is she shaking like that?"

Sera cringed a little. "She uh… hasn't been sleeping much lately, and it's got her a little jumpy," she admitted. "There was a little… accident caused by her falling asleep in combat the other day, so she's been sort of afraid of being unconscious since then." That might have been an understatement. In one battle, she woke up only a few seconds after falling to a Sing, and proceeded to actively block her ears to avoid hearing subsequent attempts. Sera always sort of assumed being in a Pokeball was similar to sleeping, but with the clear signs of deprivation Spitfire was showing, it seemed maybe they had enough freedom within their stasis to be 'asleep' or 'awake'?

"Magma Pokemon are supposed to be tougher than that," the grunt mumbled. "You might be able to put in for a new one if you can prove it wasn't your fault."

"What? N-no, I promise you Spitfire is plenty tough. She just.. needs a few more days to recover is all. You've been spooked before, right?"

He looked her and the Poochyena over again, then rolled his eyes. "If you say so, kid. Though for the record, Magma members don't tend to give our Pokemon cutesie nicknames."

"Oh. Uh… Force of habit?" Sera blushed, then recalled Spitfire.

"Yeah, well. Start breaking it." Sera nodded firmly, then realized to her relief that the line was starting to move. The grunt noticed as well, and it seemed to lift his mood. "Hey, look at that." Turning back to her, her offered, "Tell you what, kid. Why don't you stick with me."

Sera smiled and nodded again.

Once inside, everyone spread out to have a look around. There had been a few people in line in front of the Magma group, but it seemed they made up the majority of the patrons at the moment. She refrained from asking around, lest she look desperate, but she did try to keep an eye out for Zinnia.

Her new grunt friend decided to play tour guide and show her some of the more notable attractions, though she couldn't imagine why the team was interested in most of them. 'Magma' didn't sound very seafaring to her. But then he paused to stare at a map, and Sera found herself taken aback by the amount of emotion in his gaze. "Is everything okay?"

"Did you know that over 70% of the earth's surface is covered by water?"

Sera blinked. "I don't know if I could have given you that number off the top of my head, but that sounds right. Why?"

"Because it's abhorrent," answered a voice behind them.

Both spun to see, and the grunt quickly gave an odd… salute? "Sir!" It seemed this was one of the few ranking members, then, which would explain the more elaborate outfit.

When a few seconds passed in silence after, Sera realized both sets of eyes were on her, and she mimicked the gesture- causing the grunt to cringe. He huffed a quick sigh through his nose and muttered without fully looking at her, "C'mon, kid, it's goes the other direction for women. They had to have covered this in orientation..."

"..Oh. S-sorry, I guess I'm- just nervous," Sera bluffed, keeping her voice smaller than usual to sell the part.

She corrected her salute, then turned her attention back to the newcomer as the grunt implored, "Forgive her, Leader Maxie. She's brand new. Doesn't even have a uniform yet."

Maxie looked Sera up and down, somehow managing to appear both scrutinizing and indifferent. "I see," he said at last, but something in his tone made Sera fear he wasn't quite buying her act. All the same, he went on, "It would appear that either you missed quite a number of things or I need to have a talk with whoever recruited you. At ease," he dismissed them before continuing. "So in light of the circumstances, allow me to personally refresh your memory."

"..Y-yes, sir." She had hoped to find out more about the team, and now listened intently as Maxie spoke. He spoke of the importance of dry land as humanity's stage, of the misfortune that was having little more than a quarter of the planet's surface fully usable.

"And as humanity continues to rise to greater heights, more and more of our vastly limited resources are needed to sustain us. Can we truly, in good conscious, resign ourselves to such a fate? To choosing between overcrowding and overconsumption, or forcefully reigning in our true potential, refusing to allow ourselves to live to the fullest in favor of prolonging our basic survival?" He gave a very small scoff. "That is why we of Team Magma aim to change the world- to quite literally reshape it in our own image. If we can succeed in our quest to expand the land, we needn't make such choices. Civilization can be built on fresh, bare lands rather than in the ruins of our fields and forests, and new life of all kinds can take root and grow."

Could such a thing really be possible? It sounded like a fevered dream, but… Well, Sera always was fond of fairy tales… And she could hardly deny that he painted quite the compelling picture, if there really could be a way to do something so… outlandish, heh.

"Do you understand, now, child?" Maxie asked.

Sera nodded. "I think I do, sir."

Maxie offered a small nod of his own in approval. "Good. In that case, I shall be returning to my rounds. Do ensure you're both on guard and ready when the Captain shows up. I suspect he will not find our aim so agreeable."

"Sir," agreed the grunt.

He saluted, and this time Sera quickly joined him, correct direction and all. ...Oh, together it made an 'M', for Magma. Ha. She wasn't sure if that seemed more clever or silly but she approved. Of course, she wasn't sure if the same could be said for Maxie's tone when he spoke of the Captain. Not that she could very well ask without arousing suspicion.

Over the next 20 minutes, she and her new friend whose name she still hadn't caught continued to take in the various exhibits, discussing the pros and cons of the ocean along the way. For a minute she thought it odd that so many of the grunts present seemed so sincerely interested, but it wasn't as though Magma hated the ocean or wanted to get rid of it altogether, right? They just wanted to make it smaller.

Not long after they made their way upstairs, an elderly man whom Sera very vaguely recognized from occasional news appearances came out of an employee-only area. Within moments of him doing so, two nearby grunts approached to corner him. Sera was a little too far to clearly catch everything they were saying, but what she caught sounded like they were trying to kidnap him?

Panicking, but praying she was wrong, she broke away from her companion to get closer, and very clearly heard, "This doesn't have to be difficult, old man. If you'll just retrieve us the necessary plans and parts, we won't need you at all.'

Gods dammit. "Hey!" Sera barked now, getting their attention. "Back away from the captain."

"What's with the newbie?" one of the grunts grumbled. Sera huffed a sigh and gave up any hope of pretense, instead releasing Flash. As he materialized, feathers magnifying the light created by his own ball upon release, their eyes grew wide. "Wait, shit, I know you."

"That's right," she said flatly. "My name is Sera Birch, and I highly suggest you back away from the captain."

They decided to take the hard way, because of course they did. As expected, both had Poochyena; Flash's Double Kick made short work of them. Zuma was brought out to help with their Zubat… and evolved for the effort!

Their Pokemon defeated, and only one of the exhibits more than slightly damaged as a result, Sera stood with her hands on her hips, a Combusken on one side and a brand new Linoone on the other. "Anyone else want to try their luck?"

Across the room, the grunt she'd befriended stared at her somewhere between horror and disgust. "I trusted you," he hissed. Sera wished that bothered her as little as her expression must have made it look.

"So it seems my suspicions were correct." That was Maxie's voice, and Sera jumped slightly to hear it. "Although I hadn't suspected you'd be quite this strong- nor this brazen." The way he nearly spat the word suggested it to be, in this context, a synonym for stupid.

Sera's stomach turned, but she held her ground as she declared, "Look. You may have a lot of good points, but if theft and kidnapping is your idea of how to achieve a better world, then I'm gonna have to insist you rethink your plan."

For a moment, Maxie's already narrow gaze intensified, and Sera's blood raced, but she steeled herself. To her surprise, when his expression relaxed, there was the smallest hint of a wry smile. "Very well, child. Perhaps you are too young and naive to truly understand, after all. But I like the fire in your eyes." Sera swallowed nervously, though these nerves seemed to come from a different place than before. "Just this once, I, the Great Maxie, shall humor your request. For your sake, I pray that should we meet again, you will be more open to reason, for I do not intend to be so forgiving in the future."

Despite herself, Sera found herself murmuring, "Y-yes sir…"

This only accentuated Maxie's smirk. Turning to his nearby men, he said simply, "Come. We're finished here."

What loosely passed for museum security showed up just in time to watch the team leave. Captain Stern thanked Sera profusely, and assured her security would be significantly beefed up for quite some time in the wake of this scare. Sera considered tailing Team Magma, but supposed they hadn't actually done anything to warrant pursuit, only come close to it. Besides, she suspected Maxie was far more experienced as a trainer than most of his team, in addition to the whole strength in numbers aspect.

That night, she received a call from a low-ranking League official. Sera thought it at first an unnecessary formality, as the woman thanked her again for saving Stern. But she went on to clarify that Team Magma was apparently just as much a criminal organization as Team Aqua. Spectacular. Moreover, the woman said she was to extend the League's thanks and approval for her marvelous acting in infiltrating their ranks, getting their leader himself to divulge information within her Nav's recording range, even if most of it was mere confirmation for things already long-suspected. In fact, given Maxie's hope to see her turn, the League was officially suggesting she consider exploiting that at her discretion should she come across them again. If they believed she sympathized with their cause, they just might share even more.

Sera pasted on a smile as she replied, "I suppose I do consider myself a decent actress."


When Briney's ship finally made port, Morgan said her goodbyes to him and Peeko, thanking them again for the assistance, then set out to find a rather populated beach between herself and Slateport-proper. She tried her hand at fishing in hopes of both catching another Pokemon and killing time to let the crowd clear out, but nothing seemed to be biting, so she eventually gave up.

There were way too many people- too many kids especially- and some of them wanting to battle wasn't making it any more pleasant. Finally, she noticed a small restaurant and thought that might be a decent place to duck away from the crowd. Maybe get some food and directions while she was at it.

But rather than a "Welcome!" or just a quiet wait, Morgan walked in to an owner muttering, "Ah, crap, it's a trainer." Even as she started to question, he regained his composure and elaborated, "I'm very sorry, miss. I'm afraid the Seashore House isn't currently offering our usual battle challenge. Please, take a few bottles of soda anyway as our apology."

Morgan wasn't going to turn down free shit, so she accepted the offer without asking questions.

"We do thank you for your understanding," the owner went on. "Our Pokemon are just in a little more need of recovery time than usual after a particularly fearsome trainer the other day… Apparently some of our staff, Blair, made the mistake of underestimating her."

A gruff-looking man in a leather jacket barked back, "Dude will you lay off? All those Sand Attacks usually work! It's not like it's my fault she had Aerial Ace. Besides, that Taillow was…"

Morgan fought not to facepalm. "Let me guess. Death on wings?"

"That's one way to put it."

Of course. "Is there not a Pokemon Center in this town, or?"

The looks she got made Morgan jump slightly, before Blair grumbled, "Look, kid. Ain't all of us got free healthcare like you fancy sponserees. Scratches, exhaustion, mild burns, whatever they'll take care of, but my Poochyena's broken leg 'as gotta heal the old-fashioned way, unless you wanna pay for them to zap it better."

Was that an option? Eh, she'd better not push her luck or give him false hope just in case. Also, wait, really? She guessed that made sense but she just sort of assumed… huh. "S-sorry. I should probably just… I'm gonna go. Thanks again for the soda."

As she walked the beach, nearing the city and leaving behind the crowd, she noticed and old man and a Zigzagoon picking up litter from the shoreline.

When the old man noticed her, he smiled and waved. "Well, hello there, youngster. I don't suppose you have time to pitch in a little for mother earth this afternoon?"

Morgan tried not to cringe. "Ah, sorry. Someone is actually waiting on me and I don't want to keep them."

His face fell, but soon brightened again as he said, "Oh, lad, it's you. It's been a while since I've seen you in these parts."

Morgan followed his gaze to a tall, broad-shouldered man approaching, wearing a gentle smile. "That it has, old friend. But business has brought me through, and you know I can't come to Slateport without stopping by." He turned his attention to Morgan, then. "I couldn't help but overhear. Are you sure you can't stay just a while? Maybe your friend could even join us."

"...To… pick up trash?"

The larger man crossed his arms and gave her an odd look. "Don't sound so surprised. The ocean is the mother of all life. And when we pollute her, it ends up in the rain, in our rivers, our crops and drinking water. It ends up in the homes of countless Pokemon who did nothing wrong. When humans are careless or selfish, it comes back to haunt everyone."

Morgan found her thoughts pulled back to her homeland. She'd seen firsthand what unchecked greed and corruption could cause, had grown up watching cities and countrysides ruined by forces outside her control. Imagining now the many Pokemon finding themselves similarly helpless to improve their condition, she said, "Sera can probably wait a little longer…"


As it happened, Sera was quite preoccupied, competing with Zuma in a local Cuteness Contest. When they took first prize, Sera swore she must have been the happiest ball of fluff that a Linoone ever was.

They love me, Zuma whimpered, claws to her face, tears in her eyes. They really, truly love me!

"You did a great job!" Sera congratulated her.

And… And to think! Zuma exclaimed. You said I didn't need both Charm and Baby-Doll Eyes! She sort of didn't, but she'd insisted on keeping both, and Sera supposed it did end up coming in handier for this than combat.

"Great job out there!" Sera's new friend Lisia told them as they headed backstage. "I just knew you could do it! I think I'll call this chapter in your story, 'I Really Did It! A Star is Born!'"

Sera laughed. With other amazing titles like "Sudden Encounter! Miraculous Contest Scouting!" and "My Big Beginning! A Heart-Pounding Contest Debut!", she was starting to wonder, "Do you think you might be writing too many chapters there?"

Lisia blinked. "Wha'd'you mean?"

"I mean maybe it would be better to consolidate a little, you know?"

The idol frowned. "But I like writing. And aren't smaller chapters more digestable?"

Sera brought a finger to her face in thought. "Hmm.. I suppose there is that, but you've gotta find a balance. Otherwise your readers well be all, 'It's already chapter seven and the story is barely starting!' I understand feeling the need for set-up, but they'll probably respond better to two or three longer chapters than a bunch of small ones."

"Hm… You may have a point." Together, they turned to look into the vague foreground. After a few seconds, Lisia shook her head. "Sorry, I thought I saw something. Oh, but for your next contest-!"


Morgan had to admit, this community service was a lot more rewarding than she'd expected, though she supposed she owed much of that to her company. The old man, Mr. Andrews, apparently lived nearby and had come here almost every day for the past 20 years or so to do his part keeping the beach clean. Morgan had to admire such determination, and especially that he could remain upbeat all the while.

The other man, Archie, was nothing if not passionate about the ocean. Not that his outfit hadn't made that abundantly clear from the beginning, though Morgan did have to wonder why he needed to keep his… wetsuit, she guessed? Unzipped to quite that low… Well, she'd simply try not to stare.

As they walked the full length of the shore, passing back by the harbor and circling back toward Slateport on the far side of the beach, he and Morgan talked while picking up litter, tossing a few beached fish back in the water, and at one point stopping to untangle a Wingull's foot from some plastic rings.

It did briefly occur to Morgan that she probably could have caught one of these, but that seemed rather inappropriate at the moment, and she wasn't really hurting for Pokemon anymore. In fact, the ones she had were proving quite useful. Cerberus did his part, and while Mithril had gotten a little overzealous and had to be recalled, Kitsun proved quite adept at using his psychic powers to carry large amounts of garbage effortlessly until they could find a place to properly dispose of or recycle it.

Archie's Sharpedo and Morgan's Tentacool helped as well, combing the shallows of the water while their humans combed the land. Archie had marked both with special bright bands to let any swimmers the Pokemon passed know that they were trained Pokemon doing work and not wild ones that may attack.

Archie shared a lot of interesting ocean trivia over the evening, as well as a pretty healthy handful of bad jokes. In general, he seemed like a pretty fun, laid back guy- but from time to time, he also got pretty intense. It was clear how much he hated all abuse and exploitation of the ocean- overfishing, oil drilling, all of it. He spoke briefly of something called Infinity Energy which was supposedly cutting down on fossil fuel consumption, but it wasn't entirely phased out yet. Devon's refusal to divulge where this new energy came from concerned him as well, and Morgan couldn't blame him. Or disagree on any point, really.

He did mention something about retuning the world to its roots that struck Morgan as more than a little unnerving, but she told herself it was likely hyperbole.

With everyone working together, even at a leisurely pace, it took them less than two hours to do a job Mr. Andrews and his Zigzagoon usually couldn't finish in a day. "I do say, this may be the most pristine this beach has been in at least a year," the old man said.

Morgan smiled, but then let it fall to a frown. "Won't it just get cluttered again tomorrow?"

Archie nodded. "Aye, but not so badly."

"It'll be more manageable, at least for a time," Mr. Andrews added.

"And whatever the case, we cannot give up on making the world a better place just because it looks overwhelming. Even if all we can do for now is struggle to keep things from getting worse- even if we can't do that, just slow the rate of decline- anything is still better than giving up. Every difference we make, however small, still matters."

Morgan smiled with a little more determination, now. "Right."

Archie grinned at her now. "Say there, scamp. I like that look in your eyes."

Morgan gave a nervous, questioning laugh at his tone- then watched in horror as he took off his hat, for the bandana he wore beneath it bore an emblem she'd seen before. "We could use more folks like you in-"

"Team Aqua," she hissed.

Archie's brows raised. "Ah, heard of us, eh?"

"Heard of you? You're terrorists." She found herself backing up now, putting distance between them.

Archie sighed heavily. "Oh. So you've bought into that." Um? Why wouldn't she? "Look, kid. I'm willing to forgive that you got in our way in Rustboro." Morgan's eyes widened as her heart skipped a beat. "But I want you to think about everything we discussed, and keep in mind, history favors the victors. Every great instrument of change is an extremist in their time."

Morgan couldn't really argue with that, but "...Your men attacked one friend of mine and kidnapped another."

"I'm not saying we've never made necessary sacrifices, but did either of them actually get hurt?" … He shifted to a more casual stance as he put his hat back on. "I don't wanna fight you, scamp. So I'll tell you what. You go meet up with that friend of yours, and I'm gonna go have a nice dinner to finish catching up with an old friend of mine." He nodded toward Andrews, who seemed oddly neutral through all this. "You think about it, and I hope that next time we meet, if you're not ready to join the cause, you'll at least stay out of Aqua's way." He looked directly at Morgan's Nav, then, and winked. "And if anyone watching out there wants to help us create a better world, Aqua's always recruiting~"

Morgan scrambled to grab and… cover? She didn't even know where her Nav recorded from but she was trying dammit. "Dude what the fuck you can't just-"

But Archie just flashed her a grin and waved, recalled his Pokemon, then went along his merry way, Mr. Andrews waving as he passed her and following.

Morgan stood flummoxed for almost a minute before deciding 'fuck it', recalling Manowar, and heading into town. That Sharpedo was clearly better trained than anything she had, and she wasn't about to go playing vigilante.

Could Archie have been right, though? She found herself getting more and more absorbed in thought as she walked. She couldn't deny that she'd gotten suspicious vibes here and there all over Hoenn. Was it possible that Team Aqua were the good guys here, just doing what they had to do to cure a corrupted country?

She was pulled from her reverie by the sound of tumbling garbage cans, and quickly turned to see an Aqua Grunt on the ground behind- the Oceanic Museum, according to the sign. There was an open window a story above her. … Morgan sighed. "Or maybe they're just a bunch of criminal assholes." Cerberus and Kitsun were both still following her, so she ordered them to attention.

The Grunt scrambled to her feet. "No fair! I wouldn't have to be out here if security inside wasn't on high alert from those Magma idiots." All the same, she released a Zubat and Poochyena.

"... Okay," Morgan said flatly. "Confusion, Fury Cutter."

The Zubat went down quickly. The Poochyena, however, held its own, and lunged at Kitsun. It hit him right in the neck, and the Kadabra jerked harshly before falling over. Another Fury Cutter did the Poochyena in, and the Aqua Grunt was quick to run- right over the nearby railing to jump into the ocean.

"Uh… Right." Well Morgan clearly wasn't following her either. "Nice job, gu-... Kitsun?"

Cerberus looked down in horror at his friend's body, then frowned up at Morgan.

Morgan, at this point, could only facepalm. "Oh for the love of…" This was just… stupid. Of all the fights, how on earth… She sighed, recalling the Revive she'd found back in the woods. "Don't worry, buddy, I can fix this."

That night at the Pokemon Center, Morgan received rather mixed reactions for the day's events. There were those who were thrilled for such thorough confirmation of the identity of Aqua's leader- or what had to at least be a leader, though he matched what little information they'd had before. There were those who thought the insight into the Team's motivation would help in determining where they might strike next and better prepare the government to combat them. ...Annnd there were those who were concerned Morgan was a legitimate sympathizer or outraged she'd given them such free publicity.

Her night was… stressful, to say the least.

If there was some consolation to this day, it was that (a) at least Genevieve maintained faith in her, (b) the Center assured her Kitsun should be revived by morning, and (c) tomorrow morning, she could wake up to Cerberus's chin pressed against her face and finally continue about business as usual.