One by one, the now determined remnants got out of the lounge. Helma and Lucia were the only ones left inside. For the rest of the afternoon Helma did not stop bothering her friend, she tried many times to make eye contact with her but Lucia wouldn't let her. It all started when she saw how Lucia didn't clap after Grimsley's speech, she didn't even seem happy about it. But Helma's insistence would have to stop soon, as Lucia would ultimately run out of patience. Most of the time she was more than willing to endure Helma's stubbornness, they were very close friends and Lucia knew they only had each other, but this time Helma was being very rigid, and annoying.

"Please leave me alone," Lucia whispered to Helma without looking at her,

"Look at me stupid, don't you want to defend your home?" Helma angrily berated her as she tried to make eye contact once more,

"it's a cave, that has nothing to do with it,"

"really? Because everyone else is going to fight, Jonny's fighting, I'm sure he'll convince you...where is he?"

"He's trying to sell stuff to get money for supplies...for the time of war that he says is coming,"

"see, he knows he must defend his people and fight for what is actually right,"

"yeah, and he knows and understands that I don't want to, you know, it would've been really easy for me to tell you that he and I have been through some stuff together, and you have no idea what that's like so you could never understand...I guess I did say it just now, but you are my friend, out of all the people I thought you'd listen to me,"

"but we are fighting for ourselves now, it is the right thing to do,"

"shut up."

Jonny entered the lounge without being seen or heard, startling both Helma and Lucia once they noticed him. It was highly unusual of him not to shout or make a noise after barging in, and there was something off with him in general. Helma noticed the change in his demeanor and his appearance immediately, he was wearing a bizarre set of red headphones, very big and seemingly heavy, which encompassed the entirety of his ears, and connected to an equally bizarre pair of sunglasses of the same color, which covered his eyes, eyebrows, and part of his nose. The whole setup made it seem like Jonny was wearing a mask. He walked differently too, without moving his upper body at all. It was as if only his legs were alive.

"I've found you Lucia, come here I've got something for you," Jonny said as he approached her carrying another set of headphones on his hand, just like the ones he was wearing.

He grabbed Lucia by the arm and tried to put them on her without waiting for a response but she didn't let him,

"I don't want them,"

"why not? Just try them," Jonny pressed her,

"they look ugly and uncomfortable, put them away,"

"she said no!" Helma shouted. She tried to take the headphones off Jonny's hands but he immediately elbowed her on the jaw, hard. Helma moved away in shock and grabbed her cheek, which was stinging with a pungent and concentrated pain. She looked at Jonny in horror as he forcefully put the headphones on Lucia against her will. It's not like they hadn't traded a few blows once or twice before, but he had never and he would never hurt her, not like that.

"Who is she?" Jonny asked with a monotonous voice,

"doesn't matter, but we will have to get another set," Lucia said once she adjusted her headphones, moving just as emotionless as Jonny,

"hey guess-ss, what?" Jonny said as he turned to Helma, although she didn't know if he was actually looking at her, "Team Plasma's back, it is the opportunity of a lifetime."

Jonny moved his hands toward her and creepily waved his fingers. Lucia followed suit and they approached an increasingly scared Helma, who immediately ran away. She got out of the lounge and turned behind her to see her friends chasing after her. She ran faster, heading towards victory road. There she'd have the advantage, as well as multiple exits she could use; they wouldn't be able to catch her in her home turf.

After getting out of the ruins, she found another one of the remnants crouched down on the middle of a wooden bridge on victory road. As soon as she saw him she ran over to the bridge, hoping to even the numbers. She shouted at him once she was close enough. The bald remnant stood up and faced her, revealing the same headphones and glasses on his head. It was Quincey.

"I need to get another set," he said like a robot.

Jonny and Lucia were right behind her, she was trapped between them and Quincey on the bridge. Helma knew what she had to do and lamented herself for it. Right on the middle of the bridge, with her stalkers eager to get her from both sides, Helma grabbed the rope railing with both of her hands and jumped to the ground floor below her, falling feet first on the hard ground. She felt the extent of the contact mainly on her right hip; the pain settled there. She looked up and saw her three sudden tormentors standing right above her, just looking at her like mindless robots. They didn't move or speak, they just stared at her from above. Helma knew she had gained a few crucial seconds to escape, and she limped away to a safe spot only she knew, where they'd never find her.

The most inconspicuous corner on the underground, no trainer or pokemon ever bothered to look there, mainly because there was nothing to look for. There, neither the light from outside nor the one from the torches would uncover Helma, no one could see her but she could see everyone; her sight adjusted to the almost pitch black darkness. The two walls that made the corner behind her touched her shoulders, she sat down and hugged her knees with true terror in her eyes.

Suddenly Helma felt yet another presence, and was able to distinguish a somehow darker shadow moving around the darkness. She then saw a face. He, whoever it was, was wearing some type of face mask, it looked like the bars of a prison cell over his mouth, and his forehead was soaking wet.

It was the worst moment Popito could've chosen to walk through carrying his trash can with Ghetsis face painted on it. Helma contained the urge to shout at him to run away, as it wouldn't be of any help and they, whomever they were, would get her too. The mysterious figure came out of the shadows and approached Popito, it was definitely a man, an old man, wearing a pitch black hooded robe. He had visible gray-greenish long hair, his eyes were barely open and he seemed to be struggling with the heat his robe brought him.

"Hello, are you a fellow dweller? A few of us just started socializing," Popito naively said to the man,

"do you want to try this headphones on little boy?" His voice sounded deep and raspy, almost metallic, and it seemed like it was difficult for him to speak,

"sure," Popito said as he dropped his trash can on the ground. It clashed with the rocks on the ground and moved until Ghetsis face was showing on top, luckily the man failed to notice it. Popito wasted no time to grab the headgear from the man's hand and quickly put it on,

"listen to me," the man said,

"I'm listening," Popito spoke with the same dull tone Jonny and company used,

"great, the mind control is working flawlessly,"

"yes,"

"well wasn't that easy?" The man boasted, "you were the easiest out of all of them by far, by far, see, this is what you're good for, you're not strong, you're not clever, but you can listen, I tell you, some people were born only to do others' bidding, and when they fail to realize that, well, let's just say things do not go well for them, do they? Come on, I need to be close to the others until I can figure out a way to make the mind control more powerful,"

"we must move closer," Popito said scantily.

The two of them walked away, leaving Helma alone in the darkness once more. She waited until she felt safe enough; she then tried to stand up, but the pain on her hip did not let her. She couldn't help but let out a small cry, thankfully for her no one heard it. Helma had to resort to support her hand on the wall to move, as far away from there as she could.

No pokemon or people appeared on her way as Helma struggled to get back to the ruins. She reached the fake wall that led to Grimsley's room and promptly knocked it down with her forehead, then started banging on his door hard and loud. If he was in there she'd be safe, stealth and subtlety be damned. She pushed her way in through the door as soon as she heard the lock being open, and found Grimsley stunned by her demeanor; his visible drowsiness instantly disappeared. She reached for his collar, which was one head above her, and dragged him to her level; he was more confused than anything, he had seen Helma angry on multiple occasions but this time it seemed like she had lost it.

Then Grimsley heard what she had to say and became enraged. He pushed Helma aside and pulled the door violently, then stormed outside. Helma followed him and found six pokemon already waiting for him in a circle on the hallway: a houndoom, a drapion, liepard, honchkrow, bisharp, and crawdaunt, all howling and growling loud and vibrant. Moments later more pokemon manifested on the scene from left and right, from absol and tyrannitar to scrafty and sableye.

"Find the remnants first," Grimsley shouted, and the pokemon divided into two groups. One ran to the left and the other one to the right. Helma followed Grimsley who himself ran behind his three houndooms to the right.

Mayhem ensued, the dark pokemon ignored intruding trainers and pokemon and knocked down the more persistent ones to continue with their task. But it seemed like they were too late, they found no traces of the remnants anywhere. Grimsley thought about searching for them on the outside, using the help of all the dark pokemon on his favor, the remnants couldn't be very far and he would never let whoever was behind the attack escape. Just then he saw the silhouette of a robbed man at the end of the hallway, and his shadow disappeared as soon as Grimsley saw him. Grimsley bolted to encounter him with his pokemon, with Helma behind him moving as fast as she could. After reaching a corner she caught a glimpse of the man they were chasing, it could've been him.

The man became closer the more they chased after him, it was obvious he wasn't fast enough to lose them. Grimsley saw an opportunity, he moved his index finger forward and one of his houndooms sprinted like a bullet towards the man and took him down. Grimsley ran over to him and turned him face up,

"Rood?!" Grimsley sounded betrayed, "what the hell are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to warn you, whatever it is that you are doing here, Zinzolin wants a piece, if not all of it! I just wanted to warn you!" The man pleaded,

"you couldn't have done that earlier? I wasted crucial time chasing you." Grimsley showed his teeth, there was a crimson glow on his eyes. He closed his mouth and let out a guttural grunt filled with anger,

"I'm sorry! I just thought you should know, he's going to try and take the remnants away from you any way he can, he wants to reform team plasma and try ghetsis plan agai…" Grimsley did not let him finish, he put his foot on Rood's cheek and started pressing it against the ground. Rood screamed ear piercingly loud, his cries were in tune with the pain he was feeling, Grimsley wasn't holding back.

"Yeah? Nice job ruining everything moron, they are probably gone and it's all because of your stupidity," Grimsley called him out as he moved his foot, scraping Rood's face on two surfaces. It was a rough scene, Helma thought of talking Grimsley down but resolved it'd be noneffective. She thought of pushing him away from Rood but realized that she was too scared of him to try.

"we should go find the remnants," she finally said,

"Zinzolin isn't that stupid, he won't be lingering around anymore regardless of if he got all of them or not," Grimsley said before lifting his feet off Rood. There was blood,

"don't let me see your stupid face ever again," Grimsley said as Rood stood up holding his bloodied cheeks with his hands, then he ran away. The two people left walked around the entirety of the underground looking for their friends, knowing they wouldn't find them.