Chapter Three: Call of the Beast

"Shrew… on… up…"

Shrew had already woken up, but found it incredibly hard to try to open his eyes.

Fires everywhere, screams, pain in every point in his body…

Must be heaven.

"Shrew… Shrew!"

Shrew heard Quill's voice now. At first it sounded like it came from somewhere far away, but it kept on strengthening and becoming clearer.

"Please… you have to wake up…"

Shrew opened his eyes so quickly that Quill flinched. They were still in the same building, only one level below the previous lab. Still, it was hard to recognize places anymore with the lights off, the corridor illuminated by flames and filled with the remains of both drywall and humans. Bodies of scientists, security guards and apparently Team Rocket grunts were scattered all over the place.

"Thank Arceus," Quill sighed. "I thought…"

Quill was quickly cut off by a 'no-time-for-the-sap' look from Shrew.

"I'm not sure what happened. I saw some kind of shadows… oily shapes or something. Then everything went dark. I think we fell through that…"

Quill pointed at a huge hole in the ceiling.

"We were gone for hours," Quill continued anxiously. "Shrew, something real bad is going on here…"

Shrew frowned at her.

"Something even worse, I mean," Quill snapped. "There's something here that… I think these are the Rocket Grunts who came in before us…"

Among the bodies in bloodstained black uniforms was the body of a Raticate. Shrew gulped.

"Well… there's no turning back now," Shrew said and hauled himself up. "We'll try to find whatever those guys were after, then get to the elevator, if it still works. If not…"

Shrew paused and trailed off. "Let's get going!"

Shrew and Quill started to slowly walk towards the nearest door – or the only door they could see. Most of the hallway they were in had already collapsed, blocking off the other entrances. When they got to the door, Shrew hesitated for a second, then pushed it open.

A second later, he really wanted to turn back.

The room the Sandshrew and Cyndaquil were in was circular and bigger than any of the other places they'd been. There were more doors on the walls, with stone steps running all around the room, all descending towards something at the bottom.

That something was a humongous ball of light, and orbiting around it were hundreds of small, black letter-shaped Pokémon. All of them had one large, lidless eye in the middle, and as they slowly hovered around, they emitted a high-pitched noise that made Shrew shiver:

"Uuuuunoooooown~"

Quill was clinging to Shrew, shaking as bad as him. But no matter what, they would have to cross, as the route to the cargo elevator was blocked by debris. Shrew took a deep breath, and together with Quill, started walking along the stone steps in the circular room, determined to stay as far away from the floating little black Pokémon as possible. But after a few seconds of walking, Quill abruptly stopped.

"What?" Shrew asked, finding himself whispering for some reason.

"N-nothing," Quill said, staring at the bottom of the room in awe. "It's just so… beautiful, don't you think?"

"I've never seen Pokémon like that before and I certainly wouldn't go calling them beautiful…"

"Not them," Quill whispered, "what they're floating around. What do you think it is?"

"Maybe we'll find out later," Shrew hissed sharply and grabbed Quill's paw, pulling her away as she took a step towards the center.

Reluctantly, Quill followed taking her eyes off whatever glowy thing it was that the little Pokémon seemed to be drawn to. Shrew had already fought enough feral Pokémon for one day.

At least I hope the Dodrio was feral. It jumped out and screamed at me, though. What was I supposed to do?

Shrew decided to think about it later… should there be a "later". He led Quill through the first door the duo came across and quickly shut the door behind him.

They were now in another darkened lab, only this time, they weren't alone. At the far end of the room, next to a steel door, were two people: a frail-looking, gray-haired male scientist and a woman with curly blonde hair in Team Rocket uniform. The scientist was nervously babbling something to the woman, who merely smiled cruelly. Hoping the two were too focused to notice anything, Shrew quickly dove under a table and pulled Quill with him.

"I… I can't g-give it you, p-please…" the scientist stuttered. "We were warned… please, you have no idea how dangerous that thing is! We should have never accepted it. But the administrator was-"

"I don't really care how you got it," the woman in Rocket uniform replied calmly, still smiling. "And the danger is just part of the fun. Let's just stop wasting time. I know you're going to tell me where it is…"

Shrew stared at the scene – for a moment, he thought the woman was reaching for a weapon. Instead, she pointed what seemed to be a black tulip at the scientist, who looked confused for a second. Then, the woman pushed the flower into the scientist's chest. The scientist screamed and spasmed and eventually collapsed on the floor, with smoke pouring out from the spot he had been stabbed in.

"Electrified tulip," the woman said chirpily. "And I barely grazed you with it. Had I kept going, you would be dead. And I wouldn't even be bothered – there's bound to be others hiding here, pathetically clinging on to the hope of rescue, with the information I need. But that would take time, and I'm sort of on the clock here…"

The woman pulled the scientist up roughly, allowing him to lean on the wall and catch his breath. Finally, he spoke up, out of breath and with a raspy voice: "Behind that door… you need a code to get in… and another one to open the sealed cabinet it's in…"

A male Rocket Grunt stepped into the lab through another door. "Miss Domino," he said, addressing the blonde woman. "Trouble upstairs. Some of those strike team guys made it through our barricades. They'll probably be here soon."

"How many?" the woman asked.

"Six, but they'll probably send more soon."

"And here I thought this would be boring," Domino said and grinned. "The thing is behind that door. Once we have it, take it to Gideon and we'll pull out. You," she pushed the scientist against the steel door. "Open it."

As Shrew watched the scientist slowly make his way to the keypad next to the door, a realization struck him. Everything that happened here today was because of whatever they had behind that door.

"Quill," Shrew told his companion as quietly as possible.

Quill looked at Shrew, but was too frightened to get a word out. Shrew assumed she was listening anyway.

"We need to get whatever's in that room. I'm sorry to ask you this, but... can you cover me?"

"H-how?"

The scientist finished inserting the keycode and was now doing his best to pull the heavy steel door open. Shrew finished giving instructions as fast as possible:

"Alright, never mind, just be ready to help me out if something happens. I'm going to grab whatever they're after."

"But how will that help us get out of here?" Quill asked and grabbed Shrew by its paw.

"Please, Shrew, let's think this over for a moment-"

"If I have it, the humans will have to do as we tell them," Shrew said. "Not that they'll understand us, but... you get the idea. If we have it, they won't attack us and we can get through this place."

The door was opened, and a bright, golden light filled the room. Despite Quill's meek, quiet protests, Shrew climbed out from under the table and quickly sprinted towards the chamber.

Shrew ignored the sudden protests of Domino and the male grunt, leaped on the frightened scientist's shoulder for support and bounced itself into the chamber, landing on a table where he saw the source of the blinding light.

It was like a big, octagon-shaped gold-colored jewel that somehow floated on its own, or held up by some type of field. Deciding that wondering why an ugly-ass paperweight like that was so important was for later, Shrew grabbed the jewel, finding it light and easy to carry despite the thing being half Shrew's size. As he grabbed it, however, it stopped glowing and turned from golden to gray.

The female Rocket, Domino, shouted orders and pushed the scientist out of her way while the male grunt attempted to crack Shrew with his whip. Shrew jumped down on the floor, and while holding the jewel on his back with its front paw, made a quick dash back towards Quill, hoping she was ready to run.

But Domino managed to kick Shrew, causing him to lose his balance. From the corner of his eye, he saw Quill half-cowering behind the table and half-ready to jump into action, so without thinking further, he tossed the jewel to Quill, hoping she'd capture it.

What Quill did with it, Shrew didn't see, as he felt the air squeezed out of him as Domino managed to get him on his back and stomp on his belly, causing Shrew to wheeze and squeal loudly.

"Well, this is new," Domino mused as she pressed her foot down on Shrew, causing him to writhe in pain. "I knew the scientists and security guards would probably try some pathetic scheme to fight back, but the lab rats too? How cute!"

Domino looked around the room, but Quill was nowhere to be seen.

"I saw you grab the orb, little Cyndaquil," Domino called out. "I know you're still in this room somewhere and I know you can understand my speech – though whether you filthy vermin actually comprehend anything is another subject matter entirely. Bring the orb to us and we won't snap the Sandshrew's neck."

Domino raised her foot a little, allowing Shrew to breathe for a second, but before he could get off, she instead stepped on his neck, making the Sandshrew cough up blood.

"You know, I've killed many other little Pokémon today," Domino said as she looked down on Shrew, smiling sadistically. "But you're the first one I really enjoyed hurting. You actually tried! You should consider yourself special. We're waiting!" Domino shouted, looking around the room.

Eventually, Quill came out from hiding hole and stepped into the middle of the room, holding the jewel between her paws. Domino nodded at the grunt.

"Grab it," she said.

Shrew tried to protest, tried to warn Quill, tell her to run away – Shrew himself was finished, but there was a chance Quill could still make a run for it. But Domino's foot was still pressing down on Shrew's neck and only barely audible wheezing came from his throat.

Then, as the Rocket tried to grab the jewel, Quill did something unexpected: took a few steps back.

She ignited the flames on her back, causing Shrew's eyes to widen.

She opened her mouth.

And s**t got f****ed.

Quill blasted the grunt with the most powerful flamethrower attack Shrew had ever seen. The grunt screamed, his clothes set alight, and dropped on the floor and started rolling, screaming his lungs out all the while.

Quill turned in Domino's direction and fired another stream of fire towards her, but Domino reacted in the nick of time and managed to leap out of the way, the flamethrower igniting the wooden bookshelf behind her instead.

Shrew tried to get up, ignoring the pain in his throat and stomach, but didn't need to struggle for long as Quill made a dash towards him, handed him the jewel and then pulled him away from the flames. Together, the two escaped the room as the flames spread all over, setting the equipment alight and causing the chemicals around them to explode.

Running to where the Rocket Grunt came from, they ended up in a corridor with scientists' bodies littered around them – and an elevator at the end of it.

"Can you run?" Quill asked, and Shrew just nodded.

It feels like a rusty nail is piercing through my guts every time I do so, but at least I can do it.

Quill and Shrew dashed towards the elevator, and as they did so, Domino emerged from the room behind them, ignoring the cries of help from the grunt apparently still trapped by the fire, her hair singed and her clothes covered with ash. Seeing Shrew and Quill running, she raised a metal crossbow and fired, the bolt whizzing past Shrew's ear.

The elevator was just a few feet away.

Domino fired again, this time missing Shrew easily. Shrew heard Quill cry out, but as he looked, Quill still kept running briskly and Shrew didn't notice any damage on her, so he continued.

Reaching the elevator, Shrew dropped the jewel for a moment and jumped up to hit the call button – the elevator wasn't in the floor, though it audibly started to descend. Domino reloaded and raised her crossbow again, and with little room to dodge in the narrow, linear corridor, Shrew positioned himself in front of Quill and curled himself into a ball, using the only useful ability he had.

Shrew felt the metal bolt hit him, searing him as if it was made of solid fire. He heard a crack from his shell, but at least the bolt hadn't broken his skin. Nonetheless, Shrew uncurled and collapsed, the pain seizing him up.

"Shrew!" Quill squealed while Domino still kept strolling casually towards the two, reloading her crossbow already.

"Okay, Shrew," Quill said, trying her best to sound soothing. "What you're gonna see may shock you a bit, but you know I'm only doing this to protect you."

Quill took a deep breath, and as Domino raised her crossbow again, Quill's flames lit up brighter and bigger than ever, almost scorching Shrew with their heat, as Quill fired a scorching, all-consuming 大-shaped blast of orange fire towards Domino, whose reaction was to instantly drop her crossbow and start running the other way.

What happened to her remained unclear as he elevator doors behind the two Pokémon opened. Shrew practically crawled into the elevator as Quill grabbed the jewel, dashed in and jumped up to push the button to close the doors, then picked the highest button she could reach and the elevator began to slowly ascend.

Quill then tried to go to Shrew, who was sitting down and leaning on the wall of the elevator, holding his stomach, but Shrew just waved her off.

"Nothing's bleeding or broken and stuff isn't coming out, that's good enough for me," Shrew grunted, but as soon as he said that, wished he wasn't trying to be so macho.

"What I wanna know is, how on Arceus' blue Earth did you manage to use your fire attacks? That was a Fire Blast you just pulled off – and saved my worthless butt with!"

Quill looked nervous and looked at the floor as she spoke.

"It's complicated," she muttered, "and it's not like we have a spare couple of hours, here."

But as Quill said that, the elevator suddenly stopped. Quill and Shrew looked at the screen displaying the current floor: they were stuck between B6 and B5, having started from B9. Shrew wondered about just how big this complex was. The lights were still on, though.

"Actually, I think we have," Shrew observed.

~o~O~o~

"Scolipede, Steamroller!"

A door in the northwest corner of the research facility was only guarded by a lone Team Rocket Grunt smoking a joint and looking quite bored with this hostile takeover business, as if they took part in sieges more often than not.

His boredom was soon fixed when Rosa's Scolipede spun towards him and knocked him out cold, allowing Wes, Rosa, Hilbert and Amarillo to emerge from the bushes and sneak to the door. Hilbert's Samurott followed its owner closely like a dog while Amarillo had a Furret whose usefulness Wes seriously doubted. Wes more fascinated by the medic's quiet demeanor and the person not exchanging a word with the others.

Rosa rushed to the door and hooked her Pokétch to the electronic lock on it, using a small portable keyboard as she typed furiously with it.

"Best to leave her alone as she does her thing," Hilbert advised Wes as he inspected his own Pokétch. "She's good, doesn't compare to Jasmine though, but she's good. Can you believe that before her going into tech, her dream was to become an actress?"

"I can, but I can't bring myself to care," Wes mumbled as he scanned his surroundings, trying to see if any more Rockets waited in ambush. "She sure handles Pokémon well, though."

"Aren't you gonna be needing any?" Hilbert wondered.

Wes smiled smugly. "No, but I'm gonna use them anyway," he said and casually opened one of the Poké Balls on his waist without even looking.

Espeon, a purple, Psychic-type evolution of Eevee, appeared. Hilbert instantly crouched next to it and started petting it, squeeing over the Pokémon's adorableness. Wes was surprised how Espeon seemed to outright enjoy being scratched behind its ear.

Her ear? His ear? Huh, I gotta check sometime. And probably try that scratching thing myself.

"Anyway, why I won't be needing any is this baby," Wes said and showed off one of his two chromed revolvers that were ancient enough to look like props from a Spaghetti Western. "These fire a type of nonlethal dum-dum bullets meant to incapacitate with blunt force rather than kill... though they sometimes do the latter, too."

"Um, aren't those types of bullets illegal?" Hilbert asked with concern.

"Not in Orre," Wes said with a wink. "And besides, we're dealing with murdering psychotics here. If you want to go and call the Red Cross, or whatever their Pokémon equivalent is, feel free, but I'm here to do my job, collect some loot, and get out."

"Collect some what?" Hilbert asked.

"Anyway, what are you using besides your admittedly badass samurai otter?" Wes asked as he glanced at Hilbert's Samurott – Wes always had time to appreciate a Pokémon with an impalement device sticking out of its forehead. "You gonna consult them with pacifying dialogue?"

Hilbert rolled his eyes and demonstrated his Pokétch. "This is not just a fancy wristwatch," he said proudly. "Our tech division upgraded them for us – they fire an incapacitating electric stun attack and tranquilizer darts. And they glow in he dark."

Wes raised his eyebrows.

"But you can turn that feature off if you need to," Hilbert added quickly. "And some of our team, like Rosa, Hilda and Buck, for example, have stunning energy weapons. I've heard a lot of things about the stuff you've been involved in, Wes, and I gotta say, things have evolved here in the civilized world."

"Hey, Orre may be a lawless, Road Warrior- esque wasteland," Wes snapped, "but we're plenty civilized. There was even a library before a band of, well, road warriors, blew it up. You try building a civilization on a frickin' radioactive desert!"

"I'm kidding," Hilbert said as Wes about to approach him with his fists at the ready. "Sheesh, Wes, for such a wisecrack, you don't seem to like being in the receiving end that much."

"You're from Unova, you had mommy and daddy feeding you, clothing you and paying everything for you, right?" Wes asked, and decided not to let Hilbert cut in. "Well, me," Wes continued, calmly but with suppressed vitriol, "I had to get stuff done by my own. My mom had to raise me and my sister alone, I had to provide for us when mom's research wasn't going well enough."

"Wes," Hilbert said calmly, "I know my experiences can't really compare, but I never knew my dad either. Hmm, neither did Hilda now that I remember it. That's how we met, actually – our moms were both single parents trying to get along, so they helped each other out."

Wes pretended to be only half-listening as he inspected his weapons, but he was actually listening intently, especially when Hilbert mentioned Hilda.

"You guys been together long?" Wes asked casually.

"Nah," Hilbert said. "Our one-year anniversary's coming up soon. But we've been friends since childhood. I was perfectly happy with that, to be honest. Hilda was seeing this dou... this guy called Cheren, and I was, well, I was happy hanging out with my friends. Hilda and Bianca – she's a member of the Beta team. But anyway, Cheren must have done something really dickish, Hilda's never really clear on that, but one night she came to be when they had broken up-"

"Let me guess," Wes said contemptuously. "You played the 'nice, non-threatening friend who's there to supply a shoulder to cry on and maybe more'. You are a sneaky bastard, aren't you?"

Hilbert got flustered. "No!" he snapped. "And we didn't get together that night – what, should I have just not comforted her? But a few weeks after that, Hilda asked me if I wanted to go out and then things led to other things and... well, you know, these things just happen. I was happy being a friend, just so we get that out of the way!"

"If you say so," Wes said calmly, "but I've seen plenty of Those Guys in my life and – wait, what are we doing here?" Wes wondered and spread his arms, carelessly waiving his revolver around, making Hilbert flinch. "Playing therapist to each other? It sounds like one of us is going to die today!"

"Nobody's dying," Hilbert said – Wes noticed this confidence wasn't exactly authentic. "Hilda kicks ass, you'll see, everyone in this team have had months of intensive training and if you're half as good as you seem to think you are, we should get this over with and be back home for breakfast-"

"Done!" Rosa yelled from the door.

"-I hope," Hilbert added quietly and gulped, losing some of the color on his face.

Wes, Hilbert and Amarillo gathered around Rosa, who was still typing frantically as she spoke.

"I managed to get one of their generators down," she explained, "but they have another one for lights, computers, medical equipment and the like, plus a backup generator for each one. But the one I shut down should have prevented all electric lock and Jasmine is working on the backup generator and should insert a bug in its systems to keep it offline."

"For how long?" Wes asked, his tone more serious now.

"An hour at max, maybe less if the Rockets force some maintenance workers to repair it. I'm not sure if that's enough time for us to get what we came for and evacuate, especially if Beta's helicopter has been destroyed, but at least we have time."

"What's the plan?" Hilbert asked nervously as he wiped some sweat off his brow.

"Ms. White's team is in already, I noticed through the surveillance cameras," Rosa said quickly, "so we should sneak inside, flank the Rockets that the other team should be keeping down by now and put them all down neatly, and by that I mean stunning them!" Rosa added and glared at Wes.

"I swear, it's like you guys don't want me in your team," Wes said with a sly smile. "Racists."

"Well, if you have a better-"

"Yeah, I do actually," Wes said. "Seriously, that was a good idea, Rosa, I'm impressed, but did you come up with that or was it part of some official instruction booklet? If the other team is in already, we need to make the enemy crap their pants and make them think they're surrounded. And this is a fortified steel door – no way we can open this stealthily, and there's no way any one of us, well, except maybe the medic, can fit through the vent shafts. We have to blast in!"

"I actually agree," 'Amarillo' said softly.

"I think he has more practical experience with this than any of us," 'Amarillo' continued when Rosa eyed her curiously, "and if the other team has engaged the enemy, we don't have a lot of time to sneak around. What do you think, Hilbert?" she asked politely.

"I-I don't know," Hilbert stuttered, even more paler now. "Can we just get in? I guess... damn, I vote for Wes' plan!"

"Thanks," Wes said and patted Hilbert on the shoulder, "and don't worry, dude, your first skirmish is always the worst. Just stick to whatever it is you learned in training, keep your head down, keep your Pokémon in point and don't lose your cool. I'll be helping y'all if you need any."

"Do you have to be so damn condescending?" Rosa hissed. "We know what we're-"

"No, I don't have to, but I don't care," Wes said, "and I have to remind you that we're just sitting here pissing around instead of helping our teammates. Now, use your Scolipede to knock that door down, and let it go first, it's the most balanced combination of speed and bulk. Me and Espeon will go after it, then you, then the medic's Furret, the medic her... zirself and finally Samurott and Hilbert. Go!"

Rosa bit her lips in frustration, but nonetheless tapped her Scolipede. The bug Pokémon started spinning around with incredible speed and rammed the door, knocking it off its hinges. Wes nodded at his Espeon, and the duo stormed in, Wes with his revolver at the ready.

They entered the ground floor of the L-shaped building, noticing a lobby that looked like it was the center of an explosion, with chairs, desks, crates, cabinets and plants lying on the floor or in pieces, with huge chunks of the floor and walls missing, exposing pipes and power cables.

As Wes had suspected, the other team was in with full force, a Claydol floating around, being commanded by Buck, using its psychic powers to throw stuff around at some Team Rocket Grunts and their Pokémon, mainly Raticate, Koffing and Weezing. Wes took cover behind an info desk while his Espeon jumped into action. Rosa yelled orders at her Scolipede, who rammed another group of bewildered Rockets.

Wes noticed Jasmine was lying on the floor just a few feet from the info desk, a Magneton apparently belonging to her similarly unconscious a bit further from her. Wes saw a Raticate approaching her, so he whistled at his Espeon and pointed at the Raticate. Espeon fired a Psybeam, sending the Raticate flying away.

These chumps are nothing.

Rosa had already charged forward to be there with her Scolipede, brandishing an energy weapon of some sort. Hilbert and Amarillo, however, had arrived into cover with Wes. Amarillo was giving orders to her Furret, which dashed across the room with incredible speed, fighting off multiple opponents at a time. The most impressive thing was that Amarillo had to merely give some vague hand signals that the Furret instantly understood, earning a quiet 'wow' from Wes.

Hilbert, however, was just hiding behind cover, his Samurott standing still, exposed and confused about what to do. Hilbert was as pale as a ghost, staring into nothingness while repeating something to himself:

"I have to help her... I have to help her... I have to help her... why can't I help her?"

Wes raised his head a bit to see what was going on – it didn't seem Hilda was in need of any help. What Wes assumed to be her Emboar was locked in a one-on-one duel with a Rocket's Muk while Hilda herself was barely doing anything with her energy weapon or Pokétch, but instead tripped a hapless Rocket Grunt with a foot sweep and then punched him in the face before lunging at her next opponent.

"She's doing just fine, y'know," Wes muttered at Hilbert as he ducked back into cover, then raised his head again, noticing Buck was fighting two Rocket Grunts simultaneously. "Espeon, give some cover over there, use Quick Attack!" he ordered and ducked again.

"No..." Hilbert whispered. "I have to be... I was so afraid of this... I can't be the only one not fighting..."

"Well, Jas over there could be doing better," Wes pointed out. "Hey, medic!" he yelled at Amarillo. "Soldiers down!"

Wes jerked his thumb in Jasmine's and Magneton's direction. Amarillo spotted her, nodded quietly at Wes and started crawling towards the unconscious gym leader. But as she did so, Hilbert readied her Pokétch, gave what Wes assumed to be a battle roar (not very smart to attract attention to yourself) and ran madly to the next cover, firing tranquilizer darts wildly, not hitting anything, as his Samurott followed.

Wes looked around the battlefield, noticing a Rocket Grunt taking an energy weapon from a dead security guard, making his way around Hilbert's cover to attack his blind spot.

"Hilbert, get down!" Wes yelled, confusing both Hilbert and the grunt, but Hilbert fortunately complied.

Wes fired his revolver at the Rocket, getting him out of commission immediately. Swearing to himself, Wes jumped out of cover, signaled Espeon to cover him as he dashed towards the dead security guard. Deciding that respect would come later, Wes carelessly lifted the guard's body up and used it as cover as he gave more orders to Espeon.

The strike team managed to overwhelm the Rockets eventually, and the battle ceased after a few minutes, though Hilbert took his time to get out of cover. The living Rockets had their wounds patched up and they were tied together on a neat bundle, bound and gagged, and placed behind the security desk, while the dead were placed in a row on one side of the room, covered with whatever they could find. The Rocket Grunt Wes had fired at had taken the round to the neck and had died quickly, but Wes found it hard to feel guilty. A few other dead Rockets were found along with dead security guards and scientists, but the team assumed they had died in a previous battle.

Apparently the security guards were very adept fighters, as there were only two of them but five dead Rockets overall, though.

Finally, the strike team and their Pokémon huddled around the information desk. Jasmine had been waken up, and she quietly assured everyone that she was doing just fine and had merely fainted in battle, though her Magneton was in much worse shape, but Jasmine said she had other Pokémon. Despite protests from Amarillo, Jasmine got back to work and started working her magic on the information desk's computer.

"Well, that was an odd approach," Hilda observed, looking at her team accusingly, especially giving Wes the evil eye. "I thought you were supposed to sneak in. Rosa?"

"We... changed the plan, ma'am," Rosa said.

"Oh, stop being all noble and crap!" Wes scoffed. "Hilda, it was my plan, and I changed it. And it was a good thing, too, you guys were too busy fighting to notice that Jas here was about to be eaten. You alright there, by the way?"

Not taking her eyes off the screen, Jasmine sighed with a mix of embarrassment and frustration. "I'm fine," she said faintly. "Honestly. I'm just sorry I wasn't more help..."

"Hey, come on!" Wes said with a smile. "I'm just sorry you missed a good battle – we trounced on those bastards, and didn't lose anyone! And you got half of the team in and did that thing with the backup generator. You're the reason this mission is still going!"

Jasmine didn't respond in any way, but made a strange, flustered sound as she typed.

"Wes' approach worked," Hilbert said. "Hilda, he saved my life! Without him, we'd be short two people already!"

"And he does fight well," Rosa admitted grudgingly. "Miss White, I think he should take my place as the number two in this team."

Wes chuckled. "No, I don't wanna be a number two of anything. Ahem, sorry, juvenile moment here, but seriously, I'm just a consultant here. You guys do your thing and I'll help. That was some brutal fighting there, by the way, Hilda. Your BF was right about you kicking ass, that's for sure!"

"What? Oh..." Hilda seemed unsure of what to reply, so she just flicked her hair coolly.

"Well, yeah, you know, that was just a combination of Tang Soo Do and good ol' fisticuffs."

"Isn't that an orange drink of some kind?" Wes wondered. "Anyway, you really did a number on those Rockets, though I wouldn't keep my eyes off the Pokémon as long as you did. You should also give it a little more direction, but hey, that's just my opinion."

Hilda suddenly looked a lot less pleased with Wes, but was interrupted by a female voice calling out for them from the stairway leading to the second floor:

"Hey, guys! Over here! Hilda? Hilbert? Anybody?"

Hilda ordered Jasmine, Amarillo and Buck to stay with the info desk, while the others rushed to the stairway. To their surprise, there were two people huddled in the middle of the staircase, a female medic with blonde hair and a cheerful smile on her face as she saw the team approaching, and a male in combat gear who had the top of his head wrapped in a bandage, another bandage around his arm.

"Bianca, Cal!" Hilbert shouted excitedly, but Hilda punched him in the arm.

"Secret mission, professionals, you know," Hilda hissed at him, nodding at Wes.

"Oh, come on!" Hilbert groaned. "He's one of us now, he deserves to know the whole truth!"

Wes raised an eyebrow at Hilbert emphasizing the last three words, but Hilda ignored him for now.

"What happened?" she asked Bianca, the medic.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sooo happy to see you guys again," Bianca replied quickly in a breathless, cheerful tone, as if there hasn't just been a massacre. "Sorry we couldn't help, Cal here was bleeding pretty badly-"

"I was not!" the wounded one, Cal, protested.

"-yeah, you were and shush," Bianca hissed at her patient before turning towards Hilda again. "Anyway, we got in pretty smoothly and took out some of the Rockets upstairs, but there were more than we thought and then there were these strange things..." Bianca shuddered. "Like, you know, Pokémon, only nothing like I've ever seen, and I've seen some pretty weird stuff in my time – like a Trubbish. Like, who came up with those?"

The others responded with silence while Wes a lot less convinced about the strike team's professionalism.

"So, okay, we got separated from Nate and the others," Bianca prattled, causing Rosa to squeeze past Wes and listen more intently. "They went downstairs to pick up the Gris-"

"Bianca!" Hilda hissed. "We have an outsider here."

"Oh, so you do!" Bianca said cheerfully and waved at Wes. "Hi, I'm Bianca, the Beta team's medic! This is Cal, Beta's explosives guy! I wish we could tell you about the rest of the team, but we haven't heard from them."

"Yeah, name's Wes, hi," Wes said quickly and turned to look at Hilda. "You know, I know secrets have their place sometimes and I normally don't ask questions, but this is getting pretty serious, even for me. When I don't know everything I need to, I get a little anxious, and my aim suffers... I'd hate for any one of y'all to be in the way when that happens."

"He's joking," Hilbert told Hilda, "but he's trustworthy. Hilda, we're way in over our heads here, and I think he's the only one who can get the team out alive! Please?"

Hilda ground her teeth together in frustration, but all eyes were on her to make the decision, and it seems that she was the only one opposing it. But then he saw Hilbert looking at her like an injured Lillipup, and finally gave in with a defeated groan.

"Okay, but if command starts bitching about this, I'll say he had a gun to my head," she said.

"Feel free," Wes said casually, "they don't control me, and besides, if you keep too much secrets from me, that might end up being truer than you'd think."

Hilda wasn't impressed and just rolled her eyes at Wes.

"You tell him, then," she told Hilbert. "I'm going to check up on the others. Cal, you okay there?"

"For Arceus' sake, yes!" Cal groaned. "It doesn't even hurt that much anymore!"

Hilda left the staircase, while Rosa took a deep breath and sat down, not really paying attention to the others. Bianca went back to fixing Cal, who didn't look too happy being mothered like that.

"Okay, thing is," Hilbert explained to Wes, "and I'm sure you understand this is as a... whatever the hell you are. Like a rogue or something. Our main objective isn't actually rescuing the hostages and defeating Team Rocket – they're a part of it, but they're secondary to finding out this thing called the Griseous Orb."

Hilbert showed what it looked like by projecting a floating 3D image of it with his Pokétch. It was shaped like an octagon, with smooth features that made it look unlike anything Wes had ever seen, emitting a golden glow.

"What is it?" Wes asked as Hilbert, who turned the image off.

"I honestly don't know," Hilbert replied with a shrug. "None of us knows. All we know that it's really, really important and it's probably the reason Team Rocket decided to break in here."

"I have this theory," Cal grunted suddenly, still in obvious pain despite his protests, "that it's a weapon of some sort. Why else would they need all this camouflage?"

"We know your theories," Rosa snapped over her shoulder. "He wasn't even supposed to be on this mission," Rosa told Wes. "He and Amarillo were brought as last-minute replacements."

"Did they now," Wes muttered as he glanced Cal stealthily, but decided to drop the issue for now.

"Also, one of the hostage has priority," Hilbert continued. "Dr. Kaminko, he's the administrator. He's the key to this place, and I mean literally – he's the only one with an all-access card which can get us past any obstacles Team Rocket throws our way if they get the generators back online. Anyway, that's all we know. Get Kaminko, get the Griseous Orb, get those two safely out and then rescue everyone else. Do you have any questions?"

"A few, but I'll just get this one out of the way," Wes said with another glance in Cal's directions. "I know it's an action movie cliché and all but why do you need an explosives guy - two of them, in fact - for this mission?"

"Standard procedure," Cal said grimly. "Blow up the place once we're done to hide any evidence."

Cal tapped at a large bag he was leaning against.

"We won't be needing more than this, Mother Nature will take care of the rest," Cal said. "Too bad the detonators are with Nate's boys."

"We'll find them!" Rosa said as she stood up with sudden confidence. "We have to! I don't know where your priorities are, but I wanna find him before anything else."

And then Rosa stomped away to join Hilda. Wes shook her head.

Squabbling is never good – not that it bothers me any. But this Griseous Orb sounds pretty boss. And if it really is a weapon, do I, as a concerned citizen and taxpayer... well, as a concerned citizen, do I want it in the hands of people like this?

Clearly, the safest alternative is to sell that baby.

"What if we can't find the detonators?" Wes asked, and making sure Rosa wasn't listening, added: "You know, like if all the others are dead and they've been lost to enemy hands."

"We have a deadline here," Hilbert said, starting to sweat again as his voice faltered. "If... well, it's 10:20 PM now. We have until 5 AM to get this thing done or..."

Hilbert let out of a nervous, quaky sigh as he wiped some sweat off his face again.

"Damn it!" he moaned. "When we were planning this, Marshal said we didn't have to worry about the deadline, that it was just protocol, bureaucracy, whatever. He said we'd get this thing done hours before that! But I don't know..."

"Take it easy," We said calmly. "We have to get this done by 5 AM or...?"

Hilbert looked queasy and his voice cracked as he sputtered: "They'll bomb us to ashes."

Cal let out a cruel, slightly anguished laugh.

Meanwhile, back in the lobby, Hilda was pacing back and forth by herself, holding her Xtransceiver like her life depended on it. Only she and Hilbert had those, and they were for emergency communications with Marshal only. Hilda was eager to take charge, but now, Marshal's instructions would have been sorely needed. She wondered if Nate felt the same coming in.

Rosa approached her, causing Hilda to put the thought past her.

"Ma'am, can I speak to you?" she asked carefully.

Hilda sighed. "Hilda will do fine, okay?" she said bluntly. "As much as I hate to admit it, that guy Wes has a point – we don't have time for following protocol to the letter if we want to get this thing done."

"Oh... of course," Rosa said, still formally and somewhat intimidated of Hilda. "This isn't about Wes, though."

"We'll find Nate, you have my word on that," Hilda said flatly.

"Y-yes, um, Hilda, but it's not just that. I know you have your doubts about Wes, but I'm honestly more worried about those two newbies, especially Cal. They don't seem to be, well, team players, to be honest."

"We're not in a schoolyard, Rosa," Hilda snapped, "and I'm not the one you come to tattle about people. Learn to get along or don't, just do your job!"

Hilda tensed up when her Xtransceiver started ringing. She motioned Rosa to leave, and Rosa did so quickly. Hilda walked into the corner of the room, next to the row of bodies, and after making sure no one was around, she picked up. There was no video, just sound, and initially she heard just silence from the other line, forcing her to speak up:

"Hilda White here," she said nervously. "I got your message, but is this really-"

"Yes," said a rough, no-nonsense voice at the other line. Hilda recognized the voice easily, realizing it was Champion Lance. "I wished to bypass Marshal and contact you in person. Are you alone?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Can you give me a status update? And how is the freelancer working out?"

"We cleared the entrance and are ready to look for the administrator, sir," Hilda said proudly. "And, well, I know you said he was important-"

"Speak freely, White."

"Okay... um, sir. He's honestly very good at what he does, and I hate to admit it, but I think he contributed largely to us getting in. But I don't feel comfortable around him and he doesn't seem to take this mission too seriously, plus he's... well, not to go all schoolyard, but he threatened me!"

"You're right to be concerned, he's not the most reliable of people, but he's the best we could get on such short notice. If he really does get out of hand and becomes a threat to the well-being of you or your teammates, feel free to do what you please with him. But until then, keep him in the team, help him out and let him help you out. Tell him only what's necessary."

"Yes, sir!"

"Good. To be honest, I don't feel comfortable putting you in that much danger, especially with such low numbers. But this comes from mission command."

"...I thought you were the mission command, sir."

"No, I'm a middleman here, just like Marshal. I'm only here because command's identity is top-secret, but I can say you this much: the committee."

"Oh, alright then. Um, sir."

"Good. Now what I'm about to tell you is confidential, for your ears only. There's a reason why we put you in charge of the team, Hilda. The only other person who knows of this is Nate, I told the same to him."

"Sir?"

"And remember: this comes from mission command. Should the public ever know of this, there would be widespread panic. You're not from Kanto or Johto, so you can't know what it's like to be under Team Rocket's thumb. Furthermore, what goes on in that lab is vital for our safety, but the public doesn't understand that – they don't know what we're protecting them from. And not every scientist in there is reliable. Once you've rescued Kaminko..."

"Yes, sir?" Hilda said, breathing heavily.

"Let's just say that once you've gotten Kaminko out and go for the other scientists, don't let yourself be distracted if Team Rocket is attacking them. Your priority is the Griseous Orb. If a scientist or a member of the staff gets in your way or finds out what goes on in there, you're authorized to use lethal force. Same with any further Rockets you see."

Hilda's mouth felt dry. "Are you saying-"

"Leave no witnesses."

~o~O~o~

Shrew and Quill continued to be stuck in the elevator, Quill avoiding Shrew's gaze as she tried to read the map of the complex that hung next to the elevator's buttons.

"The floor we were in, B9, is the second-deepest in the place," Quill said. "And many of these floors don't have any description, it just says 'secret' on them. This elevator only goes up to B2... but according to this map, there's a tramway that connects that floor to the other side of the complex. And from there, we should be able to catch an elevator to the surface!"

"Good," Shrew grunted, trying not to move as his entire body still ached. "Of course, we need to get this elevator started first. Now are you ready to tell me what happened there? And I just remembered: the same thing happened with the Dodrio, too!"

Quill sighed sadly.

"I thought the food suppressed your special abilities," Shrew said. "How were you able to do that?"

"I..." Quill seemed to be on the verge of tears. "I may know more about this place than I let on, Shrew. If this is map is accurate, I've actually been in almost every floor..."

"How?" Shrew wondered.

"The human who runs this place is called Dr. Kaminko," Quill said. "They shipped me in here from a breeding center in Johto when I had just hatched. What I told about my mother is true, Kaminko told me that! He was my owner for so long, he treated me so much better than the other scientists treated the other Pokémon. Every other Pokémon in the batch that got sent with me was sent to the labs, but I got to be with him. It's just... I also saw what the other Pokémon went through first-hand. I could have done something, but I..."

"You couldn't have," Shrew said firmly as Quill was about to break down. "So the human needed a pet. He has a heart, it seems. A withered, evil heart, perhaps, but-"

"No!" Quill insisted. "I was a good Pokémon, and he treated me well in turn. Well, until recently. I-I don't what I did wrong, or why he changed like that, but he became colder, started spending more time in the labs and kept me locked in his room. And then, one day, he just said to me that I was going to be in some 'tests'..."

"What tests?" Shrew asked quickly. "Quill, I have to know!"

Quill covered her eyes with her paws. "That's just it! I don't remember! I want to help you, to help everyone else here, but I can't, because I'm weak, and-"

Shrew dragged himself up, limped over to the Cyndaquil and hugged her.

"You saved me back there, Quill," Shrew said. "Twice, in fact! You are stronger than any other Pokémon I've ever seen. And you can't blame yourself for what these humans have done."

"B-but I want to help..."

"We will help them," Shrew assured as he let go of Quill. "As soon as this elevator gets up and running again, we'll stop at another place where they keep Pokémon and get them out of their cages – well, maybe not the normal-types."

"But what if we can fix what they did to them?" Quill suggested. "Find an antidote of some kind, like what they talked about in the logs?"

"Maybe," Shrew said uncertainly – right now, he had to placate Quill. "We'll look for one, but we can't be sure we can find it or if it even exists. But every Pokémon that doesn't try to kill us can still be helped. You know this place, so where do they keep them?"

"B3," Quill responded and turned to look at the map again. "That's the biggest place, stocked full of small cages. And there's another one at the other end of the complex in B2, at the end of the tramway."

"Good, we don't have to even make that big of a detour," Shrew said confidently. "See, I have a plan. It's not great, and I'm not even that sure about it myself, but it works, well... most of us will see daylight again!"

"But before that, you should rest," Quill told Shrew.

Shrew groaned, reminded of the pain again, and collapsed on the elevator's floor again, but still smiled at the Cyndaquil.

"It's just my organs," Shrew grunted. "And I rested enough back when I was unconscious."

Quill actually smiled back, which was all too rare. "You don't have to pretend," she said warmly. "Take another nap. I'll see if I can get this thing to work... meaning I'll press random buttons and hope one of them does something."

Shrew smiled gratefully and positioned himself better, keeping a tight grip on the jewel he had stolen – as long as the two had it, they were a target, but the Rockets couldn't use too much force as they couldn't risk breaking or losing the thing – not that it felt very breakable.

Shrew closed his eyes and tried to rest.

But he was prevented from doing so by a harsh voice whispering to him:

"She's lying, Shrew! She's with the administrator of this place! What if he planted her there to manipulate you or some other poor sap who got out? You can't trust her!"

Shrew opened his eyes and looked around him, but Quill was looking at the map and apparently hadn't noticed the whispers. Shrew wondered if he was just in dire need of rest, and closed his eyes again.

"She'll try to steal the jewel for herself, Shrew! You heard it from the scientist: the thing is dangerous, most likely a weapon the humans will try to use against you. Remember what they did to you!"

Shrew opened his eyes again and stared at the jewel. He could have sworn the whispers were coming from it.

It couldn't be... and that was crap, anyway. I saved Quill from that fire and she saved me with fire. We're even now and we trust each other. End of story.

"Or maybe she's not working for the humans. Maybe she's not even a Pokémon at all. She could be one of those creatures who you saw or working for them. You know there's only one thing you can do."

Shrew blocked his ears, but that did nothing to stop the whispering.

"Get rid of her!"

A/N: Whew, that was some pause in updating, wasn't it? But as of now, I'll be updating this and my main story, "When Worlds Collide", what this is a prequel to, in tandem, though they may occasionally give spoilers to each other.

I also updated the first two chapters and have decided to go with all-English names for consistency, so 'Touko' will be Hilda and 'Touya' will be Hilbert. Thank goodness for LibreOffice's "find and replace" feature.

Anyway, I hope people are still interested in this mystery. Any improvement ideas and criticism, harsh as it may be, is welcome. And all other reviews too, if you want. Either way, thanks for reading! Chapter Four coming soon.