Dr. Dillinger hurried through the network of access passageways that crisscrossed her subterranean maze, holding the sleeve of her ruined lab coat to her nose to stanch the bleeding. She prided herself on predicting human behavior, but that punch had been out of left field. It was thrilling to be surprised by someone, she supposed. Though it did smart something awful.

She hoped the blizzard hadn't been too much. She needed Blanche incapacitated, not frozen to death. It had been a rash move on her part, but the plan remained intact. She had Spark and Blanche where she wanted them, and the only remaining variable would be a comparative breeze.

Dr. Dillinger hesitated in front of the tunnel leading to her office, and the fiery team leader she'd left there. Perhaps not a breeze, per se. Candela's baseline emotional state was merely closest to the rage Dr. Dillinger required of the leaders for her experiment. Pushing her to her limits wouldn't take much, but surviving the aftermath could be tricky. She couldn't let Candela get the best of her like she had with the others, even though that had been to the key to unleashing Blanche and Spark's fury. She wasn't sure Candela had the same degree of self-control.

She really would make a great Rocket if she put in a little effort.

Dr. Dillinger entered her office cautiously so as not to alert Candela to her presence. Sure enough, the binders she'd left for Candela were strewn across the room and torn papers littered the ground. Dr. Dillinger's hypno was pressed against the wall by the tunnel entrance, visibly shaken but unharmed. She could feel his anxiety through her implant and was repulsed by it. She disregarded him for the time being and focused instead on the raging wildfire that was Candela, tearing through another binder at her desk, ripping through its contents with unbridled hatred.

"So, what do you think?" Dr. Dillinger asked in the sweetest, most innocent voice she could manage. This wouldn't take more than five minutes.

Candela slammed the binder shut and glared at her. "What do I think? I think I've never heard of such unspeakable horrors inflicted on pokémon! I think what you're doing here is morally bankrupt! Reprehensible! I think imprisonment would be too good for you and your repugnant so-called laboratory!"

"Hm, and I thought Blanche was the one with a fondness for vocabulary," Dr. Dillinger mused, checking her nose for more blood and finding it had finally stopped.

Candela raged on, rounding the desk with a fistful of graphs in her hand. "From what I've seen in just these few binders, you're responsible for the deaths of at least 200 pokémon…"

Dr. Dillinger couldn't contain her laughter. "200? Sweetheart, you've barely scratched the surface. You see Hypno over there? He's number 73 in his series. His stats are mediocre, his moves need improvement, but he was the only one to survive the implant. Beggars can't be choosers."

Dr. Dillinger could already see the air bending around Candela's body as her temperature rose. Five minutes had been a generous estimation. She had to keep pushing.

"Candela, you can't seriously expect to make groundbreaking discoveries without cracking a few eggs," Dr. Dillinger continued, mentally cuing her hypno to get in position. "What a naïve thought, but one we can rid you of. And anyway, perhaps there would be fewer, ah, failed experiments if you were on my team."

"You won't have a team when I'm done with you," Candela seethed, and fire licked up her arms. They were tiny flames, but Dr. Dillinger hadn't expected much more than that. After all, Spark had flashed only a few tendrils of electricity and only Blanche's hands had shown signs of frost in the moments before they connected with their birds.

"I wouldn't make such threats toward your new coworkers. Do you expect to singlehandedly dismantle an entire organization?"

Candela tossed the graphs aside, just as clueless to her fire and her friends had been to their lightning and ice. "I won't be alone. Blanche and Spark will-"

Dr. Dillinger tapped her palm against her forehead. "Whoops! Did I not mention? I decided they were a too much of a liability, so I've had them taken care of. Bit of a spur of the moment decision, but what with the sensitive research here, I couldn't really send them back out into the world."

Candela choked on her breath. "What?"

Dr. Dillinger rolled her eyes. Time to get this over with. "They're dead, Candela. I killed them."

Candela shrieked and sprang for Dr. Dillinger with the force of a volcanic eruption. The sound of her cry was larger than she could have produced on her own, and the office quaked with the tremendous noise. It was an inhuman sound that twisted Dr. Dillinger's gut and made her ears ring, but she braced herself, counting on her subpar hypno to act. Per her mental command, the hypno jumped in front of her and swung his pendulum. Candela stumbled, but the shaking only intensified, and the scream filled the room like a physical thing. Dr. Dillinger could feel the heat rolling off of Candela, and she stepped back. That worthless hypno was struggling to control his target, but how could she be surprised? She'd need to replace him, keep improving the mortality rate of the implants.

At last, Candela fell to her knees, fighting to keep her eyes open. The rumbling faded, as did the terrifying scream, and she slumped to the side, asleep. Dr. Dillinger pushed the hypno aside and stood over her, using her foot to turn her on her back. She even looked angry while she was unconscious.

"Did that feel cheap to you? I mean, Spark got me with his little scarf trick, and Blanche pulled that punch out of nowhere, and Candela just… fell asleep? Kind of an anti-climax, actually," she said, addressing the hypno only because he happened to be standing there. "Was it lazy of me?"

The hypno shrugged nervously.

Dr. Dillinger crossed her arms. "Hm. Well, whatever works. Certainly better than a busted nose, but it just doesn't make for good storytelling."

Her communicator chirped, and Dr. Dillinger read the message from her grunts in the Legendary Chamber.

"All birds are connected. Articuno and Moltres are non-responsive and appear to be unconscious, but vitals read normally. Zapdos is calm, but avoiding the use of its right leg. No visible injury. All appear stable."

"You know, Hypno," said Dr. Dillinger, sliding the communicator back in her pocket. "This is going almost too well, broken nose aside. Their connection is much stronger than I'd anticipated. Do you suppose I'll finally get a promotion and move out of this dump?"

The hypno shrugged again.

"No, you're probably right. Giovanni doesn't really hand those out. I'll just have to promote myself," Dr. Dillinger said. "And with the three legendary birds at my command, who's to stop me?"

The hypno cowered against the wall. Such a weakling, that one. Still, he'd done his job, and that was worth something.

"Come on," said Dr. Dillinger. "Help me move her. I want to be well prepared for Spark and Blanche to join us."

She scooped Candela up under her arms and the hypno lifted her feet. She was still hot to the touch, and Dr. Dillinger was surprised that her clothes hadn't been burned. Just another mystery surrounding the leaders and the legendaries, and Dr. Dillinger knew she would have plenty of time to study her new playthings after today.

The game was only beginning.

§

AN: I was surprised by some extra writing time today! I'm trying to push out as much story as possible this weekend, because I have a busy week ahead, and don't know how regular I'll be with posting. Then again, I keep saying that and then manically turning out new chapters. Anyhoo, sorry this is a short one (and that Candela got a little short-changed thanks to Dillinger's impatience), but stay tuned for a return to the crystal cavern…