Recommended Music: This time it's not even music but the word "fossil" is repeated so many times in this chapter that I kept thinking about that scene from Phineas and Ferb. Just look up "Phineas and Ferb fossils" on Youtube if you have no idea what I'm talking about.


Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 38: Fossil Feud.

"Ummm... I'm not sure if we should also introduce ourselves." Alex said while looking at Daniel who just told the group his name.

"Go ahead. I think most of my co-workers would say something along the lines of it being useless information that would occupy a place in their minds that could be used to remember something more valuable but to me the fact that you're showing interest in fossils already makes it worthwhile."

"Alright then. I'm Finicci." Alex responded, making his companions confused enough to look at each other as if they wanted to learn from reading the other one's face if they knew that they were going to be using fake names.

"And what about you?" the scientist asked the rest of the group.

"I'm..." Green wanted to introduce himself but he didn't have enough time to think about something and Finicci was weird enough of a name that he wondered if he should use something equally ridiculous.

"I'm Gretel." Mary spoke up in order to avoid raising suspicion although she immediately regretted her choice.

"And I'm Hansel." Green added while trying not to die of embarrassment after both of them showed how lacking they were in their ability to improvise.

"I feel like I knew a Hansel and a Gretel once but I don't really remember them." Daniel said to himself after hearing their names but he didn't care about it enough to think about it for too long "Anyway, where should we start? Fossils. Yes. Fossils, fossils, fossils. There are so many exciting things about fossils. Well, maybe not "exciting" but there are things one wouldn't normally know about them and once you learn them you'll go like "Huh, that's neat". At least I feel like that's most people's reaction."

"I have a thing I wanted to learn about." Green spoke up while lightly raising his hand, unsure if he was being uncouth by interrupting the man.

"Oh. Alright. Go ahead."

"How does reviving the fossils work?"

"Rev... Huh. I didn't expect someone to ask about that. Most people either care about fossils or what comes out of them since they think they're interested in historical value or just think there's a way to profit off of them. No one actually asks about the process which to me is the most interesting part of working here. I'm only one person in a team of hard working people but I still put a lot of effort into helping fine-tune our equipment. We also have people who are specifically concerned with analyzing the fossils before the revival and other people who check if everything is alright with the Pokemon after they come back to life. Based on their feedback me and a couple other scientist make adjustments so that each batch of revived Pokemon can be even better than the last one."

Alex raised a brow since the thought of the revival process still being imperfect left him wondering if there would be a point to try and get their hands on these Pokemon. There was hope in him that the adjustments Daniel was talking about were smaller than he made them sound and that one wouldn't be able to tell the difference between specific batches without having the scientific knowledge. As long as the Pokemon were able to battle and differed enough from the ones near Lavender then everything would be okay.

The Admin wanted to inquire about being able to experience the revival first hand but the scientist was already ahead of him "It will probably be easier for you to understand my explanation if you're able to see everything with your own eyes. Hmm... I know. Wait a minute."

He went somewhere but returned fairly quickly and handed each of them a pass that allowed them to visit areas that normal visitors didn't have access to.

"I'm lending you these but there's a couple rules. Firstly, make sure to always stay with me. Secondly, don't look too shocked about anything or my co-workers will become suspicious. And lastly, don't bump into anyone. Sometimes I myself get a little afraid when one of the other guys gives me an angry look. Haha... ha..."

The group followed Daniel while making sure to follow the rules he laid out and after a short walk they reached a big room with lots of machinery and a couple people working here and there. It wasn't hard to deduce that the cylindrical object in the center of the room was the device that the scientists used to revive Pokemon.

"Impressive, isn't it?" their guide said while looking at the machine with dreamy eyes and forgetting for a while why he brought the trio there "Oh. Excuse me. I tend to get lost in the moment when I think about how great of a thing we accomplished here. i don't want to sound like I'm just praising myself so let's get to it. I'm sure that once you understand what we have here you're going to be at least a little bit impressed."

"We'll see." Alex said although too quiet for anyone to hear him.

"First thing I should probably mention is the types of fossils we have at our laboratory. There's even a couple over here." Daniel said before turning around in order to pick up two fossils to show to the group before explaining what they were "This one is a Helix Fossil. The one in my other hand is a Dome Fossil. The first one contains the DNA of Omanyte and the second the DNA of Kabuto."

"What do you mean by them containing DNA?" Green was genuinely interested in the topic which pleased Alex who knew that there was possibility that he would act a little too curious when asking the same question and would raise Daniel's suspicion.

The scientist laughed a little before answering the question "Well, they're obviously not the Pokemon themselves. I don't know if you've ever seen either of these Pokemon but they aren't so small that I would be able to hold them in my hands like I'm doing with the fossils. We call them fossils but they're different from preserved shells of ancient animals. These are just rocks that took on properties of these Pokemon after they died near them. That's why we say that we're reviving these Pokemon. We're not just waking up something that turned to stone a long time ago. We're bringing to life something that has been dead for millennia. If you'd like to you could think of it as cloning since we're actually using a genetic template in order to make copies of these Pokemon. They aren't the ones that died in terms of their memory or personality but they're essentially twins. Well... not completely."

"You said something about trying to improve each batch of Pokemon." Green pointed out.

Mary looked at him at then back at Daniel as she began to worry that she was the only one there that couldn't follow what they were talking about it about, probably because she was more concerned with Alex.

"It took us a long time before we decided that it would be safe to try and revive the Pokemon. I don't even want to imagine what would happen if we tried it out too fast and the thing we created wouldn't resemble the Pokemon at all. However, even our first couple tries weren't completely... fine. Some of the Pokemon were blind or deaf, many of them aggressive. Each next batch was better refined than the previous one and we're very close to creating Pokemon closest to what we could call a perfect copy."

"How close are we talking about?" someone asked but Alex and Green both were weirded out by the fact that it wasn't the other one's voice so they turned around to see an unknown man approaching and passing them in order to get close to Daniel.

The person was wearing a fairly nice suit but his scruffy face made it harder to determine if they were someone important. Just to be safe, the Team Rocket group decided to keep quiet for the moment and see how Daniel would react to this man.

"Linhart." the scientist sounded surprised while saying the visitor's name "I didn't know you would be coming today. These are..."

"If they're not buyers then I don't care." the man responded while giving them a side glance.

"Buyers? This again? I said it multiple times but it seems like you keep forgetting. We're not going to sell the revived Pokemon. Not for now at least. I see that as an option in the future but they're still not ready. Besides, just because your father is the founder of this lab doesn't mean that you can make decisions like these." Daniel's tone slowly changed from disappointment to a slight annoyance.

"You... I can go talk to the head scientist and have him fire you. I can pay one of those other clowns in lab coats to cause an accident and have it so that the blame falls on you. I won't have to do any of that if you just cooperate with me."

"You underestimate this team. I don't know about the people in other parts of the lab but no one here is going to let you push us around. I got this job thanks to you but I worked really hard to prove my worth. You're not able to take it away from me."

"Why you..." Linhart lost his patience and raised one of his hands in order to slap the scientist.

Green felt Alex's grip on his shoulder, stopping him from intervening but it turned out that he wasn't doing it because he wanted to see Daniel get hit. The attack was stopped by someone else, an older man in a lab coat. The identity badge on his chest signified that he was the head scientist mentioned by Linhart. Alex noticed that he was listening to the conversation even before the man in the suit appeared. He looked like he was enjoying watching Daniel speak about fossils with great passion and was fast to react when his subordinate was about to be struck.

"Let... go..." Linhart was speaking through his teeth since the old man's hold was much stronger than one would expect, causing the young master enough pain that he felt like he could start crying.

"This part of the laboratory belongs to me. I wouldn't take orders even from your father if he was here instead of you, but then again, your father isn't someone who would come here to make ridiculous demands and to threaten members of my team. Unfortunately the apple fell far from the three. Get out of here!"

The head scientist pulled Linhart close to himself before pushing him forward while letting go of his hand which cause the man to fly past the trio from Team Rocket and land loudly in a pile of mostly empty boxes by one of the walls. It took him some time to get up and it seemed like he still wanted to say something but, when he noticed that all the eyes in the room were on him and that none looked too friendly, Linhart decided to make his exit.

"And now... who might you be?" the head scientist turned his attention towards Alex's group.

Green looked at the Admin whose hand was still on his shoulder and noticed that he didn't seem to be paying attention. Not knowing if he was supposed to represent the group, since Mary also didn't seem too keen on speaking up, he gave Daniel a meaningful look and the scientist stepped up to answer.

"It's... They're here because of me..."

"You don't mean to tell me that you invited some strangers into our laboratory?"

"Oh no. We're actually his pen pals." Green felt Alex let go of him as the man approached the scientists in order to help out Daniel in explaining who they are.

"Oh. So you do know them. You should have informed me that they would be coming. They don't seem suspicious but we do have to be cautious, you understand." the head scientist became more relaxed after hearing Alex's words "Anyway, I heard some of what you were talking about and it seems like you were explaining how our team revives Pokemon. Since they're your friends, how about showing them?"

"Really? I can?"

"We're not ready for the next batch but there's something interesting one of our people found among the newest shipment of fossils. Bring it here, Holer!"

The group looked around since they weren't sure who the scientist was talking to but no one seemed to be reacting in any way. They attention was drawn towards the floor in front of the revival machine since they heard a popping sound. It turned out that Holer was a Diglett carrying a fossil. It didn't burrow through the floor and instead appeared from a pipe sticking out of the floor. After examining it closer, they noticed that there were actually many other pipes around the room. They probably worked as a travelling system for the Diglett to move around the lab without actually digging through anything. Green wondered if the Pokemon was the only one of its kind in the lab and if he lived there or returned home with one of the scientists at the end of the day. So far, it seemed like it could be their biggest obstacle in trying to steal the fossils.

"Here." the head scientist took the fossil from the Pokemon and handed it over to Daniel who didn't seem to immediately understand what was so special about it but his attitude quickly changed.

"Could it be?! It's our first one!" he yelled with excitement.

"What? What is it?" even Mary became a little curious.

"See this part? And this?" Daniel pointed to some places on the fossil but the group couldn't see anything unusual "These mean that this could be a Shiny Omanyte. Oh man! I'm so excited! Let's revive it right away!"

"No!" Alex shouted, his voice so piercing that he even attracted the attention of people who didn't bat an eye when Linhart was making a scene.

"W-why not?" Daniel looked a little afraid to ask since in his happiness he forgot that he didn't actually know these people.

"We can see that it's something really important to you. I don't know how rare fossils of Shiny Pokemon are but you said that it's the first one so I assume that they are even more uncommon than alive Shiny Pokemon. I still don't fully comprehend the process of reviving the Pokemon but I feel like you shouldn't do this right away just to put on a show for us."

Head scientist seemed surprised by Alex's attitude but he did nod his head, thinking to himself that he probably should have kept the fossil a secret for some more time.

"Ah. I guess you're right. I wanted to do this right away but this is so important that we probably should be even more careful than usually." Daniel admitted that he got ahead of himself and put the fossil down "But how about tomorrow? I'm going to study the fossil with some other people and we'll try to make sure that you'll be able to see the revival process for yourself."

"Alright. We'll be sure to come by." Alex replied while smiling a little before taking note of the thing around his neck "What should we do with these passes?"

"Oh. Just leave them on that table by the door. Just watch out for the equipment."

"Got it. See you tomorrow, Daniel."

The scientist waved to them even though their backs were already facing the other way when leaving the room.

. . .

The evening finally came. After returning to the island they were staying on and discussing what they saw at the laboratory, Alex came up with a plan but for some reason he decided that it should remain hidden for the time being and he would only reveal parts of it when necessary. Even though Green and Mary were there with him, they couldn't figure out what was going through his head. They talked about it after eating lunch but since Green didn't feel the need to learn about Alex as much as Mary did, he chose to forget about if for the time being and focus on the mission, much to the girl's dismay.

Out of the twenty people their group consisted of, five remained on the island just in case. Some of them didn't look too happy about Green and Mary going to Cinnabar once again while they didn't even have one chance to prove themselves but most grunts agreed that it made sense to have those with previous knowledge of the laboratory with them in case they had to split up. Since it was winter it already got dark before they reached Cinnabar but even when travelling to the laboratory from the point where they left their boat, they remained careful about not acting suspicious which wasn't too easy with over ten people dressed in dark clothes travelling the backstreets of the city.

"You. Come with me for a moment." Alex said while pointing at Mary, surprising everyone besides Green who already was questioning the weird vibes he was getting from the Admin ever since they visited the lab earlier that day.

"What is it...?" the girl asked, after they got away from the group, while trying to avert looking directly at him since she thought that maybe he realized what she was after by joining him for their previous trip.

"I see that you're trying to prove yourself to me for some reason." he answered before opening a small carton of strawberry juice and taking a sip through a straw "I want to give you your chance. I shouldn't assume but I think you're internally shy and trying to work on that by showing off but you don't need to put yourself in uncomfortable situations if you don't want to."

The girl was left speechless after seeing how kind he acted towards her.

"What? Did you think I wanted to scold you or something?"

"Wha-? No, no, no. I didn't..."

"Is there something that you feel you should be scolded for?"

He knew. It quickly became clear to her that he somehow realized the true purpose of what she was doing.

"Don't worry. I'm never mean for no reason. I can be cold but I have a sense of honor that helps me judge how to deal with each of my subordinates on a person by person basis. I won't fault you for trying to get to know me but I don't appreciate someone trying to uncover the past that I wanted to forget about. That's why I'm giving you this."

She looked at what he handed her and asked him in a confused voice "A phone? What for?"

"Me and the rest of the group are going inside the lab. You're to wait outside... Well, not "outside" outside but just make sure that you can see the lab and once... hmm... let's say 20 minutes. Once that amount of time passes, you're to call the police and come up with a good excuse that'll make them arrive at the lab."

"But why?"

"Just do it. In a way, this may be the way you'll be able to learn something more about me."

She swallowed nervously but proceeded to salute without saying a word before parting ways with the Admin.

. . .

Inside the laboratory, a lone security guard has been enjoying a cup of coffee and a book when he heard someone using the doorbell. After looking at the camera hidden above the entrance he saw that it was Linhart. That almost made him spill his drink. He carefully approached the door and opened them while keeping one of his hands on the baton attached to the back of his belt.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"So it's as I suspected. You already saw him. The impostor."

"Impostor? i... There is already one young master inside but how do I know which is real? Or maybe there always were two of you? Oh man, I'm so confused."

"I have proof. Take a look at this note he left." he responded before handing the guard a piece of paper with a lot of words written in a really small font.

It took the man too long to realize that the message was actually a bunch of random words "This is just gibber..."

The guard couldn't finish his sentence as he was put to sleep by a Koffing that he didn't notice flying through the door because of how hard he was focusing on trying to read the tiny text.

"Man, boss. You should be an actor." one of the Team Rocket members, trainer of the Poison Pokemon, said after seeing that the first obstacle was down.

"It wouldn't have been possible without Ditto's help." Linhart said as his face started melting, revealing that Alex who changed his appearance with the help of Ditto "And I'm not really fond of cinematography. Movies these days seem devoid of spirit."

"I..." the underling wasn't sure if the Admin was talking about something in particular or if they were supposed to know what that would be so they decided that it would be best to just let that comment go and focus on their goal "So, we did this part how you ordered. But you haven't told us what's next. The rest of the group is still outside. Should they come in?"

"Yes. Aside from me and Green there's ten of you. I haven't thought about how to split you up but I have certain tasks that I will need candidates for. Remember to contact others only if you're in trouble. If someone's going to interrupt our communication line just because they suck at doing what they volunteered for then that's their own fault."

Soon, the rest of the group entered the building and everyone was assigned a task, leaving only Green to accompany Alex in going to the room housing the revival machine.

"What are you playing at?" the boy asked as they quickly made their way to that part of the building.

"Don't pretend to question my genius. If you can't even comprehend something as simple as this then I'm really worried about choosing you as my right hand man."

"What did you just say? You want me to be your right hand man?!"

"Well, it's the only way I can keep an eye on you. I'm not sure what Mary wanted from you but the fact that the two of you were trying to hide something from me doesn't exactly inspire trust. Or is it that you don't actually plan to try and get on my good side?"

"Is there even one?"

"Of course."

"Would that side reconsider not making my grandpa a hostage?"

"Maybe. You never know."

Green disliked his attitude, and even though he didn't know if his grandfather was actually in any danger he didn't want to take a risk and so he had to play his cards right even if it meant trying to get in Alex's good graces. The problem was that the Admin was quite perceptive as signified by him noticing something going on between Green and Mary which meant that he probably would be able to tell if Green was just pretending to be nice.

"Did you also want to learn about my past?" Alex interrupted the boy's thoughts.

He struggled a little bit with figuring out what was the right answer but finally went with his gut feeling "Yes."

Alex stopped suddenly, prompting Green to do the same, and placed a hand on the teenager's arm before announcing "Too bad."

"Wha-?"

"You fooool! Stupid, stupid! You will never know my secrets!" the Admin shouted happily while poking Green's forehead multiple times.

It took all of the boy's strength not to respond by punching the man.

. . .

Meanwhile, the rest of the team were focused on carrying out the duties assigned to them by Alex.

"Is everything going how the boss wanted it?" someone asked while peeking into a room where a bunch of other people were using their technological expertise to take over cameras and safety measures of the building in order to provide a safe path for Alex and Green.

"Yeah. They're in the clear. I'm just wondering why they wanted us to leave the cameras in the room they're heading towards. Hmm. Someone entered but it's not one of them."

"I'm sure the boss took everything into account. One of our guys managed to find an escape route through the sewers and we also made it look like the security guard passed out because he ate some old food from the cafeteria so we'll just have to wait and see how the main part of the plan works out."

. . .

"This was too easy." Linhart said to himself while entering the room containing the revival machine, chuckling lightly, before pushing a switch that turned on the lights around the device while leaving the rest of the room in the darkness.

That didn't make any sense from the standpoint of what he wanted to do but, even though he was the only one who could see it, he liked creating an awe-inspiring atmosphere wherever he went. He took in the sight while inhaling only to be disgusted by the smell of machinery and sweat that were prevalent in the room, before calming himself down and approaching the device. He stepped into the light and started reaching towards the machine a couple seconds before he could even reach it but as he moved forward he didn't expect something to suddenly trip him up. He fell himself falling down and the only thing he could think about is not wanting to damage the device which meant that he had to move mid-air in order to avoid, causing him to hit the floor with his face. He got up while trying to contain the tears in his eyes and the blood dripping from his broken nose.

"What the hell was that?" his voice was distorted because of the damage he received but he was angry all the same while turning around to see what caused him to fall down.

It was the Diglett living in the laboratory, sticking out from the same pipe he appeared from earlier in the day when delivering a fossil. Since the young master didn't care much for the employees, he never was attentive enough to know that this section had this kind of protector. Before he could come to terms with what he just discovered, he heard a slow clap coming from behind the machine and slowly getting closer.

"You were even more rude than usual. I already had another reason to stay after finishing work but I still suspected that you could be coming back after hours. I'm not sure what you planned to accomplish but I told Holer to be prepared. And now we have you."

Suddenly, all the lights in the room turned on. Diglett knew what would happen and hid in the pipe in order to avoid being blinded for a short while like Linhart. After the man opened his eyes, he saw Daniel standing next to the machine, holding a remote he used to illuminate the room.

"You bastard! Is this how you thank me?! I planned to sabotage this whole thing and get your boss fired but if I have to deal with you first then so be it. This little Pokemon isn't going to be a problem for my team! Go!" while letting his emotions control him, Linhart proceeded to throw three pokeballs into air after giving his speech.

A Machoke, a Cloyster and a Butterfree appeared in front of him. Daniel took a step back. He knew Linhart for over a year but had no idea that he was a Pokemon trainer. He himself didn't have any experience but saw Diglett's abilities a couple times and was sure that he could leave dealing with Linhart to the Pokemon. After seeing the group of Pokemon approaching him slowly, and his only help observing everything with a worried expression, he lost most of his confidence.

"Are you making fun of me?!"

"Shut up or they'll hear you!"

"I'm not putting this on!"

"It's part of my plan! I'm doing this for your sake!

"Then I want that one!"

"No! This one is for me!"

Linhart and Daniel as well as all the Pokemon were so surprised by the loud conversation coming from behind the doors leading into the room that they lost focus and started staring in that direction to find out whom the voices belonged to. The doors finally opened and the duo of Alex and Green jumped into the room, wearing masks that could protect their identities from someone who didn't know them anyway while being useless against those present in the room as the scientist and his opponent recognized them immediately.

"It's those two from before! Did you ask them for help?!" Linhart asked Daniel while pointing towards Team Rocket members.

The scientist was speechless which made the other one assume that he was the lesser threat at that moment and change his focus towards the two who just arrived.

"So you're also planning to stop me?!"

Green got prepared by putting both hands on the pokeballs he brought along on this mission "No. We're here to..."

"Yes!" Alex interrupted "When we're done with you, you'll end up in prison! I have no problem with stealing as long as you recognize the worth of what you're stealing but trying to pervert someone's vision while pretending like it wasn't stolen is something that I absolutely cannot forgive!"

"I'm confused...:" Green stated with his hands already prepared to release his Pokemon but stopped in motion because of not knowing if Alex was being serious.

"What are you waiting for? Kick their asses!" the Admin ordered.

"What about you?"

"I'll save you once you start losing?"

"Great." Green responded sarcastically before throwing the balls and releasing Jynx and Jigglypuff.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Linhart asked, laughing at his opponent's team "This will be a piece of cake."

Without needing to receive any orders, the young master's Pokemon started charging, Butterfree flying ahead to sprinkle its foes with Poison Powder but Green saw what it was planning to do and quickly came up with a counterattack "Jynx, use Powder Snow!"

A gust of cold wind created by the Ice Pokemon blowing into her hand pushed back the bug who suddenly felt itself become heavier. Only after starting to fall did it realize that part of one of its wings was frozen. While Jynx was busy dealing with this opponent, she left herself open to Machoke who looked like it wanted to perform some kind of grappling move.

"Rollout!"

The Fighting Pokemon lost its footing when Jigglypuff formed its body into a ball and hit its leg with great speed before doing the same to Cloyster that also wanted to take advantage of Jynx being distracted.

"What are you idiots doing?! I paid good money for you and I want results!" Linhart shouted before rolling up one of his sleeves and pushing a button that must have been somehow connected to the Pokemon since the three of them cried out in pain.

"It looks like they aren't his Pokemon." Alex made an observation.

"That wouldn't be a problem but it seems he wants to make them angry hoping that they'll become more aggressive. It seems he doesn't realize that dealing with Pokemon controlled by trainers is more often than not harder than fighting against wild ones. He just made it easier for..."

Contrary to Green's words, it seemed that the pain was convincing enough to make their opponent's speed and strength double. Before the teenager could do anything, Butterfree attached itself to Jynx's face, making it easier for Cloyster to hit its target with multiples flying horns it could create thanks to Spike Cannon. Meanwhile, Jigglypuff couldn't muster enough strength to get itself out of Machoke's hold and got damaged after its foe used Vital Throw to send it flying into some equipment.

"What were you saying?" Alex asked while leaning towards Green.

The boy did his best to hide how annoyed he was with the Admin's attitude and responded "Can you just help me out already?"

"You've got it. Go, Flareon!"

Just as Green suspected, Alex had the Pokemon needed to complete the trio of Eevee's evolutions, this one being the Fire type version.

"Hmm?"

He thought that his eyes played a trick on him and rubbed them before looking again but it turned out that he saw right. There were two Flareon's.

"Oh. One of them is Ditto." he quickly caught on.

The fact that Vaporeon and Jolteon both had battle styles that focused on different aspects made the boy wonder was this one's strong side and how Ditto changing into it would help improve on it.

"Burn them!" Alex announced while posing with one of his hands outstretched towards the opponent's.

Machoke and Cloyster were ready to deliver their next attack when both of them were hit by Flamethrower's that pushed them away from Green's Pokemon. Butterfree made the mistake of looking towards the Fire Pokemon which allowed Green to order Jynx to use Ice Punch, this time freezing the bug's entire body.

"It'll be easier if they're all in a bunch." Alex said to Green.

"You've got it. Jynx, throw Butterfree at them!"

Not knowing how to react to their frozen teammate flying at them, Machoke and Cloyster jumped to the sides, allowing it to crush into the ground. The ice caused it to slide on the floor and Diglett noticed that it would crash into the revival machine if it didn't stop it, so it delivered a Headbutt which caused Butterfree to fly back and knock Machoke off its feet.

"Cloyster is still split apart from the rest. Let's fix that with a double Flare Blitz!"

The two Flareon's set their bodies on fire and circled around their foe's in order to slam into Machoke and Cloyster and make them crash into each other.

"It's attack." Green said to himself, realizing what was the Fire Pokemon's specialty.

"Each one stronger than the next." Alex replied after overhearing "Next on the list if Overheat!"

Flareon's used an attack very similar to Flamethrower but this time their bodies were erupting with glowing energy that made their flames almost pure white.

"And now for the Fin..."

"I think they're done." Green interrupted the Admin.

"That's a shame. I rarely get to use the fourth stage of my escalating tactic."

"Y-you guys are crazy! Who the hell are you?!" Linhart couldn't stop himself from reacting although he regretted it immediately after since he most likely wasted his chance to escape.

"What are you talking about? You're pretending like you don't know?" Alex used a sarcastic tone while approaching the young master.

Diglett looked at Daniel who also seemed unsure of what was happening and decided to see what was going to happen next.

"W-what? i don't..." Linhart couldn't gather his thoughts.

"The story went like this; you were mad at this fossil guy and wanted a revenge and so you hired just in case to help you out but you forgot to pay us ahead of time so we turned against you. Now we're going to get away safely while you'll be goooing..." Alex looked at his watch while walking in order to deliver his next line on time "...with them."

Right after the Admin was done talking, the faint sound of police sirens could be heard from outside.

"How did you...?" even Green was surprised.

"I checked where the nearest police station was and since I knew when they would be called I calculated the time they would arrive. We'll need to contact the rest of the group in order to learn if they found an escape route like I told them but before that..."

Alex turned towards Linhart and put up both his hands as if he wanted to punch him. The young master reacted by trying to protect his face but that was also part of Alex's plan. Linhart fell on his knees after feeling a powerful kick delivered to his groin. He fainted soon after that.

"I hope that everything works out for you. This is the best we could do." Alex said to Daniel while both he and Green were putting their Pokemon back in the balls.

"But why did you do that?"

"From what I understand this piece of shit was someone close to you who betrayed your trust, tried to steal your work and get rich thanks to it, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Then we're pretty similar."

"You going?!" Green asked, already waiting near the door.

"Yeah! Right behind you!" Alex shouted back before leaving Daniel, Diglett and the unconscious Linhart and his team.


I picked up the speed a little but don't count on me being able to deliver every new chapter this fast.

I wanted to include a scene that would properly explain Alex's past but I didn't find a good place where it would fit without slowing down the chapter even more so I'll probably start off with it the next time. I'm also claling it a "scene" but I don't know how much I would stretch it out so I'd rather not risk it. There's enough hints in the chapter so I'm okay with making you wait some more for the full story. I'm also conflicted about whether Green and/or Mary should get to hear it or if it's just going to be a flashback. Alex didn't want to reveal it in this chapter but maybe it was just an act and he doesn't actually care? We'll see.

Apart from that, I think that everything is pretty clear. Daniel is the good boy. Linhart is an asshole. Alex is strong.

Green played a smaller role in this story than Red did in the previous one but that's okay. He'll get his time in the spotlight. But not right away. The next person we'll focus on is... well, still Alex but after that it's something enitrely different.

I'll probably try not to have a chapter focusing on fossils for a long while but at least everything around them is defined enough that if I'll ever have a similar laboratory appear in another region I'll skip the explanations and either have the characters already know about fossils or learn about them "off-screen".

The title is taken from the lyrics of the theme to Extreme Dinosaurs which is probably in my top 5 of intros to western cartoons.

Also side note about Pokemon Sword and Shield since I don't remember giving an update on my thoughts about the game: We still don't have any hot guys! Like, maybe Allister is cute behind that mask but without seeing his face I'll rather choose Sword for Bea's tanned legs and the disapproving look in her eyes. You probably want to say "What about Rose?" Nooo. His face looks so punchable. If they just changed his eyes and eyebrows a little he would be great. There's also Oleana which... I already talked enough about how hot the females in these games are. I'm trying to juggle between 4 waifus while the husbando department is betraying my expectations. Aside from that, is it just me or is it really obvious that Rose and Oleana are the bad guys?

Red. Team: Nidorino, Gloom.

Stasis: Eevee, Charmeleon, Gyarados, Raichu, Pidgeotto.

Badges: 4

Green. Team: Jynx, Jigglypuff.

Stasis: Venusaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee, Vulpix, Horsea.

Badges: 3

Blue. Team: Weepinbell(Bell), Blastoise(Tori), Zubat(?), Graveler(?).

Badges: 3

Alex. Team: Ditto, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon.

Angie. Team: Dragonair, Sandslash.

Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, Gengar.