(10th, May, 2019)

At the downtown hospital, both people and Pokémon are crowded together as the place gets overwhelmed with patients. Buses roll to the front of the entrance to pick up patients and transport them to other medical centers.

Semi trucks also come to the hospital to transport larger Pokémon to other medical centers too. While the purple fog dissipated to reveal car wrecks everywhere.

Martin and Ampharos rushed through the crowd, through the halls to get to a certain room.

They run into a room where Martin's wife Jen is in bed in a coma and the other Ampharos has just started to wake up.

However as the other Ampharos gets up, she panicked seeing Jen in bed still; she looks at her hands and then to a reflection in the window. The Ampharos then starts having a seizure causing the monitor to put out an alert.

Doctors rush in for the Ampharos but Jen's heart stops beating. Martin and his Ampharos were taken out of the room.

(Present; At the Ryme City Trauma Center)

Martin and Ampharos were walking into a large psychiatric wing of a hospital outside the city.

They met Grace and Eva there; they had been waiting for them. Martin smiled a bit, surprised that they knew he and Ampharos would be coming here.

Grace: "I've heard that you come here weekly, so I came here."

Martin: "You do know that you don't need to be here, right?"

Grace: "I'll just observe."

Martin: "OK."

They went down a hallway and went to the 20th floor; a badge that Martin had let them through some doors, and a nurse led them to a white room with a female Ampharos inside.

The Ampharos look pale and tired, Martin's Ampharos enters the room and Martin follows in.

Grace: "What's wrong with her?"

Nurse: "This one's human trainer died, so her conscience is trapped within her."

Grace: "Trapped? What do you mean?"

Nurse: "Ampharos's mind is in conflict, displaying symptoms of dissociative identity disorder, bipolar disorder, insomnia, and memory loss. The worst part is that nearly a thousand Pokémon are suffering alongside her."

In the room, Martin's Ampharos gives the other Ampharos a hug, which she slowly returns. Martin holds out a box of donuts.

Martin: "Hey Jen and Ampharet. How are you?"

She moves her mouth, but no sound is heard; she stops and realizes she hasn't said anything. Ampharos places his hand on hers, offering comfort.

"Amp" she struggles to say.

"Eevee?"

Nurse: "What did she say?"

Grace: "She asked if there's a way to help."

Nurse: "There's nothing to transfer her mind into. And even if we did, there's no telling if the human mind or the Pokémon mind will be the same before the festival."

Grace: "The festival?"

Nurse: "You're not from around here, aren't you?"

Grace: "No, I'm afraid not."

Suddenly an alarm blares followed by the announcement saying "Code blue, Rhydon, Sector 10. Repeat; code blue, Rhydon, Sector 10." The Nurse sighed and then turned to face Grace.

Nurse: "You know, since the Pokémon festival, I haven't seen anyone from out of town. Which makes you the first, to me at least. Anyway, I should go take care of the Rhydon, just be sure to lock the door when they're done."

Grace: "We will."

Eva evolves into an Espeon and pushes the door open and they enter the room, the pale Ampharos turns.

Martin: "Don't worry, this is Grace and Eva; they were sent here by the PIA to investigate the city"

Eva approached her, putting a paw on her hand. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

As she scans their minds, she gasps and starts to cry; Eva quickly steps back in shock.

Martin: "Now you know."

Grace: "Eva, what did you see?"

Eva looks at her and leaves the room in a hurry.

(Pokémon Sanctuary)

Lugia wakes up in an enclosure with a cast around his head, he looks around slightly confused but other Pokémon gather around Lugia in curiosity.

Eclipsa: "Will he be ok here?"

Brianna: "Yes, he would. We removed the headset, but there were some complications."

Francisco: "Like what?"

Brianna: "The headset directly connected to his brain, we had to cut his skull open to remove it while causing the least amount of damage possible. He might not even remember last night's events."

Goodra and Snivy look out the window, seeing Lugia getting along well with the other Pokémon.

Brianna: "So how did you guys meet Max?"

Francisco: "Who?"

Brianna: "The Charizard, how did you meet? He doesn't take too kindly to other humans."

Eclipsa: "Wait, you know him?"

Brianna: "Well, not entirely. He barely trusts me, but he does have a room downstairs; I can show you if you'd like to."

Eclipsa: "Lead the way."

In a small room, the headset is on a metallic table covered in Lugia's blood, Charizard takes it apart piece by piece and starts to clean and organize them with labels on a different table.

Eclipsa enters the room and turns on the lights. She sees a whiteboard covered in papers and magnets, and a map of the city and its suburbs at the center, taped onto it.

"Snivy" She said in complete shock.

Eclipsa: "This is super impressive."

She notices another board with photos of various Pokémon with serial numbers beside them. Max walks past Eclipsa and crosses Lugia's photo out.

Eclipsa: "Wait, were you trying to save Lugia?"

"Charizard" Max said while nodding. Meanwhile, Snivy explores the room and finds a world map with red and blue pinstripes on it and a photo of a female Charizard with a serial number being MX-470.

Francisco and Goodra walk in, Goodra looks at the city map and tugs on Francisco's shirt. "Goodra" Francisco looks closely and realizes that there's a list of evil organizations with a pinstripe attached via string.

Francisco: "Eclipsa look at this; we have Team Rocket, Team Galactic; Skull, Magma, Aque; Flare, Yell, Star. All of them."

Eclipsa: "Almost, Team Plasma is missing."

Brianna: "That's because there is no Team Plasma. They disbanded years ago."

Eclipsa: "Same with all of these and yet, they're here in Ryme City."

Brianna: "Like I said, Team Plasma doesn't exist. But all the others have begun operating here, without the watchful eye of the Battle Agency."

Eclipsa: "So Charizard is your Pokémon?"

Brianna: "No, Max is a wild Charizard. Besides, I believe Pokémon should be able to do whatever they want without being accompanied by humans."

Brianna's phone rings, and she checks to see that a limo has entered the gate.

Brianna: "You guys stay here."

She said as she left, Max walked up and locked the door behind her. He then proceeded to turn several monitors on, showing security footage of the whole sanctuary.

Brianna walks out the entrance as Lucario parks the limo at the bottom of the steps. Lucario gets out and walks around to open the passenger door, letting Simon out to greet her.

Simon: "Hello Brianna, how are you?"

Brianna: "You shouldn't be here, there's a very confused Lugia in there."

Simon: "I know."

He snaps his fingers and Lucario gives Brianna a paper document.

Brianna: "What is this?"

Simon: "A paper stating that the Lugia should be transferred into Team Rocket Laboratories for better containment."

Brianna: "Lugia is perfectly fine where he is."

Simon: "You do realize that it was signed by the director of the RCPD. The Lugia is a threat to the public and Team Rocket is tasked with ensuring the safety of everyone in this city."

Brianna: "Team Rocket doesn't care about this city, your people have brought nothing but trouble the moment you guys came 10 years ago."

Simon: "Team Rocket came because Team Plasma became a threat in the arena."

Brianna: "A threat to who may I ask? I don't even know why you're here, go back to that tower of yours and tell whoever sent you here that Lugia will be staying in the sanctuary."

She hands the document back to Lucario and Simon starts going back to the limo, she also begins speaking with Lucario directly.

Brianna: "Listen. I know that he is your master or whatever, but you don't have to do anything he tells you to. You are a Lucario with free will, remember that."

"Lucario?"

Simon: "Come along Lucario, we don't have all day."

Lucario starts going back to the limo.

Simon: "We will get that Lugia sooner or later, and it will be under Team Rocket custody by tomorrow, I promise."

As they leave, she runs back in to get to where they're at. Max unlocks the door and she enters the room.

Brianna: "You guys need to leave, immediately."

Eclipsa: "Why, what happened?"

Brianna: "They want Lugia, and because I refused to give Lugia over. They're going to come back with force."

Francisco: "Can't we call the police."

Brianna: "Won't work; if you call the police, then Team Rocket will inform them that they have it under control."

She opens up a cabinet and pulls out a rifle and a pair of keys which she gives to Eclipsa.

Brianna: "I need you guys to take Lugia to Little Vertress Town, as soon as possible. Meanwhile, all the Pokémon should evacuate to the basement, Max knows where it is."

"Charizard" Max nodded in agreement.

Eclipsa: "Wait, what will you be doing?"

Brianna: "Trust me, I'll be fine. Now go."

She flips a switch and the alarm sounds. They get to the back of the sanctuary and Charizard leads Lugia to the back of the truck.

They leave the sanctuary in a hurry as Brianna watches, she picks up a phone and calls someone.

Zeek: "Hello, how are you?"

Brianna: "I'm sending Lugia to you, be ready."

Zeek: "Why, what happened?"

Brianna: "Team Rocket wants to have Lugia back, the device also looked like it was made by Team Break. "

Zeek: "Do you suspect that Rocket and Break made a deal?"

Brianna: "Maybe, they probably have more information on their servers. There is a serial number with Team Rocket's logo over it on Lugia's tail, see what you can find out about that."

Zeek: "Take care, love."

Brianna: "I love you too."

(RCPD)

The gang boss is in the interrogation room and Grace and Leo enter as Eva watches through the one-way mirror.

Grace: "You're a tough man, I respect that; you have refused to tell us anything about the Lugia and why you had it, and about the fight club you own."

Leo: "We have all the evidence so I don't think there's anything that he could say…"

Grace: "Actually Leo, there is one thing, Garchomp, where is she?"

Gang boss: "What? She's dead, that charizard killed her."

Grace: "Are you sure, because my Eevee was very certain that there was a Garchomp there."

Gang boss: "And I'm telling you that she's dead. It should be impossible for Garchomp to be there at that time."

Leo: "Could there be a second Garchomp?"

Gang boss: "We only had one, I should know."

Leo: "How do we know that you're not lying."

"Espeon" Eva said through the mic, indicating that he was not.

Gang boss: "Is that thing reading my thoughts right now!?"

Grace: "Well, if you had cooperated with us, she wouldn't have had to."

The man then chuckles to himself, Eva in Espeon form opens the interrogation room's door and tries to get to the man, claws out and hissing, before Ampharos grabs her and attempts to calm her down.

Leo: "What were you thinking for her to react like that?"

Gang boss: "Nothing really, except for every possible, disgusting thing you can think of."

Grace: "Fine, but there is one more thing; we found a vial containing a familiar purple substance."

The gang boss closes his eyes as Leo takes the vial out of an evidence bag.

Gang boss: "No, please no."

Leo: "What's wrong?'

Gang boss: "I can't tell you. They'll kill me."

Grace: "Who? And how?"

Gang boss: "Just put the vial away, I must not see it in this building."

Grace, noticing his eyes closed, stands up and goes to turn the lights off; she takes out her flashlight and turns it to UV mode.

Leo: "What are you doing?"

Grace: "Checking something. Sir, can you open your eyes for me."

The guy hesitantly opens his eyes, she shines the UV light at one of his eyes and nothing happens; he breathes easily as if relieved. However, when she checks his other eye, she sees a small ring surrounding the pupil.

A very muffled sound of a mechanical device is heard, and the man collapses onto the floor. Leo gets up.

Leo: "What happened to him!?"

Grace: "I think I killed him."

(In the Evening at the Pokémon Sanctuary.)

As Brianna waits in her office, she hears a screech followed by metal breaking; looking out the window, she sees that the gate was blown open and several futuristic cars enter through.

She runs down the hall to get to a room where a Rampardos and Ceruledge is waiting on her.

She gives a nod to Rampardos and Rampardos begins flipping switches, some lock the building down, and others turn the lights off.

Meanwhile, outside, Cipher members exit the vehicles and approach the front door. A Shadow Psyduck walks up to the door and uses Screech to blast it open. They raise what seems to be lasers in the air as they enter.

Most of them wear blue neon metallic-like armor; except for one who is wearing bright purple armor, and seems to be the one in-charge of the group.

Cipher leader: "Brianna, this is Team Cipher. We were told that your group are in possession of a Lugia."

The Cipher members split into smaller groups, some going into the gym, others to the outside garden. 2 of the members stayed with the leader.

Cipher leader: "Now, I'm not sure if you remember me; but, I do recall destroying Team Plasma's largest sanctuary. Burnt the place to the ground, and I will do it here."

He said as she waited behind a pillar with a rifle in one hand and a phone in the other. They cross over a line and she taps her phone, activating an electrical charge; the 3 stop as electricity sparks around them, however, they weren't harmed by it.

The glow of their armor dims and Brianna fires the first shot, one of them goes down bleeding from his stomach. The other 2 hides behind some pillars for cover.

Cipher: "You're a smart woman Bri, it's a shame that you didn't join us when Ghetsis was defeated."

Meanwhile, in the gym, there are some tables set up; Rampardos is ducked down, hidden between the aisles. The members start to look through each row of tables, so Rampardos throws a ball to the opposite side of the gym.

They turn their gaze towards the ball making a bounce sound, allowing her to use Headbutt on one of them into a wall.

The rest of them fire their lasers but Rampardos goes into hiding. Another member inspects the person who is against the wall, armor dented into his body.

Cipher member: "Keep your eyes peeled."

He said as a table gets flipped towards them, one fires and the table splinters into pieces as Rampardos uses Focus Punch.

Rampardos in an instant takes the weapon and shoots at the other member before ducking for cover again. However, the remaining members left the gym and Shadow Psyduck remained.

Using Screech, Psyduck clears all the tables out; Rampardos tries to stay clear but her ankle gets crushed between two tables.

Rampardos gets away, limping as fast as she can as Psyduck chases after her; she limps into a laboratory and grabs a syringe.

Psyduck walks in and begins looking around; Rampardos slowly makes her way around, hidden under the table.

She opens a cabinet to take out some stardust and sugar, mixes them in salt water, and then fills the syringe. However, Psyduck hears Rampardos and uses Screech in her direction.

The sound wave shattered all the glass containers in the room, chemicals spilled everywhere and on Rampardos.

"RAMPAR!" she shouted as the chemicals burned her skin. Psyduck walked up to her and, with all her might, Rampardos injected the syringe into his arm. To her surprise, however, the shadow substance defended itself from being purified by latching onto the syringe and destroying it.

"Rampardos?" She said to her horror. "Psyduck." He said as he used Rest on Rampardos.

Back in the hall, Brianna and the 2 Cipher members exchange fire.

Cipher leader: "How about we make a deal, you surrounder the Lugia and yourself to us, and we won't kill you."

Brianna: "First, tell me what Team Rocket wants with him."

Looking at the dying comrade on the floor, the leader starts taking apart his weapon, he then takes a wire from it and puts it behind his chest plate, charging it.

Seeing the neon glow of his suit from behind the pillar, Brianna makes a run for it. The Cipher member fires barely missing her, the bones in her hand fractures from the intense sound wave.

The leader drops his laser and walks over to take the other laser from the dying comrade. He gestures to the other one to stay with the member as he goes after Brianna.

He goes into the library where she went, readying his weapon. He fires at the bookshelves in frustration, paper torn apart in the air.

Cipher leader: "You can't hide forever."

She goes upstairs but stops by a window overlooking the garden, and sees the Cipher members getting close to the tornado shelter; she decides to look for a few books in the legendary section.

Cipher fires his laser, destroying more books when Brianna goes back downstairs and surrenders herself.

Cipher Leader: "Why?"

Brianna: "Because you want me to surrender, well here I am."

He fires his laser at her, the sound vibrations cause her lungs to cave in and many of her blood vessels to explode; the sound wave also pushes her backward and she falls.

Meanwhile, in the garden, Ceruledge stands next to the door, ready to kill anyone who tries to enter; all the other Pokémon in the shelter are also readying themselves.

The Cipher leader walks up to her lying on the ground, he notices a red light coming from under her jacket; he lifts it to reveal some C-4s and grenades, her hand opens showing him that she is holding some pins.

Before the Cipher members get to the shelter door, an explosion happens catching their attention. They go back to investigate the explosion, Ceruledge seeing them leave breaths easily.

The leader walks from the smoke, suit badly damaged and his arm blown off; the others take him back to the vehicles taking Shadow Psyduck and Rampardos with them.

Before leaving, one of them notices Francisco's truck and takes a picture of the license plate.

(Little Vertress Town.)

The gang gets to a small plaza within a not-so-busy area. Charizard through the small window from the cargo area called to Eclipsa, indicating to park nearby.

Francisco: "Now what, do we just wait here or…?"

Charizard shakes his head yes then proceeds to open the cargo door to exit; Eclipsa looks towards the plaza and notices several people walking towards them.

A man in leather with his Meowscarada walks to the front of the semi as they get out.

Zeek: "Brianna sent you?"

Eclipsa: "Yes, she did. Who are you guys."

Meowscarada chuckles to herself.

Zeek: "That's none of your concern."

Francisco: "And what will happen to Lugia then?"

"Charizard" he said, reassuring them that their trustworthy. Meowscarada and Charizard give each other a nod as a greeting.

Eclipsa: "Well, I'm glad that Lugia will be kept safe in his recovery."

Zeek and Meowscarada gets into the truck; Goodra and Snivy say their goodbye to Lugia.

Zeek: "By the way, there is no Team Plasma."

Francisco: "We didn't even say anything about them."

Zeek: "Then you better make sure of that. Have a good night."

Eclipsa: "You too…"

Zeek: "It's Zeek."

Zeek said with a smile. They drive off leaving the gang there in the plaza.

(RCPD)

Grace goes into Martin's office, they shake hands before sitting down. Ampharos closes the blinds and locks the door.

Martin: "What happened in the interrogation room?"

Grace: "The guy who runs the club had a ring in his eye."

Martin: "What do you know about this ring?"

Grace: "These rings are used to spy on many evil organizations, they're made by Hoopa's only for that purpose; but, as with this case, is now being used as a weapon."

Martin: "You're suggesting that there's something bigger?"

Grace: "Yes sir. But you already knew that, didn't you."

Martin: "Remember when you asked why I didn't want Eclipsa to be involved? There's a reason. Where you came from, citizens and the police work together to take down those who wish harm, but here, Ryme City is different. You would think the reason why Pokémon battles are illegal here is because people don't want to see their Pokémon get hurt, but that's not the reason."

Grace: "So what's the real reason then?"

Martin: "Simple. When there's no Pokémon battles, there's no Battle Agency; and when there's no Battle Agency, there's no authority; and because there's no authority, Ryme City became a haven for every evil group in the world."

Grace: "Including Team Rocket Laboratories?"

Martin: "Including them. Ryme City can be a very dangerous place if you're not careful."

"Eevee" She said as she put her paw on the plastic bag containing the ring.

Martin: "Well, how about we keep this between us and Leo, the fewer people, the better."

Grace: "Have a good night"

Ampharos opens the door, Grace shoves the bag in her pocket and they walk out of the police station.