I don't want eternity eternally.

Kibe woke up in his tent. That was odd. He remembered going to sleep outside…the memories of last night rushed back to him. He hastily unzipped his sleeping bag, which he had no recollection of getting into, put on his boots, and strode outside.

"Arienne, is everyone alright?!...Whoa." Arienne was crouched in front of a fire, warming some meal kits. Kibe could smell the sizzle of sausage and liquid eggs from his tent entrance, and tottered over. Garchomp was stretched out by the fire, with Audino patting his head and Vibrava plopped on his back. Arienne wasn't wearing the jacket that came with their expedition gear; she was just wearing a yellow shirt, hiking pants, and boots. Kibe was similar, with the only difference being that his shirt was white.

"We're alright, of course…how about you?" Arienne glanced back at him almost nonchalantly.

"I feel fine…way better than I have any right to be. Did Audino do something?"

"Yeah, I had her use Heal Pulse. Patched you right up!" Arienne noticeably brightened up at this exchange.

"Ah, I see. In that case, thank you very much, Audino." Kibe lowered his head to Audino, who hastily shook her head as if to say it wasn't a big deal. Kibe ruefully smiled and got to setting up the tableware for breakfast. As they got to eating, Arienne uncertainly brought up the proverbial Donphan in the room.

"So…what on earth happened to you?" Kibe took a bite of sausage and sighed. Garchomp and the other Pokemon looked up from their meals. The waves of the lake gently rocked the shore. Pokemon could be heard chirping in the trees.

"Garchomp and I fought off a Zoroark. It used several different illusions in an attempt to throw us off our game. However, we were able to overpower it…"

"Does getting bruised all over and fracturing a rib count as "overpowering"?" Arienne's voice was low, and she looked down at the table. "If we didn't have Audino here, it would've been nearly impossible to treat you. They would have to airlift you out of here to the hospital…and our first mission would've been over before it even began…! Why can't you be more careful?!" Arienne gradually raised her voice until she was yelling.

"It's not that simple." Kibe, by contrast, was speaking in a quiet, hard voice. "I was under the impression that we were fighting a troupe of Pokemon. Even the radar was fooled. That's nothing you can defeat with half-measures."

"E-Even so! Zoroark's illusions go away when it takes damage, right? And at the end of the day, it WAS just one wild Pokemon, right?!"

"It wasn't a wild Pokemon!" Kibe spoke a little louder than he intended, and Arienne jolted. "The Zoroark was wearing an earpiece. It was receiving auditory instructions from someone. I wouldn't be surprised if it was wearing a camera too."

"I'm sorry…we actually found something like that as well. The Gyarados we fought off was wearing this." Arienne poked inside her tent for a moment, and brought out the ring-shaped device she found on the shore last night, and handed it to Kibe.

"This is a specially fitted communications device…there's a small, waterproof lens here, as well as a beacon for radar. I'm assuming the Gyarados probably had an earpiece deep in its ear as well…" Kibe put the ring down next to Garchomp, and Vibrava started poking it.

"Does this mean…there are other people in the Inner Forest aside from us?" Arienne uneasily poked at her food.

"I would say it's a certainty now. They knew exactly where we were, and were probably testing us. Gyarados specifically waited until Garchomp and I were pulled away from you before attacking. They now know our detection radius, battle capabilities, and more…" Kibe finished his breakfast sandwich and turned, facing the lake.

"But…what do these people even want? Why are they here in the first place?"

"Well, what does the Inner Forest offer that many other places don't? An extremely unique set of natural resources: the Pokemon. They're probably poachers."

Arienne's gaze sharpened. "Then, what are we going to do? Allow them to get away with whatever they want?"

"Haaaa….Look. I don't have the strength to fight several Pokemon at that level in a row right now. All I have now is Garchomp. In my opinion, we should just do what we came out here to do. These people aren't playing around. If we actually get in their way, they'll come at us full force. Even the Pokemon we fought last night would be a lot more powerful with their Trainers giving them clear commands in person."

The implications of that statement were not lost on Arienne, who winced, stood up and walked past everyone to the shore. "I can't say anything when you strike at me like that…but even so. If they go too far, I will stand before them. The entire point of this expedition is to protect the Inner Forest. There's no point if we let it be stolen under our noses."

Kibe was shaken by that; when he looked at her at that moment, he felt like he was seeing her for the first time. However, even so, her face wasn't visible.

—

"All right, men. The operation will start now. Our target is directly southeast of here, about 4 miles away. However, they're sheltered by what seems to be a natural fortress. Even razing the place won't be an easy solution; the sheer amount of biomass would require an insane amount of firepower, and it would be visible for dozens of miles, all the way to Castelia and Nacrene. The Association would descend on us like Cutieflys on wine." The entire group was ready to go. 01 stood in front of the six other men in his contingent. Zoroark stood next to him.

"So, what we'll do is a distributed strike; we'll draw its attention with a lot of diversions. 00, if you would." 00 stepped forward, holding his customary tablet. The man's combat fatigues clashed with his designer eyeglasses.

"The preparation for the assault will take seven hours. We'll set up hardpoints all around the target. Right, so here's what we're going to do…"

—

Kibe sighed. The rapport he and Arienne had built up over the past week or so had nearly evaporated in one exchange. Their mindsets were opposed on a fundamental level; idealism was great and all, but did she really understand the gravity of the situation? She should know better after being assaulted by a Gyarados. Kibe couldn't shake the impression he had of her being a sheltered city girl. Both them and their Pokemon could be seriously injured or worse…

He brushed a fern out of his way, frustrated. They had been trekking west to the coast for the past two hours, and should be arriving there soon. They had seen many unique and rare Pokemon on their journey here; packs of Lycanroc, a cave with Beheeyem and Claydol, and more. They even saw a shiny Larvesta among a group of Larvesta and Volcarona. Their setup was the same as their journey to the Inner Forest yesterday: Kibe and Garchomp cleared a path and pointed out Pokemon, and Arienne took footage of them with her body camera and recorded written notes in her wristpad.

"Oh wow, look at that. Paldean Wooper, in Unova? Isn't this kind of against the whole concept of regional forms?" As they neared the ocean, the seemingly-unending Inner Forest gave way to floodplains. They could hear and smell the water from here. Kibe noticed an odd species frolicking in the brine. Paldean Wooper and their evolution, Clodsire.

"I guess the conditions here are really similar to Paldean marshes?" Arienne was excitedly taking pictures and collecting data; this was a huge find.

"Well that of course…but I suspect that these are an invasive species. We're just up the coastline from Castelia, after all. I wouldn't be surprised if these broke out of a shipping container or something…Hey, be careful. Their spines are poisonous, and then I would be the one calling the airlift." Kibe leaned on a tree and watched as Arienne, Audino and Garchomp moved along the different Pokemon. Luckily, they seemed to be good-natured.

"Wait..aren't regional forms not supposed to be bred and shipped outside of their respective regions? More smuggling, huh…" Arienne finished up her work, and the group moved on. There was no more underbrush, and visibility was clear, so they walked side by side.

The ground inclined to a slope. Arienne looked back as they climbed up; the Inner Forest stretched out to an unimaginable distance. To the north was the mountain range that served as its border. To the south, however, the massive cityscape of Castelia wasn't visible. It seemed that they were far enough away that they were completely cut off from society, at least physically. They crested the hill: before them stretched the Eastern Strait of Unova, one of two in the region. Across this strait would be the Desert Resort, although the sandy dunes weren't visible from here.

"Well, this seems as good a spot as any to have lunch." The group set down their bags, and once again Arienne started a fire, if only to prepare tea, all the while grumbling how much easier this would be if Garchomp knew Fire Fang instead. They pulled out some premade cold-cut sandwiches, and began to eat.

"Following up on earlier…Castelia is one of the largest cities in the world, and a ridiculous amount of money flows through there. It being a port city only magnifies that. Naturally, there's a very wealthy class of people who are interested in international goods, on both sides of the law. Pokemon and Pokemon-related products are very quickly becoming the premiere market of these goods, as general information about them becomes more widespread. While the Association and the Pokedex has done a lot of good for science of Pokemon and the world as a whole, it's also painted targets on many Pokemons' backs."

While Kibe was talking to her, Arienne was entering data from her wristpad and camera into her laptop with a sandwich half crammed into her mouth. Kibe decided to scoot over and commandeer her device, resulting in a grunt of protest. He pulled up a recorded interview of a mayor giving a press conference.

"For example, take Fula City near the Kanto region. For a long time, the Mythical Pokemon Zeraora resided in the mountains near there with next to no issues. However, with the advent of the Pokedex and social media, more and more Trainers heard about the extremely powerful Pokemon, and traveled to the area to battle and catch it. This singular Pokemon faced harassment for decades, until a climax of multiple natural disasters and a mutual understanding with the city's leadership led to it becoming a protected Pokemon." A Clodsire's cry sounded out behind them.

"I remember hearing about that while studying for finals…wasn't the current champion of the Pokemon World Championships involved with that?" Arienne shoved Kibe away with her shoulder and got back to typing.

"Well, yeah. But I'm pretty sure he wasn't even competing at the time. Regardless, this same mindset is what leads to the massive smuggling industry in Castelia. The people we're dealing with are an offshoot of that. Maybe they're going after that legendary Pokemon…" Kibe rolled from the blow and laid still next to Garchomp.

Arienne finished her work, and closed her laptop. She finished her sandwich, took a drink of tea, and spoke. "You seem to have an awful lot of knowledge about this subject, Kibe."

"...This is one of the aspects of my dad's work. My knowledge came from that association."

"Y-your dad is a smuggler?!" Arienne's pitch was raised from shock.

"No! He helps take down smugglers. He works closely with the Association." Kibe chuckled at the misunderstanding. Arienne's face turned crimson.

"S-sorry about that…your dad must be pretty amazing."

"Yeah, he's in a really high position and is extremely skilled, both at his job and as a Trainer. He's even stronger than I am despite having no competitive battling experience." Vibrava sat on Kibe's face.

"You said this kind of work is just one aspect of his job? Where does he work, exactly?"

"I…don't really want to say. It's pretty embarrassing…I'll tell you in the future, maybe." Despite lamenting the rift that had built up between them in the morning, Kibe couldn't help but actively widen it.

"O-oh…well, that's fine I guess…Should we be heading back now?"

"Yeah, let's go." The group packed up their things, and headed back the way they came.

—

They arrived back at the lake at around 3:00 PM. They set up camp yet again, and were preparing to sally forth into the dense grove they had spotted to the east. There was no sign of the smugglers when they had gone west, so Kibe had suspected that the grove was their target as well; as well as what was inside.

"I don't think a proper smuggling outfit would come all the way out here without verifiable information about what they're expecting to find. I think they're after that rare and powerful Pokemon that's said to reside here." Kibe was strapping on some body armor he had brought with him.

"You seem to know a lot about this stuff…do you have any idea what's in there? I tried poking around the internet before we came out here, but all I found was a load of bullshit." Arienne was setting up the radar hardpoints and some light Pokemon traps around their camp. Garchomp was digging pits and setting up earthworks with Vibrava.

"I do through my dad…it's not verified, but the Association believes that the Legendary Pokemon Virizion, one of the Swords of Justice, resides in this forest."

—

"Status report."

"02 here, shrapnel charges have been set and armed at positions A and B. Houndoom pack ready to push in from the north."

"03 here, Earthquake and Hyper Beam attackers in position at C in the west."

"04 here, seconding 03."

"05 here. Surveillance drones online."

"06 here. Flying Pokemon escort for the drones ready to go."

"07 here. Kingambit and Bisharp squadron ready to push in from the south."

"Copy that. 01 here. 00, Metagross, Zoroark, and I will push in from the far east."

"00 here. Seconding that. Also, be advised: the monitored group of potential hostiles has returned to the lake. They seem to be preparing to head east. If they enter the grove, follow the plan. Don't consolidate, attack them from range. Avoid getting even one frame of yourself on camera at all costs."

"01 here, noted. Well then, the operation will begin in 60 seconds. Over and out."