(Pokémon News Network)

"Good morning Ryme City, we have 3 days left until the Pokémon Festival, and with that comes some big plans for the celebration. But first, Team Rocket Laboratories had announced that they would be working alongside the PD to hunt down a group of armed individuals who have busted a Charizard out of prison. Rocket is asking all citizens to be on the lookout for a Charizard with a Team Rocket symbol tattooed on its left wing."

(The Valley)

The group with Leo and Grace looks over a clearing, seeing a large facility located in the middle of the valley. A man walks over to let them know that Noivern is coming back, landing in front of the group.

Leo: "What did you find?"

"Noivern"

"She said that the entire place is protected by some invisible force, cube-shaped apparently."

"Noivern"

"As for the Facility itself, it doesn't seem to have any defenses. Which I guess is good news."

While talking, Grace's phone begins ringing and she checks to see that it's Eclipsa calling. She stops them for a moment and answers, putting it on speaker for all to : "Hey, is Leo with you?"

Grace: "Yes."

Eclipsa: "Ok, I need you guys to come down to the bus depo, the old one."

Leo: "Didn't that one get decommissioned during the incident 5 years ago?"

Eclipsa: "Yes, but it's a Team Plasma hideout now, or at this point. It's just very important for you to bring the remaining members of the PD to this location. I promise you won't regret it."

Grace: "Fine, we'll be on our way."

(The Facility)

Eva finally feels the box field come to a full stop, she looks around and sees some weird lights; Eva looks closely and realizes that they're Fire and Electric Type Pokémon. As her eyes adjusted she also realized that they were not the only ones in the room. "Eevee" She introduced herself

"Eva, is that you?"

From a distance, a man with his Houndoom comes running towards her, touching the invisible box that weakens, then vanishes. They hug each other in a warm embrace, the Houndoom and Eva rub their heads with each other; the man looks around but his excitement slowly fades into disappointment.

"Where's Grace?"

Eva looks down, not knowing what to say, she doesn't even know if she's alive or died in that fire. Meanwhile, Velvet wakes up in a lab; she gets up and attempts to walk around, but runs into an invisible wall. She feels her way around, realizing she's trapped.

"Hello 470, I know you must be confused but don't worry, those Ditto's won't bother you anymore. Now we do need to get rid of that tattoo of yours."

The field shrinks in size, constricting her to remain still as her left wing pierces through. The woman then began removing the top layer tattoo. Velvet flaps her wing, trying to get it away from her, but her efforts never go anywhere when a Shadow Rampardos bites her wing and extends it. Little by little, her serial number "MX-470" gets uncovered by the remover; though her resistance caused the woman to make mistakes, like poking a hole through her wing. After the woman was done, Velvet was then transferred to the containment room; she looked around into the darkness and saw other lights, similar to her flame. She lifts her tail and sees other Charizards with her, Velvet tears up, remembering that they were her friends from the same lab; except for Max, who was the only one missing from the group.

(Ryme City Bus Depo)

Outside, Dan waited beside the door as 2 people and their Pokémons approached him from around the corner. A few Durants leap onto them and begin searching through their belongings, with one handing a badge to Dan so he can examine it. Dan takes a good look at it and lets them in, before locking it behind them. They enter a large room, a mix of Team Plasma and the Ex-RCPD personnel; N goes up on top of a tour bus with an open roof to give a speech. Meanwhile, the gang waits around Max who is lying near a fire, underneath several blankets; his tail hangs up close to the fire, but not close enough for the Ice Heal to melt off.

Eclipsa: "How are you feeling?"

"Charizard." Max said, rubbing his head on her

Eclipsa: "Let me see that tail of yours."

She gently takes the tail, the flame still struggling to return to its original size; his scales' color returned to normal aside from the affected scales, which look like it's about to peel off.

Eclipsa: "I'll get you some more Ice Heal."

Max lays his head back down as Eclipsa goes to grab the med kit, chanting can be heard from the terminal as Grace walks in.

Francisco: "Sounds like the 2 groups will be joining forces."

Grace: "Yeah, Leo and I have been planning something for a bit and, well… we need Max's help."

Eclipsa: "Why?"

Grace: "Because we found a facility just outside the city. But we can't get in unless we take control of one of their vehicles."

Eclipsa: "Do you think that's where Velvet and Eva are at?"

Grace: "I'm almost a hundred percent sure of it."

While listening, Max gets up off the ground. Goodra tries to usher him down but he is persistent, Grace smiles at his enthusiasm

Grace: "I guess that answers my question."

(Team Rocket Laboratories)

A man runs down the hall and into Mienshao's office, seemingly out of breath; Mienshao looks up to the man, a bit confused as why he's needed so urgently

Mienshao: "What is it?"

"We have found the last Charizard, sir. Team Cipher is already on its way."

Mienshao: "Good, and how did you find it?"

"He turned himself in, sir. In fact, he's outside the tower as we speak."

Mienshao: "Tell security that I'll be downstairs."

Outside, Max waits in front of the entrance surrounded by Team Rocket's security and Shadow Pokémons, red dots covering his entire body. Mienshao walks out the door and over to him, though he keeps his distance from

Mienshao: "Why are you here?"

"Charizard."

Mienshao: "Velvet? You mean 470, why do you want to see her?"

"Charizard."

Mienshao: "Why did you break out of prison just to turn yourself in then? You would've ended up where she went anyway."

"Charizard."

Mienshao: "Very well, but if you don't comply, Eclipsa and Francisco will die."

Max shakes his head yes as Mienshao walks back inside, a Shadow Machamp grabs his wings and another puts handcuffs and a muzzle on him. They take him inside to wait for the fire truck.

"So what did he say?"

Mienshao: "The guy just didn't like being forced into a Pokéball apparently."From a distance, Durant watches as they take him in. The truck eventually comes out of view for a moment and then comes back out from the tower. Durant chitters into the radio, giving the signal.

(Eternatus Tunnel)

Down the street, Snorlax gets summoned from a Pokéball, causing traffic to build up and forcing them through a tunnel; security cameras in the tunnel get hacked by a Porygon as it enters. 2 other Fire trucks enter through the on-ramp, 1 going in front than going sideways to block their path; the other meanwhile went behind and ran the truck into the other, making them unable to move. The 2 Shadow Machamps jump out but one of them gets hit by a beam of dust, the Shadow Ditto on the Machamp gets off, causing him to stumble as the Ditto shrivels up and dies. N reloads the prototype as the Shadow Machamp and the other Shadow Pokémons backed off before the Cipher members jumped out raising their guns. The Firefighters and their Pokémon cover them in water as Electabuzz and several other electric type Pokémon all use Shock Wave to deactivate their armor. Before they could react, Team Plasma and the Ex-RCPD along with their Pokémon came out of hiding.

N: "Your suits are deactivated and your Shadow Pokémon are useless, you're both outnumbered and outgunned. You can choose to live now and be declared dead in Team Rocket's eyes so that you can live in peace. Or you can literally be dead."

Some of them contemplated the offer and put their lasers down. However the leader of their unit lifted his gun to fire and he was shot without hesitation; Cipher gave their suits to Grace and a few other people, who then put on the armor and recharged their weapons before going in the truck. Eclipsa jumps in to take the muzzle off of Max and hands him a Firium Z.

Eclipsa: "N said that there's only one of these so use it sparingly."

Max grips it in his hands to keep it hidden as the truck starts going and leaves the tunnel. They all go back to the depo, taking the Shadow Pokémon with them; Goodra helps Machamp up since he seems dizzy.

(The Facility)

The truck gets to the facility, radio comes on as they approach the barrier, the one remaining Cipher member with them tells them the code, gun pointed to his head. Eclipsa puts the muzzle back on Max as they reach the entrance. 2 Shadow Carracosta opens the door and takes the chains from Max, pulling him out aggressively. The rest of the group leaves the truck and follows a woman wearing a lab coat, and the Shadow Psyduck with her; the 2 in the front remain to park it in the lower levels. The 2 Carracostas take Max to a large holding cell with a 1-way mirror overlooking from above, they take the muzzle off and then leave. Lawrence turns on the translator and uses a microphone to speak to him, while the Eevee who is now a Shadow Espeon reads his thoughts.

Lawrence: "Why are you here?"

Max: "I want to see Velvet."

Lawrence: "Pokémon don't willingly come here, not even a Charizard who escaped from us in the first place. So answer the question, why are you here?"

Max: "What do you want from us anyway, there's a bunch of other Pokémon, all covered by your Shadow Ditto; and yet you choose not to cover me, why is that?"

Lawrence: "Listen 469…"

Max: "Stop calling me that, my name is…"

Lawrence: "You think I care about what you're calling yourself these days? 469, if you continue to not cooperate with us, we will kill the other Charizards, including 470."

Max: "You wouldn't, you need us for your sick experiments."

Lawrence: "Actually we only need one, and the best part is that you scored the highest number, two times higher than all of them combined as a matter of fact. So don't test me 469, they are now expendable and the only thing keeping them alive is your cooperation."

Max looks down for a moment realizing his predicament, still holding on to the Firium Z which the Espeon tells her about. Lawrence tells someone to switch on a projector in the room, Max turns his attention to the screen and sees a group of Charizards in a room, an invisible wall forms around one of them and they begin to panic. Water starts to pour into it and the Charizard struggles to keep his tail above water.

Lawrence: "Whatever is in your hand, drop it and kick it away from you."

Max hesitates but drops the Firium Z and kicks it away. Meanwhile, the group gets to the control room of the facility; one of them takes out a USB drive and plugs it into a port, sending a direct connection to a group of Porygon's of various evolutions at the bus depo. Shadow Porygon-Z starts twitching in its cryo chamber as all the fans in the server rooms go to maximum speeds; Ice-type Shadow Pokémon rush in to cool them down. Lawrence notices the alarm going off, and the operators frantically try to fix the systems.

Lawrence: "What is going on?"

"We've been hacked."

Lawrence: "How is that even possible, there's no outside connections."

"Well, it appears that there is now, coming directly from the city to the control room."

Lawrence: "Lock down the control room and figure out what's going on. MX-2648, you're coming with me."

In the halls, Grace walks down as the alarms go off, entering a laboratory where over a dozen Shadow Eevees have been locked in cages. She checked every one of them, trying to find Eva but couldn't. However she does find a clipboard with a schedule on it, which shows that an Eevee from the large containment room was scheduled to be there, she takes the clipboard to use to find her but stops herself upon seeing the E-Necklace; she decides to take the device as well and keeps it hidden in her pocket. In the control room, Cipher members attempt to break in, despite Joltik using Electroweb to weld the door shut. Shadow Rampardos uses Headbutt to bust down the door, prompting the insurgent to shoot the glass of the cryo chambers before getting shot himself. Shadow Mr. Mime falls on the floor and all invisible barriers in the valley cease to exist. Max watches the water falls and spread out under the Charizard's feet, he runs towards the Firium Z as best he can in his chains.

"Stop Him!" An operator shouted from above, 2 Carracostas entered and one of them used Bite which Max blocked using the chains between his hands, he then grabbed hold of Carracosta's head trying to break the chain, the other one used Shell Smash, and Max quickly turns, causing the impact to go to his friend instead; the sudden jerked breaks the chains instantly and Max quickly crawls away to use Dragon Claw, freeing his legs too. One of them then uses Aqua Tail and Max uses Fly but doesn't go that high; the other Carracosta uses Rock Blast, which hits him in the air. Max hits the ground hard; looking at the Firium Z, he takes it in his hands and squeezes it, breaking the gem with a load crack. They back away as the Charizard's blood drips between his fingers and falls through the air, his body glows orange brightly before the droplet hits the ground, the operator starts running and the Carracostas both use Wide Guard as Max uses Inferno Overdrive to set the entire room ablaze, and causing the building to tremble a bit. What started as an alarm for a hack turns into a fire drill, with lights turning red and control over the fire suppression systems gets transferred to the bus depo. As the Shadow Carracostas runs away, Max climbs up, using his claws to get to the room above. Using one of the computers, he finds out where Velvet and the others are being held, and runs off in a hurry. Meanwhile, those in the large containment room feel the shaking, causing them to feel unease; a Nidorino decides to go up to the edge where the barrier should be, only to walk past it. His excitement caught the attention of everyone there and they gathered around the door, as they started to figure out how to open the door. However, it was opened by Grace, and her excitement and joy became noticeable when she found some of the missing PIA agents; Eva ran up to her, and the 2 hugged each other.

Grace: "Let's never split up again."

"Eevee"

Grace: "I also took back something."

She holds up the E-Necklace and puts on Eva.

"Eevee"

Grace: "Jacob and Houndoom are here?"

She looks around and Eva nudges her towards the doorway, making her turn to see them running out the door and down the opposite direction of everyone else. They go after them and find themselves in the storage room, Jacob pulls out a crate and opens it, revealing some chemicals, kept stable by the tube-shaped tanks they're in.

Grace: "Jacob, what are you doing?"

Jacob: "Oh, hey sis."

Grace: "Why are you here? We have to get out of here."

Jacob: "I can't, there's something that I need to do."

Grace: "Like what?"

Jacob: "I need to destroy this place."

Grace: "We have a Charizard already doing that."

Jacob: "No, I mean I need to blow this place up before they transfer the data to the Tower."

Grace: "What data?"

Jacob: "Listen, if you are destroying this place, that means Team Plasma or the RCPD, PIA-whoever, If anyone who is not of Team Rocket or their allies EVER gets a certain group of files, there's going to be a war similar to the one that happened in Kanto and Johto a long time ago. But it'll be worldwide."

Grace: "What type of files?"

Jacob: "I can't tell you."

Grace: "Well it doesn't matter, we need to leave."

Jacob: "I'm sorry, but I have…"

He gets interrupted by Eva, who evolved into Espeon and used Rest on him; She then evolved into Leafeon and lifted Jacob with some vines.

Grace: "Thanks Eva, now let's go."

They start going, quickly getting out of there; Houndoom follows them up to the door and shuts it behind, he then uses Fire Blast to weld it shut. Grace attempts to open the door despite the hot knob burning her hand, they watch through the small window as Houndoom backs away and smiles at them a bit. They plead with him to stop and escape with them but Houndoom doesn't Listen and disappears behind a row of boxes.

(Ryme City Bus Depo)

As the Porygon's worked to copy all the data, an emergency system starts from the facility and it begins sending all data to the Tower. N tells the Porygon's to hurry only for Grace to tell everyone over the coms that the place might be going down sooner than expected. N quickly Takes the radio, confused by the statement.

N: "Grace, tell me what happened. Why would it be sooner?"

Grace: "My brother's Houndoom is going to blow the place up."

N: "Attention everyone, I need you all to get out of there now. Does anyone know where Charizard is?"

"Negative, but my Noivern would be able to find him quickly."

N: "Proceed."

In a different room, Eclipsa and Francisco are with a group trying to transcribe or copy every file the Porygon's give out. While searching through the mess of links, one catches Eclipsa's eye with a date of "10th, May 2019." Despite the way the links are organized to make things run smoothly, her curiosity makes her go out of order and she opens it up to read its contents. Leo walked to see why she went out of order but froze when looking at the contents as well.

Leo: "Eclipsa, display that on the projector for me."

Eclipsa: "Ok"Leo: "And don't go out of order again."

He walks over to a different table, taking a few people to look deeper into the file.

(The Facility)

Max finally gets to the containment chamber with the Charizards, he opens it to find 8 of them there, having a group hug with each other. However, he looks up to see that Velvet is missing. "Charizard?" he asks them and one pointed towards a different door; with pieces of the now broken and sharp Firium Z gems digging into his flesh, he used Inferno Overdrive on the locked door melting it down into a liquefied state, the other Charizard's used Protect while shielding their face with wings. Looking down at his hand, Max sees that the gem has been reduced to dust, now only being an open wound. As the other Charizards leave, he goes towards Velvet, following the claw marks on the floor. On the rooftop, Lawrence walks out followed by Shadow Leafeon using his vines to carry Velvet; Velvet struggles to the best of her ability while scratching anywhere along the way for someone to follow. Meanwhile, on the lower levels, Team Cipher and Team Plasma are fighting in the halls. Plasma tries to get out of there while Cipher continues to advance. Houndoom pushes a crate of explosives to a large support pillar of the structure, he then ready himself before a door gets busted down and a Shadow Frosmoth enters using Blizzard to obscure the vision in there; Houndoom flinches and shivers as Team Cipher begins firing into the room, forcing Houndoom to hide behind some crates for safety. As they investigate the explosives, Houndoom uses Fire Fang, on a platform beam, melting the metal and burying some of them in crates; others and Frosmoth dodges out of the way. In the confusion, Houndoom uses Foul Play, getting some to shoot each other then uses Thief to take away their weapons. Frosmoth uses Ice Beam in front of Houndoom and he slips on the ice, then hits his head on a wall.

"Frosmoth," He tells him to stand down as the remaining Cipher members circle him. Houndoom looks between them towards the explosives and uses Fire Blast passed by them to the pillar. Meanwhile, as a helicopter appears from the cloud of smoke, Max gets to the rooftop, taking 2 Pokéballs with him; a sudden shaking of the ground causes him to trip. The helicopter swayed away from the landing pad, the pilot being careful not to hit anything. Noivern looks over and dives right through the middle of the helicopter and pushes both Leafeon and Velvet out.

Lawrence: "Everett, get back here with that Charizard!"

"Leafeon." he said as he quickly got up and ran. Velvet, now knowing what being controlled by a Shadow Ditto feels like, went after him, using Bite on his tail to keep him from going. Everett used Tail Whip on her and Noivern used Tackle hoping to keep him down while trying to take the E-Necklace off, causing him to devolve. Shadow Ditto shifts around Noivern's hands and uses Toxic Spikes, forcing her to let go in pain. Everett then evolves into a Ghost-type Eeveelution and attempts to steal Velvet's soul, only to backfire as both Velvet's and Everett's minds fight Ditto's mind. The Shadow Ditto leaps off of Everett in a panic and a confused state, Velvet hangs onto him as he faints and Max uses Flamethrower to burn the Ditto to a crisp

Lawrence: "Screw it, just take us out."

They leave in a hurry and the fire starts to surround them; Everett looks up at Velvet, seemingly exhausted. "Charizard!" Max calls out to the Noivern and she responds with a nod, before taking Everett by her feet and flying away from danger. The landing platform begins to crack around them, Max hands Velvet one of the Pokéballs and she smiles, hugging him; they hold each other's Pokéballs against each other, one catching the other and vice versa. The facility finally collapses in, the Pokéballs roll off the roof as the building caves in. The fire truck waited outside as the remainder of Team Plasma went in, Noivern dropped Everett next to Grace and Eva.

Grace: "Where's the Charizards?"

"Noivern" Eva's ears perked to the side and she went into the rubble, she used her vines to feel her way around. Noticing the landing platform, she runs up to it and spreads her vines out. One feels its way through a small crevasse and finds them there, causing her to cease the other vines and attempt to lift the metal beam blocking a piece of the roof; 8 Charizards approach her and help lift the beam allowing her to take the Pokéballs. Eva thanked them and they all went out.

(Team Rocket Laboratories)

After hearing the news about the situation, Mienshao is in a room releasing his frustration by destroying everything. Hearing the destruction going on, Lucario hesitates on walking in, deciding on knocking on it first only for a katana to almost pierce through his hand.

Mienshao: "Come in"

"Lu-cario?" He slowly enters to find the place destroyed, walls covered in claw marks, and cuts by the katana. Mienshao takes a deep breath to calm himself but the crazed expression in his eyes remains, making Lucario feel unease.

Mienshao: "Can you hand me that sword."

Lucario takes the katana, carefully pointing it downward as he gives it to him; Mienshao snatches the katana out of his hands and puts it on the desk then opens a drawer to take out a mask and vial of R-Gas, releasing it into the mask and then directly sniffing it up. Lucario covers his nose so that he doesn't accidentally sniff it himself and go insane, fearing what might happen if he did around Mienshao's angered state.

Mienshao: "What do you want?"

"L-Lucario"

Mienshao: "Tell Simon to give me a minute."

"Lucario"

Mienshao: "Of course, Giovanni is here; as I said, tell them to give me a minute."

"Lu," He said as he walked away shaking but relieved not to be in his presence again.

(Bus Depo)

2 fire trucks rolled into the terminal, both filled with the remaining unit and those who were freed from the facility; they stopped the trucks and began taking out the Pokéballs, releasing the Pokémons inside. A Dragonite helps Grace and Eva by taking Jacob to the med bay area, while Max and Velvet get released from their Pokéballs along with the other Charizards. Grace and Eva decide to let Jacob sleep a bit longer and go into the control room to see the others. As they went, they noticed an odd atmosphere around, one of dread and frustration.

Eclipsa: "Oh Grace, your back!"

she ran up to her and gave her a big hug, though Grace noticed that Eclipsa was a bit off as well.

Eclipsa: "I'm so glad you're alive and you too Eva, where are Max and Velvet?"

Grace: "They are in the terminal, also is there something wrong?"

Eclipsa: "Well since you were sent to figure this city out, we've found a certain group of files that you need to take a look at."