"Absolutely not."

Arven shakes his craggy mane, head downcast and one arm defiantly hooked to the backpack strap over his core.

Carmine broils with inflamed eyes and quaking fists.

"Try crossing your arms next time"—she pounds the navy sleeves of her Blueberry Academy uniform in a tight 'X' over her chest—"and you might even look cute while you're being an asshole."

For what it's worth, Carmine's stiff posture and makeup-sullen eyes look straight out of a coffin.

Nemona eases the Kitakami native with a light grip on both shoulders, displacing bicolored ribbons of hair in the process. Carmine hits Nemona with a scattershot glare but cools off upon seeing the tawny girl's cheeks pulled into an easy smile.

"Cálmate, Flamigos." The Champion's tone does a lot of heavy lifting to deescalate. "We're all on the same team here!"

Arven turns away, indignant.

"I just don't understand why you brought them."

He unhooks his thumb from the backpack strap to broadly gesture over an Area Zero Research Authority seal embedded in the hexagonal-patterned porcelain floor of Zero Gate's foyer. This sweep catches Carmine, who simmers as Nemona rubs her shoulders, and Kieran, collapsed breathlessly into a discarded two-tier hiker's backpack. With its blue canvas body and cream-colored pouch, Kieran may as well be hugging a Snorlax twice his size.

Penny watches the boy, hood up as she leans over the foyer's second-story observation deck. Wall-to-wall windows are blockaded by retracted, slate-gray solar panels with hexagonal cells. Mindless electronic boops from her Eevee-encased Rotom Phone join the ambient sounds of sonar pings from a variety of nuclear-green consoles, as well as Miraidon's titanium claws scratching at an elevator door to the orange landing bay — set at the bottom of a ramp on the room's east wing.

"Oye, I wasn't going to strand them at that festival in Alfornada!" Nemona pouts. "Or send them back to their hotel on a Flying Taxi, where they'd just be waiting for word on our demise."

Florian's neck hair stands up. He leaves Miraidon's violet handlebar shoulder long enough to glance at his spread group of friends.

"Let's keep the 'death' talk to a minimum, y'all." The boy pats Miraidon's chassis. Clanging reverberates in the metallic, open space. "I'm not planning on letting anyone take a hit down there."

"Right." Arven's arms cross with a loyal bow. "Besides. If anyone's dying down there, it's going to be us. This is our mess to fix, not theirs."

"Well—"

Carmine groans. "You're sooooooo annoying!"

"I'm always telling him this," Penny mumbles to her phone, mousy voice cracking, "but he never listens."

"Have you tried projecting?" Carmine calls back. "That usually helps."

Penny glares over her device. An obscene gesture is visible through the glass railing.

"Hey, I—"

"I don't know what the big deal is, Arven!" Nemona tramples over Florian's word and throws her palms up. "They're strong enough!"

Carmine nods firmly. "Need I remind you? We've gone deeper into Area Zero than your ragtag group. On official research business, even." She puffs out her chest. "If anything, I'm looking forward to going back without shoving Ms. Briar out of danger every few minutes."

"See?" Nemona flares her alternating red-and-black nails to flourish Carmine's Staraptor stance. The Kitakami girl vogues, eyelashes slicing air with quick blinks. "Does that sound like the confidence of someone who's about to go and die on us?"

"Clearly you haven't seen enough flicks," Penny breathes.

"Nobody's dying!" Florian interjects.

"Hey," Arven shrugs, "I never said they weren't strong—"

Kieran finally steps forward. "I-I was also…"

He shrinks as all eyes turn toward him, standing off by the broken shutter of the westernmost blue landing pad elevator. After a big gulp of sterile air, he mimics Carmine's swagger — like a full-throated Cramorant.

"… Champion of the BB League."

"Right!"

Carmine struts along the acronym emblazoned backward in the floor; A – R – Z – A; and in the process crosses a 1:60 scale abstraction of the Paldea region from Levincia to Porto Marinada. Her blocked-heel boots clomp against tile like a fiery drumbeat.

Kieran winces…

… And Carmine soon affirms these worries by squashing her brother like an accordion. A red-gloved hand ruffles harshly, loosening a few hair ribbons from his tied-back onion bulb.

"Ow—"

"My brother is a Champion, which is better than whatever you've got going on Master Chef." She smirks. "Just don't let him get a big head about it." Her nails dig into the young boy's scalp. "We all saw what happened last time."

"Sis!" Kieran hisses. His tough guy exterior collapses into a wriggling mass of gaunt limbs. "That hurts!"

"Shut it, Kiki." Carmine hisses back. "I'm trying to help you here!"

Their aside devolves into a leaking air vent of tits-for-tats as they bat each other's arms around with schoolyard swings. Kieran's half-zipped uniform blazer flops over his flaming Poke Ball tank top.

Penny glowers at the siblings' pathetic brawl.

She turns toward a paneled display of fluctuating gauges beside the solar panel windows, and seamlessly slips a wireless headphone from her sweater's Kangaskhan pouch into her right ear.

"… I'm with Arven on this one." Penny's hip presses into the glass.

Carmine and Kieran both meet the Galarian girl with upturned gazes. Her sharp, clenched teeth are in stark contrast to his gaping Magikarp expression.

"Loath as I am to admit it," Penny lets her words trail, "that muppet is right. I'd rather not see them get hurt." Her voice drops another octave. "'specially not Kieran."

"H-Hey!" Kieran's voice quivers half as much as Carmine's fists, which are currently pulled into a boxer's stance. "I'm way past strong!"

"Pen." Nemona pleads. Her hands clasp at her sternum, and Penny buries deeper into her hoodie to avoid those imploring eyes. "C'mon, shouldn't we all stick together!"

Carmine takes a more aggressive tenor, jutting her finger toward Penny. "Kieran even saved your ass when that swollen purple Pecha Berry wreaked havoc in Kitakami!"

"You don't have to remind me." Penny stares daggers from her periphery, thick glasses glinting like an anime character in Zero Gate's fluorescent lights. "We've got the video of your knackered dancing, Carmine."

"Ough!"

She stomps her foot once, twice, three times, threatening to crack the tile.

Arven joins Nemona on the central seal, gesticulating like an Incineroar for his audience of vacuum tube displays, each translating petabytes of data into endless scrolls of black code washed out by nauseating toxic sludge.

"I don't think you understand how dangerous this mission is." He scoffs. "We're offering you an easy out, bud. This isn't your problem."

"Tch. We can endanger ourselves whenever we damn-well please." Carmine contorts herself like a coiling Serperior and prods an upturned index finger at Arven. She tugs Kieran's arm to her side. "I'd put it to a vote, but we all know how that would go."

She waggles her finger; her nail is painted the soothing grassy-green of a nice, warm matcha. "Me"—she raises her middle finger—"Kiki"—then her ring—"Nemo"—her pinky—"and Florian take the ruling." Carmine pokes out her opposing index and middle fingers opposite Kieran, one for Arven and Penny each. "Please deliver all dissenting opinions straight into the garbage."

"You don't get a vote when you're the subject of the inquiry!"

"Who died and made you the fucking arbiter of judicial precedent?!"

Kieran tries (and fails) to pull away from his snarling sister's quaking grip—

Arven opens his mouth to retort—

But his attention is drawn to a whining canine lizard that heels along his purple leggings.

Then, his attention flips to Florian's hand on his opposite shoulder. A tuft of darker hair hangs over Arven's right eye as he catches his friend's solemn expression.

"Arven." Florian grasps Arven's yellow vest and turns him so they face one another directly (though a mop of two-toned gray hair). "We're wasting a lot of time here. I appreciate your concern — really, I do — but the longer we argue the more likely that Paradox Pokemon gets away."

With a husky sigh, Arven looks toward a glut of machinery and scratches his neck. Florian continues:

"Besides, we have a lot of ground to cover. Six sets of eyes give us a better shot."

Nemona hops to the duo and throws her arms around Arven in a charging Tackle.

She casts a grin to the side of his head. He closes his eyes, cheeks dusted red.

"… You're hard to argue with little buddy."

Carmine crosses the tiny Paldea again; A – Z – R – A; with Kieran in tow. Penny scampers down an acute ramp from the observation deck.

Arven is surrounded.

"Agias!"

Miraidon leaps with dilated digital eyes, and then starts running around and between everyone's legs. Nobody falls, but their knees knock as the futuristic Pokemon clatters about the room. Its sharp, heavy claws scrape up and down grout-lined hexagons.

Arven and Carmine share an amiable smile.

"Okay," the Paldean boy caves, clearing his throat with a growl, "so what's the plan?"

Florian catches Miraidon, stilling his partner with a hand pressed to the Pokemon's void-shaded windshield of a forehead.

"We can't all take Miraidon down at once. We'll be too heavy to fly—"

"Too heavy for that brute…?" Arven mutters, incredulously.

"—so, Kieran?"

Blueberry Academy's former Champion perks up, expression naturally weepy. It's easier to read with most of his hair pulled back, all but two symmetrical black ribbons that now frame his cheeks like an elongated 'X.'

"How about you hang back with me?" Florian's grin twinkles. "I've got something important for you."

Kieran rubs a hanging strand of hair between his thumb and forefinger. "F-For me?" He shyly looks down. "Wowzers…"

"Kiki." Carmine prods his side, causing Kieran to double-over. "When are you going to accept the fact that you have friends, little brother?"

She leaves Kieran in Florian's care with one more playful shove, and then joins Nemona on her way to the eastern elevator. They meet Arven and Penny at the doorway, which hisses to life. Once the central hydraulics click into place, the door splits in the middle, light spills through dark steel. It opens in a jagged-tooth pattern not unlike Cetitan's maw; the door slides apart slowly, accompanied by the trilling clicks of chain-link belts. The mechanism settles, and all four visitors pass through the threshold into a cubic freight elevator.

Florian sends Miraidon off. The monster prances to-and-fro in a zigzagging race toward the door. Its long bounds defy gravity. At the end, Miraidon rears onto its hind legs and springs inside.

Penny squeals as the Pokemon knocks her to the floor.

"Uwagh! Get off you mangy mutt!"

Arven, Nemona, and Carmine awkwardly clear out of the way.

The door reseals to a symphony of panting, electric licks and Penny's cries for help.