"Wow that sucks, how are you feeling about it?" Ryan asks

"Uh its weird, we'd both been talking about us meeting in the finals that it never really crossed our minds that we would battle earlier" I answer

He frowns and nods understanding

"My best advise, you have to put it out of your head that you and Oscar are friends. It's tough but you have to treat it like any other battle"

"I will"

"Have you picked your team?"

"I'm pretty sure, Meganium, Feraligatr, Typholsion, Sudowoodo, Togetic and Lapras"

"Nice and strong I like it. I watched a few of Oscars battles back, I won't lie he's really good. Callum had a few conversations with me about him"

I feel a strong feeling of nerves rush over me

"But!"

I look up and see him smiling at thr screen in his normal way

"You're just as good, going to be a battle for the ages"

I laugh

"Thanks Ryan"

He leans back in his seat

"I'm sorry I won't be there. There is some really important stuff going on I can't talk about "

I slump slightly

"It's okay I understand, world champion stuff "

"It's tough sometimes. I will make it up to you bud"

"It's fine, I'll just make it to the finals then you can come watch"

"You betcha bud, world champion signing off" he say before winking at the screen and it cuts off

"Ahhhhh fuck sake"

"It's okay Ryan, I'm sure he understands" Daisy says putting her hand on my shoulder

"I know but"

"You want to be there for him, so do I but you know we have to look into this"

"Yeah let's get moving then"

I shoot up from my chair grabbing a hold of my backpack

"So have we decided we're the base is" I question

Daisy pulls her Rotom phone stretching it to tablet mode, it displays a satellite map before zooming in down on a modern facility in the midst of a deep forest

"We had a lot of dimension energy signature showing up round here, the assumption is they're operating from here" she says

"Well we can't just drop in on them can we, we can make it to here by flight then trek up, should only be about an hour"

"Who are you bringing?" She questions

"Well I can't bring Espeon, they'll find her a mile off. Best to keep it as low key as possible. Anyway let's move"

I push open the door of the cabin and it opens out onto a vast forest, it densely thick, the floor is dark with vestiges of light beating down on to it, moving and whisping with the wind as the treetops move

"Pidgeot!" I say throwing up a ball

Pidgeot emerges stretching it's huge wing span shaking furiously

"Your fine girl calm it down, you able to give us a lift?"

It coos as I put my hand on it head, it nods in affirmation ducking down to allow us on. It takes off pushing itself through the strong headwind with ease, it's shadow is visible on the treetops as we zoom over them. A group of Wattrell zip under us at one point trying the catch the updraft Pidgeot is creating. We come up on the location, it's in the dense forest between the region lines of Kanto, Johto and Sinnoh. We drop down on a clifftop where we can just see the facility in the distance.

"Talonflame go!" Daisy says throwing out a ball

Talonflame lands down squawking happily, Daisy drop to her knees and pet it before pulling a thin band and attaches it to its midrfit.

"Can you do a loop and give us a look please?"

It squawking before taking off over the forest

She pull up her phone again to tablet form which shows us the view. She moves to a sitting position while I return Pidgeot and move up behind her and crouching. The view shows us the facility, according to Looker and Anabel it had once been used by Team Rocket, supposedly the forest was where Mewtwo had first escaped too so they had tried to track it but failed. There only really one large building with a few pods on the outskirts, it would probably be sleeping quarters for grunt here. The most interesting part is the outskirts is a generator which is warbling with energy as cable go off towards the main facility

"We need to shut that of first, in case they have camera inside" Daisy says

"Get her to go over the facility " I say calmly

She squawks hearing me before stopping over the facility, Daisy hits a button on the screen that scans the building showing that the facility is empty currently

"If we turn the power off will that stop them getting back?"

"I'm guessing so, the transportation needs a base signal to go from so I would assume its here"

"Let's get too it then" I say before moving my way to get down the cliffside

I jump down to the forest floor quickly followed by Daisy who is scrambling to keep up.

"Shouldn't we tell Anabel and Looker?" She exclaims

"Nope we gotta be quick" I say moving into a run

We quickly come on the tree outskirts. Daisy pants as she comes up on my back

"We need to take out the generator" I say calmly

"On it" she says sending out her Raichu

"Chu?"

"That generator, can you overload it?"

"Chuuu" it growls happily before racing over the forecourt, as it runs it sparks with electricity coming into a full Volt Tackle before slamming full force into the generator, it crackles and blows before exploding with a huge burst of energy, Raichu vaults backwards staring up at the destruction in awe. We race up on it as Daisy looks on in horror.

"I said overload not blow up" she says desperately

"Good work bud, they aren't turning that back on anytime soon" I say patting it head as it coos happily

"Come on let's get inside"

Raichu looks up happily at Daisy

"Stop doing things to impress him" she's says rolling her eyes as Talonflame lands down next to her.

She returns it as Raichu sticks it tongue out at her earning a swift return too as she chases after me

"Ryan stop, you can't just wander in"

"Why not? No one is here to invite us in" I say pushing the doors open, I walk in to see a huge array of different scientific equipment, computers and large circular mechanical structures. Daisy follows in and pauses next to me, she pulls out her phone again and sets it to record and follow behind her as she begins to investigate things. I walk around the edges of the main room, something feels really off about the whole place minus all the science stuff.

"They got notes on so much random stuff. Flux particle trackers, dimension shifting suits, recon squad apparatus. There's thousands of notes books all in different hand writing. I can think what all of it...no"

I turn to see Daisy hovering over a particular piece of writing. I wander up and look down, it looks to be an international police report from a lab raid on Aoibhneas Island, a peninsula just of the coast of Johto and Sinnoh. It's most commonly accessed by Sandgem Town. It's a largely a rural community, there's only two major settlements on the islands with lots of sporadic farms. It also happens to be where Daisy was born and raised.

"It can't be" she's says stunned a small tear appearing in her eye

The report details a raid on the north of the lab. The unauthorised experimentation on Pokemon. The research was into reawakening recessed genes in Pokemon to turn them into strong and more importantly more subservient. The goal was to produce Pokemon strong for all manner of things, construction, transport and battling. They found evidence of Berserk Gene injections at the site, a banned substance that can cause Pokemon to become almost feral and dependent on the substance. The name at the bottom is of Horatio Collins

"They have Dad's stuff here" she stifles out through a cry

"It's okay" I say putting my arm around her

"No, we can't let them use his research. He hurt some many already they can't keep it going" she says slamming the pad down on the table

"We won't let them don't worry, we will stop them"

"You know your daddy was really onto something back then" comes a robotic voice

I look upland around and can't spot anyone, Daisy pushes away from me

"Who are you!? Where are you?!"

"Oh hunny look at those tears, he really did do some damage didn't he?" It continues

"Show yourself!" She screeches

At the back of the large hall a large screen pops up

"Oh I'm sorry I can't be there in person but this will have to do for now"

On screen is a person dressed head to toe in chrome and metallic looking material. They wear a large helmet with what looks like an LCD screen on it. Upon the screen is an emoji of a smiling face staring down at us.

"You can call me Dr Silver" it continues

"To scared to show us the real you huh?" Daisy spits

"I'm miles away hunny, we will meet soon enough. If anyone's showing there real self I think you're doing a good job right now" it says it screen lighting up with a laughing emoji

"Say that again asshole" she shout lurching forward

It's at this point I move in front of her and grab her looking her in the eyes

"Calm down, he's goading you. I'll handle this"

She nods before I turn around

"Oh here he is, the knight in shining armour to save the day" it adds displaying a heart

"Are those dexnav emojis? God that's a bit outdated isn't it?"

A angry face is displayed

"Oh boo did I upset the person cosplaying as a robot?" I question

"Does he talk to you like this hunny, you know how to pick the men in your life don't you?"

"Whoa there Doc I don't think I was finished speaking to you? Where the bedside manner. I'm just here to talk to you about what you and your cronies are doing? So are you the leader of this ragtag bunch?"

It displays a laughing face before chuckling

"You have no idea on what your messing with here sweetheart"

"Well, maybe I should spell out what we know. There's at least 14 of you including yourself. We know that ballbuy is being run from your location. You've all got weird obsessions with colours"

"Is that it?" It continues to laugh

"That's just what I want to reveal for now, Marco"

It screen goes blank

"Oh, what now? Someone got a little scared there didn't they?"

"You shouldn't now that name"

"Oh don't want your old identity being used against yourself huh? You were good in hiding to be fair but we've got some good tech wizards ourselves, pretty simple to see for them that all the ballbuy web links all originated from different places but they all share one thing in common. Every single one goes through the IP address of one former Marco Robinson. Funny that seeing as he supposedly died 3 years ago. That must just be a coincidence though yes doc?"

It scrambles displaying a crazy amount of things on the screen of its helmet

"Wow who knew a name would throw the number three off?"

"Number three?!" It screeches

"Oh yeah, you might be the tech god behind ballbuy and your operation but there Mr Black who is definitely number two and then your leader"

"I am the number two of Spectrum! How dare you? There is only the boss above me"

"Spectrum, thank you for confirming your name. And that you do in fact have a boss" I say looking rather smugly up at him

"What! Ugh right this has been a total fail, well then Mr Champion thanks to you we will have to dump this outpost. Daisy hunny don't worry we will put your daddy work to good use. We'll let you play with this for now"

One of the round devices lights up whirling with purple and white energy

"Ta ta for now friends!" It calls before the feed cuts off

From the portal bursts out huge Baxcaliber, it's eyes are red with anger as it roars as soon as it appears from the portal

"Daisy get out now"

"But we have to save this research"

"Now" I shout as it rips up one of the table sending paperwork and computers flying across the room.

She sprints towards the door as Baxcaliber spots her

"On no buddy, its me and you this time" I say pulling a ball from my belt, it's adorned with a sticker that says C2

I throw it out and appears is Cinderace, it hops from foot to foot waving Baxcaliber forward, it roars and pours towards us

"Low Kick"

Cinderace charges forwards and slams its foot into it leg causing it to fall to the ground while Cinderace flips upwards.

"Pyro Ball!"

Cinderace then summons a ball of fire and slams it down into the ground causing Baxcaliber to faint

"Sorry big guy, Give us a hand Cinderace"

We slowly drag Baxcaliber put of the facility to the ground outside

"You used Cinderace isn't that a little overkill?"

"It could have killed us, it needed one of the champions. Catch it and send it to the dome " I say taking a seat on the ground sighing

She nods and catches it quickly sending it off before siting down opposite me

"I'm sorry for losing my cool" she murmurs

"Don't worry about it, I understand what it means to you seeing his name. We need to give Anabel and Looker a call"