It took a few seconds after Sofia woke up for her to realize that she was somewhere completely different from where she had passed out. She bolted forward, frantically scanning her surroundings for signs of anything familiar, but it was so dark that she could barely make anything out. She was indoors somewhere, and the only source of light was a dim lightbulb dangling by a thin wire from the ceiling. The relatively comfortable bed she lied in was covered in splotches of questionable purple stains.

"Well well, look who's finally up!" jeered a red-eyed Lycanroc sitting on an adjacent bed. Thick bandages soaked in blood covered his forehead. "You're that asshole who was trying to mess with Vark, ain'tcha? So, what do you got to say for yourself?"

She gulped. "What am I supposed to say? Should I apologize? But what if that makes him angry? But what if not apologizing makes him even angrier?"

"Aw, cram it, Fitz!" said a Goodra sitting in a corner that was so dim that she was barely visible. She wore a stethoscope like a necklace, and she had a doctor's mirror on her head that was far too slimy to possibly be functional. "Look at her, you're gonna give her a heart attack!"

Fitz rolled his eyes. "C'mon, since when are you the fun police? And besides, it's not like she doesn't deserve it. Who lies to children?"

"I- well, I…" Sofia stammered. "I… I'm really sorry! I just- I needed to save my friend and-"

"Does your friend happen to be that Croconaw who put this dent in my skull?" Fitz asked, pointing to the ever-growing bloodstain on his head bandage. "'Cause, if he is, I dunno if I'd be confessing that right now if I were you."

Sofia grimaced at the wound. "P-Please, don't hurt me-"

"We all moved on from that ages ago!" Fitz said, flopping back. "Get with the times! All that stuff is water under the bridge by now. Ancient history!"

"D-Didn't you just say I shouldn't have admitted to knowing Fabian?"

"Well, yeah, but not 'cause of me," Fitz said. "In fact, I'm one of the only people in the city who won't rip your throat out for saying that right now."

Sofia instinctually reached for her throat as to protect it, which got a mocking laugh from Fitz. Her cheeks burned. "But- why would people be mad at Fabian? What did he do?"

"If you ask me, probably nothing at all," Fitz said, staring at the ceiling. "But if you ask the pretty lady who just sent out an emergency alert, he helped Toño and some Zigzagoon kill the mayor. The whole city's in a lockdown right now, which means no food comes in until they're caught. They've got some hefty bounties on their heads, too!"

"Wh-What?" Sofia squeaked. Her heart rate doubled on the spot. "N-No, Fabian would never! H-He couldn't!"

Fitz rolled over to face Sofia, his glowing red eyes illuminating the rest of his face. "Well, I dunno if I'd personally call him a saint, but I do know he was locked up in our basement while it happened. Plus, if Toño was involved, he never would've let it happen! The kid's practically my little brother, I know him like I know myself!" His ears drooped a little. "Oh, uh… don't let the Boss know I said that. He can't stand any of the mushy found family garbage." Sofia nodded fervently.

The plate at the base of the front door creaked, and the door swung open. Vark stepped through, grunting when Sofia awkwardly waved at him. "She okay?" the Poochyena asked, not even glancing at her.

The Goodra nodded. "She was just exhausted, that's all, and she'd have recovered on her own. But still, it was very kind of you to bring her here, Vark!"

"Boss made me," Vark said coldly. "Not my choice."

"I'm really sorry!" Sofia said, sitting up to bow her head. "I just- I didn't know what else to say! I promise I'll make it up to you somehow! Oh, and- uh, thanks for bringing me here, that too!"

Ignoring Sofia, Vark hopped up onto Fitz's bed. "Boss still gone. Toño still lost. Scared."

"Aw, don't worry, there's no one in the city tougher than the Boss and you know it!" Fitz reassured him, giving him a playful noogie and recoiling his paw away after Vark tried biting at it. "He'll show up any minute now!"

The Goodra approached Sofia's bed slowly, as if she might scare her away with any sudden movements. "I'm real sorry about those two, honest. Name's Kate, I'm an ex-employee of Melker's." She offered a handshake.

Sofia nodded and hesitantly reached her wing out to accept the handshake, regretting it when her wing got coated in Kate's goo. "I'm- uh, my name's Sofia. How come you left Melker? I- sorry, you don't have to answer that if you don't want to."

Kate laughed it off. "Don't worry, it's nothing exciting. I was his medic back in his mercenary days, back when he'd get his head half-torn off every couple seconds. The auto industry's slightly less cutthroat by comparison, so I wasn't needed as much. I still give him and his kids free checkups, though!"

"A mercenary?" Sofia asked. That explained why he was so strong, despite otherwise being an ordinary automobile salesman. "But why didn't he just work for the Guilds? Being independent is next to impossible nowadays, isn't it?"

"That's… not really my story to tell," Kate said, her face darkening for a brief moment. "He's had a tough go of things when he was a kid, and that's all I'm gonna say about it."

"A rough childhood, huh?" Perhaps that explained why Melker took all of these kids under his wing. He called them employees, but from all she had heard, they seemed more like a family to him, even if he didn't want to admit it. That made her wonder where their actual families were. "Hey, Fitz?" she asked. "Can I ask, how did you start working for Melker?"

"Long story," he answered. "Basically, my parents kill poor people a lot and I got sick of it, so I ran away. 'Course, I was just a little kid, so I'd probably have wound up dead in a lake somewhere if the Boss didn't find me. Vark here's got a similar story, minus the poor people murdering part."

Kate chuckled wistfully. "Remember when we used to joke that he started his merc business as a front for his underground orphanage operation?"

"Oh, we still do," Fitz said, a grin creeping up his face. "It bugs him a little bit more every time we say it."

Sofia couldn't help but feel better from seeing these people acting so happy, but she was still worried about Fabian, and to a lesser extent, Nero. "So, what do we do now?" she asked. "We have to find Fabian and Toño, right?"

"Far as we've been told, Quincy's already got Toño," Fitz said, his smile fading away. "And he and Fabian were in the same spot, so if he's got one, he's got the other. But the Boss said he's got it covered, and when he says he'll do something, he's gonna do it. We just gotta wait on him here."

She still had an uneasy feeling in her stomach that just wouldn't go away, and knowing that Quincy was here only made it worse. "I… I don't know. Something about all of this feels off. Like, if the mayor's dead and it wasn't who they said it was, then who killed him? Is it really just a coincidence that a Vice Guildmaster happened to be here at the exact time when Fabian and Nero were both accused of murder?"

Fitz crossed his arms. "There's no shot it's a coincidence, anyone could tell you that. That Quincy guy's so slimy he makes Kate look sterile, and right now, all his least favorite people in the city are either a murder victim or a murder suspect. What's your point?"

"Just… What if this is all going how he wants it to?" Sofia put forward, desperately scanning for signs of approval. "Maybe? Like, if Quincy knows anything about Melker, he knows how dangerous it is to threaten a Melker Motors employee, right? Shouldn't he already have a plan to deal with Melker?"

"Boss is tough," Vark said, his voice slightly wavering. "Won't lose. Never."

Fitz rolled out of bed and punched his fists together. "He sure is, but the bird's got a point. All we're doing right now is reacting to whatever Quincy's doing! We can't win if all we do is play defense!"

It was such a relief that Fitz agreed with Sofia. "Y-Yeah! What should we do?"

Fitz shrugged. "I dunno. I'm not here to think, I'm here to punch things."

"O-Oh." Sofia sighed. "I'm… not really much of a planner, myself," she added, chuckling nervously. "If only Nero was here, he'd know what to do."

Vark rolled his eyes. "Whole city is scary. Make it not scary. Plan."

"Scary?" Sofia asked. "Oh, you mean because of the hostile civilians? But there's nothing we can do to calm them down if the only way for them to get free is by taking us down."

"But that's not the only way they can get free, is it?" Fitz pointed out, grinning. "If Quincy was out of the picture, there'd be nobody around to keep the lockdown up, would there? So all we gotta do is turn 'em all against Quincy!"

That gave her an idea. "Could we send out another emergency alert? Quincy isn't exactly popular, so turning people against him can't be that hard, right? How do they make those-"

The front door swung open so violently that it slammed against the wall beside it. "On the ground, now!" screamed the elderly Sandslash who sprinted in, waving her broomstick around like a lunatic. "How dare you work with the people who killed my darling son! Death! To all of you, death!"

"Isn't she that janitor lady from Gear Shift? The one who attacked Vark?" Sofia gritted her teeth. She had to focus. Taking some advice she got from Fabian a couple days ago, she pointed her talons apart in an evasive stance that made it easy to dodge in any direction on a dime. The Sandslash swung sideways and Sofia leapt back. She swiped her wing upward while the Sandslash was open, creating a razor-sharp gust of wind that grazed her assailant's skin.

Unperturbed, the Sandslash kept on swinging. Sofia was patient, not going in for any attacks unless she was sure that the Sandslash couldn't evade or counter, but her aim wasn't good enough to properly counter her.

"Look out!" Fitz yelled, shoving Sofia out of the way before a random bolt of lightning could strike her. "You gotta keep your head up!"

The new entrant responsible for the lightning was a Togedemaru who Sofia recognized as Tec. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he demanded, his voice devoid of the charismatic bravado he displayed earlier. "The mayor didn't do anything to you people!"

"That wasn't us!" Sofia yelled, sending piercing gusts of wind his way. "It was the Vice Guildmaster, we're sure of it!"

"Yeah right!" Tec shot back, leaping up and slamming his tail into Fitz's head. "Madame Lydia was there when it happened! She told us everything!"

Fitz gritted his teeth and lobbed some mud at him, burning Tec's skin. "She's lying to you, dumbass!"

"I've got you now, brat!" the Sandslash sneered. Sofia whipped her head around to see Vark backed into a corner. "I've been wanting to do this for years! Here's payback for everything you stole from us!"

Sofia's body moved on its own. She thrust her whole body into the Sandslash, knocking her down before she could strike Vark. As soon as she did, Vark lunged at her and chomped down on her broomstick, breaking it in half.

Meanwhile, Fitz grabbed Tec by the tail and effortlessly punted him out of the room like a football, sending him flying through the city and falling down to the lower levels. Next, he slammed his paw into the back of the Sandslash's head, knocking her out cold. "Anyone else?" he called out. "Coulda sworn there was a Dwebble with you! You wanna get your ass kicked, too?" Nobody answered, so Fitz dusted his paws and slammed the door shut again.

Emerging from the corner she had cowered in during the fight, Kate grabbed some rope and tied the Sandslash up. "I'm sorry, I shoulda been looking out there more carefully," she said, bowing her head.

"Not problem," Vark said, sounding a little glum.

Sofia leaned down towards him. "Are you alright?"

He shook his head. "Embarrassed. Got scared, look weak. Thanks for help."

"No, you did great!" Sofia reassured him. "Honestly, you were probably fine without me. My aim's terrible, I was next to useless out there."

"Quit the whining, you both did fine!" Fitz whined, rubbing his head. "That went as great as it possibly could've for us. Let's just get going already!"

Sofia raised an eyebrow. "Going? What do you mean?"

"You said it yourself, we gotta send another emergency alert! If we're gonna do that, we need to get to the mayor- er, former mayor's office! It's at the top of the city, and we can't waste any more time!"

Kate nodded. "I'll stick around here. I'm no good at fighting anyway, and someone's gotta be here to tell Melker where everyone went, right?"

When Sofia suggested her idea, she assumed it was a simple task, but apparently, she was dead wrong. They had a little under thirty floors to cross with angry civilians blocking them at every step of the way. She'd have protested, but Fitz seemed really excited about the plan, and she didn't want to be a stick in the mud. "Y-Yeah!" she said, her forced smile almost certainly betrayed by her violently trembling wings. "S-Sure! Let's do it!"

With the increased number of civilians patrolling the streets, things were dicey on Ferrumark's upper floors. It was imperative that Nero find somewhere to hide. To that end, he had spent the past while ducking through alleyways and scanning for anything that could make for a more permanent hiding spot until things blew over.

This is what led him to discovering the curious passageway he stood before. Just beyond the brick wall of what appeared to be a dead-end alley was a tunnel that led into a cozy chamber full of Nero's two favorite things: fresh food and classified documents. Naturally, he wanted in. He pushed against the wall with his power and, with enough force, it swung open like a door. After glancing back to ensure he wasn't being followed, Nero slipped in and shut the door behind him.

The tunnel was very wide compared to Nero, and the walls were reinforced with steel. That, combined with the amenities further on, implied that this was a well-used hideout, but the complete lack of footprints on the tunnel floor challenged that notion. Either way, nobody was using it, so he couldn't imagine that anyone would mind.

The chamber proper was a delightful little space. The soft glow of the lamp was enough to illuminate its surroundings without being distracting, and the plush red carpet a godsend for Nero's aching paws. Had he not eaten one of his Chesto Berries, he might've even fallen asleep. There was only one thing that looked out of place in this cozy abode, that being the wide metallic rack of manilla folders that covered an entire wall.

Nero picked a random folder and opened it to find that it contained five sheets of paper, each a profile of a Pokémon that listed their name, species, team, and other various details, along with an official Vanadis stamp authorizing them as official Guild workers. Each of the five profiles were listed as members of the same team, so Nero assumed that each folder corresponded with a different team. "A Guild database? Here, of all places?"

Scanning through the rest of the folders, Nero found that the database was remarkably complete. From his experience, most Guild databases were so mutilated by omissions and redactions that he would often make a game out of trying to find a single noun that wasn't blacked out. But so far, he had yet to find a single redaction in the entire index. If only a directory as complete as this existed for historical events.

Nero was about to move on, until he caught something strange in a folder on the top rack. One profile in one folder whose identity was almost completely blacked out to the point that there was hardly any whitespace at all. That grabbed his interest, so he grabbed the entire folder. It contained fifteen different profiles, each with minor redactions of their own.

There were many interesting names in this folder, but one in particular caught Nero's eye. Melker's.

His surname was omitted, the only name to be removed besides the first guy, but beyond that, it was left mostly intact. His estimated date of birth, nationality, species, all of it was listed right here, in a folder labeled "Team Fortune (disbanded)." Apparently, he left the team after being a member for over ten years, though no reason was given as to why.

The next profile was more perplexing than shocking. Mai Urano, a Typhlosion who Nero knew all too well. She was a founding member of Team Fortune who was kicked out for "criminal behavior," which likely translated to "becoming Palkia's Successor." Fabian's predicament wasn't so novel after all, it appeared.

All of a sudden, Nero's fur stood on end. Something in the tunnel was moving towards him. A Talonflame, he sensed. That Talonflame. He frantically shoved the envelope under the rack and dove behind an armchair, but he was too loud. If his distinct, zigzagging footprints didn't give him away, that thud would've.

When Vice Guildmaster Quincy reached the end of the tunnel, he didn't take one step inside the room. He just perched there, blocking the only exit. "Get out here already, I know you're here! You can't get past me!"

This was the worst case scenario, and although Nero's mind was flooding with things he could've done differently to avoid it, hindsight was useless to him. From what Nero saw during the rooftop battle, Quincy could fly faster than he could run, not that he could even get into a position where he'd be able to try running. The closed-off environment made fighting him somewhat viable, but Nero utterly lacked any fighting skill, and he already drained all of his offensive supplies while fleeing from Melker.

This was a losing situation no matter what he did, which meant that it was now a matter of mitigating losses. "I'm certainly going to be captured here," he reasoned, "and I'll likely be stripped of all my possessions. All I can do now is gather as much information as I can and pray that I can find a method of escape."

With a heavy sigh, Nero stepped out from behind the armchair. "Fair enough, I surrender. I suppose my curiosity got the better of me. There doesn't happen to be anything I could bribe you with, is there?"

"Not a chance," Quincy said. "I know you've got money and I'm not above taking it, but I already promised to hand you over to Davey. Just shut up and you don't have to get hurt, brat."

"Captain Davey, you say?" Nero asked. "Branch 15's leader has been running around here? No wonder the Syndicate presence has been so lackluster." This was great news. If those two had a temporary alliance, then it was safe to say that Quincy wouldn't give up Nero– his only leverage– until Fabian and that Pachirisu were both captured, and judging by the racket upstairs, that hadn't happened yet. If nothing else, Nero had time. "Nevermind, just go ahead and lock me up. I loathe wasting time."

Quincy smirked. "I see what you're trying to do here, and it's not gonna work!" He produced a blindfold and strapped it onto Nero. "You aren't gonna see a thing until you're behind bars! You won't have any idea where you are, so there's no shot you'll escape!"

Nero forced a groan, as if this was devastating news to him. "It looks like nobody knows about my perception. Finally, some good news." Quincy grabbed Nero by his fur and took off. The fact that Quincy bothered to blindfold him implied that the location of the holding cell would be useful to know. This was far from ideal, but Nero knew to keep his composure. He was more than capable of getting out of this.

AN - Sorry for the shorter chapter, I'm going on vacation, so the past week's been a little hectic and I haven't had as much time to write as I'd like.

And as a result of said vacation, there won't be a new Trailblazers chapter next Friday, so sorry in advance for that as well. Updates should return to normal on July 25th, so stay tuned for that! And of course, thanks for reading. I don't say it as often as I should, but it really does mean the world to me that people are reading this.