"An intruder?" Nero asked, making sure to look as shocked and appalled as he could. "Why, I assure you, nothing could be farther from the truth!"

"Oh yeah?" the Petilil asked, poking at Nero's limp body. "Well, I've never seen a Pokémon that looks anything like you before! Petey, rope him up!"

"J-Jenny, I don't have arms," the Oddish beside her complained.

Nero was so unfathomably sick and tired of saving Fabian from long-distance falls, physically and mentally. Most people only ever fall from terminal heights one time at most in their lives, so the fact that this was becoming nearly an everyday occurrence was a statistical anomaly. Just like the time at the Guild HQ, and the time at Ferrumark, and the other time at Ferrumark, Nero was completely immobilized, but this time was unique in that he didn't get the luxury of solitude to recuperate.

Although Nero did manage to see that Toño and Sofia didn't get launched out of the bus, he had no idea where Fabian and Zach were. He was able to grab onto them and reset their downward momentum before they all hit the ground, but the process was so agonizing that he eventually had to let them go, and he was too busy screaming his lungs out to be able to observe exactly where they went. If nothing else, he was certain that Fabian was alive, because Nero wasn't lucky enough for him not to be.

"I suppose I'll need to come up with a cover story, then?" Nero took a moment to get a good look at these two kids. They were certainly on the younger side, probably around eleven or twelve at the oldest, which meant they'd probably be easy to impress. He just had to come up with a reason to be at the bottom of a canyon. "Oh! I understand the confusion now, you'll have to forgive me. I'm a professional archaeologist, you see. The name's Doctor Nolan. Pleasure to meet you two."

They both looked at him strangely. "What's an arky-ologist?" Petey asked.

"I know they're quite young, but surely they should know about the concept of archaeology, right?" Nero wondered. He cleared his throat. "Well, put simply, it's the study of the past. We uncover signs of ancient civilizations lost to time and use what we learn to create a better world today.

They both looked impressed to some extent, but Petey's eyes were practically sparkling. "Ancient civilizations? A-Are you saying there's, like, really old ruins and stuff here? Is that real?"

"Hard to say for sure," Nero replied, making sure to remain vague enough to maintain plausible deniability. "I've some reason to believe that ancient Pokémon once settled in Ottalon Canyon, so I've decided to drop by and do some field investigation. I have direct approval from the Guilds, so there's no need to worry about the legality of my presence."

Jenny nodded. "Oh, I get it now. How famous are you on the outside?"

"...Very. Quite famous indeed, if you'll forgive my bragging."

Immediately, Jenny got just as excited at Petey about the presence of 'Doctor Nolan.' "Holy Diancie, this is the best day of my life! A famous person, on my beat? I'm gonna be bragging about this to everyone I know forever!"

"Delightful," Nero said through gritted teeth. It wasn't ideal that Nero was going to become the talk of the town, but another part of her cheering stuck out to Nero more. "Apologies, I'm not too familiar with the culture of this community as of yet. You mentioned a 'beat,' yes? As in an area you patrol?"

Jenny nodded. "Yeah, it's our job."

"Is it ordinary for children to perform this type of labor?" He already had a sinking feeling that the answer was going to be yes, considering the rest of the South Continent's track record, but he wanted to verify.

Once again, Jenny nodded. "Why wouldn't we? It's not like anyone else can."

"Could I ask you to elaborate?" Nero asked, his curiosity now piqued. "Are there not any adults who could perform the same labor while being a reasonable age?"

Both of the kids gave Nero a strange look. "No?" Jenny said. "All the grown-ups are tired from working in the mines all day, so they make us do the rest of Scotcher's chores. It's lame, but they'd all probably die of exhaustion if we weren't here, so we don't complain about chipping in!"

"B-But, Jenny, you complain all the-"

"Can it, Petey!"

"So, this place is a mining facility. And quite the abusive one, from the sound of it. We should try to get out of here as soon as possible, preferably before Fabian finds out more and starts wanting to help."

Nero cleared his throat. "Well, as excited as I am to get to work on investigating this area, I will need to exit at some point. Tell me, how would I go about doing that? Just so I know for the future."

Petey and Jenny whispered at each other for a bit, before the latter finally turned back towards Nero. "People aren't really supposed to leave, but since you're a celebrity, they probably already made an exception for you, right?"

"Of course," Nero said. "I was granted express approval, naturally."

"Great!" Jenny said. "All you've gotta do is pass through Lord Scotcher's embassy! He's the biggest grump in the whole world– don't let any grown-ups hear I said that, by the way– but he can't say no to the Guilds!"

Nero groaned. "Right, I understand. How often is this 'Scotcher' fellow in-office? I'd hate to enter the embassy during a period of time in which he can't verify the legality of my presence here."

"No worries!" Petey chimed in. "He pretty much never leaves! I don't even think I've ever seen him sleep before, and he once had me sorting his stamp collection for three days and nights straight!"

"...What a relief." It was, of course, only natural that Nero would just so happen to fall down into the worst canyon in the entire world. He should've figured that he'd have to get Fabian's help to fight their way out. "Say, out of curiosity, have either of you happened to stumble across any other outsiders recently?"

Jenny nodded eagerly. "Believe it or not, yeah! It's supposed to be pretty rare, but you're the third guy I've seen fall down today! They aren't special and awesome like you, so we tossed 'em in jail! Some weird tall blue guy and a Turtwig."

"Life is full of coincidences," Nero remarked. "I, of course, have important business to attend to, but would it be at all possible for me to visit them sometime soon?"

"Nope, against the rules," Jenny said.

Petey nudged her. "W-Wait, but he's an archaeologist! This is probably super important stuff, right? We should at least let him explain why he wants to see 'em."

Nero stared at the distance with a confident, yet wistful look in his eye. "It's… my archaeologist's instinct. I've been at this line of work for decades, and it's yet to steer me wrong. I'd never dream of asking you to do something that would violate the law, but I know for a fact that I'd be dead a hundred times over if I doubted it even once."

"H-He's so cool…" Petey mumbled.

"I'm so sorry about trying to stop you!" Jenny cried, bowing her head. "You're the archaeologist here! You clearly know best, I'll do whatever I can to sneak you in!"

Nero rolled his eyes, trying to be grateful for the fact that, if nothing else, at least the rendezvous plan was secured. "Wonderful, wonderful. In the meantime, I'm actually quite hungry at the moment. Would it be at all possible to find a restaurant here? Preferably one with as few visitors as possible."

Petey nodded. "Yep! My younger brother runs a really cool restaurant! Nobody ever eats there because he's a weirdo, so that's perfect for you!"

"Younger?! There are workers who are younger than him?!" Even Nero was starting to feel the very same righteous fury that always clouded Fabian's judgment. "Then please, lead the way."

A vine sprouting up from the ground nearby Jenny sprouted up and formed a wall so short that even Nero would've had no issue stepping over it. Out of politeness, he stopped walking anyway. "Wait a minute! Why do you wanna go to a place where nobody's gonna see you? That's suspicious!"

"Well… Could you two keep a secret?" Nero asked, buying time to come up with something. He waited for both of them to nod, but that time wasn't enough to come up with something convincing. Luckily, if the history of this conversation was any indicator, being convincing was entirely optional here. "It's because… I can be quite shy," Nero admitted. "Whenever I step outside my home and I'm accosted by floods of journalists and paparazzi, I sometimes grow nervous." He started to fake cry. "It's a weakness of mine. The pressure is just too much for me."

Jenny retracted her vines. "No, don't cry! I'm sorry, I didn't mean it!" Petey was glaring daggers at her, and it took all Nero had to stop himself from laughing. "You won't have to worry about that, nobody will even know who you are down here! It's against the rules to have newspapers and stuff, so there's no way anyone could know!"

Nero dried his eyes with a handkerchief. "That's a relief to hear," he said, more honestly than either of the two kids could ever imagine. But then again, if newspapers were banned, then the paper he had from a few days ago that was stashed in his satchel was definitely an issue. He'd have to keep an eye on it. "No need to apologize, you were just looking out for your community. The world needs more noble young souls such as yourselves."

Jenny blushed slightly. "Aw, it's nothing, really! Just doing my job!" Petey had nothing to say, but he had the biggest smile on his face. "Don't mind him, he goes real quiet whenever he's super happy."

Nero nodded politely. Truth be told, this was warming his cold, dead heart to an uncomfortable degree, so he needed to get out of there soon. "Well, I imagine you two still have to keep up your patrolling. Don't let little ole' me get in the way of your important business. I'll find my way to a restaurant all on my own." He flashed a confident smile. "I am an archaeologist, after all."

"Of course!" Jenny said. She raised one of her leaves up, as to salute Nero. "We'll do a great job, and we're gonna grow up to be big and famous like you are one day!"

Petey nodded in agreement. "And you gotta tell me about some of your archaeology stuff sometime! It sounds so cool!"

"Time will tell," Nero replied, already walking away. "I'll return to this spot once I'm well-fed and ready to meet with your recent-apprehended interlopers."

A few minutes of following a beaten trail led Nero to what appeared to be a market district. It was nothing special, with only a dozen or so storefronts of various sizes carved into the walls of the canyon. Every store's sign appeared to be completely handmade, complete with a handful of spelling errors, and the only people who roamed the streets were children. There really wasn't a single adult in this place.

Nero strolled into a restaurant labeled 'Resturant,' a spelling error that gave him the strangest sense of deja vu, which was run by a Hoppip who was, of course, clearly a child. "Welcome to my rester-ront!" he said. "Do you want juice or Torchic nuggets?"

Nero tried not to grimace. "Some juice, please. Whatever's available, I won't be picky."

"Yay!" the Hoppip cheered, leaves flapping away. He disappeared into a back room.

Multiple minutes passed, and just before Nero was starting to get concerned enough to check in on the Hoppip, they emerged. "Is water okay?"

"Water is great, thank you," Nero said.

Nero moved to an open table, where a Budew waiter carrying a tray on his head slid his glass of water in front of him. The glass of water was murky and gray, as if someone had mixed in a pile of ash before serving it to him. There was no way Nero was going to drink that, so he left the Resturant very quickly, making sure to drop a few more Poké than necessary onto the Hoppip's desk.

"Thank you, mister!" the Hoppip said as Nero stepped out. "You're so kind! The bad guys might not hurt mommy or daddy tonight thanks to this!"

By now, Nero had already accepted that he wasn't going to be able to stop Fabian from sticking his nose into the business of this downtrodden community, but in that moment, he realized that he wasn't going to be able to stop himself, either. Nero had been almost certain that there was no moral boundary sacred enough for him to care if it had been crossed, but clearly, he was mistaken. This was infuriating to him. It wasn't lost to him that he had barely seen the half of the abuse these people were put through, and he could only imagine what the adults were going through in the mines.

"...Arceus dammit. Fabian's rubbing off on me, isn't he?"

Whatever the case, it was about time for them to reunite.

Fabian couldn't have been more taken aback at what was going on in the canyon. Overworked miners, unsanitary drinking water, and a system of child labor so morally bankrupt that even Nero turned his nose up at it. "We gotta do something about this!" Fabian shouted.

"D-Did you say 'Scotcher?'" Zach asked.

Nero nodded. "Recognize the name, by any chance?"

"It's… Well, I've heard it once or twice. He's a Meowscarada, and he's a member of the Royal Cabinet. Secretary of Finance, I think."

"Well, if nothing else, this whole operation is certainly lucrative," Nero remarked. "I have yet to confirm if they even pay the workers."

"H-How have I never…" Zach muttered.

Fabian frowned. "Wait, but they have to pay their employees. That's a Vanadis Guild mandate."

"I'm sure our royal highness paid a hefty fine for this practice," Nero said. "Though, whether or not that fine eclipses the profit of this scheme is another story."

Fabian curled a fist. "Hey, Nero?" he asked. "You know I'm gonna try and kick this Scotcher guy's ass, right?"

Nero sighed. "I won't say I'd complain if I saw his head roll, but I'd advise against it. If he's a Meowscarada as Zach claims, then he has a type advantage over you, and considering his status in the Tullabar royal court, he likely has more fighting skill than you."

"But, we can't just do nothing!" Fabian protested. "You said it yourself, this is the worst canyon in the entire world!"

"And if we throw away our lives fighting an impossible battle, we'll never be able to put a stop to the cruelty," Nero shot back. "We are missing half of our team, and we have no resources to level the playing field. Our single priority should be to gather information, escape, and return once we're prepared enough to stand a fighting chance. Preferably, after we finish our business at Renegade's Edge."

"This sucks!" Fabian shouted, thrashing against his rope bounds.

The doors suddenly swung open, and in an instant, Nero's expression shifted from annoyed to vaguely pleasant. "Oh, you two have returned. Have there been any complications?"

"Nope!" Jenny reported. "But, some other kids are taking over this shift soon, so we can't cover for you for much longer."

Nero nodded understandingly. "Of course, I'll be out soon enough."

Petey, who was cowering behind Jenny, peeked out to address Nero. "Th-Thank you, Dr. Nolan! Did meeting these guys help you out with your archaeology-ing?"

"Oh, more than you could even imagine," Nero said. "It was quite the unbelievable moment of serendipity. You see, these two are both old college classmates of mine!"

"What's college?" Jenny asked.

Fabian could've broken into tears, right then. He held himself back, not wanting to mess up whatever Nero was planning, but it took some work.

"It's a kind of school," Nero explained.

Jenny blinked at him. "What's school?" She turned towards Fabian. "And why's the blue guy crying?"

"You shouldn't have to live like this!" Fabian shouted. "Did they ever learn math? Or how to read? Or anything about science? This place is pure evil!"

Nero cleared his throat. "School is the place where you learn how to do things. I apologize for using so many confusing words, all you need to understand is that they were both very close friends of mine who helped me learn how to be an archaeologist."

"They're your friends?!" Jenny asked, utterly shocked and horrified. "We've gotta get them out! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to tie up the friend of an archaeologist!"

Without wasting a single second, Jenny stuck some vines into the keyholes of their prison doors until they opened up before waddling over and untying Fabian, then Zach. "Sorry for all the trouble, you two!" she said, bowing. "You should've told us you were friends with Dr. Nolan! You made it sound like you never heard of them!"

"It's called amnesia," Nero quickly insisted. "They must've hit their heads very hard on the ground and temporarily forgotten about their long and storied friendship with me, right?"

Fabian nodded fervently. "Yep! Amnesia! I even forgot my own name for a bit there! Haha! Hahaha!"

"Arceus, I hate lying!"

Jenny stared at Fabian weirdly for a minute. "He still sounds kinda brain-damaged. Is he okay?"

"No no, he's fine, he's just like that," Nero said, practically pushing Fabian out of his cell with a forced smile on his face. "Business majors, am I right? We're going to be on our way now! We can't resist the siren song of archaeology for much longer, after all!"

"Good luck!" Petey called out.

Fabian was really starting to get annoyed with how Nero was acting, but he couldn't complain too much. At least he was trying to do something that wasn't evil this time.

Once all three of them were suitably far from the holding cells, Nero finally broke character. "As I'm sure you both understand, our primary goal is to escape nonviolently. However, considering the size of our party, stealth may not be possible. In that event, we should instead make an attempt to kill this 'Scotcher' fellow. This will at once put an end to the oppression of the citizens here and allow us an easy path to escape."

Fabian found him nodding along, but deep down, he wasn't at all comfortable with the idea. He definitely wanted to beat Scotcher up, but the idea of killing put a pit in his stomach. The idea that bad people have to die always made sense to him— execution day was an internationally-celebrated holiday, after all— but it was always so impersonal before. Even Quincy's murder still didn't sit quite right with him. "R-Right," he said.

"Weren't you just complaining because I suggested that we shouldn't assault Scotcher's embassy head-on?" Nero asked.

"Yeah, but, I just wanted to beat him up and throw him in a jail cell or something! Why can't we just do that?"

Nero sighed. "Because the people in even higher positions who appointed him in the first place will bail him out, and we'll be back to square one. This is one of the only times we've ever been in agreement on something. Please don't make it difficult."

"I'm not!" Fabian insisted. "I'm fine with it. Just… y'know, not happy with it, either. It's for the greater good, so I'll help."

"B-But…" Zach started.

"What's up?" Fabian asked.

Zach shrunk back immediately. "Nevermind. Let's… uh… give 'em hell."

"Yeah!" Fabian cheered. "How do we do that?"

"You'll have to give me some time to prepare a plan," Nero said. "It appears that outside information is prohibited in this canyon, so we shouldn't have any trouble blending in, despite our infamy. However, there's a chance that Scotcher himself may know our names, so it'd be best if we used pseudonyms."

"Okay, what should I go—"

"Misters?" asked a Smoliv who suddenly approached them. "Who are you? I've never seen you guys."

"Oh, I'm Fab…" Fabian realized halfway through that he wasn't supposed to use his real name. "Fab… ulous?"

Nero stared at him with a mix of revulsion and horror. "Fabulous. Yes, of course, my good friend Fabulous. And I'm Dr. Nolan, archaeologist extraordinaire. We're quite busy, so we'll be on our way—"

"Woah, Fabulous is such a cool name!" the Smoliv said. "You're a grown up, right? What's your last name?"

Fabian was still a month or two off from being a legal adult, but he figured it was close enough. "Yeah, pretty much! And my last name's Va-" He did it again. "-bulous."

"Awesome! Nice to meetcha, Mr. Vabulous!" The Smoliv hopped away happily.

Nero smirked at him. "Fabulous Vabulous, is that right?"

Fabian threw his hands up in the air. "You know I can't lie on the spot! You should've helped me or something?"

"That wouldn't have been nearly as fun."

After being in semi-agreement with him for what was a record amount of time, Fabian almost forgot about how much he couldn't stand Nero. "Shut up!" he said. "C'mon, let's just go and–"

"Excuse me, Mr. Vabulous," said a stern-looking Chesnaught, the second random stranger to sneak up on Fabian. "You're an adult, right? What are you doing here with us minors?"

"He's not an adult, quite yet," Nero chimed in, thankfully stopping Fabian from having to come up with something. "Apologies if he's given you any false information, he has this nasty habit of lying about his age. He's quite eager for the mines, as all children ought to be, but he's still a mere seventeen-year-old for the time being."

The Chesnaught narrowed his eyes. "And what about you, tiny brown guy? Why aren't you working?"

"Oh, I'm an archaeologist."

"Right, of course, please forgive me, sir," the Chesnaught said, bowing his head. "But anyways, Vabulous, the enthusiasm is very respectable. Since you're old enough, how about I lead you to the Teenage Intern Miner Association grounds?"

Fabian forced a smile. "I'm good, but thanks–"

"Don't be ridiculous!" the Chesnaught insisted, grabbing Fabian by the arm. "You'll love it! The rush you get when you strike coal for the first time is just indescribable!"

"I said no!" Fabian shouted, yanking his arm back.

The Chesnaught wrapped one hand around Fabian's entire waist and hoisted him into the air. "You'll love it!"

"Ne- I mean, Nolan, help!" Fabian screamed, fruitlessly flailing his arms and kicking his legs."

Nero just stared at him with a smile that Fabian really didn't like. "You know, I think I like looking at you from this angle."

"WHAT?!"

Zach glanced at Nero with some unease. "Sh-Shouldn't we… do something?"

"Would you like to disrupt the good Chesnaught's business?" Nero asked.

The Chesnaught nodded. "Name's Dillon, and you have some good instincts, Mr. Archaeologist!"

Nero nodded. "Quite. Well, be gentle with him, my good man. If it wouldn't be any trouble, would you mind bringing him back to this spot once the workday's over?"

"Sure thing!" Dillon said.

"Nero, I'm gonna kill you!" Fabian screeched as Dillon walked away.

"Who's Nero?" Nero asked.

"NEROOOOO!" Fabian continued to scream. It was, of course, to no avail, as Dillon kept on carrying him off to Arceus-knew-where.