Kenta was right, the Voodoo shop was fucking creepy. It looked grape themed on the outside, and like someone took a haunted murder house and converted it into a haunted store to sell haunted objects.
The lights inside were dim and occasionally flickered like that one street lamp at night that never seems to work right. I looked up at the chandelier hanging above, oh wait that was a Chandelure that was just chilling and providing some light for the shop.
A few Litwick sat atop the shelves, lighting up darker corners, and a weird sweet perfumy smell that I couldn’t identify permeated the place
There were suspicious red stains all over the place, a tons of old talismans plastered on the wall. A bunch of voodoo dolls that I was pretty sure were a bunch of Banette kept turning their heads to look at us as we walked past shelves full of bottles, ceramic pots, random ghost themed knickknacks, jars of colored liquid with weird stuff floating in it, and even some Voodoo shop t-shirt merch.
Winnie didn’t seem bothered by the atmosphere and was just curiously looking around, so I deemed the place reasonably safe.
Justine introduced me to how normal people fed their ghosts. There was a section underneath a red sign that read: Fuud.
Food? Ghost food?
There were large vials of this clear iridescent liquid messily labeled ‘Liquid Lif Essense’ they were thirty dollars per bottle. The instructions said that trainers could pour some of this on the food they give to their ghost types, the amount they pour will depend on the power level of the ghost. Weaker ghosts needed more, stronger ghosts didn’t need as much cause they could sustain themselves better.
My question was where the hell they got liquid life essence. Actually, better not to ask questions.
There were also a few other things like—I squinted at the labels as I tried to read them, ‘Corpse Jewce’ which smelled…like a corpse, and ‘Creamated Ashes.’
Whoever’s making these signs should get a few grammar lessons, unless it’s intentionally being misspelled.
“What is ‘Corpse Jewce’ used for?” I asked.
Justine put a hand on her chin as she looked through the products on the shelf. “Dual ghost and grass types cause in the wild they liquify their prey into juice to consume the nutrients needed.”
Like how a venus flytrap eats its prey, right? That…kind of makes sense.
Winnie leaned forward to sniff the products and wrinkled his nose, making a grossed out face.
Justine tapped a handful of items, and they began floating in the air and following her around as we moved to the talisman section.
There was a showcase with different talisman designs that the customer could pick out, it was the type of product that was locked up so that only a store employee could come and help the customer take it out. Though I didn’t see any employees in the store unless you counted the ghost types in it.
“Great quality as usual~ I’ll take one extra stack the usual stuff, and umm, two extra stacks of the protection talismans.” Justine ordered.
I tilted my head as I examined the talismans, “Do those actually work? What do they even do?”
The case clicked open and a few stacks of talismans floated out and added themselves to the rest of the items Justine picked out, the case closed and locked itself again.
Justine nodded, “They give protection against aggressive ghosts and prevent them from entering certain areas. We’ll be using it against wild ghosts.”
“Huh, thats neat.”
“I know right?”
I followed Justine to the previously empty checkout counter where a lumpy figure completely covered by a dark cloak now stood. There was a small tag hanging on the front of the figure’s cloak that said ‘Store owner.’ At least they spelled that right.
“Hey there~ It’s been a while!” Justine smiled at the store owner as the stuff she had selected placed themselves on the countertop. The ‘Store Owner’ didn’t even twitch, I was starting to wonder if it was just a cloak draped on a bunch of pillows or an actual person.
The old fashioned cash register with a sticker that said, Cash Only, showed the total price of the items, and Justine took out a wad of cash from her bag.
A button on the register pressed itself, and it opened with a loud, Ka-ching! An invisible force took the money and placed it into the register, then some bills floated out and back onto the countertop in front of Justine.
A white glove connected to a black lumpy sleeve slithered out from the cloak and awkwardly pulled out a paper bag with a logo featuring a Mimikyu and the name of the shop. The items floated into the bag and neatly arranged themselves to fit perfectly.
Winnie leaned over to my ear and whispered, “I don’t think that’s a human.”
I whispered back a bit sarcastically, “You think?”
“Thank you so much.” Justine smiled as she took the bag and we headed out, the store owner waved a goodbye with its floppy hand.
Before we stepped outside, I took another glance back at the cloaked figure at the counter, but it had disappeared.
I took a deep breath of city air as we stepped away from the front door of the Voodoo shop to clear my nose of that weird smell from the shop.
“What’s the name of that store Kenta went to?” I asked Justine.
“Poke-Music.” She answered as she put her items onto her shadow. A pair of red eyes blinked up at us as two ghostly hands carefully pulled the items down into her shadow.
That’s neat.
“az, the store!” Winnie said.
I glanced back at the Voodoo shop and did a double take. The store wasn’t there anymore! In its place was an empty lot with an ancient yellowed ‘For Rent’ sign plastered on the front window.
“Wait, the store is gone.” I exclaimed, Justine looked back and shrugged, “Yeah, it does that.”
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Poke-Music had a much nicer atmosphere. It was a typical music store with a variety of instruments, instrument care stuff, and music books for sale. The only difference was that almost everything was Pokemon themed, with most of the design being based on sound or music Pokemon.
We found Kenta in the back of the store checking out a drum set.
“You got you guitar strings?” I asked.
The dragon specialist looked up, “Yep. I also got a message from Chloe, she and Zoe are at Alcremie Sweets, they were asking if we wanted to meet up.”
Winnie instantly perked up at the mention of sweets, “sweets?! are we gonna go get some?”
Noticing Winnie’s reaction, Justine chuckled, “You can get all the sweets you want there Winnie. They specialize in cake.”
I raised an eyebrow, “Maybe not all the sweets, but I’ll get you and the others some. You just have to make sure to share.”
“of course I will!” Winnie said, doing a mini tappy dance on my shoulder.
“Wait, aren’t the twins with Marcus?” I asked.
“They probably got bored and went to eat. Marcus is probably still in a meeting.” Justine replied with a shrug.
Kenta confirmed her statement as we began to make our way out, “Yeah, he’s in a meeting at the Devon building. He’ll be out in about an hour.”
As we got to the entrance, I stopped and looked at a case with a few different Pokeflutes on display and ended up quickly buying one, much to Winnie’s dismay, he wanted to get to that bakery as fast as possible.
“what are you gonna do with that thing?” Winnie asked when we finally left.
I grinned, “I’m gonna learn how to play it. What else would I do with a musical instrument?”
“Why the Pokeflute?” Justine asked.
I shrugged, “I used to play the flute. I miss doing music stuff, and I like the idea of playing music for my team to enjoy during our down time.”
I gestured at Kenta and Justine, “I got that from hearing about how Kommo-o likes the music you play and how Yamask loves opera music.”
Justine laughed, “Yes he does! He’d never admit it though.”
Kenta smiled, “Yeah, it’s a good way to bond with your Pokemon.”
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A bell chimed as the door to Alcremie sweets opened and we stepped in. The bakery wasn’t very busy since the lunch rush was over, and there was only one group sitting at the tables, eating some cake.
Chloe sat up and waved at us, and Zoe turned around in her seat, “Hey guys! Over here!”
They’re still speaking at the same time.
The Gallade and Gardevoir with them looked up, and the two meowstic I saw before popped up from behind Chloe’s seat and waved too.
Rotom hadn’t met Gardevoir or Gallade yet, so it flew out of my bag and excitedly scanned them.
“Gardevoir, the embrace Pokemon. Gardevoir has the psychokinetic power to distort the dimensions and create a small black hole. This Pokémon will try to protect its Trainer even at the risk of its own life.”
“Bzzt!”
“Gallade, the blade Pokemon. True to its honorable-warrior image, it uses the blades on its elbows only in defense of something or someone. It is sharply attuned to others’ wishes for help, and seeks out those in need to aid them in battle.”
Gardevoir flicked a hand and three seats flew over to their table.
Winnie jumped out from my hood and ran over to the cake display, Litwick joined him and they began talking about their favorite flavors.
“I’m gonna go get some cake for them.” I said, walking over to the cake display. Winnie and Litwick picked out the cakes that they wanted and I bought some extra for the other members of my team to share when we got back. Thank goodness my bag had a refrigerated section.
“So, what have you guys been doing all day?” Zoe asked once everyone was seated.
“We just shopped around and went to the Fight Club.” Justine replied, “How long did it take for Marcus to bore you guys?”
“Precisely three minutes and seventeen seconds.” Chloe answered, “But the great thing about Teleporting Marcus around is that he doesn’t care where we go while he’s working.”
“Tim and Professor Rowan make us sit there and wait for them and Celia takes us into the meetings with her.” Zoe said as she took a bite of her pinap berry decorated cake.
Chloe sighed as she fiddled with her oran berry cake, “They’re always so worried about us getting in trouble with the people that Galactic company sends after us.”
“It’s annoying, we can take care of ourselves!” Said Zoe.
Chloe nodded, “Yeah, we went to the park and some people with weird hair and outfits were following us around and telling us to give them our Pokemon. We just teleported away from them, but they followed us all the way to the Battle Cafe!”
I exchanged worried glances with Kenta and Justine and Kenta asked the twins, “What did you guys do then?”
Zoe waved off our worry and laughed, “We teleported them instead!”
Chloe joined in with her sister’s laugher, “Right into the dumpster where they belonged!”
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The mood lightened at that statement, teleportation sure was overpowered.
I took out a pen and a piece of paper form my bag and drew the Team Galactic symbol on it, and slide it over to the twins, “Did they have this symbol on their uniforms?”
Zoe took the paper and both girls spoke, “Yep! How did you know?”
I crossed my arms and sat back in my seat, “That’s the Team Galactic symbol. They’re a bunch of uhh, bad guys that should be avoided. Now that I think about it, the guy who harassed me for Kaiju earlier today had the same haircut that Galactic grunts usually have.”
An image of a bunch of people with turquoise bowlcuts flashed in my mind with an implied question mark.
I blinked a few times and realizes that Gardevoir, Gallade, and the Meowstics were staring at me.
“Uh, yeah, the guy had the same haircut.” I said. Gardevoir nodded and went back to sipping its drink and Gallade glanced at it. I think the two were having a psychic conversation?
Kenta slowly sat upright, his face with a sterner expression than usual, “Team Galactic? I’ve never heard of them. Are they like Team Rocket?”
He seemed kind of worked up as soon as I mentioned Team Galactic. Right, he’s from Johto. I guess he wouldn’t be happy to hear about an organization similar to the one that had a huge negative impact on his home region.
I shrugged, “I think they’re more like Teams Aqua and Magma, I dunno, either way they’re bad news. Someone I know encountered them before and told me about it.”
“The name can’t be a coincidence, they’re definitely related to Galactic Corporations.” Justine said with a thoughtful frown.
The twins nodded in sync, “Yeah, especially because of how they were trying to harass us all today.”
Justine sighed, “Well it’s not like we can prove it. We have no evidence besides similar names.”
“Yeah.” I said, petting Winnie’s head.
There was a grim silence before Justine rubbed her face and groaned, “Ugh, lets not think about this stuff, I don’t know about you guys but I came here to relax, not stress out about something I can’t control.”
I sighed, “I agree, we’ll tell the others about this when we get back.”
There was a Ping! from both Chloe and Zoe’s phones. Zoe looked at the message, “Oh, Marcus is ready for pickup.”
“You guys want us to teleport you back to the lab too?” Chloe said as she and Zoe quickly ate the last few bites of their cakes.
I checked my watch, “That would be great. It’s almost four pm, and I’m pretty much done for the day.”
Justine and Kenta voiced their agreement, so we all cleaned up and the twins returned their Pokemon to their balls.
I had to spend a bit of extra time wiping cake off of Winnie’s Paws cause he stepped into his cake while eating it, but it just made his paw fur all sticky. He’s getting a shower when we get back.
When we were done, Chloe and Zoe told us to brace ourselves I barely had time to register what they’d said.
Suddenly we were right outside the Jubilife Devon HQ. Disoriented, I blinked a few times as my brain figured out that we weren’t in the bakery anymore. Winnie shook himself, and the others also had to take a moment to recollect.
“Hmm, he said he would be standing right outside the doors.” Chloe said, double checking the texts on her phone.
I frowned and looked around, “Maybe he went somewhere else? Did he text you guys anything?”
“No, he didn’t.” Chloe replied with a hint of worry edging into her voice while Zoe closed her eyes and focused on something.
“Marcus isn’t the type of guy to do that, have you found him yet Zoe?” Kenta said with a worried expression.
Eyes still closed, Zoe shook her head, “There are too many people, it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”
“We’re not specialized in finding people either.” Chloe added.
“damn, maybe i should’ve brought the others.” I heard Winnie mutter. I thought the same, but then I had a lightbulb moment.
“Can you guys call him?” I asked Chloe, “I think I can track his phone.”
Chloe nodded and called Marcus. I raised my watch to my face, “Glados, can you track the person Chloe is calling?”
A bunch of quiet R2D2 noises emitted from my watch as Glados worked and pulled up a map of Jubilife on the xtransceiver screen and zoomed in before opening up Pokemaps and giving us directions.
“I got it, it’s an alleyway nearby. Thanks Glados.” I said.
Justine snapped a finger, “Gengar, go through the alleyways over there and tell us what you find. We’re looking for an average height male, short wavy brunette hair, glasses, probably wearing business casual wear with a lab coat on top. He’s carrying a bag with important stuff in it.”
A pair of red eyes appeared in her shadow and a set of pearly white teeth grinned. “Roger that mi’lady.”
Then a shadow separated from Justine’s and shot away.
I gestured for the others to follow and began running to where Pokemaps directed.
Gengar reappeared and floated alongside Justine, “I found the human you described in an alley. He’s been cornered by some other humans with bad haircuts.”
I repeated what Gengar reported to the others and they nodded.
“Sounds like those Team Galactic guys you told us about.” Kenta said, “Are we getting close?”
I nodded, “Next right!”
Kenta dashed in front of me and into the next alleyway, unclipping an ultra ball from his belt. The rest of us followed close behind.
The alley was dark and narrow, with a few dumpsters lining it, and at the end of the alleyway were a six people in Team Galactic uniforms cornering Marcus, who was tightly clutching a Devon Tech bag to his chest.
“wow, they should really fire their hair stylist.” Winnie remarked.
“Wait till you see Team Blaze.” I muttered back.
“Stop right there!” Chloe shouted, teleporting in between Marcus and the grunts. Zoe joined her sister, and they both let out the two Meowstic from their Pokeballs who posed and growled.
The leader of the grunts, a lady with violet hair and in a slightly different uniform from the others scowled as she saw us, “Where did these brats come from?”
That’s one of the Team Galactic admins, they named themselves after planets right? Mars had red hair, Saturn is blue, so this one’s Jupiter.
“You guys take Marcus back, we’ll deal with them!” Justine shouted over to the twins.
“No you don’t!” Jupiter shouted, “Grab the scientist!”
The grunts followed her command and sent out a horde of Pokemon.
Chloe looked ready to fight back, but Zoe gave her twin a look and they seemed to have a short mental argument before they both nodded. Each grabbed Marcus’s arms as the grunts ordered their Pokemon to attack.
“Call us when you’re done!” Zoe shouted. Marcus shrieked in terror, and then they all vanished, narrowly missing a barrage of attacks.
Jupiter’s annoyance quickly morphed into pure unadulterated fury, and she whipped around to face us.
“You fucking bastards! I’ll make you pay for what we’ve lost!” The Team Galactic commander screamed as she took out a Pokeball.
The grunts followed their commander’s lead and directed their Pokemon at us.
“Seize all their Pokemon and beat them into the pavement!” Jupiter shouted as she sent out a Skuntank, her grunts sent out even more Pokemon, crowding the alleyway even more.
What a way to treat a bunch of kids. Too bad Sahara can’t fit into this shitty alleyway.
Rotom buzzed in alarm and was about to dive into my bag for protection, but I grabbed it. “Stay out and film this all, we’re in the back so we’ll be safer.”
“Bzzt!” Rotom buzzed again, and showed a doubtful looking Furfrou face meme before it turned on the camera app and began recording.
Kenta sent out Haxorus, “Mind the poison types.”
“Poison Gas!” Jupiter commanded, her Skuntank growled and turned its butt to Haxorus and aggressively sprayed a thick cloud of noxious fumes.
Oh gross!
Haxorus used Protect to shield everyone behind it. Gengar flew over the protective barrier, cackling and grinning like a madman. With a flamboyant spin, the ghost Fire Punched the cloud of gas, igniting it.
The alleyway blew up, I shielded my face from the burst of light, and heard the Galactic grunts scream, and the sounds of bodies hitting walls.
“ha! talk about self sabotage!” Winnie cheered.
A gust of wind cleared the resulting smoke, revealing Jupiter who had ducked behind one of the dumpsters and the five Galactic Pokemon and two grunts who were still standing. A Golbat, Honchkrow, and Dustox were completely unharmed, they probably flew up far enough to avoid the blast.
Jupiter’s Skuntank was still up, as well as a Toxicroak and Mightyena in the back who were only lightly singed due to their crowded teammates shielding them from the majority of the blast.
I could hear a few people outside of the alleyway screaming and the clattering footsteps of people running away.
The police are probably going be coming around soon. People definitely noticed that explosion.
“Gengar and I can take care of the bitch and her Skuntank, you take care of the others.” Justine said as Gengar gave the skunk Pokemon a menacing look.
Kenta nodded, “Got it. Haxorus, get close and use Guillotine.” Haxorus rumbled and dashed forward, leaping over Skuntank and Jupiter over to the remaining grunts and their Pokemon and slashing at them with it’s tusks.
Catching Jupiter and her Skuntank by surprise, the dragon type specialist ran past them and clocked the closest grunt in the face.
Skuntank snarled and tried to chase after Kenta, but Gengar blocked the path. The ghost stuck out its tongue at the skunk and licked it on the face, leaving a slimy trail of slobber.
“Leave sky coverage to me.” I shouted to the others, “Winnie, distract flying Pokemon with illusions.”
Winnie grinned and the air around the flying Pokemon shimmered as a swarm of Zubat appeared out of nowhere and began assaulting them with bites and loud shrieks.
“Glados, you can come out.”
The virtual Pokemon beep bopped and swirled out of my watch in a tornado of ones and zeroes, “PREPARED. TO. ELIMINATE.”
“Sure, umm Rotom, tell me what moves Glados knows.”
“Bzzt!”
“Moves: Conversion, Conversion 2, Defense Curl, Magnet Rise, Nasty Plot, Recycle, Agility, Recover, Lock-on, Charge, Double Edge, Thunder Shock, Discharge, Zap Cannon, Psybeam, Tri-Attack, Hyper Beam, Swift.”
“Good. Glados, get ready to shoot a target when I say it, use Charge and Nasty Plot while you wait.”
I heard the sound metal on rock and watched as Haxorus made us of the confined space and landed a clean Guillotine on Toxicroak before going for Mightyena and slicing clean through the alley’s brick wall.
Gengar was still toying around with Skuntank while Jupiter and Justine exchanged insults.
My attention switched back to the swarm of illusion Zubat as Dustox began spreading a glimmering purple powder everywhere, much to the annoyance of Honchkrow and Golbat.
“Lock-On, target Dustox.”
I waited as Glados’s pupil turned red and a red laser focused on Dustox, “TARGET. ACQUIRED.”
“Zap Cannon.”
My hair rose as electricity crackled and a beam of concentrated electricity shot at Dustox like a railgun, I heard a loud thrumming hum from the electricity.
I slightly gagged at the smell of burnt bug and Dustox dropped out of the air, burnt and smoking.
“Shit!” I heard one of the grunts shout as they returned Dustox and another one pointed at me, ordering Honchkrow and Golbat to attack right before Kenta punched the guy in the mouth.
Golbat and Honchkrow’s wings glowing light blue as they flapped and sent a salvo of Air Slashes my way.
Rotom buzzed in alarm and dived into my bag for protection as I scrambled backwards, and I felt Winnie’s claws dig into my shoulder so that he could keep his balance as. The attacks hit the ground and cut through the pavement just where I was standing.
Honchkrow cawed in laughter and Golbat dived at me, fangs glowing purple.
“Winnie, Extrasensory on Golbat! Zap Cannon Honchkrow.” I yelled.
Using my head as a launchpad, Winnie jumped up and shot a Shadow Ball straight into Golbat’s mouth. Then his eyes glowed as he used Extrasensory to attack Golbat, sending it crashing into a wall before neatly landing in front of me.
Honchkrow crowed and its wings glowed again as it prepared to send another Air Slash, only to be engulfed by a beam of electricity and turned into a roast chicken.
There was an outbreak of screaming from Skuntank as Gengar gleefully dragged it into the shadows lining the alleyway. Jupiter had been knocked over and was sporting a nasty clawmark to the face, one of her eyes was profusely bleeding.
I could see the commander gawking helplessly at Gengar as she watched it disappear with her Pokemon. Oh geez I do not want to know what’s going to happen to the Skuntank.
Jupiter’s shock turned into rage again. She glanced over at her men, who had been beaten up by Kenta.
Justine casually walked over to Jupiter and not so discreetly placed a hand on her Pokeball belt.
“So, what did you guys want with our friend?”
Jupiter smirked at Justine, “We want you idiots to stop interfering with our plans. We’re working towards the creation of a glorious and perfect world.” Her expression darkened, “You IDIOTS just HAD to interfere! You’ll regret this, I’ll make sure of it!”
Justine leaned forward a with a hand on her hip, “You’ll be reflecting on your actions from a jail cell bitch~”
Kicking at Justine’s feet to make the ghost specialist back away, Jupiter pressed the remaining Pokeball on her belt and released a Bronzong.
“Bronzong!” The metal bell Pokemon echoed as it encased all the Team Galactic people and Pokemon in psychic energy.
“Shit!” I cursed under my breath, “Glados!”
Glados squealed and shot a Zap Cannon at the metal bell Pokemon. Under Kenta’s command, Haxorus also attacked, shooting a Hyper Beam at Bronzong.
Jupiter gave us the good ol middle finger as Bronzong teleported her and the grunts away and Glados and Haxorus’s attacked hit the ground and exploded.
I coughed and waved away the smoke and dust from my face, and paused as I heard the wailing of police sirens in the distance.
“awww! come on! they got away!” Winnie whined as he jumped back up onto my shoulder.
“Of course they come only when the battle is over.” I grumbled.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got us a ticket out.” Justine cheerfully said as she pulled out her phone and called the twins.
“Hey guys~ We’re done, you can come fetch us. Now would be the best.”
I raised an eyebrow, “We’re gonna run from the police?”
“I think that the police will believe Professor Rowan more than a bunch of unruly teens, don’t you~?” Justine shot back.
I sighed, “I guess so.”
Kenta walked back over to us after returning Haxorus with a sullen expression. The guy was sporting a few bruises and cuts on his face and his knuckles were dripping blood.
Oh boy, did he really have to go beat up the grunts, pretty sure he could’ve left Haxorus to it. It’s pretty bad to get an injury on your knuckles while punching someone’s teeth out in a dirty alleyway. The bacteria from the other person’s mouth. And the alleyway. Ew.
I could tell Justine didn’t look very happy about Kenta getting into a fist fight either, as she shot him a look that was less 100% disapproving, and more like: You should know better but I get it.
I guess he had some big problems with evil organizations. Not my business to ask though.
The flashing of police lights snapped me out of my thoughts, I was starting to panic a bit, but thankfully Chloe and Zoe had great timing.
They appeared in front of us and looked around, “Where did the bad guys go?”
“We’ll tell you in a second, lets go!” Justine hurriedly said, ushering us all together.
The world shifted, and suddenly we were all back at the ranch.
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Tim and Celia were there to meet us and we explained everything to them. They surprisingly didn’t scold us for avoiding the police and fleeing the scene of the crime and said that they would take care of that issue.
We also learned from them, that Marcus told them, that the Team Galactic goons were trying to steal the tech in his bag. Jupiter also said something about killing him, which was the most concerning part.
Celia was particularly angry in a worried way towards Marcus cause he neglected to bring any of his Pokemon with him. He was too excited to see the new tech and simply forgot. The researcher would’ve been toast if we hadn’t arrived on time. He had to go lay down to calm down from almost getting horribly injured at best and killed at worst.
Poor guy just wants to do his research in peace and this evil team just had to come and try to kill him and steal his hard work.
The rest of the team gathered to hear what happened, it wasn’t everyday that such an obvious attempt to sabotage the expedition happened. They all agreed that Galactic Corporations had something to do with this.
Abigail looked as stoic as usual. Jason just stood to the side and listened to us talk with a concerned look.
Ben and Collin were rightfully furious about their colleagues being attacked, but they liked the part about the twins teleporting the grunts into a dumpster and joked that the grunts should’ve been put into a trash compactor instead.
After making sure her younger sister was unharmed, Angela scolded Gengar for getting too distracted with whatever it did to poor Skuntank and therefore not being able to catch any of the attackers.
I told the others about the recording Rotom had, though the latter half only had audio since Rotom had hidden in my bag when we were attacked by Golbat and Honchkrow, which I didn’t blame the electric type for.
Professor Rowan came out of the lab after he was done checking up with Marcus and announced to the rest of the team that no one was allowed to leave the lab’s property without taking their team with them, which should be obvious. Everyone was also to use a buddy system and let everyone know where we were going whenever we left the property.
Rowan had been pretty hands off with the expedition team besides attending team meetings and despite always acting a bit stern he’d always given off friendly grandpa vibes.
Now, we were seeing a different side of him. The Professor could handle some annoying harassment, but a threat on his employee’s lives was a whole other issue. He quickly obtained copy of the recording of the fight from Rotom, all he said as he left was a short, “I’ll handle it.”
Oooo, someone’s gonna get their ass whooped. I had no idea who, but I guess the professor had someone in mind.
Once everything calmed down a bit, I went inside to change out of my dirt stained clothes and wash off the sticky cake residue from Winnie’s fur. The Kaiju and the ghost gang were given their share of cake as Winnie recounted the day’s events. I had Shuppet take Sahara’s ultra ball so the landshark could have some free time in the ranch.
Kaiju fell asleep after eating cake so I left him there with the ghosts to babysit and went downstairs to see what was up after I heard some shouting.
The lounge was deserted, Justine, Kenta, Yamask, and Tim’s Chansey were sitting at the kitchen table with a first aid kit.
Chansey was patching up the dragon specialist’s split lip and bruised face, his hands already had a bunch of bandages on them.
Kenta just looked out the window and seemed a lot grumpier than he usually was, while Justine was sipping some tea. The ghost specialist’s usually cheerful attitude was a bit muted as she mulled something over in her head.
Yamask’s usually prideful attitude was nowhere to be found, and the mask ghost looked worryingly between the two trainers, one of its hands was resting on Justine’s shoulder.
What’s going on here?
A slightly soggy Winnie climbed up onto my head and peered at the two as I walked over, “Will your hands make it? Or are we gonna have to begin looking for prosthetics?” I joked.
Kenta glanced over and sharply looked away, curtly replying, “My hands will be fine.”
Justine frowned and gave him a look while I raised an eyebrow. When did dragon man turn the broodiness up to ten?
“Are you okay?”
“What? Yeah–”
Justine elbowed Kenta, “He’s got a problem with Team Rocket. A lot of people from Kanto and Johto do. We get a bit snippy around other similar organizations.”
Kenta shot Justine a glare and looked away again.
Ahhh, lemme guess, someone he cares about was hurt by Team Rocket? Wait, Justine said we…Curious, but that’s none of my business if they don’t feel like talking about it. It sounds and looks like a touchy subject.
I shrugged, “I see. And by the way,” I pointed at Kenta, “if you’re gonna throw hands with people you should really get some knuckle dusters.”
“Chan sey!” Chansey exclaimed, shooting me a disapproving look. Kenta didn’t particularly acknowledge the suggestion, but he looked like he was actually considering it.
I raised my hands defensively, “Hey, it’s better than splitting his knuckles open every time he fights some evil organization’s goons.”
Justine sipped her tea, “Talismans are more effective.”
Chansey finished applying what looked like a Hyper Potion to Kenta’s face and began to clean up the stuff that she had taken out of the first aid kit.
“I’m not dealing with your ghost shit Justine.” The dragon specialist sighed as he thanked Chansey and took the soft-boiled egg she offered him.
Justine rolled her eyes and sassily flicked her purple hair, “It would save you a lot of trouble. You’d also be much better off if you’d be willing to get a Dreepy, Dragapults are faster than Dragonites by a long shot.”
“You’re really going to bring that up again?”
“Of course!”
Yamask shot me a relieved look and I smiled back at it as the two trainers went back to their usual light hearted bickering, the tension in the room lightening.
I sat down and joined the debate on Dragapult.