Location: Veilstone City, Galactic Corporations HQ
Time: 0600 hours (Six hours before the Nobles reclaimed the Icelands Ranger Base)
A lowly Team Galactic grunt slowly pushed a janitor’s cart down the semi-empty hallway of one of the lower floors of Team Galactic’s base. The carts wheels lightly squeaked and echoed down the quiet hall as they rolled, but none of the people walking by gave him a second glance. It was like he didn’t exist to them. That was the best thing about being a janitor in places like this.
Taking one last furtive look at his surroundings, the grunt stopped at the janitor’s closet and casually rolled the cart inside, quietly closing the door behind him.
The grunt quickly went to the back of the closet and pulled a shoebox out from underneath one of the many dusty shelves of cleaning equipment.
Inside a pocket of one of the spare Team Galactic uniform shoes was a thumb-sized black Devon tech bag. The grunt double checked the contents of the bag and nodded before quickly stuffing the bag into his pocket.
He then went around the room and added a bunch of cleaning supplies to his cart before exiting the janitor’s closet. It was about time to go clean the boss’s office before today’s commander’s meeting.
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Location: Veilstone City
Time: 0900 hours
A group of about fifteen Galactic corporation employees walked into the building on their way to work, each of them scanning their ID cards at the little machine at the front desk. The red haired man at the front gave the receptionist a polite smile and nod as the group made their way to the elevator.
The receptionist gave the group a disinterested look and stopped paying attention to them once all the IDs cleared through the system, quickly returning his full attention to the TV show he was watching while pretending to do work on his computer.
“Switch over.” Flint ordered as soon as the elevator doors closed. There were a few soft beeps as the ACE trainers with him tapped their Kecleon suits, their clothes rippled as they shifted in color and shape, quickly changing into the Team Galactic grunt uniform.
The elevator softly dinged as it reached floor B1. This floor contained the grunt barracks, where the majority of lower ranked Team Galactic members hung out when they weren’t doing anything.
Eight trainers exited and disappeared into the semi-crowded hallways of B1. Two grunts stepped into the elevator.
As they began to go down, the faint sounds of a battle beginning from the floor above permeated the silent elevator.
“Hey, what’s that sound?” One of the grunts asked, pointing up, “Is there–oof!” One of the ACE trainers knocked him out with a solid punch to the head.
The other grunt didn’t even get a chance to react before someone else knocked her lights out as well.
The moment the elevator doors opened to floor B2, two bodies flopped out, surprising the people waiting for the elevator.
“What the–” One of the grunts gasped before a Sawk socked him in the face and sent him flying.
“Make some room!” Flint shouted as he let out his Flareon and Houndoom, who both let out a short burst of fire to force the grunts back and make room for the ACE trainers and their Pokemon.
There was a series of pops and flashes as the ACE trainers let out their own Pokemon while the Team Galactic Grunts began to send out a swarm of Zubat, Dustox, Croagunk, and Stunky.
A Gholdengo shot forward on a golden surfboard and barreled through the poison type attacks from the enemy Pokemon, using its steel type immunity to its advantage.
“Gholden!” The coin ghost snapped its fingers and winked as it sent a storm of glittering gold coins at the enemy Pokemon, ricocheting the coins like bullets all around to hit its opponents multiple times.
Hellfire spewed out of Houndoom’s maw to meet a Stunky that was preparing to shoot an attack from its behind, burning the skunk into unconsciousness.
Sawk jumped in and swiftly began knocking out the Galactic grunts with controlled punches and kicks. A Scizor flew past Sawk and used its claws to swipe away a series of Venoshocks from a few Zubat fluttering around before KO-ing them all with Metal Claw.
“Poison Powder!” One of the grunts shouts at two of the still conscious Dustox, who immediately began releasing glittering poisonous scales from their wings.
“Burn it up!” Flint countered. Flareon whipped around, using its tail to send a miniature fire spin at the incoming cloud of poison, sucking it up and burning it away. Houndoom leaped through the fire, sucking up some of the fire to boost its attacks as it shot two balls of fire at the poisonous moth Pokemon and fainted them.
“Should we use the trap?” One of the ACE trainers asked Flint, pointing at her Glaceon and Vaporeon.
Flint shook his head, keeping his eyes on the hallway in front of them, “Not yet, there aren’t enough here yet. We’ll keep waiting for them to come to us.”
The fire type specialist grinned to himself. This was kinda like how he and Volkner used to train by throwing rocks at Beedrill nests to get all of the bees to swarm in one place and battle them all at once. Though this time he actually had the firepower to take his swarmed enemies out all at once.
As if on cue, another large group of Galactic grunts turned the corner at the end of the hallway Flint was looking down and began sending out more Pokemon as they charged at the intruders, shouting commands for their Pokemon to attack.
“Discharge!” One of the Ace trainers shouted as their Luxray rushed to the front.
“Lux!” The electric type shouted, a bright web of lightning jumped from its body and caught the incoming horde of Pokemon and grunts alike and stunning them.
The ACE Pokemon ducked as a Leavanny and Araidos in the back, shot sticky webs at their enemies, immobilizing them.
They repeated this a few times before the number of grunts coming to confront them was almost nil.
“Do it.” Flint ordered.
The ACE trainer nodded, and gave Glaceon and Vaporeon the go ahead, “Ice trap, make sure to leave a path for us to get through.”
The ice and water duo darted forward as Luxray, Sawk, Scizor, and Gholdengo jumped back to give them room.
“Vaporeon!” Vaporeon used its tail to summon a massive splash of freezing water that completely soaked the downed grunts and Pokemon. Immediately after that, Glaceon blew a gust of Icy Wind, double layering the sticky webs in ice so that they wouldn’t melt.
Flareon nodded in approval at its fellow eeveelutions before trotting through the iced hallway, melting a path that would make it safe for people to walk on.
“Make sure to secure any weapons they might have on them too.” Flint said he and Houndoom followed Flareon. “I’m gonna go finish my objective.”
“Yes sir.” A few of the ACE trainers replied, they were already in the process of disarming the Team Galactic members and returning all the fainted Pokemon, putting their Pokeballs into a secure bag.
Flint and his Pokemon quickly made their way to the security room. It didn’t take long because most of the Team Galactic grunts on this floor were trapped in ice, the those that remained were spread out and didn’t dare challenge an elite four member by themselves.
Turning the corner, Flint spotted a room with a much more heavily reinforced door than all the others. There were three grunts outside with a Croagunk, Zubat, and Stunky, one of the grunts was violently banging on the door.
“Hey! What are you guys doing in there? Open the door we need to sound the alarm!”
The Croagunk croaked in alarm as it spotted Flint and his Pokemon.
The redhead grinned and waved at them, “Hey, how’s your day going?” Then he clicked his tongue to signal Flareon and Houndoom to attack.
Flareon crashed into Stunky with Flame Charge, knocking the skunk Pokemon away and fainting it. Houndoom blasted Dustox with a Flamethrower before biting Croagunk with Fire Fang and throwing the frog Pokemon into Dustox, sending both into the wall with enough force to leave a crater.
Shocked that their Pokemon were taken out so quickly, the grunts barely had any time to react before Flint whipped out a taser and jabbed it into the stomach of the grunt nearest to him. The grunt let out a bunch of garbled noises as he fell to the ground.
The second closest grunt seemed to have some of his wits about him and pulled out a baton, prompting the last grunt to pull out a can of pepper spray.
Flint didn’t need to tase them, as a Dark Pulse from Houndoom hit the pepper spray grunt in the back, knocking the wind out of her as she fell to the ground with a cry of pain from the rampant dark type energy coursing through her body. A speedy Quick Attack from Flareon knocked out the baton grunt.
“Good job guys.” Flint said, putting his taser away and walking over to the security door.
Houndoom trotted over to Flint, making sure to step on all of the downed grunts and digging its claws in walked on them. Flareon followed suit and made sure to snobbily kick some imaginary sand at the grunts with its hind paws.
Flint knocked a pattern on the frame of the thick metal security door. There was a pause, and some shuffling sounds from inside before the door opened to reveal a rather nondescript looking security guard.
In the darkness of the security room, Flint could briefly make out the unconscious and tied up forms of the two other security guards that were supposed to be on duty.
With a hint of a smile, the security guard briefly glanced at the fainted grunts outside as he handed Flint two keycards before quickly closing the door.
Without another word, Flint headed straight for the lab elevators but paused and glanced at the fainted grunts in front of the security room after he saw one of them slightly move in the corner of his eye. He tapped one of the Pokeballs on his belt, letting out his Magmortar.
“Watch them until someone comes to pick them up.” Flint said, pointing to the grunts.
Magmortar looked a bit disappointed that it was assigned to babysitting duty instead of getting to battle but it nodded.
Once he was at the lab elevators, Flint checked his commlink. There was a message from the team assigned to B1 that they had cleared their floor, and another from his team that they were in the process of clearing B2 for any stragglers.
“Good, I don’t have to wait.” The elite four trainer said as he took a small flat circular disc the size of his palm and set it on the ground.
The device flashed and then expanded to the size of a large pizza.
There was a flash as Lucian appeared on the circle and quickly stepped off of it. A somewhat grimm-looking Johtonian man in an Interpol uniform appeared right after Lucian and stepped off to let the rest of their joint ACE and Interpol team teleport in.
Flint smiled and handed Lucian and the lead Interpol agent the all access keycards. “Careful, there’s only two of ‘em.”
Lucian nodded, “Will do.”
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Location: Veilstone City, Galactic Corporations HQ, Team Galactic Head Office
Time: 0930 hours
“Those bastards! How dare they invade our base?!” Jupiter threw a remote at one of the TV screens showing the security feed, cracking the screen showing ACE trainers and Interpol storming the main lobby. One of them took the time to show the panicked receptionist a piece of paper.
“How did they find headquarters without us knowing?” Mars asked, “They shouldn’t have access to enough info for them to get a search warrant for the building!”
“Clearly they do,” Saturn grimly replied, “there must’ve been a whistleblower or a spy that we missed.”
Stolen novel; please report.
“Is that Cynthia?!” Mars exclaimed, pointing to the lobby camera showing the Sinnoh champion and her Lucario making their way to the elevator.
“What should we do boss?” Saturn asked Cyrus, who was silently watching the video feed.
Cyrus was silent for a moment as he contemplated his options, “This base is lost.” The leader of Team Galactic walked over to one of the blank walls in his office and pressed his hand against it.
The wall slid up, revealing a warp portal. “We must retrieve Charon and his research before leaving. Out plans will still be viable as long as we still have a way to create the Red Chain.”
Cyrus stepped onto the device but nothing happened. The leader’s frown deepened as he checked the warp portal, it had been tampered with, but that shouldn’t have been possible. He was the only one who knew about this.
Seeing the issue, Jupiter sent out a Bronzong, “I’ll have Bronzong teleport us down then.” Bronzong shuddered, “Bron…zong…”
“I think something is wrong with Bronzong.” Mars commented as she noticed Bronzong shuddering as it repeatedly failed to teleport.
Saturn scanned the room, “I think I know what it is.”
Cyrus knelt down and reached under the warp panel. He pulled his hand out and examined the little black domed device that he had just detached from the underside of the panel and showed it to his commanders. “Someone has placed anti-teleportation tech around my office.”
He crushed the object in his fist. “Quick, find as many as you can, once we destroy enough we should be able to teleport.”
“Going somewhere hun?” An unfamiliar voice asked in a taunting tone.
The Team Galactic Leader and Commanders instantly came to attention, hands hovering above their Pokeball belts as they looked around. A beep from above made them look up.
A blonde, short haired lady in a light tan trenchcoat floated horizontally above Cyrus. She gave them a coy wave as the Elgyem who was holding her up with Psychic beeped again and flashed an Interpol badge at the criminals.
The lady instantly dropped down, elbowing Cyrus in the temple and sending him reeling, holding his head before the Interpol agent landed with a neat roll and swept Cyrus’s feet from out under him with a leg, sending him crashing to the ground. The leader of Team Galactic scrambled to get up, managing to press the buttons on one of the Pokeballs on his belt right before he was pinned to the ground with his arms harshly twisted behind his back.
There’s a pop and a flash as a Crobat lets itself loose from Cyrus’s Pokeball belt and screeched in fury at its trainer being threatened by this stranger. The purple bat furiously slashed its wings through the air, sending a series of vicious Air Slashes at the Interpol Agent.
At the same time, the Team Galactic Commanders all reached for their Pokeballs. Elgyem used Psychic to relieve Cyrus of his Pokeball belt.
A salvo of Water Shurikens intercepted the blades of wind, creating a small explosion that Crobat cleared out with a flap from its wings just in time to see a Greninja face to face as the ninja frog punched the bat with a fist coated in ice.
Greninja landed a rapid second Ice Punch that sent Crobat crashing to the other side of the room where it stayed, its eyes spinning. The water type neatly landed in a ninja pose between the commanders and its trainer.
The Interpol agent grunted as Cyrus fought back, blowing her in the stomach as he struggled to get his hands free while she tried to put handcuffs onto him.
“Psybeam Bronzong! Skuntank use Poison Tail! Get your filthy hands off our glorious leader!” Jupiter screamed with an expression comparable to that of a rabid Grimmsnarl.
“Brick Break.” Saturn ordered the Toxicroak he sent out, who glared at Greninja. Another frog…There was only one frog allowed in that room, and that frog was Toxicroak!
A Purugly appeared behind Toxicroak and Skuntank and meowed disdainfully. “Double Team and Play Rough.” Mars ordered.
Shrugging off Bronzong’s Psybeam, Greninja deftly parried Skuntank’s Poison Tail with a Night Slash before slamming a massive Water Shuriken into the skunk Pokemon, sending it flying and knocking it out.
“Purrr!” Purugly meowed as a series of clone Purugly’s appeared and began running all around Greninja in a confusing pattern.
“Toxi!” Toxicroak croaked, darting forward and swinging a furious fighting type imbued fist at the ninja frog.
Dodging the attack with ease, Greninja mockingly ribbeted back as it slammed its own Brick Break into Toxicroak’s face, knocking the enemy frog out in one hit before throwing it into Bronzong.
All of the Purugly duplicates eyes glinted and they pounced in unison once it saw its enemy distracted with Toxicroak. It infused its body with fairy type energy and tried body-checking the ninja frog.
“Purrr?!” The fat cat meowed in alarm as Greninja turned into a log with a poof, and the real Greninja appeared behind the cat in another poof of smoke.
“Greninja nin, greninja.” Greninja quipped as it hit Purugly with a devastating Night Slash and landed gracefully. The cat Pokemon flopped to the ground, fainted.
“No! Purugly!” Mars shouted, quickly returning her cat Pokemon while Saturn returned Toxicroak with gritted teeth.
There was a ratcheting sound as the Interpol agent finally finished tightening handcuffs around Cyrus’s wrists. She pressed the nest ball on her belt as she got up. A Shuckle appeared and landed in front of Cyrus and gave him a mean look as if to say, “Try something and see what happens. I dare you.”
Elgyem pointed up, using Psychic to levitate Cyrus so that he wouldn’t be able to slip away.
The commanders reached for their other Pokeballs again to find them gone. There was a loud cackle as a purple mist with green spots tauntingly showed them the items it had liberated from them before disappearing underneath the crack of the office door.
Then the door burst open, kicked in by a Garchomp. Cynthia strode in after the dragon and a small group of ACE trainers poured in after them, ready for a confrontation.
Spiritomb reformed behind its trainer and cackled again as it tauntingly juggled the Pokeballs it just stole.
“Surrender yourselves. You don’t want to fight us.” Cynthia calmly stated, “We’ve already captured–”
Jupiter let loose an ear-piercing scream, “Like hell we’d give up! We’d rather die than give up on our great leader!” The violet haired commander pulled out a knife from her sleeve and ran straight at Cynthia.
Garchomp deflected Jupiter’s knife attack, breaking the weapon with her tough scales and knocked the commander out with a swift controlled strike to the face. Mars and Saturn backed up from the growling landshark only to be met by Greninja behind them.
The Interpol agent cleared her throat as she approached the commanders, “Cyrus Akagi, Rie Ortiz, Taiki Okamura, and Chinami Kinoshita, you are under arrest for multiple counts of murder, assault, inciting gang violence, grand theft, endangering Pokemon, Pokemon trafficking, murdering Pokemon, attempting to incite the anger of legendaries,”
The agent sighed as she trailed off, “...and, etcetera. You guys fucked up. Right now you should make the smart decision and surrender without having to force us to knock you out too.” The agent gestured at Jupiter’s unconscious form on the floor, a small trickle of blood flowing from her nose.
Garchomp added to the effect by giving the remaining two commanders a good show of her razor sharp teeth.
Mars sighed and put her hands up in defeat, “Fine. I surrender. Just please don’t permanently take my Pokemon away from me.”
Once Mars surrendered, Saturn made up his mind and followed suit, muttering an apology to Cyrus as he and Mars let themselves be handcuffed and led away by ACE trainers.
It was then that Cyrus finally decided to speak. “You’ve made a grave mistake Cynthia.”
Eyes narrowing, Cynthia approached her former friend. Garchomp softly snarled, she was ready to cut this bastard up the moment Cynthia said so.
With a cold smile, Cynthia replied. “A mistake? Yes you’re right. I made the mistake of trusting you. I believed that you wanted to improve Sinnoh for the sake of the people and Pokemon. Clearly I was wrong.”
Cyrus scowled and glared at the Champion, “You will never understand. I do want to improve Sinnoh, I want to make the entire world a perfect place, and you have ruined this world’s chance for paradise.”
“You mean your chance for paradise, Cyrus, at the cost of everyone else.” Cynthia retorted, before turning her back on him. “Take him away.” She sharply ordered the ACE trainers standing by, “I don’t want to have to see his face again.”
Two ACE trainers stepped forward and roughly grabbed Cyrus by the arms. Elgyem let them take him from its psychic hold and gave Cyrus a cheerful double middle finger as he was carted away, still glaring at the people who had completely torn down his dreams.
Cynthia didn’t spare him a glance and turned to the Interpol agent who was speaking into her commlink, “This is Ginger, the leaders have all been arrested. Earl, what’s your progress?”
The agent listened for a moment before nodding and turning to the Champion. “The team in Lab 2 are having some trouble with some rogue Pokemon. We’re gonna need the rangers.”
The Champion nodded and motioned for the remaining ACE trainers to go fetch a few rangers, “Come on, let’s go help him out then.”
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Location: Veilstone City, Galactic Corporations HQ, Lab 1
Time: 0930 hours
The labs were in an uproar, scientists ran around in a panic like a disturbed nest of Durant as they went about trying to teleport away only to discover that they were trapped.
In the midst of the chaos, Head Scientist Charon stood at one of the big machines, intently typing stuff into it and reading the graphs it printed out. The multiple Magneton the machine was hooked up to groaned as massive amounts of electricity were sapped from them.
One of the scientists stopped by Charon, “Head scientist! We need help repairing the warp panels!”
Charon simply waved the scientist off, “We’re not going to escape. Do you not know who is leading the raid?”
“Cynthia? She can’t track–”
“It’s not just the Champion you fool.” Charon continued to type into the machine, “Interpol is involved, so that means those two are involved as well.”
“Who? What? But–”
Charon interrupted the scientist again with another dismissive wave. “Besides, I’m on the verge of a breakthrough in my research. The Interpol may not like me, but the league will find my research useful enough to allow me to continue it, so it’s no big loss for me.”
There was a groaning from the machine Charon was operating on, the elderly scientist straightened and adjusted his glasses as he tried to figure out what was wrong. “That’s not a good sound.” He muttered to himself.
Suddenly, the machine imploded like a soda can crumpling, causing the head scientist to recoil and fall onto his ass while the previously trapped Magneton bounced away, suddenly free.
The scientist Charon was talking let out a surprised squeak and turned to run but collided face-first into an invisible wall and fell down, clutching her now bleeding nose.
“Actually, the Pokemon League has agreed to let Interpol prosecute you, and I can assure you, they don’t intend on making any deals.” Lucian said with a cold smile as he stepped over the scientist with the bleeding nose.
In the background, Lucian’s Mr Mime was herding the Team Galactic Scientists into boxes made of psychic energy using its barriers while his Alakazam and Espeon helped the ACE trainers and Interpol agents seize all of the research and equipment.
“This–this is all just a misunderstanding!” Charon stuttered, raising his hands as he scooted backwards, “I mean Cyrus wanted to play with the very fabric of space and time, so I made sure I could supervise to make sure it wouldn’t go too far!”
“You made sure it wouldn’t go too far huh?” Lucian leaned down and held up a file neatly labeled in big black letters: The Chimera Project. “You want to tell me what this is then?”
“Well, you see, that’s our project on creating a Pokemon using the best parts of other Pokemon! It’s–” Charon screamed in terror as a psychic force picked him up. Alakazam pointed its spoon downwards and slammed Charon into the ground, knocking the scientist out.
Disgusting, I wish I could wash my telekinesis. Alakazam commented as it gave Charon a disdainful look.
I’ll see what I can do about that. Lucian replied as he took out his commlink and spoke into it, “Lab B3 has been captured. What’s the progress on the other floors?”
Flint was the first to reply, “Floors B1 and B2 are completely cleared, all the Team Galactic members have been arrested. We’re in the process of loading them up to be transported.”
“This is Ginger, the leaders have all been arrested. Earl, what’s your progress?”
There was a pause before the Interpol agent in charge of the team clearing Lab B4 answered, “We’ve arrested the scientists here but a few of the Pokemon they’ve experimented on are giving us some trouble. Ranger assistance is requested.”
“I will let them know.”
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Location: Veilstone City, Galactic Corporations HQ
Time: 1300 hours
A group of rangers gently coaxed a bunch of scarred and emaciated Stantler and Wyrdeer over to the temporary warp panel that had been set up to transport them out without stressing them out too much. One ranger loosely looped a capture styler cord around the boney neck of the herd leader, using a sitrus berry to keep it focused on the food instead of its surroundings.
Seeing their leader so calm helped relax the rest of the herd, and they quickly followed suit when presented with tasty berries.
Cynthia, Flint, Lucian, and their Pokemon silently watched the progression from the observation deck. Garchomp sniffed and looked away, it couldn’t stand the sight of Pokemon in such a sorry state. Alakazam nudged Garchomp’s arm, “Alakazam, zam ala alakazam.” Then it mimed slamming someone into the ground.
Garchomp snorted in slight amusement.
They looked over as the elevator softly dinged. Agent Ginger and Agent Earl exited with Elgyem floating in between them.
Ginger lightly winced as she saw the state of the Stantler being transported out. “Wow, this is probably one of the worst cases I’ve seen since the fall of Team Rocket.”
“Man, if I ever get my hands on those people.” Flint growled, clenching his fists. “Flare!” Flareon barked, shooting a jet of fire into the air. Houndoom flexed its claws.
“The best thing we can do now is make sure the victims all recover and are well taken care of.” Earl replied to Flint’s statement.
“Where’s Looker?” Cynthia asked, glancing around, “Is he okay?”
“Oh, Looker? He’s already on his way to the next assignment.” Ginger answered.
Cynthia furrowed her eyebrows in concern and she exchanged a look with Flint and Lucian. Then Flint asked, “You mean there are even more organizations like…” He trailed off as he glanced at the nearby rangers and ACE trainers.
“Yes, but it doesn’t have to do with Sinnoh so it’s none of your concern.” Earl said with a tone of finality.
“Well then, please thank Looker for me when you next see him.” Cynthia said, then she lowered her voice, “I don’t even want to think about what would’ve happened if Cyrus had gotten his hands on the orbs and the lake guardians.”
One of the rangers waved up at the trio and shouted as the last Pokemon was sent through the warp panel, “That’s the last of them!”
Cynthia nodded and waved back, “Thank you for helping us out, I would like updates on the Pokemon rescued from this facility when possible.”
The ranger nodded before disappearing through the warp panel with the rest of the rangers. Then Cynthia’s commlink buzzed, “Champion, the news crews are beginning to arrive.”
Cynthia took a moment to collect herself. She straightened her posture and smoothed down her jacket before she responded, “Direct them to the conference venue.”
“Well,” Cynthia turned to the others, “I have a press conference to prepare for. See you there.” She and Garchomp then walked over to the warp panel and disappeared.
“I’m not looking forward to the fallout of this.” Flint groaned as he began to head for the warp panels. The others followed suit.
Earl mirrored Flint’s scowl and grumbled under his breath, “I’d rather deal with terrorists than the press.”
“Hey, look at the bright side.” Ginger chirped, “At least Sunyshore Energy will finally have a chance now that Galactic Corporations won’t be dominating the energy market. I’m excited to see what Volkner will come up with.”
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Location: Veilstone City, Temporary Interpol HQ
Time: 2-ish Weeks After the raid on Galactic Corporation HQ
There was a light knock on the office door. Earl looked up as Ginger and Elgyem entered, the latter levitated nine large boxes of files into the office before Ginger closed the door behind her.
Inteleon gave Ginger and Elgyem a nod to acknowledge their presence but otherwise kept her attention on her paperwork.
“Do you need something?” Earl asked in a somewhat tired voice, warily eyeing the boxes of files. He had been stuck here doing paperwork all week and wasn’t looking forward to more being piled on his desk.
Ginger grinned and patted “Yep, I also have some stuff that you’ll find interesting.”
Earl sighed and stretched, leaning back in his chair as he massaged his sore neck, “Does it have to do with our anonymous informant?”
Elgyem gently set the boxes down in front of Earl’s desk as Ginger answered, “Yep. I’ve figured out who they are.”
That earned another sigh from Earl, “That’s a breach of privacy. There’s a reason why we let people stay anonymous.” He put extra emphasis on the word anonymous.
“It wasn’t on purpose,” Ginger retorted, crossing her arms, “It’s just that I can read Mr Renato like a book.”
“Elg-yem!” Elgyem beeped, waving its arm and letting its multicolored fingers flash. Ginger nodded and gestured at the psychic type, “And I had some help from Ellie. It’s pretty obvious where he met the informant, so I was able to figure out who they were with a simple background check.”
“Cool. I don’t see why this is important. He told us the informant wasn’t part of any criminal groups.” Earl wheeled his chair back, reaching to a desk behind him to grab his mug of coffee. The agent wrinkled his nose in distaste as he took a sip, the coffee had gone cold.
Ginger raised an eyebrow, “Yeah, but he didn’t mention that our informant is most likely a faller.”
Earl paused and turned back to Ginger, “You’re kidding me right?”
“That’s not the most shocking part.” Ginger reached into one of her inner pockets and took out a photo to show to her colleague. “You remember the most recent expedition to Alabaster Mountain?”
“Yeah.” Earl reached out and took the photo that Ginger offered him, looking skeptically at the group photo of the expedition group posing outside of the Sinnoh regional lab. “And?”
Ginger pointed at one of the people in the photo, “Take a closer look at the girl with the White Zorua. Her name is Azalea Lang. Sound familiar?”
Earl thought for a moment before speaking, “Yeah, I remember that name from the Y-Incident in Kalos. She was one of the victims.”
Inteleon’s pen paused and the sniper lizard sharply looked up from her paperwork as she heard the familiar names. Elgyem beeped curiously at the water type, who quietly began to explain the incident to the psychic type.
The blonde agent pulled out a file from one of the boxes and flipped through the few sheets of paper in it.
“No listed family, no known background besides all the inconsistent crap she’s been giving everyone, she just spontaneously appeared one day. Then she began giving us accurate information about organizations, places, and events that a normal person should not know. And she doesn’t write about it like how Olympia does it with her prophecies, but more as if she’d heard the sources from somewhere else as facts, like in a history book.”
“So you’re saying that this kid is Azalea Lang, but from another dimension that’s in the future.” Earl stated.
“Yep.” Ginger nodded, “We won’t know for sure until someone scans her for ultra wormhole energy. Just to be safe, we should make sure she doesn’t go to Alola anytime soon.”
“Are you gonna inform the higher ups?” Earl asked.
“Ha! Are you serious?” Ginger scoffed and shook her head, “Of course not. I don’t need another kid being used as Ultra Beast bait.”
Earl nodded in agreement, “Yeah I agree with that. I guess we’ll figure out what to do about her later.” The guy looked like he aged a few years in only a few seconds as he thought about the potential backlash from their bosses.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking.” Ginger said with a grin, “I’ll pull some strings to make sure this kid doesn’t get noticed by anyone else in the meantime. We’ve got more important stuff to get to, courtesy of said kid.”
She patted the file boxes, “We just received new info from Mr. Renato and the informant, so I pulled out all the relevant files. I was right about the Aether Foundation.”
Earl perked up as he heard the name of the organization, “So we’re hitting Alola next? I’d like to put a stop to the Chimera Project asap.”
“Nah, sorry to disappoint.” Ginger replied as she began piling files onto Earl’s desk, “But we need more time for Looker to investigate. We’re hitting Galar next.”
The blonde agent dropped a final file onto Earl’s desk labelled: The Darkest Day. “It’s gonna be a doozy, I wonder if we’ll be given clearance to use Dynamax.” Ginger grinned as she thought of something interesting, “Hey! What do you think will happen if I use both Mega Evolution and Dynamax at the same time?”
“Nothing good.” Earl growled with distaste as he picked up one of the files and began flipping through it, “Arceus’s asshole. I hate Galar and I hate dealing with Dynamaxed Pokemon.”