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'Gren,' Bacque said, taking Grant's hand in his own, releasing it after a quick shake. 'Frog in Kalosian is Grenouille, so it just sort of made sense.'

Bacque burst out laughing, holding his hand to his forehead. 'Ahh, I completely forgot to introduce myself. My name is Gaston Bacque. I work for the pokémon league. I don't normally meet people up close when I'm working, but there are hardly any cliffs here.'

'You could say that. It's a great job for someone like me,' Bacque said. 'Every league season, they give me a name or two, and I cross those names off. Then the rest of the year I'm allowed to have a soul.'

Gren took his cue to place its palm on Grant's chest. The bumps dotted along his body started to quiver, and would send pulses directly into Grant's chest cavity. Grant wouldn't be able to move. The vibrations traveled quickly through bone and would have already reached his spine.

'In a few seconds you might feel like you want to be sick,' said Bacque. 'That's normal. Gren's just turning your insides into soup, and some of that's bound to come up. Just hang on, he'll find the right frequency soon.'

'It's taking longer than I expected,' Bacque said, drumming his lips. 'Gren can you hurry up? This is incredibly embarrassing. No, don't do it now, we don't want chunks.'

Gren concentrated on his palm like a workman with a drill. He felt the texture of Grant's body, the way it quivered under his touch. Blood escaped the trainer's mouth, drooling on the pokémon's arm. Then Gren had it.

'It's bad luck we had to meet like this,' Bacque said to Grant, clapping him reassuringly on the shoulder. 'If it'd been a week or two ago, you'd have had a great time. I throw an amazing barbecue.'

The bump on the back of Gren's hand inflated then slammed back down, sending a shock of vibrations through Grant's body. He'd matched the trainer's resonant frequency, dissolving the intermolecular bonds. Grant broke apart like a statue made from ash, scattering on the wind, his body turned to dust. Bacque's hand dropped through where Grant had been, and he took a deep, satisfied breath at a job well done.

'It's funny,' he said to Gren, who was busy slucing his arm down with a mild water gun. 'I should feel something. Ah well. It's time to see if our friend held up her side of the bargain.'

Hidden Oil Field

Again, Alexa gave Bridgette and perplexed look, but wouldn't say anything about it out loud. It was not the time or place to question how different people reacted to death. A journalist had to remain objective. Ben was right, they needed to get what they came for and leave. "I...sure. A basket. We'll fly out of here on a basket."

The twins were reluctant to go inside with the others. Staying outside in this godforsaken forest was still a worse option, so they followed. Manny led the pack.

If he was still using Mind Reader, the Meditite would find no signs of life inside the facility, save for a few Ratata scurrying through the vents. The lights flickered on and off in the grey hallways. Rooms of automated machines and computers hummed alongside multiple AC units that gave the whole building a chill like a cave.

"I don't know," Alexa said, snapping pictures of each room they came across. Nothing about this place looked sanitary, or productive. "A Nostrad owns this place? It's a sham."

Ahead of them was a neon red EXIT sign blinking over a hallway that led to a single door. By now they were deep into the facility, in a basement level.

In the only other unexplored direction was a room labeled 'Archive'.

That was when Manny might feel the presence of a new Aura outside in the field.

************************************************

In a snap of green smoke and a white flash appeared in the center of the oil field, atop the mass of plants.

Rosencrantz, one of the six Royal Quillon Knights, surveyed the site with a swivel of his head. The Gallade's black suit of armor shined under the sun. He looked down and reached through the thicket pile, pulling out one of the Trevenant's hans. He let it flop like a plank of wood.

Another Teleport later, he was walking to the side of the oil field, looking at the shining pond of toxicity plaguing the storage area. Rosencrantz shook his head, then sensed multiple Auras moving through the basement of the facility. These must have been the intruders the Stalker had relayed about, before he was taken out by them.

His mission was to leave no witnesses or evidence. There was no way he could hide an engineered travesty of this magnitude, but he could still do his best.

The Gallade's elbow blades popped out, armored like the rest of him. He swiped them together over the oil slick, creating a spark that ignited the oil. A small flame spread rapidly across the surface. Soon, the whole thing would be up in flames and explosions.

As the heat began, Rosencrantz Teleported away.

************************************************

Sirens rang throughout the facility, and the oppressively bright white lights flickered to red, giving the whole place that glow. Through a window leading into a monitor room, dials for dangerous heat levels could be seen rising.

"No way," Alexa said in disbelief. Again with this? Was there no reprieve? She turned around and nearly dropping her camera with a gasp.

Behind them, at the end of the hall they entered from, the Curse of her sister shambled at her, arms limp at her side and an empty gaze in her eyes.

"It's back, the Curse is back," Alexa stuttered, walking backwards towards the Exit slowly. Her mind raced as to how this was possible. The Stalker was defeated. It could have even been dead. Did this technique persist even without the user's mentality guiding it? When was this going to stop?

Lumiose City Streets

"Oh, Mia can get you anything you want off the black market. Like, anything." Salieri sighed wistfully at Mia's terrifying computer skills. "She can hook you up for sure."

And minutes later, they were at Gotengo.

Alexa's fear made sense, but so did the fact that this was a curse ability. Pokemon in battle escaped by winning or being returned. Either that meant they were still in danger or...

Manny informed him of the Aura, but didn't try to dig into the mind. He wasn't able to tell what had been done, only that someone was up there, then gone. That didn't bode well. Neither did the sirens for that matter. He wanted to know what was in the archive, it could be incredibly important, but unless a Pokemon suddenly learned teleport, he couldn't risk it.

"We're leaving. Down the exit! Go!" He yelled, and started trying to herd the rest of them down that path. What they had was enough. Heat levels meant potential explosion. Explosion meant attention. Attention meant their proof would be looked at more closely "Alexa, if it gets close to you, pass it to me. Okay?" She was more important here. People would trust her word, they barely knew him.

Hidden Oil Field

Alexa wanted to know what was in the archive room as much as Benedict did. But if she went down that hall, and it was a dead end, she'd be pinned by her Curse. Or she'd end up in an explosion. Whichever came first. They'd have to deal with the evidence they had.

"I can't do that," Alexa called back to Ben. She was tempted to put a hand on his shoulder for a second. A reassuring gesture, to signify that he wasn't at fault here. She was the only other person who had known the risks. She wanted to give him that, but she was afraid she might scratch him accidentally. "You got us through this far, you're getting out of here in one piece kid."

They ran down the exit hall and Alexa kicked the door open. Thankfully it was a push, not pull, and the door swung open to reveal...

An empty, dingy room. Nothing was here except for a single, dull yellow tile in the center of the room. The sirens grew louder. "What the..."

She would have given up then and there. Never in her journalism career, rife with threats, had she encountered such despair. Then Alexa realized what that tile was, and everything clicked.

Alexa stepped onto it. The Warp Tile glowed yellow, and then she and Sazerac disappeared.

Lumiose City

The Warp Tile led to another, a one way trip, and Alexa found herself in the middle of a dusty, empty floor. Perhaps she was in a building that could have held offices, or could have been a department store. Lumiose City's familiar skyline was on the horizon outside the window that stretched wide as the whole room. Judging by the distance below, she must have been on the third or fourth floor.

She was home.

Alexa turned around, her eyes on the Warp Tile to wait for the others to come through. Or for her Curse to come through. Could that be possible? She wasn't sure but she didn't want to say she was out of the woods yet.

Once they hit the dead end, Benedict's eyes searched wildly for the supposed exit. Alexa saw it first and Ben grinned. As she vanished, his mind went to returning Manny and leaving...

And then everything was pain and force and heat. An explosion threw him back, it threw Manny back too. The Pokemon, used to getting hit and with heightened defenses, used a Psychic attack to protect himself and those near him by redirecting any dangerous debris. Just a bit, at least.

When it was over, Ben was left in a coughing fit, and so was Manny. The Pokemon would vanish in a beam of light as the first reaction of a trainer who was worried for their safety. He glanced around, trying to focus. Roy seemed to be coming around faster. He checked his body, no impalement. If there was shrapnel, he didn't feel it. Shock or adrenaline. It was hard to tell. Ben stood. Everything hurt, but that was better than the alternative...

"Archive. Room." He said, glancing to the others. It was the last place they hadn't checked. At the very least he would get to see what was there. His legs were shaky, but he moved to help anyone up that needed it, and would herd the rest towards the archives.

Whatever was there, it was probably not going to be as safe to reach.