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"And then what?" Zack leant against the valley wall, arms folded, "Just
because we found the schematics for something, doesn't mean that anything
will actually be built."

A castle fortress? Get real. If Plasma was really planning to build something
like this, they'd find it impossible to hide from the World Government's
satellites. Not to mention how impractical something like that would be; what
on earth would they need a giant castle for?

"We need concrete evidence of what Plasma's up to, not half a picture of a
castle that's too big to build."

The World Government controlled most of the world. They gave people limited
freedom to live happy, prosperous lives, but ruled with absolute authority if
something might endanger their control. Plasma skirted the rim of challenging
the WG; they didn't outright oppose their policies, but rallied for a new way
for humans exist alongside pokémon. It was a spark.

Zack knew that the WG feared an uprising. Feared losing their power to the
will of the average person. Plasma had become too big, and now that they
were being seriously considered by the citizenship, simply crushing them
had slipped from the first response to the last. The WG were too afraid to
simply put a stop to Plasma because it could cause a revolt.

They needed proof that Plasma was using its philosophy as a front. And after
experiencing their forces first hand, Zack was much more interested in actual
evidence than what Jump was proposing. If radical fringe groups rampaging
under the Plasma banner wasn't enough to convince the WG that they could
act, then they'd need something a lot more impressive than a castle.

Zack closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry. If we'd found the schematics for
a... a ray gun or a bomb, I'd be behind you on this."

Route 4

"Ray gun? That's like something out of a comic book. I'm talkin' about a super giant castle, here!"

Jump realized he wasn't making his case very well, but he still couldn't understand why everyone was so skeptical. They had been to the afterlife, faced down gods of space and time, and eaten dinner together at Kero's house. If such outlandish things could happen, why would you disregard something like blueprints when half of them are right in front of you?

He pinched his brow and closed his eyes. Getting his friends to go with him on this idea would be an uphill battle. So Jump tried to explain why the giant castle was scientifically plausible using the most sound logic he could come up with.

"Zack, let me level with you for a sec," he told his friend like he was teaching a child, taking a step back for emphasis before beginning his lesson.

"Okay, so, like, skyscrapers are big right?" Jump lifted up his hand to emphasize their height. "And there are cities that are, like, full of skyscrapers. So imagine if somebody glued them all together. Side by side, stacked, whatever, like Legos." He clapped his hands together for imagery. "That building would be, like, a huge Lego building. Huge."

He spread his hands apart to show the width of this hypothetical building. "And this is like the same thing, but with a castle. Which is already big. So, like, they'd get their castle...glue, or whatever they use to make castles and stick a bunch of castle parts together and then BAM! You get a castle that's so big people are like, 'Whoa, that castle is ******** huge, how'd you guys do that?' And Team Plasma will be like 'Science, bitches'."

The Interpol Agent sighed. It was a long winded explanation, but he considered it to be concise. "You get what I mean, right? If we don't stop them now they're gonna make us look like bitches who don't know anything about science or Legos."

Nimbasa City: N

N wasn't going to rely on chance when it came to food. If Driftveil was unstocked he'd go hungry unless he foraged through the woods successfully. He had battled a few trainers over the past few days, including Elesa, so he had enough currency to get provisions now.

"Then I shall meet Zero and we will go to the supermarket." It'd be better if he got supplies before going to the amusement park, since what came after that wouldn't be so predictable. If it went badly and he had to skip town, which was the worst case scenario, then he needed to be prepared.

"Thank you for the advice, Robby." He nodded, genuinely thankful as he walked past the obese lad. "I will probably see you soon."

With that, he left to find his Zoroark friend.

Nimbasa City: Salieri

"Hmm? Oh, hey," Salieri said nonchalantly while leaning against the mailbox, as if she hadn't been expecting them even though she had. She looked at her nails.

"Yeah. I got asked out and I had some free time, so I said yes. No big deal."

Salem walked out the front door with Bastion and Ervin. Just this morning, the Blastoise had been a Wartortle. Evolution is a weird thing. The Espeon came to her trainer's side and was brought back into her pokeball. Now Sal had her team ready to go.

"What are you guys up to?" she asked, directing the question mostly at Henrietta. She rose her eyebrows up and down with a broad smile on her face.

"I... that..." Zack stopped trying to speak and simply stared at the sandy floor.

"You're right," he said, "a giant castle would be awful. You should go see what
Jacqueline thinks before we do anything about it though. I'm sure she's already
begun an investigation."

Sorry, Jacqueline. Zack thought There's no other way.

Zack remained still, eyes peering out looking unimpressed, as the small
mountain of sand drained off of his body, kicked up in the wake of Jump's
exit.

He sniffed out a breath and concentrated, performing a quick flex of his Aura
radiation. A tiny wave of force erupted from his core, scattering the sand
outwards, flapping his hair and clothes for a short second as they were freed
from the grit.

"...." Zack looked around the valley, at its tall, rocky walls, at the way the
wind howled and kicked up swathes of sand, and felt the chill of cold, dry
darkness in the centre of a desert. "I should've asked him for a lift out of
here..."

The former agent sighed, grabbed his rucksack and set off walking. He
thought of calling on Ferox, but decided that the hike back to the city would
be good for training. Despite years off the job, Zack still kept himself fit. He
wasn't sure if Natural Infusion allowed a body to become unhealthy.

Wasn't there some fat kid in Wayne's group? Zack thought as he picked
out a line of rocks on the valley wall and began to climb, The thought of
someone like that launching themselves around with NI is disturbing.

And I know from experience that it's horrifying. Why'd Elizabeth have to own a
Snorlax? They're too expensive. I should make her trade it in for something
more practical.

He crested the rock and entered the desert proper. Zack rose up as a thick
silhouette against the vast expanse of sand-hills and the flurried gusts that
swept across the desert. The day's light was already starting to wane but it
wasn't yet sunset.

Don't see anyone. Or anything. I guess that makes it just me and my thoughts.
For miles. And miles...

Zack sighed and started to walk.

---

"So where are we going?" Wayne asked, walking with his hands in his
pockets, idly fiddling with his balls. He'd once wondered what it would be
like inside a pokéball. Thanks to his ability, he now knew. It wasn't as he
had imagined.

"There's a medical station near here," Tess said. She led the way through
PokéLand, through the crowds of youths and parents. Wayne noticed a
definite lack of old people. Being old must suck. He wondered how old he'd
be when he'd ride his last rollercoaster.

Then again, with all that's going on, I probably already have... damn, how
old was I?

"Give me Hitmonlee's pokéball," Tess held her hand out expectantly. They'd
reached a tall white terminal with a red cross on the side. There was a small
monitor that displayed a welcome message and a slot just below the screen.

It housed the same type of technology as a pokémon center machine. On the
other side, there'd be medical supplies for human injuries.

Wayne frowned and slowly drew the ball from his pocket, then slapped it
down into her hand. He made sure to act reluctant about it. Now she'd know
how much he resented her for nearly killing the poor fight type. Oh yeah-

"His name's Ronin. Like a ninja."

"Samurai," Tess said, swiping her finger across the machine's display, then
slotting the ball onto the tray that popped out of the slot. "The ronin were
masterless samurai."

"No way, Tess. Ronin are definitely ninja, I told like fifty people!"

She stared at him until the machine was done with its fast repairs. It would
close the deep wound that Frost had inflicted on Ronin, but he'd still have to
avoid combat for a while.

"You should avoid talking wherever possible," she said.

Wayne shrugged and looked around. PokéLand wasn't as busy as it had
been at the start of the lock down, but there were still a fair few people about.
Hadn't the FLF wanted to blow this place up a few days ago? Like blowing up
a theme park would prove how unjust the government was.

"We can work on flaring later, if you like," Tess said, passing Ronin's ball
back to the trainer. Wayne shrugged again and Tess sighed. "Okay, so how
about I show you my pokémon? I've got one you haven't seen before."

"Probably some other time," Wayne said, "I'm still sort of pissed about earlier,
to be honest. Maybe if you stopped being such a colossal b***h then people
would want to do stuff with you."

Tess let out a single note of laughter. Wayne thought the look in her eyes
was hollow. He knew it was. She was covering. "We're still rivals, Wayne.
Even if you insist on travelling with those darling newbies, you can't forget
how powerful you used to be."

"Yeah," Wayne nodded slowly. "So?"

"Let me help you," Tess stepped forward and put her hand to Wayne's shoulder.
He frowned at it, then her. She ignored his look. "I can use Alder's training to
teach you how to control Aura properly. You can be strong like before."

"You dumped me over the phone."

"Excuse me?"

Wayne shoved her hand away with his own. "You said it was over like it was
nothing. Like you didn't care how much I got hurt. Like you just didn't give a
s**t about me at all. Now you're begging me to train with you because we're
rivals? What the ********, Tess?"

"It's complicated," she said quietly. "But you're right. What I did was selfish.
Cruel, even. I want to make it up to you. Please."

Wayne looked away, taking his turn to hollow-laugh. He shook his head, with
his hands on his hips.

"Still don't know why you went out with me in the first place," he said, "I
mean for me it was pretty simple: you're beautiful, really smart, you like doing
the same things that I do. And, y'know, you actually showed interest in
me. Or at least I thought you did. Guess it was too good to be true after all."

Wayne paused to watch her. Tess had tears in her eyes but she wiped them
away. He felt his anger burn away inside. He enjoyed it. Tess clearly didn't
like being the one who wasn't in control. Wayne had given her a taste of her
own medicine for a change.

"I'm going now," she said, eyes down-turned. "Just give me a call sometime
if you're ready to train."

She started to walk off, pushing through the milling crowds. Wayne watched
her, the girl's platinum hair making her an easy pick from the colours of
passing people. He put his hands in his pockets.

"How about never?" he called, sure that she could still hear him. He smiled
to himself.

---

"Make sure you pick only the ones you absolutely have to bring," Elizabeth
reminded Katelyn, knelt down on one knee.

The five year old stood surrounded by toys. Having a billionaire grandfather
ensured that you'd never go short of anything. Especially the things you didn't
need.

Elizabeth had never seen the girl look so miserable. After picking out the
essentials for the two of them, there was still room in the suitcase. The final
task was to make sure that Katelyn wouldn't be too bored at the airport.

She just had to sacrifice her collection in favour of one or two choice items.

"I know, why don't you take the 3DS that Elysia bought for you?" Elizabeth
suggested. "You loved playing that yesterday."

And most importantly, it's not shaped like a weapon.

"It gave me a headache..." Katelyn said, rifling slowly through the toy pile.

"Oh." What a terrible design "At least it makes a decent paperweight."

((On that note, I used a GameCube as a doorstop for about 2 years. But then
my friend wanted it back for some reason.))

It was hard to feed a man that stared for hours at his own eye. That was Eduardo's job, however. For the last few days, actually, he was to feed and bathe the prisoner. To wash off the old blood before the torturer meticulously reopened old wounds and made fresh ones.

His was strapped down at the legs, forced onto his knees with his arms over his head, shackle and chain leading up to the ceiling, bolt inside of the shackles piercing through his wrists. Nude and full of scars, and wounds. The missing eye was colored black.

The one he had left was colored red. Eduardo joked to himself that he was probably more unique with one eye then with heterochromia. Eduardo didn't know that this man had a twin.

Had.

The torturer had called this man his greatest piece of art, had taken to coming in sometimes to watch the progress of nails growing back, after being pulled off all the way to the cuticle. As the prisoner finished his meal, some old leftovers delivered in spoonfuls, that man came back.

They called him Jean-Pierre. Eduardo had no idea who he was, just that his rank was much, much higher.

Eduardo stood up to leave.

"Stay," the old man said. He was probably ten years older than the prisoner, if his graying hair was any indicator, if the lines of old age were any indicator. He still looked healthy, his arms, for example, sold him as the type of man who'd be out-benching Eduardo for another decade.

Eduardo complied with the order, heading over to the cloth soaking in water and he went to washing down the prisoner.

"Did you sleep well, Kero?" the old torturer asked as he approached the old prisoner. Heavy boots thudded with each step, until they squished - flattening the eye. He knelt before the prisoner, his expression ecstatic.

The prisoner raised his head, looked at the torturer.

"I heard you're a grandpa, Kero." The torturer produced a long hunting knife. Sharp enough, Eduardo had observed, to rip through flesh and muscle and bone without trouble.

"Congratulations." The torturer carefully took the prisoner's head, like he was taking a loved ones. Careful, almost intimate - Eduardo had made the mistake once of wondering if he was inspecting the man's face to see if something was wrong. It was until, like this time, the torturer used the knife to reopen the wound that had resulted in the man's loss of an eye that Eduardo had realized he was mistaken.

The prisoner never flinched. That was the worst part. He never screamed and he never flinched. Eduardo had his own theories. The moment he saw the old scars, so deep in the tissue that they exceeded the seven year rule of flesh. This man had been tortured before, had been battle. If only he knew the extent of that, he'd probably respect the man as a warrior.

The torturer tilted his head. "What do you think, Kero? She's young, right? But she's already getting so old. I think she needs a family reunion."

Eduardo listened in, as he cleaned, making sure not to slow or hesitate every time he had to sit through this. He didn't want to be kicked out for eavesdropping. Or worse, end up like this old man. He'd definitely scream. He'd definitely be dead by now.

"So I was think-

The torturer choked and jolted back and spit. Blood, saliva, chunks of the meal the prisoner had eaten.

His first reaction since his arrival. The torturer grinned. "Tell me what I want to know."

The prisoner remained silent.

"Think on it for a bit then." The torturer approached the prisoner again, and started on the wounds on his face, carefully reopening them, letting them bleed freely.

What followed is too gruesome to be mentioned.

((Losing a pokemon battle to your ex: -$20
Getting good Aura advice from her: $10
Punching her in the face: $43
Telling her off with great success: Priceless))

Entralink Base

"Jaaaackie~! Where aaaaare youuuuu~?"

Four minutes after Jackie replied to his text, Jump's voice rang out in the spacious military base. He had been much closer to her location than he thought. Most of that four minutes were spent going through multiple levels of clearance. Even when he could phase through walls at super speed, simply waltzing into the Entralink was next to impossible. This was one of the few times Jump chose to follow all protocols.

To make matters worse, Jump got distracted when looking at Jackie's message while going mach 2 on the ocean's surface, so he had gone for an unintended quick swim. Now he was soaked, dripping water through the base.

He rang out his ponytail while poking his head into every room he passed until he got to the locker rooms. Maybe the gym? I bet Redgraves have their training cycles synched. Like periods.

"Jackie? Jaaaackie..." he called out again. There were extra lockers in the hallway leading up to the locker rooms proper, for long term storage. He assumed no one would mind if he borrowed some clothes.

Jump dropped his shirt onto a bench and phased his hand through a locker. The shirt he found inside was a yellow tank top. "Eww, nope." He returned it and repeated the process on the next locker, this time finding a blue turtleneck. "Nope." The process went on and on, each time with a shirt he disdained.

"Does nobody in this base know what style is? Jaaaaaackie~!" If finding a shirt is this hard, finding pants is gonna be the death of me.

Nimbasa City: N

N wheeled the shopping cart through the produce section in Nimbasa City’s supermarket. It was already filled with many vegan essentials. Leading the trek was “Salieri”, wearing her normal Battle Girl attire.

“Salieri, I’m not who you think I am. Unless you thought I was Team Plasma’s king, in which case I am exactly who you think I am.”

Sal snickered and picked up a head of cabbage. “Psssh, yeah right. Then where’s your crown?” she answered inattentively. “Does this cabbage look good to you?”

N frowned. “Zero, please take this seriously.”
“What? That’s what she’d probably say, if you told her like that.”
“Then how should I say it?”
“How should I know? Try again.”

She tossed the cabbage over her shoulder into the cart and walked to the peppers. “Salieri, did I ever tell you that I’m Team Plasma’s king? I couldn’t recall if I did.”

“Wow, that was even worse. No one can be that dense.” The disguised Zoroark sifted through the peppers, sniffing them out to make sure they were quality. “Tell me you have more of a plan that nothing at all?” This current goal was trivial to her. But for some reason, N was intent on revealing his identity to the Legends Crew, and so she would have to comply with his wishes.

“I was going to get her cotton candy, because I’ve been told that cotton candy in small quantities makes people happier by way of chemical reaction, and when she’s at the apex of this reaction I’ll tell her.”

Zero made a buzzer noise and gave N a thumbs down. “Lame. Go to the Ferris Wheel instead.”
“The Ferris Wheel?”

She nodded and tossed peppers into the cart. “If you’re in the Ferris Wheel, you have to stay there for the whole ride. So you’ll have time to talk to her if she tries to leave.”
“Why would she leave?”
“Cause she might not like what you have to say. If you’re on the wheel, she won’t have a choice but to listen.”

N furrowed his brow, contemplating this idea. “That thought pattern seems cruel.”

Zero shrugged. “I’d say efficient.” She stepped back and looked at the cart. It was stocked up. “You can take care of the rest, right? I’m getting bored.”

She changed form, from Salieri into a monsterous clown. “I’m gonna go scare kids in the house of mirrors,” she said with a cheerful snicker. “Good luck!”

And she left him alone, gathering a high number of gasps and stares on her way out. N ran the Ferris Wheel variable through his head many times, and picked up a container of strawberries.

Half off. He hesitated, then dropped them into the cart and kept going. An excellent equation.

"Women's locker-oh. Ohhhhh, yeah. I get that." Jump nodded in realization as he phased his hand through one more locker, pulling out a polka dotted bra. "That explains why I keep finding these. And like, way too many tampons."

He dropped the bra and phased his hand through the locker again, this time to open it from the inside. The door swung open, blocking Jump's upper half from Jackie's view and showing him a mirror so he could fix his hair.

"I can't get my hair back to normal on the fly, Jackie, you know that. Gotta get a reflection. Plus, the vibrating thing is killer on my wardrobe. Really thins out the fabric...yanno what, I'll be right back."

The locker door slammed and he disappeared, as did his shirt. Seconds later he was back from the men's locker room at the other end of the hall, wearing a standard white dress shirt and jeans with his wet outfit in the gym bag of somebody who would eventually discover they were missing their stuff.

"Kinda plain but it'll do-hold up."

He walked backwards the way he came, pointing at Jackie while exiting. "I'm waiting outside! See? Like I was never even in here!" he yelled, his voice ringing through the locker room from outside. "C'mon out, let's chat."