“You can say that again,” Adria muttered as she leaned forward, looking at the screen. It wasn’t hard for either of us to recognize the Team Flare members. That also explained Bit’s reaction to it. “I don’t think we’ve come across any information about Clemont being a captive.”

  “Which does not paint a very good picture…” I muttered as I hit play on the video. The three Flare members weren’t too rough with the kid, but they definitely pressured him into the car. I wondered what they had said to him, but this camera didn’t have a microphone and I doubt it would have picked up anything from this distance.

  “Doesn’t look like he’s terribly worried,” Adria commented as she replayed the clip.

  “That’s probably because he’s overconfident,” I said with slight annoyance. “This is the same kid that upon losing his Pokemon and being kicked out of his gym, thought that he could just catch some random Pokemon and take it back. He didn’t even try to get any help.”

  That caused her to scowl at the screen. “Damn… Do you think Lysandre did anything to him?”

  That was the question, wasn’t it? Was Lysandre the type of man that would hurt a child? I frowned as I remembered the bunker. The bio weapon that Team Flare had been trying to recreate. Lysandre was definitely the type of person to hurt a child. “Hopefully not.” Gently I picked up my phone. “Bit?” I questioned softly, seeing the little thing appear at the edge of the screen. “Is there any mention of Clemont in the downloaded files?”

  They disappeared for a moment before appearing and shaking their head.

  I sighed. “Come on, we have to go to the lab. There might be something we can find there. Lysandre is egotistical enough that he wouldn’t have bothered scrubbing information like that.” While I had Bit download all the files, security footage was not something I bothered with. There was too much of it to care about, and anything important would have been documented. Or at least I thought it would be.

  She nodded. “Hopefully his little minions are the same.”

  We quickly made our way back to her car, thanking the woman at the front on our way out. She seemed quite startled that we were practically running out.

  I paused at the car door and looked back, seeing a hesitant Luxio not far away. He was clearly concerned, but also unsure if he should say or do anything. “Well?” I opened the back door, gesturing at him. “C’mon.”

  The feline hesitated for a moment before dashing forward and leaping into the back seat. I quickly got into the passenger seat as Adria gave me a disappointed look, eying the Pokemon in the back seat. “Really?”

  “We might need him,” I said with a shrug.

  “For what?” she asked, her brow furrowing. “We both have electric Pokemon.”

  Again I shrugged. “I dunno? That’s why I said ‘might’.”

  She stared at me for a moment before shaking her head. “Okay. Whatever.” She flicked a switch, and the sirens started flashing before she peeled out of the parking lot. The Luxio let out a little noise of surprise, and I grabbed hold of whatever I could.

  Adria was an impressive driver, but I did not like the way she was swerving through what little traffic there was. I could barely hear the sirens inside the car, which was probably on purpose.

  After she pressed a button on the terminal in the center, there was a crackle of a radio. “This is Officer Jenny. Possible emergency situation involving Lysandre Labs database. Requesting permission to enter.”

  “This is Officer Jenny,” came the reply. “Request acknowledged.” A pause. “Approved.”

  “Thank you.” She pressed the button again and the radio clicked off.

  “What’s that about?” I managed to ask, my knuckles turning white from how hard I was gripping the handhold. The Luxio had buried his claws into the seat to keep from being flung around.

  “The lab is under heavy lockdown. Any entry has to have approval ahead of time.” She flung the wheel, sliding the car around a corner. “And everyone has to be logged.”

  “Okay. But… Why are we going so fast?” I asked, unable to help myself. I could not rationalize why we would need to get there this fast.

  “Every second counts,” she said with a bit of a smirk that fell rather quickly. “Especially now that we know Team Flare was involved.”

  Thankfully we were quickly out of the city and it wasn’t much longer before we came screaming towards the gate. And of course Adria hit the brakes hard, sliding several meters and nearly running into the closed gate.

  The first thing I noticed was the parking lot was full of Pokemon. They seemed to be patrolling the area and looking for anyone that wasn’t supposed to be there. The Jennys seemed to have a lot more Pokemon than I thought.

  Adria pat my shoulder to get my attention. “She needs to see your ID,” she said.

  I blinked at the other Jenny that had approached the car. “Ah, right,” I replied as I pulled it out of my bag and held it out.

  The Jenny gave the two of us a rather thin lipped smile before looking over both cards. I wondered what exactly she was looking for, but from what I had seen the cards had quite a number of anti-counterfeit measures.

  Eventually she handed them back. “Alright, Adria. Try not to blow the place up,” she said as she stepped back.

  Adria let out a snort as she dropped the badge into my lap and drove through the now open gate. “Right.”

  “Is that something you do?” I asked with an amused expression, slipping the card back into my bag.

  “That’s your fault,” she said with a bit of a frown.

  “Mine?” I asked, a bit confused.

  She pulled into a parking spot and sighed heavily. “You have caused so many problems,” she grumbled as she dragged her hands over her face. “And I’m the one who has to file the paperwork.”

  “You need a raise,” I commented as I got out, hearing the scoff she made. When I opened the back door and saw the Luxio I actually felt a bit bad. He was sprawled out, nails digging into the seat and hair floofed. “We’ve stopped. You can get out now.”

  It took a moment before he looked at me. “I hate cars.”

  I nodded. “Understandable.” I left the door open as I started to head towards the building.

  Adria jogged a bit to join me. I could tell that she was tense. I felt the same to be completely honest.

  Entering the facility was extremely easy, since Bit had left all the doors open and the elevator operational. We passed quite a few people, some Jennys, and some others that looked sciency. Eventually we were in the server room again. The Luxio was practically glued to my legs, clearly uncomfortable with everything.

  There was no one else in there, as apparently they didn’t need direct access to it. “Alright Bit, I want you to search for everything at the same date and time, and find anything about Clemont,” I said as I set my phone down on the table.

  Bit peeked out, a bit hesitant as they looked around.

  I sat down, leaning in close. “It’s okay. You can take your time with it. No one is going to hurt you.”

  They continued to look around for a moment before nodding and disappearing into the computer as a spark. Again files and footage began rapidly opening and closing before finally a video popped up.

  On the screen was Lysandre, sitting at a table. After a few seconds the door opened and Clemont was pushed in. He was missing his backpack, which was probably smart on their part since that thing could be classified as a weapon. “Ah, Clemont. I apologize for the rough treatment,” Lysandre said, his voice causing the hairs on the back of my neck to raise.

  “Uhuh.” Clemont shrugged off one of the hands gripping his shoulders. “Well? What do you want, old man?”

  Lysandre scowled but didn’t seem to otherwise let his comment change his mood. “I have a proposition for you. I want you to come work at Lysandre Labs. A genius like you-”

  “I refuse,” Clemont said immediately, folding his arms.

  Now Lysandre actually seemed annoyed. “I don’t think you understand what I’m offering. We are-”

  “I know exactly what you are,” he interrupted, returning the scowl. “I am well aware of what you and your Team Flare do.”

  There was a moment of silence before Lysandre smiled a bit. “Oh I don’t think you do, boy. Otherwise you would have accepted my offer.” There was a slight waver to the video. “Send him to facility eighty fifty nine.”

  The men dragged him out after that and I stopped the video. I turned to Adria who had pulled out her phone and was scowling at it. She didn’t seem to be watching the video. “One moment,” she said as she called someone. “Chief, what the hell is this?”

  There was a sigh from the other side and I heard the voice of Cassandra. “The Association doesn’t want Jace investigating this,” she said simply. “He doesn’t have authorization to work with the Jennys.”

  A moment of silence passed as I looked at my phone to see if I had any messages telling me to back off but found nothing. “Cowards can’t even tell me directly. They gotta pull this nonsense?” I mused with a soft laugh.

  "I’m sorry,” Adria said with a sigh. “I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to bring you along…”

  I folded my arms, leaning back in my chair. “That’s fine. If they don’t want you helping me I’ll just do it myself.”

  “Jace, please,” Cassandra’s voice came from the phone. “I’m not going to stop you from looking, but please don’t get in anyone's way.”

  “Oh don’t worry about that. You won’t be able to catch up,” I said with a shrug.

  “You know where this eighty ninety nine base is?” Adria questioned, her brow furrowing.

  “Nope,” I said with a bit of a smirk.

  Her eyes narrowed and she gave me a hard look. She was smart enough to know there was something she was missing. Something that I knew that she didn’t. Before she had a chance to reply, Cassandra spoke up, “We have the general location of that base on file. Adria, come to the station and we’ll set up a proper team to investigate.”

  She just frowned even harder. “Roger,” she said before hanging up. “You going to be alright?”

  I just waved her off as I turned back to the computer and rewound the video. “I’ll be fine. I’ll give you a call when I find Clemont.”

  I could practically feel her trying to burn a hole in the back of my head. “Fine. Don’t tell me what you noticed.” She huffed as she stormed out of the room.

  The Luxio looked hesitant, unsure who to follow. Eventually the decision was made for him as the door closed and he was shut inside with me.

  The amusement I felt quickly faded as I replayed the video, noting again how there was a slight waver of the recording. I played it a few times, noting the ever so slight differences from one from to the next during the distortion. The video was edited.

  It was done very well. This was definitely better editing than most of the shows I had seen. They had cut a section, and smeared the frames between to hide the tampering. And listening to the part where he said the facility name, the tone between “Send him to” and “facility eighty fifty nine” were slightly off. Adria might have noticed as well if she hadn’t been distracted by her phone.

  “Bit, can you find the raw footage of this? Or undo the editing?” I asked as I looked at the small light bulb on the screen that was looking at me.

  They blinked a few times before several different programs opened.

  I intertwined my fingers and placed my elbows on the table as I watched them work. It was difficult to keep up with what they were doing because they kept blocking programs with other programs. There was definitely editing software, as well as some programs I didn’t recognize.

  After a few hours a new video popped up, starting off the same way. However this time, when Lysandre said “Send him to,” the video didn’t hitch and played something very different, “section G. We’ll see if he’s a viable candidate for Specter.”

  The computer exploded into sparks and all the power seemed to shut off for a moment before backup generators kicked back on.

  I looked down at my phone, the edge of which seemed a bit scorched from Bit’s rapid entry. That was definitely not something that I recognized from any of the files I had read so far. It took a moment before the computer booted back on and I began to search. Clearly Bit was terrified of whatever this was, so I had to search for it myself.

  And when I found it I completely understood why.

  Specter was an experiment to turn people into ghosts, with the goal of achieving immortality.

  I rubbed my face for a moment before I began to read more. There were… so many failures. Hundreds. There were no names, just numbers for designation, gender, and age. They were using people with high affinity for energy types and introducing ghost energy to forcibly turn them into ghosts after death.

  Their first success was dated five years ago. Successful resurrection into Rotom.

  I slumped back, looking down at my phone. That explained so much.

  Especially when I kept reading. The success was noted as having a possible tie with intelligence. The subject was apparently a Flare scientist that had done something that warranted his execution. It went on to talk about how the subject had no memory of their prior life, although kept many of their skills. They were handed to Xerosic to further their abilities.

  There were a few more successes, all confirming that the smarter the subjects had a higher chance of success. Most seemed to turn into Rotom for some reason, though there was also a Sableye. Overall there were five successes.

  The last one was dated several months ago. The subject was male, eleven years old. Successful resurrection into Rotom.

  “Damn it…” I muttered as I stared at the screen. The extra information on the subject that all of them had was also blank. Clearly someone had edited this as well, which was just more evidence that this was most likely Clemont.

  Worst case scenario. This was what I was really worried about finding. They had not just killed the kid, they had done worse.

  “Bit,” I said softly, placing my hand onto my phone and getting a shock as a result. But I didn’t withdraw my hand. “Bit, it’s okay. I’m here.”

  There was no response, but I didn’t get shocked again. It was silent for nearly half an hour as I let the little thing calm down. Eventually they peeked out, looking at me.

  I had just been waiting, and I smiled at them. “I’m sorry. I know this is hard… but can you keep helping me? If not, it’s okay. I just need you to restore this document so I can read it, and then erase every last scrap having to do with this project.” There was no chance in hell I was going to let any of this remain. Hopefully the Jennys hadn’t downloaded this data.

  They hesitated for several minutes before slowly floating up out of the phone and returning back into the computer. A few things popped up, and the text was there again. It described that as far as they could tell, retained all of its memories. It proceeded to cuss them out and escape before they had a chance to secure it.

  I frowned a bit before the screen flickered and the file I was looking at suddenly vanished. It only took a few seconds and all of it seemed to be gone. Everything about this Specter project was erased.

  Leaning back in the chair, I stroked my chin as I thought. “Okay. So, someone erased proof of where he went. Not just that, they even went so far as to remove even the small comment from the experiment file, which could have been overlooked. If they had removed the entire entry it might have drawn attention,” I mused aloud, working through my thoughts. “Which means it probably wasn’t edited by Team Flare.”

  “Is Clemont okay?” the Luxio suddenly asked, startling me slightly.

  I had forgotten that the cat was there. I opened my mouth to speak before closing it again and sighing. I didn’t want to lie to the feline. “No.”

  “Is… is he dead?” he asked softly, wearing a guilty expression. He was probably feeling responsible. Clemont had gone to him for help, and he had refused to talk to him.

  “He was,” I said with a slight frown. “He’s a ghost now.”

  “Oh…” He slumped, laying on the ground.

  I looked down at him for a moment before sighing and rubbing my face. “He must have erased evidence of himself… and set up a false trail for some reason? The question to that is why?” After a few minutes of thinking I couldn’t come up with anything. Annoyingly, I would have to ask him when I found him. But that was another question, what do I do now? Where do I look?

  He probably edited his escape out, what little there would have been to it. The facility was so high tech that it would be easy to sneak out and not be detected.

  Oh.

  Okay, yeah that made sense. This lab would be the best place to hide, especially as a Rotom. Or somewhere nearby… There was no way to get too far away without revealing himself. The labs were off grid and had their own power source, so they weren’t connected. He could have escaped by hiding in a vehicle…

  However, Clemont is an arrogant child. Too smart for his own good. He thinks he’s so much smarter than everyone else, and can do no wrong. That was clear from how he had talked to Lysandre and the fact he didn’t bother to get help from authorities when he was kicked out of the gym. He figured he could just do it himself.

  But what would he do? What would be his course of action after escaping?

  I pinched the bridge of my nose I tried to think. I know what I would do, but he wasn’t me. He was a kid. Smart, sure, but still a kid. Which meant some kind of revenge. So he would definitely be close.

  So how would he go about that… He would need supplies. This is a laboratory, but there’s a high chance of things going missing being noticed. So alternatively, things that won’t be missed. Lysandre Labs probably throws out a ton of broken tech…

  “Bit, is there a map of the laboratory? Or some indication of where the lab dispose of trash and stuff?” I asked as I focused back at the screen.

  A few things flicked up before I was looking at a floor plan with one area in the corner highlighted. It took up quite a large chunk of the third basement level.

  Standing up, I picked up my phone and held it close to the computer. The little spark that was Bit jumped out and into the phone. “Good job,” I said softly before putting it into my pocket. Hopefully I wouldn’t need the little ghost again anytime soon. This was probably really hard for them.

  I rubbed my face for a moment, trying to settle myself. This day was so mentally taxing. And it wasn’t close to being over. As I made my way to the elevator, the little cat still following, I checked the time. It was starting to get late. I had missed preparing dinner for everyone.

  I sent a text to Valerie, ‘Can you check on the Pokemon that I left in the gym? Things came up and they’re going to need food and assurance that I’m okay.’

  ‘Okay. What’s up?’ she replied back.

  I leaned against the wall of the elevator as I pressed the button for basement three and thought about what to tell her. There could be some concerns from the Jennys, but the fact they essentially pulled me from the investigation bothered me a little. ‘Clemont is missing. We’re looking for him, but the Association doesn’t want me involved.’

  ‘So clearly you’re forcing yourself to be involved.’ Came her reply, followed by, ‘Do you think he’s okay?’

  ‘No.’ I replied simply, giving her the same answer I gave the Luxio.

  The elevator dinged and I put my phone away as I walked down the halls. It was honestly a bit unnerving to walk down the empty halls, the only noise was my footsteps and the fluorescent lights. Obviously the feline’s footsteps were silent and I couldn’t help but check to make sure he was still there.

  After a few minutes of trying to navigate the halls, we came to a set of large metal doors. Pushing them open revealed a massive room, and one hell of a foul stench. The room was dimly lit, the largest source of light being what was clearly a massive incinerator at the far end of the room. I was honestly a bit surprised it was still on.

  Stepping into the room I spent a few moments allowing my eyes to adjust. Going from the bright fluorescence to this dim room was annoying. But as soon as I could see better I took a few more steps and scanned the room.

  I could see some movement, and curiously I approached it only to find that it was a Trubbish. “Excuse me,” I said softly, trying not to startle it.

  Unfortunately I seem to have failed as it spun around to face me before taking several steps back.

  I put up my hands to show that they were empty. “Hey, hey. It’s okay. Not here to hurt you or take any of your trash. I just want to ask a few questions.”

  They seemed wary of me, eyes narrowed. So I broke out my secret weapon and offered them a pokebean. Clearly they were unsure of it but eventually took it, sniffed at it - which was odd since they didn’t have a nose - before sticking it into their mouth. Their eyes immediately went wide as they chewed, wobbling back and forth in apparent joy.

  I smiled a bit. “Okay. Can you answer some questions?”

  They nodded. “‘Kay.”

  “Is there a Garbador in here?” I asked as I looked around.

  They made quite a lot of noise as they shook their head, which was their entire body. “Nope. The red men don’t like us here, but we haven’t seen any in a while.”

  “The red men are gone,” I explained with a bit of a nod.

  This caused the little trash bag to wiggle. “Good. They’re mean.”

  I nodded in agreement. “What other Pokemon are in here?”

  It took a moment as they stared blankly for a moment, and I wondered if they were thinking or had just blanked. “There’s some Grimer in that corner,” they said, pointing. Following it I could see what looked like… yeah those appeared to be sewage pipes. Did they also have waste treatment in this room? Gross. “And there’s a couple more like me.”

  “Anything else?” I asked. “What about something small, a little sparkly, about this size?” I gestured with my hands to show the approximate size of about a foot.

  They hesitated, glancing around. “No?” they replied after a moment.

  It seemed that I was right, and Clemont was either here now or was here, and had told the other Pokemon not to reveal him. “Oh, I see,” I said with a bit of a nod. “Well, I’m going to look around. You see I have a friend that I think is here.”

  The poor little trashbag looked so conflicted. “Uhm…okay.”

  I smiled at them before giving them another pokebean. “Thank you for the help.”

  They took the bean and nodded, taking a few steps away. I watched them for a moment before pretending to look somewhere else. The moment that it looked like they weren’t being observed they jammed the bean into their mouth and took off. They were surprisingly fast.

  Unfortunately they were also quite loud, since they were a garbage bag, so it was easy to follow them. They didn’t even check to see if I was still there.

  After a moment they crawled into a rather interesting looking trash pile on the opposite side from the sewage line. It looked to be a haphazard assortment of things piled together, but I could see that it was more like someone had piled a ton of desks and tables together to create some sort of structure. What was a dead giveaway though, was the fact that I could see some light leaking through some of the cracks. It wouldn’t be noticed from far away, but if you walked passed it would definitely stand out.

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  I could hear talking and moved towards it, lifting a sheet that had been haphazardly draped over a part to block out light. “Calm down,” came a rather exasperated voice that was…familiar, but at the same time not. “I can’t understand what you’re saying.”

  I heard the rustling of a bag before I saw the little Trubbish. “There… There’s some man here!” they exclaimed. “He was asking about Pokemon, and- and he described you.”

  There was a pause. “What did he look like?”

  “Tall? Long coat. Long hair and-”

  “Why does it smell so bad?” Eevee suddenly said from my shoulder with a yawn, covering her face.

  I snorted. “Good job breaking my stealth,” I joked as I rubbed the little fox’s head. “Okay, come on out Clemont.”

  There was silence, and I saw the little Trubbish peek out from the entrance.

  “I know you’re in there. Come on. Team Flare isn’t in control of the building anymore. In fact, they don’t really exist anymore, so there’s no reason to hide,” I explained with a bit of a sigh.

  “There’s plenty of reason!” he exclaimed as he appeared out of one of the little holes. There really was no doubting that he was a Rotom now. “I’m a Pokemon now!”

  I frowned a bit. “Why does that matter?”

  “Why-” he stopped, glaring at me. “Why does that matter? Because I don’t have rights anymore! I’m not a human, so I’m not under the protection of the law. I can be captured, locked away, and whatever, and no one will care!”

  “Ah, that’s what you’re worried about,” I replied with a nod. It was fair. Even with his intelligence and the fact he used to be a human, it was doubtful that most of the world would care. He was just a Pokemon now.

  “Yes, I’m worried! So I’ve been spending the last few months trying to create some kind of facsimile.” He pulled a bit of the curtain to the side and revealed what looked like a complete mess. “I have to at least be able to pass myself off as human in order to re-enter society. Otherwise I’ll just be caught and experimented on.”

  “Okay, yeah. I see your point,” I said, nodding. “You won’t be accepted. And a lot of people won’t even believe that you’re actually Clemont… But I don’t really see how anything you’ve done is going to help that.”

  “Well, you see.” Suddenly he looked so smug. “I’m a genius. While it has been difficult to adapt to this new form, I have been working on remaking my greatest creation, my Clembot. Once that is done, I will be able to possess it and pilot it. With a bit of clever costuming and a face mask of some sort I’ll be able to pass myself off as human again.”

  “You mean this thing?” I asked as I pulled Clembot out of my bag. I had taken it to keep others from getting it, and to prove to Clemont that he could return. But now this actually made things extremely convenient.

  His eyes bulged. “My Clembot!? How did you get it?”

  “I used a simple paradox to disable it and retook the gym, after it refused to relinquish it. You are aware you’re not allowed to pass running the gym over to anyone who is not approved by the Association, right?” I questioned rather sternly.

  “Oh… Right… Uh… That is a thing, isn’t it?” he replied a bit sheepishly, although his eyes never left the robot. “Uh… who are you, anyways?”

  “Pokemon Expert Jason,” I said flatly. “One of many people who have been looking for you ever since we found out that you’re missing. Which was today. We found out today.” I was trying to not sound annoyed, but I was probably not doing a good job about it. “Why in the hell would you not immediately go to the authorities when you got kicked out of your gym?”

  “I… Well I thought that I could fix it. All I had to do was collect four badges to get back in, after all,” he mumbled.

  “Why are smart people so stupid?” I grumbled with a sigh. “All you had to do was ask for help, and you wouldn’t be fucking dead.”

  He flinched. “I… I know. I messed up.”

  “I don’t think you do,” I snapped. “You left not only your sister, and your father, but all of your Pokemon, because you thought you couldn’t fail. You are a damn child. I don’t care how smart you are, or how smart you think you are, you are a child. This is not just you messing up. You got yourself killed. And the only reason why you still exist and can learn from your mistake is because a bunch of mad scientists used you as a lab rat.”

  I stared at him for a moment, wondering if he had some sort of rebuttal. “I know,” he said softly.

  “No you don’t. You didn’t learn your lesson at all. You were murdered and still thought yourself too smart. Too arrogant. Look at where you are now,” I snapped, gesturing around. It was getting hard to not raise my voice. “You are here, planning some sort of childish revenge and trying to build some sort of stupid body rather than asking for help. Do you think your family would have rejected you? Do you think your Pokemon wouldn’t try to help you? Do you think you couldn’t have just gotten back into Prism Tower and overrode Clembot?” I shook the robot for emphasis.

  From the look on his face it was clear he hadn’t thought about that.

  “Then you'd have had access to your own lab, rather than trying to build something in a cave, with a bunch of scraps.” I held out the robot. “Now get in the robot, figure out how to control it, while I get us back to Prism Tower.”

  Clemont just stood there, seeming to shrink in on himself.

  I was about to say something before I stopped. Damn it I was getting aggravated. I was the adult in this situation. He’s a child. I took a few deep breaths. “I’m sorry,” I said and crouched down to be more at the level he was floating. “I’m sorry for dismissing you like that. Clemont, I know this is hard and you’ve had months to work through it. I am upset, but more so at everyone else and the fact that I am just finding out that someone so brilliant was used as a test subject by a bunch of psychopaths. You were missing for like… five months and no one reported you missing.”

  “I…” He seemed hesitant before nodding slightly. “I know that… this wasn’t the best choice, but I couldn’t think of anything else. I just… I needed to do something.”

  “You were scared. I’m sorry for talking down to you,” I said, keeping my voice low. “I know you’re smart, but you can’t do everything on your own. You’re a child, and it’s not your responsibility to take everything on your shoulders, okay? That’s what adults are for. Now, come on. We need to get you back to Prism Tower and out of this trash dump.”

  “Can… Can we take what I’ve built so far?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Of course. Anything you think is important.” I shifted my bag so that I could open it and he could put stuff in. And damn there was a lot. I couldn’t tell what a lot of it was, but there was definitely some sort of robot arm, and the start of some kind of chassis.

  It only took a few minutes before Clem seemed to start debating whether or not to take stuff. My spacial bag was actually getting kind of full, he had put so much junk into it. Eventually it seemed like enough. “Okay. That’s everything. Anything else I can just make something better at the lab.”

  “Right,” I said as I checked my back. There was enough room to shove Clembot in there, but now I was debating. “So, we need a cover story.”

  He looked at me, blinking. “Huh?”

  “You’re still missing,” I said with a bit of a chuckle. “Clearly I’m going to claim I found you, but there are people who know you’re dead. And probably some that know you’re a ghost now.”

  There was a frown on his face as he thought about it. “That is a problem.”

  “I don’t think any of those that know would come forward, because it would practically be suicide. And hard to believe. Someone claiming that they killed you, and you’re a ghost now would be dismissed if we do it right.” I looked at Clembot. “But we should lean into the fact that you were kidnapped by Team Flare. More mud on them and Lysandre is good.”

  He suddenly perked up. “What if I only disguise part of my body as human?” he suggested, sounding quite excited.

  I blinked at him. “Only part?”

  He nodded. “I could claim that they tortured me, removed limbs. So I would claim that a lot of my body would be cybernetics, rather than robotic,” he explained, getting more and more excited as he talked. “That way any sort of issues can be brushed aside as malfunctions.”

  Slowly I nodded, following along. “That would work for the public, and get a lot of people on your side. And you’ve shown you're clearly smart enough to be able to do that,” I mumbled as I rubbed my chin. “If we involve some of the Joys that I know we can put more validity into it being cybernetics.”

  Now he was practically buzzing with excitement. “Yes! That’s perfect!” He suddenly stopped, his brow furrowing. “You’re pretty smart.”

  I snorted. “Well, with how long I spent in college, I would hope so.”

  “You went to college? What degrees do you have?” he asked curiously.

  “Too many,” I said with a soft laugh. But he looked at me expectantly. “I have a bachelor’s in health science, and education. An incomplete bachelor’s in architecture. And a minor in chemistry, statistics and data science, physics, culinary nutrition, and food science.”

  He stared at me, blinking for a few moments. “Why did you get so many minors?”

  “Because I didn’t know what to do with myself,” I said honestly. “College and studying just sort of became something to do, rather than think about life.” I sighed and then frowned a bit. “With all the cooking classes I took you’d think I’d be better at it,” I muttered. “All I really know how to make is curry.” I was just going to blame that on never keeping up practice. I hardly cooked anything for myself for fourteen years, anyone would forget what they learned after that long.

  Clemont just sort of looked at me for a moment.

  Rather than explain myself I looked around, noticing the Luxio standing at a distance. He had been observing, clearly still hesitant about approaching. “Well?” I called over to them, causing them to jolt. “You just gonna run and hide?”

  Everyone looked over at him for a moment and he sighed before walking over, looking like a dog that knew it had done something wrong. “Oh! You… you came, too?”

  The Luxio nodded. “I did… I was worried…”

  “I’ll let you two work things out. I’ll be waiting outside the doors.” I didn’t want to be part of this, and I also really wanted to get out of this disgusting place. So I quickly made my way out after shoving the Clembot into my bag.

  I was startled when I opened the door to see a Jenny. “Ah, hello.”

  She raised an eyebrow at me. “What were you doing in the trash room?”

  “Well, since the Jennys didn’t want my help finding a missing person, I needed something else to do,” I said with a shrug.

  “And that involved the trash?” She looked behind me and I stepped out of the way so she could see. With Clemont and Luxio clear across the room, there was no way she could see anything suspicious.

  “There’s Pokemon in there,” I explained with a sweeping gesture into the room. “Trubbish and Grimer. I wanted to talk with them and get an idea of how things worked in there.”

  “And what did you find?”

  “Nothing,” I said with a scoff. “They have no concept of time in there, and Team Flare was rather rough on them so they avoided them.”

  She looked at me for a moment before nodding. “Alright. Do you know anything about the power outage that happened earlier?”

  “Ah, I think that was my fault?” I rubbed the back of my neck. “My Rotom overloaded a system, I think? At least that’s what I assume happened.”

  “And what were you doing?”

  My eyes narrowed slightly. “Why are you so keen on asking me questions?”

  “It’s my job,” she replied, her eyes flicking back into the room.

  “Yeah, but your tone isn’t very friendly. It sounds like you’re trying to find me at fault for something I shouldn’t be doing,” I said and then reached out, grabbing hold of her wrist as she reached for her belt. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  “Unhand me or I’ll arrest you for assaulting a police officer,” she growled.

  “If we fight, you’re going to lose,” I said as I released her wrist.

  “You are interfering in police matters,” she said, glaring at me as she rubbed her wrist.

  I guess I grabbed it too hard. “Oh? Is that what you think? Well, let’s see what Chief Jenny has to say about it,” I replied as I pulled out my phone, the action causing her hand to go to her belt.

  “There’s no need for that,” she said as she stepped back.

  “Are you sure?” I asked, sending Adria a quick message, ‘What is Chief Cassandra’s number?’ while I made it look like I was going through my contacts.

  “Yes, it’s clear that this is nothing but a misunderstanding and-”

  “Jace? What do you want?” Cassandra had replied almost immediately and I didn’t hesitate.

  “Well, Chief Jenny, it seems that one of your subordinates has taken it upon herself to block my path, and threaten me,” I said before turning the phone around to show the Jenny in front of me.

  Who turned tail and ran.

  I blinked. I had not been expecting that reaction.

  “There shouldn’t be any Jennys in the building,” Cassandra said, and I could hear the frown on in her tone.

  That was extremely concerning. “Ah, do you want me to stop her?” I asked as I turned the camera around.

  “Please. I’ll send in some units to figure out what’s going on.”

  I nodded and moved my phone towards a panel. “Bit? Could you lock down the floor?”

  There was a spark and all the lights shut off, replaced after a moment with red lights.

  “Thank you,” I said with a smile and went back to addressing Cassandra. “That should do it.”

  “That is utterly terrifying,” she muttered.

  “Bit has all lab systems under their control,” I explained with a shrug. “It’s how they unlocked everything.”

  “That doesn’t change that it’s terrifying,” she said with a heavy sigh. “Sorry about whatever this is… I’ve been getting complaints about your… special treatment.”

  “Special treatment?” I mused.

  “Well, the Association has tried putting out a warrant for your arrest multiple times,” she explained and then rubbed her face. “But none of them have come with a valid reason. Especially because when I ask if they terminated you, they say no.”

  I snorted. “Makes sense. Can’t consider me as an employee and have me arrested.”

  “Exactly. Oh, the team has reached the elevator. Can you allow them access?” she asked.

  “Bit, can you let the nice officers down to our floor?” I asked as I moved my phone back to the panel. Both sparked a bit in response. “Better than a sonic screwdriver,” I muttered. “Cuter, too.”

  “What?” Cassandra asked, clearly baffled.

  “Talking to Bit,” I said with a laugh.

  There was a moment of silence. “Alright… Well, we’ve taken the other Jenny into custody.” She rubbed her face for a moment. “She wasn’t authorized to enter the lab, and I’ve warned them that unauthorized entry will result in arrest.”

  “Bit, please end the lockdown.” There was another spark and suddenly all the lights were normal. I blinked several times and rubbed my eyes, trying to readjust to the bright lights. “Sorry about calling you over this, but I figured that was better than me beating one of your officers and dragging her outside.”

  I was expecting her to laugh at my joke, but instead she just sighed and shook her head. “Please don’t do that,” she said flatly and then hung up.

  “Wow. No sense of humor,” I muttered before putting my phone away.

  I spent the next few minutes leaned against the wall, going through a few messages. I also sent a message to Gaston asking why I’m not allowed to work with the Jennys on missing persons cases. I wasn’t sure if he was still even awake at this point, so that was probably going to be a nasty text to wake up to.

  Eventually Clemont and Luxio came out. I looked at them, and could practically feel the tension between the two. But it seemed they’d come to some sort of agreement or understanding. “Alright, come on.” I opened my bag and pulled the Clembot out slightly.

  “Do I have to go in that?” Clemont asked, eying the robot that had essentially caused the dominoes that lead to his death.

  “I’m not letting you in my phone. And I’m not going to put you in a pokeball,” I explained with a shrug. “We need to leave without drawing attention, and with how watchful the Jennys are of me, if I come out with another Pokemon they are going to stop me.”

  He hesitated for a moment before sighing. “Okay, fine…”

  “Besides, you’re gonna have to get used to it if you want an actual body again.” I shook the robot a bit at him.

  A snort escaped him before he nodded and disappeared into Clembot. I quickly shoved it back into my bag before turning away and making my way out of the building. The Luxio stayed close to me the entire time. Thankfully I wasn’t accosted again and came out into the cold night air.

  I pulled out Scoly’s ball as I scanned the parking lot. There were still a lot of patrols going on, and a couple of the Jennys were watching me. Unfortunately this was probably going to leave a bit of friction between us.

  With a sigh I released Scoly and got up onto her. The large bug gave big yawn. “Why are we still out?” she asked, apparently not having been paying attention at all. Understandable since she had probably just been sleeping.

  “A lot of things came up,” I replied as I rubbed her shell. “We’re heading to Prism Tower now. The big building in the middle of the city.”

  “Mmm again?” she mumbled as she made her way to the gate.

  “Yeah.” I pat her a few more times as we passed through the open gate, the Jenny giving me a bit of a smile and a nod. I returned the nod and the smile before urging Scoly to run.

  Thankfully the bug horse did not need too much motivation to start blitzing full speed down the road.

  Oddly enough, I felt much more comfortable on Scoly’s back than I did while riding in Adria’s car, even though I was fairly certain the bug was going much faster after she got up to speed. I guess I just felt safer with her.

  It wasn’t long before we got back to Prism Tower. A lot of people were surprised when a bug suddenly barreled down the road and came to a rather rough stop in front. There were still a lot of tourists looking up at the shining tower.

  Dropping down, I shook out my legs before going into the building. I was honestly surprised it was unlocked, but when I spotted one of the Voltorb nearby I realized they were keeping an eye out for me. “Did you find him?” they asked.

  I tried to smile, but it probably looked really forced. “Yeah. I did.”

  “Dead?”

  I couldn’t help but wince at how blunt they were. “It’s… complicated. Can you get everyone together so that I can explain?”

  They stared at me for a moment before rolling away and into what looked like a small passage specifically for smaller Pokemon.

  I walked past the secretary person, who I was now very sure was some sort of robot since they were in the exact same spot and didn’t even look up. It was interesting that someone made something that resembled a human enough, and that gave me some confidence that he could do something.

  Entering the arena room, I looked at the Pokemon that were gathering. Most of them were here by now, but I was going to wait till they were all there. The Heliolisk was giving me a look. That Pokemon was extremely observant and clearly knew something was up, especially with the depressed looking Luxio at my feet.

  When the last few came in, I nodded and pulled Clembot out of my bag and sat it down. There was a few murmurs among the Pokemon before the Clemont Rotom exited and hovered above. Now it was silent.

  “Short explanation,” I said, breaking the silence. This felt like a bandaid type of situation. “Team Flare kidnapped Clemont. They performed an experiment on him, that killed him and caused him to come back as a ghost.” I gestured at the Rotom.

  “Uh… hi guys,” Clemont said, clearly uncomfortable.

  He was immediately swarmed by the other Pokemon. They started bombarding him with questions, trying to confirm that he was actually Clemont. The kid did his best to answer all the questions, and apparently it was enough to convince them.

  “Those Flare Bastards…” The Heliolisk grumbled, and that seemed to get everyone to quiet down. His attention turned to me. “Any chance we can get a crack at them?”

  I chuckled softly and shook my head. “Sorry, late on that. Team Flare’s already been pretty much destroyed. There’s a couple remnants, but they’re all in hiding right now.”

  “I was wondering what had been going on at the lab,” Clemont mused aloud, having not actually brought it up.

  “Well, now that all this is out of the way.” I picked up Clembot. “Where is your lab? I can drop off this, and all the other stuff. And then you can get to work.”

  “Right!” He suddenly seemed excited. “Right, right. This way.” He began leading the way, all of the Pokemon following along until we came to the elevator. Then they all split off to go and do their own thing. The only one who stuck with us were the Luxio and the Heliolisk. We made our way to an elevator, and then up several floors. What greeted us at the top was not what I was expecting.

  It looked absolutely trashed.

  I glanced at Clemont, and then back into the room. “So, is it supposed to look like such a mess?” I asked, amused.

  Clemont coughed a bit. “I uh… never had the chance to clean up, you know?”

  “Sure.” I made my way into the room. “Okay, so where do you want all this stuff?”

  “Uh…” He bolted over to a table, and quite unceremoniously swept everything off it onto the floor. “Here.”

  I stared at him a moment, noticing similar piles next to other tables. That at least explained a lot about the mess.

  Shaking my head, I put Clembot down, and then the two of us began removing things out of my bag. After a moment my brow furrowed, as it seemed we were taking out a lot more things than he had put in, but none of it was my stuff so I guess I just hadn’t been paying attention.

  When we were finally done I stepped away, watching as the little bulb started to fuss over all the pieces. “Okay. Important question time.” I waited until I had his attention before continuing. “How many people are you comfortable with knowing about all this? Because it’s going to need to be at least one more.”

  He frowned. “Do we really have to involve more people?”

  I nodded. “Yes. We need at least one Joy, preferably more. And unless you want to be put into a really bad situation, one Jenny.”

  He frowned more, his brow furrowing. Clearly with how worried he was about being a Pokemon, more people knowing meant that things could go wrong. “They… They won’t think badly of me?”

  “No,” I said with a shake of my head. “And if they do, I’ll make sure they regret it.”

  A bit of a smile formed on his mouth. “Okay…”

  I nodded as I stepped away, pulling out my phone.

  My first call was to Evelyne. There was a chance she wouldn’t be awake, since it was rather late. It would have been fine if she didn’t answer, but unfortunately for her, she had her phone near when she was sleeping. “Hello?” came a rather groggy voice.

  “Hey, Evelyne,” I started as I moved further away from Clemont as he started to talk with the two Pokemon and sort through all the things he had. “Sorry to wake you, but I’ve got… I don’t really know if I can call it an emergency, but it is a really big problem.”

  She rubbed her face. “It’s always a problem with you. Why can’t you ever call to just chat?” she complained as she was getting up, yawning. “What’s the problem?”

  “Did you hear about Clemont?” I asked, wondering how much I needed to explain.

  “I heard that he was missing, but-” she stopped, suddenly very much awake. “Oh dammit. Did you find him? Is he hurt?”

  I glanced at the Rotom excitedly explaining things and instructing the Heliolisk. “I can’t explain over the phone. I need you to come to Prism Tower.”

  She was pulling on a coat. “Okay. I’m on my way.” And she hung up.

  With that out of the way, now it was time to try and not gloat.

  “Jace I swear to Arceus, if you’re calling to gloat you found him I am gonna kick your ass,” came Adria’s voice.

  “Not gloating, but yeah, I found him,” I said, trying not to smirk at her exasperated expression.

  “Well? Is he okay?” she asked, frowning at me.

  Again I glanced over at the Pokemon. “That’s difficult to really say…”

  She opened her mouth and then her eyes suddenly went wide. “Shit. He’s hurt, isn’t he? How bad? What hospital are you at?”

  “Not a uh… hospital. The situation is too complicated…” I rubbed my face a bit. “Look, just come to Prism Tower. Evelyne is also on her way, and once both of you are here I can explain things.”

  “If he’s not hurt, then why do you need a Joy?” she practically yelled.

  “Please, I will explain when you get here, okay?” I held up a hand to try and keep her from shouting. “You trust me, right?”

  She glared at me for a moment. “I’m on my way,” she said before hanging up.

  I sighed and shook my head. “Okay. Clemont?” I called over to him to get his attention. “I’m going to go to the lobby to wait for our guests. It’ll just be one Joy and one Jenny. It’ll be mostly up to them if we involve more.”

  He floated back and forth a bit, as if shifting uncomfortably. “Okay. If you think this is really necessary…”

  “It is,” I said, giving him a smile before I headed back downstairs. Walking past the creepy secretary was a bit unnerving, especially now that I was sure that it was a robot. It watched me when I got within a certain range, and then looked away when I got far enough.

  The Voltorb was back in its spot, watching the entrance. I guess that was its job. I gave it a nod as I stepped outside into the cold.

  It actually felt really nice as I enjoyed the slight bite at my face. Absentmindedly I reached into my pocket and then stopped, shaking my head. As much as I wanted a cigarette to calm my nerves, I hadn’t smoked in years.

  Instead, I ate a pokebean. Slowly. Breaking off little parts just to keep my hands and mouth busy. Because I didn’t need a cigarette. As much as I wanted one, I didn’t need it. But damn did I want one.

  How rare were cigarettes in this world, anyways? They were very rarely depicted in pokemon media, but they were there. I hadn’t seen them in the Pokemart, so maybe they were in specialty shops? Or maybe Kalos just didn’t have cigarettes. The environment was definitely not right for growing tobacco, so maybe they just didn’t have it here.

  I was so lost in thought that I didn’t even notice Adria until she actually spoke. “Okay, so what’s this all about?”

  “Do you know someplace I can buy cigarettes?” I asked rather than answering her question.

  She blinked at me, completely caught off guard by the question. “You smoke?”

  “Not in a long time, but after today I’m thinking about starting again,” I said with a slight shrug.

  There was a moment of silence before she tentatively asked, “That bad?”

  “That bad,” I said with a nod.

  Again it was silent for a moment. “I’d offer you one, but I’ve never actually smoked myself.” Her brow furrowed. “My mother does, though.”

  I snorted. “Good. You shouldn’t. It’s bad for you.”

  The look she gave me was so incredulous it almost made me burst out laughing. “And yet you want to start again? My mother always said that it’d be easier to punch Arceus than try and quit smoking.”

  That caused me to laugh, melting away some of the stress I was feeling. And it felt especially good when Adria started laughing as well.

  Which of course is when Evelyne finally showed up. “Well, it can’t be so bad if you two are out here laughing,” she said, clearly amused.

  “Bad enough that Jace is thinking about picking up smoking again,” Adria said with a slight nudge of my shoulder.

  The Joy frowned. “I cannot recommend enough that you do not do that.”

  I put my hands up. “Hey, I’ve been smoke free more than a decade.”

  “And you should keep it that way,” she said, frowning at me with her hands on her hips.

  “Yes ma’am,” I said, still laughing a bit as I turned around. Although looking at the door soured my mood immediately. “Okay. Lets uhm… get inside…”

  The two women gave each other concerned looks before following after me.

  The moment the door closed, I started speaking. “Team Flare had a project to turn people into ghosts.” I turned to face them. “They kidnapped Clemont, and Lysandre attempted to force him to work for them. When he refused, he put him in this project. And they killed him.”

  Both of them stiffened. “They… They killed him?” Adria whispered.

  “So he’s… a ghost now?” Evelyne asked, looking around as if she could see him.

  “He’s upstairs in the lab. Luckily he retained his memories, so it’s… He’s still Clemont,” I said as I rubbed my face. I was so tired. “He is so terrified that he will lose everything because Pokemon don’t have rights.”

  Both of them frowned, but Evelyne nodded. “That’s fair… He wouldn’t be treated as a person anymore. As far as the Association would be concerned, Clemont is dead and the Pokemon is just delusional.”

  “Exactly,” I said with a bit of a nod.

  “That’s why you need a Joy,” Adria suddenly said, glancing at Evelyne. “You have a plan, but his humanity needs to be confirmed by a medical professional.”

  “It’s good you’re smart,” I replied with a nod. “He’s going to build himself a robotic body, using part of the Clembot. We’re going to claim that he’s just heavily cybernetic, rather than a robot.”

  Adria nodded, but Evelyne frowned. “You want me to lie on his medical paperwork?”

  “Yes,” I said bluntly as I locked eyes with her for a moment. “He is a scared child, and the world will absolutely ruin him if it’s found out. We all know how most of the world and the people who run it see Pokemon. The best case scenario is he gets captured and forced to endlessly create things that people demand of him.”

  She bit her lip, clearly trying to not say something and actually think over the situation. After a moment she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Okay. I can do it. But I am not going to be the only Joy to know.”

  “As long as they can be trusted,” I said with a bit of a nod. I had expected that to be the case.

  “I can probably swing just me knowing,” Adria said with a thoughtful look. “I will have to inform the Chief that he’s been found, and under medical care. How bad are we going to say it is?”

  “Very,” I said as I gestured for them to follow and we started heading towards the elevator. “We’re going to have to really lean into the cyberization thing. On the report it should be that he is mostly machine. Few organic parts.”

  “That sounds awful,” Evelyne commented.

  “Eh I guess? Just makes me think of cyberpunk.” The two of them gave me a confused look. I hesitated for a moment. “There’s this media I know of called cyberpunk, that a good portion of the population is like that,” I explained with a shrug. “It was popular, and a lot of people kind of idolized the thought of being more machine than human.”

  “The more I hear about your old world, the weirder it sounds,” Adria replied.

  “Old world?” Evelyne repeated, her eyes suddenly narrowing. Suddenly it was like several things clicked into place and her eyes widened and she pointed at me. “You’re a faller?”

  I blinked at her a few times. “That’s… an oddly apt description of it.”

  “Arceus that makes so much sense,” she muttered, running a hand over her hair. “You don’t have amnesia, you just don’t know what’s going on…” Suddenly she looked upset and was in my face. “Why haven’t you told me? Or any of the Joys?”

  “Uh…” I faltered for a moment, trying to think. “I thought I did?”

  The next few minutes were her berating me, explaining that I should have told her and me making the poor excuse that I thought I already had. Which was true, I thought I had. I really hadn’t been keeping track of who did and didn’t know, which was probably bad.

  But at least I found out that what I was actually had a name: faller. Although it was a rather vague term rather than a title, and was really just used for people who were displaced.

  Eventually we managed to get into the lab after Evelyne was done lecturing me. In the short time I had been gone, Clemont had been extremely busy. Clembot was in pieces, and there were several sort of claw like arms set up around the station. Those arms were busy at work doing several different things.

  “Clemont,” I called as we got close and all the arms froze.

  Hesitantly the little Rotom boy appeared out of the machines. “Uh, hey.”

  “Damn,” Adria muttered, her fists clenching at her sides. It was one thing to hear about, but an entirely different thing to see it in person.

  “Clemont,” Evelyne said, thankfully not posing it as a question and instead making it a greeting. “I know you probably don’t like it, but I want to take you to a Pokecenter and get you checked over.”

  That seemed to set him on edge, but eventually he nodded. “Okay…”

  “I’m going to tell the Chief we found him,” Adria said with a sigh, pulling out her phone. “Don’t worry, I won’t mention anything about you being a Pokemon. You’ve just been… cyberpunked.”

  I laughed.

  Lucario - The group mom, battered and out of action

  Lucario - This dog wants to own things.

  Scolipede - Pokemon transport unit

  Primarina - Doing big seal things

  Audino - Trained Nurse Pokemon

  Diancie - Big sparkly that just wants to throw rocks at people

  Eevee - Living that sleepy hood life

  Goodra - Big slug

  Mimikyu - Very skilled seamstress

  Banette - Silent but powerful.

  Ninetales (Alolan) - Big fox

  Espurr - Little cat that likes pokebeans.

  Liepard - Big hungry cat

  Houndour - Just a little pup

  Houndoom - Bit of a space case

  Mightyena - Super serious

  Fennekin) - Not up to too much yet.

  Rotom - Hacker-mans

  Absol - Future problems

  Houndour

  Guff

  Bleak

  Rascal

  Dilly

  Fret

  False

  Grubby

  Muddle

  Gabby

  Dwindle

  Crass

  Houndoom

  Poochyena

  Mightyena

  Sneasel