chapter 2

It took a while for Cherry to return, and Azurra began to worry if something had happened to the poor dumb animal, or if she had gotten distracted by a melon or something. But despite her fear and doubt, she sat by the woman's side as she grieved for the fallen person within the mass. From her came mumbling of various apologies and regrets as she apparently regained her ability to speak. However, Azurra decided not to ask questions until, at the very least, Cherry returned.

However, the woman would decide to breach that barrier for her.

“Wh-who are you..?” Her accent was thick, and French-sounding, as if she had at one time been Kalosian.

“...My name is Azurra. Do you absolutely not have a name..?”

“No... she... gave me a name... but I didn't like it. But I never.. had the heart to object, because she was so sweet, otherwise... there is a tenet among us, we 'legendary' Pokemon, to never allow ourselves to be caught. But her... though the organization she belonged to was, to our knowledge not, she was... one to be trusted.”

“Her... organization...?” Azurra pulled a file from her bag and opened it, refraining to comment on the tenet. “Why don't you tell me about her?”

“She was... a very wonderful person, despite being a member of this... Team Rocket. She loved her mother, and loved the attention she got from the boys. She was very... how you say... extroverted. Her mother, she was a higher-up, and she saw some level of privilege, from this. One day, we were... training, on the coast of Cinnabar. I was called out, because she wanted to show me to some whelp of a boy. The next time I was released, I had been confiscated and thrown into the back of a Pokemon Center... Apparently, I never saw the light of day after that. I do not know what could have happened, or why Arceus' grace allowed me to live and not her.”

“Maybe it was meant to be..” Azurra hurriedly flipped through her file of missing-in-action agents. Come on Cherry, she thought to herself, hurry up and bring back that stuff.

“I do not know how long it has been since...” it took the woman a moment to continue. “...since I was last released. I have been in there for so long... trapped, as it seems...”

“Tell me what was going on at the time you last saw the outside world.”

“Let me see what I remember... the Unovan president was accused of an affair... the last episode of that stupid show about nothing had just aired... Oh, and that wonderful book series about the wizards, the second book had just come out... I don't believe I finished reading it yet. And, and, that improv show... how successful has it been? I watched the first episode, and I fell in love... Then everything happened...”

The events which were described rung clear and immediate bells to Azurra. This poor dear hadn't seen the light of day since the Clinton administration?

“Oh... well...” Oh, how to tell this sweet summer child.

“How... many months has it been?”

“...Not months...” Azurra had to pause to brace herself. “...Years. It's been almost twenty years.”

You could see that number hit the woman on the face like a wrecking ball. “But... how could it have been that long... it does not feel like it at all...”

“...I know. But it has been... this lab has been abandoned for that long. This basement has been sealed by a volcanic eruption since the year two-thousand. It may be the only reason you went undisturbed for so long. I only knew about it because the experiments that led to Mewtwo were so well-documented. I needed to come here to learn of an incident that may be related to some others that have happened. I still don't know whether they're related or not, but... I found other interesting data. And I found you after all this time.”

“...I want to know what's happened since I was trapped.”

“Well, sit down... it's a very long story.”

And so Azurra sat with her, covering as much as she could of what had happened since the Articuno had been trapped. She watched the shock on her face when she learned of the Great War, and the intrigue as she detailed pop culture. It seemed like she really enjoyed worldly things like that. In the middle of a discussion on the finer details of the Rise of Reality TV, however, there came shuffling noises from the direction of the entryway to the basement. Azurra quickly drew her pistol, but lowered it when she saw Cherry hauling in a bunch of bags and a large box.

“...Took you long enough.” Azurra commented.

“Do you know how long it takes to haul this much crap around the back roads without getting' seen? Someone was gonna catch me goin' to this old lab otherwise. Do you want a bunch of twerps thinkin' they gotta save the day from you?”

“Not in particular. Go set that stuff up in the other room then. Did you bring tools?”

“Sledgehammer, regular hammer, chisel.. everything you'd need for bustin' stiffs outta glass.” Cherry rifled through the bags she had brought with her. “I also got plenty of comfort food, picked up a mini-fridge and a microwave.”

“Good, good... let's wait to get the nasty business out of the way.” Azurra looked toward the crystallized mounds. “I wonder what horrors these bodies knew before they died... I'll have to call in my medical examiner friend for this... most unfortunate... It will take a while for her to arrive. But it's only right to have them filed, and whatever family they have left notified.”

There was still a niggling sense at the back of her mind. The sadness that this Articuno felt was in the forefront, but... something in the back of her mind. Wisps of fear and doubt. The fear of being forgotten forever... was something in these masses still cognizant? Something else, trapped in here all this time?

She looked toward the ground. “We haven't been to the second basement yet. Down there, I believe, should be the old med-bay. We'll have to dust and sterilize, for sure, but if it's as well preserved as this upper basement... well I don't think we'll need to worry about equipment. Supplies on the other hand could be a problem. Bleach only has a shelf life of a year. Anything that's still in here will have turned into nothing but salt and water by now...”

“I'm not goin' to the store again.” Cherry folded her arms.

“I'll cover us this time. She'll want it chilled and so clean you could dissect a corpse on it.” She pulled from her coat a phone emblazoned with the Rocket sigil. Standard issue. Not long after it began to ring, a somewhat confused voice answered on the other end.

“Viridian City Medical Examiner's office, Dr. Smith speaking.”

“Zorana? Are you available?”

“Azurra..? Are you trying to cover something up again? I told you, I don't make it look like nothing happened-”

“We have bodies here that require filing and checking out. At least three. Maybe more. Hard to tell. Both people and Pokemon, as far as we know.”

“...How exactly is it hard to tell?”

“They're... I'll show you when you get here. And you do need to come here. We can't come there. It's classified business, you'll understand.”

“I can't do an autopsy on the spot, you know, I need-”

“We'll have that arranged for you. Please. It's urgent.”

“If you say so, but if you ask me this reeks of shady business... where are you?”

“Cinnabar Island, the Pokemon Mansion.”

“But... that was supposed to have exploded... twice. And been half burned away by a volcanic eruption. And that's outside my jurisdiction anyway! I can't just drop everything to-”

“Just trust me, Zorana. I can't bring the Cinnabar Island Police into this, they're famously neurotic. You know this. Furthermore, what's here is top secret Rocket property. I can't just trust anyone to come in here to do this. These people have potentially been missing in action for twenty years.”

“So... they're just skeletons, do you know how hard that would be-”

“I have reason to believe the bodies are perfectly preserved. I told you, rank and file. It's nothing more than your usual. Confirm the cause of death and sign the paperwork. That's all.”

“Ugh... If you're sure this'll be quick. I won't be long. I just have a few things to tend to before I leave. Guess I'm putting the interns on the spot today.”

“Good. I'll meet you out front when you arrive. Pack all your small tools and bring your scrubs. Just in case something requires it.” Azurra hung up before her contact could reply, and turned back to her two copatriots. “Cherry, make sure our guest here is fed and as comfortable as you can manage. She looks almost starved to death after so long. Should be a break room somewhere in here, just ignore the snack machines. No way anything in there is still good after that.”

“I bought all the snacks we're gonna need anyway.”

“Good girl. I'm going out to buy disinfectants. You two have fun.” And with that, Azurra left the room, leaving Cherry and the Articuno to stare at each other.

~*~*~

The woman on the other end of the line stared at the phone for a few seconds before sighing loudly. “She isn't going to let me live it down if I don't haul my ass out to Cinnabar. Ugh, she can wait a few minutes while I finish this paperwork...” She pulled her crimson hair back and slipped it into a ponytail before continuing. It would do her well to keep it out of the way.

The entire time she flipped through her papers – mostly death certificates to sign, with a few blood test results and some more various papers – that call was on her mind. What in the fresh hell did Azurra want this time? How, exactly, could at least three bodies be perfectly preserved after twenty years, a lab explosion and a volcanic eruption? Maybe she just wasn't up to snuff enough on her Rocket secrets.

But it wasn't necessarily her job to be.

What did Azurra even know about the way a body decomposes, anyway? How would one even be perfectly encased in anything? Did she for some reason find a bunch of frozen bodies in there, mummified by the cold? Impossible. Absolutely impossible, given the environment and the distinct lack of unknown areas to freeze over. But if this were true, it was worth looking into. A frozen piece of the 90's... how did she know they were that old? Too many questions.

“Hmmm...” Flip. Flip flip. It was almost disappointing that there weren't more case files in this pile to sign off on. Most of these needed to wait for test results. She supposed that was as good a sign as any to take off now rather than later.

She called out to whomever happened to be listening outside her office. “I'm taking off early, all my cases for the day are done. I need to check out the lab before I go, you're in charge of locking up the office tonight.”

When whomever was out there called back an affirmative answer, Zorana grabbed her coat and headed to the lab in which she did the bulk of her work. Hopefully she could make this quick, before she was seen filching... her own supplies.... scratch that, she could take as long as she damn well pleased.

There was a certain sense of wonderment to it, she supposed. The mystery of just who and what Azurra had been talking about. She had figured any and all bodies were charcoal, and had been cleared out in the 80's, after the incident that spawned the first Mewtwo. She had figured the second explosion had been bad chemicals, and that no one had been harmed. To learn that her assumptions were apparently wrong intrigued her. It was, after all, the story that everyone knew. Or 'knew', as the case may be. Twenty years was a lot to ask for perfect preservation, anyway. They would have to be vacuum sealed, and how would you be able to manage that there?

Far, far too many questions, not enough time to answer them all before Miss Bosslady demanded she arrive. She would rather just return home after a long day at the office, but the sense of wonder, it called to her.

After stuffing her scrubs, facemask and tools into a duffel bag, Zorana made her way out of her workplace into the streets of Viridian City. In the late afternoon light, the city still bustled like nothing odd was going on. People still milled about, traffic still passed, superstitious morons still made wide arcs around her when she left the morgue. Just like any end of the day, really.

From an odd-looking greenish Poke Ball that she pulled from her purse, she released a bird Pokemon in black, corvid in nature, with a distinct hat on its head. The Honchkrow cawed at her as she hopped aboard its shoulders.

“Yata. Fly me to Cinnabar Island, stat.”

The Honchkrow, seemingly unaffected by her additional weight, launched into the air. It wasn't long until they were above the hustle of the city streets, soaring through the twilight air toward the sea to the south. Up here, in the quiet, she was able to take a moment to clear her own head.

If this was just rank and file and routine like Azurra claimed, she would be able to go home as per usual and rest. She would have to order out for dinner tonight if she would be late coming home... what a shame. No matter, it couldn't be helped. And if it turned out not to be, then she would be in for an interesting night. She hoped they were prepared to sleep in there once she got there. She hoped there was anything comfortable at all.

“Yata, make a few loops around before we land. We may as well take our sweet time.”

The bird cawed again, curving gently to the west, diverting from its formerly straight path to Cinnabar Island. As she soared over Route 1, watching the road below her, Zorana's head filled with questions. Years back, she had met an odd man of stranger stature. He always wore a cloak, he did, along with one of those rice hats that were common in older times, and he called himself after one of the many names of the legendary Pokemon also known as Yveltal. She wondered what he would say about these lost souls that Azurra had supposedly found. She wondered what he would say about her Honchkrow, who she had named Yatagarasu after him.

But that was a story for another time, she thought as they passed over Pallet Town. However, as she thought it, she could have sworn she saw the shadow of a bird pass by, even overhead of her. How odd.

She paused her internal monologue to feel the sea breeze rush across her skin and through her hair as they crossed over the town and the shoreline to the open seas. In the distance, she could see the tall, imposing mountain known as the Cinnabar Volcano. Somewhere just behind that volcano, just next to the Seafoam Islands, was the lab she was meant to land at. What an odd situation this was to just get dragged into with no context whatsoever. But if she was meant to give a voice to these poor lost souls, that's exactly what she would do.

That was her job, to let the dead tell their last tales, to bring closure. Even if it was just confirmation of the already obvious. Some might say it was weird for her to enjoy her job, but she did. She found it fascinating. She always had.

In not too long, she and her flying partner passed overhead of the city of Cinnabar Island, and turned off to the east at a steady descent. She could see the ruins of the lab below her, and a blue and black figure headed toward it along the back ways where no one might see them. They made wide circles around the lab in the air as they descended, and as Zorana hopped her Honchkrow, she could see the Rocket Boss approach, with an armful of bags.

“You're just in time.” Azurra commented.

“Lucky me.” Zorana replied, completely deadpan. “I still don't know what you expect me to find in this place. It's been mapped out to hell and back, and you know it. Nor do I want to ask what those cleaning supplies are needed for.”

“I couldn't tell you on the phone, you know. There's no sense in risking a signal tap. That said... no, it's not entirely mapped out.”

“Everyone knows the floorplan to the Cinnabar Mansion by now, Azurra. Someone would have found these bodies by now. Don't tell me you know some sort of Ancient Rocket Secret.”

“Guess what.”

Zorana groaned audibly. “Of course you do. It's always some tricksy Rocket bullshit with you isn't it?”

“If it weren't, it wouldn't be my job. But no, this one was legitimately sealed off, since the eruption, I swear. I only found out about it by reading some old classified files. Had to get to it by borrowing my top agent's Garchomp.”

“Well, show me the way then, oh great Boss Lady.”

Azurra rolled her eyes, then led her through the ashen, charred ruins of the first floor of the mansion, to the restroom where the initial tunnel was hidden.

“A... womens' bathroom stall? I can't lie that's a pretty clever hiding spot. Can't imagine why no one ever thought to look in here before the explosion though...”

“To hazard a guess, because the original entryway was maybe inconspicuous, and possibly covered in a healthy coating of debris. But that's just my thoughts. I never was in here before the eruption.” Azurra hopped down the hole and caught her guest afterward, leading her down the subsequent stairs to the second floor of the lab.

Zorana marveled at this hidden section of the lab. “All of this was hidden down here..?”

“Apparently so. It's all even still working. It's still running on the old generators.”

“But...how?”

“Not sure. Miracles, maybe. C'mon, this way.”

Upon encountering the room coated in glass, Zorana stepped back in shock. “Wh- how did this happen?”

“We don't know. We also don't know what's in them. But we brought you in because we know there's at least one human in here... you'll understand why soon enough. Did you bring your tools? Just in case.”

“I did... you weren't kidding when you said they might be perfectly preserved...”

“Can't find a single place where air might get in.”

“Do you have the supplies to get them out? I brought some spare papers, so...”

“We do. I also know for a fact that there's a medbay in here. It's standard issue. Always has been. The less us Rockets have to use common hospitals, the better. It's not quite as specialized as your morgue, but will it work?”

“If you're willing to clean it up, yes.”

“Good.” Azurra gave her a grin. “Now that you know what's going on, you can come meet who we unearthed in here.”

“Please don't tell me you've found ghosts.”

“No no, no ghosts. Not that that would be any issue to you at all.”

“Excuse you. It comes with the work.”

“Whatever you say, Reaper Creeper. Through here. They should be in the break room. Just follow the dulcet tones of Cherry's stupid accent.”

“What exactly is Melonfucker doing here?”

“Scrapping for parts, so she said. Whatever she was here for, she's in the shit with me now.”

“You always did have a habit of miring other people in your shit.”

“It saved you from being caught by Lindwyrm and having your career ruined after you worked so hard to get your degree, didn't it?”

“Heh... Maybe.”

Cherry and the mysterious woman were already watching the door when the two entered. Cherry gave a little smirk.

“Well well well, ain't this just shiny. Shoulda known you'd be the one she'd call in.”

“Who is this...?” The woman sounded very confused. “You all seem to know each other very well...”

“You could say we have a lot of past experience with each other.” The mortician folded her arms. “I'm Dr. Zorana Smith. They called me about the bodies here. That's my job. Azurra mentioned finding someone down here. I presume that would be you?”

“Yes... I believe that would be me.”

“Mmmm.” Zorana took a seat in one of the nearby chairs. “In that case, I would very much appreciate it if you would be willing to tell me anything you know about the deceased, if anything? We can talk about personal details later, but if you know of any medical history, or any family, now is the time that I would want that information.”

“I only know one of the dead in there... Rose Nader. Perfectly healthy, so far as I knew... She was a Team Rocket member through and through, in a family line of Rockets, completely loyal to Giovanni. I, however, only met her mother, out of this supposed family. Perhaps they may have been the only ones in at the time... I have been informed by the woman there that her mother is also deceased... She... Rose, I mean... she was... my Trainer.”

“...Excuse me? Do you mean like personal trainer?”

The woman looked back at Azurra, who motioned to go ahead. “No... as in Pokemon Trainer.”

Zorana stared incredulously. “So... you're one of them, then.”

“You know about this..?”

“Yes, as it happens... I am very familiar with the concept. It's a bit of a long story, though... I don't want to bore anyone with the details now.”

“Oh, no, please do tell...”

“No, no... I want to lay these poor souls to rest, first. Get their documents signed, and have them buried properly. So I'll tell you what. Once that's finished, I can take us all to dinner, and I'll tell the story over that. How's that sound?”

“If you insist, I suppose...”

“Mmhm.” Zorana pulled a clipboard with some documents on it from her duffel bag and began to write. “So, you only know of one of the deceased?”

“Yes.”

“It's better than nothing. The rest will just have to be Jahn Does until otherwise proven.”

“If I may interject...” Azurra suddenly chimed in. “Simply having a name to put to it is more than enough. That you were able to tell us her links to the organization as well is even better. I'll have any data on this Rose person transmitted to me as soon as possible.”

“Oh...” It didn't seem to quite have hit the Articuno that Giovanni was long dead, and that this was the new boss.

“I swear the name sounds familiar, though... it can wait until the files are sifted through.” She had seen the name once before in here. It had been in the logs on that old computer. The last name 'Nader' rang a bell, as well... hadn't that been the last name of the Executive who had lost her daughter?

“Well... do what you will, I suppose...” The Articuno sounded somewhat dejected. “I suppose I have a lot of thinking to do... twenty years... how did this happen...?”

Zorana rose out of her seat. “I don't know. But I promise you justice for her. Whatever did this, I'll find out. I swear it.” She turned to the other two. “One of you needs to lead me to this supposed medbay. And the other can go start breaking the bodies out of the glass.”

Azurra stepped forward. “If it's built to Rocket standards, I know exactly where the medbay will be. I'll lead you. Cherry, you and... her, you start breaking them out of the glass.”

Cherry shrugged. “You got it, boss lady.” She turned on her heel and entered the room coated in glass, carrying with her a shopping bag full of chisels, and various sorts of hammers.

“Ugh, why's it always gotta be me... coulda gone home, don't gotta help with their fuckin' corpse party...” she grumbled as she took a chisel to the statue they had found the Articuno's Poke Ball sticking out of. The glass wasn't hard to break, as glass tends to be rather fragile, and cracked and splintered at the first strike of the mallet in Cherry's hand. As the shards fell away from the person within, she noted that there wasn't even a smell. Maybe that was to be expected after twenty years. She didn't know much about decomposition though. That was all the Stiff Slicer's problem in there. She had just apparently been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and now she had to break open glass coffins and shit...

...Shouldn't these have at least broken down a little?

Now that the glass casing had been cracked and chipped away, it fell away as Cherry brushed it aside. Beneath the tomb of crystal, there had been a young woman, curled around a Meowth not much older than a kitten. She wore the distinctive uniform of a Rocket B-Class, white and midriff-bearing with the red R emblazoned across the chest, just as the Articuno had said. Her eyes, even now, were closed tightly in fear and her blond hair was stuck together by the substance she had been trapped within. Based on the glass still trapped in her mouth and nose, there was no question how the two had died. Cherry didn't need to be a medical examiner to see that.

Around her belt were five more Poke Balls. She would have to let Azurra handle those. One of them, also, would have to belong to this Meowth, she assumed. Cherry began to poke around any pockets this woman had, eventually coming across a wallet, and subsequently, a membership badge. Team Rocket, B-Class. Name, Rose Nader. Just like the Articuno had said. Zorana would want this, so for lack of any evidence bags, she shuffled it and the wallet into some sandwich bags she had bought along with the tools she was using to break the glass.

Then, it was time for the next mound. After much chipping and cracking, this one revealed a dark-haired boy in the fashion that was common for Pokemon Trainers of the Nineties. Baseball cap, t-shirt in white, jean shorts. Aggressively typical. He had no Pokemon on him that were released, so Cherry saw fit to rifle through his things. In particular, his Pokedex caught her attention.

“Holy fresh hell...” She lifted it and brushed over it. “This is a legit generation one Pokedex! Only got the data room for a hundred and fifty Pokemon... they stopped makin' these ages ago! Not to mention how tough it was to get one in the first place, these new ones are goddamn everywhere. This is a piece of history... Oh man I gotta hold onto this.” She set it aside, then searched for identification. The Pokedex would have his identification, but after twenty years, the battery within would be dead. She would replace that later... aha. One trainer card... Jeremy Stone, huh? Any relation to Steven Stone?

Next one to be cracked open was an older dark-haired man. A quick search showed only one Poke Ball, and no identification. They would have to rely on Azurra's records to identify this one.

Three more to crack open, and the next one was where it started getting very, very strange. This tomb was positively massive, and cracked open to reveal not a human, but a tremendous Pokemon that resembled a cross between a lion and a dog.

“Holy hell...” Cherry mumbled, brushing her hand against the Entei's matted fur. “Oh, this is fucked...” There was nothing, obviously, on the Pokemon's body that she could stow away as 'evidence'. The only thing she could do was move on to the next lumps, both smaller than either of the others.

The next body didn't so much fall out of its casing as ooze out, as if its body was not entirely solid to begin with. The pliable, jelly-like creature almost appeared made of pixels, and Cherry could not place where any eyes were, nor a mouth, though it was almost certainly dead... right?

She poked at it experimentally. No movement. It didn't feel wet, belying its goopy nature, but it squished as if she were poking a ball of silly putty. It almost looked like the congealed masses they had seen in the tubes upstairs... wait a minute...

“Shit... they need to hurry the hell up. The plot just thickened like a three day old soup...” She flooped a bit of it around in her hand. It felt like handling one of those slippery toys that rolled around as you tried to keep a grip on it, and looked just as squidgey. As she got a closer look, she could see the clear, translucent skin of it, and note that the pixellated mess seemed to be inside of it.

How did this thing even exist?

“Zorana's gonna have a field day with this...” She moved on to the very last mound, still staring at the creature. She could be reasonably assured that it was dead, by now. She only looked over as the glass splintered and fell off of the figure within, and stumbled backward.

“Oh, sweet Arceus...”

~*~*~

“Come on, scrub lively now, I want this place spic and span. Anything less gives diseases a chance to breed, you know. And you don't want diseases that come off of the dead.”

Zorana paced around the medbay, surveying the space she had to work with. It was certainly impressive. An entire operating room? What sorts of secrets did they want to hide here, she wondered? Well, clearly Mewtwo, her rational thought answered for her. That would have been a nasty thing to let slip.

It was, however, disappointing to not have access to her usual body freezer. Not that she would even need it, she figured, if this was meant to be routine.

Before her, Azurra was on her knees, scouring and grumbling. “I am a fashion designer and the leader of the largest criminal organization the regions have ever known, this is undignified...”

“Dignity comes after proper sanitation.” Zorana folded her arms. “Could you imagine the horrors that you would end up breeding if you just let all the dust and grime sit around while we dissected possibly liquefied corpses?”

“...Ech.”

“Exactly.”

“Since when did you get to order me around, anyway?”

“Since you set foot into what is technically a medical facility. You're in my house now.”

Azurra didn't bother to argue, instead turning her attention back to the cleaning that needed to be done. But in the back of her head, she still felt that foreign sense of fear. It wasn't the Articuno, she knew that now. The sense was stronger now, louder, like a psychic outcry. Or, almost, anyway. She always found that psychics had a very difficult time breaching her mind. Why was now any different?

There was no way anything was still alive down here. No fucking way... right?

Right.

“Floor's done.” she mumbled, staring off through a window into the main floor. So much out there was unexplored yet. There was information to be had in here yet. And here she was cleaning half an inch of dust off of perhaps the least important part of it all.

“Hmm... looks good to me. And I've polished the surfaces...” Zorana nodded. “You're dismissed. Now we need only wait for Cherry to come forward with the bodies.”

“Suppose there's not much to be done until she does, yeah...”

“Mmhm... so, mind telling me exactly what you're doing hiding out in here or is that classified too?”

“Suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell a story while we're waiting, would it... hmmm... where to begin. Do you remember the other day, when the power grid went out in Viridian?”

“It made work infuriating. Our emergency generator overloaded and we had to bombard the freezers with Ice-types to make sure nothing nasty happened. That, and all our oscillating saws stopped working. So yes, I remember.”

“I went digging for some information that might provide a clue as to who did it. A Rocket base nearby was specifically targeted. The attacks bore some resemblance to something in our reports. Reports which, coincidentally, make mention of B-Class Nader as having disappeared shortly after the incidents.”

“...Incidents?”

“Three separate attacks. The first was the Cinnabar Island power grid. It was blamed on a power station failure. Then a bombing at the Safari Zone, during which witnesses mentioned seeing two ghostly figures. Then, immediately afterward, the top floor of this very laboratory exploded. Sometime during all this, B-Class Nader disappeared after having been seen with a fugitive on the run from Team Rocket's elite for failure to detain two escaped experiments from Operation Duplicate. It is assumed that her disappearance, and at a bit of a stretch, the attacks, have something to do with her being seen with the fugitive. The recent Viridian attacks, some people say they saw a ghostly figure at the scene of the crime.”

“Mmmm... are you sure you should be looking into this? This sort of thing invites nothing but trouble... they might get mad at you for daring to investigate. These escaped experiments, I mean.”

“Better me than anyone else. I've handled worse.” Azurra looked toward the ground. “Better us, rather... I'm sorry for possibly dragging you into this.”

“...Think nothing of it. Someone needs to be around to make sure you don't up and kill yourself.”

“I'd think you'd be jumping at the chance to weigh and measure my innards.”

“Believe it or not, not really. It's just not as fun when it's friends.”

“Maybe so. I wouldn't know, that's not really my jam- hm?” The medbay doors swung open, and Azurra looked up to see Cherry looking sufficiently freaked out, carrying no less than six bodies on a maintenance cart she had found.

“Guys, you need to take a look at these, right now.”

The pair emerged and approached the cart, and immediately saw the two smallest bodies resting on the top.

“...What in the fresh hell is that?”