After I set my things down in the guest room at the house I was staying at, Giacomo decided to give me a tour of Cascarrafa until his Dad returns from work.


    "That over there is where the library is," The young boy said as we walked through the white and blue streets of the city, "And that over there is the police station, over there is the flying taxi station, and over there-"


    I nodded along as I followed the boy, the baseball cap on my head shifting slightly as a shiny Fomantis poked her tiny head from under the brim, her arms grabbing onto my head like hair clips.


    There''s so much I haven''t shown you yet, but it''s boring stuff nobody really cares about, so I''ll skip it~" The kid said as he crossed his arms, his Pawniard following suit.


    "So that''s it for the tour, what do ya'' think? Awesome? I know~" The boy grinned confidently. "Come on! Dad should be home by now. He''ll probably want to get to know you before mom gets here~" And with that decision, my short tour of the City of Water came to an end.


    <hr>


    "We''re so close, let''s try again! Mankey, use Karate Chop!" In a training area outside a cheap hotel, Eri and her team decided to get some time in, to ready themselves for their upcoming trek through the desert.


    "Mannn-" The small Fighting Type howled as he glared at the training dummy, his hand rising above his head as it began to glow with orange Fighting-Type energy. "-Key!!!!" The hand struck down at the dummy with a sharp chopping motion, only for the fighting-type energy to fizzle away before the attack made contact, turning the move into a simple slap.


    "Mankey..." The Pokemon said in disappointment, his tail drooping to the ground before his glare hardened. He let out a yell, angrily thrashing the dummy with all of his body.


    Eri let out a sigh as she watched the move fail for what felt like the hundredth time, but before the disappointment could get to her, she slapped both her hands onto her cheeks and shook her head, grabbed her nearby bag and pulled out a wig and mask.


    "This isn''t the time to get angry! It''s time to succeed!" The little girl yelled excitedly, trying to deepen her voice to make herself sound older, "Mankey! Follow my lead!" She yelled at her partner before raising her own hand and doing a Karate Chop of her own.


    "Man?" The Pokemon turned to its trainer, his eyes starting to water as he watched the girl perform the move on her own. "Mankey Key Key!" With a fire ignited in his heart, Mankey returned to the dummy, practicing his own Karate Chop.


    "Osu! Never give up! Never surrender!" Eri cheered her partner on as the duo continued performing the move.


    "Osu! Yosh! That''s the way to do it!" Dendra cheered the duo on from the other side of the training field, sweatbands on her head and wrists as she did her own exercise, alternating between push-ups, sit-ups, and running in place.


    "Medicham."


    Dendra turned to watch her Pokemon hold her phone up to her, pointing at the time.


    It was already five-thirty.


    "WHAT?!" Dendra yelped loudly, snatching her phone from her Pokemon and taking a closer look, her eyes widening as she looked at the notifications, ignoring all the unimportant spam notices that she told herself she''ll clean up but never actually got around to and instead focused on her messenger app.


    "Hey, I''m at the meeting place, where are you?" The first message read.


    "It''s been ten minutes, are you coming?" The next message was sent ten minutes after the first one.


    Next came a picture of a shiny Salandit posing next to a fountain, followed by another picture of that same Salandit, now edited to have a tiny pair of sunglasses over her eyes, small stickers of hearts of diamonds floated around her.


    "Look at how cute she is!" The accompanying message read out.


    The next message was an address, with the message that followed explaining that''s where he''ll be staying for the next three weeks.


    The next picture was of Dishon holding up a cup of freshly squeezed fruit juice, accompanied by a child with a Pawniard, and an older man who looked like what the child would look like in thirty years.


    "These are Giacomo and Frank, We''re having juice." The message read simply, accompanied by an emoji depicting a cup with a straw next to an emoji of a cantaloupe, a banana, and a kiwi.


    The last message was sent two minutes ago.


    "Are you coming or what? Please answer soon so I''ll know whether to wait or return to the house."


    "Eri! We forgot to meet up with Dishon!" She called out to the young girl, who was still cheering on as she and her Mankey were chopping their hands.


    "It''s now?!" The girl turned to Dendra, "You said we had time to train!"


    "I did, we just happened to go over time, no big problem, right? Hehe~" Dendra rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment, only for her Medicham to jump and give her a weak slap on the head, pointing her hand at the phone once she landed.


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    "Right!" Dendra nodded to her Pokemon before she quickly sent Dishon a message telling him Eri and she were on the way.


    "Let''s go put our stuff back in our room and wash our faces before heading out," Dendra told Eri as the little girl took off her mask and wig, shoving the two objects into her backpack before swiftly making her way back into the hotel to clean up.


    <hr>


    "It has been four days..."


    Sitting at his office on the top floor of a high-rise tower, a man with wild orange hair stared at the computer screen in front of him, the large window that covered the entire wall behind him letting the setting sun illuminate his back, while inadvertently casting a shadow over the rest of the room, making it difficult for the other people in the room to directly look at him, lest they get the sun in their eyes.


    The table the man sat in extended further into the room, giving it the appearance of a meeting room more than a regular office.


    "I believe we can say that her experiment caught the attention of the local authorities and she was captured, as we already predicted would happen." A balding man said as fixed the small glasses he wore over his eyes.


    "So lame. That''s just so lame." A purple-haired woman said as she shook her head, "We told her that leaving the region will put her at extra risk, and look what she did..." The lady sighed tiredly, not taking the issue at hand as seriously as the others in the room.


    "The probability of her capture was low enough that we allowed her to go regardless," A woman with green hair reminded the group, a single finger of hers moving to push the large green visor on her face further up her nose. "I suggest we cut our losses with her and move on ahead with the plan, we already got most of what we need. We''re just waiting for the excavation team to make sure the project is running as needed."


    "Just abandoning her on her own like that? That''s lame even for you." The purple-haired lady told the green-haired woman, her head lazily bobbing from side to side in an attempt to keep herself awake.


    "We''re not abandoning her," A young woman with short orange hair and a large visor over her eyes told the two other women before she turned to the man with the mane of orange hair, "My work on the project is already complete, there''s no problem with me going to Paldea to pick her up myself, is there?"


    The balding man turned to the man who owned the office they were all sitting in, "She has a point. Despite her immaturity, Mable has been a part of our team since the start. It would be needlessly cruel to just abandon her in another region." He told him, "On the other hand, with the project nearing its completion, we''ll need as many hands as we can get to stay here and make sure everything is going as planned, we don''t need those brats butting in to throw a wrench in our plan again," He took out a rubber glove from his pocked and started putting it over a white glove on his left hand.


    "At the end of the day, it''s your decision, Boss." He stared calmly at the man with the mane.


    The man with the orange mane stayed silent for a moment, the only sound coming from him being the rhythmic tapping of his fingers on the table in front of him.


    After a full minute of silence, the tapping stopped and the man focused on the woman with orange hair, "Aliana," He told her, "You are to go to Paldea and find Mable, Once you make contact with her, make sure to keep her out of trouble with the locals and await further orders," His blue eyes stared into the thin lines of the visor covering her eyes, "You are dismissed."


    Nodding her head, Aliana stood up from her spot at the meeting table and made her way out of the room.


    "Hey, Ali, get me a souvenir when you''re coming back~" The purple-haired lady told her, no longer bothering to try and keep her eyes on who she was speaking to as she stared at the ceiling, entranced by an expensive lamp.


    "Don''t forget to grab the notes she took on her experiments. The probability of them being useful isn''t high, but it''s still better than zero." The green-haired woman told Aliana.


    Aliana stared blankly at the two women for a moment, before she burst into laughter, "Ah ha ha! You two are so funny sometimes~" She covered her mouth with a gloved hand as she laughed, swiftly calming herself down and telling the two women, "Don''t tell me what to do."


    "Enough." The balding man raised his voice, shutting the trio of women up, "Aliana, you have your mission, go."


    Aliana clicked her tongue as she turned around and left the room, the door closing behind her as she kept walking down a dimly lit corridor, making her way towards the elevator at the end.


    Stepping into the elevator, Aliana pressed a series of buttons seemingly at random before the elevator started making its way down.


    Aliana took the time in the elevator to take off her Visor, blinking her green eyes rapidly as they quickly adjusted to their new vision before she placed a small pair of glasses over her eyes, letting out a sigh as she once again had her regular vision back.


    Holding the visor in her hands, Aliana stepped out of the elevator as it stopped on a subterranean floor of the building that was inaccessible to normal employees.


    Making her way through the subterranean level, she entered a small private office and locked the door behind her, quickly taking off her bright red outfit and switching to a much less eye-catching set of clothes.


    Finally, she picked up a suitcase she had prepared days prior before stepping out of the office and locking it behind her before she began to walk to the exit from the building.


    Finally reaching the exit and climbing up a few more stairs before walking out into an alleyway, Aliana took a moment to look at the orange sky above her head before focusing back on her mission.


    She took out a phone she received a few weeks prior and called the only number that it had.


    "..." She waited patiently for the other side to pick up.


    "..." She waited a bit longer, beginning to tap her foot on the ground to pass the time.


    A few seconds later, the person on the other side finally answered the phone.


    "...You''re finally thinking about my offer?" The man on the other side asked her.


    "Yeah," Aliana answered simply, "But I''m adding a condition to me going along with this," she told him.


    "This better be something I can explain to the higher ups," The man said, "What do you want?"


    "Recently, A coworker of mine got stranded in Paldea, I am currently making my way to meet up with her. What I want is for your offer to extend to her as well," Aliana told the man.


    "...You''re talking about Mable? Look, she''s going to be harder to convince the higher ups to-"


    "I don''t care! If I''m getting out, I''m bringing her with me. Either find a way to convince your bosses that-"


    "Okay! Okay, relax. I''ll do it, I can pull a few favors, and with the information you already promised us, I''m sure the higher ups will be ready to look the other way. Fine." The man on the other side of the phone told her, "Once you find Mable, make sure to stay in Paldea, someone will pick you up from there. We''ll be tracking the phone, so don''t lose it."


    "Fine, don''t call me back unless it''s with confirmation that your bosses accepted my request," Aliana told him before hanging up the call.


    She spent a moment staring at the black screen of the phone.


    "...Ah ha ha!" She laughed, her smile wide and excited, "Yes! I did it!" After an excited pump of her fist into the air, Aliana quickly calmed down, picked up her suitcase, and began making her way towards the train station.


    She had a boat to catch.


    <hr>


    On the other side of the city, Agent Looker of the International Police placed one of his phones down on the table in front of him and began to rub at his temple.


    "I can already feel the headache coming..." He groaned before he picked up a different phone and began making calls.


    He had some favors to call in.