Derek winced when Titania dropped her books on the table, an audible thud echoing through the room. "You know, I thought I told you to wait for me when we talked on the phone," she began to tell him. When Derek opened his mouth to refute, she quickly slammed her hands on the books. "In fact, I remember specifically telling you to wait for me, so we could actually handle it together," she continued to say, and eventually placed her hands on his shoulders. With little warning, Titania soon started shaking him as she exclaimed, "So, why didn't you stay to help me with the police? Did you have to leave them to pester me?!"

"H-hey, I already gave my report to them! I didn't want to stay around and risk persecution by them!" Derek protested, his voice quivering from the violent shaking. After several frantic seconds, he eventually managed to slip out of her grasp. As he rubbed his shoulders to relieve soreness, Derek gave her a light glare and told her, "Besides, I had nearly a dozen Klink that I had caught in the room there. It's not like I wanted to have them find the Pokemon!"

"Still, you could've stayed there to confirm, instead of leaving me to the wolves," Titania groused, and sat down with a near-comical pout. Derek raised an eyebrow at the out-of-character behavior, but Titania soon coughed and sat back up. A faint blush on her face, she straightened her jacket while a stray hand held up her tablet. "Anyways, that's not the only reason I called you up here," she commented, and scrolled through her programs, "I heard from the officers that were there that you had apparently encountered the intruder. Care to explain?"

"Honestly, it's nothing that can be easily erased," Derek commented, and slouched back as he recalled yesterday's events. "When I entered the storage room, I didn't see them at first. However, I eventually saw a Rocket Grunt come out of hiding, though his logo wasn't one I recognized. However, the Klink ended up revealing me, so he attacked me with his Golbat. Thank god he only used three Pokemon for battling. Otherwise, it would've been a real slugfest to get through…" When there was no response, Derek looked up to find Titania looking at him in shock.

"You actually encountered someone who came through the wormholes? Why didn't you tell me?! I could've learned so much from them!" Titania exclaimed, and pointed at him with a furious finger.

Derek started at the exclamation, but soon gathered his thoughts at the accusation. "If you have a time machine, that doesn't make a Nazi a good choice, just because you found them first!" Derek shot back, earning a look of bewilderment from Titania. Seeing her surprised by the comment, Derek sighed before he rubbed his forehead.

"Look, if a Rocket grunt is sneaking around… it doesn't mean anything good," he explained, his head feeling like it was being grilled, "When it comes to Team Rocket, they're literally the Pokemon equivalent of the mafia. They deal with grave-robbing, poaching, theft, hostile takeovers, biological warfare… honestly, I could argue they're closer to terrorists than criminals, especially with how he tried to have his Pokemon skewer me."

Looking up at a now-pale Titania, Derek slumped back into his seat. "The point is, we can't trust anything to do with Team Rocket," he groused, the rush from last night finally catching up to him, "With how much shit they get into, they are too much of a hassle to believe they'll act lawfully. If it was anyone else, I'd happily introduce them to you. Even a Youngster would be an option. But any member of a Team, especially one who tries to kill civvies for 'hearing the wrong thing'? Hell no."

Titania let out a hiss, but soon relented as she sat back in her chair. "I guess I can see where you're coming from," she commented, and noted something on her tablet. As she closed a program though, she hummed in thought. "Still, I have to wonder… Why did they come through in the first place?"

Derek looked up at the sky at the question. With all the possibilities, it was too hard to tell what was actually true… A sudden cry from Eve made him place a hand on her head, before he began to gently rustle her fur. "Honestly, the name Cosmic Rocket is a new title, but Rainbow Rocket's a close second, as they actually handled dimension hopping. Though, that begs new questions of who might be working with them…"

Titania let out a huff at that. The sound of scraping chairlegs made him glance over to find her walking away. "Wait, didn't you want to discuss Cosmic Rocket?" Derek asked, before he was interrupted by Indiana hopping on his lap.

"Sorry, but I need to check my findings again," she commented, practically sprinting towards her lab. As Derek moved to stand up, Munna suddenly bumped into him. "I'll be busy working on it, so maybe- I don't know, have them go on a run with you!" Titania shouted, before she slammed the door behind her.

Derek looked at the lab with confusion, and eventually shrugged. With all the talk about Team Rocket, and possible contacts, and the police… "Dammit, this is getting to be a real mess," he griped. A sudden chime from Eve made him look down, and he smiled faintly, before he ruffled both Normal-type's heads. "Alright, guys, what do you say to a quick run to get the blood pumping?" he suggested, not really thinking of anything else to do.

When the crowd of Pokemon around him let out a resounding cheer, he pulled himself out of his chair, before he pointed in a vague direction. "Alright, everyone, let's-a-go!" Derek exclaimed. Soon entering a light jog, Derek ran into the forest, while the pack of varying Pokemon followed. Soon, they were moving in a line of 'follow the leader', Derek and the Trubbish leading the charge, while Sparkplug struggled to follow the Klink.

—-Four Days Later—-

"And a-one, and a-two! And a-one, and a-two!"

"Ee-voi! E-voi-vee! Ee-voi! E-voi-vee!"

Derek faintly huffed as he jogged through the woods. Gently hopping onto a fallen log, Derek stumbled to get a foothold. After a few seconds though, Derek passed over the river, before he finally hopped off on the other side. Derek turned around to watch Eve lead the Trubbish brigade across the makeshift bridge, and as Eve hopped back on the ground, he picked up the pace again.

As Derek crested the hillside, the mountains lining the horizon like a barrier, a sudden buzz made him pull out his phone. Derek only had to look at the message once, then turned towards the pack of Pokemon. "Alright, guys, we've got to pay the Professor another visit!" Derek told them, Mercaptan and the other Trubbish visibly perking up at the comment, "Looks like a new anomaly popped up again!" The Pokemon let out a war-cry at that, and Derek turned to his right. Soon, he was sprinting down the hill, the party of living trash bags somehow managing to outpace him.

After an unsteady race to reach the lab first, Derek finally reached the building. As he stumbled in, Derek took in desperate breaths before he finally stood up. Seeing Titania working furiously at the monitor, Derek took in a deep breath, then walked over. "So, what was it that you noticed?" Derek asked her as he stopped by her.

Titania only gave him a momentary glance, then pulled up the map on the main monitor. "I've been going over the detected entries recently," she told him as she reopened a layer, revealing a spread of pins across the digital map, "And while I thought we had covered them all, I noticed that we've likely… missed some of the Rockets' visits."

Derek looked at her in shock at the comment. "Wait, what? I thought you had me visit every spot that came up!" he commented, then pointed at the upper half of the map, "I practically had to refill on gas three separate times to check them all!"

"Oh, no, you did fine. Sadly, it was a mistake on my end," Titania corrected him. Zooming in on the bottom-right quadrant, she flipped a second layer on. Soon, several of the pins soon turned green and red, and she pointed at a notable cluster. "I originally had checked these places out a few days before I met you, as I noticed several wormholes in the area, but couldn't find anything," she began to explain, and began to look at them, "I even checked, after you told me about Pokemon coming through. But if this Team Rocket is trying to set up a base…"

"Yeah, I can see where you're coming from," Derek hissed, and stretched up before he looked at the map more critically, "What do you think is the best way for us to check on the location, then?"

"Well, the area's mostly farmland, so it's not like we can just drive in," Titania responded. She pursed her lips, then added, "Not without answering far too many questions, at least." Titania looked over the map for a bit, then eventually highlighted a nearby hill. "If we go to this observatory park here, we'll be able to easily cross property lines to start searching," she told him, and Derek nodded at the idea.

"Got it. Could you send me the address?" Derek asked, pulling out his phone. When she pulled up the address for the park, Derek took a photo and gave her a nod. "In that case, we can get there in about…" he checked the directions on his phone, then finished, "40 minutes, give or take five minutes." Titania only gave a faint noise as she worked to transfer the data to her tablet, but Derek didn't pay too much attention. He darted back into the kitchen, and recalled his Pokemon. Soon, Derek was driving down the streets of Iron Springs to the south, Titania's car trailing behind him.

As Derek drove down the roads, he felt tension start to sink its talons into his back. If the Rockets were setting up a base for so long, how many Grunts were there? Ten? Twenty? A hundred? God knows how many Pokemon they might have… Shuddering at the idea, Derek soon slowed down when he saw the exit coming up. When he came to a stop inside the parking lot, Derek began to look around.

He had barely stepped out of the car when Titania pulled in behind him. With her tablet already out, she held it up and spun around. "Alright, it looks like the majority of portals were this way," she eventually said, pointing to their right, "We just have to hike about four hundred feet, then we should be able to find them easily enough."

"We better be careful, though, in case of any scouts," Derek commented, a hand coming down to grasp a Pokeball. Titania frowned at the comment, but a glance at her tablet followed by a general gesture around made her reluctantly nod. With the two of them looking in different directions, they soon began to walk into the woods, slowly separating.

As Titania walked through the thick brushes and towards a thick cluster of maple trees, Derek looked around cautiously as he trekked through the woods. While the forest appeared safe, it only took a single ambush for it to turn into a battlefield. With tension and worry running laps on his spine, Derek warily walked towards the nearest farm. If Team Rocket had set up a base here, it was a great place to hide heavy machinery. Derek glanced around as he crept from the forest onto the grassy farmland, but it didn't look like there was anything hidden…

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!"

Derek let out a yelp at the sudden question, and spun around to find a woman pointing a pistol at him. Dressed in jeans and a stained flannel shirt, she was hardly a model standard for Team Rocket. His blood calming down slightly, Derek let out a breath before he looked at her. "Sorry about that. I'm here on a research project with my college teacher, Professor Titania," he told her, and subtly let the Pokeball in his pocket go. As he looked at her more focused though, he was surprised to find he recognized her. "Wait, you're Ashley, right? From the pet store?"

Ashley blinked at the idea, before she lowered her gun. "Derek? Oh, my bad! I thought you might've been an arsonist or some thief," she asked as she put her gun away. She looked him up and down, before she patted her holster. "So, what sort of project had you coming on my property? Seems to be a rather silly idea to have someone come out all this way for some photos."

"No, it's not anything like that," Derek responded, and tapped his phone as he looked around, "You see, Professor Titania works in Cosmology, and has been noticing several… issues around Iron Springs. As such, she's having my community hours covered by investigating the area for what could've shown up." Noticing Ashley visibly stiffen at the topic, his eyes narrowed before he gave her a look. Suspicion rising, he asked her, "Have you happened to see anything unusual around here recently?"

"U-unusual? No, no! Nothing like that!" Ashley stammered, visibly sweating at the question. With her composure falling apart, Derek grabbed the Pokeball as he prepared for a fight. The two stood in awkward silence for several tense seconds. However, a sudden commotion ended up breaking the standoff, as a new figure charged out from the barn.

"Eggs! Eggs! Eggs! Eggs!" a group of six, baseball-sized eggs screamed in panic as they ran across the farm grounds, a chicken in fast pursuit.

Derek stared at the chase with a deadpan expression, and watched the chicken try to sit on them before he finally looked back at Ashley. "Nothing unusual, huh?" Derek asked, a smirk threatening to break his composure. Seeing her start to panic, Derek quietly chuckled, and pulled out the Pokeball to show off. "Don't worry, you aren't the only one who's run into them," he told her, and expanded the capsule to full size.

Ashley glanced down at the Pokeball, before her eyes went wide. "Wait, you… you're actually a Pokemon Trainer?" Ashley asked, seeming to lose her anxiety at the idea.

"Well, only for a few weeks now," Derek responded, and glanced back at the chase scene. Seeing the other Exeggcute about to attack the chicken, he let out a cough and pointed at the impending chaos. "Anyways, how about I call Professor Titania while you handle… that mess before it happens, and she can help explain things better?" Derek asked her. Ashley looked over in the direction he was pointing, and as she ran off to stop the fight, Derek dialed up Titania's number.

A few minutes later, the three of them were sitting on the farm porch. Derek watched as Ashley made sure the Exeggcute were nestled tightly next to an apple pie, then she finally sat down. "Have to say, I'm surprised that others have been encountering Pokemon," Ashley commented, and looked across the wicker table at the two, "When did you folks even find them in the first place?"

"Well, I originally started detecting them on my systems about four months ago now," Titania told Ashley, her fingers tapping a pattern into the tabletop, "However, working by myself made it somewhat… difficult to hunt all of them by myself. Without proper context, I only found about five percent by myself. However, that's changed recently with the last few weeks, thanks to accidentally running into Derek."

Seeing the group's gaze turn towards him, Derek chuckled slightly before he pulled out Indiana's Pokeball. "Yeah, I had actually run into my first Pokemon the night before I stopped by the pet shop," Derek told Ashley, then finally let Indiana out of his Pokeball, "Eve is a bit of a diva, but Indy's been the main help. His Pickup ability is a real boon for finding items that fell through." Indiana let out a pleased bark when he finally manifested, but he could barely look around before he was snatched up by Ashley.

"Awww… aren't you the cutest thing?" Ashley cooed, the raccoon Pokemon turning into a puddle from her gentle touch. As she continued to rub Indiana's belly, Ashley looked up at them and asked, "So, if this ball of fluff is the second Pokemon you encountered, what other Pokemon have you encountered?"

Derek looked at Titania, then began to count them off on his fingers. "Well, as I said earlier, I found Eve, my Eevee, the day before I found Indy. However, I bumped into Titania when a Grubbin knocked out the campus power. After that… it's honestly been a rush, with dumps of Trubbish and Klink appearing. The most notable one has to be a Skorupi, though he's been rather… harsh." as he finished the list, Derek hummed in thought, then asked Titania, "Speaking of which, how has he been coping with being captured?"

Titania let out a snort at that, and pulled out a Pokeball marked with purple stud stickers. "Unfortunately, he's still a real pain, so I've had to keep him in his Pokeball," she commented, and rolled it around and put it back in her bag, "Last time I let him out, I only gave him a fish a week ago, then recalled him once he ate."

Ashley let out a hum of thought at that, before she finally placed a hand on the table. "I suppose if Skorupi eat periodically like snakes, it's not too big of an issue," she eventually relented, and let out a sigh, "If they've been that hectic, it seems like I got the lucky end for what I found." While Derek and Titania were confused by the question, Ashley looked over the window sill into the kitchen and asked, "Hey, Audie, could you bring some lemonade out please?"

Professor Titania raised an eyebrow at the request. When an oddly familiar chime came from the door, Derek sat up when a pink-and-cream, Teletubby-looking figure stepped out with the drinks on the serving tray. As the Audino set the drinks down, Ashley took the pitcher and began to pour it out for her guests and the Normal-type. "Granted, Audie here found me, instead of the other way around," Ashley commented as the natural healer took sips from her cup, "But she was a great help after I had literally run into one of the other Pokemon."

Derek started at that, and looked at the Exeggcute with concern. "You only chipped them, right?" Derek asked, unsure if the Pokemon would've been able to handle being completely run over.

Ashley looked over at what Derek was looking at, only to giggle at how affronted the egg Pokemon looked at the idea. "No, no. It wasn't them," she commented, then set the pitcher down before she told them, "Instead, it was a Dwebble, so the damage was thankfully limited to some light dizziness and easily replaced parts." Derek let out a breath at that, but as Ashley glanced at a still concerned Titania, she clarified, "Oh, Brick is a hermit crab Pokemon that lives in rocks, so all that got damaged was it's 'house'."

When Titania nodded in agreement, tension leaving her body, Ashey glanced over at the barn. "Granted, he mainly stays near the barn these days with the Burmy," she commented as Derek looked around the farm, "It's hard for them to move about, so he helps keep swallows and chickens from trying to eat them. Still, other than that, they've been a real help with managing the farm with… recent events, though Gala doesn't really do much, outside of helping plants grow and cleaning my fridge out of any apples."

As if they were called, the apple pie on the ledge rose up, and a long green neck snaked out past the tin before a face stared at them. Ashley let out a snort when the Appletun leaned closer to her, and lightly tapped a finger on the grassy dragon's rounded snout. "No, Gala, you don't get any apples. I need the rest for oatmeal tomorrow," she told Gala, earning a disappointed cry from the Pokemon. As Titania smothered a snicker, Derek soon spotted something that made him frown.

"Quick question, but is Combee one of the Pokemon you've found around here?" Derek asked, causing Titania and Ashley to look away from the lounging Appletun. Seeing their confusion, Derek pointed at a shoebox-sized hybrid of a striped insect flying away. They watched at the living insect cluster as it approached the forest edge, two wings somehow keeping the three-as-one Pokemon aloft. Soon, the three rushed after the Pokemon to keep it in sight, Audie and Gala trodding alongside Ashley while Indiana ran beside Derek.

The Combee wasn't the fastest flier, which helped the group quickly catch up to the unsuspecting Bug-type. However, as it flew through branches and leaves, the difficult terrain resulted in the group barely managing to keep the Combee in sight. "How long do you think the Combee's going to fly before it lands?" Ashley quietly asked as she stepped over a gnarled root, now carrying Gala to keep him from trailing behind.

"I dunno. I haven't read the latest copy of Pokemon field research," Derek commented, earning a light glare from Ashley. Feeling the glare burn a small pattern into his head, Derek turned to look at her. "Look, I know it's not the easiest to handle, but there's next to zilch we know about Pokemon. Maybe it'll land soon," Derek commented, only to frown as a thought crossed his mind, "I just hope that they're not like regular bees. One thing I learned from my uncle while beekeeping with him is that bees can fly for hours before they return… to the hive…"

Derek's voice trailed off as he crested the hilltop, nearly knocking Titania over into a tree trunk from what he saw. Splitting the cliffside roughly eighty feet from the group, give or take ten feet, a large cave was barely able to darken any visible spots. However, the slew of Combee that flitted in and out was a sharp shock to the single bee Pokemon they had followed. The three watched with bated breath as the Combee they trailed flew over, before Titania broke the silence with a hiss.

"We definitely didn't bring enough equipment," Titania commented. As the buzz audibly grew, she looked over at the two and asked, "Derek, how many Pokeballs did you bring?"

"Well, I grabbed a dozen Pokeballs and four Great Balls," Derek commented as he pulled some out, earning a wide-eyed look from Ashley, "However, I don't know if this will be enough to help catch them all…" As he turned to hand them out, a sharp breeze nearly blew them away. Derek tightened his grip on the capsules, but the group crouched down when the wind soon grew in intensity. Looking up, Derek gulped at the sight of dozens of Combee glaring at them. While the bee Pokemon weren't coming closer, their wings were kicking up winds that sent debris and fallen branches flying away.

As Derek squinted to keep dust from punching into his eyes, a sudden shout made him look over at Titania. While her first words were lost, she cupped her hands to shout out, "We need to take them out quick! What moves are best against them?"

Derek ducked down to dodge a flying rock, and shouted back to her, "They're Bug-Flying, so Electric, Rock and Ice works best!" Titania frowned at the question, and tapped her ear in the classic sign to 'speak up!' Cursing under his breath, Derek pulled out Sparkplug's Pokeball and pointed at the lightning bolt sticker before he let the Pokemon out. The Grubbin quickly popped out, but as the bug-type let out a cry, he was soon blown back into Indiana.

Derek carefully crept into a crouch, then pointed at the Combee swarm overhead. "Sparkplug, we need to take out the Combee, quick! Can you get them grounded with your Spark?" he asked Grubbin. Sparkplug let out a quick agreement, and began to crawl forward. As the Grub Pokemon slowly approached the swarm, Derek glanced over at the other two 'trainers'. While Indiana and Gala were already approaching the group, Titania struggled to pull out her Pokeball. However, she soon let out Bronzor, and the living mirror was quick to create a transparent barrier.

With the other Pokemon out, a sudden jump in buzzing caused Derek to soon look at the swarm. The Combee swarmed around the clearing, glaring and screaming at the trainers. As Sparkplug got close to the swarm, his body soon started to emit a field of electricity. While some of the cluster-bees dared to divebomb Grubbin, they were quickly deterred by a blast of electricity.

While the Combee were quick to back away, a spray of green orbs caused them to suddenly rise up. Both Derek and the Combee turned towards the spray, spotting Gala standing proud on a tree stump. However, the Combee were quick to fly away when the Appletun soon fired a second wave of projectiles that scattered them.

"Was that Bullet Seed?" Derek asked aloud. However, as the wind died down momentarily, Derek quickly let out Eve and pointed at the horde. "Eve, help Indiana corral them into a tight area!" Derek told Eve. The Eevee let out a warcry, and charged forward in a blur towards the cluster of flying insects. With Indiana already close to the battle, the two Normal-types soon began to run circles around the swarm.

With careful shots from Gala, the swarm soon began to gather together into a buzzing ball. As the Combee clustered together into a large hive, Derek grabbed a Pokeball and prepared to throw it into the collection. However, the tone swiftly changed as a high-pitched scream echoed through the living ball. The cry made Derek falter, and the ball began to glow a bright, neon green as the cry escalated. A momentary dip was the only mercy Derek got before the cluster collectively released waves of sonic blasts.

As the rush of energy ran over them, trainers and Pokemon alike were driven to their knees by the insectoid cacophony. While Indiana and Sparkplug quickly buried themselves deep underground, Eve and Gala were left whimpering at the energized cry. As Derek tried to block the noise out, he barely heard Ashley shout over the din, "Wait, where's Audie?"

Derek rose up slightly at the question, and looked around for the pink healer. After a few frantic moments, he spotted the Audino start to walk into the cave, her ears held tight to her head. Derek tried to call out to her, but as a renewed wave of sound hit him, he was forced to lay down. As the sonic onslaught continued to assault the surrounding area, Derek soon felt his body stumble slightly and his consciousness began to fade in and out. With Derek about to pass out, he only hoped they would leave him unharmed…

"Vespi-Vesp!"

A sudden cry cut through the buzz, and Derek let out an audible gasp when the onslaught finally ended. With his body left numb from the waves, he was only able to pant and breathe for several seconds. After he managed to regain enough willpower, Derek stumbled to his feet. Glancing up at the battlefield, he frowned in worry at the sight of the Combee no longer being clustered in the clearing's center. As Indiana and Sparkplug poked their heads out of their tunnels, Derek spotted the Bug Pokemon buzzing around the cave entrance.

Walking closer in trepidation, Derek's eyes widened in surprise when he saw Audie step out of the cave. Rather than be accosted by the swarm though, the Hearing Pokemon walked out unhindered. Stopping in the cave's entrance, Audie turned around before she called out to someone deeper in. A faint buzz arose from the hive, and Derek stepped back as a new figure stepped out.

At first glance, Derek thought the figure stood nearly six feet tall, its red gaze giving it a regal presence. But as the figure came into the light, the wings, black-and-yellow stripes, and lack of legs made him realize it was only floating a couple feet off the ground. With a faint hum, the Vespiquen gave a partial bow from the waist before the Combee began to flock around her.

"So, it was a Vespiquen they were swarming for," Ashley suddenly chimed, causing Derek to yelp at the sudden comment. The brunette girl looked at the collected swarm, then looked over at Audie. "Did you help them heal?" she asked her, traces of joy evident in her voice. When the Audino nodded, Ashley smiled and patted Audie on the head. While Audie cooed in delight, Ashley looked at the Vespiquen and gave a slight curtsey.

"Hello, Vespiquen," Ashley greeted the Bug-type, causing the queenly Pokemon to turn her attention towards the female Trainer, "I know we might've started things off on the wrong page, but we've been hoping to possibly keep the Pokemon safe. I'm sure you've likely noticed the change in your environment?" When Vespiquen gave a hesitant nod, Ashley continued, "Unfortunately, with Pokemon being displaced like this, we need to help ensure the Pokemon's kept safe. Could we maybe work something out to help get you and your… hive situated in?"

As Vespiquen nodded and began to gesture something with Ashley, Derek stepped away to join Titania. "I guess Ashley's got it under control now," he commented, picking Eve up and scratching her between the ears. Soon, Indiana was nudging his legs, and he quickly began to pet both of them.

"I suppose so, but I'm surprised that there's so many that came through," Titania commented, making Derek pause at her point. Unaware of Derek's musings, she pulled out her tablet, then pulled up a text document of some form. "Well, I might as well get to work on documenting them," Titania commented, and approached the group of buzzing Bug-types.

However, Derek wasn't paying too much attention, as he broke out the Potions and began to heal his team. At this rate, he'd have to start doing daily runs with Indiana to find Potions and keep things stocked…