“Lux, I’m going to…” Ed took deep breaths, clenching and unclenching his fists. He closed his eyes and looked up, seeing nothing, then he sighed. “Lux, you’re so smart, but… but…” he paused and the colour drained out of his face. “Wait a second! Arceus’ teeth!” Ed’s eyes focused and unfocused as he realised something. “He just threatened me! He threatened me and I didn’t even notice!”

“What?” asked Becca, briefly distracted from her own woes, her head whipping round to stare at Ed.

“He said she’s smart,” Ed whispered, “that anybody would be proud to have her on their team. She’s valuable. To us, to me. To him, because she’s valuable to me.”

“Don’t you think you’re reading too much—” Becca began, but Sly bit her off.

“No, no, Ed’s got a point. It’s how Giovanni is. From everything I’ve read, at least. I’ve been… active a few more years than you, so this isn’t even the first time I’ve encountered the alleged head of Team Rocket, but it’s one of the closest.” Sly held out two of the three ‘goodie bags’ that had been in the elevator; a Team Rocket cap and badge. Ed and Becca took them, sharing amused glances. “According to the powers that be, Giovanni’s clean as a whistle. Everybody else knows that’s a crock.”

“He did seem to remember you,” said Becca, snorting. “He didn’t seem too fond of you.”

“When you take the picture of an alleged crime boss as he gets arrested and it gets picked up by the media, you tend to make enemies. Nothing serious, of course, he’s not that sort of guy. But trust me, he’ll definitely be using this ‘job’ for him to get back at me.”

“And we all have to thank Lux for it,” said Ed, icily, as he glared at his eevee.

“Veeeee,” she complained, trying to look small and cute. When that didn’t work, she returned herself into her ball. Ed plucked it from his belt and shook it angrily.

“You get back out here right now and explain yourself!” he demanded, but Lux stayed resolutely inside. “If you don’t come back out here right now I’m going to bench you until we’re far from here! I’m going to put you in timeout in my PC until I retire! I know you can hear me!”

The ball shook twice in his hand. Shake shake.

“Don’t think I won’t! Are you ready to come out here?”

Shake shake.

“Are you…” Ed wiped the back of his hand across his eyes, taking a deep sobbing breath. “Are you at all sorry about what you did?” he asked, his voice small.

Shake. It was amazing how apologetic the movement was. Ed slumped into a park bench and sat his bucket of poke next to him. He held Lux’s ball up in front of him and stared at it.

“Do you know what you mean to me? You’re so smart, Lux and… and I guess all that light and sound was a bit much for you, yeah?”

Shake.

“And I should’ve quit earlier, right? So you were just trying to do something nice for me, so I’d stop?”

…Shake.

“You could’ve just been annoying to me and we would’ve stopped.”

…Shake shake.

“...True.” Ed gave a laughing cough. “Look, we’re getting stronger, all of us. Soon you’re going to be able to do things that I couldn’t dream of, and you’re going to be doing them for me, for us, for our team. You can’t do that if you’re benched and I can’t do that if I’m locked up, so… can you just please try to not get us in trouble for the rest of the week at least?”

Lux’s ball gave another apologetic shake, before it popped open and the recalcitrant eevee appeared before him. She looked very small.

“Are you going to take your punishment like a big girl?” Ed asked her.

“Vee… veee?” Lux replied, cowering, her ears drooping.

Ed put his fingers out straight and pushed them together, before bringing the edge down, gently, on Lux’s head in an admonishing knife-hand chop. He sighed, and turned the motion into a pat.

“What am I supposed to do with you, huh?”

“Vee?”

“I’ll tell you what though, with you learning naughty little tricks like that, if we’re going to be doing a job for Team Rocket, of all things, I’m going to need you.”

“Ve-vee?” Lux wagged her tail.

“But you’re still grounded.”

“Vee,” agreed Lux, ears and tail drooping.

“Come on, let’s get to bed, take an early night.”

It was comfortable, here under the bed. It was close, dark, the walls were behind me and none of the other pokemon could get in here.

“You can’t stay there forever you know.”

Nope, nobody could bother me here in my fortress of solitude.

“It’s not like I have to fit under there to get to you.”

I resolutely turned around to face the wall, balling myself up into an even tighter pile of fluff, ignoring Guy who’d floated through the bed above me so only his face was poking through.

“I’m going to stay here forever,” I mumbled into my tail.

“Then you’ll die and I’ll have to haunt your remains. And you’ll be stuck there too. With me. Under the bed, for all time. Now, are you going to come out?”

“Nnnn,” I mumbled, putting my tail firmly over my eyes.

“You’ve already missed breakfast, you’ve got to be getting hungry.”

“Nnnn, go ‘way,” I mumbled again, sniffling into my floof.

“Look, I’ll just… leave this bowl here, okay? We’re going outside to the park. If I get back and you haven’t eaten it all, I’m going to drag you out and throw you in the pool.”

His face withdrew and I heard the door to the room opening and closing as all the other pokemon and the two trainers left. I sulked for a while longer before eventually the rumbling in my tummy beat my urge to wallow in my own shame. I’d gotten about half way through the bowl of pokekibble before Guy’s face poked through the door to the room.

“There, feeling any better?”

“Snrf nrf mrf mfg brgl snf,” I replied, trying to bury my muzzle into the food.

“Good. Come on, come outside. Your fur will fall out if you sulk any longer in here. Or do I have to throw you out the window?”

“You wouldn’t!” I snapped, head rising from the bowl and sending kibble bits everywhere.

“Want to bet? Tully’s ready to catch you. It’s the window or the door. Your choice.”

I knew I was out of options, so I scarfed the last of the food, swallowed enough water to make it go down, belched as demurely as possible then slunk towards the door.

“Wait, how are you going to—?” I began, but Guy’s body just floated up towards the ceiling as he passed his claw-like hand through the mechanism from the outside, and then the gengar opened it from the inside, stepping through.

“Hands, remember? I’m also a lot bigger than I was before.” He heaved the door open. “So doors are no problem. Neither are eevees if they don’t do what they say.”

I huffed. “Fine, I got the message.”

Outside, the day was insufferably nice.

“[Guy! You got Lux out of her shell, huh? Good. You’re in charge though, keep her out of trouble today, she’s grounded.]”

I winced at Ed’s words, ducking my head as I caught up with the group. I wasn’t sure what was worse. Being in the yamper house or having Guy in charge of it. I deserved it though.

“Welcome back, Dork,” taunted Tully, fluffing up his feathers in laughter. I couldn’t even meet his gaze.

“Good, you’re here,” said Sissy authoritatively, glaring at Tully for silence. “Now we can get to planning. Tell us what you and Shadow saw yesterday morning.”

“Er, what? You’re not… mad about the, uh…”

“When I found out Shadow was silly enough to teach the most reckless member of both our two teams that sort of trick, I was pretty mad at him. When you used that trick to get us in trouble with Team Rocket, I was seething mad with you. But I promised to keep my temper, so let’s not mention it again. Ever.”

“U-understood. Ahem. Well, when Shadow and I were, ah, out for our walk yesterday, we saw Bluey, Zyrna’s houndoom. We also saw her corviknight Kazoo. Kazoo kept watch whilst Bluey picked up something from somebody in New Mauville.”

“Something, Princess?” asked Lucky curiously. “What kind of something?”

“Well it wasn’t all that big…”

“What shape was it?”

“Uh, it looked like a chewtoy, quite a big one but—” I began.

“Then he wasn’t picking up anything like what we found in the cave,” the totodile pondered.

“And it probably wasn’t anything like the datastick she stole in Rustboro either then,” chimed in Bart. “Hmm.”

I turned, padding about in circles thoughtfully, then caught sight of Chompy. It was like a lightbulb went off in my head. “I’ve got it!”

“What? Well I don’t want it,” snorted Guy, sticking his tongue out.

“I’ll have some of it, Princess,” leered Lucky.

“Yes, yes, haha. No, seriously, whatever Zyrna wanted was put inside the chewtoy. She didn’t want any hardware, she didn’t want any information, not digital at least. She wanted something physical, something specifically from New Mauville.”

“So… what? More plans? Maps?” Tully asked, between landing on my back and pulling out old fur.

“I think so,” I replied, nodding slowly. Sissy nodded her head, punching one fist into the other paw.

“Probably not maps, there’s easier ways to get them I would have thought. No, it’s got to be something you can only get from New Mauville, so it’s plans. Plans for something that you won’t find anywhere else. That’ll be why it’s not on a datastick, it’s on paper.”

“New Mauville was a power plant, right? Oh, oh no.” I furrowed my brow, as much as I could, being an eevee.

“What?” The mawile asked, tilting her head. “Figured something else out?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know, maybe. I’m not sure what it means but it fits. It might be we’re too late, but if it’s plans she got away with, then her next step will be to use them, so that’s what we have to work with.”

“Go on.”

“Look, she was after a machine in Rustboro, right? She got some of what she wanted, but we stopped her. We weren’t able to stop her in Rusturf Tunnel because she didn’t need those parts she left behind. I think she got the plans for the machine she wanted, or at least she thinks she got enough of them that escape was the obvious choice. So now she came to Mauville to get plans for some sort of power generator. And she just got it. Whatever she’s doing needs power, and New Mauville is how she’s going to do it.”

Sissy nodded her head, slowly, an angry snarl on her backwards-facing jaws. “It fits. I don’t know if I want you to be right or wrong, Lux, because it fits too well.”

“I’m just not sure how we’re going to tell our humans,” I grumbled. “We’ll have to find a way to help, somehow. That guy last night wanted our humans to do something for him, so keep an eye out, that might be our chance.”

“And I’ll help keep an eye on you,” said Shadow, primly.

I glared at him, sulking, but softened when he grinned. “Fair enough,” I grumbled.”

“You do keep finding ways to get us all in trouble, Lux,” he chided, honestly.

“It’s not my fault! Trouble just seems to find me!” I bemoaned my fate, ears drooping.

“Then I guess it’s my job as one of your honorary big brothers to help keep you out of it. And maybe together we’ll discover exactly what Zyrna, Bluey, Kazoo and the others were up to.”

The manectric stretched as he stood up, lightning sparking off his fur to arc all around. “Sorry,” he said, concentrating for a moment until the barrage stopped. “Time to go? Looks like our trainers are finished with the morning’s picnic, and I believe we have some winnings to dispose of?”

“And as much as you don’t deserve anything for getting us all into so much trouble,” said Sissy, wagging a finger, “it would hardly be fair to keep all of the winnings from you. So I think we’ll just split the bounty two ways and let our trainers both buy us some well-deserved presents.”

My mood went from shattered to hopeful to confused to… “wait a second, you don’t have any say in how Ed and Becca spend their winnings! And neither do I!” I complained. As I looked around, I realised they were all holding back laughter. Right up until Tully didn’t even bother to pretend, anyhow.

“Bwaahahaa!” he trilled, landing on on my back again to once more preen my fur, pulling out tufts of unwanted fluff. “You’re such a dork sometimes, li’l sis. That’s why I love ya.”

I was still digesting that when Ed and Becca shooed us off the red and white chequerboard blanket, which the pair shook the crumbs out of — rookidee swarmed to peck them up as they scattered — then began to fold. In short order the little fold-away table was stowed as well, as were the travel cups, plates and utensils.

“[Come on my lovelies. And Lux,]” said Becca, as she hefted her pack. I stuck my tongue out at her. “[Okay, okay, you’re lovely too,]” she whispered. I dragged my tongue back in.

“[Becca and I have decided that we,]” said Ed, gesturing to himself, to his and Becca’s team and to Sly, “[all of us, are going shopping. Since we’ve got all these poke we need to spend, maybe it’s time we… splurged on a few things? J-just not any T.M.’s, this time. At least until after we get the dynamo badge.]”

After packing away their things and cleaning up after themselves, Ed, Becca and Sly and all their pokemon set off on a boisterous walk through Mauville, heading to the mall.

“Let’s all stay together this time,” laughed Ed as every pokemon came out of their pokeballs to go on the shopping spree. “I’d actually like to get to the buying part of the shopping trip for once.”

“And as much as I’d be happy about the reputation from them, let’s try to avoid heroics this time, okay babies?” In lieu of lifting up Bart or Shadow as she might have before, Becca knelt down, swiftly being bowled over sitting on her heels and needing to fend off an over-excited manectric and sandslash. “Eew! Enough, enough!”

The weather was wonderful, so the short trip was pleasant and it was almost a shame as the gaggle moved out from the sunshine of the wide, clean streets of Mauville back to the largely indoors but airy and spacious mall.

Mauville’s mall wasn’t quite the same as Rustboro’s, but had taken more than a few pointers from it given the latter’s almost inevitable success. The now-ubiquitous Porygon, to act as go-betweens, were plentiful and all the stores had wide, low windows for the pokemon as much as their trainers to window-shop and gawk at. The complex was busy, but not crushingly so, so with Guy holding a little flag on a stick to act as a mobile assembly point there were few troubles with sticking together despite the dashing to and fro as the party advanced.

Lux, standing on Ed’s shoulders and leaping from side to side so much she threatened to unbalance him as she excitedly twittered about all the things she wanted to see, knew where she wanted to go and spent little time in getting Ed to take her there. They passed lots of maybe purchases that caught both human and pokemon eyes, from outfits to backpacks to evolution stones — Ed briefly pondering on whether Lux would like to be a flareon, before imagining the screaming, the burning, the property damage… — to eventually pick one of the larger general department stores, a subsidiary of Devon’s.

The wide double doors whooshed open almost silently, and the whole lot of them filed in to gather just off to one side so as to not block the thoroughfare. Becca took charge as Ed and Sly compared notes on their finances.

“We’re sticking together this time, remember? If you do get separated, ask a porygon, or see if you can spot Guy—”

“Gengar gengar!” Guy waved his flag enthusiastically, grin wide.

“—thank you Guy! And then join back up with us as fast as you can. If everybody behaves, we’re going for pokeblocks and icecream after, alright?”

The cheers were deafening, even above the already loud hubbub from other patrons.

“Right, then away we go!”

“Vee! Veevee vee-ee!”

Ed rolled his eyes in a smile as he reached up an arm to place it around his vibrating eevee’s body. She was pointing with a paw and hopping up and down on his shoulder excitedly. It didn’t take him long to spot what she was after; straight past the practical gear like better camping utensils, upgraded camps, hunting knives and the like, and straight to the outfitters.

As they approached the ‘magic mirror’, it lit up. Lux barked at the controls and the images that appeared on her body cycled through clothing items and designs at a breakneck speed until she found something she wanted. An Alolan League neckerchief.

“You want one of those, huh? You know what, that’s cute. Sure thing.”

“Ve-vee eevee! Vee!” Lux said, shaking her head. She pounced out of the way, then pushed Bart forwards. The ‘magic mirror’ took the hint and put the black-and-white garment around his ‘reflection’ instead.

“It’s… not for you? It’s for Bart?”

“Vee! Ee-eevee-vee vee eevee! …Vee… eevee?”

Ed knelt down as Lux pulled him over to an adjacent mirror-display, and with some trepidation flicked through until she had what she really wanted. Ed immediately saw the humour and called over Becca, who squealed appreciatively as she asked a shop assistant to let her and Bart try Lux’s first find on. In the meantime, he decided he’d just accept the inevitable, and ordered Lux’s first choice. And whilst he was at it, when she thought he wasn’t looking and was studying another, completely different item much more shyly, he ordered that one, too, with a whispered conversation to a sales assistant.

Sensing trainers with their typically overflowing pockets, it wasn’t long after that before the band had their own dedicated small team of assistants to fetch and carry, swapping items in and out, offering suggestions and leading the way. The bounty may not have been much by Giovanni’s standards, but it was a massive windfall for Ed, Becca and Sly, even if the latter refused most of the pot and instead just treated himself to some upgraded gear, like parachute cord, a new battery for his phone and some memory card holders and the like.

Soon enough, the outing was officially over, with our purchases bought and paid for, so the group headed back to the pokepark. I was strutting at the head of the pack, as befitted my status of trend-setter. ‘My other trainer’s an Elite Four Member’ said my neckerchief. ‘Trainer Trainer’ said my cap. Yep, I was cool with a capital C.

“[You know you’re just encouraging her,]” said Becca, chuckling even as she rolled her eyes at me. “[She’s turning into a right little monster.]”

“[Ah, but as you said, she’s my little monster, how could I say no? She even asked nicely.]”

I preened at that, as I felt Ed’s pride wash over me. My chest swelled. I had been good, hadn’t I? I’d even got Bart his much-needed neckerchief to help him bring out that bad boy motif, and I had to say the gold-and-black variant they’d found him was perfect, better than my initial black-and-white, even if Worst Child had been the one to pick it.

“[Besides, she also picked out this. She’s going to look so pretty when we try for our next ribbon!]”

My ears glowed hotly as I thought back to the item that Ed had just fished out of his bag to show to an appreciative Becca. It had caught my eyes, that lovely rose hairclip. It was far too pretty for somebody like me, I’d thought, but then Ed had bought it anyway, and I hadn’t know what to say, as if I could say anything in the first place.

“[She’s got a heart of gold somewhere under all that mischief.]” I could feel the indulgent smile from my trainer. He bought me pretty things and thought I deserved them!

“[One she probably stole,]” snarked Becca.

And then there was Worst Child. To the distortion world! To the distortion world for a thousand years!

“[Oh come on, you love her too,]” chided Ed, nudging Becca.

“[Yeah, yeah, she’s adorable. I guess I’m… sometimes a little jealous. Sometimes.]”

Well okay, maybe not all of a thousand years. Just most of them.

“[Hey, we’re here. Icecream and pokeblocks all around, yeah?]”

“[Sounds good to me, even if I shouldn’t be encouraging snacks for lunch.]” Sly chuckled as he strode ahead to the vendor truck to start on some orders.

“One for you, and one for you, and one for you — they’re what you guys wanted, right?”

“Slash! Sand-sand!”

“Tric tric!”

“Maaa!”

“Great. Chompy, your order’s doing, it’ll take—?”

“Jynx jynx!”

“...That long.”

“SSsseviper.”

“That sounds about right. Ed, Becca, do you two got things sorted on your side?”

Sly slicked the hair out of his eyes as he looked over at the two trainers. Ed was already halfway through a tub of icecream even as he juggled the orders for half his team. Becca was dealing with the other half, giggling helplessly as Lux juked from shoulder to shoulder, stealing bite after bite of Ed’s icecream — which really did explain how he’d got so far into it — as the boy helplessly tried to fend her off with the third hand he didn’t have.

Sly smiled, chuckling. These were good kids, and their teams were both shaping up to be excellent battlers. He didn’t approve of all trainers, some of them he had reasons to strongly disapprove of, but these two were alright in his books. He eyed Chompy thoughtfully as the seviper tucked into a paper box of fried noodles and meat that she held in her coils daintily. The serpent pokemon hissed at him congenially, then continued eating. A seviper that massive, and a trade to boot, could be a real handful for the wrong trainer, but Chompy seemed to really approve of Becca. She was a beauty, too, though Sly knew better than to try to get handsy without asking permission. He knew well what a pokemon like that could do if riled up.

“Come on guys, you too Lux, let’s go sit down and enjoy ourselves, let somebody else have a turn at the stall.”

Gently herding the group into a good spot, Sly suddenly remembered he hadn’t ordered anything for himself. To his surprise, when Lux finally just grabbed the rest of the whole tub of icecream from Ed, she brought it over and, realising he had nothing, nosed over the half-melted, slobbered on and mostly devoured remains his way.

“Hehe, thanks girl, but… I think you can keep it.”

“Vee!”

Not wasting a moment, Lux happily buried her muzzle completely into the tub, getting it absolutely smothered with the probably-definitely-not-entirely-healthy treat, which she hastily licked off. Sly sighed, laughing, as he reached for a paper serviette.

“You are a complete handful, aren’t you? If I hadn’t met other eevee’s at least as bad as you, I’d think there was something wrong with you.”

Sly snagged Lux around the waist, and proceeded to clean the icecream off her muzzle even as she tried to fight him off to get back into eating what remained in the tub. “No, no, I think you’ve had enough.” She mewled pitifully around the serviette as he cleaned her off the best he could.

“He’s so good with pokemon, makes me wonder why he doesn’t have any of his own. Can we keep him?” Becca asked Ed, as she watched Sly wrangle the eevee.

“I don’t know, not sure I could afford it. Not after the shopping trip, at least.”

“Naa, you couldn’t,” Sly agreed, chuckling as he fought off nips from Lux.

Lux had gotten her hat and neckerchief, not to mention her hair ornament. Tully had got a wing, beak and claw kit, though he’d had an eye on a silver clasp that would look sweet around one leg. Keeping up the trend of useful items, Lucky had gotten a scale wax and buffing set that matched the one Chompy now had. Barb had contented herself with a manicure set and some scented bubble soaps and gels. Guy had wanted a set of ornate, painted balls which he was even now floating around himself using psychic powers. Ziggy though, had only wanted one thing - a small nugget of gold. Pretty but otherwise useless. He’d then haggled with the porygon to get it put onto a silvery chain, which he’d then given to Barb, keeping nothing for himself. It was going to be like that, eh? Ed had bought him a brush set too which, as they now sat together, he tried out on the rather receptive zigzagoon. Sissy had got Becca to buy her another couple of dresses, because of course she had. The little mawile was as tough as nails, but couldn’t help her feminine side. Ed chuckled to himself as he picked at a snarl in Ziggy’s fur. He didn’t know how much of it was the deceiver part of the pokemon, or whether she was deceiving herself. Bart was alternately swaggering and then hunching over at his cute little bad-boy style Lux had pushed on him. Shadow, though, was thoroughly enjoying his new harness, complete with battery-charging cradles. He was fair sparking with excitement as he leaped around showing it off to everybody who’d seen it, all of them congratulating him on it as he wagged his tail furiously.

It was, against all odds, shaping up to be an amazing day. Which, of course, was exactly when fate decided to intervene.

A paper soda cup landed on the grass next to Ed’s and Becca’s blanket. It rolled to a stop almost apologetically as the throwers carried on, uncaring.

“Hey! Trashcan’s just over there assholes!” shouted Becca, as she picked up the cup and prepared to return to sender. On shaking it angrily, she realised something felt odd with it. The two who’d walked past — she wasn’t sure which one had thrown it and it really didn’t seem to matter — just turned and smirked.

“I’m sure you suckers know what to do with it,” retorted one of the pair, before they walked on, to disappear into the crowd.

“Well that was needlessly rude,” said Sly, looking up from where he’d moved on from Lux to brushing Shadow’s fur and adjusting the manectric’s harness, scowling.

Becca upended the cup, and a small capsule fell out, about the size of a travel pack of toothpaste. “Hmm, they were definitely rude, but I don’t think it was entirely needlessly. Looks like our, uh, ‘friend’ in his high place came through for us. What joy.”

Making a moue, she unscrewed the capsule. A piece of paper fell out, which she unrolled.

“What does it say?” Ed asked, leaning closer, curiously.

“A name, a time and an address?”

“Well then; when, where and who?” asked Sly.

“Uhh… uh oh, well the first part is simple, I think it’s across town.” Becca pulled out her phone and tapped away at it for a few moments before nodding quietly. “Yup.”

“Uh oh?”

“Well it’s across town, but the ‘uh-oh’ is that we’ve got fifteen minutes to get there.”

“Ah, crap.”

“You know, when we’ve got pokemon big enough to travel on, these sorts of shenanigans are going to be so much less stressful,” quipped Ed.

“As if we want to be getting into more of them!”

“You say that like Lux isn’t a pokemon on my team.”

Becca rolled her eyes as she stood up and started packing things away. “Don’t remind me.”

“Veeee!” the pokemon in question complained, petulantly.

“Oh you know what I’m talking about,” chided Becca, stuffing everything she could into her backpack. “Sweeties, back in your balls, okay? We’ve got to hustle and none of you are fast enough that I want to risk leaving you behind.”

Ed snorted as flashes of red went off around them. “And even if we did think we could leave some of our pokemon behind, I definitely wouldn’t want to. Come on, in your balls everyone! Let’s go!”