Sly slowed his run eventually, looking around for his two friends as they came to rest next to him. He had a pensive look on his face, but covered it quickly with bravado.

“Phew, that was a close one. Everybody present and accounted for?” He drew his arm across his forehead, panting hard.

“We’ve got all our pokemon. Would’ve gone back for them if not.” said Ed tonelessly, still collecting his thoughts as he leaned over his knees, face red with exertion. “I do though,” he breathed heavily for a few more moments, “have several questions.”

“Me too,” said Becca, eyes wide with the glimmer of a smile on her lips as she held out her hands to pet and be inspected by the magnemites, magnetons and even the single magnezone that had followed them out of New Mauville. “These guys, for starters. Ed’s got six pokemon, a whole stable. I’ve got four… this is quite a few more than that, and I thought you didn’t have any pokemon.” Becca suddenly put her hands on her hips and scowled at Sly, who threw his hands up in surrender.

“That’s because… I don’t. These aren’t my pokemon. They’re wild. They just helped us because I asked nicely.”

“You… asked them?” Ed queried, confusion naked on his face, his brow furrowed.

“I have to come clean with you guys, I’m not only a photographer. I’m not only an investigative reporter either.” He raked his shaking hands through his hair as he grinned hopefully. “Though I do both of those as part of my real job.” Sly took out his phone from his pocket.

“Your real job?” Becca and Ed asked in unison. Becca scowled more, the thunderclouds of her expression taking over her whole face.

Sly flicked his phone open in a well-practiced move, a piece of the device shooting off to orbit the trio and the massed pokemon around them as he swung it in a wide and lazy arc. For a moment Ed’s brain blanked on what he was seeing, then understanding blossomed. A capture styler. His jaw dropped.

“I’m actually a pokemon ranger, and I’ve kind of been on your trail for the past few weeks.” Sly coughed apologetically as he caught the styler with his phone again in another well-practiced motion.

Ed and Becca turned to look at each other in silence for a moment as a single whispered ‘eivui!’ floated up from where Lux lay prone, still held by Lucky the croconaw. Then all hell broke loose as both trainers pelted the ranger with questions, and their pokemon all started chattering at once. Sly motioned for silence eventually, then gestured for Becca to start.

“What do you mean, you’ve been on our tail?” Becca asked accusingly.

“Well I was actually after—” Sly paused, then shook his head, “you know what, I don’t think it matters? I was after something that Team Rocket stole and I thought you guys might just have been trying to fence it. Pretty dumb, I know,” Sly put his hand behind his head, grinning as he stretched. “Anyway, our meeting with Giovanni of all people — yeah, I’ve played a hand in foiling his plans a few times, might as well own up to that too — made me realise you’re just a couple of trainers, not rocket operatives.” Sly chuckled as Ed and Becca went from embarrassment to anger and back again.

“So you’re a ranger? That… that does explain a lot, actually.” Becca’s brow furrowed as she considered this.

“Yeah, can you forgive me? For not telling you?”

Ed and Becca looked at each other again. Becca raised an eyebrow. Ed shrugged before turning back to Sly. “I guess so? Did you really think we were master criminals?”

“Well, not for… not for all that long,” replied Sly, wooloolishly studying the ground.

“Gee, thanks.” Ed slumped down into a park bench and took stock of things as the last of the magnemites drifted away. “Lucky? You alright there? You had me worried. Is Lux okay?”

“Cro-cro… croconaw?” Lucky sounded worried. He was hunched over the still, furry little form in his arms. He wasn’t all that big, but the normally boisterous eevee seemed very small in his grasp as she lay there, almost unmoving.

“Can you give her here?” Ed asked gently.

“Naw!” Lucky bared his fangs.

“Alright, alright. Becca, sorry to ask you, can you reach into my bag and get out some first aid?” Ed turned and leaned, exposing the pack on his back. “I don’t think I have the energy to take my bag off right now. Potions, antidote, burn heal… we’re going to have to check everyone. We can’t go to a pokecenter looking like this.”

Becca chuckled wryly as she dug about in his bag, pulling out mundane human bandages, antiseptic spray and sterilised wipes too. She held one of the latter out. “You’re not going to be let into one looking like that either. Lip okay? Here, wash your face.”

“Yeah, I think the nosebleed has stopped… I don’t think it’s broken.” He prodded his nose gingerly, wincing as it throbbed. “Lux girl, you alright?” Ed looked down at his eevee, noting how Lucky was holding her close as she whimpered. She was alive. Not well, but she was alive. Not for the first time did the boy thank Arceus that pokemon were as tough as they were. More than that, the lot of them were out of that disaster zone, she’d be right as rain soon. Pokemon were hardy creatures, he told himself, she’d been through worse. It didn’t stop her condition hurting him though.

“Eeev…” Lux whimpered, tail curled awkwardly over her body as she tried to wag it. Lucky looked down at Lux, then pleadingly up at Ed, eyes wide, trembling softly.

“Lucky, you can keep her in your grasp, I won’t take her until she’s ready. Hold her gently. I’ll spray her first, then you, alright?” Ed’s voice was soft, as he sought to comfort both pokemon.

“Croco… naw.” Haltingly, Lucky let Ed get closer to Lux.

Ed fished up a potion, shook it, then broke the seal. He sprayed the contents onto Lux, tension he didn’t know he’d been holding easing as he saw the eevee start to relax.

“Now you, big guy. You did an amazing job! Got that arsehole to piss himself! Brilliant! Almost pissed myself though, I thought you were going to eat him!”

“Crrr…. Croconaw! Naw naw!”

“Well for the record, please don’t eat people. At least not unless they really—”

“Ed!” Becca chided, punching the boy lightly on the arm. “That’s not… something you should encourage.”

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t want to lose you, any of you, big guy. But just for the record? You messed him up and he deserved it.” Ed head-butted the croconaw gently, eyes closed.

After a few moments, Lux stirred, chirruping questioningly at the croconaw that held her, the latter rumbling back some answers, before Lux pulled herself to all fours. She stretched to get to Ed, who took her, gratefully, from Lucky. Lux wormed her way onto his lap, then put her forepaws on his shoulders and pushed her head under his chin. “Oof! You’re too big for that, girl!”

“Veeeee,” she complained, until Ed pet her gently. “And don’t you dare rub your nose on my… eew! Lu-ux!”

“Well,” said Becca, slumping down onto the same bench, “now what?”. She picked up Sissy and fiddled with the bows in her pokemon’s ‘hair’ to make the deceiver pokemon more presentable as she checked for injuries. Ed handed her potions and wipes as she went through the routine first with Sissy and then with the rest of her team, Ed doing the same for his. Lucky stretched, groaning in obvious pleasure as the healing potion worked itself through his scales into his body. He crooned, flicking his tail tip with bliss. One by one, all their pokemon were healed, superficially at least, enough not to raise too many eyebrows at a pokecenter.

“What next?” Sly rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment, picking at some stubble growing there as he eyed the plume of smoke where their escapades had brought some attention. “Well we can’t stay in Mauville, we’re burned for this city for the foreseeable future. The Jennies are going to be all over this place and eventually they’re going to trace it back to us. We’d better be elsewhere long before then.”

“You want us to be fugitives from the law?” Becca looked aghast. Sly shook his head.

“Naw, I’m a ranger, I can talk to the right people — I’m going to have to make a few awkward reports to the Union though, ugh. The problem’s going to be Aqua and Magma, unless they can put a lid on things.” Sly shook himself off and stood up, stretching as he checked himself over for injuries, then turned and spoke to the two trainers on the bench. “We’ll pause here for a few,” Sly suggested. “We make sure we’ve not been followed, then hit the pokecenter, then… I guess we’ll need to talk to Giovanni? Not like I want to, but he will be expecting us, and he’ll get what he wants, one way or the other.”

“Get what!?” Becca fumed, her lower jaw jutting out. “We don’t have anything to give him!”

“We don’t have the plans or anything,” said Ed, disagreeing, “but we do know what they were for, I think. That might be enough. A-and you know what? We do know where Zyrna’s gonna be. Eventually, at least, when she’s got what she needs to build her generator. She’s heading to Mount Chimney. You heard the guy back there, that’s what she’ll need to power that thing, so that’s what she’ll be doing.”

“As crazy as that sounds,” said Becca, “Ed you’ve got a point. But you know what else?”

“What?”

“We learned something more, too. I don’t think Zyrna was simply working with Team Aqua or Magma. I think she’s got her own agenda, and if where she’s going is as obvious to them as it is to us, it’s going to get ugly when whoever she is working with meets up with who she’s double-crossed.”

Sly looked pained as he idly scratched himself, then he sighed. “As much as I hate to say it, I think we’ll need to fight fire with fire. We do need to inform Giovanni. If anybody can muster forces powerful enough to oppose Zyrna, and whoever is backing her, against both Magma and Aqua then it’s Team Rocket. Magma and Aqua might be weaker now than they were a few years ago, but they’re not to be discounted.”

“Who says Giovanni will want to do anything of the sort?”

“Oh, he’ll want to, ‘cause if there’s going to be evil plans afoot, he just has to be the man to afoot them. But if you think we’re not going to double-cross him the second he tries to double-cross us — because let’s face it, he’s Giovanni, it’s practically what he does — then he’s got another thing coming.”

“So we’re going to double-cross Giovanni, who’s going to double-cross us as we fight Zyrna, who’s already double-crossed both Teams Aqua and Magma… is there anybody left to double-cross?” Ed tried to stop himself going doublecross-eyed as he picked himself up from the bench, balancing Lux on his shoulder, the rest of his team safely ensconced in their pokeballs. Becca joined him, Sissy hopping down to walk next to her trainer.

“I’m sure there is, but we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it. For now, I think it’s imperative we get back to Mauville, get your pokemon all checked out from their ‘training’, then go win some more cash at the game corner.” Sly stretched then began moving with the other two. Mauville Proper beckoned.

“After that, I’ve got to see a man about a badge,” added Ed, with a feral gleam in his eyes. “I can do that before we have to leave, right?”

Sly shook his head sadly, “You’ll have to put a rain-check on that idea. No, no, hear me out,” Sly held up both hands placatingly as Ed wore a pained expression on his face. “Look, this can go one of several ways — either Teams Magma and Aqua cover all this up to keep the heat off their own operation, or Team Rocket and Giovanni do us a solid for the same reason, or failing that, there’s going to be some awkward questions putting a spotlight on us that you guys you really don’t need if you’re going to have any hope of getting out of this mess.”

Ed slumped. “I just wanted to go on my pokemon journey! Was that too much to ask?”

“And I just wanted to join you,” Becca complained. “I was going to be on the television in sparkly outfits, not orange jumpsuits.”

“That’s where you’re lucky you ran into me, then,” said Sly with another trademarked grin. “If Mauville’s too hot for us, I’ll get word to Wattson, don’t worry. You’ll get your badge fight, though you might have to fight his daughter. She’s one tough pokeblock; you may wish you’d fought Wattson Senior, he’s got less to prove to himself and the league.”

“So what’re we supposed to do? Hide out in the bloody forest? Not that we can’t, we’ve kinda been doing that a lot, and it’s kind of the whole point of a pokemon journey but—”

“You do know you kind of skipped a gym, right?” Sly crossed his arms, tapping his fingers.

Ed and Becca thought for a second, before sharing a look at each other.

“Dewford!” they both said together, excitedly.

“Uh huh. And whilst the S. S. Tidal might not be heading to Dewford any time soon, I know a man who does, and I’m sure he’ll be willing to help get us get there.”

“Oh?”

“Mister Briney. He’s almost an honorary Ranger at this point. He’ll help.”

“Mister Briney it is then, you think you can get hold of him?”

“Already on it!” Sly tapped away at his phone triumphantly. “Let’s hit the pokecenter, update Giovanni and scram to the docks. We’ll be underway by nightfall!”

“Next stop, Mauville — we’re going to need as much supplies as we can get our mitts on — but then—!” Ed pumped a fist, jumping in the air.

“Dewford here we come!” Becca held out her palm for Ed, who gave her a resounding hi-five.

Nurse Joy looked up as the flushed faces of three of her favourite clients bundled in through the double doors. She pursed her lips, then forced on a congenial expression.

“Hello again! Welcome to—”

“Hello yes yes! Full restores all around please! We’ve been battling!”

“Not getting yourself in trouble like I heard from my cousin, eh?” Nurse Joy’s smile faltered as the two trainers looked at each other with pensive expressions.

“Haha, don’t mind them,” said the taller red-headed child behind them. “We’re just… can you keep a secret? In fact, can you tell nobody you saw us here?” Nurse Joy leaned closer, concern on her face. “Well, we’ve found a super-rare pokemon up in the hills, and we really don’t want the competition whilst we’re trying to find it, alright?”

Nurse Joy leaned back again, concern warring with her experiences spent healing pokemon and their trainers. “Fine,” she grumbled finally. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“Thanks Nurse Joy! You’re a pecha!” Sly tapped the side of his nose as her chansey moved to take the young trainers’ pokeballs. “Mum’s the word!”

“Just promise me you’ll be careful!”

“We promise!” said Ed and Becca in unison, giving her the sweetest smile she’d ever seen. She didn’t believe it one bit.

“Just… come back in one piece, alright?”

“We may be moving on after this, down to Slateport, but I’ll send word back if we don’t visit straight away, I promise! Poke-scouts honour!”

“You’d better! I’ll hold you kids to that! I don’t want you three becoming a statistic!”

“We’ll be careful, we promise!”

Nurse Joy and her Chansey took the young trainers’ pokemon anyway, letting the machine at them six by six. They really had been training, it seemed. Their pokemon were all banged up, but otherwise healthy, showing signs of some levelling too.

A few minutes later, Joy watched the children disappear down the street with a heavy heart. She prayed to Arceus and whatever other pokegods were listening — Arceus wasn’t known to give much of a hoothoot, but it couldn’t hurt — to look after them, just like she did for all the other youngsters on their journeys. Especially since she was hearing bad news about the area North of Rusturf.

Gods be quiet, she prayed silently, as the three humans left to continue their journey. Or at least merciful.

“You,” said Scrawny, “are banned.” He poked a finger into Ed’s chest.

Ed looked down at the finger, then slowly up at the henchman. For a moment, embarrassment flowed across his face, but it was swiftly replaced by annoyance. The young trainer’s gaze hardened into a glare. “If you don’t get your finger out of my face in five seconds, you’re going to lose it.”

“Oh, you wanna go? We can go.”

“One. Two and a half…” Ed snatched a pokeball from his belt and held down the button to expand it to full size.

“Hey, hey! Woah! Woah! Hold your horseas, everyone,” said Sly. He gently put a hand on both Ed’s shoulder and Scrawny’s wrist, pushing the latter down. “My boy’s had a long day here, so he’s a little jumpy. We’ve got a message for your boss, so I suggest you knock it off if you want the message passed on.”

“I don’t think I like your tone,” said Scrawny, sniffing derogatively.

“I don’t think I like your face, so get it away from mine and you won’t have to deal with my tone and I won’t have to deal with your breath. Besides, your boss is listening in, right now, isn’t he? We’ve got what you want,” said Ed, looking up at the nearest camera on the game corner’s wall. “Let us up, without the three stooges, and we’ll be out of your hair for good.”

Scrawny made a fist with his hand, skin white, his jaw set, but Ed had been blown up earlier that day and was having none of it. Becca looked about ready to flatten him herself, pokemon or not. Scowling, Scrawny eventually dropped his fist and moved away from the doors.

“This isn’t over.”

“Oh, it is.” Ed shrunk his pokeball back down and put it nonchalantly back on his belt.

“For now.”

The three youngsters strode into the Game Corner, over to the private elevator, and were moments later whisked skywards.

“Rudy really is good at his job, you know. You shouldn’t intimidate the man so, it’s bad for your health,” Giovanni chided the three as they walked into his inner sanctum once more.

“It’s bad for his health. He wasn’t the one getting jumped by an entire army of Team Magma and Aqua grunts,” mumbled Ed. “You know, I think I will take that drink this time.”

Giovanni, amused, poured the ten-year-old a finger of whiskey, then watched as Ed knocked it back in one go. Sly winced as Ed’s eyes bulged, then started to water. Tears streamed down his face as he struggled to hold back the coughing fit.

“How?” the boy croaked, flapping one of his hands as he screwed up his face. “How do you like that stuff?”

“It’s an acquired taste.” Giovanni watched with a modicum of amusement, and a faint glimmer of respect, at the red-faced youngster.

“Becca, sit him down, get him some water,” said Sly. “Mister Giovanni and I are going to have a quick chat over here.”

Becca glared at Sly for being designated the nursemaid, but saw the logic in it.

“Look, Giovanni, sir, we don’t have much info to go on and I don’t think we’re going to get any more, either. Not with our resources. It might be enough for yours though. When I tell you what we do know, however, that’s it, alright? We’re out. O-U-T out.”

Giovanni sipped his ever-present whiskey. “Ah, Sylvester. Such a spirited young man you’ve grown into. You should know by now that it’s never quite that easy.”

“It might not be for me, but it is for them. They’re just trainers.”

Giovanni chuckled, once, wryly. “Trainers, Sylvester, change the world. Tell me what you know, I will decide how ‘out’ they really are.”

Sly looked troubled for a moment, then strode to another of the four walls, pointing out into the darkening skies. “There. That’s where she’s going. Mount Chimney. Zyrna stole plans for some sort of… generator. A big one. One that can only work with something that big to power it.”

Giovanni was silent for a while, contemplating the future. Then he nodded, almost as if to himself. “You’re going to investigate it for me.”

“Never,” said Sly, glancing quickly at Ed and Becca, then back to the mafia boss. “We’re out, I told you!” he hissed.

“Oh, I know that, and you know that. And your little friends know that. But do they know that?” Giovanni gestured with his glass, towards New Mauville, down in the bay. “You want a quiet life? Then you do some more snooping, and I’ll keep the worst of the heat off your back. Where are you headed?”

“Fallarbor then,” said Sly, jutting out his jaw. “It’s out the way but near where we’ll have to be. We’ll stay low, you won’t find us.”

“Oh I’ll find you, when I next need you.”

“In that case, we’ll be on our way. If I need a safehouse, I’ll expect one, though I won’t take your money.”

“Acceptable terms, Sylvester, I wasn’t going to give you any.” Giovanni smiled thinly. “But the safehouse is yours, your… affiliate’s merchandise will act as permission. I trust you’ll know how to find one.”

“I will.”

“Pity. See yourselves out.”

Giovanni turned to look out the windows again, dismissing the three youngsters. Sly ushered the other two out, and they made their way out into Mauville minutes later.

Sly gave Ed and Becca another of his trademarked winning smiles as they headed through Mauville City as the night drew long. In some high-rises, lights were going on and curtains were being drawn. In others, offices, lights were going off or neon signs being lit for nightclubs and bars. Cigarette smoke and the smell of alcohol and fried food began to waft their way through the streets as the nightlife picked up. Shouting and cheering grew louder as the underground fight arenas gained participants. Music began thumping as the dance floors grew crowded.

Slowly, subtly, all that was left behind as the three and their pokemon made their careful way out of town, down more deserted streets, dimly lit by reliable, buzzing halogen lights rather than the more modern LED’s.

“Congratulations you two; for the duration, I hereby pronounce you junior rangers. How’s your high speed introduction going so far?”

“Well I’ve been blown up, attacked, threatened, extorted… and all in the space of a few hours. I’m not sure what I expected when I left on my pokemon journey but I don’t think it was this,” snarked Becca.

“And Fallarbor?” questioned Ed. They were headed very roughly South towards Route 110, which would ultimately lead them to Slateport if they followed either the grassy pathway on foot, or if they hopped up onto the cycling road with cycles.

“I waged the idea of telling Giovanni where we were really going versus telling him a lie, and — figuring that it wouldn’t really matter one way or the other — lied. If he doesn’t know, then he can at least feign innocence if any heat does fall his way, and I figure that’s better for us in the long run. Besides, we’ll need to get up that way at some point so it’s not entirely untrue. Just… untimely.”

“So where exactly are we going? Mauville Harbour?”

“Nah, we’re headed for New Mauville, more or less. Hang a left here, skirt behind the entrance building, I don’t think anyone’s following us but they’ll hopefully think we went back in down another way if they are. It’ll be tough going to get where we’re headed. From now on, keep low, okay?” Sly lowered his voice, urgency clear in his tone. “Can you clear us a path, Becca?” Sly pointed to an impenetrable thicket.

“Alright. Bart, out you come, get to cutting, just try to do the minimum, alright? We need to slip through, nothing more.” Becca turned to Sly as her sandslash started making a path. “I take it we’re headed to the waterline then?”

“Yep, Mister Briney’ll be there, he’s waiting for us.” Sly edged into the undergrowth, the others following him.

“How can you tell? Message on your phone?” whispered Ed.

“Nope, that’s Peeko.” Sly gestured skywards, his white teeth flashing brightly in the darkening light, where a lone wingull floated high above them. “Come here guys, it’s time for some precautions. Let me have a butcher's at your bag, Becca.”

“Excuse me?”

“Figure of speech. Turn around for me?" Sly asked, spinning the mildly protesting Becca around so he could unzip then rummage in her backpack. "Oh good, you do have some!” Sly fished out a repel before zipping her bag back up again. As trainers on the lookout for either new team members or pokemon to test existing members’ strength against, the pair hadn’t had much use for the stuff yet. Now, though, it would be invaluable. Much the same as with the potions, Sly snapped the seal on the single-use applicator, then liberally applied the contents to all the humans as it burst from the high-pressure bottle in a fine mist.

“Sorry Bart, you’ll just have to deal,” he apologised.

“Slaaash,” Bart complained, making a face, though he turned back to his job with some vigour — probably to escape the scent, though it didn’t really seem to bother the humans much; repel exuded a vaguely… off smell, unsettling and slightly pungent at most, but otherwise nothing to write home about.

In a very short space of time, the thick underbrush of the encroaching wilderness cleared to reveal a drop of several metres to a rough, sandy cove. There, out in the sea just past the wash, was a boat many people knew well.

“I hope these backpacks are as waterproof as the sales clerk said they were,” grumbled Ed, double checking that everything was stowed away correctly and the pockets were all zipped up. He took as much of his clothes off as he dared, stowing them too in his bag, then stumbled his way down to the rude beach and, dodging shelders, wishy washy and other watery denizens, strode out to sea, trying his best to keep his breath inside his body from the cold threatening to force it all out in panicked, short gasps. Showing much less restraint, Sly just battened down what he had in his backpack and waded out, clothes and all. Becca for her part took a bit longer, but was perhaps the smartest of the bunch by furretting out a swimming costume, which she hastily changed into as day finally crossed over into night. Less than fifteen minutes later, she was being pulled bodily out of the surf and aboard Briney’s boat, the S.S. Peeko 3.

“Aye, good evenin’ young Master Sylvester. Some friends of yours, I take it?”

“That’s right, sir! And we’re in dire need of a change of clothes, or at least a chance to dry what we have, a bite to eat and, if you’d be so kind, a lift to Dewford?”

“Dewford ye say? Aye, aye, I can get ya there. Head below. Mind the step. Ye be rememberin’ where the washin’ an’ sleepin’ rooms be at?”

“I do, I do.”

“Good, then wash up as much as ye be needin’ then grab yerselves a bunk if ye be needin’ it, otherwise I wouldn’t mind some company on deck.”

“I’ll take you up on that, sir, we can catch up.”

“I’m sure ye’ve got a good few new tales to tell, lad. Come on Peeko! Time we was weighin’ anchor! All aboard for Dewford!”

Sharing equally bemused glances at each other, Ed and Becca headed to the inner quarters of the boat as Mister Briney fired up the engines and his boat began its voyage around the islands to Dewford, in the South West.