“So what?” Boss just stared at the incensed pair, his face turning hard.

“So I've seen a lot of pokemon come and go and i can tell you right now, you aren't cut out for this job as you are right now”

“Brayshit! We earned our place here!”

“And the first thing you do on earning your job is to argue and lose your cool with someone far more experienced than yourself, yes I say are exactly what the force needs.” Boss mixed in a level of sarcasm into his voice as he sneered. Ciel’s head snapped up as if someone had stepped on his tail.

“Sir with all due respect-” he began, yet Vaal interrupted him, slamming his arms down hard on the wooden surface, shivering in anger and fury.

“Fuck you, you sorry excuse of a barman!” he erupted, tears threatening to fall from the corners of his eyes “you have no idea what we had to go through, what I had to go through!” His voice started to go course as his emotions started to boil over. The outburst was met with silence however as the three adults just stared at the Quagsire.

“Fuck this...” Vaal murmured under his breath. He shoved himself backwards, the stool giving a sharp screech in protest as it shot backwards.

“Vaal!” Ciel reached out with one hand as he called out to his friend as he stormed past him, kicking the door open with a bang and stomped out in quick measure.

“Both you and Vaal have the rest of the day off, we expect to see you at the building, 8 o'clock sharp tomorrow though, go tell him that.” Rusty hinted with his head, tilting it towards the door as Ciel glanced over to him.

“Yes sir… I will see you tomorrow” Ciel spoke slowly and low, bowing his head to his new supervisors, before shooting Boss one final glare of death and then bolted out of the bar after his friend.

The bar room was quiet as the door slowly swung close. Roland glanced up towards Boss.

“Was that completely necessary Boss?” Boss merely huffed in reply before turning him back to the officers and started cleaning glasses. A minute later in the same angered tone.

“... I told you not to call me boss.”

Ciel had to run to catch up to Vaal who was speed walking away, face like thunder as passersby gave him a wide berth on the street. On reaching Vaal’s side, Ciel slowed before matching Vaal’s pace as they carried on down the street. Neither knew where they were, but Vaal clearly needed to let off some steam, Ciel thought as they kept walking swiftly onwards. Ciel started to ponder what to say, specifical what he could say without Vaal turning and blowing up in his face. After a minute, he decided to go for the neutral option, one of them needed to keep a calm head, well calmer head than the other at any rate.

“Rusty has given us the rest of the day off, yknow.” Ciel spoke in a tense tone of voice, staring straight ahead.

“How the fuck are you so calm” Vaal snapped back as he started to grind his teeth in annoyance. Ciel closed his eyes as he breathed out slowly.

“Because one of us has to be” he spoke in a strained voice.

“He just shat on us, on everything we have worked on! Like our achievements meant nothing!” Vaal growled in a low voice, clenching his fists tight, Ciel’s tail was flickering back and forth as he tried to keep calm himself.

“I know it's not ideal” Ciel spoke in a half defeated voice, he agreed with Vaal’s words more than he would like to admit.

“Of course it's not fucking ideal!” Vaal’s voice broke as the last word exited his mouth. Tears had returned to the corners of his eyes. “We worked so hard to get here...” Ciel paused and the pair carried on down the street in silent contemplation.

“We can always prove him wrong” Ciel suggested in a controversial tone. Vaal growled a reply.

“Oh, we are definitely going to prove him wrong!” Vaal sounded sure of himself, as a rather dangerous idea started forming in his mind. “We are going to catch the killer and prove him wrong!”

Elsewhere in the city…

Miss Soliart run a what she liked to call, a second chance villa. She was the owner of a large building of apartments located in the plumbing district, specialised in psychic type living quarters. This in of itself was a rarity, as most psychic type pokemon typically preferred to live in the wonder district of the city, the psychic designated district of the city.

Something that made Miss Soliart even rarer was the kind of people she took on as residents in her apartments, people with nowhere else to go. This, in her finding anyway, would typically mean the suddenly made homeless, jobless, not strictly supposed to be there and the emotionally hurt and needing a place to get away, typically from someone else with less than pure intentions. Oh, how she enjoyed those ones, they always gave her some fun. Though she had to admit, only fun for her and her tenant.

The memory of the last time she had to deal with a 'former lover' still brought a very scary smile to her mouth, a very easy feat given her species, she was sat where she sat every day, behind the front desk of her apartment, grinning like a mad lady as her eyes lost focus slightly lost in the memory. The daydream was quite short as the door to her building opened, so slowly and carefully the hinges creaked in protest. Miss Soliart quick settled on a more, reserved smile, meaning one without her fangs showing.

The pokemon that stepped in was in a human form, same has Miss Soliart, female if she saw correctly, the chest was always the first place she looked, it did earn her some odd looks from time to time, but it was the easiest way of finding out. The pokemon looked very worse for wear, her eyes were bloodshot and runny from tears, constantly darting around the room as she was hunched over slightly, shoulders down, a small backpack resting on her back with a hand-pulled suitcase pulled behind her with one hand, her other hand clutching a beige coloured overcoat closed together just beneath her chin, obscuring the lower part of her face. She recognised the type.

Ahhhhh, here we go. Miss Soliart's smile softened slightly. "Hello there, may I help you?"

The pokemon gulped before shakily made her way up to the countertop, her bag gliding on the smooth tile work behind her, on reaching the countertop she lowered her hand down from her coat.

"... Can I ask if there is a, umm, room available to rent? I, I got a recommendation from a friend... said this is a good place to... go" her voice was shaking slightly, it sounded restrained like she was holding something back. Miss Soliart got a better look at the girl. She was in cream coloured business-ready trousers and a white shirt, makeup around her eyes that was little and what left, slightly smudged, she had likely wiped it off at some point, the rest of her looked relatively good. That said her bags were clearly stuffed in a hurry, a zipper had been left partially open and the bags were misshapen likely because they had stuff rammed inside them in a hurried manner, at least that was Miss Soliart's suspicion.

"Of course my dear, though the rooms are catered for psychic types specifically... will that be a problem at all?" Miss Soliart spoke gently and softly as she scanned for any identifying features such as a tail or marking.

"That wouldn't be a problem at all." the newcomer replied in a quiet tone. "I am a Xatu"

"Ahhh well, we don't have a dual-type room for that particular combination but we do have rooms available on the third floor and fifth floor, pure psychic design all of them." The Xatu's eyes flashed silver suddenly, Miss Soliart waited till the silver faded away before asking in a sweet tone of voice. "Which floor would you like?"

"A fifth-floor room please, one with a window if possible..." Miss Soliart nodded as she opened up a notebook with one hand while grabbing a pen in the other, she quickly ran down a list marked the fifth floor, finding three rooms that matched the girl's desires.

"If you would like to come with me, then I will show you the rooms we have available at the moment." Miss Soliart lifted herself up off her chair and started to walk towards a door on the right side of the room labelled, staircase. On reaching the door she paused before turning back to her potential tenant. "I don't suppose anyone will be looking for you?"

The question took the Xatu by surprise, she flinched as she turned her eyes downwards and held her arm with her free hand, squeezing tightly.

"No... I don't think he would..." she muttered timidly. Miss Soliart squinted her eyes at the Xatu, her smile going taut.

"I am not going to pressure you my dear, but do you mind telling me the circumstances that have lead you to come here?" she inquired, gently as she could. The Xatu bite her lower lip as she shifted on the spot, clearly nervous about the whole situation.

"And for another matter, may I know your name? I do not believe I caught it?" Miss Soliart pushed slightly as she pulled open the door to the stairs.

"Sonia, Sonia Skyreads" the Xatu, Sonia replied quickly before shuffling past and into the doorway, Miss Soliart let the door close as she trailed behind Sonia up the flights of stairs in silence. After 3 flights of stairs, she decided to ask again.

"So if I may, what lead you here exactly?" Sonia paused midstep briefly before carrying on up the stairs.

"... I caught my partner cheating on me..." she spoke slowly and in pain. Miss Soliart gave a sad smile as it was as she expected. She somewhat had expected it, Sonia had all the signs that that was the cause for her to turn up at her apartment structure, looking for a room to rent.

"How did you find out?" Miss Soliart inquired, as gently as she could manage as she trailed behind the Xatu. Sonia gave a low sigh as she collected her thoughts, pausing halfway between the third and fourth floor.

"... I was heading to the shops, for some basic foodstuff and I caught a glance at the sun and saw a possible future where my lover was in the arms of another..." Miss Soliart scoffed lightly at the idea of that. She even started thinking Sonia might be a short stay tenant, overreacting over a maybe. That sort of thing happened a lot with species of pokemon that could see possible versions of the future, like Xatu. That kind of tenant usually stayed a month or so before getting back together with the partner because it had been a big misunderstanding.

"So you broke up because you saw a possible future where your lover was cheating on you? That could have simply been a small outlier, a one in a million chance of it actually coming to fruition you should know that surely!" Miss Soliart started explaining, but Sonia's head swivelled back around to face her.

"It wasn't!" she snapped in a hurt voice, she gave a defeated huff as she turned back to face the stairs going upwards. "I went home... when I got home though... I found the fucker with someone else, naked and 6 inches deep on my bed..." her voice started strong but slowly but surely, tapered off towards the end as if the memory was too painful to explain anymore.

Miss Soliart's face made a perfect oohhh shit look, but a sense of curiosity gnawed at her so she felt inclined to ask.

"Was it the same girl you saw in the future sight?" she asked in an awestruck tone of voice, she couldn't believe the revelation at all. Sonia gave a resigned sigh as her shoulders dropped down.

"... no, that's the worst of it all... it was someone else entirely... now if you don't mind, I would rather not talk about it anymore..." Having said her piece, Sonia started moving up the stairs towards the fifth floor, with Miss Soliart trailing behind her, her previous thoughts completely banished from her mind. It didn't take them long to reach the fifth floor, and on reaching Sonia pulled open the door and walked into a modern-looking grey corridor with a sea blue carpet.

Sonia scanned left and right down either side of the corridor, from what she could see, there were additional doors, one directly in front of her, door 502, then a door either side of it about 10 meters apart from each other, door 501 on the right and door 503 on the left. Something that did catch her notice was the height of the ceiling, it was incredibly high compared to her, over twice her height! That was saying something given she was around 170 cm in height, she practically towered over Miss Soliart yet she felt short when standing in the corridor.

To her left, the corridor carried a little further from door 503 before taking a right-angled turn to the left, there was a potted plant growing in the corridor corner that rustled slightly as she glanced at it, while on the right she saw another door, numbered door 500.

"Here we are, this is one of the rooms I have available to rent." Miss Soliart slipped past Sonia and walked over towards door 502 and stood next to it. "The room has been vacant for about 10 days, it received a full clean four days ago, so everything in there is completely clean and in perfect working order so nothing to worry about there." she gave Sonia a welcoming smile as she fumbled for the master key to enter the room. "Key will be resting on the coffee table if you decide this is the apartment you decide to rent, come in I will give you a quick tour."

She slipped the key into the lock, twisted it clockwise till a small click resounded and pushed down the door handle and swung open the door. Sonia shuffled inside as Miss Soliart held the door open for her. The room she walked into was pretty bare-bones but she had expected that honestly. The apartment was a semi-open design with a wall separating off what she assumed to be the bedroom off from the rest of the apartment, Miss Soliart quick walked in and start showing off the features of the room.

"The room itself is pretty modest, about 50 meters squared of open floor space on the floor and on the ceiling as you can see." She pointed up to the ceiling. A tv, coffee table and a sofa were all placed on the ceiling. "I specialise in psychic type apartments as you no doubt already know" Sonia nodded in agreement.

As psychic type pokemon had already mastered things such as levitation, gravity manipulation, teleportation and a range of other mystical things, it was only natural that many psychic types took full advantage of the previously unused ceiling space. How this was achieved was simple, they created a zone where up and down were reversed using psychic energies. How does it work? Depending on who you ask, a wide range of ways.

"The reverse gravity field goes into effect at 2 meters 50, so as long as you don't get anything taller than that you should be perfectly alright on both sides. The current design of the room is the floor holds the kitchen area to your right, the dining area straight ahead, we are currently stood in the guest welcome area, to your immediate left is the teleporter that will send you to the ceiling section of the room. You have a guest room and laundry room on the left-hand side of the room as with the main bedroom and bathroom being on the ceiling."

Miss Soliart gave a quick show around the various rooms and appliances Sonia would have if she decided on this particular apartment, which included washing machine, electric stove, fridge, tv, sofa, a double bed and a single bed, shower and bathtub. The bathroom, bedrooms and laundry room were thankfully all sectioned off from each other by a solid wall for privacy. There were also four very large modern styled windows in the apartment which gave a bittersweet view of the cities rooftops, as Miss Soliart put it bluntly.

"Not many buildings in this part of the city go any higher than the fourth floor."

The tour didn't take very long and after about 5 minutes, Miss Soliart stopped in front of the centre window and turned to face Sonia.

"Any questions you would like to ask?" Sonia paused, her face scrunching up slightly as she thought. She glanced to the window, softly asking.

"Am I allowed to open the window and fly out and in?" Miss Soliart huffed, she figured that question was going to come up sooner or later. Flying types almost always wanted to fly.

"Whilst I personally would prefer to see come through the front door and leave from the front door, it's nice to see people every now and again, I do understand that 5 flights of stairs can be a handful, especially given the high of the staircase" She made a mental note to track down that email address for the construction company about adding a lift to the building. Some of the 8th-floor residents had been asking about it, with one even offering to fund the construction. She continued, in a slightly tired and fed up tone.

"The windows do open fully, and do have a lock on both sides so it is possible to open and fly out if you need too."

"Thank you." Sonia gave a small head bow in thanks before turning back to stare out at the view of the city rooftops. Miss Soliart joined her and the two looked on in comfortable silence. After a couple of minutes, Miss Soliart turned to look at Sonia only to find the pokemon staring straight ahead with a solemn thousand-yard glare, lost in her own little world it seemed. Miss Soliart merely gave a sad smile. How many times had she seen that look in the past she wondered, and how many times would she see it in the future. That thought made her heartache.

The girl clearly had been through something more than a breakup, but she decided it was not the right time to ask, better to let it rest till she was ready to say it herself. Taking a deep breath and composing herself with the same gentle smile she always wore when dealing with those that needed her support, she decided to ask the important question.

"What do you think of the apartment then my dear? Is it to your liking?" The question broke Sonia's train of thought and as she blinked back into focus, she turned hurriedly and gave the room another quick look around. She turned to face the room's owner before asking in a quiet voice,

"How much do you ask for rent?" We have a keeper thought Miss Soliart as a cheerful grin grew over her face in return to the question.

"The first week is free other than a 300 pokadollar deposit for the items, then it's 140 pokadollars a week, you can pay at the end of the month or every week, whichever is easier for you," she explained in a helpful caring tone like a grandmother would do to their first grandchild. "If you are struggling for money, I have some odd jobs you can help me in exchange for rent or even food and other essential items if necessary"

Sonia stepped back in surprise, her eyes widening at the offer, she was more than a little shocked at the price and a tone of disbelief slipped into her voice.

"That's really not a lot, are you sure that's all you want?" She asked hurriedly, she couldn't believe that was all the landlady was asking for. "a room of this size and quality could well be worth over 300 a week!"

"Oh I know that, but honestly my girl. You need this I feel" Miss Soliart met Sonia's eye. "you've been through something, something more then you are letting on, I can tell that much" That caused Sonia to recoil back a step. "I don't expect you to tell me everything, but you are welcome to stay here for as long as you like. Keys are on the coffee table" and with that, she turned and start to walk towards the door. Sonia was frozen in place, unsure of everything that had just happened. On reaching the door Miss Soliart opened it smoothly before calling back to her newest resident.

"I will be waiting downstairs for the deposit, no rush for getting that sorted though, take your time!" That made Sonia jump.

"Wait how did you know that I wanted this apartment?" she stammered out, a little shocked and surprised by it all.

"When I saw that look in your eye, my dear" Miss Soliart gave her a small smile. "I think right now you have a lot of emotions to sort through, get on that will you?" Sonia started to feel her blood pumping stronger as a feeling that she was being teased started to grow.

"That doesn't mean I wanted this apartment though!" she snapped out, a little louder and angrier then she would have liked, but Miss Soliart just shrugged it off with a gentle laugh.

"Hahaha no I suppose not, but you did just admit that you wanted it" Sonia opened her mouth to argue but quickly realised that she had indeed said that. Miss Soliart gave off a pearl of laughter before looking Sonia straight in the eye.

"My advice my dear, for heartbreak and whatever else you have been through." Miss Soliart's voice cut straight to the chase as she held Sonia's gaze. "let it out, let it all out. Scream shout, punch a pillow or two, cry your heart out and a little bit extra for good measure, then once your done, come down and we can deal with the rent and deposit. I will see you later my dear"

And with that, she closed the door behind her, leaving a bewildered Sonia in her brand new apartment.

"Whatever else I've been through?... How did she know that... no that's not possible she couldn't have known." Her face scrunched up as she pondered the ladies words. She paused, her face relaxing as her gaze was drawn back to the window she was still stood next to.

"Or is it that clear to see?..." she wondered as she stared at her reflection in the glass panel, a lost-looking girl with sore eyes and tired face looked back at her. She sighed as she tapped a small bracelet on her left wrist. The bracelet let out a short beep as a red light flashed, and Sonia Skyreads's body. Melted away.

Leaving in its place, a much smaller humanoid body, hovering off the ground, belonging to Celeste Faye.

"Let it all out huh? huu, easier said than done..." Celeste chided herself lightly as she folded her arm over her chest, and stared ahead at the rooftops of the opposite street. "Well, I guess this is home now" she reminded herself in a whispered tone. Thoughts and ideas started to flood her head, she needed food, new clothes, new furniture the whole works, well Sonia Skyreads did anyway.

Sonia Skyreads was one of three identities she had created for her original time jump back, the cover story that she had just broken up with a boyfriend she had made up on the way to the building, she had listed the building as an excellent place to stay during her first 5 years in the city, however, decided to stay elsewhere due to her landing in the business district in the first jump.

On this occasion, however, the building was the closest thus she chose it for her new home, she wasn't particularly close to her previous home due to spending most days and nights, out exploring she rarely ever used it. It was a significant factor in her run-in with the Rangers come to think of it, they were investigating her because she had rented the room but never actually stayed there. She wouldn't be making THAT mistake again if she could help it. Then again, the Rangers were a pretty nice group of guys...

She felt a surge of loneliness rise as the thought that she would need new friends as well. She shook her head violently at that, trying to shake out that particular thought.

"Focus, focus!" She told herself sternly. "Mourn later focus and plan now!"

She needed to hide what she really was, at least for the time being anyway, last time she revealed herself as a legendary hadn't gone particularly well and she couldn't really risk things, this was her last chance, at least for another 50 years or so and she wasn't particularly frilled at the idea of trying again.

She slapped her cheeks with both hands, trying to psyche herself up and focus on the task at hand.

"Okay, plans, plans, plans arrghhhh they never were my strong suit! Fuck!" She started pulling at her hair in frustration. "okay, okay deep breaths, just like Vaal taught you, c'mon!" She started to take a deep long breath through her nose, holding it for 5 seconds then breathing it out slowly through her mouth.

Vaal had taught her that little calming trick back when she was having a small panic attack. The memory looked so funny when she looked back at it now, a small smile started creeping up the sides of her face. Then her face went slack, arms dropping and hung loosely at her side.

"... I wonder what Vaal would say if he saw me like this..." she murmured half-heartedly, she gave a small chuckle, he probably would just tell her to buckle up and focus on the bigger problem at hand. But as she thought that, a small sense of distress started to swell in her chest. She turned back to the window.

Celeste looked over the city rooftops as she hung in the air completely motionless, staring at the city, that to her, mere hours ago, was burning and laid destroyed, torn asunder by an army that was unrelenting and merciless.

"...I am not going to be able to see him again am I... any of them..."

She didn't know when the first tear dropped, or the second, or the third. All she knew, was she alone, gone were her friends, gone the city she knew and love and yet. Here it all was standing in front of her. But it was the city she had spent 5 years living in, her friends didn't even know she existed, all the struggles they had gone through only now existed in her memory. She was a stranger to it all and that.

That piece of knowledge hurt the most.