AN: Sorry in advance for the long chapter I couldn't find a place to break it up.

The factory was hideous at best. The building looked like your typical run-down factory. Generic gray and beige coloring, paneled windows, and a tall chain link fence surrounding it. Multiple titanium pipes ran from the building to the ground and into the water. A large satellite sat on the roof, and another was stationed next to the building. Five large smokestacks were all on the factory as well with no smoke coming out of them.

Julia was jumping up and down in front of the factory, "Welcome to Mosswater Industrial! Beautiful, isn't it?'

Lucia flicked her wrist out of Julia's hand who was still holding it and scrunched her face at the building, "Yes, the disgusting brown water compliments all the debris nicely."

"Don't be such a buzzkill!" Her eyes, lit up, "Though I could agree, place could use some glitter... and streamers!"

"That is definitely not what I—" She was cut off by Julia shoving her shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah whatever." She skipped over to the factory's door and stared at it for a moment. Lucia went over to her and saw the large metal door that was sealed shut. The two stood there for another moment until Julia smiled, "I know how we can get in! Stand back Lucia!"

Lucia took Julia's advice immediately and stepped away a considerable distance. Knowing the woman's obsession with explosions she did not want to be anywhere near what she was about to do.

"Electrode, go!" Julia tossed a Pokéball up in the air revealing her Pokémon. Electrode popped out of the ball and grinned widely at its trainer, already knowing what to do, "Let's blow this door down! Explosion

The powerful explosion caused debris to fly all around the factory entrance. Lucia covered her face with her arms and braced her body for the wind. After only a few seconds the explosion was over, and the steel door was completely broken. Electrode fainted from its explosion attack and laid on the ground. Julia walked over to the Pokémon and gave it a Max Revive. Electrode hopped up right after, completely unscathed and smiled happily at its trainer.

Julia returned the Pokémon to its ball and giggled, "There we go! Much better!" The two heard footsteps behind them and two people walked up to the factory. Lucia groaned internally when she saw Fern but didn't know who the woman was whose hair was the same color as the other. Julia seemed delighted to see the two and jumped up again, "Hello friends!"

The new woman spoke in a monotone voice that almost sounded robotic, "Hypothesis confirmed. Detection of explosion is accurately and consistently correlated to the presence of Julia." The woman wore a bright green short-sleeve and shorts bodysuit, along with tall boots of the same color. Under her clothes she wore dark green tights and an under shirt.

Instead of being offended at the woman's comment Julia only clasped her hands together and responded sweetly, "Oh trust me, I get that a lot!" She skipped over to Lucia who had no idea what was going on and gestured towards the woman, "Lucia, this is Florinia. Back in school she was my roommate and best friend." Julia looked at the other one of the two, her expression dropping, "And this is Fern. Hi Fern. Okay, moving on!"

Fern rolled his eyes and snickered, "Hah! I get no respect. But it's fine. Lucia and I already met."

Lucia narrowed her eyes and sighed, "Yeah, we met, and I wiped his team with a single Pokémon."

Before Fern could retort back Florinia interrupted him, "Time further wastes. Let us proceed."

Fern seemed to notice Lucia's confusion and rolled his eyes at Florinia, "Feel free to ignore my sister by the way. She's allergic to words with less than three syllables."

The woman looked at her brother blankly, "No such allergen exists."

"Oh, come on, sis. It's not my fault so many people call you 'Flobot' cause of the way you talk."

Julia shoved Fern at his comment about Florinia, "Well, I call her Rini, because she's not a robot! She's a Rini through and through!" She turned towards the broken door and jumped up and down, "Now come on, focus! We have a factory to raid!"

"Uh huh. We've already figured that out." He rubbed his shoulder where Julia had pushed him.

"The guy who bombed Grandview Station is part of a group called Team Meteor. Weird name. It's always team this team that, it's like they're just broadcasting to the world that they're bad news. Anyways, we need to get in there and blow their faces off! Otherwise, they'll cause even more havoc!" Julia's smile only broadened and placed her hands on her hips, "A practice I normally approve of, but not like this. So, let's go!" Julia skipped inside the building and the other three just stood there.

A moment later Fern crossed his arms, "Leave it to the Electric Gym Leader to steal our thunder. Whatever, let's just get this over with." He walked in without saying another word. Florinia followed closely and stalked inside without speaking either.

Lucia's eyes darted around to make sure no one was listening, she spoke quietly so no one else could hear her, "Hey, Theros. I'm really going to need you to do all the battling here. Kaladin and Arlow can't battle here. I don't need another terrorist group to know..." She averted her eyes and Theros nuzzled her. The girl nodded at her Pokémon's affection and rubbed his head, "Whatever happens in there don't use any fire unless I tell you too. The plan is to let the gym leaders and Fern attract all the attention. Just keep your head low around them and I'll do the same."

Theros looked at her and nodded, "Sni! Snivy!"

Her small smile came back, "Thanks bud." She returned him to his Pokéball and walked through the broken door. As soon as she walked through, she wanted to gag.

Julia looked around and smiled, "Wow! This place smells terribadtastic!"

"That's one way to put it..." Lucia waved her hand to try and get the smell away but was unable to. She stepped forward and scrunched her face when she saw the water running through the factory. Instead of the brown water throughout the city it was red. It looked like red wine. Disgusting, toxic, red wine.

Florinia stared down at the water, "The observed win hue is indicative of exorbitant levels of pollutants. Estimated Toxicity is ninety percent."

Fern only scowled at the water, "So they're polluting the lake as well as committing arson. Either way they still can go fuck themselves." He looked around at everyone else and glared at them, "Are we going to do something about it, or are we just going to stand here sniveling?"

"Rather than a source of active pollution, the facility appears to be collecting data on the water and—" She suddenly ceased talking and looked upwards.

Lucia hadn't noticed the large screens mounted high on the wall. There were unreadable words on them, but the words began disappearing all at once. In a few seconds all the screens went blank.

Julia's eyes widened and she stepped towards the screens, "Wait, wait, wait. Where the hell did all the words go?"

"Data purge suspected." Florinia dusted debris off her jacket, "Hypothesis: Facility operatives have begun procedural deactivation of non-critical systems to avoid divulging gathered data and information."

Fern rolled his eyes at his sister, "Then let's stop twiddling our thumbs and get moving already. It's not like we have the privilege of stealth since somebody announced our presence by blowing up the entire front door."

Julia turned around to yell at Fern, "What am I supposed to do? Not blow things up?! Don't be ridiculous!" Fern was about to yell back but was stopped by Florinia.

The woman lightly shoved her friend's arm and pushed Fern back slightly, "The path diverges ahead. The most efficient course of motion through the facility for thorough investigation and reclamation of the property necessitates a similar bisection of the party."

Fern's eyebrow twitched, "And in English?"

Julia waved off his comments, "She means we should split up. Duh." She skipped forward and turned around to look at Florinia, "Rini will come with me! We'll take the side route! Lucia, you go with Fern. Just try not to let his attitude get to you."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing!" She jumped up and clasped her hands together, "Come on, Rini, let's go!" She let out her Electrode and the two smiled before running through the door.

Florinia turned to her brother and Lucia, "Proceed with caution."

Fern smirked and shrugged his shoulders, "I always do, Sis."

"You were not the intended recipient of my previous statement. Permission for you to be life-endangering reckless: Granted." With that she turned around and walked away from the two teens.

Lucia couldn't help herself from snickering at Florinia's comment.

Fern huffed and crossed his arms, "As you can see, she didn't get enough hugs growing up. Not my problem though." He turned back to Lucia and smirked, "Well, Lucia, it looks like it's you and me after all. I'm going to enjoy this."

"Gross." She rolled her eyes at the boy's comment, knowing what he was implying, "Let's get going already. Being in here and with you makes me sick." She walked through the door opposite that Julia and Florinia went through. Fern followed her with a scowl on his face.

The room the two walked into looked about the same as the entrance. Fern was about to speak until they heard an unknown voice start talking from above them, "So, the esteemed guests of honor have arrived!"

The pair didn't know where the voice was coming from until they saw someone leaning on a railing from the second floor. The person had dark skin but still lighter than Lucia's. They had dark blue hair with a side ponytail. Their clothes resembled a magician, and they smiled at the kids below them, "I know they say you should knock before you enter, but I don't think they meant for you to knock the entire door in! Kind enough of you though to announce your calling." They only smiled further and shrugged their shoulders at the two's confusion, "Not that it mattered too much when we already got a tip that the police had found this place. But kind nonetheless!"

They walked away from the railing towards a large computer that was still in sight of Lucia and Fern. They typed quickly on the computer, "Gives us ample time to press a few buttons and—" There were more screens in the room that had words on them until they disappeared just like earlier, "And data was released to the wild!"

The person stalked back over to the railing and smirked, "The name's Ace by the way! First rate agent, statistician, systematic admin, master magician... and professional dead end to meandering little vagrants like yourselves!" Without the pair knowing Ace clicked a Pokéball at their side and sent out their Delphox.

In the blink of an eye Ace appeared a few feet in front of Lucia and Fern. They smiled down at them as their Delphox just looked smugly at the two, "You should know I'm more steamed than a sauna that we must go around dumping all our information! And the stupid computer can't decide whether it will take two minutes or three hours to destroy everything. I know everything will be on the network but it's just so annoying! And who knows how long it'll take?"

Ace laughed at Fern and Lucia's confusion and stepped forward, "So if you could just stay there in place. Silly expression and all, we'd be much obliged. I suppose you won't though."

Fern glared at Ace and clicked his own Pokéball, sending out his Sandile. The bipedal crocodile came out in front of him and roared when its trainer commanded it, "Sandile Crunch!" Sandile's teeth glowed black, and it launched forward in an attempt to attack Delphox.

"Protect!" Ace's Delphox used the move Protect and formed a shield to prevent Sandile's attack. The foxlike Pokémon snarled at the crocodile and Ace narrowed their eyes, "Talk about rude. Grunts! Slow our guests down."

Four Team Meteor grunts ran up next to Ace, Pokéballs already at their sides and ready to be deployed. Ace shrugged their shoulders, "What an unfortunate name, by the way. It just sounds disrespectful." Most of the grunts shot Ace a glare and they only smirked in response, "Hey, don't shoot the messenger. If you want to be called something else, just fight better. Anyways little grunts, buy me enough time and I'll buy your wages another day!" They snapped their fingers and Delphox teleported itself and its trainer somewhere else in the base.

Fern gritted his teeth, "Well at least the spring-picked fruits basket is gone."

Lucia raised an eyebrow and scowled at the grunts, "And now we're stuck with people who look like they're badly cosplaying Mightyenas."

One of the female grunts stepped forward with her fists clenched, "What did you just say, brat?"

"And here I was thinking that Mightyenas have good hearing." Lucia bit her tongue realizing how she only angered the grunt further but couldn't help herself.

The same grunt grew red in the face at the girl's snarky comment, "Alright then you little bitch. Let's battle." The grunt clicked a Pokéball at her side and sent out an Alolan Raticate. The three other grunts sent out their Pokémon, Boldore, Cacnea, and Yamask.

Fern glared at the grunts and sent out his Budew to join his Sandile. He prepared to battle the two grunts with the Cacturne and Cofagrigus.

The grunt with the Boldore glared at Lucia, "I'll make you eat those words, girl." The man's Boldore stepped next to the Raticate.

Lucia narrowed her eyes and tossed Theros' Pokéball up in the air. He popped out of the Pokéball and glared at the two Pokémon in front of him.

The woman snickered at Lucia only sending out one Pokémon, "If you want to fight with only pathetic little Snivy be my guest. It's your funeral, kid. Raticate Hyper Fang!" The Pokémon launched towards Theros, ready to bite him.

"Jump up!" Theros launched himself in the air to avoid the attack, "Theros Tackle!" The Pokémon slammed into Raticate and knocked the Pokémon back.

Boldore's trainer yelled out to his Pokémon, "Rock Tomb!" Boldore fired multiple rocks at Theros who recoiled and got pushed back for the attack.

"Leaf Tornado on Boldore!" Leaves surrounded Theros who shot them at the rock Pokémon. Boldore fell onto its side from the attack and got up slowly.

The woman groaned before smirking, "Finish off that stupid Snivy. Double-Edge!" Raticate charged at Theros and hit him head on. He skidded back and landed on the ground in front of Lucia.

Lucia covered her eyes from dust that was kicked up at them. She noticed the two grunts smirking at her and gritted her teeth. Despite the powerful attack Theros stood up slowly, he looked back at Lucia and nodded, ready to continue the fight. Lucia smiled and nodded back at him, "Leaf Tornado on both of them!" Wind kicked up around Theros with leaves circling around him. He fired off the tornado at the two Pokémon which lifted both up in the air.

By the time Theros' attack was over Boldore had already fainted. The two Pokémon landed roughly on the ground. Raticate hissed because of its injuries and the male grunt returned Boldore to its Pokéball. The other grunt clenched her fists and glared down at Raticate, "Use Quick Attack, you stupid rat!" The Pokémon got up despite the obvious pain it was in and ran directly towards Theros.

"Hit it head on! Tackle!" Theros braced himself and jumped forward to attack Raticate. The two hit each other and Theros landed back on the ground. Raticate on the other hand got hit back further and fainted when it hit the ground.

"You really have no idea what you're getting into!" The woman returned her Pokémon to its ball. She looked back where Lucia was and glared at her, "Don't say I didn't warn you. The boss doesn't play so nice."

Theros jumped into Lucia's arms and grinned. She patted his head and rolled her eyes at the grunt while sneering, "Whatever woman. Go cry to your boss about how you couldn't beat a pathetic little Snivy." She saw the grunt clench her fists and sneer at her but didn't dare try attacking Lucia in any way.

Fern had just defeated the other two grunts and stepped up next to Lucia, "Damn these grunts really are pitiful. Let's go." He waved the grunts off and walked past them despite all the glares. Lucia followed as well and the two went to explore the base further.

They had only walked through the first floor for about twenty minutes before they could head up to where Ace was. There were about ten other grunts scattered throughout the base that they worked together to defeat. While rummaging through the many computers located throughout the base they had found files with no information on them, only the names. From what they could gather none of the "projects" sounded any good.

The only way to access the second floor was through an elevator that was locked behind a four-digit code. While looking around they had determined that the code was 3179 by forcing it out of an unsuspecting grunt.

The two stood in front of the elevator and without a word spoken Fern typed the code into the keypad. Both of their Pokémon were now tucked inside their balls to rest up. In all honesty Lucia hadn't expected it to work and for the grunt to have been lying to them. Color her surprised though when a second later for the elevator doors to open automatically.

Fern smirked when the door opened and gave Lucia a smug look, "See, I know my genius would easily get us through here." He winked at her and looked her body up and down as he had done when they first met, "You know, you might as well date me."

Lucia couldn't help but roll her eyes at his comment and flirtatious attempt, "Sorry I'm not interested in people who are still in high school."

"You graduated from high school? How old are you?"

"Seventeen. I skipped a grade."

"I'm eighteen, you know not a minor."

"Look Fern. The reason that I won't suck your dick is that I don't associate myself with pricks like you." She brushed past him, ignoring his glare, "Let's get going already. I'm pretty sure my head will explode if I have to spend any more time with you than necessary."

"Bitch..." He scowled at her but followed her into the elevator.

There were only two floors listed on the elevator buttons. She clicked the top button, and the elevator shook slightly before moving up. They arrived at the second floor, but the doors didn't open. The lights cut out a second later leaving them in almost complete darkness.

They both looked around before Fern voiced what they were both thinking, "Hey, what gives?"

Before Lucia could even open her mouth to respond, a voice cut in from an intercom placed somewhere in the elevator. Ace's voice, "I'm sorry, little wannabes. It seems like the power has been cut on your hit and rescue operation. The good old trapped in a box trick gets them every time." Through the speaker there was the slight giggle of the magician's Delphox. Lucia swore she could hear Ace smirking through the intercom, "Do me a favor will you? Be good little fledglings and stay put. Don't worry, I can assure you the show will be over soon once we've dealt with your Gym Leader friends."

"Like hell we will!" He clenched his fists at his sides. Lucia sighed softly, not loud enough for either of them to hear. There was no point in yelling, it was obvious that they were stuck here until they were let out or rescued by the Gym Leaders.

"Oh well that's awkward. You don't actually have a choice in the matter. It was one of those rhetorical questions, you know? Don't worry, little one. You'll figure those out eventually. At this point you might as well just consider joining us. Give it some thought, won't you?"

"Let us out of here and I'll tell you exactly what I think!"

"Ha ha! No. I'll come back and check on you two once we're all cleaned up. Until then just stew on it." A loud beep came from where the intercom was placed, and the elevator room went silent again.

Lucia rolled her eyes at Fern's huffing, "Well I guess were stuck here for the time being."

"What is wrong with you?" He turned his anger towards Lucia and glared at her, "You're way too calm about this whole thing."

"There's nothing we can do right now, unless you'd rather beg the magician freak to let us out."

"I don't beg people." He clicked open a Pokéball at his side, letting his Sandile out, "Bulldoze on the door!" Sandile stamped his feet on the ground, causing the room to shake. The door remained closed with no damage done to it, "Fuck!"

"There's no need to be so—" All of a sudden, the entire elevator shook from a loud explosion. Both of kids staggered back to keep themselves upright, "Ugh... is that, Julia?"

"Who else would it be?" Commotion could be heard from outside the elevator but since the intercom was cut, they couldn't hear anything. About a minute later the lights came back on and the doors finally opened. Fern and his Sandile ran out the door immediately. Lucia sighed loudly and followed him, making sure to keep her distance from the Team Meteor Agent in the next room.

Outside the elevator Ace stood in front of the door with Florinia and Julia standing where the control system was located. Ace's Delphox was out and glaring at Julia's Electrode and Florinia's Cradily. The Pokémon turned its attention to Sandile and growled at all of them.

Florinia pushed her falling glasses up, "Primary security overwritten." She glanced over at Lucia and Fern now that they were out of the elevator and nodded curtly, "Elevator power restored."

Ace scowled once they realized they no longer had the upper hand and that Fern and Lucia were out of the elevator. Still, they turned to Florinia who had seemed to have fixed the power, "That's my damn security station, woman! Drat..."

Instead of being appreciative that his sister let him out Fern seemed angry that she was getting the attention for being the hero, "I guess Flobot can be good for something occasionally."

"Well, this is certainly awkward." Ace glanced over at everyone before rolling their eyes, their tone melodramatic, "One, I could take. Two's a fair bout. Three is a whole crowd. And four is right out!" They backed up towards a large open door leading further into the base with their Delphox moving along with them, "Just consider this a tactical but temporary retreat. I'm sure the commander will have orders. Ta-ta for the time! Please feel free to show yourselves out." A large, metal gate slammed down blocking the group from getting in towards Ace and the supposed commander.

Julia ran up to the door and yelled through it, "Hey, get back here so I can blow your face off!"

Fern's Sandile snickered at Delphox as it left and Fern followed suit towards the Team Meteor Agent, "Ha! What a coward."

Florinia stepped forward towards the door and narrowed her eyes before nodding, "Team Meteor Headquarters confirmed beyond gates."

Julia smirked when she heard her friend's words, "So then it's just a matter of opening it. With explosions!" Her Electrode rolled forward up next to her, smiling to blow up more doors and grunts alike.

Lucia looked at her traveling companions and rolled her eyes. She huffed in annoyance and spoke under her breath, "Is everyone in this damn region this annoying...?" Turns out she hadn't spoken quietly enough as Fern hit her shoulder roughly.

Before she could kick him in the nuts a loud explosion shook the whole room. Julia's Electrode had used Explosion on the metal door, but the door remained where it was, still standing. Julia huffed in annoyance, returning her Electrode to it's ball, "Oh come on! That normally works!"

Florinia stood in front of a security station, "The facility's digital security system appears substandard. The primary firewall has been accessed. Only a secondary one remains. A brute force attack from genuine explosives should be sufficient.

"Hey, you're right! They blew up the station and they plan to blow up my Gym... they must have some boomies here! Maybe they'd let us borrow them if we ask really nicely! Or punch them in the face!" She cheered and looked over at Lucia and Fern, "It would be great if you two would go look for some!"

"A facility map indicates a storage room behind a security lock on the north side of the premises." She glanced over at Julia, shaking her head, "I must inquire why combustion is your solution to every obstacle."

Fern decided to interrupt, "Ugh... I for one don't care to stand around all day while Flobot plays on computers." He grabbed Lucia by the wrist and headed in the direction that Florinia had indicated.

Once again Fern decided to force the security code out of a grunt after they defeated her in battle. The code this time was 4862. The grunts were easy to defeat as they had done before. Along the way they found a couple more named files without any information. One of the files was named, "Erratic Growth, Tangrowth – Grass/Poison" Team Meteor must be high if they had labeled the pure Grass Type Pokémon, Tangrowth, as a Poison Type.

They arrived at the second keypad and Fern typed in the code once more. Again, Lucia didn't expect the code to work but the door opened once he clicked enter. The storage room had many shelves with different items placed in boxes. They fought two grunts who ran out of the room once they were defeated. After a few minutes of searching, they found the explosives.

Lucia bent down to pick up the explosives, only to feel a sharp pain on her ass and hear the sound of someone whistling. It took her a few seconds to register what happened before she heard Fern laughing, "Whoops. Sorry, Lucia. My hand slipped."

Before she could stop herself, she balled her hand into a fist and hit his nose. The force of the punch knocked him over onto the ground. He stared up at her in shock as his nose began to turn brownish purple from bruising. She sneered at him, in the same tone Fern had used, "Whoops. Sorry, Fern. My hand slipped."

"You little bitch! You'll pay for—"

"Oh boo-hoo. I don't care." She grabbed the box filled of green explosives and ran off back towards Julia and Florinia. Fern scampered onto his feet and followed closely behind, muttering curses under his breath.

They reached the two women and Lucia held out the box to Julia, "We got your explosives, Julia."

Julia gasped in excitement and clasped her hands together, "Boomies! Ooh they're verdignite! This stuff's fun."

"You know the type of explosive?"

"Obviously! It's named for its green color, but it's unique because the internal chemicals react as they oxidize! In other words, all you've got to do is shake it to break open the plastic casing

Lucia nodded; she'd have to take note of that for later. Who knows what might come in handy.

Fern finally spoke up from behind Lucia, not daring to do anything else to her, "Good thing you didn't drop them on the way here..."

"Okay, let's do this!" Julia skipped towards the door and placed the explosives in front of it. She shook the box of explosives before backing away, "Alright, let's start the count down! Three—"

She stopped when the door went back up, reopening. Florinia spoke up from the security station, "Secondary firewall overridden in line with secondary security failure. Access granted."

"But the—" The explosions went off. They did nothing due to the already open door, only causing debris to land on the floor, "Well... okay. There wasn't even anything to blow up, but I'll take it!"

"Your penchant for wanton destruction remains decidedly superfluous." In all honesty Lucia had zero clue what the woman meant.

"You're right! It is super!" She pointed at the door like she was a captain of a ship, "Now we charge! Onward friends!" Then she did as she said and ran through the door.

"Indeed..." Florinia followed Julia as Lucia and Fern stood there, still taking in the events.

Fern rolled his eyes, "Pretty sure Julia should've been arrested a long time ago. Whatever, let's just go..." He followed the two women through the doorway.

Lucia sighed and ran a hand through her curly hair. "Eh fuck it. Let's go." She walked through the door, all three of her Pokémon tucked safely in their Pokéballs.

'This is going to be a complete shitshow.' Was her final thought before she entered the room containing Team Meteor.