Traveling through the slums for a second time wasn't nearly as awful as the first time. Sure, it was still littered with trash and the air was disgusting, but all the men who had harassed the two girls the first time were now cowering whenever they saw Victoria.

Lucia made a mental note to never fuck with Victoria.

The three girls arrived back at the entrance of the park where Florinia was standing guard. The vines only got worse as they were gone. More cracks plagued the road, and they had to dodge more vines attempting to attack them.

Florinia nodded as the girls approached. "Let us proceed." She sent out her Cradily which cut the vines blocking the park. She stepped into the park, disappearing into the small forest. Amaria followed her without a word.

Lucia and Victoria exchanged a look before following into the park.

Amaria looked around once they were in. "It seems so much bigger now..."

Florinia glanced at her in acknowledgement. "Perception is inherently subjective to and thus influenced by those parts to which it is relative and adjacent."

"Yep! Whatever that means, but yep! What do you say we split up and hunt for whatever has caused all this?"

Lucia glowered at the woman. "That's the worst idea possible. We could easily be picked off one by one by the freaks causing this."

"We won't be far away from each other. The park isn't that large." She narrowed her eyes at Lucia.

Victoria looked back and forth between the two. "Um... splitting up should be fine. We can all handle ourselves."

Florinia stepped forward. "Fragmented party is suitable. As leaders, Amaria and this speaker should take the center path which is most likely to encounter hostile resistance. Supporting parties should begin by securing the perimeter of the area.

Amaria gave a small grin. "If anything happens, Florinia and I will be there in a jiffy."

Victoria nodded her head. "Got it. Stay safe." Without another word the two older women wandered off. "I guess it's up to us then to start with the edge of this place. See you, Lucy."

Lucia felt a small pit beginning to form in her stomach. "See you, Vicky." After Victoria was out of earshot and Lucia's sight, she clicked a Pokéball, sending out Kaladin. She looked up at the large, bipedal dragon. "I want you to follow Victoria. I don't necessarily care about the other two, but I want to make sure she's safe."

Kaladin gave a toothy grin, nuzzling his head up against Lucia's shoulder, making what could only be described as a purring noise. "Gar... Garchomp."

"Yes, yes, I love you too," she laughed, petting his head while being careful of his rough scales. "Can you go follow her, bud? I've got Arlow and Theros to keep me safe."

He roared quietly in agreement before stalking off in the direction Victoria had gone.

Lucia sighed when Kaladin left, clicked her other Pokéballs that sent out Arlow and Theros. Arlow popped out next to her. He looked up at her, giving her a nod. Theros wrapped around her neck and shoulders, ready to jump off and attack if necessary.

"Let's go." She looked around one more time before heading in the opposite direction of where everyone else had wandered.

***

Victoria couldn't believe it. She had found Borealis, a man in a hooded Team Meteor uniform and had attempted to fight him. He wiped her entire team with a single Crobat. She felt her body shake slightly as she met the man's glare.

Borealis scowled at her. "Pathetic. Are you truly the best defense this city can muster?"

"I— I can't believe I lost so quickly..." she muttered to herself.

"To say you lost is a massive understatement. A more accurate description is that you barely managed to show up to the fight in the first place. Do not glorify your meager performance here as if there was any competition to begin with. You are out of your depth. For you to come out here alone was idiotic. What did you even think someone like you could accomplish?"

"I thought with the others—" She was cut off by the man.

"The others who you have separated yourself from."

"I'm doing it to protect the city!"

"This city?" he scoffed. "This city festers like a wound in the earth. You demonstrate naivete with you playing pretend hero for the sake of ideals. Loss was the only possible outcome. Nevertheless, what's done is done. You cannot be allowed to report what you've seen today."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Crobat. We will take her to some place secure. Believe me, you'll find no shortage of time to reflect on your myriad of mistakes while in captivity." With his final words his Crobat charged towards her.

Victoria covered her head with her arms, shutting her eyes tightly, bracing for impact.

But nothing came.

Instead, a shriek of pain came from the Crobat.

She looked back up, opening her eyes to see the Crobat lying on the floor unconscious.

A large Garchomp stood in front of her, its blood-red eyes glaring down at the fainted Pokémon. He turned to Borealis letting out an earsplitting screech of anger.

Borealis gritted his teeth, returning his Crobat to its Pokéball. "Dammit... who the hell's Garchomp is that anyways?!"

The Garchomp roared again and Borealis ran off.

Victoria stared up at the Pokémon and flinched slightly when he looked back at her. "T-thank you."

He nodded his head before crouching onto all fours and running off after Borealis.

She stared in awe as the Pokémon left. She had no idea where he had come from but was thankful he had saved her. She quickly pulled out a few revives from her pocket so her Pokémon could be able to fight again. She stared off into the distance of where the two had gone before shaking her head and running off to catch up with where everyone else likely was.

***

Lucia fought her way through the horde of grunts with her two Pokémon. Nothing seemed to get rid of them as more kept appearing. They defeated all of them with ease but the sheer number of them was a problem. She ran a hand through her hair, groaning in annoyance after defeating another grunt.

Eventually, she reached the center of the park after navigating through the vines.

She gulped when she saw the scene in front of her.

A giant green Tangrowth sat on a large metal stand. Wires connected the machine to the ground that appeared to be causing the vines to sprout from the ground.

Victoria, Florinia, and Amaria were all held up in the air, the vines wrapped around their arms and waist, keeping them in the air. The vines also covered their mouths, preventing them from yelling for help.

In front of the Tangrowth stood two people. One was someone wearing clothes similar to the Team Meteor commander she had fought before. She couldn't see their face or hair because of a hood covering their head and had no idea if they were a man or a woman. The other person was a woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties. She had strawberry blonde hair and hazel eyes. She also wore a uniform similar to the commander's.

The woman glared at the person next to her. "See? I told you she would arrive soon."

The hooded person flipped her off while tinkering with the machine. "Shut up Mia! You know nothing about this machine anyways! If this machine was faster..."

Lucia concluded that the person must be a man considering the voice.

The same man spoke up again. "No! Tangrowth wouldn't be able to take it!"

Wait, what? The hooded member of Team Meteor had just spoken as a man and were now speaking as a woman.

They began speaking again, this time in another woman's voice. "The speed of it has already been optimized. Be glad the Pokémon was able to capture the leaders and the other girl."

The same, softer female voice spoke again. "You're really strong to do all of this, Tangrowth!"

The woman known as Mia, sighed before she gestured to Lucia, yelling at the hooded person. "Hey, you three idiots! Are we just going to ignore the main problem?"

The hooded person turned around, revealing a man who also appeared to be in his mid-twenties with black hair. He or she had eyes that were three colors, blue, purple, and yellow.

Lucia stared in confusion at the two of them. "Okay, what the actual fuck?!" She gestured towards the person who had spoken to themself. "Are you insane? You're talking to yourself in other voices!" She looked back at Mia. "And what the hell do you mean by 'you three?' There's only one person there!"

Mia only laughed in response at Lucia's confusion. "Believe me, kid. I also had no idea what was going on at first."

The person spoke in the softer female voice, "Um, I'm Lumi..." When that happened, their left eye turned blue while the other one remained multicolored.

The same person scoffed before speaking in a male voice as the same eye changed to yellow. "I'm Zero, the one in charge here!"

Their eye changed to purple, and the deeper female voice spoke. "And I am Eve. Collectively, the three of us are referred to as ZEL."

Zero began yelling and the eye changed back to yellow, "And we're not going to let you touch the PULSE!"

Their eye became blue, indicating that Lumi was now the one speaking. "That's what you came here for though, right? All of the growth here is the result of this machine. And Eve built it all by herself!

Their eye transformed into purple. Eve was now speaking. "The Link System is a simple hybridization-amplification mechanic."

The eye changed back to yellow. "It can manipulate even the smallest root into a massive arbor wrecking ball!"

Lucia looked back and forth between the two, still bewildered by what was going on.

Mia began laughing again, "You look puzzled, Lucia, so I'll fill you in. ZEL is three people. They were all combined into Zero's body in a freak accident."

She was about to ask how the woman knew her name but considering she had defeated their commander and had been all over the news she didn't bother. She shook her head. "You people are psychos..." She glanced at Theros, who was still on her shoulder. "Stay back Theros. Arlow and I will handle this."

ZEL curled their lips back in a scowl and Zero spoke. "You think you can stop the PULSE? Just try!"

Suddenly, one of the vines of Tangrowth's body shot at Lucia. "Arlow, Metal Wall!" A large sheet of metal appeared from the ground, blocking the attack from hitting Arlow and Lucia.

Mia raised an eyebrow. "What kind of move is that?"

The wall came down once it blocked the attack. "It's just him using his abilities to the fullest. A combination move if you will. Now, Arlow, Steel Spike!" A large spike made of metal protruded from the ground, aiming directly at the PULSE Tangrowth.

Zero yelled out a command to the Pokémon, "Tangrowth, block it! With the other people." Suddenly, the three vines holding Lucia's companions came in front of the massive spike. Florinia on the left, Amaria on the right, and Victoria in the middle.

"Stop it!" Arlow braced himself and the attack stopped. The metal spike was touching Victoria's chin, but Arlow had stopped it just in time so that it wouldn't go into her neck. A few seconds later the steel spike submerged back into the ground.

Mia sneered at Lucia's desperate attempt to stop the attack, "Bravo. I thought that girl was a goner. Now here's what's going to happen."

A vine surrounded by thorns came out of the ground in front of Victoria. The vine along with the thorns looked sharp enough to pierce through skin.

"You're going to return your Pokémon to their Pokéballs or this vine here is going right through your little friend."

Lucia gritted her teeth but slowly reached for her Pokéballs, any sudden movements could provoke the woman in front of her to give the command for Tangrowth to kill Victoria. She returned both Arlow and Theros to their balls. Kaladin was around so all she had to do was wait for an opening.

Mia smirked at her complacency. "Good." Vines swiftly wrapped around Lucia's wrists and arms, preventing her from moving.

She tugged on the vines, desperately trying to remove them. "Hey, what the hell?!"

"Sorry Lucia, but you're coming with us. You can't simply make a mockery out of Team Meteor and expect to get away with it."

At Mia's words Lucia felt like she was going to throw up. She had been a situation like this before. She came here to avoid evil teams, but she was already about to be kidnapped and likely murdered by another one.

Lucia clenched her jaw. 'Arceus, please let there be an opening to save Victoria and myself.'

Mia began walking towards her and there it was. An opening. The vine that had been threatening Victoria dropped.

"Kaladin, Dragon Claw!" Nothing happened for a moment. That was until Kaladin burst through Tangrowth's body.

Kaladin pushed through the middle of the Pokémon, his sharp claws chopping Tangrowth in half. The entire top half of Tangrowth fell forward, almost crushing ZEL. Kaladin's blue body was now covered in splatters of red. Blood dripped down his scales as he spit out part of Tangrowth's flesh from his mouth.

He stood in front of Lucia, having flown in front of her. He glared at Mia for daring to get near Lucia.

Because of him slaughtering Tangrowth, blood was on everyone. Lucia's body and face were covered in blood splatters. Luckily, she hadn't gotten the worst of it as ZEL was almost completely red and Mia's back was painted red. A few flecks had even managed to get on the three women strung up in the air.

The vines grabbing everyone went limp suddenly, dropping the three women to the ground. The vines holding Lucia also fell to the floor and the other vegetation surrounding the park began to fade back into the earth.

Kaladin let out a deafening roar directed at Mia.

Mia stepped back. "What the hell?!" She looked around, seeing the plants begin to fall before turning her glare to Lucia. "You little brat..."

Kaladin stepped forward, roaring at Mia again. He hit her with his tail, knocking her to the ground.

Lucia walked forward, stopping in front of Kaladin, glaring at Mia on the ground and ZEL who was standing next to the now deceased Tangrowth. She could feel people's eyes on her and Kaladin as the plants retreated back into the earth, leaving civilians able to see her. "Get out of here."

Mia gritted her teeth before grabbing a Pokéball, sending out a Metagross. "Don't think this is over girl. You've only put more of a target on your back today. Metagross. Teleport us out of here before we get murdered by that freak Garchomp."

The Metagross slammed its front legs into the ground before teleporting itself, Mia, ZEL, and the machine.

Lucia looked around seeing almost everyone in Obsidia Ward staring at her. Some looked at her with fear while others looked at her with awe.

She clenched her jaw. Mia was right. Team Meteor would hunt her down. She breathed sharply through teeth. 'I'm fucked, aren't I?'