The first thing Lucia saw when she stepped in the main room was Julia arguing with a man who looked like he could snap her neck without any effort. From the way the man carried himself she could already tell that he was the one who called the shots here. The man had hair the same color as Lucia's and wore black clothing with minimal gray and red accents that covered his entire body. The man's right eye was brown, the left eye was covered by an eyepatch with a red sensor over where his eye would be.

Next to the man was Ace who only smiled when everyone entered the room. She couldn't tell whether it was malicious or not. Near Ace there were two people, one male one female, typing on computers that were deleting information on large screens on the back wall of the room. The two people were wearing uniforms that grunts would but had red accents on it.

Lucia looked around the room blankly but was pulled out of her thoughts by Julia's yelling, "So, what? Are you the one in charge here?"

The man stood with his arms crossed as a Seviper coiled around his legs, "And if I am?

"We're going to blow your face off for what you did to Grandview Station!"

"Amusing. Humor me for a moment, what makes you think you have the power to do so?" He glared at Julia and Florinia who were standing next to each other, "It's true that two of you are leaders among the league. An obstacle but hardly a concern." He looked over at Lucia and Fern with a disapproving look, "The others, mere smoke in the wind."

If it was physically possible smoke would be coming out of Julia's ears, "Really? And who do you think you are anyway? As far as any of us are concerned you're nothing but a coward hiding behind your lackeys!"

"You know already." It seemed he decided to ignore the last comment, "We are Team Meteor. Though few know it we are keepers of history. Shepherds of the region, if you will."

Fern sneered at the man, "Some 'shepherds' you are. We pretty much kicked your whole base in already!"

"Feel free to pat yourself on the back as much as you'd like, kid. But we never had any reason to stop you. If anything, you're like a toddler who will kick, scream, and cry itself to sleep. Don't think that nobody noticed you getting punched for sexually assaulting a girl and then whining about it."

Suddenly, Lucia had a small amount of respect for the man. A small amount. Meanwhile, Fern's face flushed red at his comment.

The man narrowed his eyes, "Our purpose here was forfeit already. Your miserable city has been watched for a long time."

Ace spoke up, still typing on the computer, "We've got metrics on everything. water quality, Pokémon population, and the lives of the people! If it exists, we probably know about it!" They ceased typing on the computer, turning around with a shit-eating grin, "And just like that, everything is off the system!" The grunts stopped their typing as well.

"We made the mistake of overestimating your pathetic little raiding party. Time was ample, but I've grown tired of this dalliance." He looked over at the two grunts with the same sharp glare, "Aster, Eclipse. Deal with the small fry."

Eclipse shrugged, readying a Pokéball in her hand, "If you say so, boss." Aster did the same, a Pokéball in his hand as well.

"Ace, you and I will handle the Gym Leaders." His Seviper hissed, uncoiling from his legs and slithering towards Julia and Florinia. The two women sent out their own Pokémon, Oricorio and Cradily respectively.

The magician's grin only grew wider, grabbing their own Pokéball, sending out their Delphox, "Then let's consider the deck stacked!"

Aster sent out a Midnight-form Lycanroc in front of Fern while Eclipse sent out a Midday-form Lycanroc in front of Lucia. Lucia could see Fern shifting his weight from foot to foot when he saw the Lycanroc. A few seconds later he glowered, sending out his Budew.

Lucia narrowed her eyes at Eclipse and clicked her own Pokéball. Theros popped out of the ball, glaring at the Lycanroc in front of him.

Eclipse snapped her fingers, "Lycanroc, Bite!" The dog-like Pokémon jumped from where it was standing, teeth bared. The Lycanroc grabbed Theros by his neck, picking him up and shaking him.

"Leaf Tornado!" Leaves surrounded the two Pokémon, swirling around them. The rock-type Pokémon yelped, letting go of Theros' neck. He scampered away from his Leaf Tornado attack, leaving Lycanroc in it. When it finally died down Lycanroc stood with multiple small cuts across its body, snarling when it saw Theros.

"Fine. You want to play that way?" she glared at Lucia and Theros before shouting out a command, "Fire Fang!" Fire surrounded the Lycanroc's teeth before it charged at Theros.

Without even seeing Theros' face she knew what he was feeling. His tail drooped as soon as he saw the fire on Lycanroc's teeth, "Theros, dodge it!" It took him a second, but Theros jumped up out of the way of Lycanroc's attack, "Leaf Tornado, again!"

This time the move was different. Along with the leaves surrounding the two Pokémon there was fire as well. The Leaf-Fire Tornado spread across the room, hitting the other Pokémon battling. Stray flames flew across the room, almost hitting Lucia. If anything, it was like a wildfire.

After a minute the tornado finally stopped. The Lycanroc had fainted from being in the center of the attack. Theros' eyes were wide as he stared at the scene in front of him. A few seconds later he turned to Lucia with a smile and a look of awe at what he was capable of.

Lucia gave him a small, nervous smile in return before looking around the room, her expression dropping further. Everyone in the room was staring at her. Fern and Aster were cowering slightly as they looked back from her to Theros. Julia had the largest smile on her face at the destruction. Florinia stared at Lucia blankly while Ace stared in awe. The commander stared at her with his eyes narrowed, as if studying her and Theros. It dawned on her that her three companions had lost their battles.

Eclipse's mouth hung open slightly as she glared at Lucia, "What the fuck was that!?"

The commander stepped forward, his eyes narrowed, "You there, girl." His Seviper slowly slithered towards Theros, tail raised, and eyes narrowed into slits. Theros backed up, staring wearily at the Seviper, "I've seen and met many people, but there's something different about you. What is your name?"

Despite Lucia's brain telling her not to, she stepped forward towards the man, so she was closer to Theros. She narrowed her eyes, "Yeah, I'm not answering that."

"I see you're not as stupid as you seem." He sneered. A wicked grin appeared on his face as his Seviper slithered closer to Theros, "Too bad your little fire Snivy isn't right next to you. Seviper, Poison Jab!" Before Lucia knew it the Seviper was up close to Theros. The Pokémon's tail was raised, ready to stab Theros with its poisonous tail.

Without thinking Lucia clicked a Pokéball at her side, "Bullet Punch!" In a flash of red-light Arlow pops out of the ball. He slams his iron body into the Seviper, blocking the Pokémon from getting to Theros.

The Seviper was thrown back into one of the side walls in the room. You could hear the Pokémon hiss in pain as it was flung back. When the Pokémon made impact with the wall the Seviper slid down the wall, unconscious.

Arlow stood in front of Theros, tail and ears upright with his eyes narrowed.

Once again everyone in the room was staring at Lucia and her Pokémon in shock. With one move Arlow had knocked out the commander's Pokémon.

Lucia walked towards her two Pokémon, picking up Theros in her arms. She noticed the commander scowling at her and returned his expression with her own scowl, "What the hell is your problem?"

The man ignored her question. He stared at Arlow for a moment before returning his Seviper to its Pokéball and addressing the other members of Team Meteor in the room, "At least this was an amusing diversion. Return your Pokémon to their balls. We're retreating."

"Coward." Lucia stepped forward again, challenging the man in front of her.

"You're Pokémon may be able to knock out all of mine if we continue this battle. But do not make the mistake of believing that you've won." He clicked another Pokéball at his side, letting out a Chandelure. He addressed the four of them but was speaking at Lucia, "All of you, especially you, girl, will be remembered. You've made an enemy and rest assured we will meet again, soon."

Ghostly purple flames surrounded the Chandelure and the members of Team Meteor. The flames engulfed them and when they cleared the members of Team Meteor were gone.

Lucia felt her stomach drop at the man's words. She could tell he as serious by his tone and the way he glared at her as he teleported away.

Julia spoke up a few moments later, "Are they gone...?"

Florinia nodded her head, "Affirmative."

Lucia felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to see Fern.

He looked at her with a smug smile, "You really sent them packing with their tails between their legs."

Theros hissed at Fern, rattling his tail as fire surrounded it. Fern backed up immediately, scowling. Arlow stepped in front of her as well with his own sharp glare. She rolled her eyes, "I did. Let's take a moment to remember how you lost to a grunt." In all honesty she didn't care that he had but decided to take a jab at his ego.

Fern scowled at her but didn't respond.

Julia walked towards the back of the room, setting up a few of the explosives from earlier. She muttered something to herself before turning around to the other three with a large smile, "Okay! We should all start running now!

Fern chirped in once more, "Oh, Arceus, what did you do now?"

Florinia looked at Julia for a moment before immediately exiting the room, running. Lucia and Fern still stood there confused. Julia's smile grew wider as she grabbed Lucia's hand, beginning to drag her out of the room, Theros still in her arms and Arlow following, "Let's just say this place is about to go ka-boom!"

It took Fern a second, but he followed the two of them in a run, "Shit! What the hell, Julia!?" The group ran out of the room as the explosives began to go off.

***

Lucia didn't think it was possible, but the factory looked even worse after Julia was done with it. The outside of the building had massive holes and cracks in it and she could only assumed that the inside was disheveled.

Julia began jumping up and down, "And that's a wrap!"

Fern scowled at her, "Uh huh. If you're done with your pyrotechnics, I'm leaving. I don't have time to stand around here all day. Peace, bitches!" He flipped the three of them off before storming off.

"Ugh... way to sour the mood." She rolled her eyes but then turned to Lucia with her hands clasped, "You were so good Lucia! We couldn't beat that commander, but you knocked him out with one attack!"

Lucia smiled nervously, Arlow sitting next to her and giving Julia a toothy grin, "Uh... thanks."

Florinia watched her brother disappear into the distance, "One of his few veritable competencies is 'souring the mood.' However, this speaker is overdue for departure as well." She turned to the other two, "The situation in Obsidia Ward reportedly continues to deteriorate rapidly."

Julia cocked her head at her friend, "Isn't there something weird going on with the plants there? It doesn't even make sense. There's like two trees in that park. If that!"

"The use of the literary device known as understatement is noted. Nevertheless, no attention can be given to the situation as the hour is nineteen."

"Well, boo. Fine. Don't think I haven't noticed how distant you've been since our graduation. You haven't been the same ever since Tania—"

Lucia decided to cut into the conversation, "If you guys are going to talk about this you probably don't want me here."

"Well, you're right I guess." Julia sighed and turned to Florinia, "But I'm glad we could at least hang out a little. Just like the old times, right?"

Florinia nodded quietly, "Correct, it was equally destructive. However, sentimentalities remain counterproductive." She turned to address Lucia, "I have an inquiry for you, Lucia. Did you observe the terrain effects during our operation?"

Lucia nodded in response, "A grunt's Pokémon used Steamroller, and it seemed to be more powerful than normal."

"Terrific. That is one of the aspects of Field Effects. There's an app on cellular devices that allows a full reading of all the different fields." She began addressing both Julia and Lucia, "This speaker will report today's proceedings to Ame and the resident police force. Farewell, you two." The woman stalked away from the factory, just like her brother previously.

Julia took a step towards her but didn't leave, "Ugh, Rini. If you're going to sass me at least do it with some emotion." She sighed before a smile reappeared on her face and turned to Lucia, "Thank you for helping today! And now that my Gym isn't randomly going to blow up, we can have our battle right now!"

Lucia shook her head, "Not right now. It's seven PM and I have to get to my apartment—"

"Once again, too bad! We're battling and after we're having a sleepover!"

"But—"

"You can go to your apartment tomorrow! I'll even help you set it up." She grabbed her hand and began dragging her along.

A small smile appeared on Lucia's face as Theros perked up, ready to battle. Arlow was the same as well as he trotted at Lucia's heels, his eyes sparking. She sighed and followed Julia, ready to challenge her first Gym of Reborn.