"Alright ladies, let's blow this joint!" Toni whooped, crowing as she slid down the fireman pole connected to the second story of our common room. Everyone was hustling and bustling as we did a final check to make sure everything was packed for Galar. It'd be pretty awkward trying to cram all eight of us into a tiny little drugstore in a foreign region because we forgot toothbrushes. Again.

I looked up from where I was sitting on the couch, polishing away the nicks and scratches in Seth's Premier Ball. I grabbed a cushion and threw it out behind me, just as Toni lost her grip and fell the last 10 feet with a screech. Lopunny had simply jumped the 40 feet, landing gracefully and sniffing at where her trainer lay in a dazed heap.

"You know, you might be getting a little too old for jumping from story to story, mate," Sidney remarked as she passed a dazed Toni, Ampharos and backpack in tow. "Never," she gasped, rolling off the cushion and shaking her hair out of her face. "Can't get soft now, can I?" Carlos grunted in agreement as he gave his twin a passing fist-bump. He got up and stretched, leaving Toni to gather up his duffel, and Lopunny with her own, and walk off as he turned to look at the opening bedroom door.

"It's too fucking early for this," Arianna grumbled as she rolled out of her sleeping quarters, Mawile pushing her dutifully from behind. "How the fuck am I supposed to code for Team Rocket when they get me up at the fucking asscrack of dawn?!" Chromatica the Espathra trilled in agreement, sharing her Trainer's pleasant disposition as she disappeared back into her Pokeball.

"Hon, if we were living in a perfect world, Beyonce would have officiated my wedding," I chided as I strode over to her. "But we're not. Come on, gimme the goods." I smiled at her grumble of "Jackass" I knew was always affectionate (in her own way) and took her bag, keychains jingling as I placed them with the rest, unzipping it to briefly peek and see if Mimikyu had stowed away inside the dark space.

"Sidney, you got your travel kit?" I asked the engineer, turning to where she was going through her rollaway bag. "Sewing kit, plenty of yarn, knitting needles, scrap metal, and my lucky wrench," she grinned, tossing said wrench up and down with her mechanical arm, Rotom zipping about the gears with a whirring noise. Whenever she smiled with an open mouth, it revealed a little gap where one of her top incisors was missing. She'd lost it forever ago, even before she'd joined Team Rocket, and even now refused to get a filling for it.

"Just make sure this does not bring helicopter down like last time," Lavinnia cut in, hefting a duffel bag over one snowy white shoulder and Ditto over the other. "That was one time!!!" the Australian shouted after our albino companion, who shouted something back in rapid-fire Russian. I just kept quiet and slowly walked away. I always hated when the argument turned bilingual.

A grunt as I bumped into someone. I jumped back, realizing as I did so and relaxing. "Sorry dude," I chuckled. "Didn't see you. Anything else we need to do?" Carlos tilted his head slightly, thinking, before shaking it. "You sure?" He huffed; about the closest one could get to an eye-roll from him with that visor. "Don't be rude, jerk," I snorted, hitting his arm lightheartedly. "Get outta here, I'm doing final checks."

A hand out stopped me with a grunt. "What do you mean I'm forgetful?! I took my shots!"
"Hmm."
"I did! I took them on Tuesday. My meds are good for a week."
"Mm."
"Really? You don't have to—"

A firm push back and another grunt made his decision clear. "Alright fine, I'll let you do it," I said dramatically, crossing my arms with a huff. "But make sure Medi or someone's got the upper floors, okay?" Carlos nodded, clapping me on the back before moving to perform the checks. I smiled, double-checking to make sure all of the luggage had been taken out to the hall before walking over to the last part of the travel crew.

"Scarlette, you got our helicopter on standby?" I tapped her on the shoulder, signing along with my question. The deaf girl turned sharply, lowering the phone she was on from her ear before smiling and nodding, curly hair the color of her namesake bouncing along with her head. Multiple Larvesta mingled at her shoes, mother Volcarona clinging to her back like a pair of fairy wings. "I never know how she holds those together," I mumbled to myself as I walked away, just as she started yelling at the other end of the phone in harsh German.

"It's a secret she'll take to the grave," a voice spoke up from behind me, and I jumped a foot. I swear, for a guy bigger than most Pokemon, Reggie was a little too sneaky. "Such a shame," I sighed dramatically once I'd recovered from the scare, leaning back into him. "I'd kill to know."
"Anjo, you'd never kill anybody," he snorted, wrapping his arms around me. "We both know that."

"You don't know. I could be a serial killer, for all you know," I mumbled, turning my head into his midsection; holy GOD, he had a great body (I guess swimming and surfing did a lot for you). And why the heck did he always smell like sea salt? There weren't any oceans for miles! "Like some people."

"Ooh, ouch. That's low." Reggie didn't argue further as he let me lean on him, fiddling with the ring on my right hand. The rest of the group had left the common room, leaving the two of us in contented silence.

"Can you two stop being gay for two fucking seconds?" Arianna sneered as she wheeled out of her room for the third time. "Never!" I gasped, appalled, breaking out of Reggie's hug.
"Can you stop acting like it then? We've got a helicopter to catch in two hours, goddamnit."

"Fine," I pouted, stretching up and giving my husband a quick kiss before jogging off, Reggie on my heels to help Mawile's valiant attempts to lug Arianna's portable computers out the door. "Leave him be, Ari," Toni called from the doorway. "You're just salty he landed a fiancé two years before you even started dating!"

"Fuck off!" she yelled in response, and I slapped Toni a victory high-five as I left, the rest of Alpha Squad D on my heels.

**********

"And you're sure you've gotten everything?!" Griffin shouted over the noise of the helicopter blades. "No, I think I forgot my fucking hair clips!" Arianna replied sarcastically. "Yes, we've got everything! Bastard..." Carlos snickered, earning him a middle finger thrust into his face as he scooped her up to help her into the helicopter, Reggie carrying her wheelchair behind them.

Unfortunately for Arianna, Team Rocket helicopters were not exactly what one could call "accessible", so on the few occasions she had long-distance missions, she had to suck up her pride and allow someone to carry her up the large step and into a helicopter seat. "You're fucking lucky I can't kick you in the balls," she growled when Reggie accidentally knocked her chair against the narrow entrance to the copter, chipping the paint. He hurriedly strapped it into place and took a seat on the far side of the cabin.

The rest of us soon filed in one by one, grabbing a seat and strapping in. I went to my chosen spot by the window, eagerly awaiting the weightless feeling that accompanied liftoff. Toni sat next to me, Carlos on her right and Arianna between him and Sidney, noise-canceling headphones securely over her ears. On the other side sat Lavinnia, Scarlette, and poor Reggie, who had sandwiched himself against the wall in the seat furthest away from any windows or open ports.

The sound of static buzzed in my ear. "Flight #2167-A, we are clear for takeoff. All operatives must be secured in their seats. Do we have authorization to go Officer? Over."
"Commanding Officer A checking in, we're all ready back here, over," I answered, tapping the piece in my ear twice as a send off. "Confirmation received, we are go for liftoff."

The jets roared to life just as I snapped my own pair of noise-canceling headphones into place. I felt the metal seats trembling beneath my legs as the helicopter transitioned seamlessly into the air, watching the helipad exposed to mere fractions of sunlight as the ceiling began to close again, serrated teeth sealing tight like a flower bulb beneath us and slowly fading from view.

After the initial liftoff, the flights themselves were pretty boring. My headphones had muffled the noise of the roaring blades slicing the air above us and the wind howling and beating against the metal helicopter, so there wasn't much else to do other than people-watch and reflect on my thoughts. Given that there wasn't much happening up there, I decided to do the former.

Toni had her own respective headphones on, though these geared towards playing music rather than preventing sound. Sidney was happily knitting away at a sweater she had been working on, rotating between that and twining ribbons and embroidery threads through Arianna's braids, lighting up her pink hair with an array of rainbow streaks. Reggie was trying to sleep the flight away (I could see how hard he was trying to keep his breathing level) while Carlos was succeeding in that endeavor, and Lavinnia and Scarlette were chatting to themselves with their hands. That left me on my own to choose my least favorite option. Fan-freaking-tastic.

I'd tried to put the idea of seeing her again out of my head until we had touched down, but now that we were in the air it solidified just what we were about to do and made it even harder to ignore. My brain wasn't helping, deciding now to light up in a flurry of internal cacophony.

WE'RE GOING TO SEE HER AGAIN! What will she look like? Will she look the same? Will she remember us? We look pretty different than when we last saw her. Will she have an accent? I don't know if I could handle her having an accent, she'd sound so weird. Why did she have to leave anyways? What if we don't find her here?! No, no, we will. But what if we don't? What if—

A sudden buzzing shook me out of my thoughts. "Commanding Officer, we are approaching the dropoff zone. Permission to open doors? Over." Apparently, I'd been zoning out for longer than I thought; we were almost in Galar. Reggie was waking up and Sidney had an extra four feet of scarf added to her project.

"Message received," I responded a little too quickly, grabbing my duffel and stumbling to my feet. Everyone else saw and began to follow suit. "Permission granted. We'll be ready in one. Over." I stood at the entrance to the helicopter, fingers fluttering in anticipation and foot tapping restlessly. A hand landed on my shoulder and squeezed tightly. I put a hand over hers and squeezed back. "We got this," Toni said, clearly choosing to avoid addressing the "why" of our mission. I nodded thankfully and stared straight ahead.

The doors quickly slid open, air surging through and whipping hair around, particularly Toni's long curls right into my face. I spat some of the longer strands out of my mouth, pushing out of her grip to stand on the edge of the open space. I turned back for a split-second. "Seeya on the other side!" I yelled, before whooping and falling backwards out of the aircraft, laughing as the rest of the team followed.

I always loved the feeling of free-falling; nothing but the wind in my ears and the open sky around me, the earth a speck of dust below. I always imagined that in my next life I'd like to be a star, or maybe a flying Pokemon that could always stay high above the planet, never needing to touch down and land.

I laughed as the roaring wind struggled to twist and throw me around, but decades of experience and falling off of Garchomp allowed me a casual freefall, reaching terminal velocity with arms outstretched like a professional diver. Sadly, I couldn't say the same for everyone else.

Scarlette and Lavinnia had free falling down to a science; of course they did, they were (almost) on the same level as me. Hands grasped for security, jumping and falling in unison like a perfect mirror. Carlos held a stoic elegance to his skydiving, arched like a missile with arms pinned to his side. Toni had tried to replicate his position but with minimal success, struggling to remain perpendicular to the ground without teetering over and falling into a flip.

Poor Reggie, on the other hand, was much worse off, flailing and screaming curses and garbled prayers in his native language. Sidney was strapped in with Arianna and the last to fall, stuck with their backs to the ground for most of the fall until they turned and activated their chute; Ari's wheelchair had been dropped a few minutes prior.

Currently, I was performing flips and twirls in the air, before leaning in Reggie's direction to try and grab him. It only took a few seconds of leaning to my right before I reached him, struggling to grab his shoulder with my hand. He immediately latched onto me, gasping and heaving out exclamations to God or some other higher power. "Relax, baby!" I pressed my mouth to his ear, shouting over the wind.

"Don't tell me to relax!" He screeched back, grabbing me tighter as Galar finally came into focus past the cloud layer. The entire region was one large block of land, tiny islands sprinkled here and there as vaguely green dots in an endless gray sea. I could see our touchdown point; the massive, black stone city of Hammerlocke, built like a compound in a prison. Our goal was to land a few miles out, and then hike the rest of the way.

Splitting off for safety reasons (Reggie struggling to let go), we each grasped onto the red tags whipping around in the wind and pulled hard. Instantly, eight charcoal parachutes burst into existence, floating down peacefully after the sole pink one below us.

I hit the ground first, sliding to a stop in the middle of a grassy field. Briefly, I thanked myself for wearing my beat-up work shoes; I'd never forgive myself if I ruined my good ones. I could distantly see Hammerlocke in the distance, gigantic branching arms on the main castle stretching off into the sky like a crown of ribbons. "That's a choice," I murmured out loud, releasing the clasps on my shoulders and letting fifty pounds of cloth off my back.

Toni landed beside me soon after, making a few practice hops to ensure she had her balance back. "Hah," she huffed, satisfied her legs were in working order. "I hate doing that. My balance gets all screwy."

"Mm," I hummed, nodding in agreement-but-not-really. Carlos was the next on the ground, dropping to his knees in order to ground himself and stop sliding away to detach his parachute. Lavinnia and Scarlette emerged from wherever they had landed, walking up the hill to the rest of us, minus their 'chutes. Sidney and Arianna came down soon after, taking quite a bit of time to unbuckle themselves from each other and hunt down Ari's wheelchair. Which only left—

"I HATE PARACHUTES!!!"

"Not again," Lavinnia groaned while Arianna burst out laughing. I didn't stick around, already down the hill by the first scream. As I reached the bottom, I could see my poor husband swinging from a tree branch where his parachute had gotten caught, cursing in enough languages to give me a headache trying to translate.

"Don't worry hun, we'll get you down as fast as we can," Toni said, looking around for something to help with. I decided to take matters into my own hands. With a grunt, I put a foot on the tree and pushed off, snagging a low-hanging branch and pulling myself up. Walking along one branch and stepping down onto the next, I plopped down on the branch above him, kicking my legs. "Heyyy~! How's it hanging, babycakes?"

"Don't you start with me," he rasped, swinging blindly trying to free himself. "Just get me down from here!"
"Alrighty, then! Message received." I turned around and scanned the tangled mess of cables twining around branches and leaves. I couldn't see the release clasp from here and wasn't sure if it would help either way. Five feet isn't that big of a drop anyways, right?

With a quick swipe, Reggie yelped and fell out of the tree, branches bouncing in time as he hit the ground with a THUD. A quick shimmy down and out and I was back on earth, watching Reggie lay eagle-spread on the ground. "Next time I'm getting out on the ground," he said hoarsely, slowly clambering to his feet and brushing the dirt off. "You always say that," I remarked, stretching to pick some stray twigs out of his hair. "I mean it this time."

"Talk and walk, boys," Toni pushed both of us forward. "We gotta move, the sun's already coming down."
"Shouldn't we just pitch a tent, then?" Sidney asked, jogging up on Reggie's left.
"We gotta get as close as we can to Hammerlocke before nightfall. That's where our mission starts."