I followed Hugh and my sister off the boat and onto the huge slab of cobblestone known as Prime Pier. For a few moments I stood motionless, marveling at the city before me. The nearest building was at least fifty stories high! The sheer contrast in looks between Castelia and Aspertia was like comparing a Roggenrola to an Aggron. Yeah, they had a thing or two in common, but otherwise they were different in every other way.

Rosa grabbed me by the shoulder and shook me. "Hey, Nate! You can gawk at Castelia later, some people are here to talk to us. Looks like my plans of sightseeing are going to be put on hold for now."

"Who?" I looked away from the building and immediately noticed two people standing nearby, talking to Hugh. One was a tall, middle-aged man dressed in varying shades of green and he had fluffed-out brown hair. The other was a girl around mine and Rosa's age with long purple hair put in a ponytail and she was wearing a simple tan long-sleeved shirt and white leggings.

"Their names are Burgh and Iris. They're here to talk to us about the Neo Plasma incident," Rosa explained.

"And you think they're here?" Hugh asked.

   The man apparently named Burgh nodded.
"We just received a call from Roxie. No one matching your description was found on Route 20 or the surrounding forest," he said. "There was one less ship docked at Virbank's harbor, if it wasn't taken by the runaways, we don't know who." He looked at Rosa and me. "Do either of you have anything to contribute?"

"Um, not exactly," I said. "Hugh, did you fill them in on everything?"

"Well, yeah. Of course I did!" Hugh replied. "Those thieves need to be caught and punished!"

"Wait a second!" Iris' dark brown eyes lit up. "Burgh, didn't No. 18 mention something about being sent to Virbank?"

"Who's that?" I asked.

"Should we explain?" Iris' gaze turned up to Burgh's. They seemed to exchange a conversation through their eyes. Burgh looked skeptical while Iris looked determined to get her way.

"Iris, I don't know—"

"Cheren told me about these Trainers. He called me the other day and talked about these young Trainers he met called Rosa, Nate, and Hugh," Iris said. "He made a comment about how promising of Trainers the boys were," she added in almost a whisper. I didn't know whether Rosa or Hugh heard her. Yep, I know I'm great at battling. I knew I wouldn't get tired of hearing that. Call me vain but it was true. Then I heard Iris mention something else.

"It reminded him of Hilbert," she said.

Wait, do they know that Hilbert guy? I thought.

Burgh looked pensive. His eyes flitted from me, to Hugh, then back to Iris. After a minute or so, he let out a heavy sigh. "Fine, you can tell them while I call 18." Burgh turned his back to us.

Iris looked at each of us. "Before I explain, I need you three to promise that you'll never reveal anything I'm going to tell you. Ever," she said, deadly serious.

The three of us promised and she began to explain. "First off, some exposition. The Unova Gym Leaders have been on much closer terms ever since the mess that happened two years ago. Whenever any of them see something suspicious, the rest are alerted. A month ago, Clay, the Gym Leader of Driftveil City, told Burgh about sightings of strange people dressed in black and wearing masks. Later on, one of Clay's workers claimed that they had been attacked by some guys claiming to be apart of 'Neo' Team Plasma."

"Why didn't Clay inform the other Leaders?" Rosa questioned.

"Clay didn't want everyone to get into a panic, so he only told Burgh, his closest friend. Burgh told me since I was still a Gym Leader at the time," Iris said. "We came up with a plan to figure out this new Team Plasma's plans. Now, this is where No. 18 comes in. 18 is a young man who was in training at the Castelia Police Department. We had him impersonate a Plasma member and he reports to us regularly. He's called 18 because that was the number he was assigned when he 'joined' Neo Team Plasma," she made air quotations. "The only reason this plan hasn't failed yet is because we made sure the police wouldn't be involved."

"Iris, you were right!" Burgh said, turning back around. "No. 18 just said that he was in Virbank. His team attempted to steal Pokémon from two Trainers and he was forced to flee when a third Trainer stepped in."

My jaw dropped when Burgh said that. "Th-that was us..." I muttered.

"He and two other Plasma members stole a boat and fled to Castelia. They're fleeing to Thumb Pier as we speak," Burgh finished.

"What are we waiting for?!" Hugh exclaimed. "Let's go!"

"Follow us, and don't fall behind," Burgh said.

The five of us left Prime Pier and ran down Castelia's seaside road, towards the edge of the city. We arrived at Thumb Pier some five or so minutes later. While Rosa, Hugh and I were catching our breath, Burgh and Iris were searching the pier.

"C'mon you three," Iris called to us. She was pointing at an opening built into the side of the pier down a mall set of stairs. "We're checking the sewers!"

"Wh-what?!" I gasped, finally able to breathe regularly again. Am I hearing her right?

"18 said they ran to Thumb Pier, and the only place anyone can hide around here is the sewers," Iris said.

Sewers? "You're kidding." I said, half-hoping she was joking. She said nothing, showing that she wasn't. "Oh no. No, no, no, no," I said under my breath, disgust beginning to fill me. She had to be kidding! The sewers? Was she out of her mind?

"If this 18 guy says they're down there, we're going. You said it yourself, we're hunting down Neo Plasma," Hugh stated flatly.

"But it's the sewers!" I said, my voice edging on a whine. I was trying to hide my inner squeamishness and failing horribly. "Are you freaking crazy?"

"You're the crazy one! Those Plasma thugs are on the loose, could be caught, and you don't want to go after them because of a Trubbish or two? Your Pokémon were stolen by these guys! Don't you even care?" Hugh yelled at me.

"Yeah..." I replied sheepishly.

"Stay if you want, we can't waste any more time." Hugh ran ahead of everyone and vanished into the sewer entrance.

"H-hey! Wait for us!" Iris chased after him. Burgh looked at us. "Are you coming or not?" He asked.

"If you don't want to go, I'll stay here with you," Rosa said, smiling softly.

What am I doing? Hugh's right! I silently scolded myself for freaking out like that. C'mon Nate. Suck it up and go with them! I shook my head at Rosa's offer. "No, I'm fine. Let's go before Hugh kills those jerks," I tried to joke. Burgh didn't seem to appreciate my weak attempt at humor. "We need to hurry," he said. Rosa and I followed him down the set of stairs and entered the sewers.

The three of us proceeded down yet another staircase into the system of concrete tunnels. Dim, flickering light bulbs were placed at regular intervals along the damp walls. I was surprised and relieved to see that the man-made canals were not filled with sewage, but water. Seawater actually, from the briny smell that hung in the air.

"Why is there water down here?" I wondered aloud as we crossed one of the canals.

"Where we entered was the main entrance to the sewer system, and since it was built so close to the water's surface, the seawater occasionally floods in. Because of that, this section of the tunnels is for draining seawater only," Burgh explained. "Iris? Where are you?" He yelled into the gloom.

"Burgh? We're just up ahead!" Iris's voice echoed back.

We caught up to her and Hugh. They were standing near a bend in the tunnel along with someone else. I momentarily freaked when I recognized the Neo Plasma uniform that the person was wearing, but I reasoned that this guy must have been No. 18 by the way Iris was talking with him. I saw that Hugh had let Tesla out and Iris also had an intimidating Pokémon beside her. Rosa scanned the new Pokémon with her Pokédex and it was a Dragon-type called Fraxure.

"We found them," Iris said. "They attacked us with two Watchog and fled deeper into the system once we beat them."

Burgh turned to No. 18 and asked, "Where do you think they were heading?"

18 tilted his head towards the tunnel's bend. "Remember the entrance to the Relic Castle we found a while back? I'm sure they're gonna escape through there," he said in a voice much younger sounding than I thought it would. "Too bad I left out the detail about it being blocked by a Strength boulder!"

I heard Rosa gasp and as I turned to her, I saw her eyes widening when she saw 18. "It's you!"

No. 18 looked at her and his eyes widened as well. "You... you're the girl with the Servine and Purrloin," he said. "I'm sorry about what happened to your friends. At least they got their Pokémon back."

"Wait, I'm confused," I said.

"You can talk later, 18. Lead the way!" Burgh said.

A brisk, wordless walk later, our group came upon the two Neo Plasma grunts. Burgh quickly seized No. 18 by the arm and he went along with the act. "You two criminals have nowhere to run, so give up!" Burgh said in a demanding tone.

The two members noticed all of us and they seemed to realize that they couldn't run anymore. In a futile attempt to avoid capture, they sent out a Pokémon I recognized as Sandile and another Rosa identified as Scraggy.

"Fighting until the end, huh?" Iris sighed. "Tusk, use Dragon Breath!" Her Fraxure opened its mouth and breathed a jet of purple flame at Sandile.

"Tesla, use Thundershock on Scraggy!" Hugh commanded. The electricity and fire engulfed the two opposing Pokémon and when the chaos cleared, both were knocked out.

"Even if we can't battle, we can still run! These Pokémon were useless anyway," one of the grunts said. They both threw their Pokemon's Poké Balls to the ground. "I'm sorry for this, No. 18!" They suddenly ran at us and somehow managed to shove past all of us. Burgh almost caught one, his fingers grazing the grunt's collar. A moment later, the grunts were around the bend and out of sight.

"No!" Hugh cried. He tried to chase them, but 18 was quick enough to grab him and hold him back.

"Calm down. They're long gone by now. There's no way we can catch them," 18 growled, trying to stop Hugh from breaking free.

"But they stole mine and Nate's Pokémon!" Hugh argued. "They might've known where Pearls is!" I flinched internally when I heard Pearls' name.

18 ignored Hugh's complaints. "I'll let you go if you don't run!"

"Fine, I won't! Let me go!" Hugh yanked himself from 18's grasp and stepped back from him, glaring at the double-agent as he did so.

"The both of you, be quiet!" Iris shouted, her voice echoing loudly in the tunnel. "We have more important things to talk about. Look."

The fainted Sandile and Scraggy were still here, they hadn't moved an inch. I was astonished, the Plasma grunts had abandoned their Pokémon!

"I can't believe it." Rosa rushed over to the Sandile. "Those freaks left their Pokémon to die!"

18 had some Revives on him, so he revived the abandoned creatures and restored them back to full health with a few Potions. "These Pokémon were stolen not too long ago. They haven't been corrupted by Plasma's training yet. With a kind new Trainer and some TLC, they'll be back to normal."

"That's good to hear," Iris said. She held up two Poké Balls. "And lucky for us, it looks like their Poké Balls are still in working order."

"This isn't the first time they've done this... leaving Pokémon they deem useless to die, I've seen this happen many times," No. 18 said. "My Joltik would've suffered that fate if I hadn't saved her."

"How horrible," Rosa said sadly. "What has the world come to nowadays, letting people like them still exist?"

"In an ideal world, everyone would be able to live with and treat Pokémon however they want. But there's a difference between your personal wishes and what's right," 18 said grimly.

I agreed with both of them. Stealing a young Trainer's Pokémon and possibly leaving them to die later... The very idea made my stomach churn. This truly cemented the fact that Neo Plasma was not just bad, they were... evil. I could have thought of a million other words to describe them, but that was the first word that came to mind. Silence fell over the group, only breaking when Hugh cleared his throat.

"I'll... take Scraggy if you want me to. You said it needs a new Trainer," Hugh offered.

18's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Really?" he said sarcastically.

"You can trust Hugh," Rosa said. "He wouldn't dare mistreat any of his Pokémon."

18 considered Rosa's words, then nodded solemnly. He handed Scraggy's to Hugh. "I'm trusting you," he said.

"Don't worry, Scraggy's safe with me," Hugh responded. He returned Scraggy to its ball and our group left the sewer system.

By the time we exited the sewers, dusk had fallen over the city and Castelia's streets were brightly lit. I savored the cold, briny breeze. I would take this over the damp air of Castelia's underground any day.

"Knowing those cowards, they've already fled the city. Guess I have some searching to do." No. 18 said, his eyes glinting in the remaining sunlight. "It was nice meeting you three," he said to us. "Who knows? Maybe we'll see each other again." He sent out a large Flying-type Pokémon with red, white, and navy blue feathers— a Braviary. "C'mon Voir. Although I hate saying it, we have some flying to do." 18 climbed onto his Braviary and they took off into the encroaching night.

"It's time to take my leave," Burgh said, checking his Xtransceiver. "If any of you are looking to battle the Castelia Gym Leader ask me, I know a guy!" He winked. "I'm on the street off of Liberty Pier." He left next.

"Yeah, thanks for all your help," Iris said. "If you want to know, the Pokémon Center is right down the street. Also, Alder says hello!" Before any of us could ask Iris how she knew Alder, she ran off. Now there were only the three of us on Thumb Pier.

Rosa and I chatted about our plans for tonight and the next day. We decided to do some sightseeing before I would challenge the Gym. I turned to Hugh to ask for his opinion, but he wasn't listening to us. He was holding his Scraggy's Poké Ball and staring at it.

I felt sorry for Hugh. His eyes were filled with pain, a pain only Rosa and I understood. He didn't see Scraggy when he looked at his new Pokémon, he was really seeing Pearls. I walked up to my friend and put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll find her, I know we will. For Lily," I said.

Hugh smiled a little. "Thanks, Nate. But I think I'll get going too."

"Wait, what?" I was confused.

"What do you mean?" Rosa was confused as well.

"You heard what I said, I'm heading out on my own. I don't want to sound rude by saying this, but I don't want to waste time sightseeing. You said it yourself Nate, actively hunting Neo Plasma will help me find Pearls quicker, and they need to pay. Not just for what they did to me and Lily, but for what they might do if they're allowed to continue what they're doing. Finding them is top priority for me."

I was shocked at what I was hearing. Hugh wanted to leave? I didn't want him to, we were a great team and I thought I would continue to gain badges alongside one of my closest friends. I got why he wanted to leave though, and I wasn't going to stop him. Knowing Hugh wasn't the biggest fan of hugs, I wrapped my arm around his shoulders in a sort of half-hug. Rosa however, disregarded his comfort zone and she latched on him tightly. "Good luck dude," I said. "Don't die on me."

Hugh laughed. "Thanks! And you don't lose any battles! I'll try to call you every so often."

"Try not to do anything crazy, okay? If you need any help, just call," Rosa said.

"I'll keep that in mind," Hugh replied. Rosa and I let him go and we watched him begin to walk away. He turned back at us and waved. We waved back. And like the others we had met today, Hugh vanished down one of the well-lit streets, leaving Rosa and me alone.