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Zev Harcourt was right. Peering closer at the tracks, one set of prints was winged with freshly-disturbed earth, while the other set was composed of more hardened ground.[break][break]

Still, whatever creatures had created them must have been close. But how long would it take to locate them?[break][break]

The simultaneous buzzing from their GENESECT indicated that the two ROCKETs might not need to wait long. Sprinting after Zev, Barnaby followed the alarm bells ringing off the sides of the canyon. Intermixed with them was... growling? Or something similar.[break]

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The sounds of guttural rage intensified as BARNABY FINCH drew closer. When he was finally in range, his eyes immediately focused on the enormous forms of two new — and deadly — looking Pokémon.[break][break]






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An otherworldly beauty.[break][break]

Looking at Elisabeth Fiorelli, it was a sentiment he would have applied to her, not the semi-natural space around them. [break][break]

"Wariness is more than warranted here. The unknown deserves caution," Though his words were ominous, Barnaby's next statement was said with a teasing lilt.[break][break]

"But in my experience, the most beautiful things tend to be the most damning." He winked, though she may not have been able to notice through the mask.[break][break]

"This place is dangerous," Barnaby continued, his tone growing more serious. "We've had reports of new, highly aggressive Paradox Pokémon. League headaches. Even whisperings of the DRK Triad setting up bases..."[break][break]













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BARNABY FINCH recalled the way a bruise had almost immediately flowered across his cheek that day. The pain had lasted for weeks.[break][break]

What he remembered most, however, was the feeling of unyielding submission. THEO BECKETT had demanded it of him. [break][break]

“It turned me on.”[break][break]

With this new admission out in the open, Barnaby threw back the last of his bourbon before placing the tumbler onto the coffee table. He did not refill it, instead deciding to simply lean back into the couch.[break][break]

“I still think about it sometimes.”











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Arceus. What a spectacular conversationalist.[break][break]

How was Barnaby supposed to pass the time on patrol like this?? Silence had its place, but this was downright boring. Even CHIEN-PAO, the embodiment of hatred itself, was just sniffing around like some housecat. [break][break]

"I'll take that as a no." Barnaby sighed, keeping pace alongside jayden cross. [break][break]

"Anyway, the noise happens regardless of Pokémon type or species. It's connected to the Tera crystals, somehow. At first I thought it was just a byproduct of the transformation, but..."[break][break]

As they walked, their reflections followed in the myriad crystals embedded to the rock here.[break][break]

"It sounds so much like a living thing."[break][break]

Speaking of, a telltale rumbling began in the levels below them. Barnaby hadn't heard it yet, but perhaps more sensitive senses could pick it up.[break][break]














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Time tells all, and what it was currently telling BARNABY FINCH was that this duty was really fucking boring. There was only so much a non-scientist could do in a makeshift laboratory in the middle of some semi-natural space.[break][break]

But it needed to be guarded for the academics to do their work, hence why he and Grigori Sokolov were here.[break][break]

"Hm. Yours, I'm pretty sure."[break][break]

Just like it'd been his turn for the last five turns.[break][break]

"Go scope it out."[break][break]

From this vantage point, whatever it was didn't seem that big. No problem, right? Grigori could definitely handle it himself.[break][break]














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“Hmm..” [break][break]

Barnaby broke away first, his gaze sliding downward to briefly contemplate the amber liquid in his hand.[break][break]

Desire. How to best interpret this?[break][break]

“Theo,” He spoke the other man’s name through a low chuckle, smiling softly against the rim of his glass as he brought it to his lips. “Do you remember the day we met?”[break][break]

His eyes flashed upward then, regaining contact.[break][break]

“And how you slammed my head against the trunk of a car?”[break][break]

There was neither bitterness nor anger in Barnaby’s voice, only a reminiscent wistfulness in the way he recalled their past.










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BARNABY FINCH released his own GENESECT to join Zev Harcourt's in its pursuit of their unknown Pokémon.[break][break]

"Wait," After righting himself, the admin had begun slowly following the tracks as they wound further down into the chasm. As he did so, he noticed a change in their pattern and shape.[break][break]

New sets joined and intermingled. One clearly bipedal, the other quadrupedal, though both had distinct three-toed clawed feet.[break][break]

"Do you see that? I think we have more than one type of mystery Pokémon here."[break][break]













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Something did indeed loom in the shadows of the cave system, perched higher on the upper shelves of rock to better assess who — or what — roamed this newly discovered area of Hoenn.[break][break]

"Look who we have here," Barnaby observed over comms, which were tuned into Lulu Flint's frequency.[break][break]

"One Elite Four," Greyson Connors. What were the chances of running into him again? [break][break]

"And the little ranger you encountered at the lip of the chasm." Caleb Harcourt's appearance was an annoyance for more than one reason. Barnaby couldn't kill him here, but he also wasn't at liberty to tell Lulu Flint why that was. [break][break]

Time to fake it.[break][break]

The PORYGON-Z at Barnaby's side hovered closer to the edge of where his master stood and, with one subtle gestured command, began charging its attack. A ZAP CANNON soon shot forward, blasting a cliffside slightly above where the two LEAGUE operatives were walking.[break][break]

The beam of energy landed closer to Greyson Connors, causing boulders and large chunks of rock to careen down toward the man.[break][break]












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BARNABY FINCH held THEO BECKETT’s gaze as he talked about love, curious to know the other man’s true intentions for coming here.[break][break]

The symbolism behind floral gifts wasn’t a foreign concept. He remembered learning about it years ago, when he’d sometimes help Elisabeth Fiorelli in her woodland cottage. [break][break]

It felt like a lifetime had passed since then.[break][break]

“If I’m remembering correctly, orange roses can have many meanings.” [break][break]

Here Barnaby shifted in his seat to better face Theo, propping an elbow on the back of the couch as he did so.[break][break]

“Fascination, desire, hope, new beginnings.” There were more, but these seemed like the best contenders. [break][break]

“Which one do you think fits us best?”









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Along with MOLTRES' sinister aura, shadows beneath the giant bird extended past the limits of its body and toward the object of its curiosity. Magenta flames quickly blotted out Barnaby's vision, searing it red, but it was an abysmal darkness that eventually took him in.[break][break]

Everything went black. The sounds of wind and surf faded into muted nothingness.[break][break]

When he regained his composure moments later, the ROCKET admin soon realized that he'd been dragged into some liminal space by MOLTRES' dark powers.[break][break]

"What is this place...?" Barnaby muttered under his breath, taking in his hellish surroundings. [break][break]

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It was a dilapidated waste. There was no life here, only remnants of what was. Strangely, the crumbling ruins included what looked like an elevated railway, not dissimilar to what one might find in MOTOSTOKE, GALAR. A fuchsia miasma lingered on every surface, curling around every stone column or lifeless snag. It was a suffocating and draining — yet unavoidable — thing to breath in. [break][break]

Even more concerning was the way the darkness crept in from the edges of Barnaby's peripheral vision, only to withdraw with the turn of his head.[break][break]

The shadows, too, moved in unnerving, unnatural ways. Where everything else appeared decayed and stagnant, these were the only things to approximate life.[break][break]

Dread seeped into BARNABY FINCH's bones. It clutched his heart in a vice grip, filled his chest to bursting. It was all he could do to ground himself and focus on the logical, here in this illogical plane.[break][break]

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Above, MOLTRES loomed upon its perch — now distorted into a barren husk of a DYNA TREE — at the center of its umbral realm. With a curious craning of its massive head, the shadows in front of Barnaby suddenly began to shift and bubble over. Inky wisps intertwined together until... a vestige of a person emerged from the gloom.[break][break]

A person BARNABY FINCH knew well. [break][break]

Could MOLTRES probe his consciousness here, in this shadowed place? How else could it have known to conjure someone so embroiled in Barnaby's psyche?[break][break]

Elisabeth Fiorelli.

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There were more PARADOX POKEMON here, in AREA ZERO, than the entirety of what Barnaby had experienced over the last year. Swarms and swarms of them threatened to overwhelm ROCKET's expeditions into this foreign place.[break][break]

So, checkpoints had been created along established routes within the GIANT CHASM and AREA ZERO — fortified areas manned by strong trainers and Pokémon to hold back the hordes of abominations.[break][break]

For now, all was quiet.[break][break]

"Have you ever noticed," Barnaby began, glancing over to his partner, jayden cross. "The strange cry that's emitted when Pokémon terastallize?"[break][break]













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"It's been quiet for awhile now."[break][break]

BARNABY FINCH and Grigori Sokolov found themselves garrisoned in one of the first ROCKET-controlled Research Stations built within the Giant Chasm. It had all the bells and whistles their scientists could dream of — literally, there was some sort of dream mist recording machine, from what Barnaby had snooped earlier.[break][break]

"A little too quiet."[break][break]

He peered out the small, reinforced window, watching as night began to fall around them.[break][break]













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