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"We're deeply sorry," Amaranth spoke up, bowing her head for a moment as if trying to speak for the rest here. "We wouldn't be coming here if it wasn't necessary."

"What she said. We'll keep things as brief as we can." Cera said.

"Let them in." Stone almost barked back over the speaker.

Upon entering his office the Snagems would not find the usual warm and friendly Mr. Stone, the smiling man casually sitting behind his desk just waiting for people to tell them stories about his various rare minerals. No this time they were greeted by a frantic man passing back and forth in thought. His desk was disorganized and his suit not fine pressed and wrinkle free like usual. This was a man who had just been told his puppy was being held for ransom, that his imported sports car was stolen, that his child just flunked out of the ivy league college you paid to put him through. This was a broken man on the edge.

"Yes! How can I help you?" He almost screamed at the Snagems, not intending to, it was almost just out of impulse. He didn't even know he was screaming.

Aile blinked as she walked in and looked at the chaos of Mr. Stone's office. "Oh my... Mr. Stone, I'm sorry for the intrusion. Um, well, what Reno just said, but if there's anything we can help out with also? I have a feeling it's related to at least one of those questions, though." The woman would fold her hands together in front of her, biting the corner of her lip. Things must have been bad for this.

"Wes is his name." Stone began to say, not even looking at any of the Snagems as he continued his pacing. Reno's 'mental cooling' helped a bit but not much, he was just too worked up. "Found him Orre after he started making a word for himself in Orre. Come to find out he had already been working with one of your own in the Kids Grid. I'm surprised you didn't find out sooner." He began to explain, now making his way behind his desk.

"His job was simple. Use the Snag Machine to snag Shadow Pokemon that had been appearing in the Orre region. We wanted to study Shadow Pokemon from other regions, see how the virus is different in other regions, how it travels, what effect the cure had on it, and so forth. Why didn't we go directly to you? Celebrity. You've become too popular. This project was meant to be under the radar so that there would be less variables to account for. Your own celebrity would have made it more difficult. Unfortunately we didn't account for you finding out about this snatcher and then proceeding to enact your own brand of justice on him. Lesson learned." The man said as he now sat behind his desk, drumming his fingers nervously.

That's when he realized he was rambling on and had avoided the second question, the reason why he was in such a frantic state. "I didn't mean to get Rhyme in trouble, nor the other two that went with her. Our field researchers and satellite scans had led us to believe a second Zapdos Heart exists in the Kalos region. A massive piece of crystallized electric chi that could power an entire city for all eternity. As you can guess we couldn't pass up such an opportunity. Knowing your own Rhyme is very familiar with the Zapdos Heart, her senses as a hybrid, and the fact that the Zapdos Heart was believed to be located in a place like Terminus Cave she was the perfect candidate for this project. We sent her along with two other researchers and some equipment to the Kalos region to confirm the existence of the Zapdos Heart. They made it all the way to Terminus Cave and the last contact we had with them was confirming that they had begun their search in the cave." This is when he opened his desk and took out a folder, sliding it across the table.

"While we aren't positive on what happened to them we do know that there has been another showing interest in Terminus Cave. Team Flare, I'm sure you're familiar with them. Their presence around the route prior to the expedition almost confirmed to us that something of value was there and we simply had to get to it first. We were almost certain though that they had given up their search there. Looks like we were wrong. That folder contains everything we know about them, which isn't much. The gist of it is they had carried out numerous expeditions in the cave and the surrounding area, all led by a woman named Celosia. We are unsure who she reports to as their communications were incredibly encrypted but we were able to physically trace her back to Lumiose City. She seems to enjoy the cafes. If Team Flare kidnapped Rhyme and our researchers then it would be a good idea to start looking in Lumiose City." Stone explained.

"Looks like we need to tip over some coffee tables and get our answers." Darts says, cracking his neck. "Back to mercenary work again." The gambler wasn't complaining, shrugging his hefty piece of gold up his shoulder as he otherwise watched the exchange in silence. It was easy, good paying work usually. The thing his ruby-red eyes would catch as he cradled the egg under one arm was a familiar-looking researcher hovering near the door to Stone's office, trying to be discreet and not interrupt his boss's guests. He had an egg in his hands as well and he was looking at Cera the whole time. Clearly the guy was willing to wait until they were leaving, but he was antsy to hand the thing off as well. The gambler had a sudden flashback to an egg they had found back in the Hoenn Region and left here. Surely after all this time...?

"Is he paying us for this?" Darts asks, cheekily. "And can Isaac get a slip to leave work early or will this be billed as an on-the-clock expense?"

Cera had otherwise kept herself quiet, wondering if she was going to have to start spending most of her time inside a Master Ball or hiding out elsewhere again before she took notice of the researcher and the egg he was holding. She'd have thought nothing of it were it not for the unusual chi faintly stirring around it and, if it was the same egg she had secured from Hoenn and turned in so long ago, why it's contents were still in an egg after more than a year and a half. Nevermind that the researcher's eyes were constantly on her, but by now, she was used to random people staring at a legendary Pokemon just being out in the open. At least this one wasn't with an empty ball in hand.

She'd move to let the rest continue their conversation with Mr. Stone, so as to not disturb him or the others. "Um... can we help you?"

The researcher mostly ignores the rest of them, waddling towards Cera. "Hello again, Miss Cera do you remember me?" He asks, adjusting his glasses. "I was in charge of studying you and your precious egg here for a while and because you had to leave in such a hurry after that whole debacle we forgot to give you this back." He holds the egg out to her. "I would be careful with it. We kept it in stasis this whole time, preventing its hatching, but we just could not figure out what it was other than it will hatch decidedly Shadow. We figured it would be unethical to keep it in storage forever and so bequeath it back to you."