Episode 1: Welcome to Orre

A boat pulls into Gateon Port, having arrived from Holon. A few figures walk off, figures which people might recognize as the J-Team. One looks around.

"Are you sure this is the right place? It looks too... pleasant," says the figure in question: Lucius Cain, better known as Herbert.

"Don't let it fool you, Herbert. Beneath the attractive cover lies a group of horrible, cruel scum," says another, a looming figure known by the name of Tagg.

"...It would have been so much easier saying 'Cipher is here', you know," replies Herbert. He is not answered by Tagg, but rather by someone else approaching the group.

"Indeed they do. They're just as cruel as Tagg says."

Herbert glances at the newcomer. "...Jacob."

"Herbert. I don't have time to deal with you as my enemy. We have a more pressing matter at hand," Jacob says.

"Likewise here, Cipher is more of a threat than you will ever be, Jacob," Tagg replies. Jacob regards him coldly.

"Know this, Tagg, Herbert. This is by no means a permanent alliance. Once our mutual enemies are eliminated, we will return to how it was before. Three months of disappearing do not by any means warrant forgiveness," he states. "Right now, we are only allies because we must be."

"Very well. We will only disregard each other's wrongs until my father has payed," agrees Herbert.

"Your father, as well as Tokarev," Tagg adds.

"Excellent," says Jacob. "Welcome to Orre. It'll be hell."

~~~~~~~~

The J-Team spreads out around Gateon Port, with Herbert and another boy -- Eskay -- following Jacob.

"So what exactly did they do? It's gotta be something huge if you're actually cooperating with us," Eskay asks.

"Regina. They took her. Titan took her," Jacob explains. "And I know I'm by no means capable of getting her back myself, which is why I'd be willing to do whatever it takes."

"Even if it means you have to suck up to us," Eskay says. Jacob gives him a dark look.

"I'll have you know I am not 'sucking up' to you. It's just significantly more efficient to keep you as temporary allies than to just eliminate you."

"Jacob, you know very well you don't stand a chance against us alone," Herbert says. "Perhaps you forgot your little Metagross-off with Eskay?"

"Oh, I haven't forgotten. But I never said I was alone."

~~~~~~~~

Elsewhere, a Glaceon is pacing in front of a bunch of blue-haired individuals.

"It's gone. Our airship is gone. All because someone..." The Glaceon glares at one of the two boys in the group -- Mezzo's younger brother -- before continuing, "...decided to let down our shields."

"Hey, I had a great plan! All we needed to do was--"

He's cut off by his older brother, Pianis. "You know you can't be trusted to come up with plans. You always either end up breaking your arm, or getting your Espeon's ear cut off, or in this case, let Cipher steal Team Glacier's airship!"

"If you'd just listen to me for once--"

This time, Mezzo herself interrupts her brother. "No! You've already proven that none of your ideas are worth listening to."

"That's because--"

Mezzo starts to pull out her wand, a gesture which shuts him up. Icicle resumes pacing.

"And now we have to team up with that Jacob punk. All thanks to you."

Mezzo's younger brother folds his arms, pouting. "Whatever."

~~~~~~~~

The next day, the J-Team spreads out around Gateon, doing their own things. Straw is shown doing some research, when DS finds him.

"Hey, what's up?" DS asks.

"I'm trying to find information about an old friend," Straw explains, not looking up from the screen.

"Oh? Who might that be?"

"A girl by the name of Taylor," Straw says. "She was a Ranger back when I was, and she came here to fight Cipher last time they were active."

"Ah... Well, what have you found?"

"An awful lot of absolutely nothing, that's what. There's plenty of stuff from back when I knew her, but everything from the last five years..." Straw trails off as he clicks on a new link. DS watches as his expression slowly becomes more horrified.

"...Don't tell me..."

"...No... No, no, no, that can't be true..." Straw desperately searches more, but he finds the same information again on another website.

"Straw..."

"...DS... Taylor d-died..." He stares at his laptop, before closing it and crying softly on it.

~~~~~~~~

Herbert has decided to wander Gateon on his own, accompanied only by his Scyther, Bishop.

"All right, let's see what Cipher jerks decide to show their faces. If they do decide to," Herbert says.

"Just because this is Orre doesn't mean Cipher's lurking around every single corner, you know," Bishop reminds him.

"Oh, I know. Doesn't mean they're not around most corners," replies Herbert. Bishop sighs.

"Don't get your hopes up..."

"If you say so," Herbert says. He starts to say something else, but stops, noticing something.

"Is there something wrong?" asks Bishop.

"...Yeah. My Aura... is fading, for some reason."

"Are you sure it's not just your lack of experience?"

"What, do you think I'm still terrible at Aura or something?"

"...Yes."

"...Shut up." Herbert looks around. "Something's wrong, no matter what you think of my skills. I can--"

Before he finishes his statement about whatever he can do, he is blown into an alley by an attack from nowhere. Bishop glances around, and readies himself for a battle.

"Who goes there?" he asks, but there is no answer. Herbert groans and picks himself up.

"Ugh... cowards, can't even show their faces when they--"

And he is hit back even further into the alley, slamming against the wall. The offender turns out to be a Lucario, one with a dead look in his eye. Herbert glares at the Lucario.

"Urk... what is your..." He trails off when he recognizes who it is. "...Duke...?"

"Wait, Duke?!"

The Lucario, who apparently was indeed Duke, looks at Bishop blankly. There is an unnerving giggle as a masked figure steps out of the shadows.

"...And who are you supposed to be?" Herbert asks. The masked figure does nothing but giggle again. She gestures, and Duke attacks Bishop relentlessly. The Scyther barely gets a chance to react before he is struck down.

"...Whoever this bitch is, she Shadowed you... She's with Cipher, so she'll go down like the rest of them!" Herbert reaches for his Pokeballs, but before he can use them, Duke turns to attack him again. His assault only ceases once the masked figure makes another gesture, when Herbert is hanging onto his life by threads. Duke backs off and is recalled as the masked figure speeds away.

"Urk... no...

Weakly, Herbert reaches for a Pokeball, releasing Maul. The Alakazam teleports them away to the hospital.

~~~~~~~~

A Cipher Peon runs -- almost skipping -- up to a pair of Commanders, one of which has a notably star-shaped visor on her helmet. The one with the "normal" helmet grins upon seeing the Peon.

"You're back quickly, Kyrie," says the male Commander. "I take it things are going well?"

"The J-Team welcome wagon is rolling smoothly," the Peon, apparently named Kyrie, responds cheerfully.

"Wonderful," the male Commander says, grinning. "For a bunch of supposed world-savers, they're hilariously underprepared."

"All the better for us," the female Commander adds. "It makes dealing with them so much easier."

The male commander grins. "It does. Anyway, keep it up, Kyrie."

"And could you do me a favor?" the female Commander asks. "There's someone I'm... expecting. Could you see if you could track her down? I'd hate to miss my chance to see her again."

"If you say so, Commander Paula," Kyrie says, slightly less enthusiastically. "What does she look like?"

"Oh, she's an easy find. Black hair, with a streak of red in it. Looks a lot like a Staraptor."

"Staraptor girl, got it." Kyrie turns to go find the girl in question. The male commander looks at Paula.

"And who might our 'guest' be," the commander asks. Paula grins.

"Verax, have I told you about the reason I joined Cipher in the first place?"

~~~~~~~~

"Ugh, why couldn't Cipher choose somewhere less sandy and hot and deserty to hide?"

A rather tomboyish girl people might recognize as Crewe futilely attempts to kick sand out of her shoes. Another teen, dressed in robes, watches with an unamused look.

"You know, you could just leave your shoes off. It would make things so much easier."

Crewe gives him an annoyed look. "...Fine then. Here, Vierr. Hold them for me with your face." Crewe takes her shoes off and throws them in Vierr's general direction. Vierr flails, and a small explosion blasts them away from him... while knocking him to the ground.

"Aah!" Vierr pulls himself up, recovering from the explosion. Crewe crosses her arms.

"No fair, Vierr. You're not allowed to use your wizard powers to defend yourself. That's cheating."

"I'm not the one throwing my shoes at people!" Vierr glares at her.

"Yeah, well... those robes make you a big target!"

"They do not! You're just making pointless excuses to throw stuff at me!"

"You deserve to have stuff thrown at you!"

"I do not!"

They glare daggers at each other for a moment, but their glaring is interrupted by a slip of paper floating by between their heads, carried by the wind. Crewe snatches it out of the air.

"...'I've managed to get that pendant-thingy back. Meet me behind the Krabby Club. Also, tell Vierr that Tagg wanted to see him.' Vierr, Tagg wants to see you," Crewe says.

"I know, you just read that thing out loud," Vierr retorts.

"Whatever," Crewe says, rolling her eyes. "I'm gonna go see whoever threw this thing. I think it's Eskay, because of the windy-thing."

"...That doesn't look like his handwriting," Vierr notes.

"Which of us knows the J-Team and their various handwritings more, you or me? Me," Crewe argues. "So shut up, cheese wiz."

"...Whatever." Vierr walks off. Crewe sighs.

"Good riddance. Now, where is the Krabby Club..."

~~~~~~~~

Vierr finally manages to find Tagg, who has taken to resting in a tree. Tagg opens a single eye as Vierr approaches.

"You need something?" Tagg asks.

"...I could ask the same question," Vierr says. Tagg looks at him suspiciously.

"What are you talking about, Vierr?"

"Your note. Well, someone's note mentioning you. It said you needed to see me for something," Vierr explains, somewhat skeptical.

"...Who sent it?"

"Crewe thought it was Eskay, because it was one of his notes. It didn't look like his writing, though."

Tagg looks at Vierr for a few seconds before jumping down from the tree.

"What else did it say?" Tagg inquires.

"Something about finding that pendant Crewe's been whining about the past couple months," Vierr says. "The one her Sneasel friends gave her."

Tagg gets a dark look in his eyes.

"We need to find her. Now."

"...It was a trap, wasn't it?"

"Best not to find out. Where did it say?"

"Behind the Krabby-- aack!"

Tagg interrupts him by grabbing him and dragging him in the direction of the Krabby Club, Vierr flailing to regain his footing.

~~~~~~~~

"Eskay, you here?"

Crewe looks around near the Krabby Club. Not getting an answer, Crewe asks again.

"Eskay? Hello, hat guy, are you here yet?"

When she does get a response, it isn't out loud.

I'm afraid he's not here, dear, a voice echoes through her mind. You guessed wrong.

Crewe glances around. "Not funny, whoever you are..."

I'm not trying to be funny, the mental voice says. Although that would be a bonus.

"Okay, seriously. Who is this?"

Oh, come on now. Who else can you think of that speaks in telepathy and would have been taught the note thing?

"...Psyche?"

Ugh, finally! Am I really that forgettable?

Crewe frowns and crosses her arms. "Look, I haven't spoken to you much, but considering you're dating Eskay, I don't get what--"

Tsk, tsk, Crewe. You're kind of oblivious, you know? It's kind of hard to hide mind control, yet you haven't noticed me manipulating him every time we were in the same room together?

"...So wait, are you or are you not actually dating him?"

Bah, as if I need him. There's only one person I actually want, and you're going to find out exactly who that is in just a couple hours.

Before Crewe can ask what she meant, she gets a splitting headache which ceases only when she falls unconscious. She is then teleported away, just as Tagg and Vierr get there.

"Dammit, we were too late," Tagg says. "She's gone."

"Can you track her?" Vierr asks.

"I can identify who it was who took her, but she left by teleporting. It was Psyche."

"Her? But why would she-- "

"She's been manipulating the J-Team for a long time," Tagg says. "Usually it was for petty things, and often too subtle for anyone without Aura to notice, but this is so much bigger..."

"...Figures."

~~~~~~~~

"Eskay, considering she decided to go evil and quite possibly insane, I think it's safe to say that Psyche just dumped you."

After the incident with Crewe, Vierr went to find Eskay, who took the news by staring blankly at Vierr.

"...What... happened? What made you think that?" Eskay asks, his voice quiet.

"Oh, you know, just the fact that she kidnapped Crewe. Tagg also says she's been manipulating you, which I figure involves mind control and possibly erased or replaced memories," Vierr says bluntly. Eskay is quiet for a few moments before responding.

"...I see. I guess this means she decided to join her uncle," Eskay says, his voice at a near whisper. "We should tell Herbert, I suppose."

"If we can find him. I haven't seen him since--" Vierr is interrupted by a text message. He reads it.

"...It's from Skye. Diane's been taken as well. Someone named Paula. Apparently she knew her a while back."

"Oh, yes, they knew her..." Eskay sighs, and sits down, slumping against the table. "We should have figured she'd join Cipher..."

Vierr nods. "First Crewe, now Diane... any other people we should know about?"

"I don't know..." Eskay sighs. "I guess... I'll go to find Herbert and tell him what's going on..."

He gets up, and heads outside.

~~~~~~~~

A rather purple individual with an avian name is wandering the streets of Gateon. The purple individual in question, whose avian name is Crow, looks around.

"He should be here somewhere..." Crow mutters to himself. He watches as a Charizard flies into view, with a person on its back. "And there you are..."

"Hello, Crow," the figure says. "I see you're alone."

"Jet... I've been... thinking about your proposition..." Crow says hesitantly. Jet raises an eyebrow.

"And? Come on, I need answers, not stalling," Jet says, scowling.

"...I'll do it. I'll join you. I'll join Cipher," Crow says. He doesn't make eye contact with Jet, who grins.

"Great. It's a shame we couldn't sway you back in Holon, but it's better late than never," Jet comments.

"I... suppose so, yeah."

"Now, as for getting you to our base... I'm sorry, but I have to do something that won't be fun. Drought?

The Charizard roars, and headbutts Crow, knocking him out. Jet pulls him onto Drought's back, and they fly off in an unknown direction.

~~~~~~~~

Herbert wakes up in a hospital bed. He groans, too in pain to do anything other than stare at the ceiling.

"Urgh... who was that..."

Your worst nightmare, a raspy voice says. Or at least, it thinks.

"Maul, get out of my head. I'm already in enough physical pain," Herbert says quietly.

I'll consider it, Maul thinks.

"You're lucky I'm in no position to reach for your Pokeball..."

Too bad.

Herbert sighs. Before he can retort to Maul, someone knocks on the door.

"Urk... come in..." Herbert says as loudly as he can manage, which is not very much. It's heard through the door, though, and Eskay comes in.

"...I guess this makes three victims," Eskay says. "The first one to make it to a hospital, though..."

"'Hello, Herbert. It's been a while, Herbert. I'm sorry for your loss of blood, Herbert.'" Eskay sweatdrops at Herbert's snark.

"Sorry about that... um, it's good to see you alive, at least..."

"Yeah, I guess. I'm going to be a vegetable for weeks, but I'm alive," Herbert says, sighing. "What else happened?"

"Well, Diane and Crewe both got kidnapped... and Psyche turned evil and dumped me..." Eskay says.

"Oh, of course. My cousin just had to go crazy. Crazier. Whatever."

"Yeah... apparently she's been manipulating me for almost a year and a half. Lucky me," Eskay says with a sigh.

"Well, now we both have grudges to deal with. Funny how they both involve my messed up family," Herbert notes, letting out a chuckle despite himself. "And yet we've started smoother than I expected to."

Eskay nods silently, looking down at nothing in particular. "No matter what, it's going to be rough..."

~~~~~~~~

Crewe wakes up, her headache from earlier lingering. She clutches her head as her eyes adjust to the light.

"Ugh..." she moans. "What... Psyche... What did she..."

She looks around. What she first notices is that she's stuck in a large cage in a laboratory. Several scientists go about their business as usual. The next thing she notices is that she's sharing her prison with Diane, who is still unconscious.

"...Diane...? Diane, wake up..." She shakes Diane.

"Give her a few more minutes, chemical sedatives are much more persistent than mind-crushes," a certain researcher says. Notably, he has two mismatched eyes. "It's a shame, really, because mind-crushes are so much more satisfying to watch," he adds, stifling a giggle.

"...Two questions. Who are you, and where am I?" Crewe demands.

"Me? I'm Odin," the researcher states proudly, his mismatched eyes glinting. "As for you, well... you're in a cage, of course!" He laughs to himself. Crewe laughs significantly less.

"That is not what I meant," Crewe says, scowling. Odin waves his hand dismissively.

"You don't need to know any more than that. You'll find out in due time... and then you'll forget! Ha!" Odin laughs madly, walking over to a computer nearby. Diane starts to wake up as Odin presses a few keys.

"Ugh... where... Paula!" She bolts awake, looking around. "Where did she--"

"Diane, we're stuck in a cage. Whoever you're talking about, she's not here. And the one guy who is here is too far away to punch in the face," Crewe says, glaring briefly at Odin. The room is filled with a whirring sound.

"Okay, what is going on?!" Diane shouts over the noise.

"Oh, you're just about to find out! Hold on juuuuuuuust a moment!" Odin yells from afar. The two trapped girls are engulfed in a bright light... which fades to reveal a Sneasel and a Staraptor.

"What the--!" the pair exclaim simultaneously. Odin giggles.

"Iiiiiiinteresting, very interesting... I guess it's time for the last step!" Odin states, tapping a few more keys on the keyboard. A pair of Ultra Balls drop on the newly-transformed humons, sucking them in before they get the chance to struggle out. They click shut.

"Heheheh... welcome to Cipher, Crewe, Diane... And welcome to Orre."