[h2][u][b][center]Rangers Headquarters - Rustboro City[/center][/b][/u][/h2][quote]Forrest's jaw seemed to bubble as the muscles flexed and contracted as he listened and looked at what Tristan had discovered. He remained silent, his face was perfectly still, nearly emotionless. It looked as if Forrest was unable to respond to Tristan's question at the end of his monologue. He simply looked into Tristan's eyes for a long moment without blinking. This silent anger was possibly more unnerving than when he'd physically express it. The muscles across his body twitched as if to fight himself from getting up or moving. His skin was reddening on his face and chest. The volcano had been made dormant only a little while ago thanks to Sergeant Broadson. That could all be undone any moment.
	Bob B. Jeanne's father. Forrest was very fond of the man despite how much Bob criticized him for getting Jeanne pregnant at 16. Bob was stereotypically protective of his daughter and still very much was. But all that time they spent together to build his cabin made his eyes water. His mom and dad - all their work would be destroyed. Everything they worked for his whole life - gone. There was no relief that Mitchell nor Mrs. Honnings was on the list since he saw Mrs. James was on the list. A tear fell from his eye but his face remained expressionless.
	Forrest breathed deep but didn't take his eyes off Tristan. He blinked rapidly and adjusted himself but didn't bother wipe away the tear track on his cheek. He lowered his jaw but words didn't come out until another moment passed.
	"I - don't know," Forrest said. His voice was quiet - weak. "We've never been in a situation like this. I trust that he wouldn't send the entire country into a state of emergency, and he'd likely manage to call other country's Rangers to help. Can I talk to him first?"
	He felt a little strange sincerely asking for permission from someone he hardly worked with. But he understood enough to know that all of this beyond what he could even imagine. He was neither mentally nor physically prepared for any of this. They were going to destroy the country. With those mythical Pokemon, they would destroy the world. Nihilistic thoughts flashed in his mind. Why bother to try to stop them? They saw how powerful just one of them were. If they were going to destroy the world, what hope did the two of them have at stopping them from succeeding?
	But they, alone, certainly could not stop these people. Forrest knew they needed the Rangers and the Gym Leaders and the Elite Four to work together and quietly so as to not send the country into a panic. They didn't have a choice to [i]not[/i] trust Dick. They would need to trust the Gym Leaders as well.
	A revelation passed through Forrest's mind: they knew; they could tell the others; they could organize; they could strike back before they had the chance to do so. Sure, that Taurus guy would certainly tell that Pisces guy or whatever their chain of command was. But did that truly matter? If they were to follow through with what could be assume from the documents Tristan studied, we would be prepared. They might think they need to change their plan. What if they would just give up on the plan for a while - for years? He'd have so much time to train himself and his Pokemon.
	No, that was wishful thinking. They could just as well push their timeline up to "immediately" and strike before either of them had the chance to share what they had learned. Then it wouldn't matter who they trusted and didn't trust since the Hoenn would be on the path of destruction they seemed to want to take. As much as Tristan discovered - Forrest realized how little it seemed to matter. Without times or dates, all they could do was hope they would have the time to prepare.
	"We don't have a choice, though," he said after a pregnant pause after asking for permission as all these thoughts flooded his mind. "We don't have the strength to fight against them, the two of us. Even with the other Elite Four members, there's twelve of them. We don't stand a chance. We have to trust the Rangers, the Gym Leaders, and the Elite Four."
	His voice quickly changed to deep and authoritative. Forrest was known to be "volatile" with his moods and emotions by those closest to him. Tristan would get to learn that soon enough, if he didn't already figure it out, that is. But his arms remained crossed and he straightened himself in the chair. He'd slowly been slouching through learning all of this and he looked tall again, even sitting down.
	"We've got to trust them all," he said eventually and gestured to the television where he'd seen the list of people they had collected information about. "They need to know."
	He was absolute in this opinion. The idea that it might be bad or naive didn't even enter his thoughts. He only thought how they [i]deserved[/i] to know they were being targeted. It went back to his bounty-hunter process - those with bounties on them [i]knew[/i] they had bounties on them. If even criminals got to know they were being targeted, normal innocent civilians certainly deserved to know.[/quote]

[hider][h2][u][b][center]Cave - Location Unknown[/center][/b][/u][/h2][quote][center]https://open.spotify.com/track/07doEWHjVkjayQpSeQcBWQ?si=aef1bffa56c14497[/center]
	The sound of water drops falling into small puddles echoed through the chamber. It was dark and cold. A few torches in sconces lit up some of the space, but it was massive and empty. The floor was unnaturally smooth - certainly man-made. There were still stalagmites and stalactites at the edges, but it didn't do enough to "naturalize" the space.
	"I saw you were interrupted." The voice was a deep tenor that cleanly echoed through the chamber.
	A man in a full navy suit without the jacket stepped out of the darkness and into the torchlight. His hands were in his pockets and his sleeves were rolled up. His face looked just as elegant in torchlight as it did in sunlight.
	"Yeah, so what do you want to do?" This voice was much deeper and boomed in the space and vibrated the air. His tone seemed apologetic.
	The massive man bent backwards at the waist while his hands were in his back pockets. Though he only wore a suede vest, the chill of the chamber didn't bother him.
	"I haven't decided yet. Certainly unexpected. Mr. Aeros is more subtle than I gave him credit for. I knew Mr. Johnson would have gone to one of them, which wouldn't have been an issue."
	"Heh, yeah. His Pokemon were pathetic. But with Mr. Aeros, they nearly knocked out my Tauros within moments."
	"Hm, it seems we are not quite as strong as we need to be. Unfortunate. Additionally, the serendipity of their having chosen that location, specifically, during a time before you had the chance to destroy everything. I was waiting for him here as I suspected this would be where he'd want to investigate first-"
	"Don't we have, like, more time?"
	"Yes, Taurus, we do," the suited man said and shook his head slightly as he escaped his brainstorming. He then looked directly at the large man. The large man, Taurus, seemed to flinch and shrink slightly. "Certainly not ideal, but the timetable needs to be adjusted."
	The suited man looked over his shoulder into the darkness behind him. A Gorebyss slithered in the air toward him. It curled around him as if to make itself a scarf.
	"I need Libra, Virgo, Aquarius, and Sagittarius," he said and stroked a length of the Gorebyss.
	It's eyes glowed a brilliant marbling of blue and purple. 
	"Arceus, Pisces. Please notify us before you do that!" a woman shouted
	She pushed up her round glasses and pulled her lab coat tight around her as if she was being walked in on while changing, though she was fully clothed. She checked to make sure her bun still held her brown hair tightly.
	"There's been a change in the plans, hasn't there been?" another woman said.
	She looked like your average civilian - a sundress and square glasses that she took off and hair that was half-up while she stood at an average height and was an average weight.
	"Yes, I concur with Aquarius. How very uncouth of you, Pisces," a third woman said with a rich alto tone.
	Her brown skin looked nearly black in the shadows cast by the torchlight. Her hair created a large black circle around her head due to her naturally coily dark brown hair. She held her hands together in front of her and appeared to be at attention. She wore a bright yellow shirt with blue jeans and red heels. The large beaded necklace and bracelets perfectly matched the color of her heels.
	"Damn it, Pisces. I was just in the middle of something!" a man shrieked which echoed uncomfortably all around them.
	He was tall, could he be taller than Taurus? No, certainly not. It simply looked like he was since he was so skinny - so he simply looked taller than he was. Because of this, he wore suspenders to keep his khakis from falling down. His pale skin nearly glowed white in the darkness. He put his notepad and pen back into his white button-up shirt's breast pocket. He then adjusted his comically large round glasses back on top of his nose. At the least the scientist wore glasses that were properly sized for her face.
	"Yes, Sagittarius, plans have change. We need to come up with how to proceed now that they know some key information about us, if what Taurus determined was missing is correct."[/quote][/hider]