Dawn of the Final Week

What a world this dimension was. How crisp and clean the air was, how green Earth was compared to his home, how vibrant, how stunning!

 It was hard to really appreciate it after being thrown into the chaos of Kobberdom, dealing with a rain of evil lobsters and all. But with the Planeswardens focused on rebuilding during this oddly quiet time, Troy had all the time in the world to get used to his new surroundings. It was a good change of pace from staying in one spot providing missions like some sort of NPC questgiver, and definitely better than venturing out into a wasteland full of snow-like soot that clogs filters with ease.

He found himself wandering through the streets, taking in all the sights, letting nothing but his instincts guide him around. His heart raced with excitement as he passed by playgrounds, found stores in little crannies with knick knacks he would buy in a heartbeat if he didn't have any restraint, and listened to buskers bust out their best moves, their best music. An atmosphere like that couldn't be beat, he thought.

Nothing could compare to how Melissa was handling it, however. While he basically oggled at everything, she felt right at home, zipping from one place to another. Troy would bump into her casually as she skated and balanced a stack of pizzas in her hands. "Heeeeeey Troooooooooooooy!" she would shout, voice fading as she rocketed farther and farther away. He would always wonder how the hell any sort of food stayed balanced in her palm like that, but dared not ask the question in fear of Mel twisting herself into a pretzel trying to explain it. She always smiled while doing deliveries, always coming back to HQ humming happily as she snacked on freshy baked muffins. She seemed to learn Olympia back to front, as trips around Olympia with her were planned, the punk never getting lost while Troy sometimes found himself in a dangerous alleyway or in an abandoned warehouse district.

Six months of relaxing and learning everything there was to know. Six months... and now, Dia dropped the news on them.

"Oh, on May 1st, the Kobbers are gonna be back in Olympia!" she announced to the duo in Melissa's room, Mel leaning in to listen as Troy tinkered with a mantid robot in the corner. "We're meeting up in Valhalla, which is kind of our base of operations... kinda. We're gonna be back on duty then, since most threats seem to arise more often when they're involved. Ladeca, too, will probably strike too, for more reasons than one."

Troy rose his head up from his work as he asked, "Because you guys stopped one of her top guys, right? That, and one of her minions is on our side, so all the more reason to get aggressive."

"She can't be that stupid though, right?" Mel asked as she nibbled on a muffintop. "She probably saw you guys go BAM, BOOM, BAP on her priest, so she wouldn't get reckless! Like, she's totally a slow, calculating, 'hahaha I have so many gambits it doesn't matter if you take out just one!' kinda long term jerk!"

Dia tapped a finger on her chin, tilting her head as she replied, "Based on what we know, we would believe she'd be more cautious... However, she probably knows we're scouting her home dimension. She knows we're trying to find her and set both Kobbers and Planeswardens on her. We have someone who knows her well, as well as people who have been directly harmed by her actions. She can't remain passive and trying to manipulate us for much longer, especially now that she's gotten on the Kobbers' bad side."

"But, like, she isn't THAT desperate, is she? Like, she took her sweet time dismantling our sect from the inside, and I bet she did the same in her verse. She can just hide and try again later!"

Dia shot Mel a serious look that made both Mel and Troy shudder. "You don't know the extent of the Kobbers' wrath, do you?"

Troy winced at the very thought. "I'm gonna go out on a limb based on what I've seen and say that nothing survives the onslaught."

"Exactly. They know a threat, especially if it involves one of their own, and they turn it into a pulp. Ladeca might be cautious and try to lay low, but she knows with enough searching, we'll find her. We're betting that she'll try something to take us off guard and distract us away from her, or split us apart and try to take us down one by one. Anything to stall us just enough to try to get complete control."

"And that plan, if we play our cards right, is going to lead to her downfall," Troy said, his smirk hidden behind his mask.

His smirk didnt' even compare with Dia's, however, "If? You're still underestimating the Kobbers, Phreak~"

He slumped in his corner and shrugged. "Jeez, I only got here on the tail end of their sheenanigans! How am I supposed to know how nuts they can get?"

"Weeeell, you COULD start by reading the Kobber Blogger..."

"But my daily strolls-"

"You have time management skills, don't you?"

"But-"

Before Phreak could protest, a lightbulb went off in Mel's head, her eyes sparkling as she said, "Oooh, before we really worry about things, we should, like, do some neat stuff around Olympia! Like roller skating and arcades and food stall crawls! Like a group bonding activity!"

"You're only saying that last bit because you want to try a little bit of everything," Troy pointed out as he waggled a finger.

Mel was unfazed, barreling on with, "Oh, and we can check out that massage parlor place! Group massages and spa treatments and stuff! Maybe Troy can get a facial-"

"No thanks, I don't feel like murdering someone with my Ugly Barnacle face-"

"-and, like, we'll feel all super refreshed so we can kick some ass!" Mel stopped to breathe and think for a second before she added, "OH! We should definitely go to a zoo, too! I mean, Troy probably hasn't seen a real tiger in aeons! And pandas! And dinosaurs!"

"I don't know how any of that's related, and I can just see streams of them online-"

"BUT DINOSAURS, TROY!" Mel finally blurted out as she turned to her friend. "You can't see dinosaur streams ANYWHERE! They're, like, totally beyond extinct where we're at! Nonexistent! Like, that meteor OBLITERATED them!"

Dia tilted her head again, then straightened up as a smile formed on her face. "InGen did seem like they were starting to work on a zoo specifically for dinosaurs, though admitedly they're strapped for space. They might host one on one of lesser known islands around Kuwahawi with permission, but nobody's sure about it yet. When it does open, though, we should definitely take a day off to visit!"

Mel was vibrating in place, nearly exploding with excitement. "It's a deal, then! We're gonna take this whooole week to chillax and go places! AND get spa treatments! AND see the zoo!"

"Aaaand maybe see a robot exhibit?" Troy added, albeit unsure if anyone else had an interest. "I did hear about this Battledome doing a Robot Wars thing, sooo best way to get hype is to look at stuff like that. That, and Matilda needs to stroll around unless she wants some rust on her wheels."

"Oooh, good one! I never saw those things in person so we gotta check it out! OOOH, DIA, YOU GOTTA MEET MATILDA, SHE'S SO NEAT AND-"

Melissa's hype was infectious, the trio bouncing ideas for their final week of fun. There was many a thing to worry about, for sure. Where their own leader was, dealing with Ladeca, finding out more about the Heart Rod and how to counteract Dark Matter. Such things were heavy enough to keep Troy up at night. However, he resolved to push such thoughts out of his mind until things became more active. Now was the time to enjoy the best of what Olympia had to offer with friends.

He couldn't help but wonder, though... how DID things start off on May 1st? With a bang and a boom? Did monsters just show up on day one? Or maybe there was a bar brawl on the first day fighting over who was there first? He had so many questions about the Kobber lifestyle.

Well, there was only one way to find out.

InGen's Rebirth

Like the mightiest of Rexes, InGen was in a rut bigger than they could have possibly imagined.

It was difficult enough navigating through all the changes after Dr. Wu was arrested. He was the de facto leader of InGen, the face, the one who negotiated with the big names and gangs. Not only that, his knowledge of genetics and creating dinosaurs with "more teeth" was top notch, something his juniors couldn't accomplish without aid. Losing him was more akin to losing a head, the lower ranks scrambling to find someone willing to lead.

Worse yet, there were other businesses snapping up resources. They didn't have enough access to more vicious dinosaur DNA. Nobody was willing to take a chance to maybe get a tiny blood sample from even Sue's Ceratosaurus and raptors, nevermind get even the teeniest of blood samples from Rexy. They were too heavily guarded, too dangerous to approach. They had other, odder DNA for mass reproduction, but nothing they were 100% sure would pique the interest of their new parent company, nevermind others wishing to buy their products. No one comes to get an Iguanadon or a large array of sea scorpions in a flying city.

Their saving grace right now was that they were scooped up by CarverCorp... but not by much. It meant they would keep afloat, but their resources were further dwindled by CarverCorps' scientists grabbing whatever DNA they could find for their own splicing experiments. InGen was nothing more than a supplier to them, investing only enough that the company could outbid others for DNA and research on what could possibly suit their parent company's needs at the time.

With no central leadership aside from the demands from CarverCorp, teams bickered about how to proceed.

"Look, we go find that dumb factory Rexy died in, then we can scrape all the blood and get the DNA samples!" one said as he made a very complex diagram of how to go about this. "It's not like that stupid frog cares what happens! We need the more fierce predators, the DANGEROUS ones. CarverCorp wants to experiment with more things like the Carnotaurus! Giving them something even bigger is bound to get us some bonus checks!"

Another shook her head as she said, "Who's to say he hasn't already demolished the factory? What we should be doing is showcasing more rare, cunning species. Bring in the oversized spiders, the giant dragonflies, those that came waaaay before the dinosaurs!"

"But they thrived off an oxygen rich environment! How are they going to sustain themselves?"

"I dunno, throw a pinch of magic in there or something!"

"We're SCIENTISTS, not WIZARDS, Sonja-"

A door flung open, silencing the bickering team as someone strutted in, unimpressed. She towered over most of her collegues, some of them flinching at the sight of her as she brushed her long, black hair back. Others were more distracted by her entourage of what looked like a floating bean painted like a pink easter egg, and an equally pink creature whom some might quickly compare to "that one Kobber elf. No, not the jealous one." And one in particular glared daggers at her, his face twisted into a fierce scowl.

"Oh look, it's the resident turncoat," he said as he crossed his arms. "Weren't you given the pink slip, Tori?"

Before he could continue, she interrupted him and said, "Yeah, no shit, dingus. I was actually having a great time being an actual professor over making KobberFucker9000."

The man's face turned beet red as he shouted, "Indoraptor was PERFECT for taking them on, and you know it! It was abso-"

"-lutely flawless, eh?" Tori scoffed and leaned on the wall, the bean hovering behind her and quivering a bit as the other creature tried to comfort it. "Yeah, sure! Perfectly good fodder for some other schmucks to beat its ass." She placed a finger on her chin and thought for a moment before she added, "If you can't even beat Death then you certainly aren't gonna beat a Kobber. I'm just surprised the defect it had didn't kill it first."

"Perhaps if you weren't doddling about and raising objections over an ally and actually bothered to AID us-"

Another colleague jumped in between them as Tori approached, almost ready to smack him. "H-hey, um, yeah, that didn't go well, but before we get fiesty, uh... why are you here, Tori? You were fired."

Tori saw the angry man open his mouth again and glared at him hard enough that he backed off before looking her friendlier colleague in the eye. "Higher ups were basically at a loss. Wu's stupid ass did five million illegal as shit things, including recreating a psychic dinosaur on life support, and they really just want to be an independent company again instead of tied to Carvercorp at the hip. And, well, guess who got invited right back in?"

The smug look was enough for the man to approach her and shout at her, in spite of his colleague holding him back.

"You nearly cost us an alliance with The Curse with your damned beliefs! You weren't focused on defeating the one force that stopped us from conquering Olympia! You're a damn traitor, a stupid Pokemaniac who didn't give a shit about the comp-"

The moment his spittle flew on her face was the very moment her fist connected with his nose. A loud CRACK, and he was on the floor, several scientists gathering around him to make sure he was okay.

"You guys actually thought working with the filthiest scum this planet has to offer was for the good of the company?" she snarled. "Fine, how the hell did that turn out? Oh, it was all a ploy for some lobster with an ego the size of Uranus to try to take over the world. Yeah, real good stuff for the company, possibly being enslaved by Lobster Overlords!

I warned you guys the moment you started getting involved: joining a mysterious gang with a member as vicious as Giovanni? It wasn't going to end well. Nothing he's involved in ends well, and I know because I've dealt with scum like him. The only way things would have been worse is if Plague fucking had Ghetsis in Giovanni's place.

We're not going to deal with that shit anymore. Wu fucked it up for all of us, and now we're going to have to dig ourselves out. It won't be easy, especially since we're gonna have to kiss CarverCorp's ass for a while before we find a way to split." She looked over to one of her Pokemon for a moment, then over to her whimpering colleague as she said, "Audi, heal him. Slap him if he tries anything funny, though."

Audi saluted and waddled over, holding her little hands over the man's face as she unleashed a pulse. A sickening CRACK happened as his nose went back in place, any bleeding stopping, any pain ebbing away. In spite of that, though, many of Tori's colleagues were glaring back at her.

"You didn't have to go that far!"

"Way to be a total dick, dude."

"Y-you could have just been a bit more stern..."

Tori rolled her eyes. "Look, I'm not tolerating any of his shit. If he doesn't like the ideas I'm proposing, he's free to go to CarverCorp's lab crew and suck them off. I'm not here to follow in Wu's footsteps, I'm not here to AVENGE THE CURSE, and I'm DEFINITELY not here to try to murder a force that's proven, since the Vegas years, that cannot be stopped. Especially not when they could save our bacon with the rut we've gotten ourselves into.

I'm here for three things: exposing enough of CarverCorp's dirty laundry to free us from their clutches, actually researching some of these ancient beasts, and making some stupidass abominations. Both for CarverCorp and for our defense."

They continued to glare at her, though one colleague asked, "Well, that's nice, but we don't have the DNA abundance we used to have. We keep getting outbid by another genetics company..."

A smirk crossed Tori's face. "Well, that won't be a problem. Because we have stuff that other genetics companies can't even get." She snapped her fingers and called out, "Deedee! Bring in the samples!"

It was strange, seeing a more goth Audi walk in with a suitcase, which she gently set on a table with psychic powers and opened it up. Each and every vial was labled, and as the scientists gathered to look, their eyes widened at just what Tori brought.

"P-Pokemon DNA?" the man sputtered in disbelief. "F-from Kanto to the Galar regions...?!"

Tori couldn't help but grin devilishly. "Yep. Enough to make some crazy fusions. I have fossils, too, so fossil pokemon aren't out of our reach. Give me some more time to check out archeaological search sites and I might be able to get some DNA samples of some dinosaurs too, while I'm at it. In the meantime, you can use those and maybe go back to the WCW days."

"...Well, there WAS a factory where Rexy died-"

Tori's grin faded for shock. "Wait, Rexy DIED?!"

"To Cuphead and Mugman, yeah, in some Secret Fiter Scuffle-"

"Oh, well that's different," Tori said with a sigh of relief. "Guessing she's back to life now, so that's a no-go for DNA."

The man interjected, "We can scrape her blood off the floor-"

Tori stared at him blankly. "Yeah, blood. That wasn't preserved. Which is probably mixed in with other people's blood, so it's not pure. And it's old. In a factory that might have been demolished."

"I-it's worth a shot!"

She rolled her eyes. "Sure, go ahead. Try to prove me wrong. But you're taking backup and if that sample's too impure, you're not fucking with it. Last thing we need is a Rexybomination who'll kill us for doing this to her. Everyone else, start studying up on your Pokemon and try not to make Sunwoop. Anyone who tries will be fired on the spot. Debbie, you're to revive the fossils and see what you can make with their DNA. And Sandra, you-"

As Dr. Tori finished giving orders, everyone scrambled to work while she looked towards Deedee with concern.

"Do you have your doubts, Mistress?" Anyone could have mistaken the voice as coming straight from the Pokemon's mouth, but in actuality, there was a collar around her neck that autotranslated her words. "This workplace seems rather, uh, dangerous."

"It'll get even more dangerous if we start rebelling against CarverCorp immediately, Deedee," Tori said as she took a seat  and slumped back as far as she could. "All we can do is take all the knowledge we got from the higher ups and see if we can get some aid digging up more dirt. It's easier to infiltrate from the inside than the outside, anyway." All the while, the pink bean Munna floated up to her, the scientist nuzzling the cute creature with gusto.

Deedee tilted her head and frowned. "I suppose, but there might be more devious machinations at work. We may be caught in something much bigger than ourselves, much like in Galar."

"Can't worry about what might happen, otherwise we'll end up paralyzed with indecision. We go with the flow and expose things as we go. All I know is that we can't do this alone: we're going to need to rely on outside help, and we have to do it discreetly."

She had to admit: she was nervous. CarverCorp was an entirely different beast than The Curse. She couldn't punch it like she wanted to do with Giovanni. There were reports buried about misdeeds and illegally making psychics out of dinosaurs, and so many angry blogposts from a dinolover about the abuses going on. It was going to be a walk on a tightrope, a balancing act. One wrong step...

No. No wrong steps. She'd have to wing it... but Tori was determined to get InGen out of the mire Dr. Wu made for them. For their sake. For everyone's sake.