The next time the world blurred into view, I was in bed in a hotel room and was surrounded by all of my friends.

"Sorry... I blacked out back there," I mumbled. "I don't know what happened to cause me to black out, but I did."

"Strange, hm? Well, it doesn't matter. We're here now, Marnie," a soft voice murmured to me.

"Who are you?!" I began to panic, not recognising the soft voice.

"Who am I? Have you truly forgotten your oldest friend?" the voice asked, confusing me further.

"You're not my friend! I don't even know who you are," I told the voice. It was almost as if the person didn't hear me at all, because they kept on persisting.

"Oh? So you have forgotten the very one that endorsed you? Regrettable, but you can't do much to change things back," the voice said.

I began to slowly recognise the voice. That was Piers. I forgot him. My brain made me forget him. I forgot who my brother was. Okay, what happened? I needed to know what happened that resulted in me being knocked out. Somehow, I'd just forgotten that Piers had even existed, so I didn't recognise his voice. I hadn't heard him speak softly to me for a while — he only did that to mess with me so I eased out of a slumber.

Leon confirmed that the voice that had previously been addressing me was Piers's by telling him, "Piers, stop bein' ridiculous. You startled your poor sister by doing that."

"Sorry, Marnie. I hadn't thought that I'd 'ave genuinely concerned you," Piers apologised. "I was really concerned, that's all. Lee told me you had fainted on the floor and I came right away."

Leon looked proud of himself for a second before getting serious. "You had a big fall back there. Do you remember what happened?" Leon asked me.

"I don't. I just know that I got knocked out, but not a thing apart from that," I told Leon.

He gave me a nod and gestured for Hop to explain everything to me.

Hop nodded. "So, you know how you met those weirdos at the lab? Avery and Klara, right?" I gave him a quick nod before he continued. "Well, you fell into Avery and got a few words in before blacking out. He had some psychic aura enveloping him, so you were drawn to that and it made you confused an' dizzy," he explained, and I gave him another nod. "You were out cold so we took a Flying Taxi, sat you next to Ori and called Piers straight away. Luckily you're awake, otherwise we were consderin' taking you to the hospital to check if you had a coma."

I blinked for a second and rubbed my eyes. "You mean, you actually thought I was in a coma? Tha's pretty scary, not goin' ta lie," I murmured faintly.

"But you're here now, Marnie," Ori whispered calmly, patting me on the shoulder. "We'll work out who those hooligans are for you and make sure they regret even meeting you."

"They were manipulating your mind," Bede reminded me. "Not just with the psychic aura, but they were also meddling with your memories. That means they could've tweaked or erased your memories completely." His arms were folded over his chest in frustration. "I certainly am not the nicest person in the world, but when people use Pokémon to harm other people, that's when I seriously consider revoking license privileges."

"I suggest revoking their access to Galar, Mr. Chairman," Piers told Leon with a serious tone, glancing at me with a concerned look in his eyes. "They shouldn't be coming here in the first place, and they're putting the citizens in danger. No matter what, the citizens are our top priority. If they can meddle with minor memories of a teenager, I don't wan' ta imagine what they could do to the old folk."

"I don' know wha' their deal was," I mumbled, looking at Bede for a second. "They were actin' like tossers for the entire time I met them. That Klara is one to watch out for as well, she... I don't remember what she did, but she played a part in this as well."

Sonia was in the room too and sighed. "I looked at their legal records a few minutes ago — they aren't supposed to be in Galar right at this minute. They were shooed out a couple years ago and were prevented from travelling here for five years. Leon, they breached those conditions," Sonia nattered on from what she remembered. "They committed many offences, including stealing valuable research documents and holding a member of the law hostage — for that incident, it was Oleana."

"Arceus," Leon cursed under his breath. "I can give them a caution, but that doesn't seem like enough. What other crimes did they commit?"

"They stole Pokémon — Psychic and Poison types, specifically — and performed illegal genetic mutation experiments on them. Not only that, but they overthrew Poké Marts and sold the remaining mutation liquids to Pokémon trainers across the region. They also harbour interesting powers to change memories and control minds. Especially the boy." Sonia looked down for a second before adding, "They are a dangerous threat to the region, so you must do something about them immediately."

Leon gave Sonia a curt nod before smiling tightly. Eventually, we hear him calling a flying taxi and his Charizard guides him out of the hotel. Ori looked at me with a smile and I nodded. This meant that this was the time we were to tell Bede and Hop about their relationship thus far. That, in actual fact, Ori and I had set the two up. But we needed a distraction.

I convinced Piers to strike up a conversation with Sonia, telling him that I'd be right back soon and assuring him that he shouldn't be worried about me. I tiptoed to the bedroom and let Ori follow me, who was acting as guide to Bede and Hop. Her Machoke was flanking her for physical protection, but nobody other than her had a Pokémon out. Not even me.

Bede looked at Hop with suspicion in his eyes, the dark skinned boy shrugging in response. Hop raised his eyebrow at us and then looked away, turning to Bede to give him a sideways glance. Ori egged me on and that tipped me off the edge. There was no other option. They had to be told.

"Bede..." I began. "Ori and I... we have a confession to make."

"We set you up," Ori finished quickly.