N's son Neptune has long accepted that his own son died in tragic circumstances. So when he gets an unexpected call from a stranger in Galar, claiming that his son is alive and well, he doesn't know what to think.
This unidentified man also claims t...
Heather had never been to Galar. She said she wasn't interested in travelling, but she couldn't resist asking Reira if they could swap seats as the plane descended to Wyndon Hedgerow International Airport. Reira didn't mind. Her husband, Amber's cousin Zane, was half Galarian. She had seen it all before.
The first thing that caught Heather's eye was snow. It occasionally snowed in Orre's highlands, but she had never seen an endless white vista, covering mountains and towns alike, before. It was illuminated by the dim lights of villages and glowing veins that were motorways. Then it was abruptly interrupted by the concrete maze of Wyndon. From the air, most cities 'across the pond' looked like artificial reflections of the stars scattered across the night sky, but Wyndon was more like one giant, glowing orb of light, divided only by the river that wound through it. This was more interesting than Heather expected.
The city was left behind and the night interrupted only by motorways as the airport grew closer. Heather turned from the window. She took her photos of Jahzeel, Rigel and Team Plasma's latest known uniforms from her bag. She already knew exactly what a Cipher Peon looked like. Since the first incarnation of Team Plasma went down, they tended to dress like pirates, but if people were running around in pirate costumes, why hadn't anyone noticed?
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If there were no reports, they were either hacking the police to delete reports as soon as they were made, or they weren't promoting Team Plasma in plain sight like they did before. Reira was sure it was the latter. She already spoke with every police division in Galar. Someone, somewhere, would have noticed that the same cases kept disappearing, but no-one did. Ballonlea, Circhester and Postwick Police still used paper records. There was no mention of evil teams to be found there.
As the plane touched down, Heather smiled. Others might have found her odd, but she was excited. The satisfaction of solving the unsolvable was even more enticing than the reward for doing so.
Sam awaited them in a rental car. Triton was already examining the same photos as Heather in the passenger seat.
'He sure does look like grandpa Ghetsis. But if that guy in Hammerlocke did see him, he's wearing grey contacts and dyeing his hair green.'
'So impersonating N, basically,' Heather replied, 'Interesting. Is he obsessed with the Harmonia lineage? Did he get Rigel out of the river?'
'I doubt it. From the obsession angle, at least. All he cares about is world domination. Right, Reira?'
'Yes. I don't believe he rescued Rigel himself. He was still unconditionally loyal to his father's Team Plasma at the time. Since Herod wanted to kill all true Harmonias, no-one loyal to him would have rescued one.'
In the middle of the night, when roads were clear, it was a two-hour drive to Hammerlocke. That would be their base. The sun peeked over the horizon as they arrived. Heather dozed off at some point on the motorway, but she eagerly peered out to see the imposing skyline of ancient walls, turrets and the castle, housing the Gym, that towered over everything. The whole city centre was like a giant castle. She would soon find that the council estates beyond the centre weren't so picturesque, but her first impression was exactly as foreigners imagined Galar to be.
