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Taking the mallet from Allen, Rei looked down at the small circle sensor he was supposed to whack.

"Well... Here goes," he said, striking the mallet against the metal plate.

With a loud ping, the marker rose into the air. The height wasn't impressive, but Rei didn't mind; after all, it was higher than Caleb's, and Rei was just a scientist.

The machine blared its congratulations, throwing out a ridiculously large Caterpie doll at Rei's face.

"Not bad, barely better than a wimp," the voice in the box cried. "Try again later, if you think you can take me on," it sneered, an extra bit of malice directed at Caleb. With that, the Rotom lunged at Caleb.

Deciding that Caleb would easily handle the Rotom by himself, Rei smiled at his Zubat, who had already claimed ownership over the plush and had fallen asleep on its massive forehead.

"Looks like I'll be done for the day," he said with satisfaction. "Perhaps we can tour the rest of Nimbasa later."

Allen chuckled, watching the Rotom fly off into the night and looked back to Caleb. He chuckled just before a song could be heard in the distance...

'Yeah-eh-heah
You are, my fire,
The one, desire,
Believe, when I say
I want it that w--' As soon as he could fumble the ball into the right position, Allen whipped up her Pokeball, pointed it directly at Lydia to withdraw her. Thankfully that stopped the music from playing loud enough to hear.

Allen ran away so fast he seemed more like a blur heading straight for the park exit.

Rei's head snapped awake from his desk.

"Of course," he cried out to nobody in particular. He jumped up from his seat and rummaged through his bag. Pulling out a thin screen with a holographic keyboard, he swiped open his computer and looked through his archived research.

"Project Amber, no... Carta, no... Felix, no... Aha!" He tapped on a large folder titled 'Experiment 28659: Latobius.'

Various files poured out from the screen, filling the room with holographic representations of research notes, images, videos, and objects related to the project. Upon seeing one such folder, his happy bubble burst.

Latobius was research done when he was still a scientist working under Archie. He was a different person then. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say he was a different person now, he wondered. Rei closed the files with a deep sigh.

"Countess, perhaps I should stop working on Project Cymbal for now," he muttered, a deep sadness now in his heart. Every time he worked on a project that could connect with Latobius, he couldn't finish his work, partly out of fear of what would happen if another person took his archives. His research was for the benefit of the world, he argued, and sometimes knowledge gained by unethical experiments could be used for far more noble pursuits. The logic was sound, to him, but he still couldn't bring himself to use the wealth of information that could be obtained from Latobius.

Too many dark memories.

He archived Project Cymbal and closed his computer, slipping the thin piece of metal back into his bag.

"Well, that was a waste of time," he said forlornly to his Zubat. The bat shrugged in reply; perhaps Rei needed an extended vacation from his research. With a squeak, she pulled out a piece of paper and bottle of ink. Dipping a thin foot into the bottle, she drew a few diagrams: a box with a stick figure and a tiny bat, and an arrow pointing outwards. She then drew what she thought the beach looked like: lots of dots for sand, a circle coconut, and a palm tree.

Rei's Zubat wasn't the best artist; being a sightless Pokémon, she often drew her work far larger than anticipated, and this time was no different. Her feet splattered against the desk, and she eventually ran out of room, but Rei got the idea.

Cleaning her feet with a warm towel, Rei laughed.

"Sure, we can take a break. The beach, huh? Well, no sense going alone. Let's see if anyone else wants to come along." He flipped open his TADS and typed out an invitation to Humilau City.

"I hope everyone's not tired of the beach yet," he joked, remembering their extended stay at a hotel in Kalos.

Rei gathered his things and headed outside, but was stopped by his Zubat. She tugged at his bag.

"What? I'm not leaving this in a hotel room. That's not safe." She screeched in his ear and yanked a Poké Ball from his bag. Gex the Grovyle leaped out from the ball and carried the large bag, his chest puffing out. He would protect the goods while Rei took a break, Gex decided. Who knows what terrible bad guys would be after the contents while Rei was away? Ony the Great SuperGex could take on this perilous mission. He scuttled off with the bag into Rei's room before the Aquan had a chance to take the package away.

"Well... I guess it'll be ok, at least for one day," Rei said in defeat, his posture slightly relaxing. "Alright, let's head to Humilau." He pulled out a Poké Ball and sent out is Salamence, who was already wearing his favorite shades and a ridiculous amount of sunscreen lotion.

"What...?" He looked from his Salamence to his Zubat.

"This is a setup. You guys just wanted to go somewhere, didn't you?" he accused. The two snickered in reply, the Salamence lifting up Rei by his shoulders.

"Emo Cloud! Just let me climb on you!" The Salamence relented and landed back on the ground for his trainer's benefit. With a powerful flap of its wings, Salamence was into the air as soon as Rei had a better hold on him. Within minutes, the glimmer of the coast was seen below, and Emo Cloud glided in for a soft landing.

Rei slipped off the dragon's back, congratulating the Salamence.

"You've really gotten used to flying, Emo Cloud. Good job." With that, he turned his attention to the sea.

"Hmm. Not as good as Hoenn, but definately has a resort feel," he commented. "Let's see if we can find a lighthouse." Rei walked around aimlessly, pleasantly lost.

Salamence glanced up from his comfy position in the sand. Something made a thwump sound. His head tilted to the side, trying to understand the bunched up pile of human and Pokémon. Marshtomp poked its head out, and Salamence became disinterested. It was just Caleb.

To his left, a Mawile lying on a towel underneath the Salamence's wings poked out from the shade and waved hello to Marshtomp.

"See, Emo Cloud?" she said in common Pokémon tongue. "That's why we should never adopt. We'd get stuck with a boring, surly human." The Salamence snorted.

"As if. Besides, we already have a kid," he said, looking to his right. A blue and white Voltorb lay half-sunk in the ground, snoozing away.

"You're kidding me," the Mawile said.

"Of course I'm serious! He hatched in front of us. We must be its parents."

"Arceus, you're an idiot," Mawile grumbled as she plopped back down on the towel. "I thought you brought the Voltorb just so we'd have a beach ball."

Mawile knocked on the Voltorb's head.

"Hey. Get up. I want to play volleyball." The orb turned itself to face the Mawile. Play? How?

"It's easy. Just be a ball and explode every time someone fails to hit you."

The ball nodded, ready for a game or two. Mawile beckoned to Caleb's Pokémon to join in.

Cody stumbled onto the scene as always, Fraxure following closely behind in an obnoxious tumble. Reaching down, the boy lifted his dragon by the arm and hoisted the pokemon onto his shoulders. Looking around, he saw.. Well.. A whole lot of nothing.

"Anyone here?" he asked, continuing to look around for any of his team.

Caleb's eye was twitching. "I will never...EVER...play volleyball again..." he whispered. He seemed to cringe just saying the word 'volleyball'. Poor Caleb.