and thus starts another mystery...

[these_balls]

GOLDENROD CITY
DAY 26/11. 23:19.

"You LOST it?!" Ariana's voice echoed outside the door to her office. Anyone in the Rocket headquarters could hear her absolute rage. But inside? Three rocket scientists and three fellow admins could feel the searing anger radiating off of her. She stood before those three scientists, all of which were on their knees before her, pretty much begging for their lives. "We're sorry, Ariana! We're so sorry, Boss!" the first one cried, tears streaming from his face. Petrel laughed. "You're pretty much doomed," he managed to choke out between laughter. Proton shoved him. "We should feed them to the Sharpedo," he suggested, crossing his arms. "They've deserved it enough." The middle one sobbed, inching a little closer. "Please don't feed us to anything! We didn't mean to! We just--" "It was the magnemite!" the third one supplied, keeping his head bowed. He knew better than to look up and planned on groveling to the fullest. "DON'T BLAME POKEMON FOR YOUR OWN INCOMPETENCE!" Ariana's rage flared again, and Petrel was quick to grab her before she kicked them. Her heels clattered on the floor as he tugged her back. The scientists whimpered and all scooted back. "Well, what should we do?" Petrel asked. Then, he turned to look behind him. "Archer, any ideas?" Archer had been quiet. Although frustrated, his thoughts landed more on locating the machine than punishing the three grunts. He didn't answer the question just yet, head still bowed in thought. Petrel just rolled his eyes, turning back to the scene before him. "Proton?" "Ground them into mulch and feed 'em to my Metagross," Proton replied. Petrel found himself laughing. "That's meta-gross. Ariana's not answering. You losers, any suggestions on what we should do to you?" The scientists whimpered. Their only options seemed to be 'pokéfood or death'. But before any of them had a chance to decide, Archer finally stepped from the wall, approaching them. "Lock them up. We'll figure their demotions out later," he replied. "But for now, we have bigger magikarp to fry. Like getting that machine back, for starters." "Well, what are we going to do about those missing few days?" Proton asked. "We can't make the professors help us this time; and we don't even have enough sleep powder in reserve." "So in short, we're doomed?" Petrel asked. Ariana stepped on his foot.

Fourth Wall is now over!
Thank you for participating, everyone!

Pokégears and clocks will register the proper time and date. The regular background music returns, and everything is once again back to normal--whatever value one has of 'normal' in this world. You may find yourself waking up somewhere you don't remember falling asleep in. A different building, a different city, a different region, or even on the magnet train wondering why you're leaving Saffron City when you don't remember being in Kanto. The insanity just continues.

You may continue to backtag 4th Wall posts at your leisure! Thank you so much, guys!

Meanwhile, that machine, the one that controls how people come and leave the World of Pokémon, is now out of Rocket hands and is now mysteriously... elsewhere. Ominous cues? What ominous cues?