DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokemon.

"Peer Review"

MARCH 19

LYSANDRE LABS

LUMOISE CITY

KALOS REGION

5:49 PM

Xerosic smiled as the kid ran out of the room. Off to Geosenge Town, presumably. To stop Lysandre and the Ultimate Weapon from destroying the world.

Perfect.

"Attention all Team Flare members" he said into the radio. "The Ultimate Weapon has been activated. It is only a matter of time now. Be sure that you are in the secured bunkers before the weapon is fired."

"Is it true, Xero?" Aliana asked. "Is it true that it's time?"

"Yes it is" said Xerosic, suppressing a sarcastic comment about having to repeat himself. "You all should head down to the HQ in Geosenge. I'll stay here and ensure that things go according to plan."

"Good luck" said Mable. "We'll see you on the other side."

"Goodbye Mable" said Xerosic. "It's been an honor working with you."

"Uh, likewise" Mable replied.

Xerosic placed the radio on the table. He had always liked Mable, at least more than the other three "scientists." She was the only somewhat competent one of the bunch.

To be honest, she was the only one he'd miss.

He wanted to call her again over the radio, to tell her not to go to Geosenge, to stay here. To tell her that the weapon wasn't going to work the way Lysandre thought it would, that it was going to overload and wipe the Team Flare HQ off the map. That no one, not that kid, not Lysandre, not even the legendary pokémon were ever going to leave the HQ alive.

But he couldn't let such silly personal emotions get in the way. The plan was far too perfect for him to lose his nerve now.

Instead, he decided to distract himself by going over his mental checklist. After all, he was only going to get one shot at success here.

First of all, there was the matter of Lysandre's bank accounts. Sure, the man had been very generous with the Team Flare science budget, perfect for skimming off much of the funds meant to develop The Weapon (as they called it) and instead invest in more productive fields of inquiry. Lysandre had invested most of his Holo Caster-derived fortune in Team Flare's operations, and the few idiots who had paid that ridiculous team entry fee had given them some additional capital. But there was still some left, and it's not as though the boss was going to need it anymore, one way or the other.

Xerosic opened his laptop and logged into Lysandre's account. It was important that he get this done before someone in the government realized that Lysandre was serious about his "I'm going to destroy the world" speech on the Holo Caster and froze his assets. It took only a moment to transfer the remaining money into Xerosic's unmarked account, and then another minute to transfer that money into a third, equally unmarked account. No reason to make it traceable.

Xerosic smiled and adjusted his goggles, a nervous habit of his. Next, he checked the status of the stock market, in particular Lysandre Labs' stock. As he had predicted, the prices were dropping like a rock. As those not in the know saw it, if Lysandre wasn't telling the truth about destroying the world, then he was insane, which was arguably worse for business. Either way, Lysandre Labs was probably not going to survive for long. How fortunate, then, that he had sold all of his L-Labs stock the day before and then used the wonder of short sales to make a few more bucks as the price crashed. All together, he was looking at around 10 billion pokédollars in untaxed income, perfect for years of research, all hidden in various secret accounts. He'd need to leave it in place for a while until the heat was off, but he could wait. Besides, there were other ways to scrape by. Assuming the suit worked as estimated, for example, he could probably just go around beating trainers, getting prize money and then stealing and selling their pokémon if he had to.

Sighing, Xerosic closed out of the banking program and checked on the next element of his list: The tapes. Over the past year or so, Lysandre Labs had been recording all sorts of Holo Caster calls from all over Kalos. Most were really boring, but occasionally something interesting would come up. The mayor of Lumoise, for example, had a girlfriend who he called whenever his wife was out. The Chief Police Commissioner of the region had a tendency to avoid paying taxes on his various properties. Etc, etc. Xerosic checked the online storage site where he was keeping backup copies of the usable recordings. Between that and the four separate hard drives in four different locations including a safety deposit box in Sinnoh and a time capsule buried in the back of a cave in Kanto, Xerosic was confident that no one would ever be able to recover all of them.

Xerosic glanced at a security monitor where two people in what appeared to be masks and tights were busy smashing the building's primary storage server, presumably attempting to destroy Team Flare's recorded calls. Xerosic smiled. As if. He'd wiped that server clean hours ago. No point in letting the police get their hands on the information. Or anyone else, for that matter.

Now that all of the business was out of the way, he could check up on the science. Xerosic exited the elevator, entering his secret laboratory. Well, his secret L-Labs lab. There were, of course, his other two laboratories on opposite ends of Kalos. It would be a while before the police (who would, eventually, show up to investigate) would clear out of L-Labs, and he needed to work.

First things first, the blood samples from both the legendary pokémon and Lysandre's captive "AZ" (what kind of name was that?) were sealed away in cold storage. After all, either could contain the true secret to human immortality, and it would be a shame for that potential to go to waste. His pokéball-controlling computer virus was coming along well, thanks to his ability to experiment on the dozens of free pokéballs Team Flare had stolen (they honestly could have just bought them, but that was giving Bryony and Celosia far too much credit). Ah, well, at least they'd saved some cash, which he could now put to a better use than buying identical orange suits. The official pokéball blueprints that Kalik (one of the sane(r) of the grunts) had covertly pocketed from the Pokéball Factory at his request had been helpful as well.

That left the Expansion Suit. Project Essentia. His masterpiece (of the moment, at any rate). Xerosic placed his hand on the glass case holding the suit. It really was beautiful. The initial tests of the mechanical systems had been successful, but the control system was proving problematic. He needed a new test subject for the brain mapping. Preferably someone with time on their hands and a higher IQ than the average Flare grunt. Perhaps he should put out an advertisement?

With that, Xerosic walked to the elevator and flipped a series of switches, shutting down the lights and lowering the Expansion Suit case into the floor. A few more buttons and his lab was completely locked down. Given a month or two, he could return, and he had a list of ACTUAL scientists that he could hire, if he needed an extra pair of hands. He had, of course, avoided inducting them into Team Flare. After all, why risk exposing them to the stupidity? That, and clean criminal records helped immensely.

Xerosic exited the elevator and collected his pokémon from the healing machine. He was sorry that he had to put them in the line of fire against a far superior opponent, but he needed the data on that kid's strategies. After all, such a skilled trainer would be a wonderful basis for Essentia's battle AI. He might look to see if there were any videos of the kid's previous battles. After all, they had been impressive, mowing through Flare grunts with ease (that might be what was known as damning with faint praise, but it marked them as 'above average'). It was too bad that their heroic streak was going to get the better of them. Xerosic made a mental note to make sure that the media learned of their valiant death once it was all over. He could respect a skilled opponent that much.

In less than a minute, Xerosic had exited the Labs (giving a curt nod to the two poor grunts disguised as Lysandre Café waiters, who would no doubt find themselves under arrest in the next few hours) and stepped out onto the streets of Lumoise. A good five minute walk brought him to one of his apartments (of course, his normal living space was a bit further from the Labs, but this one was convenient for when he didn't need to commute). He locked the door, tossed his coat and gloves on the couch, got a lemonade out of the fridge and sat down with his laptop. By now, the kid should be close to Geosenge Town. Xerosic smiled and sipped his lemonade as he opened the backdoor program he'd installed in the Geosenge HQ's security cameras. Sure enough, a small force of children was cutting through Team Flare's best and brightest. Which, granted, wasn't that much, since all of the brightest (which is to say him) had bailed out by this point, but there was still a small army of grunts and 'admins' (not that they ever did anything) to go. He personally hoped that Malva would be around to get crushed (her ego really did need to be knocked down a couple dozen notches, even if it was a formality before her hopefully horrific death) but his personnel report said that she would be hiding out in a bunker up in the mountains . Ah, well. Perhaps he'd simply have to email the Team Flare records regarding her to the police once it was all over. Or maybe not. Having control over a member of the Elite Four could prove… useful.

But enough of that. There had been enough planning, enough calculations, enough set-up.

Now it was time to sit back and enjoy the show.

Hey. Just a two-shot (maybe a three-shot?) I created of Xerosic, the most epic by far of all Team Flare members. Which might not be saying that much, but he's pretty awesome.

This was made in the same style as my other Pokemon one-shot, "In Review." If you liked this, you'll probably like that as well. I might do more of these sorts of stories (there are some other Pokemon villains in need of some author saving throws, Archer of Team Rocket being the most obvious example) but I also might just save some of my alternate interpretations for my planned, I-swear-I'll-do-it-eventually mega-series DPA Chronicles.

Also by me and Pokemon is my Pokemon Colosseum AU, For Want of a Knight. Check that out as well.