We watched that little runt make the last move of the battle; He finished off Master Evice with a massive blow of psychic from his little purple feline, the Espeon. My lip curved nervously, my stomach felt... Off.

I couldn't beleive that two... Two children threw our entire plan off. Children! Did we hire a pack of idiots?! My stomach remained in it's twisted state seeing even him overthrown by this child, I threw my arm onto my computer to turn off the reception.

I slowly panted, bringing up one of my hands to hold my head, my longest and most iconic strips of hair sat between two of my fingers. To my side, the woman that insisted on such vibrant colours to show herself off so well, Venus, I felt her looking at me with concern.

"Ein..." she sighed a bit after whispering my name, her arm covered by that large sleeve slowly bent up for her elegant little hand to touch her bottom lip curiously. "I... We... We can't do much now, the plan... It's ruined." she seemed upset.

But I had no real response. I didn't even look at her, her elegant veil, her neat hair and very important-looking clothing. "The whole thing, ruined by a little boy..." I scowled at the thought and threw my glare downwards. "More so that meddlesome little girl!" my hand threw down from my head to attack the machine in front of me, the woman in the large pink dress jumped and flinched at my sudden outburst, I saw it roughly in the corner of my eye.

"It's not like a plan this big can be brought back to life." she mumbled, retaining her natural sassy nature while trying to hold her cool after being startled. "Why are you so... Mad about it?"

"...Aren't you?" my hands both dropped onto the machine. I turned my head to try and see her behind myself, as well as the various other machines and tables spread across my dark and dank lab. The lighting was never very bright, especially here in the lower levels. "All that fame that was built up for you... You loved it. Didn't you?"

"Of course I did!" she seemed flustered by my doubts. "But... A-after being displayed as a fraud, I don't want to show my face the way it is outside of here ever again!" she suddenly seemed quite affected by the thought. The thought of having all she wanted, this pampered and beautiful appearance, love and fame... All swiped from her. Now she was a criminal in the eyes of those that truly admired her.

I sighed a bit, finally standing up straight and turning to look at her. I seemed to manage to upset her by saying that, I never looked right at her, but down a bit. "...I apologize. I just can't seem to accept that our whole plan has just... Vanished." I made some gesture with my arms to create some more emotion in my words. "The plan I worked so hard on, the plan I was so keen to chase up...!" my arms fell down to my sides lifelessly. "Destroyed by an incompetent child. Now it's just gone, all our Shadow Pokemon, gone... I don't know what to do with myself."

"Did this plan really mean that much to you...?"

"Ever since I was hired, those years ago..." my sight drifted upwards, as if I were begining to make a wish. "It's been a dream on mine to create a fighting machine out of a Pokemon... One that knows no limits and is not afraid to even strike at humans." I finally let my gaze meet that of Venus'. "Now it's all gone, in the click of a finger. I'm infuriated..."

"I know you are..." I saw a pout form on the diva's face, it was almost the same one as she pulled on our first meeting as Admins of Cipher when we had a slight disagreement. "But you can't just hold onto it and hope it will come back." her pout formed into quite a serious frown, she folded her arms across her pink, vibrant gown.

I focused on her with quite a glare, not paying attention to the dark machines and such around us. "What...?"

"You need something else to live for, Ein. The Shadow Pokemon Project is over! We're not getting it back!" she even went as far as to tear the veil from her mouth as well as the "golden" collar that held up what looked like a cape on her gown, and throwing them both on the cold, solid ground of the lab. "If you sit here and hope that you'll get another chance then they'll find you."

"...'They'?"

"The police, you dingbat!" she flicked her collar in my face and managed to slant my pointed, tinted glasses in the process. "Think, is that really worth staying here for...?"

"M-my lab..." I turned away again, staring into the darkness of the even deeper sections to the lab, with a stare of misery. "All these years of work... Don't you understand, Venus?!" I turned on her again with a light scowl. "This is nothing I can shrug off! I'll run the entire project alone to get it back if I have to!"

"Don't be so stupid!" she growled to retaliate, crouching with quite a struggle in her thick, pink gown to grab what could have been seen as her crown, and chucking it at me. It bounced off my chest and left quite a pain there, I reached to touch it, my collar ended up under my hand as well. "You have to give it up or they'll find you in here..." she finally piped down, but grew a solemn look on her face. "...I'll never see you again."

I felt myself grow flustered at her words, I threw a glare at her quickly. "Wh-what would you care if that was the case?"
"I would care a lot." her familiar pout came back. "You're too dumb to notice, but I kind of... Like you."

I folded my arms and threw my look in another direction. "I'm not 'stupid', you flirt with everyone you meet..." even I formed a pout at this point, more of a "grumpy" one, as she describes it.

"Not true!" she stomped her foot like a child making demands. "I would NEVER do such a thing with the likes of Miror B..." she sighed a bit and rolled her eyes. "You're way cuter."

"Okay, okay, that's enough." I mumbled lowly, still pulling my pout. I wanted to argue more to stay in my precious lab, with my beloved research on creating what I thought would truly be the strongest Pokemon in the world, even rivaling that of Kanto's creation Mewtwo.
But it never went my way now, did it? Perhaps Venus was right. Perhaps it is really time to let go of this foolish dream and look for something else to stride for.

My silence left her quite confused, she waddled closer and waved a hand in my face. When I snapped out of my hypnotic state, I looked down at her with an unsure, curved mouth. I sorted at my glasses, even taking a small flick at my "lightning bolt" strand of hair. She was standing quite close to me and I wasn't sure if I liked it or not.

"Seeing sense yet?"

Her words were mocking, I continued to curve my mouth in an uncomfortable fashion. I never really paid attention to my grey, dull surroundings, thanks to the woman dressed in so much pink that stood right in front of me. "...Perhaps leaving this place behind is best." I muttered, sudden thoughts of the police finding me were actually quite daunting. Thrown into jail to die like a dog... "Even leaving the plan behind." I could hardly believe I let those words slip out of my mouth, never mind how shocked she was. "Maybe one day, we can try it again..."

"That's like me saying I can get back into fame after being labeled a criminal."

I found myself chuckle at her remark, though she didn't find it very funny. "But..." I went on, she seemed to think I was finished. "You were right." I muttered this part as it seemed to make her grin, but I had to go on. "I need to move on and find something else to... 'Live for'. Something else to hold dear to me..." I decided to pass no further warning, leaning myself closer in and touching her lips with my own, delicately. Though startled at first she didn't seem to argue, as she soon joined my action of this kiss and softly held both sides of my head with her lovely, thin, little hands.

Not long after we slowly pulled away from each other, with a moment of silence staring into one another's eyes. She has such wonderful, hazel coloured eyes, I never really noticed until then. "...You really are cute." she giggled with a soft touch of red on her cheeks. She soon snapped out of her state, and tapped my arm. "We better get out of here and find somewhere to go!"

"Yeah..." I nodded slowly to agree, sorting at my long coat a bit, the long collar felt awkward after that kiss. I was still thinking about it. I couldn't stop; It was my first, I hated showing affection before then. I still do, but perhaps Venus is something special. Which was strange, as I know this certainly wasn't her first...

After dragging me out of my daydream again, Venus made sure to shove me through my own lab, it was hard to say goodbye to this humble, large lab, but I knew now that staying here wasn't something I could do. Now that I'd actually found something else to do with myself, I decided to stay with Venus. If we were going down, we were doing it together.

Strangely, we still even managed to enter some Battle Tournaments without being convicted, captured or anything. We even caught sight of Miror B., and naturally we found that brute Dakim lurking around certain arenas.

Unfortunately, we crossed paths with that runt Wes once again... But we had no Shadow Pokemon he could steal. No plans he could foil. Not even he gave our location away...

It makes sense when I think about it. He was once a criminal himself, after all. Perhaps he thinks we want to change.

Hah. What an idiot.