Hello, all! Just greeting you all to say hello and say this: I may continue this, I may not. Each section is dedicated to one of the members of the Unova Elite Four, and how they came to work for the Pokémon League. I'm just having a little bit of fun with the characters and the little bit of background given on them. Since Grimsley is noted to be a gambler, I decided this would be as good of a start as any. If you have any (CONSTRUCTIVE) criticism, that would be much appreciated, as, frankly, all I've got on most of these people are a few bits of in-game dialogue from bulbapedia.

So, without further ado, Unovian Elite begins!

Oh, shit, were they still following him?

He couldn't tell.

He paused to catch his breath, ducking behind a corner in the sprawling metropolis as he thought to himself, checking by his belt to make sure that the four pokéballs were still holstered there. Each was in place, and he finally allowed himself to lean back against the wall and sink down, resting his head against it with a tired sigh. He tensed as he heard one of his pursuers down the alleyway, his breath hitching as he tensed, reaching for a small knife under the back of his black jacket.

"You think that damn vampire's down this alley?" asked one of his hunters, looking down the alley with a frown. Another shook his head behind him.

"Nah, I think I saw him go this way, c'mon!" the other said as he passed him. The man in the alley clutched the knife tighter as he heard the other one voice his doubts. "Do you really want to waste the boss' time? If he hears we lost that damn vampire, we're dead!"

That shut the first thug up.

They were gone around the corner before he could blink, and he completely relaxed, though his hand remained on the knife. Damn his luck and damn his father's, if neither had given out on him, he'd never be in this situati-

He stopped that train of thought right there and slapped the back of his head. He let out a shuddering breath and stood, turning to look down the other side of the alley so he could get moving. This miserable city, for all its twists and turns, was remarkable for escaping from one's problems, especially if those problems happened to employ guards who probably were held back for a few grades in their formative years.

He shook his head and started down the alleyway, sighing as he started stepping forward. Almost immediately, he bumped into a towering wall of muscle and danced backwards, pulling the knife out on reflex as his senses kicked into overdrive. Before him stood a young, dark-skinned man with orange hair and bizarrely large eyebrows which seemed to loop around into the short-cut hair. He wore a blue jacket and a pair of extremely baggy blue pants, and he glared down at the smaller man with a grunt as he noticed the knife so hastily drawn.

"Do you have a problem?" he asked in a threateningly calm tone. The smaller man gulped and sheathed the knife, doing his level best to not look intimidated by the much, much bigger man.

"No, no," he said quickly. "Not at all, sir. I hope you'll forgive my rudeness, but I honestly thought you were someone else, that's all. I'm in a little bit of a situation, you see, and I need to get the hell out of here as quickly as I-" He was cut off by another man's voice, and the taller man in front of him turned around quickly at the voice.

"Marshal, there you are! I told you not to wander off without me—you've never been to Castelia City before!" The taller man, Marshal, gasped at the sight of the man running towards them, his bright read hair bobbing as he ran. A ring of pokéballs surrounded his neck as he jogged up towards them, and his poncho seemed to flutter in the wind slightly as he came to a stop in front of them, placing his hands on his knees.

"I'm sorry, sensei," Marshal said as he bowed to the older man. "I grew curious and decided to investigate some shouting I heard from down this alleyway. While down here, I ran into this," he grabbed the smaller man, who by now was trying to sneak away as gracefully as he could, "Little punk on my way down here. He bumps into me and then pulls a knife on me almost as quickly as he does!"

"Now, please," the smaller man said as he struggled in Marshal's grip, "I really don't think that this is all necessary, you know? As I told you before, I thought you were someone else and I was defending myself—I'm really in a hurry, you see, and-"

A gasp silenced him, and he looked to the red-haired man who had reached them. "Impossible," he said in a gasp as he stared at the smaller man, noticing his tell-tale bangs which hang down like a beak in front of his face, and the two small "horns" of hair to the side of his head.

At this point, the smaller man realized to whom he was speaking and he himself gasped at the sight of Alder, the Champion of the Unova Region's Pokémon League. "A-Alder," he said as Marshal let him down. "M-my apologies, sir. I d-didn't know you, or your apprentice, were in Castelia city today!" The tall, red-haired man stared at him with a shocked look before he caught his breath and shook his head, his massive spikes of hair moving as he did.

"You wouldn't have. I prefer not to attract attention to myself." He looked down at the small man with wide eyes and said in a slow voice; "Grimsley Dracule...! What on Earth are you doing here in the Gambler's district of Castelia City?"

Grimsley realized only now how problematic this situation was. Castelia city, for all its twists and turns, was great for running from your problems. Sometimes, however, your problems ran into you, instead.