{Present day, at night}

"Ten grunts. Five minutes. One building. I have less than five minutes now from when I disabled the alarms to steal the Dark Balls from the facility and get out, all while avoiding ten Team Celeste Grunts. Piece of cake, right? Right."

I pulled my body back out from behind the main computer. The security room was silent, with three bodies snoring on the floor. Rewiring complete.

I slid my fingers across the control board as I look at the monitors. Some buttons I pressed, but nothing happened. "Hacking? Please, the movies make it look so easy. The direct approach is more reliable anyway. Now I need to hide the guards."

I dragged the three guards one by one to the side of the room and squeezed them behind a desk. "Those sleep powder pellets do wonders when I need an hour or two to myself." Once all the heavyweight work was set, I crawled into a vent entryway, careful to put the vent bars back on behind me.

As I squeeze my way through, I keep going over the plan in my head. Before I ruined their security, I glanced over the cameras. "That, coupled with the facility schematics I copied/stole before this heist, I know for a fact how to get around. And with the security rewired, nobody will know the cameras are frozen until it's too late. I can get to the room with the Dark Balls without being seen."

I took a couple right turns, then a left, and then straight until I reach the end. The entryway to the hall was below me. I took my hood off to get a better listen before I continue. Right on cue, two Celeste grunts walked down the hall, talking about the meteorite that almost hit Hoenn less than half a year ago. Once they're out of sight and earshot, I unlocked the vent bars and quietly leaped down into the hallway.

I glanced down at the slate of metal in my hand. "Can't put the bars back. Maybe it'll make a good shield?" Tucking the vent bars into my cloak, I navigated the lower floors. Just one more pair of grunts to avoid before I made it to the storage room with the Dark Balls. Fortunately, the lock was pick-able, and I was quickly in. Rows of Dark Balls lined the shelves, ready for nefarious purposes.

"Now to get rid of the Dark Balls. I could smash them. Or I could try to lug all the hundreds of these infernal things in this room out of the facility? In five minutes? Not really good options. Team Celeste only gets smarter and craftier. The security wires for example. I may be a wiring wiz, but nothing really gets by a backup trip alarm that will go off in less than three minutes from now. New trick Team Celeste has been implementing to try to stop me. Key word: try. But I get smarter and craftier, too. Kinda sad, but true. Fortunately, they have never learned of the one trick I always have up my sleeve. Or rather on my finger."

I held up two golden ringlets that fit on my right middle finger and focused. They're called Unbound Rings. Something I stole from Team Celeste years ago, and with begrudging best wishes from a Hoopa. The two rings glowed before one of them expanded to the small size I wanted it. With these Unbound Rings, I could travel to anywhere I could picture properly. Or summoned something or someone I know well of. Or threw things into it to somewhere else. I went with the latter and quickly dumped each and every Dark Ball in the room into the ring portal. Since I didn't plan on keeping them, I decided to go with Mt. Chimney of Hoenn, straight into the magma. "Hopefully Groudon won't mind if I use his favorite volcano as a trash disposal."

Once the Dark Balls are gone, I closed up the ring portal and placed my hood back on. "I think I have under two minutes left until the alarms go off. Main mission accomplished…but I'm not done quite yet. It wouldn't be fair if I didn't leave the police with a little something, right?" I exited the storage room, closing the door behind me. Now I stepped into a smaller storage room down the hall. This one wasn't locked, as there was nothing really of value left in there. I pulled my scarf around my neck up over my nose and mouth. There were some ceiling pipes hanging above, so I gripped myself right above the doorway. "Now I wait. I may or may not have rewired the security in such a manner that it would lure all ten Celeste grunts down to this room at the same time. Shit, I don't know. I'm a wiring wiz, not a wiring guru. And a little out of practice."

I had about under a minute left by the time I heard footsteps. "Cutting it quite close." Thankfully, all ten grunts quickly filed in, looking quite confused.

"Hey, does anyone know what the pressing concern was about this room in particular?" asked one grunt.

"Not really. The pocket alarms cued us here…" started another grunt.

Just as the last grunt got into the room, I made my move. I dropped a Sleep Powder pellet by the doorway, which went off with a loud bang. As planned, the grunts were startled and pulled away from the entrance. I held my breath, leaped down from the ceiling, and swiftly shut the door. "Sleep Powder dissipates after a few seconds or so, so I can hold my breath long enough to outlast being afflicted by the sleep status. I just need to keep these grunts inside so they succumb to the powder."

The grunts flinched a bit longer, not expecting a 17-year-old intruder in their facility. Their mistake. That costed them three of their comrades, who fell to the floor, fast asleep. Then a forth grunt fell asleep when the others figured out what's happening. The remaining six began to charge at me, readying their Poke Balls. But they all were getting drowsy and disoriented. I rushed back at them. I first hit their throwing arms, knocking their Poke Balls out of their hand. Another two grunts fell to sleep after I yanked them by their arms to the floor. Then I used my lessons from Sensei about looking for weak points to inflict flinching pain to the last four grunts. In this case, I resorted to tripping them over. The four did try to throw some punches in. But they were too slow and disoriented to be very effective. Three of them fell asleep right after falling to the floor.

Then I saw the last one drag himself to the door. "Now I know what to do with the vent bars!" I pulled the vent bars out of my cloak and tossed it at the grunt's hand as he tried to reach for the door handle. After cringing in pain, the final grunt snored to sleep.

I couldn't help but smirk at how easy this run was going. Then, a few seconds later, the facility alarms went off.

"Perfect. The local police will be here in a few minutes to answer to the alarms. Now, it wouldn't be fair if I didn't leave them a little something right? I don't want to come off as rude."

So I first conjured a small ring portal again and pulled out some ropes from my hideaway. I tied up the sleeping grunts in two groups in the middle of the room. I also frisked any money from their pockets. It only added to a few hundred Poke Dollars, but I could work with that. I put the money in my pocket as I closed and reopened the ring portal.

Now I pulled out a spray canister. "If that Unova school taught me anything, it's to always put your name or signature on all your work. Not that I officially attented, but I can get behind that idea." So I sprayed out a message to the cops, who would eventually find these tied-up saps, on a wall in the room: Team SMEAR was here.

After all my handiwork was done, I threw the spray can back into the ring portal. I pulled down my scarf and took a deep breath, savoring the moment of my success. Finally, I pulled the hood of my cloak back on, opened a large ring portal vertically, and stepped through it.

I ended up within the trees near the pond of Route 31. It was still the middle of the night. Just like every other time before, I froze in place and minded my surroundings. When it looked and sounded like nobody was around, I darted into the trees and looked northward toward the facility. It sat half-concealed northeast of Violet City. The police lights soon appeared outside the front entrance to the facility.

Watching the arrests unfold, I got a bittersweet feeling I was all too used to. "It would be amazing for the police to find the Celeste grunts, arrest them, and begin an investigation to expose all the wrongdoings Team Celeste has caused. But I know what will really happen. The police will come in and find ten facility workers tied up with no trace of the culprit. The grunts will claim to be acting in self-defense and have no idea why or what is going on…that they just work there. Then they'll pin the blame on Team SMEAR, pointing out the message on the wall by yours truly. They won't have a name, or a good description of the SMEAR member, but at least it keeps the police out of their suspicion. I could be a witness and make my case, but that has proven ineffective before. And who's going to believe a thief and vandalizer?"

"To the public, this facility is a storage building for the Global Trade Station. It used to be a great company for communications across regions. But as competition eclipsed the station, shareholders and company boards took more control. And some of these business members are Team Celeste. Once in control, like many other companies they get a hold of, they use these companies to store or develop items and tools that will further entrench their control over the Pokemon world."

"The worst part is I can't prove any of this. To the public, Team Celeste is a myth. A conspiracy thread by paranoid nut-jobs. It's been that way for centuries."

"…And now I've caught myself overthinking things again. But I have to keep things like this running through my head over and over, else I might forget what I'm doing this for."

"My mission: stop Team Celeste from growing at all cost. And eventually expose them. Maybe this Johto facility won't do the trick. I've still got two more facilities I know of with Dark Balls hidden away. Even if those two facilities don't get Team Celeste caught, I'll just keep hitting them where they are. Over and over. They have to slip up some day. Someday..."

I decided to stop peeking from the trees and climbed back down quietly. I opened up another large ring portal to retreat back to my hideaway home. Before I did, I looked back toward the facility one last time and smiled. "I did some good back there. So good, I didn't even need to use any Pokémon to help. Hmph, hope you enjoy my comeback, father…"

{Approx. 12 years ago}

I was extremely nervous. After my forth birthday, my father and mother gave me the task to steal five things that belonged to one of my mother's Alchimian labs without anyone knowing. Not even my parents could know, or I'd fail on the spot. I had until my next birthday to complete my task. Which was tomorrow.

It was a rite of passage for five-year-olds of the Alchimian Society to prove our skills at infiltration and deception. Now, I could've made it easy for myself and just stole things like a beaker, which they had hundreds of. But since my father was the leader of the Alchimian Society, I had to make it that much harder for myself. Also made it hard when I was the only kid living on this huge Alchimian airship.

Fortunately, I already had four items. I took each of them on different days, far apart from each other. The first was an exacto-knife, which I swiped from a worker while I helped him out. The second was the bottom half of some kind of Poke Ball, which my mother almost caught me stealing had I not convinced her I needed to go to the bathroom right away when she found me. The third item was a whole cooling system, which I sabotaged with some rewiring skills my father taught me and took it from the repair room piece by piece overnight. I got crafty with the forth item, which was a corked beaker filled with a harmless chemical my mother made. Before it was used, I switched it with another beaker filled with a liquid of the same color, mixed together from my coloring kit. Then I convinced a co-worker it was the same beaker when she found it suspicious. I have kept all these items stored in a fort made of books in my room. My parents always wondered what it was doing there, but every time I complained that it was not done, and kept changing the size and shape of the fort to this day. They praised me for my obedience and fast learning I did for them, and I loved it.

"I hope to keep getting that praise after I steal the last item from under their nose!"

The item I was hoping to snatch was a dull, pinkish-purple ring-shaped object. My mother and her lab assistants had been working tirelessly with it, and had it under tight security during the night.

"So if it's that important, I must have it."

I walked into the lab room aimlessly. My mother was on her lunch break, so there was only four scientists left. All four of them stood around the table with the ring on it.

I approached one of them and tugged his lab coat. "Excuse me, sir? Can I know what you are doing, please?"

He turned around slowly, then smiled. "Of course. My colleagues and I are very busy trying to come up with breakthrough technology that will help the Alchimian Society, and humanity furthermore".

"That's cool!" I turned to the lab lady next to her. "That ring thing looks cool, too. Can I see it?"

The lady smiled to me, then carefully took the ring off its holder. She held it up so I could see it. "See how cool it is? Almost like a pretty bracelet".

"Pretty…" I replied, half enthusiastically. But I almost immediately ran to the next scientist, also a woman. "So what's it do?"

The first woman passed the ring to the second woman. The second woman then crouched a bit to my level and put the ring over her right eye. "Well, it doesn't do anything yet; it's just a crude prototype. But for now it's used to spy on nosy little boys like you!" She poked my stomach, which made me laugh. She then messed with my hair. "See, a face like that is too cute not to spy on!"

I smiled even brighter, letting her and the other three on-looking scientists soak in my cuteness. Then I darted over to the forth scientist, a guy. "So is my mom working on the ring, too?"

The scientist, a guy, took the ring from the woman scientist. "Yes. It's one of her passion projects for the Alchimian Society. In fact, she'll be coming back from her lunch break any minute now…."

"Just the excuse I was looking for!" "Yay!" I dashed by the male scientist in the direction of the lab door, bumping passed him. He didn't drop the ring, but he did hit the table, causing their work to shake a bit. "Uh oh…sorry…"

"Woah," gasped one of the woman scientists, "I think we should put the prototype down before we have an accident with it".

And now I added, "Yeah, you guys should put the ring down and leave it alone for a while".

The four scientists looked dazed for a second, almost blankly staring straight. Then the guy holding the ring placed it back on its holder, and the four walked off to another part of the lab. One of them looked at me and smiled, and I smiled back. I had found I can be a very persuasive kid, and got away with a lot of things. I just assumed it was because I was so irresistibly adorable, nobody questioned me.

I wanted to take the ring then and there while the scientists were busy somewhere else. But one of things my father taught me last year was planning ahead. "Working on the fly can work, but a solid plan before you act is more effective, he would say. So I will stick to the plan I thought over all week."

I walked over to a computer in the lab, away from the scientists. It was on, it was huge, and it had a lot of buttons. I quietly squeezed myself behind the slab of steel, where the wires were. I had no idea what wires did what. My dad did teach me about the wiring of many machines, but it was all a blur for my little brain. So I just yanked a few out and hoped for the best. After I saw the computer was still on, and the scientists were still busy with their work, I headed back to the table with the ring. I pulled up on a tall stool chair and reached for the ring. "Finally, it is in my grasp!"

I stepped back down from the table and slipped the ring in my sweater pocket. Suddenly, the lab door opened, and my mom stepped in. I froze in place, slightly hidden behind the table. My mom was so sweet to me, but she knew me so well she could find me out!

My mom looked to the scientists, who scrambled to her attention. "Kaylin, you're back from your lunch break early!" exclaimed one of the scientists.

Kaylin was a modest height, but when she got irked by anything, she could dwarf you with just a look. Her long, golden-blonde hair was tied back similar to a Primarina, but a few lose strands hung in front of her face. She gave her coworker scientists her signature glare for a split second, which was enough to make them flinch. But she followed her look up with a comforting smile. "I didn't really feel like eating when I'm greatly anticipating the next steps of our work…"

I casually ran out from where I was hiding, straight to my mom. "Hi, mom!"

Kaylin turned around, beaming. "Ah, looks like my finest work has come to visit me, again!" She crouched down to cuddle me up when I ran into her open arms. "How's my little prodigy doing today?"

"I'm good, mom".

Kaylin turned around to the scientists. One of the woman scientists stood near her, waiting for further instruction. The others had spread to other corners of the lab. Kaylin spoke to the scientist close to her, "My son hasn't been bothering you, has he?"

The scientist rubbed her forehead a bit. "No, Miss Kaylin, nothing bad I can recall".

My mother looked back to me. Whenever I looked her in the eyes, it was as if she was looking into my soul. "Remember, Will: make sure you're careful in here. Some of our most important work for the Alchimian Society happens right in this very lab. You understand, right?"

I instinctively slid both hands in my sweater pocket. But I quickly put a grin on my face and tilted my head a little. "I understand, mom". It was scary how it was sometimes like she could read my mind. Must have been one of her "mom powers".

She laughed under her breath and patted my head. Then she stood back up and faced the woman scientist. "So what's our progress so far?"

The scientist looked down at the clipboard she held. "Almost everything is proceeding right on schedule. New Poke Balls are developed by the month throughout all our R&D labs, the anti-Porygon programs have reached beta stages, and the designs for the Kineti-Packs are getting approved".

"Excellent! And what on our list needs to be improved?"

"Well, Project Portal-Bound is still being tested in numerous experiments and conditions. But without the capture of Subject Zero, we'll likely end up stuck in the infant stages of the project's development".

Kaylin pondered for a bit. "Figured as much. At least we'll be getting some extra help soon, but the lack of Subject Zero won't…" She turned to the table where the ring was. She whirled back to the scientist, with a very stern look on her face. "Where is the ring now? It was right there before my break…"

I quickly slid in front of her as the scientist looked like she was trying to hide behind her clipboard. "It's okay, mom. It's my fault. I came in here and they showed it to me…but they made me close my eyes and hid it from me to keep it safe". "I hope to Arceus that she buys my story."

The scientist with the clipboard pulled it down, and nodded slowly. After looking at me for several seconds, Kaylin calmed down and sighed. "Well, at least we're taking things cautiously in this lab. Now…"

"Um, Kaylin?" said one of the male scientists. He stood by the computer I was just at. "There's a stream of error messages popping up, and our measurements are way off from the control charts".

"Let me see that…" mumbled Kaylin. The other three scientists joined Kaylin and the male scientist around the computer.

"Now is my chance." "See you later, mom!" I walked quietly out of the lab, while she appeared too engrossed with the computer errors to respond.

"Once I get back to my room, I'm safe! It's just on the opposite end of the airship." I had nearly memorized the layout of this airship, and its size practically dwarfed any building I've seen on the ground from up here. There were no signs for getting anywhere around, besides emergency exits. But just by wandering around, I knew I could wind my way through stairwells and hallways and still fumble my way to where I wanted to go…eventually.

I walked casually down the halls, saying hi to other members of the Alchimian Society I passed by. Once I reached a stairway, I took it one floor up, and repeated the process. My dad showed me our security once, and how it worked. While we didn't have cameras or audio detectors, there were body sensors, which could determine when in what room anybody on the ship was. I guessed it would look less suspicious of me if it looked like I wa wandering aimlessly, rather than made a beeline for my room.

Just as I walked across the floor below the one with my room on it, I heard a familiar voice coming closer. "It's my dad's voice! I can't let him catch me, of all people. Not now." I looked around frantically and spotted a door left ajar. I ran through the door and carefully closed it without making a sound. The room was for storage, and fortunately nobody was in there. I pressed my head against the door, listening for my dad.

"…and see to it that we share everything…necessary with our partners…" I heard my dad say to someone as they walked by.

"Yes, Mr. Raiden…" replied the guy walking with my dad.

My heart was racing while I stood still. "What if they walk in here? What if they stand idle in the hallway outside for hours? I wish I had a map of the airship or something." But, to my great relief, Raiden and his associate continued down the hall. A whole minute after I could no longer hear their voices, I creaked the door open ajar, and continued walking my intended path.

I was almost fast-walking the rest of the way to my room. Once inside, I quickly locked the door behind me. "I did it." I carefully took the ring out of my sweater pocket and looked at it. "I did it!" I fist-bumped the air with both hands.

"Yes!" I cheered to myself.

I walked over to my book fort. It was almost twice my height, and spread out to across half of my room. At this point, I'd used up every book that was sitting on my bookshelves. "Kind of a bummer, since I want to read a book now to pass the time. But I'm anticipating a greater reward tomorrow!" I slipped the ring through a space in between the books, threw myself upon my bed, and waited.

I think I dozed off at some point, because I was abruptly stirred awake by a loud knocking at my door.

"Will?" It was my dad again. His voice was always stern, but smooth. And he always added some blend of kindness to it when he talked to me. "I know you're in here. It's passed dinner already. Aren't you hungry?"

I clutched my stomach. I certainly felt hungry now. But it wasn't tomorrow yet. There wasn't a clock in my room, or anywhere else on the airship. It would've been kind of useless, since we traveled around the world constantly. But I could feel it wasn't time yet. "I still need to keep my five stolen objects hidden, or else…I don't know…"

"William, I must speak with you. Open this door, immediately."

I groaned. But every time he threw in my full name into one of his sentences, I felt compelled to obey. I got off the bed and trudged to the door. I unlocked and opened it, and before me stood my father. I always saw him in a suit of some kind, and his dark brown hair gelled back. His eyes were not anywhere as piercing as my mom's, but there was an aura about him that gave him a commanding presence the moment he stepped into a room. Like anyone else who encountered him, I felt pressured not to disappoint him.

He led me back into my bedroom and left my door ajar. "Will, do you know of a ring-shaped object that was in one of our labs?"

I flinched, but tried to stay calm. "Um, yeah. Someone showed me it once. Isn't it that thing my mom's working on?"

"Yes, it is. And it's missing. Now I've spoken to everyone who's been in that room…except for you…" He bent down to my level. "Nobody knows where it has been misplaced, and I'm getting some conflicting reports of what exactly happened when it came around the time you were there". He placed a hand on my shoulder. "So, could you please tell me what you remember happened?"

I looked down, collecting my thoughts. And it became hard to keep my heart from beating so loud. Then I looked up to his face. "I was visiting the lab, looking for mom. Then I saw some scientists working on a ring on a table, and I got curious. So I asked then, and they showed it to me. But then they had to hide it from me in case…"

"…but they don't remember hiding the ring…" Raiden interrupted.

I swallowed hard.

"All they remember is leaving the ring alone…for a while…" Raiden stood back up, adjusting his suit. "Now, given all I know, it stands to reason that you might have something to do with the missing ring."

"But…"

He sighed, still giving me a stern look. "I know you have a task since your last birthday to take five things of ours and get away with it until your next birthday. But that ring is too important to be left unnoticed, and I have to have it back at once."

"But…"

"William…"

"No! Please no! Not my name like that…"

"…turn the ring over, and anything else you stole. I suspect you have them somewhere in here…"

I lowered my head in shame. "I'm going to disappoint my father no matter what I do." I shuffled over to the book fort, tears welled up in my eyes. I pulled out a book near the bottom of the fort. The whole thing collapsed in a large ring. At the center were the five objects I stole for the task, which I now failed. "It's over for me."

I looked to my father. But a smile grew on his face. "That's my boy!" He reached down to hug me. "My little prodigy!"

But huge tears were already flowing down my face. "But dad…I didn't…it's not my birthday yet…"

Raiden looked to his son. "Ah, but you did. See, your mother and I…we kind of lied to you all these years. Your birthday is not tomorrow…"

Right on cue, Kaylin walked into my bedroom, holding a small cake. "…it's today!" she smiled.

I was stunned. I rubbed the tears from my eyes and started laughing in between my crying. "I…I did it?"

"Yes, Will, you passed the test!" said Raiden excitedly. "We could not be more proud of our five-year-old son". He and Kaylin embraced me. I hugged them both back. I felt a little jittery over taking all this in.

But my parents weren't finished. My mother started, "Now that you are five years old, and you passed the test, I have some good news and sad news. How can I put this…as a child born into the Alchimian Society, you are obligated to enroll in rigorous sessions to be fully educated on how our society works, world subjects, and roles you could take in the future. Now normally, this would mean you have to live at one of our secure Alchimian campuses and be supervised by another family in the society…"

My eyes widened. I'd only ever known the world from within this airship. But while I would have loved to learn more about the Pokémon world and the Alchimian Society, I couldn't have imagined living away from my parents.

Then Raiden continued, "…but since I am the head of the Alchimian Society, I'd taken the liberty to bend the rules a bit, and allow you to learn under the care of your mother and I."

Now I was ecstatic. I squeezed my parents once again. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"And you won't be at a campus to learn. Instead, we're bring you with us abroad to have you watch us at work while you study. We know an amazing scientist we recently recruited to help us on some of our research and development".

"Are we going to one of the seven regions I know of?" I asked excitedly, jumping up and down.

Kaylin smiled, "Yes, we are! We'll be going to the Hoenn region".

"Yay! My first region visit!"

Raiden picked up the ring I stole before he and Kaylin stood back up. "We'll be arriving at Hoenn in a couple of days. Now, I think you've earned the right to have some cake. But please come down and join us for dinner; we'd love to hear all the details on how you managed to take all these things!"

My mom sliced a good-sized piece of cake, handed it to me on a paper plate with a fork, and planted a kiss on my forehead. Then she and Raiden walked out of my bedroom, closing the door behind me.

"This is the best day ever! I passed a year-long test, get to go on a work trip with my parents, and get to have dessert before dinner." As I settled on the floor of my bedroom, I put down the book I pulled out of the fort earlier. I opened it up next to my plate of cake. This book, like all the other books I had, were filled with lots of pictures. Some were of region landmarks and important people. But most of them were filled with hundreds of Pokémon. I had never seen a Pokémon in person before, and these books were the closest things to seeing them so far. But as I ate up my cake, I really hoped that I would be able to see and touch a real Pokémon when I went to Hoenn. "Two days…I can't wait!"