Chapter Two – Odile

The most frustrating thing about my estranged twin sister was that she always called at the worst times. I could have killed her for interrupting my meeting with my R&D team! Except it looks bad on any CV to say that you killed your twin, especially for a scientist with high hopes for her career.

I sat at the head of the table, my darling Kabuto I had revived from a fossil resting on my lap.

Jordan Freeman, my head of R&D, was to my right while the government officer of sciences sat to my left. I believed his name was Argus Fletcher. I had heard he was a hard man to convince for funding. Jordan had seen this asshole in action before, shooting down countless projects for funding. I knew there was a reason he had been sent – the Unova government didn't exactly want to invest in my project and my Magnezone and Metagross bickering didn't help my cause. Reuniclus levitated beside me while Eevee quietly sat with my sleeping Golurk in the corner.

"Exactly what do you hope to achieve such a task as time travel, Miss Monroe?" Fletcher asked with a sneer I found left a bitter taste in the back of my throat.

I pushed my glasses up my nose before speaking. "If you please, Mr Fletcher, it's Professor Monroe, not 'miss'," I corrected him the politest I could. "We hope to discover what the human race is capable of in the future. We would hope to travel a hundred years into Unova's future to talk to their scientists and perhaps even take some samples of the earth, plants and Pokémon there. By then, we will have discovered, for sure, some new breeds of Pokémon that are still waiting to be found, maybe even new regions we are not yet in contact with."

Fletcher's eyes roamed over my team with a distinct disdain I found exceedingly irritating. Surely enough, they were a ragtag bunch of personalities and styles but they were an amazing team when they got their heads down and worked. Fletcher's face looked as if someone had taken a shit in a blender, hit puree and served it as the coffee someone had placed before him on the conference table. He looked at the file he kept closely guarded from my team and I. Even Reuniclus, whom I had taught to read, was not allowed to be within a foot of it. He flipped through a few pages before grimacing.

"And what of going to the past, Professor Monroe?" He said my name as if he would rather stab me in the gut than grant me funding.

I shook my head. "In theory, going to the past would be both futile and dangerous. We already know our history by books and literature, and then there's the Butterfree Effect. Just squashing a single bug could change the entire course of history. Its basic chaos theory," I said, trying my hardest to keep a patronising tone out of my voice. Seriously, what did the government think they were doing?! They had sent me someone with no credentials to his name in the way of science to assess a funding application's validity. Were they deliberately trying to fuck this up for me and my team?

Fletcher's ears went redder than rubies. "I'll have you know, Professor, that I have no interest whatsoever, personally, in funding your project. However, looking at Professor Freeman and Doctor Jenner's notes on the experiment, I am even more in denial to the idea." He shoved the folder promptly in his laptop bag and stood. "You will not be granted funding. Time travel is impossible. You'll be lucky if you even get funding for a cup of decent coffee." He placed on his hat and tipped it sardonically at me. "Good day, Miss Monroe."

I slammed my forehead against the table, wanting to cry my heart out. No funding equated to no time travel. I almost had it figured out! We just needed more parts to make it work and those cost a bomb. Bloody government…This was why I hated Unova with ever atom of my being. They had more interest in Pokémon Sciences than others. I had only been granted six grand for my time travel project, but when I worked at the Deerling Centre near Driftveil, the Ferroseed Research Centre and the Evolution Centre, they had gotten funding of up to three billion.

I heard Jordan sigh. "Looks like we'll be making a borrow from the bank again," he muttered.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I flipped up the Razr's screen to check the caller ID. "Hi, Mum," I answered it.

"Hey, sweetie, how did your meeting go?" she asked in her usual bright, happy tone.

I sighed harshly. "Unfortunately, Mum, Fletcher didn't grant us the funding we need. It looks like either raising the money ourselves or going to the bank."

Mum made a thoughtful noise, then groaned. "I hate to say this, Odile, but why won't you ask Odette?" she said with mild hostility. "She is your twin sister. I don't see why the two of you even fought! I mean, me and your Aunt Jackie have our disagreements but we still talk."

"Mum, I refuse, point blank, just to call my perfect sister up out of the blue and ask her for six million. For a start, she'll think I'm trying to take advantage of her generosity the way that asshole ex of hers did, plus we don't get on because she's dumb as a post and I'm a professor."

"Odile Annette Monroe, you will quell your tongue!" Mum snapped. "Odette would be happy to help you and you know it. She's paying for Clara's education. She bought your father and I a larger ranch so we could build our business up. She even helped Cosette with getting into ranger school in Almia. How can you be so rude about her?"

"Probably because of what happened, Mum. I'm not going into it because it's still too painful to talk about," I growled. "Look, I know you mean well, but Odette and I are way too different to ever get along nicely and you know it."

She sighed heavily. "Fine, Odile, do what you want," she said grumpily but calmly. "Just see how long it takes you and your team to pay back what you'll owe the bank." The line went dead.

"I'm not interrupting, am I?" said a familiar voice.

There she was. Stunning, amazing, perfect Odette with her big blue eyes and glossy chestnut hair. That killer figure and that awe-inspiring posture. How I could have killed her for being so beautiful she left all the male members of my team brain-dead for a solid month whenever they saw her. Like always, she was dressed immaculately in a black Gucci skirt, Dior blue blouse and shoes that looked like Jimmy Choos. She also happened to smell beautiful, like night-blooming roses and mandarins.

I groaned and flopped back in my chair. "What do you want, Odette?" I asked snappily. "I'm really not in the mood today."

She snorted and sat in the chair Fletcher had vacated. "I just saw Sydney's uncle in the lobby. Argus mentioned that you had been denied funding from the government for your time travel project," she said, crossing her legs as her build-like-a-brick-shithouse Lucario stood behind her, ever the faithful pet. Alex, her head of security, wasn't far away with his beauty of a Gardevoir beside him. "I'd like to help you out."

I raised a brow. "Why the fuck would you want to help me?" I muttered. "You're the perfect one. Why help your ugly duckling of a twin sister with an impossible dream?"

She smiled slightly. "Because you're my sister and despite what's happened, I still love you."

"Oh, so that's why you over-shadow me at ever turn?" I snapped. Kabuto, at this point, senses then bad vibrations and crawled off my lap in a hurry to seen shelter with my Golurk and Eevee. "You get everything anyone asks for for them, Odette! You make me look selfish and unhelpful."

"Do you really think that was my intent?" she asked innocently, batting her eyes in a way that would make you think butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. "I like making people happy, Odile. That's the end of it. You get wrapped up in projects, I know, and I respect that, since I know how getting caught up in shooting a film can be." She looked at her phone as a text came through. "Alex, could you give Erin a call and let her know that Sydney wants me to go through the new 'Brycen Man' plot with her on Saturday please? I'd really appreciate it."

Alex smiled and nodded. It was so obvious that he was in love with dah-ling Odette that it was quite annoying that my beloved sister hadn't noticed, considering she had the IQ of a Magikarp. "Sure, I'll take it outside to give you ladies some privacy but Gardevoir will be here if you need her."

"Thank you," Odette replied with a smile as Alex left us to it now that my team had left.

Lucario looked irate for some reason. Then I realised my Metagross was taunting him from across the room. "Metagross, be nice," I told it firmly. "Lucario has a short temper and you're weak to most of his attacks." The immediate quiet ensued.

"Odile, I know we've had our differences," Odette murmured, looking me dead in the eye. "I want to help you out here. I know how much this means to you and if I can make it happen, I will do everything in my power to make sure it does." She gripped my hand tightly. "You're my twin. I'm not going to let you get into debt like this again when I can bail you out."

I cracked. Oh, Arceus, why did she have this weird twin hold on me? "Fine!" I snapped. "But you don't even think of interfering with my work or I'll have Golurk rip you in half."

"Such a pleasant idea," she mocked, taking out her cheque book and writing one out. She handed it to me. "Ten million should do, right?"

I stared at the perfectly-written cheque in shock. "But…This is way too much!" I protested. "We only need six."

She shrugged. "Then keep whatever is left for any other projects you want to carry out, sis."

Her Vulpix chose that moment to emerge from her Pokeball onto the table with a yawn and a stretch. The sophisticated seven-tailed Pokémon padded across the table and leapt off to join Eevee, Gorluk and Metagross while Magenzone sought his own company.

"How…?" I breathed before I could keep it in.

Odette raised a carefully kept eyebrow and glanced in the same direction as me. "Vulpix was given to me as an egg last year," she said, which was something I hadn't known. "She was a present from Mario Riviera to say thank-you for helping him get an actress for 'Invaders'. When she hatched, she didn't move, didn't cry…she didn't even breathe. She was dead but thankfully, we weren't too far from the Pokémon Centre in Opelucid City. The nurses said that she had been born too early and needed to be on life support for six months until she was strong enough to be taken out of the hospital." She took a moment to wipe a tear from beneath her eye. "She pulled through and got stronger thanks to the technology you developed when you were studying Fire types four years ago. Essentially, you saved her life."

Pride and heartache wrenched me in half. My machines had saved my sister's baby Vulpix but the story was so sad that I wanted to cry. I had never heard about how she had gotten Vulpix, only that one of her Pokémon was ill so she had needed to take time out from the big screen to be with it.

I looked back at the cheque. "I still can't accept this," I told her firmly.

She shook her head. "If you rip it up, I'll have the money transferred to your account. This is not negotiable, Professor Monroe," she said with a smile. "Don't lose out on your dream, sis. This is why I pay for things for everyone. I don't want to see someone miss out on what they really want, least of all my twin."

I sniffled to keep back the tears that threatened to make me choke. "Thank you."

She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "Well, I have one condition. I get to go on the first test run with you."

Bastard fucking bitch whore cunt. I knew there was going to be a catch.