Brandon low whistled as I walked back into the room. Rolling my eyes, I sat down in the couch across from them.

"Pipe it," I said, looking between the two. "What's the plan? Surely you thought farther than just getting me to join."

"Well," Brandon said while still looking at me, winking. "We still have some things we need to tell you."

"And that is?"

"One, you need this coin." Brandon said, tossing me a golden coin the size of a quarter. I examined it closely and found that it had a cursive I on one side and a P on the other. "Only operatives can hold these. After a while it'll most likely tattoo itself onto your palm, but if not it'll be always in your pocket. You can tell operatives by that."

"Secondly, they're going to come after you." Looker said plainly.

"Gary's pretty important, and they'd definitely want leverage over him." Brandon finished, cutting Looker off completely. Looker raised his eyebrows as I looked between the two, confused. It felt like they weren't telling me everything, which bothered me. Togepi must have felt the same way, because he came closer to me, grapping my hand between both of his.

There was a knock on the door, which after a moment of hesitation, Looker got up to get it. It gave me a better chance to look at Brandon as he reached for a Pokeball in his black cargo pants. He seemed about six feet tall, and his eyes were a shade of dark blue. He wore a black leather jacket with a white shirt underneath, following the code of black and white.

"I need to see Professor Rowan." A voice said from the door, sounding upset but almost demanding. Looker looked back at me, and I stood up. Togepi sat on the couch, waiting for me to come back.

"Come on in. I'll run and get the Professor." I said, standing up.

I walked outside to where the Professor and Infernape were watching the baby Pokemon play. "Professor," I said while I leaned against the fence. "A girl's here to see you. She sounded like something was bothering her."

"Did you see who it was?" He asked, following me back into the lab. I shook my head as I entered the living room once again.

The girl stood next to Togepi and was petting it affectionately. Her black hair fell to her back, and was like a Murkrow's feather. Her bangs fell into her eyes on her left side, and she moved to push them back. She reminded me of a princess, with delicate facial features and obvious beauty which she covered up with a pair of blue skinny jeans with a hole ripped into the left knee and a baggy black shirt with gold writing.

"Athena!" Professor Rowan exclaimed, moving to give the girl a hug as I sat on the edge of the couch. Brandon smiled at me softly, something that bothered me. But I shook it off, turning my attention to Athena. I figured it was just something better left unsaid.

"Professor, I've got bad news to bring." Athena started, glaring at Brandon and Looker. "Those two dimwits wouldn't believe that anything is wrong, but I haven't heard from Barry for about three weeks. Shadow knows something's wrong too, and I didn't know where else to turn. I'm positive it's got something to do with Team Galactic."

Professor Rowan was silent, and I could see a mask of worry on his face. "Have any of you heard from Dawn or Paul?" My stomach dropped, realizing that Gary most likely wasn't the only one missing.

I shook my head as Athena answered. "No, I haven't heard from them either." She turned to me, "You're in the International Police, you've got to believe me."

I smiled. "I do believe you. My boyfriend's been kidnapped by them too, and seeing as he's a DexHolder, it'd make sense that Barry, and maybe even Paul and Dawn have gone missing. Looker, Brandon, can't you look into this too?" I asked in the sweetest voice I could muster, trying to work the puppy dogs on Looker.

Looker sighed. "Yeah," He said as he stood up. "I'll get on that. Brandon, you decide with Serena what your guy's next move is." He walked out the door, bidding everyone goodbye.

Brandon stood up, reaching into his black satchel and handed me a map. "The hideout we know about is in Eterna City. You may want to head up there, maybe you can find something on the both of them." He said as his hand lingered. "I'll meet you up there if I find anything more." He promised, giving a soft smile. "Good luck."

I nodded. "Thanks." I said as I watched him walk out the door. I turned to Professor Rowan. "I'm heading to Eterna City. I'll call you if I get any word."

Professor Rowan nodded. "If you must, I won't stop you. Gary didn't want you to." He reminded me, making the feeling of dread that has been threatening to bubble over come back. I didn't want to think about going behind Gary's back to do this, but something in all this mess bothered me. I felt as though there was something everyone was keeping from me.

"I'll come with you." Athena said from where she sat on the couch. "You can't go alone. If they have managed to get four Dex Holders, either their boss is powerful or they have sheer numbers on their side."

"No." I said, recalling Infernape to his Pokeball. Togepi reached up to be picked up, so I did. "Stay here with the Professor, it's safer for you."

Athena moved to block the door as she stared me down with her silvery eyes with a hue of purple in them. I raised my eyebrow as we both reached for our Pokeballs.

"Girls!" Professor Rowan yelled at the two of us. We took our eyes off each other and each took a step back. "This is ridiculous. Serena, I know how you feel about people helping you, but Athena's right. They got Gary for sure, and he's an amazing trainer."

I sighed and closed my eyes. "Fine." I said, "but you can't be alone, Professor."

He nodded. "I'll be fine. I'll go to Kanto for the time being and help Professor Oak over there. Be safe you two." He said, handing me the Pokeball to Gary's Pidgeot. "I healed him. It'd probably be best if you took him.

I nodded as I walked out the door, with Athena hesitating for a moment. A few seconds later, I heard her footsteps following me.


"You're kidding me." Athena said as the two of us stared up at Team Galactic's Eterna City Building. "They painted it bright purple, put a life like model of the planet Saturn on top, and the International Police weren't even sure if this was the Headquarters?" She glanced over at me. "Sorry," She said, realizing that I was an operative.

"No big." I replied as I climbed over the fence. "Not like I even care. I'm just in it till I find Gary."

"Are you sure?" Athena asked as she followed, her Umbreon, Shadow was following her closely at her heels. "Barry had a coin similar to the one you hold."

"Hmm." Was all I answered, I actually did want to ask the girl what she knew about the International Police and Barry. However, we had walked into the Headquarters, and I'm pretty sure at the mention of the International Police, everything would be jeopardized.

"We'd like to see someone about joining Team Galactic." Athena said as she gave a sideways look to me. I stood there patiently, my arms crossed.

The Team Galactic woman looked between the two of us. "Sorry miss, but you're too young. However, your older sister could join if she pleases." She said, staring straight at me. I bit my lip, nervousness flooding my body. If we couldn't pull this off, we'd be where Gary was.

And I wasn't letting that happen.

"I would love to. This world is incomplete and corrupt," I said, striding towards the front desk, "However, my sister needs to come with me. My mother has asked me to babysit, and besides when she's old enough she wants to join."

Athena looked behind at me and raised her eyebrows as I stared straight at the woman, daring her to tell me no. "Alright," the woman said, going back to work and staring at the computer. "Third door on your left, sweeties."

"Thank you." Athena said, turning to open the door as I grabbed a Pokeball from my belt. We walked through, quietly closing it behind me.

"Nice job." She said as we walked down. "Third door on the left?" She asked, as we looked down the long hallway. The walls were a grey lavender, and had multiple doors on both sides. At end there was one door at the end of the hall, grander than all the others.

"Let's just keep going straight till we hit that door." I advised, striding forward as I let out my Luxray. Shadow and Luxray walked behind us, watching our backs. The hallway was short, and surprisingly no one came out of their little rooms to pay a visit to us two.

Athena and I stopped in front of the door. It was made of a golden like material, but I highly doubted it was real gold. In purple paint, a giant cursive J was etched into the door. I reached up to open the door, but hesitated.

Athena reached over and pulled the knob down and pushed the door forward. It swung open as we both walked into the room.

It was large with bookcases filling three fourths of the wall space. The back wall was pure window, with a tall woman with pink hair standing, looking out of it.

"Hello, Serena." The woman said as she turned towards me. Luxray jumped in front of me, poised to pounce at the Purugly that laid at her feet. "We've been expecting you to search us out." She appraised Athena, and chuckled. "And you bring a fifteen year old with you. We assumed you'd be smarter after managing to thwart us at the Lab."

"What have you done with Gary?" I asked as I watched her. Something wasn't right, she was just waiting for me to show up this whole time.

"Oh you know, tortured him till we figured out where you were. Nothing new." She said with a smug smile. The woman took this hesitation to her advantage, "Purugly, attack, use Slam!"

"Luxray, thunderbolt!" I countered, reacting quickly enough for him to charge up and slam the Purguly before it hit it with Slam. Luxray used thunderbolt once again, managing to weaken the Purugly. However, the woman held up her hand.

"Stop." She said as she recalled her Pokemon. "I'm not here to fight you. No, Cyrus wants the honor of destroying you. Of course, Charon will most likely kill you if he sees you again, but that's a small matter." She tossed me a book as she smirked. "Good luck getting out!" She called as she let out a Honchcrow, broke the window and lit a match. Athena quickly recalled Shadow as the lit hit a bookshelf, spreading closer and closer to us.

"Serena, we've got to go." She said as she grabbed my arm. She pulled me out the door, while I thought about what the woman had said. The smoke stung my lungs and my eyes as I recalled Luxray and ran out the building with Athena in front of me.


"Hmmph." Rowan said as Athena showed him the book. It was written in a strange language, something that I have never seen before. "You need to search out Meiko. She'd know what it said."

Athena nodded. "Will do." She replied as she shut it off. I sat in the chair, my arms crossed as I stared off into space. Athena bid me goodnight as she made her way to her room in the Pokemon Center.

Tomorrow we'd search out Meiko, I decided as I moved to lay on the couch. I stared up at the ceiling, counting the tiles like I used to do when I was younger and scared about my next move was.

Some things just never change.

I felt like I was being used. The woman today was just playing with me, wanting to get the book that she threw, which I couldn't even read. She contradicted everything Brandon and Looker had told me. The two had told me they were after me because of Gary, but the woman said they were after Gary because of me.

I didn't know what to believe. Athena also said that Barry was in the International Police, which wouldn't have made sense on why Brandon and Looker acted as though they didn't care about what was happening with him.

I just hoped that all I was supposed to do was to rescue Gary and get out of Sinnoh. But I felt as though I was just a pawn in a game of chess.


Review! I plan on using all characters I've received so far, so don't be disheartened if yours isn't there yet. This just was the best stopping point.