Our home was a labyrinth of underground tunnels. You got used to the constant odor when you've been living in it for the past ten years. Anyway, we navigated the halls, greeting two of my other pokemon on the way. I smiled as one bounded up to me and the other flapped its way over.

"Hey Houndoom, Honchkrow." I said kindly, patting the dog pokemon's head and scratching the bird pokemon's cheek. They made happy sounds and followed us as we started down the tunnels again. We made it to Neborah's "special quarters" shortly.

"Hey, I got that dude's ID like you wanted. Mind tellin' me what this was all about now?" I asked, handing her the guy's wallet as I reached her. She was sitting in front of her bargained-for computer, probably securing more trades and deals. She grinned hugely as she took it.

"This is great! I only needed the ID, but it's better that you got the whole thing." She said, snapping a picture of it with the crappy, half-ass camera she owned (again, a bargain). "Anyway, that guy was a world-famous magnate. The dude has sold all sorts of pokemon supply products, and is constantly coming up with new ideas every day. There's this client of mine who's been looking to find him, so he needs his social security number and all that. But I bet I can find his address somewhere in here..." She said, trailing off as she rummaged through the wallet. Then she gasped as she held up a card. "Yes! I am so getting paid triple for this! We've hit the lottery, Nell." She said happily as she flipped her long blue hair and turned to type away on her computer.

I watched as she contacted her client, sending him the address and all. He replied saying he'd meet us with the money and a bonus in an hour, seeming to be quite grateful about our work. Well, that was nice. It wasn't all the time our clients were so polite and generous. Usually, they were all so reserved and mysterious, not wanting to pay more than they had to. I mean, sure there were cheaper dealers out there, but everyone knew we were the best.

Anyway, Neborah called in the rest of our pokemon for dinner, since it was finally that time. An Umbreon, Skuntank, Persian, Furret, Noctowl, Delcatty, Zangoose, Stoutland and Linoone appeared at her call. The Noctowl, Umbreon and Skuntank belonged to me while the others were hers. We each had six, and didn't even have pokeballs to control them.

We befriended these pokemon, like a ranger would, except they stayed with us. They could choose to leave at any time they wanted, but they didn't because we were great trainers. Even if we were scum in people's eyes, we treated our pokemon like family, which they were to us. We wouldn't ever abandon any one of them.

I trained with Mightyena and Skuntank for the hour we had to wait. Mightyena was obviously my right-hand partner, but I treated all of my other pokemon equally. Mightyena was given to me as a child, so I hardly ever parted with him for more than a day or two at most. Mightyena and I were tied together with a bond that happened once in a trainer's lifetime.

When the client arrived, we met him outside of our base. The bonus he mentioned was, after all, quite a large amount of extra money. We couldn't believe the amount he just pulled out of his pocket. And, being the people we were...

"We can't accept this much. Honestly, it's just an address. It can't be worth this much money." Neborah said before I could. While we did have a clear need for the cash, we weren't ones to swindle. Steal, pick-pocket, and trade on the black market - sure. But we were honest people when it came to our dirty work. That, at least, was something to be proud of.

"I've been searching for this man for a good portion of my life. He owes retribution to my family, and I'm determined to get it from him. Your services are much appreciated, and the money is no trouble." The man said, as if it was nothing. To him, it probably really was nothing.

The client wore a covering black cloak, a face mask and headgear to hide his appearance. All we could really see was his massive height, his green eyes and the bare amount of tan skin surrounding them. Other than that, he looked like how other clients acted - reserved and mysterious. Not to mention a little scary, but that was besides the point.

"Well, can we at least get your name so we can send something back? I truly do hate to take this much from you." Neborah persisted. She was stubborn, alright. People would have thought she was crazy, arguing about getting a load of money. But it was reasonable, if you thought about it.

The man sighed. "I suppose that's the best I can hope for. My name is Kakuzu. Anything you wish to send may be done in like manner as this procedure." He said. "Now, if you'll kindly excuse me, I must be going. I have some important business to take care of." He said, holding up the paper with the magnate's address on it. We smiled and nodded.

"Yes, thank you very much. Good luck." Neborah said. Kakuzu nodded back and turned to disappear down the alleyway. We looked at each other, then burst out in a fit of squeals, hugging each other like mad. This money could change our lives completely! We could buy an apartment and give our pokemon a real place to live.