Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon :(

Wow, I didn't think this chapter would be us so soon! Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed :D

In reply to Ready to fly: Thanks for your review and support! Hopefully you'll like this chapter :)

Oh, and a quick note: this chapter's purpose is mostly to give background information, so not much action happens but it's a key chapter to understanding the rest of the story, so yeah.

Enjoy.

Chapter One

~ The Slayers ~

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

I stared at the clock, willing the hands to move faster. I was sure they hadn't moved at all in the last five minutes. Sighing, I reached down to rummage in my bag, which was resting against the table leg. Breakfast had been four hours ago; I was starving. We only had half an hour left of school to go but the time was dragging by, so I decided to risk sneaking a snack out of my bag and hoped the teacher wouldn't notice.

"Miss Maple, just what do you think you're doing?"

I flinched, looking up to find the stern gaze of our Maths teacher, Ms Matthews, resting on me. I glanced down guiltily at the biscuit in my hand. "Erm," I said intelligently. Come on May, think of something, I urged myself. "It's for a science project?" I tried. Next to me Leaf, one of my best friends, face-palmed. What? I thought it was a good excuse!

Ms Matthews didn't look amused, and I had to stifle a giggle at the expression on her old, wrinkled face. "Put that away this instant, answer the next question correctly, and I won't keep you in detention after school has ended," she told me.

"What?" I gaped. "But it's the end of term! You can't keep me here after twelve because then it's the holidays," I protested.

Ms Matthews glared at me. "I can keep you here for as long as I wish to," she informed me coldly. I glanced at Leaf, who was shaking her head at me. I winced. Leaf, Misty, Dawn, White and I all had to leave school as soon as the clock struck twelve because we had an important meeting to attend. If I was late, Grace, our superior and the founder of KAS (the Kalos Association of Slayers) would not be pleased. Yes, that's right, we're Slayers. Vampire Slayers, to be exact. And that's Slayers with a capital 'S' (I learned that after Leaf took a whole hour lecturing me on it). So I couldn't afford to stay behind after school finished for the Christmas holidays.

I quickly dropped the biscuit back into my bag and turned my attention Ms Matthews, waiting for the question.

"Simplify 4a times 3b," Ms Matthews said. I blinked. What, now? Next to me Leaf was gesturing subtly and I chanced a glance at her out of the corner of my eye, but her gestures were too confusing for me to decipher. "Well?" Ms Matthews prompted.

"Umm…" I hesitated. Maths and I never had gotten along...

Just then there was a commotion on the other side of the classroom. Two of the boys were fighting over some sort of gadget and Ms Matthews instantly strode over to their desk, breaking it up. While her attention was elsewhere, another boy got up from his seat two rows in front of me and darted over to me. He had a white knit cap covering his hair so it looked like he had white hair, but I was one of the few people to know his hair was actually black. His greenish-brown eyes twinkled softly at me as he approached my desk.

"12ab," he whispered to me.

I was surprised, but I had no time to reply when he returned to his seat as quickly as he had left it and nodded to the two fighting boys on the other side of the room. The instantly shut up and looked at Ms Matthews innocently.

"What on earth just happened?" I whispered in Leaf's ear.

Leaf looked just as surprised as I felt, but she recovered quickly. "Looks like someone's got an admirer," she winked.

I shook my head. "Brendan's just a friend," I began but Ms Matthews, once more in charge of the class, reclaimed my attention.

"Miss Maple, do you have an answer for me?"

I froze. What was it Brendan had said to me again? "Oh, uh, 12ab?" I ventured, hoping I remembered correctly.

Ms Matthews nodded abruptly. "Correct."

Phew, that was close! I sighed in relief, looking over at Brendan. His back was facing me but I smiled slightly. I had to remember to thank him later. If it wasn't for him, I would have had to serve detention after school. After that I let my attention wander until the bell rang (finally!) and I leaped up from my seat, a huge grin of my face.

"Free for two and half weeks!" I celebrated. Leaf dug her elbow into my side as Ms Matthews walked past us, heading for the door. She shot me a look through narrowed eyes and I gulped. "Heh… oops?"

Leaf rolled her eyes as she gathered her things. "Leave it to you May," she sighed in amused exasperation. "Come on, let's find Dawn, Misty and White and head back to base."

I grabbed my bag, checked my bandanna was still fixed in position on my head, and was about to join the pupils streaming out of the classroom when I remembered Brendan. "Wait – where's Brendan? I need to thank him for earlier," I paused, scanning the room, but I couldn't see him anywhere.

Leaf also looked around. "Maybe he already left?" she suggested. "Don't worry, you're bound to run into him sooner or later. We're all staying here over Christmas and this is a small enough town after all," she pointed out wisely.

"Yeah, you're right," I nodded reluctantly. "Let's get back to base and find out what sort of mission Grace has for us this time."

"You took your time," Grace's disapproving voice sounded the moment Misty pushed open the door to the briefing room.

"We're sorry, May thought she saw a Vam-" Misty began to apologise and I rolled my eyes. Yeah, that's right, blame it all on me (honestly, her eyes had looked red in the bad lighting!). "-Pire…" Misty finished her sentence slowly. "What is he doing here?"

"What? Who's there?" I asked, bobbing up on my tiptoes, trying to see over White's head. We were still in the corridor since Misty had stopped in the doorway.

"Girls, please, come in and sit down," Grace invited us. Misty finally walked forwards and took her seat at the long, five-a-side rectangular briefing table. I first noticed Grace – she was sitting at the head of the table opposite the door. There was nothing unusual there. Standing to the left of the middle-aged woman was her eighteen-year-old daughter, Serena, who was also our Organiser (each separate team of slayers had one Organiser who they reported to for missions and suchlike, and the Organiser would then be responsible for reporting to the Head and getting their orders from them). I frowned. As a Slayer I was trained to pick up on even the slightest details (I know I'm often absentminded, but I can be observant when I want to be), so I knew something was up when I saw that Serena's honeyed locks had been brushed and styled. Don't get me wrong, she looked really pretty, especially with her soft blue eyes, but Serena never brushed her hair. Like, ever. She was renowned throughout KAS for going around with the worst hair imaginable (although even then she still looked pretty – she was one of those people who could have a bad hair day and still look amazing) no matter how many times Grace told her off for it. So why had she made such an effort to be presentable today?

Transferring my gaze to the person standing at Grace's right, I found the reason. Calem, the handsome, black-haired, brown-eyed, nineteen-year-old Organiser for TWAS was observing us calmly as we filed into the room and took our seats on the left side of the table (with me at the end closest to the steel door). Serena was infatuated with the guy, and it wasn't hard to see why – if he wasn't a TWAS agent I'd probably be head over heels for him myself. But TWAS (The Worldwide Association of Slayers) were our worst enemies – apart from Vampires, that is. They were the largest slayer organisation and had bases throughout all of the other regions. Except Kalos. It was a well-known fact that they wanted to take over Kalos as well, so it didn't bode well that Calem was here now. Grace did say she had some news for us, but I hoped it wasn't that she had finally given in and was handing the reigns over to TWAS.

Once we were all settled, Grace began to speak again. It didn't escape my notice that Serena kept casting Calem 'subtle' glances throughout the whole thing. "I'm sure you recognise Calem, one of the TWAS Organisers. He has come here today with his team because TWAS and KAS want to try something different. As much as TWAS want to take over Kalos and run the whole operation, KAS also wants to expand and takeover other regions, running the operation our way. So we have come to an agreement. One KAS team and one TWAS team will be paired with each other for the duration of the Christmas holidays, with the idea being that together we will eliminate more Vampires that we will alone. If the trial run succeeds then more partnerships will be created. If it does not, things will go back to the way they were before and TWAS will continue to try and take Kalos over. Any questions?"

For a moment none of us spoke as we all processed the information. Then Dawn looked up. "Wait, so we're going to have partners from TWAS?"

Grace nodded. "Correct."

"Who are our partners? Do we know them? What if we don't get on with each other?" Dawn fretted. She obviously thought the trial sounded like a good idea. Okay, so I admit that it is a good idea, but TWAS is full of stuck-up morons. (Don't tell Calem or Serena I said that.) Oh well, small price to pay if the success of the trial means TWAS agents getting off our backs.

It was Calem who answered Dawn's questions. "You should recognise them at least – you've been going to school with them since September." We were surprised by this piece of information to say the least.

"What?" Misty spoke first.

Grace frowned at the redhead. "Manners, Misty," she reprimanded. Since Grace had basically raised us since we were ten she was like a mother figure to us all as well as our superior commander, and Serena like an big sister despite also being our Organiser.

"Sorry," Misty glanced at Grace. "But still – you mean to say there have been TWAS Slayers in Kalos - in this very town – since September and we didn't know about them?"

Grace bowed her head briefly. "TWAS invading some of our key slaying areas and getting into fights with some full KAS Slayers is what brought this whole teamwork idea about," she admitted. "We didn't tell you because you didn't need to know."

I gritted my teeth. KAS was very strict about need-to-know policies – if something didn't affect you directly then you wouldn't be told about it. Simple as. It was really annoying though; sometimes I felt like I knew as much as I did in Maths class even though I've been here for roughly five years now.

Misty backed down, but I could see the anger in her eyes. It seemed I wasn't the only one unhappy with this. "Well – okay, fine, but who make up the TWAS team?" she asked. That was the question I was also dying to hear the answer to.

Grace nodded to Calem, and he lifted his wrist to his mouth. On his wrist was a device that looked like a watch but when he tapped it the screen flashed and he spoke into it: "You may come in now team." It was a simple communicating device developed by a KAS technician, Conway (who seemed to have some obsession with Dawn), but TWAS agents had stolen the design so now we all had them.

We didn't have long to wait for the TWAS team to arrive but we all sat in silence until they did. Glancing at my friends I noticed they all looked just as apprehensive as me, and none of us really felt like talking. Not even Dawn, who was fiddling with a strand of hair.

Finally the door opened and five familiar boys, all of whom I recognised from being in our year at school, filed in, taking seats opposite us.

Lucas, a boy with short dark hair and grey eyes, took the seat opposite Dawn. Next to him and opposite Misty was Rudy, a tall boy with auburn hair and dark eyes. He gave shot her a brief smile as he sat down, but Misty's expression was unreadable. Across from White sat Black, a guy with messy dark brown hair and lighter brown eyes. Then Red, a boy I recognised from mine and Leaf's maths class, sat opposite my brunette friend. Leaf looked surprised to see him, but not as surprised as I was to see the boy so too his seat across from me.

"Brendan?" I gaped openly. "You're a Slayer?" All down the table the other girls were having similar reactions.

Brendan nodded. "Yeah. Surprised to see me?" he grinned.

I nodded. "Yes! Oh, thanks for earlier by the way," I added, remembering how he helped me in maths.

"No problem," Brendan shrugged. "I knew you had this meeting to get to so I thought I'd better help out."

I frowned and turned to look at Grace. "Hang on – the boys knew we were Slayers but we didn't know they were Slayers?" My question cut through the talking going on throughout the room and everyone fell silent.

Grace nodded, looking regretful. "It was a need-to-know basis," was her reply. "I would have told you but I have to stick to KAS policies. It seems TWAS doesn't have the same guidelines as we do," she added with a glance at Calem, who ignored the subtle barb. Turning back to us, Grace stood up and gathered her papers. "For the duration of the holiday you will patrol in your pairs during the hours of darkness. At least one pair must be patrolling the town at all times along with the full Slayers we have stationed throughout area. The rota is on the noticeboard but I'll give you a heads up for tonight: four of you will take the first shift – May and Brendan with Leaf and Red – because the most Bitings happen during the first few hours of darkness," she explained. "Report to Serena and Calem before and after your shift. Then you're free to go back to your house. I'll see you all later," she said, taking her leave.

Serena and Calem looked at each other, before Calem cleared his throat. "Okay, so the TWAS team may have been in Kalos a while but this is our first time in your base. Maybe you could all show your partners around – the weapon store, training rooms etcetera? Get familiar with the surroundings," he suggested, glancing at Serena for her support.

Serena nodded enthusiastically. "Good idea! And I'll show you around too," she offered Calem, who just nodded. "After that I guess either train, go back to your homes – they're next to each other by the way, since KAS has provided them both for you – or hang out in the luxury quarters here. Just as long as the Slayers on the first shift report to me and Calem by four O' clock, you're good to go," she told us before leaving with Calem.

After she finished speaking, Brendan looked at me. "So, fancy showing me around then?" he asked. By the sound of it, the other boys were asking my friends the same thing.

I grinned. "Sure," I agreed happily, standing up. Time to show this TWAS agent what a real Slayer base looks like!

I spent about an hour showing Brendan around, and after that we headed to the training rooms. It never hurts to fit in more training, after all. It turned out Brendan was actually quite good – he was a match for me, at least. But unfortunately we didn't notice the time going by so when the clock struck four we panicked and had to run all the way to the briefing room.

Leaf and Red were already there by the time Brendan and I burst in, panting, and tried to stand to attention in front of Calem and Serena.

"Sorry!" I gasped. "We got caught up in training and-" I started to apologise (while Leaf, I noticed, looked on in amusement), but Serena waved her hand to stop me.

"No worries May, it doesn't start getting dark until at least half past four. Mum just wants us to be super-prepared, that's all," Serena shrugged. It still felt weird hearing her call Grace 'mum' in private, since in public she had to call the Head by her name just like any other agent, to keep up with formalities.

"So what's the brief?" Brendan asked from besides me, not seeming to care that we were late. He just looked eager to get started on the mission.

Calem looked up from the papers he held in his hand. "You four are to patrol the Town centre until midnight, when the next pair will come and relieve you. Just stay alert and if you encounter a Newly-Turned then you know what to do. Just try not to have a public confrontation. We're trying to keep the public unaware of this danger to prevent mass panic, remember."

We all nodded, and Serena dismissed us. This was the time of day I most looked forward to. The time where I could truly be myself. It was time to protect the citizens of Kalos.

Author's Note: Hopefully that set the scene well enough, but if you're confused about anything or if I've made any mistakes then please tell me in a review or PM me and I'll sort it out.

The Vampires and Slayers will all meet each other next chapter, don't worry! I haven't forgotten them!

~ Jay