Well, I have five votes in my poll, but I only know the identity of one of them. She didn't specifically SAY she wanted to be mentioned, but whatever. Garret, take it away.

Garret: Marlinmarlen, and everyone else who participated in the poll, your vote(s) have helped decide the future of this fic, and possibly others. For that, we humbly thank you. Also, in response to Marlinmarlen's review…yes, Clyde has always wanted to do stupid and dangerous things. It's because he's a stupid and dangerous person. He thinks by doing it- or trying to- he's "keeping up with the trends". Not to mention-

Clyde: Shut up, you prat!

Garret: I wasn't done!

Clyde: You're NEVER done.

Billy: Be quiet and focus you two. You're delaying the chapter. Also, to Almiaranger…from what I've seen, most every older sibling longs for the kind of control I have over my siblings. Yes, it definitely does make life much easier. Now, continuing with the story.

The first step, of course, was gathering followers. Tiffany and I were in charge of that, since I was the best at convincing people and Tiffany…is a girl. It never hurts to have pretty girl on your side help when trying to talk people into doing something you want. Which is also why Clyde didn't help with that bit; he was rather overprotective of Tiffany, and tended to become quite angry at people who looked at her the wrong way. I would have liked to have Garret help- since he was amazing with his words and could spin anything to his favour- but he still wasn't quite on board with the whole 'let's start an illegal organization' thing by that point. I didn't want to risk him showing a lack of confidence in the plan. So that left just Tiffany and I.

Our first targets would be the people that would later become the mass that would make up our base of grunt workers; the ones that are pathetic on their own, but with their shear numbers manage to pose a threat to anyone opposing us. They were the ones we rounded up at private clubs, the uneducated, gullible ones who were just scraping by on minimum wage, and would love a chance to make a bit more money. Tiffany and I managed to round them up by the dozens at every rally we held, and by the end of that round we had close to one hundred grunt workers under our belt. We didn't bother going for people with higher education to fill the position of higher ranking grunts- we simply promised the workers we had that, if they worked hard enough, they would receive a promotion and a pay raise. Even among the uneducated, there were bound to be a few that were intelligent enough to be able to handle jobs of more sensitivity. These were jobs like moving and operating special technology, or keeping citizens and rangers out of the way in the final stage. Things that wouldn't take place for a while. The plan was that, by the time any sensitive jobs had to be handled, the grunts worthy of taking the job would have proven themselves, so we'd have the proper hierarchy of workers.

The next group of people needed were scientists; Dad may have been brilliant, but he couldn't do everything by himself. We wouldn't need nearly as many scientists- five or six at most- but they would also be much harder to recruit. The more intelligent someone is, the more mistrusting and cynical they are of the world around them. Unless they happen to be a socially inept prodigy; but it would be beyond lucky if we found someone like that. Instead, our dad pointed us towards some of the more greedy scientists that he knew of- we tried to get the ones that were the least known (since they would be more likely to grab at a chance to be known) but with the highest education. It was a difficult balance to find, but in the end Tiffany and I managed to gain our base of six scientists to help Dad. We would catch them as they were headed home- usually to some dank apartment, that must have made them bitter- and asked for a private word, then gave them the rap. We- well, I did most of the talking- tried to appeal to their greedy side ("If you so choose to work with us, I can promise you a fifty percent pay increase") along with their bitterness at being forgotten ("You will be part of an organization that will change the world; your name will go down in history") and for the most part, it worked. There were only one or two people that refused the offer, the other six readily took it.

Once we had all the people we needed working for us the next step was to obtain funds. Dad did have a fair amount stashed away, but it was only enough to cover purchasing the Dusk Factory in Fall City (which would serve as research grounds, a secondary base and a place for mass producing our own stylers) and to build our permanent base, which simply had to be completely state-of-the-art. There wasn't enough money there to support paying one hundred and six workers and keep food on our own table. So, we took the most common route that syndicates take to get money- we allied with Team Rocket. Little known fact: the Go Rock Squad was actually a branch off of Team Rocket, meaning Giovanni was the true head of the Go Rock Squad, and we were all, by default, members of Team Rocket. By allying with them we received enough finances to support all of our workers and ourselves and still have a little extra in our pocket at the end of the day. Team Rocket, in return, could demand any kind of information we knew or had a way of knowing about anything in Fiore, and we would also supply a base for Rocket members that were travelling to Fiore for one reason or another. Neither request was ever made by the time the Go Rock Squad was defeated, though Team Rocket didn't seem too peeved that they had given us an obscene amount of money and got nothing back for it. Makes me wonder how much money they really have, and how they get it.

But regardless, with workers, funds, and bases out of the way, the next step was to work on recreating the Super Styler in our favour. But, unfortunately, the Super Styler was still not made by that point, and so we had nothing to do but wait, since we didn't want Hastings to know about our organization, and therefore be prepared for a possible attack. We ordered that workers did not wear their uniforms in public (designed by Tiffany) and did not talk about it with anyone. It was really business as usual while we waited for Hastings to finish the Super Styler, except that now Dad was home all day, and talk about what to call our organization replaced talk of what to call our band; a conversation that usually dominated the dinner table and the time in between rehearsals. It took a while to decide, but eventually we came up with something everyone agreed on.

"It should have something to do with music," was a point that we kept returning to, usually spoken by Tiffany.

"Yeah, I agree. What about…Team Melody? Team Rhythm? Team…" Garret paused, considering for a second. "Beat it?"

"That was way too much of a reference to Michael Jackson, little bro," I told him. Garret had lost the battle for the armchair today, but smiled slightly from the floor nonetheless. He was the only one out of us that really like Michael Jackson. "But I like the idea of having our name be two words. That way our members won't get the derogatory nickname the Team Rocket members sometimes get, being called 'Rockets'." The word itself wasn't derogatory, but it was always said in a sneering manner. I didn't want that.

"Team Awesome," Clyde yawned from the chair he was slumped in, apparently not paying attention.

"That is beyond lame, Clyde," Garret told him. Clyde, for once, didn't make a big deal out of the insult. He just shrugged and adjusted his legs so they were hanging over one armrest while his head rested against the other. His big body didn't quite fit, and he looked almost comical trying to fit himself into a comfortable position.

"Why do I get the feeling that my youngest brother is a little tired?" I asked mildly. Conversations like these were a great way to de-stress, and I was enjoying the mild atmosphere.

"Ugh, 'team' is so overused. Team Rocket, Team Aqua, Team Magma, Team Galactic," Tiffany said, ignoring my comment. "Why can't we do something original? Like, a synonym of 'team'?"

"Garret's our wordy boy," Clyde said, still trying to get comfortable. "Synonyms for 'team'. Go."

"Bunch, club, faction, gang, organization, league, ummm," he paused, collecting his words in his head. "Outfit, unit, party, aggregation, set, band, rig, sect, span, squad, tandem, troupe, crew, posse …that's all I can think of for now."

"That's plenty," I told him. Geez, that kid really knows his way around words.

"I kind of like 'faction'. That makes it sound way cooler. The Musical Faction, the Rhythm Faction; see? So much better than 'team,'" Tiffany said.

"I like squad, actually. The music squad sounds pretty cool to me," Garret said. I happened to agree with him, though Tiffany apparently didn't.

"Ew, no way. 'squad' just sounds dirty somehow."

"I actually like 'squad' too," I said. Tiffany pouted a bit. Being the youngest and the only girl, she all too often got her own way, as long as it didn't contradict with mine. She wasn't used to not getting her own way. She was also quite the Daddy's Girl. "Hey, Clyde. You going to make this a tie? Which do you like, 'squad' or 'faction'?"

"Mmmphh. Which one does Billy like?" he asked the room at large.

"Squad," I told him.

"You da man," he said, yawning again. For someone with so much brawn, he certainly got tired out quickly. Honestly, rehearsal wasn't that exhausting. But still, he had the right idea.

"Damn straight, little bro," I said, smirking slightly. "Squad it is. So what are we going to put with that? 'Music' and 'rhythm' are too general."

"What about our genre then? The Rock Squad." Garret suggested. Rock Squad sounded pretty cool, but would we just end up being called the 'Rocks'? Not only was that derogatory, but it was way too similar to 'Rockets'.

"Whooooo. Go Rock Squad," Clyde cheered. He added 'go' just to add enthusiasm, but I liked the way it all sounded together.

"The Go Rock Squad," I mused out loud. Garret caught on.

"The Go Rock Squad, and their hot prospect band…the Go Rock Quads."

"Oh Garret. You and your little word plays," Clyde said, now curled up like a meowth on the armchair. Garret looked a little offended, but I interrupted before he could start anything.

"No, no. I like it. It sounds…energetic."

"Yeah. Not to mention the outfits Tiff designed for the grunts look like they're for go-go dancers."

"Shut up Garret. I think my outfits are great." Tiffany defended.

"Never mind the outfits." I waived them away impatiently. "Do we all like 'Go Rock Squad' for the team and 'Go Rock Quads' for us?" Everyone made their assent (well, Clyde mumbled something incoherently from the chair, but we all assumed it was an assent). "Good. Then we'll just talk to Father about it and see if he agrees as well."

Over the next week, Father (who had agreed to the names we had come up with) and his team of scientists managed to get our own private network set up and tapped into the Ranger Union's database. We now had the profile of every ranger registered with the Union, and we- we being Garret, Dad and I, since Tiffany and Clyde were too lazy- made a point of memorizing the profiles of notable rangers. This included all of the base leaders, along with a couple of higher ranked Fall City rangers, one Ringtown ranger with a flawless record and a goal to 'help spread the joy of friendship to pokemon and people' (this seemed rather barf worthy, so we assumed the Union held him in high regard) and one particularly frightening Wintown ranger. Chris Edwards, who had a slightly spotted record ('use of excessive violence towards people of suspicious nature' came up a few times) and multiple legendary captures under his belt. We'd have to keep an eye on him. There were no Summerland rangers that posed any kind of threat, presumably because Summerland was so calm it didn't need that kind of protection.

With all of the steps taken care of, the only thing left for us to do was to wait. We moved into the Dusk Factory (having remodelled part of it to resemble a home) and did just that, for approximately two months.

Finally, on May twenty-third, we received confirmation that the Super Styler had been finished via a hacked transmission from Hastings to Spenser of the Ringtown base. He sounded loud and excited, and was going over to Ringtown to show him. Unfortunately, by the time we had assembled the grunts that would accost him and steal the styler, he would have been already almost to Ringtown, so we couldn't get him on the way there. But that was not too much of a worry; it would make more time to set a good trap on his way back to Fall City. We were going to set up two minor explosions in Krokka Tunnel that would cause rockslides; one that the grunts were ordered to set off as soon as he was past the first explosive point to prevent him from running back towards Ringtown, and one as soon as they were clear of the tunnel- with Hastings still behind them and the second explosive point, which was near the exit. This would stop him from escaping too soon and alerting the Fall City ranger base that he had his Super Styler stolen from him, since we needed to give the grunts time to make it back to the base without tearing through the streets and attracting attention. We didn't plan on leaving Hastings trapped in Krokka Tunnel for too long- just long enough to give our grunts time to get away. We assumed a ranger would notice him pretty quickly amidst the dual rockslides.

That seemed to be an oddly busy day, considering how uneventful things at the Union had been over the past two months. A new Ringtown ranger had been registered that day as well, and I took a quick glance at her profile, not expecting anything special. Solana Mills, female, no current partner. Her picture depicted a teenage girl who looked thoroughly over-excited. Nothing really caught my eye until I read, under education, 'did not attend Ranger Academy'. Oh-ho? That was odd. Ever since the Union got its feet under it, it was necessary for every ranger to have graduated from the newly established Ranger Academy in the Almia region. So how did this girl land a job as a ranger when she had absolutely zero knowledge? What could Ringtown gain by taking on a ranger that they would have to teach from the ground up? It was a bizarre move on the Union's part, to say the least.

But, regardless, by mid afternoon Hastings was set to start the walk back to Fall City, accompanied by the rookie ranger (whose partner status had since changed from 'not partnered' to 'partner pokemon: plusle'. Oh joy, another cutsie cheering pokemon to go with the other ranger's minun). I wasn't too worried about the rookie; she was just one very inexperienced ranger; I was more than certain that the two men we sent after Hastings would have no problem overpowering her and an old man.

So, after two months of waiting to be able to implement our first plan, we had to wait more to find out how we did with that plan. We were planning on using the modified Super Styler as our means of communication, so since we didn't have the Super Styler yet we couldn't even request updates on how the grunts were doing. This was just way too much waiting, and my siblings decided to kill the time by discussing all the ways that the mission could go wrong.

"Wait…guys, what if the rockslide, like, crushes Hastings and that ranger? Could we be charged with murder?" Tiffany fretted.

"Nah. It's called manslaughter if it's an accident," Clyde replied.

"Clyde, manslaughter is a degree of murder. Just like second and fist degree," I told him.

"You know, those grunts aren't the most intelligent. I wouldn't put it past them to set the explosives wrong and hurt themselves," Garret considered, which didn't help put Tiffany's mind at ease.

"What if the ranger's actually really good, and manages to fend off the grunts?" Clyde interjected.

"Maybe he left the Super Styler at the base."

"How do we know the grunts will put the explosives in the right spot?" And the like. They pattered on and on about all the ways this could go wrong. I started to get a headache after about ten minutes of it.

"Guys. We've trained those grunts and gave them an idiot proof assignment. Have a little trust," I interjected smoothly. There was silence for a few seconds, and then Clyde muttered something about getting a sandwich and left towards the kitchen. Bit more silence, and then:

"But still. Those grunts are pretty stupid. They could really easily mess up."

"Garret."

"Sorry."

And so, we waited in silence. Clyde came back ten minutes later with his usual super sized sandwich and took a seat in a chair. I had to admit, I was quite happy that we moved temporarily into the Dusk Factory; the rec room there was equipped with a love seat, a couch and two armchairs, meaning there was easily enough room for all of us. Tiffany and I were sitting on the coach- I was taking up about two thirds of it so I could put my feet up, but Tiffany didn't seem to mind- and Clyde and Garret were on their own armchairs. Tiffany said she missed watching them race to the armchair whenever we walked into the rec room, but I was willing to give up that bit of entertainment for the reduction in fighting it presented.

About half an hour later (we had turned the TV on to fill the silence) Dad came by and told us that the grunts were back.

"Finally!" Garret exclaimed, while Clyde and Tiffany cheered. I smiled to myself and got up, following behind Father as he led the way to where the grunts were waiting to give their report, my other siblings lined up behind me. It was really only that first assignment that all five of us were present to hear the report. After that the event lost its excitement slightly, and a grunt would usually just report to Dad, me, or one of my siblings, and they would tell the others what had happened. But then, the five of us went into the lobby where the two grunts were waiting together, and stopped with Dad in the middle and Garret and I flanking him on one side and Clyde and Tiffany on the other. The two grunts seemed a little intimidated by the full audience. They hesitated, a little unsure of where to begin. I decided to help them out.

"All right boys. From beginning to end; what happened?"

They started explaining, intermittently interrupting each other in their haste and stopping midway through a sentence, unsure on how to proceed. It sounded like it went pretty much according to plan- in fact, these particular grunts actually showed some intelligence and managed to separate Hastings and his rookie with the first rockslide. However, that didn't make up for their screw up of the second one. Apparently, they set off that rockslide after Hastings and the ranger had passes the explosive point, leaving a completely pointless pile of rocks behind the two, instead of between them and the exit.

"So, in other words, you failed to trap Hastings and then went running through the streets of Fall City?" Dad questioned. He always worded himself smoothly, but never bothered to keep anger or irritation out of his deep gravely voice.

"Er, yes sir. But, he, uh- we," the grunt stumbled, trying to form his words and think of an excuse.

"We took a lot of deserted alleyways on the way here," the second grunt said lamely.

"Did any rangers follow you here?" Father asked.

"No," both the grunts responded in unison, and they seemed confident in their answer, so no one pressed the issue any further.

"That's good, at least. But still, you have brought our organization under the eye of the media earlier than planned. That is unacceptable."

He's so melodramatic, I thought as I looked at him berating the grunts. Honestly, they got away just fine. And it's only a couple hours earlier.

The grunts were dismissed after a few more minutes of Dad giving berating them. They left with shoulders slumped, but with no actual punishment having been dished out to them. Though I wasn't exactly sure how we were planning on punishing misbehaving members.

"Well, shall we watch the news then?" Garret suggested after they had left. "Considering how little has been happening, I'm sure this scandalous event will be on sooner rather then later."

"Hm. Most likely. Come, we'll see what the media knows over supper."

And so it was that we were eating Mr. Noodle and sitting in the rec room that was built into a factory that we first heard of our media coverage.

"Troubling news today in the area of the Ranger Union," the newscaster started out, drawing all of our attention at once to the television. "The Fall City ranger base has reported that a mysterious organization has started up in Fiore. The organization, which calls itself the 'Go Rock Squad' had apparently cornered the Ranger Union's Chief of Technology Professor Hastings in Krokka Tunnel and stole from him what was reported to be 'a very important package'." Huh. So they didn't want to release that we had got a hold of an extremely powerful styler. "The professor was en route from Ringtown to Fall City when it happened, and was accompanied by a ranger by the name of Solana Mills." The picture that was on her profile came up in the corner of the screen while the newscaster kept talking. "The two members of the organization managed to separate the ranger and the professor by means of a rockslide, which is speculated to have been caused by explosives. Rangers warn citizens to stay out of Krokka Tunnel and to report any suspicious characters…" and the list of precautions went on for a while, followed by footage someone had taken of the two grunts running through the city. The newscaster finished the story stating that they would announce any new information as it became available.

The footage may not have been of me, and they may not have known anything about our band yet, but it was the closest I'd tasted to media coverage. This was going to happen; pretty soon now my siblings and I were going to be reported on television as commanders and musicians in the Go Rock Squad. This could be the ticket to the life I've always dreamed of.

I couldn't stop grinning throughout the entire story.

So what'd ya think? I'm not sure I liked it…not much is happening, and I haven't been able to express my characters much yet. I tried to put in dialogue to make it more interesting…and no adventures for them yet D: But that'll be soon! Vote in my poll (if you haven't already). It closes when the third chapter goes up!