30 Minutes before the launch of the Athena Initiative

"Black, white, gold or blue

Show off your natural hue

Flamingo, oh oh oh

If you're multicolored, that's cool too."

Pen always found music in general to be calming. Someone who would've seen themselves as more sophisticated would have chosen something along the lines of a Kricketune string arrangement. However, the Gardevoir had a certain fondness for the pop music of the human world. Certainly Vivaldi and Brahms had their merits, but neither could stir up the swimming poppiness of Kero Kero Bonito.

The song she had randomly chosen felt particularly on the nose, which lent itself to some creative liberties with the lyrics as she sat languidly upon her oaken desk. Around her face, floating screens of psychic data listed maps and reports of her various teams, from the important status on tracked individuals to the minutiae of frequent study.

Jackie Trem-Lucario in particular was an interesting case. At a first glance, Pen had thought nothing of the Riolu. A Shiny coloration was certainly no indicator of power for most species, and most often proved to be a genetic disadvantage due to the assumption of the above. Plus, she was a teenager. Teens often stayed up late to wander alone, she presumed, and the fact that she intervened was some sort of attempt at being a good Samaritan (Good Darmaritan?), albeit a mildly annoying one.

The fact that she noticed her Zorua protege's small increase in heart rate didn't help. A blossoming crush of some kind. The last thing she needed was for Moonwalker to go through another drawn-out breakup. At least he and Water-Strider were now on speaking terms. Regardless, Pen's interest in the Riolu was barely affected by Moonwalker's hormonal crush.

The girl was lost, and even the briefest look through her mind let her know that whatever potential that was there, Aura or no, was being wasted. Indeed, there was potential within the nugget that was Jackie Trem-Lucario. Pen just needed to sift through the dirt to strike it rich. Besides, the Athena Initiative needed some local flavor, a grounded point of reference for her army of fishes out of water. Jackie had the comings of a fine Crossroads Agent… that, and some other things that at the moment were a bit too bitter for the Gardevoir to consider at the moment of rest.

"You don't need to change

It's boring being the same

Flamingo, oh oh oh

You're pretty either way—"

"MD, we've got issues."

Simultaneously bemused and unamused by the interruption of the second chorus, Pen brought up the Nexus and was greeted by the voice of Abernathy "High Noon", the Cacturne leader of Team Bullitt.

"High Noon. What's the need for the urgency?"

"Lively Town, double trouble. UB energy spike in the town square, but I'd normally be able to tell if another Faller enters the realm. Something bad is going to happen, very soon."

"This is… troubling, indeed. Though, why do you say double trouble?" replied Pen.

"It's… the Dragon's Quill. No officers, but a bunch of thugs are harassing the Expedition Society."

"Wait." Pen froze, if only for a split second. "Did… they say anything about why they chose the Expedition Society?" she continued tentatively.

"Other than being the main defenders of perhaps the most populated city in the planet?" The sound of ice shattering and a yelling Buneary interrupts her somewhat. "I didn't hear anything, but Cr— MK did pick up something about there being a VIP being held by the Society."

"Because I asked them to. Are you at the scene?"

"Sorry, Pen, but right now we're trapped in a Monster House at the moment, excuse me for a minute..." The sounds of seed bullets perforating whatever dungeon floor Team Bullitt was in blares from the Nexus. "...and by the time we get out from wherever it spits us out to Lively Town, either the UB goes live or the Quill gets the VIP."

"Fuck me sideways," Pen sighed. "Now's a good a time as any, perhaps… HN, MK, make it out safe. I'll have Water Strider meet you guys up once you resurface. I may have to break out the backup program. Shame, considering all the crap Rick had to go through for what should have been the plan"

"You mean just throwing the rookies straight in? Wasn't the whole point of the program specifically to avoid that exact thing? Also, isn't Water Strider supposed to be part of that?" Some vulgar language, and more explosions.

Pen rolled her eyes, pointedly ignoring Abernathy's first point. "She and Moonwalker broke up. I'd rather have their… relationship not obstruct the trainees."

"I'm going to pretend you gave me the answer I wanted and hang up now. Those kids better not be dead, you hear me?"

The call promptly went silent, leaving Pen alone in her lonely office. With a deep breath in a futile attempt at staying calm, she snapped her fingers, and in a burst of light she was gone.

"... you're pretty either way."

"Glitch, d'ya see anything in t-there? Any noticeable geometry or pathing errors or anything?"

"The enemies…?" the Zorua replied awkwardly.

"Yes, I know that all the enemy models are Substitutes, it's because it's a fucking placeholder because of the damn graphics chip that we're fixing right now so we can release!"

Glitch squirmed within the stark white VR chamber, once a normally comfy chair "improved" with the addition of wires, haptic feedback sensors, and other intimidating bits of virtual reality gear. "I've been at this for like three hours, Rick..."

"Shut up and bugtest, kid," snapped Rick, knocking back another bottle of Seaside sake as codes and models scrambled through the dozen or so screens around his soon-to-be completed Training Lab. "Your life depends on it."

He was only sort of joking.

This was the Athena Initiative, the Beeheyem's brainchild and vision of the future. All guilds needed new blood, and means to train the new blood. But sending out rookies, oftentimes literal children, out on dangerous missions where they could get hurt or screw up, badly, seemed less than efficient. And the best training often came from Mystery Dungeons, living dungeons of chaos and bullshit that were subject to the whims of some cruel Random Number God as to whether or not one came out with their hides intact. Besides, randomness was a poor measure of success, and simply because a team excelled in one dungeon full of nothing but low-level mooks meant nothing in a dungeon far beyond one's paygrade…

Bad memories stirred within the alien, memories of Beth, but he suppressed them, just as he had for decades now.

Rick decided the solution was a control, a virtual Mystery Dungeon where every variable could be monitored, changed, and rearranged to optimize the training experience. Best of all, nobody had to get hurt, and if there was a need to stop for any reason, all it took was a button press.

It was meant to be perfect.

Unfortunately, no piece of technology came without its fair share of bugs, and the Athena Initiative was no exception.

Also unfortunately, bug-testing was taking much longer than Rick had hoped. The main software had been finished six months ago, yet every run ended with some catastrophic error that required another week of fixes, only for the fixes to cause more bugs, and the cycle went on.

At the very least, the alien had a backup plan in case the Initiative needed to be launched early, though he hoped that he'd never have to use it if only for the fact that it had almost nothing to do with the VR tech he had so painstakingly worked on.

"Snakemaker…"

"Pen," Rick replied, paying no mind to the Gardevoir who had just suddenly materialized behind him. "What is it?"

"Well, we're in a teensy bit of a pickle right now and long story short we need to go to Plan B..."

Shocked by the rather casual revelation, Rick scrambled to get his bearings to form a reply. "W-What the fuck, Pen? Can't you send someone else to deal with it?"

Pen let out a sarcastic chuckled tinged with annoyed intimidation. "And I thought you were in charge with logistics, SM." A flick of a pink-tinted wrist at the wall of screens transformed their display from mountains of code to a crude roster of the Guild. Rick knew otherwise than to question why said roster was chosen from the members' worst possible pictures

"For starters, Team Amore," pointing to an unflattering photo of a Samurott and and a Leavanny caught in bed at an inopportune time, "is on maternity leave."

A thumb jab at a Cacturne and a Buneary failing at juggling. "They're at the scene but stuck in a Monster House."

A Beedrill and a Darkrai wearing silly costumes. "HR's doin' some hokey Voice of Life stuff over at Mist, and you know HR and GR are a package deal."

A happy, normal photo of a Gallade, Dewott, and Gurdurr, except the Gurdurr was crossed out poorly with marker. "Team EXO… that one's on me. They're doing recon in the Pelago. Recon being a wild goose chase to separate WS and MW."

Rick absorbed what Pen had just said with a pregnant silence. "Honestly, I thought we had more field agents in the Guild."

"Well, normally we're just that good, Snakemaker, that we don't get blindsided by crap like this."

Glitch piped up from across the room. "Rick, I'm falling through the world again…"

Son of a bitch.

Sighing in resignation, Rick opened a drawer on a desk, removing a bottle of tablets marked "X Sp. Atk" and a pair of dark sunglasses. Compared to the amount of labor and and automation put into Plan A, the alternative was rather… minimal. Which was why it was a back-up

"Plan B? After all this work w-we're going with-with Plan B?"

"I'm afraid so, Snakemaker. I'll see you both on the upper decks," replied Pen. And with that, she was gone in a burst of glitter, leaving her associate with naught but a bitter taste in his mouth and an imperative to get Plan B into action.

"Rick, I'm still falling…"

... After getting Glitch out of the tangle of sensors. This was definitely not Rick's kind of day.

~* Character Logs *~

Pen/Madame Director - A Gardevoir of strange, exotic tastes and abilities, and the beleaguered director of the Crossroads Guild.

Rick/Snakemaker - A brilliant, if alcoholic Beheeyem scientist and inventor of the Athena Initiative. Shared second-in-command to Pen

Glitch/Moonwalker - Hapless Zorua assistant/protege to both Rick and Pen. He's important. Somehow.

Abernathy/High Noon - Yes, THAT Abernathy. Lead Scout of the Crossroads Guild, this Cacturne knows her way around a projectile.

MK - Abernathy's Buneary partner/apprentice.

To all reviewers: Thank you!