Suddenly, Clefairy jumped from Chris's shoulder and ran over to a poster on the wall. She jumped up, and hit a switch behind it. A door opened onto a staircase to the basement. "Hey, nice find, Clefairy. Gloria, over here."

"You found it? Cool. Let's get going."

They went down the stairs, which unfortunately only went one floor down.

"Well, let's look around for more stairs," Gloria suggested.

"Oh no you don't!" a Grunt called, spotting them. "You kids are getting out of here, right now."

"You think you can stop us, Grunt. Tyrogue, Go!"

"Raticate, teach her a lesson. Hyper Fang."

"Tyrogue, Cross Chop!"

As Raticate moved in to bite, Tyrogue hit it in the stomach, and sent it flying over a partition.

"Blast. Zubat, Go! Supersonic!"

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!"

Pikachu zapped Zubat before it was able to let out its attack, and it fell to the floor.

"Well, fine then. I'll take care of you myself!" The Grunt grabbed a chair and charged towards them.

Chris glanced at Gloria, who nodded in understanding. "Both of you, Tackle now!" They hit him hard in the stomach, and sent him into the wall.

"He won't be getting back up for a while," Gloria commented. "I feel sorry for his Pokemon, though."

"So do I, Gloria, but they're loyal to him. Pokemon care a lot for their trainers, good or bad. Anyways, let's keep going."

"Hang on." Gloria ran over and got a key that she saw on the table. "We may need this later."

They continued exploring, at one point finding an elevator. "Locked. And I doubt that your key will work. It's the wrong size."

"Yeah, it's too big. Maybe we'll find the key later."

They kept going, and found the stairs tucked into a corner. They went down, and were faced with another Rocket. "Huh, brats? Get lost!"

"Let's teach this guy we're not worth messing with, Chris."

"After you."

"I'll take you two on simultaneously!" shouted the Grunt, pulling his Pokeballs from his belt.

"Oh, such a big word!" Gloria gasped.

"Now we're shaking." They both started laughing.

"We'll see who has the last laugh. Ekans, Koffing, let's take them out."

"Beldum, your turn. Psybeam."

"Clefairy, let's do this. Comet Punch."

"Ekans, Wrap! Koffing, Smog!"

Ekans wrapped itself around Beldum, who then blasted it in the head with Psybeam. Koffing's smog clogged the field, but Clefairy still knew where he was, and hit him three times with her attack.

"Ekans, bite it! Koffing, Self-destruct!"

"Clefairy, use Pound, quick!"

"Beldum, Iron Defense!"

Beldum hardened its defense just before Ekans bit him, and Ekans hurt himself instead. Clef Pounded Koffing over towards a wall before he blew up, making it so that no one was hurt. The explosion also cleared the air.

"Ekans, use poison fang on Clefairy!"

"Clefairy, Mega Punch!"

"Beldum, Psybeam!"

Beldum flattened Ekans with the Psybeam, and Clefairy sent it flying into its trainer with Mega Punch. They both flew into the wall, unconscious.

"Another one down. We make a good team, Chris."

"We sure do. Hey, he dropped something." Chris walked over and picked up the card that the man had dropped.

"Looks like a key card. Probably opens something."

"That'd be my guess. Let's keep going, Gloria."

The next room was full of strange panels. "What are these? Do you know, Gloria?"

"No, I don't. The arrows probably mean something."

Clefairy, impatient as always, jumped down to see what it was. When she stepped on it, she shot off in the direction it was pointing.

"Ack! Clefairy, are you okay?" Chris didn't hear an answer, so he stepped on the tile to follow her. He felt a rushing sensation as he shot across the floor. Suddenly, he stopped on a different type of panel. Clefairy was standing a little in front of him, looking a little dizzy.

"Wheee, that was fun. Can I do it again?" Clefairy asked dizzily.

"Not right now." Chris said, walking over to her. Gloria shot in behind him.

"That was, interesting," she stated.

"Let's try to avoid those when possible."

"Agreed." They wove their way in between the panels, and found some items tucked into back corners, but otherwise they couldn't get anywhere by avoiding them.

"We'll have to scout out the path that takes us where we want to go," Chris said, and he began to look for a path to take them across the room.

"Fortunately for us, most of these walls are short. Too bad that the panels are too big to jump across, though." Gloria wasn't looking forward to being shot around again.

Chris looked around for a moment, and eyed out a path that would take them to the other side of the room. It involved a couple of stops, though, so they'd need to readjust from there.

"Well, here I go." Chris stepped on, and slid across the floor, turning a couple of times along the way, and ended up right where he'd planned. "Hey, Gloria, it's not as bad the second time!"

"I hope you're right!" She suddenly became a blur as she stepped onto the tile. "Wow, you're right. That time it was sort of fun."

"Good. This one looks like our next shot. It takes us to that clear area over there." Chris pointed across the room to where he'd traced they would end up. Clefairy wanted to go again, and jumped onto the tile. Pikachu followed this time, tired of just riding from his shoulder. They both shot off, and Chris followed them. A little too closely, since they were still on the stop tile when he got there. He tripped on them, and they all fell over. Then Gloria shot through and tripped over Chris's legs, landing on top of him. They all started laughing at it as they got up and brushed themselves, but Clefairy and Pikachu noticed that the humans were both blushing.

"Here's the last shot. It will take us through that gap in the wall into the next room."

"Ok. I'll go first this time." Chris watched Gloria take off, waited a moment, and then followed, with Pikachu and Clefairy riding again this time.

In the next room was another guard, but he was sleeping with his head on a table. As Chris entered, Gloria was sneaking over to grab a sheet of paper next to him. She grabbed it, and they both left the room through another door.

"Looks like a floor plan of this place. There are four floors, apparently, and for some reason the elevator doesn't stop on this one."

"I'd guess that we need to go to this office on the fourth floor down. There's a weird mark on the wall there." He pointed to what he was talking about.

"Looks like that area is divided in two, with different stairs leading to one area, and the elevator to the other."

"Well, let's see what's down there. The next set of stairs is right here." Chris opened another door, and they went down.

The third floor was uneventful, and fairly small. They found a few items, including an abandoned hat, and then headed down the stairs, hoping there was someone down there with a key for the elevator.

"Well, what do we have here? A pair of sweethearts?" the woman started laughing at them.

"Oh shut up, lady," said Gloria, annoyed with the woman's attitude. "Skarmory, Go!"

"Cubone, your turn!" Chris didn't like her tone, either.

"Arbok, Raticate, take care of them! Both of you use Bite!"

"Skarmory, use Steel Wing on Raticate!"

"Cubone, Bonemerang on Arbok!"

Raticate ended up Biting the Steel Wing, and broke its teeth in the process. Skarmory rammed him into the wall to finish him. Arbok never got close enough to bite. It was sent flying with the first hit. The return trip of the Bonemerang instead hit the trainer in the back of the head, knocking her out, too.

"Hey, she's got a key, alright." Gloria ran over and picked it up.

"Um, Gloria, what was with that reaction to what she said?"

Gloria blushed. "It was none of her business, that's what."

"Oh, ok." Chris started blushing, too.

They just stared at each other for a long moment, and then Clefairy snapped them out of it by running up the stairs.

"Hey, wait for us, Clefairy!" Chris called.

"Yeah. I'm the one with the key!" They dashed after her.

They used the elevator key to go to the fourth floor. They grabbed a Max Elixir off of a table in front of the office before going in. Inside, they found an executive.

"So, you two are the ones who have been messing with our security. Well, your penetration ends here. I won't let you get into Saffron. Arbok, Kangaskhan, deal with them."

"Flaffy, let's do it! Thunder Punch Kangaskhan!"

"Gastly, your turn! Use Night Shade on Arbok!"

"Arbok, Bite! Kangaskhan, Dizzy Punch!"

Flaffy's punch hit home, and she ducked under the Dizzy Punch. Gastly used Night Shade, and Arbok's attack was knocked off course, so it bit the wall instead.

"Arbok, Glare! Kangaskhan, Mega Kick!"

"Flaffy, Thunder Wave!"

"Gastly, Hypnosis!"

Arbok glared right into Gastly's Hypnosis, and went out like a light. Flaffy's Thunder Wave stunned Kangaskhan in its tracks.

"Flaffy, finish with another Thunder Punch!"

"Gastly, Dream Eater!"

The executive didn't even get a chance to tell his Pokemon what to do. Gastly KO'ed Arbok with the Dream Eater; and Flaffy send Kangaskhan flying with her attack, right into the executive, pinning him against the wall.

"This...isn't...over." The admin said before he passed out.

"We did it, Chris!"

"Oh, yeah! Nice teamwork."

"Hey, there's a slot over here on the wall," Clefairy called. "Try the key card in it."

Chris scanned the key card, and a small door opened on the wall, revealing another key hole.

"Gloria, the other key."

"Right." She put it in and turned it. The wall slid apart, revealing a passage.

"Well, looks like this probably heads to Saffron. Let's go." They both started walking down the passage, with their Pokemon following behind…