Obligatory Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

Thanks again for the review, Nauran! I'm glad you think that they can work well together, and I'm sure we'll find out what's so great about Hoenn soon.

And thanks for the review korne-pokemon-luv! I hope that I can continue writing as you have described, thank you, and I hope that you'll continue to enjoy the story too.

Those who remained in Pallet Town started the following day by saying farewell for the time being to one more person.

Misty was returning to her gym and her responsibilities in Cerulean City, more out of unfortunate necessity than out of actual desire.

She had already visited the lab and seen Lance, the professor and Tracey again before departing, having awoken even earlier than she had two days before. Now, she said goodbye to the others, arrayed out in front of Ash's house in a formation that was becoming familiar.

The skies were dark in a way that threatened rain, a stark contrast to the constant radiance that had defined them over the past week wherever they had been, and it seemed poetically fitting, as Cilan had suggested to Brock, that they would be so gloomy on a day filled with another - arguably premature - departure.

Iris asked him whether he was a poetry connoisseur now to, and told him to shut up before he could begin to respond to her taunting.

"It's a pity you have to go so soon, Misty, we didn't get to have a battle in the end." Iris had suddenly realised that unfortunate fact the night before after Ash had gone.

"I wish I could stay, but without me my sisters just can't handle the gym. They start giving out badges for nothing, the chores don't get done; it's pretty bad." Misty climbed onto her bike and made sure that her bag was secure as she replied. "But I suppose they do get quite busy doing all the modelling stuff, and I don't mind running it that much really..."

"Yeah, we know how important the gym is to you."

"It's okay."

Brock and Cilan knew a little something about gyms operated by family, though given the Striaton brothers' efficiency, Brock could probably emphasize a little more with their red-haired friend than Cilan could.

"We'll have to do more contest battles at some point."

"Definitely."

"Sound good, Dawn?" Piplup chirped back happily in agreement, but its trainer, who had remained entirely silent up until this point, took a little longer to reply.

Uh, yeah, Misty. That sounds… great." Her eyes were a little unfocused, she seemed dazed and her tone spoke of a mix of denial and sadness.

Misty looked back at her sympathetically and reached over to gently place her hand on Dawn's shoulder.

"It'll get better. Don't worry."

Dawn nodded weakly in return, though the motion seemed to be aimed at convincing herself rather than actually agreeing with Misty.

"Nothing to worry about…"

Misty withdrew her hand and brought it over her head in a final gesture, then began pedalling up the road towards Viridian City and beyond, building up speed as she went on.

"See ya, Misty!"

"Goodbye!"

They continued waving until Misty was out of sight, and then began to head up to Oak's lab; Lance had given Misty a message to pass on, earlier, requesting their presence after she left.

"Do you know what that was about back then, between Dawn and Misty?" Cilan asked Brock quietly as they walked, hoping he could shed some light on the situation.

Brock only shrugged.

"Girls. Who knows?"

They had quickly all discovered something interesting about travelling as they were now, not that the current excursion was much of a journey, but the fact that it became apparent to them so quickly spoke volumes about the obviousness of what they now faced.

It was most jarring for Cilan and Iris, while Brock and Dawn realised that they had felt it before.

They'd woken up, tried to think about what they might be doing that day, and simply found that they couldn't picture anything.

It was partly due to Ash's absence, so they all separately decided.

When they had been travelling with Ash, whether in the past or more recently, they had always been moving forward. Sure, they had taken each day at a time before, but there had been an overriding goal with an end in sight.

Brock's primary goal was on hold, at the moment, for the simple reason that it was summer vacation from the centre in Pewter City at which he studied. Unlike his previous travels, he had no wish to visit his family as desperately as he had wanted to after Johto or Hoenn because he had been living with them for the past year.

He could review what he had learned in the past view; he could go over and over the information, try to research something new at the Pewter City library, or even go further afield to some of the larger, more well-stocked facilities located in central Kanto; but even doctors-to-be needed a break, sometimes.

Indeed, having not even the slightest thing to set his eyes on in the next two months at this exact moment - no object to visualise in his mind's eye - was what annoyed him the most.

Dawn's goal had reverted to contests and coordinating. Her brief time helping Hermione with fashion design – centred around Buneary - in Sinnoh had been a nice change of pace, but had been short-lived, and her loss in the Hoenn Grand Festival final had been difficult for her. She had reacted with the same humility she had displayed in Sinnoh, but had done so without the support of her closest friends; even Zoey had been absent; entirely out of the region in fact, having chosen to travel to Johto first instead.

The weeks that had followed had been tough, and she had very much enjoyed her time in Unova, and her time in Kanto so far, as a break from thinking about it all. She badly wanted to get back to practicing regularly for the next contest circuit, but the Kanto Grand Festival had already occurred barely a month ago, and the local contests in the region would not resume for another month – and who knew where she would be by then? With the others, on the road again, or back home?

Spending time with Ash again had been the highlight of her trip, but now that he was gone…

And then there was what Misty had said…

Iris' realisation took the form of a recurring problem for her, a nagging doubt about her aims that flared up at times, often brought on by random happenstance, just like Ash's constant reappraisal of his overarching quest.

She wanted to be a dragon master. She knew that. But what kind of dragon master, as Georgia had said many a time, only had half of a team of dragons? Georgia's appearances were often one of the catalysts for these relapses in her pondering, but once she had started thinking about it, she was unable to stop with conscious force of will. One glance at Axew, so frequently nestled in her hair as he was, and she would be dragged back to face her problems. Not that she ever solved them.

She couldn't believe that anything that Georgia said had annoyed her so deeply, and yet here she was.

She loved all of her Pokémon dearly, and her recent capture of Dragonite near Undella Town had gone a long way to revitalising the earliest feelings of confidence that she had felt about her plan.

But that was part of the problem; she had no plan. No organisation. Her goal seemed more straightforward than Ash's on the surface, more easily quantified; "dragon master", after all, simply suggested a mastery of, ownership of and deep friendship with a multitude of dragon-type Pokémon. But where was she on that road? Ash could claim from his improving results in previous conferences that he was "getting closer", but could she do the same in any realistic way?

She might be closer now that she had one more dragon-type on her team, perhaps, but was it really a huge leap forward, or merely a small step on a long road that she had barely yet begun?

She didn't know even where to begin thinking properly about resolving all of those issues, and she cherished any amount of time that they passed out of her mind, without even realising why she cherished it.

Cilan found that his intentions were as simple as they had been when he had first joined Ash and Iris on the road. He had wanted to meet new people and Pokémon, see more of the outside world – or at least of Unova, having never expected to leave the region that was and would always be his home. He had wanted to improve his skills as a Connoisseur, perhaps to advance to the stage, a level of competency, wherein he felt ready to attempt to join the hallowed ranks of the elite, the few, the S-class evaluators.

But even then, he had done so with some framework, some level of guidance, a set goal in mind. The group's dynamic had been fluid and had grown as they had grown as friends, but whether knowingly or not Ash had done the most to shape it by following the path to the Unova league.

Now that Ash had left for Sinnoh and Hoenn, Cilan wasn't sure what the focus of the group was anymore. Or if there even was any focus.

Indeed, these were questions that all of the now much smaller group found themselves asking as they made their way to Oak's lab in silence.

What are we going to do from now on?

Where are we going to go next?

As it turned out, Lance had the solution to their woes, but that came later in the day, and was unrelated to his initial reasons for calling them to the lab.

The first reason he gave was to apologise for prompting Ash to accompany Cynthia to Sinnoh and leaving them, something that he did very soon after Tracey had opened the door and let the group in. They had waved away his words, telling him not to worry about it; Ash had agreed, after all, and it was important. Lance then praised them warmly, and noted just how lucky Ash was to have such understanding friends.

They briefly wondered if Oak had put the champion of Kanto up to this; the professor was certainly conspicuous in his lack of presence at their arrival, given that he would normally eat breakfast in the lounge at this time of day after feeding the Pokémon with Tracey; a daily ritual that Brock had discovered on his first stay in Pallet Town.

They were proven wrong, however, as Lance led them into the lab's outer grounds, where they found the professor waiting for them. The two appeared to have buried the argument that they had had the day before, or at least suppressed it to a degree adequate enough for them to hold a casual conversation in a respectable manner.

The second reason for having the group of four trek up to the lab was centred on Iris, and the promise that Lance had made to her the day before about a certain dragon/flying dual-type Pokémon that both of them happened to care for – as did a certain Pokémon professor, too.

"Iris, could you send Dragonite out for us?" Lance asked pleasantly, and Iris was happy to oblige. Her powerhouse burst out of its airborne Poké ball with a garrulous cry.

"Ok, now what?"

"Ready, professor?"

"Why, you first, champion."

"All right. Go, Dragonite!"

Oak threw his a moment later, both balls soaring briefly against the dark sky.

Lance's finest emerged onto the grassy field, stretching its wings and taking a deep breath of fresh air, while Oak's Dragonite hovered briefly in the end before dropping and carefully examining Iris' Dragonite.

"Professor, I didn't know you had a Dragonite too!" Iris was awestruck, caught between her admiration of the quiet composure exemplified by Oak's and the dramatic poise exhibited by Lance's.

"Yes, Dratini was one of the first Pokémon that I actually caught, back when I was a young trainer much like yourselves. Now, then, how did that story go…"

"What're they doing?" Dawn interrupted, pointing at the three Dragon Pokémon in front of her.

Lance's and Oak's Pokémon were familiar with each, that much was obvious from the way they acted. They treated the newcomer with curiosity, and, impressively, Iris' Dragonite did not seem to be either angry, grumpy - or even simply frowning - for the first time in its life.

Instead, it had moved in close to the other Dragonite, and began to sniff them intently, a motion which they reciprocated.

As one, they moved back, tensing their bodies and took to the sky with a strong flap of their blue-orange wings.

"Wh-where are they going?" Iris cried as they began to fly away.

"Relax, Iris." Oak chuckled as a thud sounded out across the area, signifying that the three Pokémon had landed safely on the roof of his lab. "I think they're just going to have a little get together and talk a few things over. In the meantime, why don't we go do the same?"

They were all agreed that such would be quite lovely, if for no other reason than that they had nothing else in mind, and so traipsed back into the lab again. Tracey passed them as they went in, humming a tune under his breath and carrying a box of Pokémon food to the hungry customers at its destination.

"Well, young master Ketchum has left for regions afar, and you all seem to find yourselves on vacation at this point." Oak summarised their current situation as he saw it while they made themselves comfortable once more on his plush velvet sofa. Lance stood off to the side, given the lack of room, and examined an impressive illustration of a Bulbasaur, tagged with the name of " " in a bottom right-hand caption.

"Pretty much, professor." Brock replied.

"Well, what are you going to do on it?" Their host had filled a kettle and began to boil the water while preparing the cups to receive it.

"We… uh…"

"We weren't really sure yet."

"Hmm. Well, none of you are hunting for gym badges. Dawn is the only coordinator amongst you, and the new contest season hasn't begun yet… There doesn't seem to be any driving goal that you could follow, anything like that to pursue."

The professor had cut right to the heart of the matter, they all quickly realised, and he wasn't even the one experiencing this loss of direction.

"That's the problem!" Iris gasped. "That's exactly the problem!"

Oak nodded, and loaded the cups onto a tray, which he handed round to the four trainers, then took one himself and gave the last to Lance.

"I guess one of us could do the gym challenge…" Brock suggested.

"Last time I had a gym battle it didn't exactly go too well." Dawn pointed out.

"Or maybe the Battle Frontier…"

"How would that go any better?"

"Fair point."

"Are there any other big competitions around in Kanto at the moment, Lance?" Cilan had suddenly remembered that the Indigo League champion was an expert on the tourism industry in his region.

Lance's eyes flashed as he turned to regard the trainers, a wry smile on his face. It seemed that this was a favourite, well-rehearsed topic of his.

"Well, where do I begin? This year, Kanto has the rights to some of the greatest entertainment events in the world! We've got the soccer world cup coming in September, the baccer international finals in October and even the world cooking invitational in December!"

Brock and Cilan were interested in the last one, but Iris shook her head.

"I think he meant things that we could take part in… And a little sooner, too."

"Well, there are the Pokémon Tag Team tournaments going around the region at the moment; I think you participated in one of them a few days ago?"

"Ah, so that's what that was!"

"Yeah. On top of that, you have the-"

"Maybe there's another way here." Oak cut in, eager to return to the point that he had originally been pushing. "Perhaps, instead of going for some event or some specific long term goal, why don't you just take a look around the region?"

"What do you mean?" This puzzled them all.

"Well, just see the sights? Go on an actual vacation? You can keep what you're doing flexible, so that you've always got options, but why not have a proper explore of this beautiful region?"

The professor was sounded a little more like Lance with each word that he spoke, but what he said made sense to the trainers.

Just… see the sights…

No goal in mind…

A nice break… from thinking about… him….

An actual vacation.

Why hadn't they thought of it before?

"I'm sure that your Pokémon would appreciate it, too." Oak continued. "And really, it won't be that much different from travelling like you have in the past, but the difference will be in your mind-set."

"That actually sounds… pretty good." Iris said, and the others were similarly warming up to it.

"There are quite a few things I'd like to see around Kanto, in fact, and they don't all have to do with Pokémon." Cilan pulled out his tablet and flicked the screen across to a "favourites" tab.

"Oh no, here we go." Iris muttered, seeing a certain familiar mechanical construct as the others leaned in to look as well.

"The Magnet Train is the crown jewel of the metro connoisseur world!" He declared, flicking across a few pictures of said vehicle, as Brock and Dawn looked on in confusion. "Although technically it isn't part of a subway, but it's just so cool and pretty that the Council of Metro Connoisseurs decided that it would qualify based on the fact that it goes underwater!"

"Does he… always do this?" Dawn whispered to Iris as Cilan's voice steadily rose in pitch and volume and his face darkened red in excitement.

"Unfortunately yes." Iris confirmed.

"And it's not even mass-produced! I'd love to just see those wheels spinning in action, hear the engine humming as a backdrop to the gentle breeze passing outside the window as- hey!" Iris stopped his babbling with a sharp poke to the ribs.

"We get it, all right!"

"Y'know, I didn't get much of a chance to see Celadon's fashions…" Dawn pondered the possibility of further comparisons with those that she already knew about in Sinnoh, distracted now by images of possible variations in colour and style of what she had already seen that flashed through her mind.

"Who knows what else you'll find if you give such travelling a chance?" Lance put in, unfolding his arms. Got 'em now. Hook, line and sinker. "I've got a lot of leaflets that I can give you, you can make something of a plan from there, and for the little details like navigation, well, Brock, you know both regions pretty well at this point, I'm sure you'd be an excellent guide."

"And I'd be happy to!" Brock beamed.

"Plus, with my tablet providing maps, how can we go wrong?" Cilan cried.

"Quite easily, given past experience…" Iris muttered, motioning to Brock that she intended to explain to him about it later. Oh, the white forest…

"Plus, there's no need to remain in Kanto. Johto's just a quick ride away on your favourite Magnet Train, Cilan." Lance added, seemingly suddenly remembering that, as Indigo League champion, he also held responsibility over the western territories too.

Dawn's eyes glistened at the thought of examining Goldenrod's latest offerings in the shopping sphere too.

Cilan's eyes glistened at the idea of riding the Magnet Train.

The four trainers needed no further convincing. Not any more.

Axew and Piplup took the chance to make noises of contentment, indicating their desire for their trainers to decide upon that course of action.

The way forward was suddenly clear to them.

"Lance, Professor Oak, thank you!" Dawn beamed, standing up as the elite trainer and the professor exchanged a smile. "You've been an amazing help!"

"Glad to be of service." Lance gave a theatrical bow, while Oak nodded.

"So when will you leave?" He asked.

Brock, Cilan, Dawn and Iris shared a glance and realised that they were all thinking exactly along the same lines now.

Thinking clearly.

Thinking forward.

"Just after lunch, I'd say." Brock said, and the others affirmed it with one more nod of their heads.

When Iris came to collect Dragonite, straight after lunch, something had changed in the Dragon Pokémon.

Whatever it had had to say to its fellows, its behaviour was an obvious indication that it had been deeply affected by the meeting.

Where before it had been rambunctious, angry and at one point barely obedient… Now it was clearly different.

It was waiting for her, to start with. It had fluttered down with the others during their lunch, and had noticed her approach long before she noticed it, even with the benefit of being inside.

There were other changes, far more obvious than such subtle gestures. It was calmer, no longer as noisy. It harrumphed gently when she returned, waved happily at the other Dragonite, and then seemed overjoyed at returning to the confines of its ball.

Not overjoyed as in it was overjoyed that it was leaving the others as soon as possible.

Overjoyed by the prospect of being reunited with Iris once again.

It was, by now, truly content for her to be its trainer, and she could tell that it would obey her without question from now on.

She knew, of course, because of her ability to read the hearts of dragons.

And she was overjoyed at that knowledge, and said as much to Oak and Lance, who, again, were extremely pleased to have helped in such a way.

They did as they said they would, and departed after lunch, having had the chance to quickly peruse a selection of the leaflets that Lance had provided them, and having used those resources in the time that they had to choose their first destination.

A quaint little restaurant in Viridian City, where they had booked reservations for dinner that night.

Lance, Tracey and the professor all came to see them off, shouting words of encouragement and wishing them luck wherever they found themselves next.

Tracey had said goodbye to Brock in particular, having the strongest bond with the friend that he had known for the longest time, but still knew enough about the others to wish them well in their endeavours too.

Before they had departed, Lance had given them each a gift; a gold pass for the Magnet Train, equating to free travel whenever they pleased, courtesy of his powers as champion, and had instructed them, with a twinkle in his eye, to use them as much as they wanted, and spend a good deal of time – and money! – in the shops of both Kanto and Johto. He also gave Brock his Pokégear number, just in case.

Oak, too, had one final gift, slipping it into Dawn's hands as they began walking away. She opened it to find six lines of writing, separated in half by a thick line, and followed by a little added paragraph of handwritten scrawl. Two haikus and an explanation.

One was by the professor, and concerned Iris and Dragonite.

Evidently he could think and write fast.

The other, however, was not penned by the professor, but by someone very close to him.

"He said that you'd like this." Dawn whispered, blushing a little as she read aloud the words at the bottom that were directed to her, and Brock giggled like a little girl until Iris shut him up with a clip around the back of his head, declaring that it was the sweetest thing that she had ever heard, and that whoever this "Gary" person was, they were lucky to know him.

"He did remember…"

And suddenly, like all of the others, she was smiling a lot more that day.

Their past concerns, their past worries, all behind them for the moment.

All that mattered was moving forward, and they would make the best of what they found.

They took a brief break along the road to thank Delia for her hospitality, but explained that they unfortunately could not dally.

They followed the road out of Pallet Town, renewed in both heart and mind by their newfound focus.

"I'm sorry I doubted you, Lance." Oak said to the champion as they went back outside; Oak to recall his Dragonite, and Lance to leave the lab on the back of his.

That was how he arrived in the first place, after all.

"Mhm."

"I'm always just so worried about them, Ash and the others, and it seemed to me that you were putting him in needless danger the other day." Oak sighed, feeding his Dragonite a couple of pieces of Pokémon food, having chosen to let the Dragon Pokémon stay out to watch its friend depart.

"I'm sorry it seemed that way, and I can see how it did." Lance replied, climbing onto his Pokémon's back and stroking a wing gently. "That's why I wanted to help the others find out what they wanted to do."

"So, no hard feelings?"

"None at all, old friend."

They shook hands again, and then the champion moved his other hand to rest lightly on his Dragonite's shoulder, giving the command to take off that it knew so well.

It ascended rapidly into the air, and he clung carefully on with one hand, waving to the diminishing profile of the professor below as they flew away.

And then they were soaring across the sky, and off towards the Indigo League.

The professor gave his Pokémon a few more bites to eat and a little more careful attention before he returned it to its Poké ball.

He worried about Lance. Despite his strength, there were times when the champion could lose track of himself, become so immersed in his work that he lost focus on everything else…

Oak was glad to see that the day's events meant that the same was not happening now.

Meanwhile, Lance sighed, and finally let the mask drop. His features fell, his brow creased and his frown returned.

His Dragonite, knowing his moods and feelings so well from sustained contact over the years, suddenly saddened sympathetically too.

It really, really was hard lying to continue lying to friends like this. Every moment of contact was a moment he regretted, because they were moments passed without him breaking down and revealing the truth.

The truth, of course, being that the situation was far worse than almost everyone knew.

He had found a deep level of corruption in his region, but even he hadn't the slightest clue how far deep it went. In the industries, into politics… Maybe even the gym leaders and the Pokémon league? Likely to other regions, given similar reports that he had been given by Wallace and Steven.

It was ironic that, despite knowing – or just believing; who could tell? - about this conspiracy's existence, he had almost no details whatsoever about who might be really be involved or what they might do – and who was just a pawn in their game.

All that he could tell was that Team Rocket was up to something big, and it had might have had something to do with whatever they had been planning in Unova.

Dragonite kept well below the cloud level, but even banking hard they were still caught unawares by a sudden shift in the wind direction, and drenched by the unexpected appearance of a storm cloud above them.

He couldn't trust Oak with the truth; that was really for his fellow champions. But what worried him was that he hadn't told Cynthia or even Cameron about the true extent of his fears.

Was he just being overly paranoid?

Or were they more useful if kept in the dark about a few things?

He didn't like that line of thinking at all, given how far it put him along the road to being just like those he believed were at greatest fault.

But it wouldn't go away, and was the source of his current brooding.

Oak had been right, and Cynthia had been right to worry the day before. He had asked Ash to accompany Cynthia to Sinnoh and then Hoenn because he hoped that by snooping around, as they naturally would, they might find something useful.

And he had suggested a proper vacation of exploration, a journey of discovery, to Brock, Cilan, Dawn and Iris – three of whom he had never even met before – simply because he hoped that they might find something beneficial to the homeland security of the region.

Maybe even blow the whole conspiracy wide open. I daren't hope.

And at the same time, Lance hated doing this. He hated putting them at risk like this. He did care about their well-being, and ultimately would have preferred to have avoided the whole situation entirely.

But he truly was desperate; at his wit's end, in fact. Three months of brick walls and dead ends had taken their toll on his restraint. He was willing to do anything, anything, to protect his region. As a champion should.

But even acknowledging the pragmatic ruthlessness of that very concept made him dually angry and sad at what he been driven to become.

The weather on the road to Viridian City had not improved, but they didn't care. Indeed, they took it as an upside that they missed the rain, dashing into the Pokémon centre as the first heavy drops of the downpour began to fall.

Their reservations were not for several hours, and so upon their arrival they used the opportunity to consider their next move and spend some quality time with their Pokémon.

Brock, in addition, decided to overcome his irrational phobia of Jigglypuff – with Cilan's help of course – spurred on by the knowledge that Ash had not yet entirely succeeded at doing so before he had left. Brock had more or less succeeded when the time came to leave for the restaurant, and they were also fortunate in that the rain finally ceased just as they walked out of the centre doors.

They took that as a good sign.

The four trainers hardly proceeded to splash out on their food at dinner that night, mindful of the need to conserve their funds for what they might do in the future, but still ate with gusto, aware that they did not intend to eat like this very often.

And, anyway, they were on vacation.

They decided over the meal that they would make a quick stop in Pewter City the next day to see the museum and visit Brock's family, before moving on to see Misty in Cerulean after crossing Mount Moon.

Nurse Joy had offered to take care of their Pokémon while they were eating, and Brock was obviously unable to refuse such a pretty face, so Axew and Piplup, along with all of their Poké balls, were temporarily absent from the group.

Finishing up, they declared a toast – to Lance and to Professor Oak; to Ash and Cynthia, wherever they currently were, and to their future journey and friendship, and felt very good having done so.

They sauntered back as the evening turned into full blown night, to retrieve their Pokémon and then sleep at the centre, bellies full and minds very much at ease, entirely unaware that they had been carefully watched and their conversations recorded the entire time.

The operatives slipped out of the restaurant shortly after their objectives did, pursuing them a little further up to the entrance of the centre, then dashing down several streets to a side road, in which sat their temporary accommodation for the duration of their stay in Viridian City.

Which would be as long as their targets stayed there. No more, no less.

They were professionals, and they would always get the job done.

That information was quickly processed into a summary by the field operatives, collated, collected and sent off to headquarters for the appropriate action to be taken.

It was shunted rapidly from department to department, sent across from operator to operator, division to sub-division, flagged multiple times across its journey.

It reached the desk of the boss in less than an hour from when it had been sent off.

"The operatives were entirely certain about this?" Giovanni asked. His secretary nodded.

"Yes, sir. They were very clear." She replied.

"Ash Ketchum has left the region?"

"Yes, sir."

"Accompanied by the Sinnoh champion?"

"Yes, sir."

"It worries me that we are only hearing of this now. I assumed that we have operatives at the Kanto airport that they would have used."

"I believe that we do, sir. I will look into it, and report back to you."

"They discussed their Pokémon at the table, and you were able to cross-reference that with what data we have from the tag battle tournament operation to produce a reliable database on these new trainers?" He went on, satisfied.

"Yes, sir. The data is available for your review when you please."

"And the operatives will continue to tail them for as long as we need them to."

"Yes sir. Buck, erm, Bick? Well, Cassidy and the operative partnered with her will continue following them until you order otherwise."

"Keep me appraised on that." He said, then changed the topic to other matters. "Are the future tag battle tournaments still ready to go ahead?"

"No problems have been reported so far, sir. They should continue as planned."

"And does that mean that the plan will continue as we have discussed before?"

"Yes, sir." Her face betrayed no hint of what dark things they both knew that plan contained, and neither did his expression alter in return.

"Excellent." Giovanni flicked a tab open on the touch screen before him, absently moved a hand down to stroke the fur on the back of the purring Persian beside him. "What of the operatives in Unova?"

"No recent reports, sir. We can only assume that they remain in place for further instruction as you ordered them to."

"Very well. Thank you for these updates. I await your next briefing."

He dismissed her with a wave of his hand; she bowed, and left, walking back out into the labyrinthine maze of corridors that the Team Rocket headquarters was defined by.

He span around in his chair, then slowly stood up and gazed for a long time at the large, embossed red symbol on the back wall of his office that stood for Team Rocket's presence. Power. Influence.

The legacy that Team Rocket rightfully deserved.

Not long now. He thought. Not long at all.

Instinct blood-tinted his world until he could see only one thing clearly. His prey.

- Predatory Focus, Guildpact