Hellooo. So, since last chapter was so short, I got my butt to work on the next one and finished it up nice and quick for you guys! I really like this one, so hopefully you all will too! We're delving deeper into the conflict of the story with this one. Lots of juicy information ahead...so get ready!

LAST TIME: Michelle enters the Celadon Contest and competes against her rival, Clarisse. Michelle uses her new Eevee in the appeals round, but it doesn't go as planned. She ends up being eliminated after just the first round, but sticks around to watch Clarisse go on to win the Contest-and her fourth ribbon.


Chapter 28: Rocketing the Underground!

Michelle sighed sadly and rolled over in bed. She'd had one lousy night of sleep after the equally lousy Contest. It was hard to fall asleep, after all, when all you could do was think about how terribly you had done.

I failed Eevee, and I made myself look stupid, Michelle thought scathingly to herself, Losing in the first round…that's a disgrace.

"Morning, Michelle!"

The girl shrieked and nearly fell out of bed. Clutching the sheets to keep herself on the mattress, Michelle snarled and looked up, finding herself face to face with Aiden. Pichu, who had been curled up fast asleep on Michelle's pillow, yawned tiredly and opened her eyes as she picked her head up and shook it, big ears swaying as she tried to get the extra sleep out of her system.

"Aiden, what are you doing?!" Michelle barked. She clearly had no patience for her twin that morning.

"I didn't do anything wrong," Aiden sheepishly replied. "All I did was say good morning to you. Does that really make me a bad brother?"

"No," Michelle finally admitted with a groan. "I'm sorry, Aiden. It's just…I'm still…"

"Upset about yesterday?" Aiden finished for the girl when she trailed off.

"Yeah," Michelle sighed, hanging her head in apparent shame.

"Hey, there's no need to feel bad!" Aiden assured, sitting down beside Michelle on her bed. "You can't win every Contest! I know for sure you'll do better in your next one."

"But how do you know for sure?" Michelle grumbled.

"Because I'm your brother, that's how!" Aiden chuckled, finally earning a smile from Michelle. "I lost a gym battle once, remember? To Brandon's dad. The first match was horrible. It got so bad that Forrest had to call off his Steelix before Squirtle got maimed. But you remember what I did, right?"

"…no," Michelle quietly lied.

"Yes you do," Aiden chuckled. "I trained harder! I worked harder with Squirtle, and together, we beat Forrest on the second try. You just have to keep on training, and you'll win another Contest soon enough!"

A small smile finally etched its way onto Michelle's face. "You know, you're right. Thanks, Aiden. For getting all those stupid thoughts out of my head, I mean."

"Don't mention it," Aiden hummed, standing up from the bed and stretching his arms up over his head. "Now, we should probably get dressed and head over to the dining hall. Brandon is waiting there for us!"

"Sounds good to me," Michelle giggled. "I'm starving!"

XXX

As soon as Aiden and Michelle arrived to the dining hall, they found Brandon sitting at a table with Pichu and Riolu, who had been let out of his poke ball by Aiden before the boy woke up his sister. Both were drinking moomoo milk out of bottles, while Brandon busily dug into his own breakfast of-

"Waffles!" Aiden shouted excitedly, running over to the table and sliding in, his eyes glimmering as he stared at the plate. "I've gotta' get me some of those!"

"Why don't I get us both some?" Michelle asked her brother. "It's the least I could do after you cheered me up!"

"Wow, that'd be awesome! Thanks, Michelle!"

Brandon watched Michelle walk away with shock visible on his face. Once she was gone, he turned his head towards Aiden, who seemed confused by Brandon's look of surprise.

"What?" Aiden squeaked.

"This is unusual," Brandon replied. "You and Michelle, getting along and not trying to rip out one another's throats. What's gotten into you guys, huh?"

"Nothing!" Aiden laughed. "She just woke up feeling bad about the Contest yesterday, so I gave her a little pep talk that lit a fire under her butt. I cheered her up, and she's grateful!"

"This is a nice change of pace, you know," Brandon commented with a laugh. "I like not having to separate you two! If only your parents could see this."

"They wouldn't believe it," Aiden playfully remarked.

"Aiden…?"

The young boy looked up, finding his sister to be staring down at him with a confused expression. She had two plates of food in her hands, just as she had promised him, but she looked absolutely bewildered on top of it.

"What's wrong, Michelle?" Aiden questioned.

"There was a guy standing over by the food, and he asked me if I knew you," Michelle explained, putting the food down on the table. "I didn't know what to say, because, well…he's kind of weird."

"What's he look like?" Aiden asked.

"Uh…he's got dark blond hair, crystal blue eyes, and for some weird reason he's wearing a cape?"

"Oh, that's Eusine!" Aiden chuckled. Michelle and Brandon both raised their eyebrows, not sure of what that was supposed to mean. "Clarisse introduced me to him. He researches legendary Pokémon and travels the world in search of them! And he even met Mom and Dad once, a really long time ago."

"Wow, that's pretty cool," Michelle breathed.

"Why's he looking for me?" Aiden continued.

Michelle shrugged. "He said there was something he had to ask you. Something pretty important. He wouldn't tell me anything."

Aiden narrowed his eyes and turned his head from side to side as he scanned around the room. "Where is he?"

"Still standing over by the food," Michelle replied, pointing over to where the trays sat. Indeed, Eusine was standing behind it, half of his face hidden behind a hanging lamp as though that would disguise him from the patrons in the dining hall.

"Yeah, great hiding place," Brandon sarcastically remarked.

Getting up from the table, Aiden hurried over to Eusine, who appeared relieved as soon as the raven haired boy appeared in front of him.

"What's up, Eusine?" Aiden asked curiously.

"Who is that girl I was just talking to?" Eusine demanded to know.

"Uh…my sister?"

"Your sister?" Eusine repeated.

Aiden raised a wry eyebrow. "Yeah, she's my twin."

Rubbing his chin, Eusine muttered, "then she must know the same things you know."

"What things?"

"About Team Rocket," Eusine responded.

"Oh, yeah. They've come after both of us lots of times."

Eusine's eyes widened at this. "Then you could both help me out with my mission."

"Your mission?"

"Do you remember several days ago when I told you about the suspected Team Rocket headquarters underground?" Eusine questioned.

"Yeah, but I thought you said you weren't sure, and that it was too dangerous for me to help out."

"I know what I said originally, but I'm afraid I'll have to go back on my previous conclusion," Eusine continued. "I've done my research, and a bit of exploring, and I know for sure that Team Rocket's secret base is definitely located underground Celadon City. And you, as someone who has had various run ins with that evil group, should be able to help me find exactly where they're hiding."

"And what about Michelle?" Aiden inquired.

"Michelle…?"

"My sister."

"Oh, yes," Eusine chuckled softly. "She can help as well, most definitely. The more help the better, in fact."

"Awesome!" Aiden crowed. "But before we go, you should probably meet her first. Properly, I mean. Come on!"

He started to lead the mystery man back towards the table, and during the entire trek, Eusine eyed Michelle with curious blue eyes. She certainly looked like the red headed girl who had accompanied Ash the one day Eusine had met him. Misty…that was her name. The Cerulean City gym leader. And Ash's wife.

"Michelle, Brandon, this is Eusine!" Aiden's cheery voice brought Eusine's attention back. "He needs our help with an important mission!"

"Aiden," Eusine broke in sternly, causing Michelle to raise an eyebrow, "who is the boy?"

"Brandon," Aiden repeated as though Eusine hadn't heard him the first time.

"How can he accompany us on such a mission?" Eusine questioned. "Has he too encountered Team Rocket?"

"Yeah, sure, all the time with us," Aiden replied. "I mean, not when we were younger, but-"

"What do you mean younger?" Eusine interrupted.

"Team Rocket used to try and kidnap us all the time as babies," Michelle helpfully answered for her brother. "Our parents never understood why. Even now when we run into them, they sometimes try to take Aiden and me with them. It's really weird!"

"I think that has something to do with their evil plan, whatever it may be," Eusine mused.

"Do you have any idea?" Brandon inquired.

"Not much, to be honest," Eusine sighed. "The only thing I know is that they're currently training many young operatives for the organization. More so than what's usually seen or reported. They were dormant for quite a long time, you see. Things were fairly peaceful while they remained underground. But all of that changed ten years ago."

"When we were born," Michelle murmured.

"It did start quite soon after that," Eusine confirmed. "At the very end of that year. You two were born in December, were you not?"

"Yeah," Aiden and Michelle chimed together.

The mystery man made a noise of interest and nodded his head just once. "Their activity increased soon afterwards. It was fairly well known that they'd had contact with your parents, and not in a pleasant way. You see, I'm friends with Morty, a gym leader from the Johto region. We've been close friends since childhood, and because of his role within the Pokémon League, he has an established relationship with both your mother and father. They had both been attacked several times by the organization, especially your mother. But the League tried to keep it under wraps for their safety. Of course, these kinds of things always have a habit of leaking to the public regardless, but Morty is the one who told me before anyone else was aware. He knew that when I wasn't busy trying to locate legendary Pokémon; I was hot on the trail of famed criminals trying to create disturbances for people and Pokémon alike. He was afraid that this would be their uprising, and that I should have been on the lookout for them. He was right, it seems."

"But my parents never understood what they wanted from us," Aiden piped up. "They sort of thought it was just because they're famous."

"It's not."

Eusine, Aiden, and Brandon all turned their attention onto Michelle, who was staring down at her plate of waffles in deep contemplation.

"What do you mean?" Brandon questioned.

Michelle took in a deep breath before explaining, "back in Cerulean, when I got kidnapped on accident during the water ballet, Team Rocket was really surprised to see that I'd gotten caught with all the Pokémon. They were mad, at first, but then they decided they were going to take me to their boss. Whoever that is. They said I was going to become part of Team Rocket. An operative, like Eusine's been saying."

"Didn't that other guy say something similar?" Aiden pressed.

"Who are you talking about?" Eusine demanded.

"On our way here, we ran into this really scary looking guy with blood red hair and two different colored eyes," Aiden mused. "He told Michelle he could give her power, and things that not even our parents' fame could get us. And he mentioned something about his father being pleased if we were to go with him."

"His father!" Eusine hissed. "It's all making sense now!"

"Eusine, are you onto something?" Brandon finally spoke.

Eusine quickly nodded his head in response. "Indeed I am. Come with me, I'll explain along the way."

XXX

"Where is Magnus?"

"Take it easy, Syd. We can't rush him."

"No, but we can get annoyed when he's taking too long! I don't care if he's the boss's protégée; it's rude to keep a lady waiting!"

"I don't see any ladies here…"

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"

"Sydney! Alex!"

The two young operatives gasped and whipped around, finding themselves face to face with an older pair. All four, despite the differences in age and stature, were wearing matching uniforms: black in color with white collars and gloves banded with red. The two females' uniforms were dresses, while the males wore a shirt and pants. Both were emblemized with a big red 'R,' however, and this is what helped people realize who they were.

"Butch…Cassidy…" the younger girl murmured. Her curled purple hair was worn half up, half down, while her golden eyes shimmered with a unique mixture of admiration and fear.

"What are you doing here?" The younger boy asked. His brown hair was shaggy, although maintained neatly enough, while his light green eyes were narrowed out of confusion.

"We were working on a project for Dr. Nabaka when you two disrupted us with all of your nonsense!" Cassidy scolded before a high pitched ring pierced the air. She pulled out a cell phone and flipped it open, holding it against her ear as she chirped a simple, "hello?"

"IT'S NAMBA!" The voice on the other end of the line yelled so loudly that everyone else could hear him, including Cassidy who huffed in response and hung up the phone.

"Right, Dr. Namba," she muttered as she rolled her eyes.

"You two are screaming like a couple of banshees out here!" Butch scolded. "What kind of professional Team Rocket agents do that, huh?"

"No one, sir," the younger male murmured.

"Alex," Butch continued, "the boss holds you to such a higher standard than the other young operatives."

"And the same goes for you, Sydney," Cassidy added, eyeing the sheepish younger female. "We've been training you two ever since you were a pair of sniveling, useless babies to be our protégées! Don't screw it up."

"We're sorry, Butch and Cassidy," Sydney apologized. "Alex and I have been waiting for Magnus to come back from a solo mission. He's supposed to be bringing back some important information for us."

"And the reason you're waiting for him is because the boss has so much faith in you," Butch added. "You two should be grateful for getting to work with the future of this organization!"

"Yes, unlike certain young operatives that I can think of," Cassidy muttered under her breath.

"Sydney!"

"Alex!"

The two younger agents both winced at the calling of their names, while Cassidy and Butch exchanged knowing, almost mocking, glances. Two familiar faces suddenly appeared, both of them beaming at an obviously irritated Sydney and Alex.

"Speak of the devils," Cassidy whispered to Butch.

"Ugh, Jewel," Sydney muttered. "What do you want?"

"Same goes for you, Jason," Alex spat.

"We heard you were waiting here for Magnus, hot on the trail of a brand new mission!" Jewel crowed.

Sydney huffed and narrowed her eyes. "Maybe…"

"We want to help!" Jason chirped, causing Alex to roll his eyes.

"You can't help," Alex retaliated. "You're not trusted with this kind of stuff!"

"Yeah, the boss would have our heads if he heard we were having you two help out," Sydney added acidly. "He doesn't trust either of you with anything!"

"That's not true!" Jewel bit. "Mom and Dad told us that the boss has lots of faith in us! They've trained us perfectly well!"

Sydney looked over her shoulder at Butch and Cassidy and raised a curious eyebrow. Alex looked just as troubled as his partner, though he was glancing at the floor instead of his lead agents.

"Sydney, Alex, head into the conference room," Cassidy instructed them more gently than usual. "When Magnus comes around, we'll tell him where to find you two."

Wordlessly, Sydney and Alex both nodded and followed Cassidy's orders. They both knew that when she told them to do something, ignoring her was not an option. The two young agents both scurried off, leaving Jason and Jewel alone with Cassidy and Butch, who were both smirking at the young operatives.

"Hi, Cassidy," Jewel greeted kindly.

"And Biff!" Jason added cheerfully.

"The name is Butch!" Butch stormed, causing Jason to take a step backwards.

"Jason, Jewel, what are you two doing associating with those two creeps?!"

Jason and Jewel spun around to find Jessie and James standing at the end of the hallway, neither one looking very amused with the situation.

"We didn't do anything wrong, Mom," Jason defended himself and Jewel.

"Yeah, Mommy," Cassidy sneered, causing Jessie to scowl. "Don't you believe your children?"

"You two, back into your room!" Jessie snapped, switching her pointed finger between Jason and Jewel.

"But-"

"NOW!" Jessie shouted, immediately interrupting Jewel. The two young operatives both nodded and ran back towards the older pair, straight past them and hanging a left to re-enter the hallway where their room was. With Jason and Jewel now gone, Jessie looked back up at her and James' two enemies and growled at them.

"Wow, Jess, still pulling the whole parenting charade, are we?" Cassidy mocked.

"You better not have said anything to them!" Jessie shouted.

"Oh please, I may be a villainess, but I do have some conscience," Cassidy scoffed. "Besides, that's your lie, not mine. It's not my responsibility."

"I just can't believe you two imbeciles have actually managed to get away with this for the past ten years," Butch remarked. "You've never been able to properly execute a single mission! You even managed to screw up with those two!"

"Hey, we did not!" James argued. "Jason and Jewel are both fine young children!"

"But they're not fine agents, and that was your mission," Butch sighed.

"We were supposed to be training the future of Team Rocket, and instead, you two started playing house with your protégées," Cassidy laughed. "Do they even realize they're not actually siblings? I mean, those two think they're twins for Arceus' sake!"

Jessie had heard just about enough from that blonde haired pain. "Just because our training method is different from yours and Bill's-"

"BUTCH!"

"Whatever! It doesn't mean your method is any better than ours!"

"Yeah, we chose to train those two with love and care!" James agreed. "Treating them so harshly simply wouldn't work, not for us!"

Cassidy rolled her eyes at the notion. "But that's what makes a good agent. You two are so clueless it isn't even funny."

"Why you little-"

"What in the world is going on here?"

All four adults turned around and found themselves face to face with a blood red haired teenager, flanked by two blonde girls of equal age and looking quite irritated with the actions of the older agents.

"Nothing, sir!" They all chimed together, saluting the younger male.

"Exactly what I thought," he muttered before moving down the hallway, the two girls never once leaving his sides. As he walked away, the four adults stared at his back, eyes slightly widened with fear as he marched away.

"That Magnus," Jessie muttered under her breath. "He may very well be worse than Giovanni."

XXX

"With all of the research I've done, I have concluded that Team Rocket headquarters is indeed located underground, beneath the Game Corner Casino."

"But we're all too young to go into a casino," Brandon noted, motioning towards himself and then the twins.

Eusine chuckled softly at this. "We don't actually have to enter the casino. There's a secret door, I've noticed, that leads to the underground."

Michelle squinted her eyes and looked around the back of the building, searching eagerly for such an entrance. "I don't see any door."

"Come on, Michelle, why would they leave a secret door out in the open?" Aiden scoffed. "They obviously hid it somehow."

Eusine smirked and let out a small breath of approval. "You've hit it right on the head, Aiden."

Striding forward, Eusine moved towards one of the posters that was hung up on the building's façade. Lifting it up slowly and gently from the bottom, a small red button embedded in the wall came into view. The three young trainers standing behind Eusine all gasped silently in awe as the mystery man pushed the button in and took a step back. From behind the poster, where the button was situated, a rectangle just tall enough for Eusine to have to duck down to be at height with appeared and pressed into the wall before sliding to the right, revealing a dark passageway with a set of stairs that were descending below ground level.

"Whoa," Aiden finally managed to find his voice.

"This will lead us to the Rocket hideout," Eusine confirmed. "You three, follow me and stay close by. We can't separate from one another."

The three young trainers nodded and trailed behind Eusine as the mystery man began to move down the stairs. It was very dark, practically too dark to see the next step, in fact. Fortunately, the staircase wasn't too long, and the group made it down safely before anyone could take a tumble down the steps.

"What do we do now?" Michelle whispered to Eusine.

"We have to find the head of the operations," Eusine explained. "There's two people in charge of Team Rocket. One is the real boss, and the other is a younger male he has in training. The one you apparently ran into up in the mountains."

"Magnus?" Michelle piped up unsurely.

"Yes, that's the one in training to become the future boss," Eusine authorized. "And he's under the control of the current Team Rocket boss: Giovanni."

"Giovanni, huh?" Aiden repeated.

"Even the name sounds evil," Brandon remarked.

"My goal here isn't to actually confront any of the members," Eusine continued. "I simply want to spy on them and try to get a finger on exactly what it is that they're planning. This is a mission that has been going on for many, many years, and I intend to put an end to it. But first, I have to know exactly what they're up to. I can't make guesses or assumptions. That would only end badly."

The group continued down the dark, predominantly concrete hallway, until they finally reached the end where light was beginning to seep through. Eusine peeked through the doorway first, to make sure the coat was clear, and once he realized that it was, motioned for the three younger trainers to continue following him.

"Wow, it's empty down here!" Aiden marveled.

"Yeah, I wonder why," Michelle mused.

XXX

"What a group of fools."

In the conference room, where Magnus had finally met up with Sydney and Alex, a large screen was projecting the image of Eusine, Aiden, Michelle, and Brandon walking through the vacant hallways of the hideout.

"How did they even find us?" Sydney growled, narrowing her golden eyes.

"Relax yourself, Sydney."

The young girl looked up at Magnus and scowled, but otherwise held her tongue. She knew that arguing with the future boss of Team Rocket was a big no-no.

"It's obvious that the older one has been doing his research," Magnus continued. "He's going to try and stop us. How cute."

"What shall we do about their intrusion, sir?"

Magnus smirked and turned to his right, where the question had come from. It was one of the blonde girls who had followed him into the room: her hair a light shade, hanging down to her mid back and curled at the edges. Her eyes were reminiscent of a cat Pokémon, pool blue in color and very clear, full of slyness.

"You just leave all of that to me, Yvette," Magnus purred. "They're certainly not going to get away with it, I promise you."

From Magnus' left, the other blonde girl growled before carelessly flipping her hair with the back of her hand. Her hair was shorter and a darker shade than Yvette's, more golden, while her eyes were a very dark brown, nearly black, in fact. The top of the girls' uniforms were similar to Sydney's, but the bottom was different. Instead of being solid black, it was white with a red stripe. This was to help show that she and Yvette were at a higher position than Sydney and Alex.

"Cathy," Magnus spoke again, catching the attention of the darker blonde, "I trust that you and Yvette will be able to assist me in this matter. You are my elite officers after all, yes?"

"Oh, yes sir!" Cathy replied cheerfully, the formerly sour look on her face quickly melting away. Snorting, Sydney rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair.

"But first, Sydney and Alex," Magnus drawled as he eyed the two agents sitting before him, "I think you should give those little brats a warm up for the real stars of this show, don't you think?"

Sydney narrowed her eyes, but Alex was quick to jump up and salute the teenage boy, replying, "yes, sir!"

"Excellent," Magnus laughed darkly. "Then off you go. Don't waste my time."

XXX

"What a weird hideout. It just seems like a bunch of connecting hallways!"

Aiden groaned and cautiously eyed his sister. "Maybe, but I've got a bad feeling about this. Like something's about to happen."

"I kind of think you're just being weird," Michelle murmured, although she didn't sound too positive herself.

"What's this? We have company?"

The younger trainers gasped and subconsciously hid behind Eusine, who furrowed his brow out of frustration. Obviously, Team Rocket was onto them…they had been caught. Feeling a bit more confident, Aiden, Michelle, and Brandon finally looked around the mystery man, and found themselves staring at a boy and girl pair who reminded them of their usual torturers, Jason and Jewel. This duo, however, was wearing significantly different uniforms, the only similarity shared between them and the other two being the big red 'R' on printed on the front of their outfits. The girl had curled purple hair and mischievous golden eyes, while the boy standing next to her was brunet with coy green eyes of his own.

"Alright, who are you two?" Aiden growled.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves," the girl purred. "I'm Sydney."

"And my name is Alex," the boy spoke dauntingly.

"And we're here today to stop you all from getting in our way," Sydney sneered as she pulled out a poke ball. "Houndour, let's go!"

"You too, Gulpin!" Alex called immediately after, throwing his own poke ball.

Appearing before the two young agents were a pair of Pokémon: the first one, belonging to Sydney, a small black and red dog with a rather ferocious look on its face, and the second one, Alex's Pokémon, being a green blob of sorts with no real shape to it and no discernible facial expression.

"What are those Pokémon?" Michelle muttered as she pulled out her pokedex to scan the two.

Houndour, the dark Pokémon. Houndour uses a series of cries to communicate, and will never leave a member of its pack injured.

Gulpin, the stomach Pokémon. It can swallow and digest anything the size of its body due to its powerful stomach.

"Ew, gross," Michelle muttered under her breath.

"Excuse you, my Gulpin is not gross!" Alex shouted.

"Whatever, if you think I'm going to let you attack me with that thing, then you're crazy," Michelle spat as she pulled out a red and white sphere of her own. "Ponyta, help me out!"

The fire horse Pokémon appeared before her trainer, neighing and stomping her hooves on the floor.

"Brandon, can you help Michelle?" Eusine urgently asked the aspiring Pokémon breeder.

"Huh?" Brandon asked confusedly, pointing at himself in bewilderment. "Who? Me?!"

"Yes," Eusine rushed out his words. "Aiden and I are going to track down the head of this operation. But Michelle can't battle them on her own. Please, help her."

Brandon stammered for a moment, but soon enough he pulled out of his stupor and nodded confidently. "Got it!" He hurried up next to Michelle and unclipped a ball from his belt, much to the girl's surprise. "Spearow, come out!"

The tiny bird Pokémon fluttered up by Ponyta's head, glaring at the two Pokémon standing across from them.

"Houndour, use flamethrower!" Sydney demanded.

"Counter it with fire spin, Ponyta!" Michelle yelled.

Just as the bursts of fire filled the air, Eusine and Aiden made their getaway, back down the hallway and hanging a left instead of a right as they'd done before. This led them back to the empty space they'd been accustomed to, but still, neither one felt safe. They ran now instead of walked, keeping their guard up for someone to jump out and try and attack them.

"Eusine, where are we going?" Aiden panted as he ran after the caped blond.

"I'm not entirely sure," Eusine admitted. "But eventually, following this path has to lead us to the head of operations. We need to stop this plan, and fast."

While they were running, the two realized they were coming up to an open door. They ceased their running and instead chose to approach the doorframe slowly and quietly, so as to not get caught by whoever might be inside. Eusine peered in first, followed by Aiden right below him. The backs of Cathy, Magnus, and Yvette were facing the both of them, and they were all standing in front of a wooden desk, the back of a red velvet upholstered chair facing them.

"Father," Magnus spoke, his voice low, "the elite officers and I have found another orphanage nearby, and we intend to strike it tonight. Do you have any grunts lined up for the mission?"

The chair spun around quite suddenly, causing Eusine and Aiden to both gasp softly. Sitting in the chair was a hulking man, with tan skin, short brown hair, and permanently narrowed black eyes. He was dressed in a gaudy orange suit with a green vest and yellow dress shirt tucked away neatly beneath the jacket. He scoffed, and Magnus pulled his shoulders back. Shaking his head, the man in the chair replied, "you mistake me for an idiot, Magnus?"

"N-no, sir," Magnus stammered. Aiden raised an eyebrow. This was the first time the teenage boy had actually showed any trace of emotion. And, go figure, that emotion was fear.

"Of course I have grunts lined up for the heist," Giovanni scoffed. "Don't be so stupid. I raised you better than that."

"GET BACK HERE YOU TWO!"

Eusine and Aiden both jumped and whipped around. Michelle and Brandon were running back towards them, concern etched on both of their faces. Ponyta and Spearow had both been returned to their balls, but Sydney and Alex were still following them. Gulpin had been put away as well, but Houndour was still out and raring to fight. Pichu was trying to fend them off with repeated thundershocks, but it wasn't working and instead seemed to be tiring her out.

"Michelle! Brandon!" Aiden gasped.

"Their Pokémon are really powerful," Michelle panted, pulling up next to her brother for her own comfort.

"There was no way," Brandon puffed, sounding just as tired as Michelle.

"You four again?"

The group turned around and found that Magnus had stepped out of Giovanni's office, Cathy and Yvette still at his sides. He looked annoyed with the intrusion, but not overly upset. Just mildly bothered.

"Magnus, sir-" Alex began before getting cut off.

"I don't have time for this nonsense," Magnus sighed. "We are going on a mission, and I need the assistance of you two. Sydney, end this now."

Sydney huffed, obviously not pleased with the order, but she still followed it without audible complaint. "Houndour, smog."

The dual type Pokémon spit out a barrage of smoke that caused Eusine and the three younger trainers to couch and close their eyes. By the time the smoke cleared, and they were all able to see again, Magnus and his four younger followers had all disappeared.

"What?" Brandon muttered to himself.

Aiden backtracked and peeked into Giovanni's office once more, narrowing his eyes when he saw that the chair formerly occupied by the mob boss was now empty. In fact, there was absolutely no one left in the office at all.

"Giovanni is gone too," Aiden murmured, pulling away from the doorframe and twisting his mouth in deep thought.

"Did you guys find out anything about Team Rocket's mission?" Michelle asked.

"Chu?" Pichu chimed.

"Not too much," Aiden admitted. "But we heard Magnus telling Giovanni that they were going on a mission tonight, to a nearby orphanage."

"An orphanage?" Michelle repeated incredulously.

"Why would they need to go to an orphanage?" Brandon questioned.

"I don't know, Giovanni said something about a heist," Aiden replied, still sounding confused.

"They're obviously stealing something, although we don't know what," Eusine concluded. "It could be anything from money to the entire building. Their raids always differ."

"Yeah, but why an orphanage?" Michelle pushed.

"This needs further investigation," Eusine sighed. "I am going to speak to Officer Jenny and see what else can be done about this. But until then, I'm afraid we'll just have to go with what we have now."

From the end of the hallway, two pairs of eyes watched the group, while their ears listened in on the conversation. Once they had heard enough, the two prying eyes were pulled away, and the people they belonged to rested themselves against a wall.

"Jewel…what's going on?"

"I don't know, Jason…I'm just as confused as you are."


Team Rocket secrets! Just what are they up to now? We know that Sydney and Alex are the protégées of Cassidy and Butch, but what about Yvette and Cathy? Any guesses? And what's the deal with Jason and Jewel?

You'll all find out eventually ;) It's not called a mystery for nothing!