Chapter 4 - Looking Without Seeing

Some distance away, beneath the bulk of an extinct volcano, within a maze of iron and stone, sat a girl. Not merely any girl—or perhaps 'young woman' was more correct—judging by her clothing, her posture, the air of arrogance that persisted despite her obvious anxiety. She shifted her weight, the flimsy fold-out chair creaking, ran a hand through her hair, cast a nervous glance at the door to her right. She stood up, glancing down at her uniform, picked a strand of black fur off one of the gray stripes on her pants, sat down again quickly, thinking of what it would look like if the door had suddenly opened then. Had to adjust her hood so it sat straight on her head. Jumped, finally, when the door opened with a hiss.

Another woman emerged, in much the same clothing, save that she had a skirt instead of pants. She was rather white, but managed to smirk at the girl before continuing down the hall.

"Lillith," came a voice from inside the room.

Lily rose to her feet and walked into the room, trying to appear calm and utterly unafraid. She stopped at the desk, bowed. Noted the rich red of the carpet, the paintings and maps on the walls. Waited three seconds, counting them silently. Lifted her head.

He faced the large, floor-to-ceiling windows, hands clasped behind his back, apparently ignoring her. It was a nice view: trees, sand and the ocean beyond. Infinitely more interesting than an employee, even if that employee was also an administrator. She waited for him to speak.

Maximus sighed, eventually, turned to face her. Gazed at her with green eyes hardened by long years, ran a hand through thinning hair.

"Lily…you would know, should know, better than most, why we are here."

"Sir?"

"Team Magma. What is our purpose?"

"Seventy per cent of our planet's surface is water. We shall increase the area of the land, giving people and pokémon new places to live, by summoning the monster Groudon from its sleep beneath the earth. Sir."

Maximus sighed. It was always the same, a credo recited and memorized by everyone in the organization, from his administrators on down. He had hoped…it was Lillith, of all people, but even then…

It had not been like this, once.

"You know…the day is almost upon us. Very soon…our years of study and search will be fulfilled. Our dreams realized. How do you feel about this?"

"What I feel is inconsequential, sir. There are troops to be directed, plans to be made. I will do my duty, regardless of my feelings."

Maximus sighed again, walked past his high-backed chair, spun it as he passed. His only competent admin became a robot around him and the others, he was reasonably sure, had got there by sleeping with executives, not by merit.

They were drawing ever closer to their goal, racing with Team Aqua. There would be a showdown eventually, and when that happened he needed all of his soldiers meeting expectations, exceeding them.

It was that thrice-cursed Archibald. As always. At least that hadn't changed. Two teams, competing for opposing goals. Only one could emerge the victor, really. What good was more sunlight when rain would simply follow it?

"You are dismissed, Lily."

"Thank you, sir."

She turned, walking with purpose and energy from the room.

He sighed a final time, turned toward the window.

This had been easier, in days long past.

Lily strode from the room, nodding to the terrified-looking grunt now sitting in the chair she had previously occupied. She kept going, walking briskly until she judged she had traveled far enough along the metal corridor. She stopped, leaned against the steel wall, her hood thrown back, exposing her lilac hair. She slid to the ground, and laughed for a long time.

"Lily!"

She glanced around, trying to locate the source of the call, and noticed her squad of grunts at a table, waving to get her attention. She crossed the room, ignoring jeers from other groups, and sat down beside a grunt with spiky dark green hair.

"How'd your performance review go, Lilypants?" asked a grunt across the table and to her right. He grinned mischievously.

"Not bad, I think. He asked me some weird questions. And I'll feed you to your own golbat if you call me Lilypants again, Ben. Or cut your hair. Whichever is easier."

The table erupted into laughter as Ben pulled his hood protectively over his head, shielding his extremely curly brown hair. He shivered with mock horror, his light blue eyes wide. "No Lily, not the hair, I beg you!"

"Who was in before you?" asked a shorter, flaxen-haired grunt further along the bench.

"It was Courtney, Mouse," Lily answered, disgust in her tone.

"Oooh, Courtney, eh?" The tall, broad-shouldered grunt who said this raised his eyebrows, glancing from side to side along the table. "What do you reckon her review was about?" More laughter followed his statement.

Lily shrugged, trying to suppress a smile. "Well, she looked pretty pleased with herself when she came out."

The cobalt blue-haired grunt across from her sighed wistfully. "Man, I wish I could give her a performance review one day," he said, eliciting more guffaws from around the table.

"I dunno, Jake, I think Marietta was hoping you'd save that honor for her," said a very tall black grunt, who laughed, utterly unfazed when the woman beside him elbowed him hard in the ribs. Jake turned toward Marietta, winked and blew her a kiss. She responded by tossing her magenta-hued hair and making a rude hand gesture in his direction.

"What…questions did he ask?" came a voice from the end of the table, causing the merriment to perish immediately. A grunt with dark gray, purple-tipped dreadlocks looked up from stroking the black eevee that was the group's mascot. He tilted his head to the side, slightly. Feigning interest, in Lily's opinion. The younger, crimson-haired grunt beside him moved down the bench nervously.

Lily shrugged. "Just some stuff about the team, why we're here, what our goals are…that sort of thing."

"So…nothing about your performance, really."

"No."

"I see." He fell silent, leaving the rest of the table, as always, slightly nervous.

Lily disliked Ilthuriel, though she was never sure why. He was an excellent, talented trainer, didn't talk much, had interesting hair, and yet…

And yet, she thought to herself, there was something very, very wrong about those amethyst eyes…

The dark red-haired grunt near Ilthuriel coughed nervously. "So, any word on our next job?"

"No idea, Kato, but Maxie was dropping hints about the plan coming closer to being finished and all that."

"I think Tabitha's squad is gonna be raiding the Slateport shipyards…there's supposed to be something there Maxie needs," said the black grunt.

"You sure, Crush?" said the tall grunt beside him, running a hand through his violently orange hair.

"Pretty much, Doze."

"Damn it," hissed the spiky green-haired grunt beside Lily, speaking for the first time. "Unless we're doing a big job in the near future, we aren't gonna see any action for weeks!"

"Patience, grasshopper," said Jake serenely. "We will get our play in time."

"Whatever. And it's Ghost, thanks for noticing," snarled the grunt. It was a name that fitted him well; he was extremely pale nearly all of the time. A little color might come into his face if he got angry enough.

"So," said Marietta, changing the subject hastily, "they served lunch yet? I'm starving."

Lily wandered back to her assigned room some time later. As she opened the door with a swipe of a key card, she was greeted by a black, furry shape which almost tackled her to the ground, yipping excitedly.

"Fen, Fen! Geroff, you monster!" Lily laughed as she pushed the mightyena back into her room, the door sliding shut with a hiss. She sat on the edge of her bed, her mightyena putting her head in her lap. Lily scratched behind the wolf pokémon's ears. Fenrir whined softly, her tail thumping against the floor, indicating her happiness.

Lily laughed to herself. Mightyenas were fierce, menacing pokémon in combat, but most, like her Fenrir, were very affectionate outside of battle.

"Now, how long have you been running loose in here?"

Fenrir whined, clearly expecting a reprimand.

"Aww, no, not the face, not the puppy eyes…dammit. Fine, but my point is that you've been running around for quite enough time and you need to sleep, now. Go on. No, not the face—see, I'm not looking, ha! Come on, now. Into your pokéball."

The mightyena whimpered disappointedly but submitted to the red beam of light. Lily sighed, and placed the pokéball back on her trainer's belt, next to a great ball, an ultra ball and another pokéball. She rose and opened the room's one movable window wider, smelt the sea air. She was lucky to have a room with a view; administrator's privileges, not like those poor grunts locked in a basement somewhere.

She felt there was a certain amount of prestige attached to being in Team Magma. They were criminals sometimes, sure, but it was for a good cause, ultimately. She had no idea why it was so hard to find recruits. Lot of fun, cool uniforms (better 'n Team Aqua's, anyway), meet friends, work with pokémon…what more did you want, really?

Lily sighed. Well, admittedly…being your own boss and roaming the hills was rather better than sitting here on an island nobody knows about and wondering when you'd next be allowed some fresh air. She was insane, absolutely insane to be here, but she was pretty high up now and that had to be worth something, right?

One could only hope…

There! Sorry for the shorter chapter everyone, I've been really busy this week, it's been horrible. In any case, read and review! Reviews make me want to write more, you know.

And in other news…

Alright everybody, I know other authors have profited from it and I'm a tad short of ideas, soooo…it's time for Submit a Character Week…or Fortnight…whatever it takes. Anywho. All you have to do is fill out the following form and e-mail it to me (oonekokeleri ), and, if your character is pronounced satisfactory, they may appear sometime in the story…as a trainer met in passing, someone to battle, or maybe, just maybe, if they're impressive enough, a more…important role. We'll see. Try to make your descriptions as complete as you can, otherwise I'll have to take artistic license and I might wreck your character. I do have a few guidelines, as well:

-No made-up Pokémon.

-No PokéMorphs.

-For heaven's sake, no legendaries.

-No godmoder superstars. I'd prefer beginning to moderately experienced trainers.

-Original characters, please. I despise Ash and the rest.

-The spell-checker is your friend. =]

Ze Form

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Height/Weight:

Pokémon (No more than four belt Pokémon…if they have different colorations, please say so…and no more than one shiny per trainer):

Appearance (Eye, hair color, clothes, ethnic origin [so if they're black/white/oriental, whatever, I make them so], etc.):

Personal History:

Personality (So I know how to make them react to different situations, whatever):

Anything Else You Want To Add:

Yay. Well, snap to it! ^_^