Chapter 30

The girl didn't have a name. At least, nobody had given her one. So, her name, as far as she knew, was still Charmander.

For the most part, that was okay with her. She didn't really think that she needed a name more special than Charmander. After all, it was what Master Vince called her. Master Vince was the greatest master a Pokémon could know. She was his first Pokémon and he was her first trainer.

The Charmander-girl was dressed in a two-sizes-too-big tan jumper with a white button-up short-sleeved shirt. Her reddish-orange hair matched the color of her lizard-scaled tail. No matter how bright her emerald eyes appeared they were always a little dim compared to the brightness of the fire burning at the tip of her tail.

One of the nice scientists had told her that she was about ten years old in human years. However, she wasn't exactly sure how long she had been a girl. Master Vince brought her to a different building about a week or two after she had evolved. After that, she had been bounced around from place to place and they all just seemed to blend together.

She had been in this particular building for about five days, now. Somebody told her that Master Vince would come to see her if she went with them without any trouble, but that was obviously a lie.

They did that a lot, the people looking after her. They lied to her and promised that Master Vince would return soon, but he never did. She probably would've stopped believing them if it weren't for the fact that she really did see him every now and then. Sometimes, after they gave her a shot or took some blood, she would see him pass by the door. He never looked in, but that was okay, she was happy just knowing he was nearby.

It was strange how Master Vince didn't come by very often. She was sure that he missed her and must be having a tough time going after his badges without her. If she were with him, she could help and they would get stronger together. And yet, here she was, waiting for him to come get her.

They didn't treat her very badly. Aside from occasionally drawing blood and giving her shots, they treated her pretty well. Then again, it was the only world she knew since evolving, so, it was hard to tell.

They just didn't like it whenever she broke out of her room, which she was becoming an expert at. It was about the only thing she could do for fun, even if she didn't get any meat with her bread and water at next meal-time, when they caught her. But it was worth it to check for Master Vince. And she always heard some interesting things whenever she got out.

"…little punk," A voice that the Charmander-girl recognized as somebody named Cal came from the big circular room below her, "he thinks he's hot shit, but he doesn't know anything about what we do. I could get five before he even gets one." The girl crept forward to peer through the slits in the ventilation shaft. She could see Cal angrily pacing the room, but he wasn't alone.

"Settle down, Cal," the second voice belonged to the man sitting at the only desk in the room, "he's just started. He's just a boy, but given time we can mold him into whatever we want him to be." The man wore a suit that was the prettiest color the Charmander-girl had ever seen. It was a deep shade of lavender.

"Oh, come on!" Cal exploded, "you got the Boss's orders! 'Keep a low profile, don't draw any attention, in and out.' The careless little bastard already has somebody on his tail. And, need I remind you, I already caught two without even a whisper following me around."

"I'm well aware of your talent, Cal," the lavender-man sighed, "but even you forget that the targets we're really after are Eevee-evolutions. All others are a similar waste of time. And Lionel has a very promising lead on one."

"Sure, whatever," Cal gave up on arguing, it was pointless to try and convince Farin to pull back Lionel. That was the problem with Team Deus; nobody listened to his advice without going straight to the top. He still couldn't grasp what the hell Farin was supposed to accomplish out here. The grape bubblegum stain was just another shifty, corporate coward. God, they were everywhere…

"Just remember this, Farin," Cal said coldly, he tried to shoot Farin a piercing gaze, but he might as well be trying to stab a Ditto, "I'm not going to stick my neck out for the little brat just because you say so. And you can't afford to lose me."

Farin's broad smile never wavered. And somehow, Cal thought that was much creepier than any other reaction he could've given.

"And you can remember that I'm the one in charge, here," Farin's voice stayed steady, his calm, laid-back demeanor always helped keep him in control of any situation, "I will decide if Lionel is fit for duty or not. If you don't agree, you can speak with Darius, or perhaps you'd like Velius to take over?"

Cal's eyes widened, "no…that's alright. I'll trust you." There were very few people in Team Deus that Cal feared and the number three Darius and number two Velius were both on that list. Both of them were ruthless and unforgiving, which made them feared and respected by everyone. And the rumors that surrounded Darius…

"In any case," Farin sighed, casually ignoring Cal's reaction to his threat, "let's listen to Lionel's report. See if he's made any progress. He should be here in a few minutes."

The Charmander-girl over their heads thought about leaving for a good while. It wasn't really comfortable crouching where she was. It wasn't very interesting to watch Cal pace and Farin sort through papers, either. Still, she really wanted to see who this 'Lionel' person was.

She knew the names of almost everybody in Team Deus. She was good at remembering names and faces but she had neither for 'Lionel.'

Finally, after four very slow minutes, a buzzer sounded and Farin welcomed in a boy with wavy, blond hair. He was smiling, but Charmander instantly knew it was fake. That was another talent she had picked up. People lied around here all the time. It was good practice for her to learn who was lying and who was telling the truth. Lionel was lying with his smile.

"Come in, come in," Farin said jovially, waving his arms in a 'come closer' gesture as he did so, "how goes the hunt?"

"I'm getting closer," Lionel nodded, the lie written all over his face.

"Bullshit," Cal muttered, but made sure it was loud enough for Lionel to hear it.

"The trainer is an old friend of mine," Lionel switched to the truth, "he doesn't suspect me in the slightest. The only problem is; he's stuck to his Leafeon like glue."

"I thought you said last time that they were separated," Cal reminded Lionel, his voice filled with spite as he leaned against the wall, "you had a plan for nabbing her before the second day of the tournament even started. Am I right?" He smirked, taunting the boy in front of him.

"That's right…" Lionel admitted, hanging his head, "something went wrong, though. He slipped past me and found her again." He paused before hurriedly adding, "she's getting stronger, though! Aurum's been training them, so she should be really powerful when I grab her."

"That may be a nice side-effect," Farin spoke this time, "but if she becomes too powerful, it will be difficult to control her."

You already have trouble controlling me, the Charmander-girl thought, and I haven't had a battle in months.

"Yes, I know…" Lionel nodded sheepishly.

"I'm glad you understand," Farin kept his smile broad, "then I'll give you until the end of the night to catch her."

"WHAT?"

Next to Lionel, Cal snickered. He honestly didn't think that Farin had the balls to put his foot down on Lionel. This was a nice turn of events.

"I don't want to hear any more excuses," Farin shook his head, his tone was still calm and his smile was still cemented in place, "you've already been given plenty of chances and you've already made plenty of mistakes. I'm giving you one more chance to prove that you can do this. If you can't, then Cal will take over the task. And he assures me that he can do it."

"Alright," Lionel sighed, but he quickly replaced it with another fake smile, "then she'll be here by the end of the night. You can count on me!" He saluted, but it did nothing to lighten the atmosphere.

Up in the vents, the Charmander-girl felt bad for him. He was trying his best, but it just wasn't enough. Whether he was too inexperienced or too childish, he was in way over his head. How could he fix something like this in so short a time?

"You may go, now," Farin nodded.

"Thank you, sir," Lionel nodded. He left the room.

Cal counted to fifteen before speaking, "he's going to screw up, you know. This time it won't be just one Raichu kid on his tail. There'll be more next time."

"Let me worry about that," Farin replied, "you do your job and I'll do mine."

"You're too laid back about this," Cal shook his head. He hated Farin more than any of the five leaders of Team Deus. Farin was next to the lowest ranked of those five, but Cal thought he shouldn't be one at all. He commanded less respect than some people, Cal included, that were lower ranked.

"And what would you do differently?" Farin decided to indulge Cal for a little bit.

"Well, first of all, I'd pull back the kid, that's obvious," Cal explained, "that Raichu boy knows we're here, but he doesn't know where or how to get in. If we stop feeding him leads, he'll have nothing and go away."

"You fear discovery that much?"

"Of course I do!" Cal gaped at Farin's disregard for Team Deus's secrecy, "this group operates in the shadows. It's how we've stayed in operation. Those trainers up there," he pointed to the ceiling, "they may not have an organized force that can stand up to us. But if they know that we really exist and we've been taking their human Pokémon for years…look they may all just look out for themselves, but if they organize, it's over."

"I see," Farin still remained unconcerned.

"Look," Cal forced himself to calm down, "unless there's been some sort of break-through that I don't know about-"

"Classified," Farin interrupted.

"What did you say?"

"It's classified, Cal," Farin dismissed him, "no one outside of the top five is to know."

Flabbergasted, Cal stared at Farin open-mouthed for a good thirty seconds. What did they have? What was so secret that only the top five knew about it? Cal walked through every research lab that he knew about at least once a month. No one had made any progress in almost a year. What did they find?

"You may go now," Farin's voice was unusually stern, so Cal didn't argue. He left Farin alone in his office and left the room.

Still up in the vent, the Charmander-girl had heard everything, but she had no idea what it meant. It sounded interesting, but it didn't make much sense.

She realized then that she had been out of her room for much longer than she wanted to. Usually when she broke out, she stayed out until somebody caught her. Today was different, though. She wanted to check on her neighbor.

Her neighbor had been brought in two days ago with this weird looking collar thing on her neck. They could hear each other through the walls of their rooms, so they could talk. And that made it a lot less lonely.

Her name was Aroma, and she was a really pretty, human Meganium. She was very kind, too. She told Charmander stories about the outside. Mostly she talked about her trainer, Lily, and the other human Pokémon she lived with. There was Silver, a human Absol, whom Charmander suspected Aroma had a crush on. There was also Shinobi, a really strong human Ninjask.

The Charmander-girl hadn't really thought about giving herself a name until Aroma had arrived. She was so pretty and nice, and the name Aroma really fit her. She had a nice smell, too.

They thought about maybe giving Charmander a name of her own, but nothing they came up with seemed to fit. Most everything sounded way too mean or too weird. Names like Pyro, Ember, Inferno, and Flare. Even more basic human names she didn't like. None of them seemed to fit.

That was how they passed the time. Telling stories and thinking of names.

At first, Aroma didn't want to say anything, but Charmander hadn't had a neighbor in so long that she couldn't help trying to get her to talk. But it didn't take long to get Aroma to start telling stories and saying that Lily, Silver and Shinobi would come to rescue both of them very soon.

But she had heard that before. Like she said, she had other neighbors before and they all eventually gave up and stopped believing that their trainers would come back. It was sad, but she made the most of the little company she did get.

Sometimes that made her wonder if she was fooling herself waiting for Master Vince to come back. She didn't think she really needed to be rescued. After all, he had left her with Team Deus. He would be back one day, she knew, but sometimes she had to wonder if he even missed her.

His dad was in charge of Team Deus. He was a scary guy that she had only seen once or twice. But Master Vince trusted him and looked up to him, so, Charmander would too.

If Master Vince had brought her here to keep her safe then there was no better place for her.

AN: thus begins the next section of the story! I should warn you that it is going to be a very, very, VEEERRRYYYY long time before we get to what that classified information was.

anyways, thanks for reading!