Note: I know, I know! I promised there'd be like a million updates this month...Who knew I'd get a life? What with my little brother's sports day, prom and going to the theatre, I had no time to do any writing! Ok, poor excuses I know. At least this chapter is longer than usual.

Field Agents

Daphne was happily in her freshly cleaned normal clothes once more and had dumped the horrible smiley face tee in the nearest bin. She was ready to search for the field agents that would teach her, Conan and Amina everything they knew about working for Team Rocket. Daphne had decided they had wasted enough time – loads of the other kids from the training school had probably already found their mentors and were that much closer to realising their dream. She convinced Conan that they leave immediately and go find their mentors. She rationalized that Miss Billow wouldn't have let them out in the big world if there was no hope of them finding them. They just had to put their heads together and think of a way to meet two people who had no idea what they looked like, where they were or when they would reveal themselves. It sounded pretty tough.

/

"Do you really think this is going to work?" asked Daphne, rightfully doubting their plan. Conan was more optimistic than his partner and laughed openly.

"How could it not?" he said, cheerfully tapping the wooden sign they had crafted together. They were in the middle of the town and had put their 'LOOKING FOR FIELD AGENTS' sign where it could easily be seen. It was Amina's idea to be so obvious about what they were trying to do. They agreed unanimously that they had no other options and thus created their sign. Local residents passed by the two seemingly innocent teens and their purple Pokémon, wondering – sometimes aloud – what kind of field agents they were searching for. Conan would smile wryly while Daphne explained that it was on a need-to-know basis; the townspeople most certainly did not need to know.

Having lunch in the café opposite Daphne and Conan were what looked like a brother and sister, sipping at cold drinks. The café itself was small-scale and rather dim as the owner couldn't afford to pay for better lighting. Several tables and chairs were packed into the small room and there was only just enough room at the back for the main counter.

On first glance, the two people were very similar. They had black hair, dark eyes, were wearing mainly black and had matching haughty expressions. However on closer inspection the young man and woman were very different. The woman was slightly tanned with long black hair and even darker eyes. She wore a black and white Victorian style dress, long white socks and flat black shoes with big white bows. Her dark eyes were seemingly staring off to space but in reality, were watching Daphne and Conan's every move. The man was paler than the woman and had short jet black hair. His eyes were the colour of tea. Like his companion, he wore black and white clothes: a black zipper jumper, black skinny trousers and black and white boots. On his head he wore a pair of black goggles, which didn't particular match his outfit. His eyes were also on Conan and Daphne.

"That has to be them," the man said quietly. The woman purposefully took a sip of her drink before making a response. She drank it slowly, mulling the liquid around for some time. She watched as Daphne rolled her eyes at Conan and pushed him less playfully than necessary.

"Yep," replied the woman finally. The man tore his eyes away from the teenagers for a moment to look at his companion. Her face was free of emotion yet he knew that in her mind, a million thoughts were going on. He smiled to himself before regaining his composure and staring back out the window.

"Shouldn't we go out and meet them then?" he asked.

"Wait," the woman said slowly. The man sighed.

"Laurel, we've been waiting for two days. I'm getting sick of just watching them!" he complained. Laurel turned her head slightly to look at her partner. He realised he had gone too far but wasn't about to back down now. He kept her gaze and Laurel's face twitched – the closest she came to a smile. She bowed her head and when her hair fell in front of her shoulders, the glimpse of a smile was gone as quickly as it had come.

"You win, Travis." Laurel rose to her feet and threw down a couple of counterfeit bills on the table to cover the cost of their drinks. Travis followed her, a little less gracefully. They walked out into the town centre, blinking a little at the harsh change in light. They walked purposefully up to Daphne, Conan and Amina who were slightly intimidated by the opposing couple. Being straight out of the peewee training school, they knew not to show their fear and instead stood their ground against the strangers. Daphne sized them up, trying to determine whether they were a threat.

"Do you want something?" asked Conan, ruder than he had intended. Laurel observed Conan's behaviour carefully, assessing everything from the tone of his voice to the way he was standing. Her eyes darted to Daphne and saw the annoyed look almost permanently fixed on the younger girl's face. It wasn't a lot but it was a start.

"We're the field agents you've been looking for," explained Travis. Daphne and Conan looked at each other. Could they trust these two people? They hadn't noticed until now that their plan was flawed – how could they know for definite that the people who came forward were the ones they wanted? Amina didn't think like that and grinned at the older couple, oblivious to the concerns of her trainers.

"That's great; I'm so tired of looking for you guys. It was sooo boring!" she said conversationally. Conan and Daphne ignored her so Laurel and Travis followed suit. Daphne asked them how they knew for sure they were the right type of field agents.

"Team Rocket, right?" was Travis' reply. Daphne stuck her nose in the air, not impressed. The field agents she had had in mind looked a lot more like the part than the real ones standing before her, in Daphne's opinion anyway. They weren't even wearing the Team Rocket uniform! Conan on the other hand, felt as if he was in the presence of truly great people. They were the key to saving his family and it was comforting to know that he was one step closer to achieving his ultimate goal. Travis offered his hand out to Conan to shake.

"I'm Travis and this is Laurel," he introduced them. Conan nodded and reached for Travis' hand.

"I'm Conan; that's Daphne and Amina," he motioned to each of the girls he was introducing as Travis' hand clamped down on his. Conan gasped: it was like a vice. Travis' face gave nothing away, if anything he looked positively neutral. If it hadn't been for Conan's pained expression, Daphne and Amina would have never known anything was wrong.

They immediately felt protective over their teammate and Amina used Lick on Travis while Daphne aimed a kick at his leg, screaming at him. Behind Travis, Laurel retrieved a single Pokéball from who knows where and let loose a Nidorino. She spoke to him in such a low voice that it was a miracle he heard the command at all. It was evident he did though, as the next moment he short a Poison Sting at Amina. Amina staggered back, surprised and angry. Her fury fuelled her enough to numb some of the pain she felt and she glared at the Nidorino before attacking him with Lick – or trying to, at least. The fact was Amina was simply too weak and Nidorino too fast for her attack to make contact.

A loud whistle was heard and the group looked towards the direction it had come from. An Officer Jenny was standing there, armed only with a Growlithe and a fierce expression.

"Just what is going on here?" she demanded. Travis stepped forward and smiled apologetically.

"Sorry to alarm you, Officer Jenny. My sister and I were simply messing around with our cousins. It won't happen again," he humbly said. Officer Jenny eyed him suspiciously but when none of the others spoke to contradict his story, she had to take his word for it. She warned them all that it had better not happen again.

"I'll be keeping an eye on you," she said, pointing at Travis. He smiled at her pleasantly until she walked away with her Growlithe. As soon as her head was turned, Travis dropped his smile and looked back at the group. Conan was clutching his injured hand and staring at him reproachfully; Daphne was shooting him an icy glare; Amina and Nidorino were glowering at each other and Laurel was standing among them all, looking like her mind was elsewhere.

"What the heck was that for?" asked Conan viciously. Travis shrugged his shoulders.

"You were stupid enough to shake my hand. How can you trust someone so easily – even if they're supposed to be on your side? You've got a lot to learn," he said with regret. Daphne narrowed her eyes and stepped towards him, trying her best to look intimidating.

"You didn't have to break his hand in order to prove a point!" she said defensively.

"Actually I kind of did. That's why I'm a mentor and you're a mentee. You learn how I teach you, or you don't learn at all. Got it?" Daphne muttered horrible insults to him under her breath but backed off. She could tell he was in the right and as her teacher she had to play by his rules or fail the training. She wasn't thrilled about it though. Daphne turned her attention to Amina who was still scowling at the Nidorino. Laurel was crouched beside her Pokémon and was stroking his head in a soothing manner. Noticing that Laurel had yet to say anything, Daphne rounded on her in the hope that she was the weaker character.

"Why did you attack Amina with your Nidorino? What's your problem?" she asked nastily. Laurel's head snapped up and her black eyes flashed. She got to her feet and took two long strides until she was in Daphne's face. Her expression was blank but Daphne could see the emotion hidden in the depths of Laurel's abyss-like eyes.

"Learn to control your Pokémon, and I'll control mine," hissed Laurel, slowly and deliberately. Her voice was chilling to Daphne and she quickly discovered that between Travis, Laurel and their strong Nidorino, their mentors was a pretty good – or bad, depending on your viewpoint – team of field agents. To learn that within the first five minutes of meeting their mentors also spoke volumes and Daphne had high hopes about this. Conan with his smarting hand and Amina with her new found hatred for Nidorino thought otherwise.

You learn how I teach you, or you don't learn at all. Travis' words from two weeks ago kept spinning around in Conan's mind. He swore that if it wasn't for his family he would have beaten Travis into a bloody pulp. Travis really got under Conan's skin; everything he said just seemed to drip superiority – it was like he thought he was better than everyone else. What made it worse was that he was better than everyone else. He could invent a crime to commit, fine-tune the details and go about doing it flawlessly. Conan hated the way Travis had decided they would do the training: separately. Conan trained with Travis, Daphne with Laurel and Amina with Nidorino. The only time they were all together was during breakfast and sometimes not even then. Conan didn't know how they were expected to know how to work as a team if they didn't train as a team. It went against everything they had learned at the training school but whenever he brought it up with Travis, he got the same reply:

"That was then, this is now: times change. Give me thirty press-ups!" Conan had done so many press-ups in the past fortnight that he was actually forming biceps. He was also in better shape – not that he had been unfit before but now he was almost toned. Travis liked to put him through rigorous exercises unlike anything Conan had experienced before. It they weren't performed to Travis' satisfaction then he was 'punished' which meant that there would be no evening meal for him or Conan's teammates. This rule made sure Conan worked as hard as he possibly could, if not harder.

Daphne's training was a little more contemporary. Laurel mostly got her to sit in a field with a blindfold on for forty-five minutes every day. Daphne wasn't sure what this was achieving but knew better than to question her mentor's methods. Once that was done, Laurel and Daphne would practise being subtle. Laurel had decided that Daphne was far too brash and obvious; everything she did was noticeable. It was tough going but Daphne was slowly becoming more and more discreet: she even managed to sneak up on Travis. With his keen sense of hearing this was practically unheard of and Daphne had the nagging suspicion that he was fully aware of her presence. Travis would do anything if Laurel told him to; it was like she had some sort of hold over him.

Amina was getting the more standard way of training from Nidorino by battling with him every day. It was an uphill struggle but soon everyone could see a considerable improvement in Amina's strength. She was becoming a real tough Pokémon to battle and Nidorino only showed his approval recently when Amina came close to winning their battle. He could tell she had been working hard all this time and that hard work was finally paying off. Nidorino was satisfied with his student and praised her continuously for her progress. Amina had learned that Nidorino wasn't as bad a Pokémon as she had first thought and had gotten over her hatred for them. She knew that first impressions were often wrong.

Whether they enjoyed their training, understood it or developed vital skills during it, one thing stayed constant in their minds. It was a few days into their training that Laurel and Travis received the postcard from the peewee training school, describing that they had a month to do whatever preparations they needed before the students were to return to the school. Once there, they would battle with other students who had also been educated by field agent mentors. Winning battles meant nothing as they earned points for every move, every sneak attack and dirty shot. The higher the score the more likely it was they would be chosen to become a part of Team Rocket for good. After each battle they would go to a higher stage until they reached the last, the Final Battle.

P.S. Why can't I use - or * as a break? I used to be able to...I had to make do with /. Totally not as effective.