A/N: MiniMeani: Hah, glad you liked it. You'll be happy to see that the Enormous Balls get another lengthy discussion in this part (and I have the feeling Sabrina would like to have a word with the inventors). And regarding J's brother…well, that's the big question, right? No worries, it will be answered here. With a twist. *winks*

Part II

It is said that to be a true genius, one has to trade a hefty amount of sanity for something that might be called "creative interpretation" in a positive light. Any less amicably individuals might say that it is not wisdom that has been achieved, but that the foundations for a new evil mastermind have been laid out.

Arguably, both assumptions held true to the young man who dwelled in a small, dark prison cell in middle Sunyshore.

Despite being quarantined in one of the most bleak, empty cells that existed- for his own good, no less!, he was surrounded by things he had designed himself, many of them mechanistic in nature, despite their crude level. It wasn't his fault that all he had to work with were plastic forks, safety pins and his bed sheet's thread. Considering the destitution he had to bear, it was remarkable that he had managed to construct the miniature figure of a young woman with colorful hair and a short dress formed out of metal rings that were covered in white fibers.

Clearly, an interested hobby psychologist from the outside would claim, the young man had been in prison long enough to start missing the assets of real life woman and to satisfy his primal needs, had resorted to the most primitive form of inflatable companionship.

Yet our concerned observer would soon notice that the way the young man interacted with his makeshift girlfriend was not in any way sexual, but rather affective and almost sweet, if not for the general awkwardness that was to be expected when one addressed inanimate objects as their 'dearest, kindest soul mate'.

And once said observer were to be informed about the turpitude that had brought the young man behind jail- which wasn't of a sexual nature in the earnest, he would nevertheless back away and slowly recline into his well of solitude and normality, before deeming the inmate to be yet another promising soul lost to nerdtum and bemoan the fate would befall that seemingly all individuals with a knack for mathematics and physics sooner or later.

And the man himself wouldn't even condemn such a judgment, because he had stopped to give a damn about other people's opinions the moment his greatness had revealed itself to him, and he had realized the kind of lordship he was truly destined for.

Who cared if his fate was it to bring imbalance to the world? Who gave a damn if the Holy Grail he was reaching for was the proper, only embodiment of evilness mankind knew? Who was there to denunciate him once he was the only soul existing- not living, in the world that was truer than the real world, despite being its total opposite? The world as he had come to know was a wicked, fabricated place, made out of lies, unkindness and tears, and the world beyond, ruled by none other than the Pokemon of darkness, was what would be left once all of the sins had been washed out, and he, he alone, would triumph by being what he always had been, pure, logical and uncaring for everything other than the ultimate good. The ultimate good, found in an environment ruled by nothing other than horror itself, was what had him fascinated for the greater part of his life and career, and had resulted in him breaking the boundaries between the worlds and merging what was never meant to touch, even.

As we can all conclude at this point, the young man had lost a lot more than just his marbles.

Zero. His name's origin either accredited to particularly sarcastic and uncaring parents, or to an inability to choose something that didn't imply an inborn tendency to losing before even trying.

Given these facts, the sheer belief that he would be of help for any government, more so than for one that was struggling with a highly secretive turmoil, was laughable.

And yet, that was exactly the intention J had come to Sinnoh with. She wasn't particularly looking forward to meeting her younger brother- not any more than she was looking forward to having her wisdom teeth pulled out without anesthesia, but she didn't know any other person that fulfilled the textbook description of "computer nerd" so painfully well that it seemed he had jumped out of some newspaper caricature strip.

The psychic following her on official order of the league- and to no small amount because she had taken an inward liking to the positively self-reliant hunter, seemed completely unfazed by the ordeal. As if that was anything new. J supposed that if asking a well-known criminal out on a date without batting an eyelash didn't make you keel over, nothing could.

Which was a good thing. Knowing her brother's quirks, she needed someone mentally stable enough not to freak out or being so entirely irritated that they resorted to physical violence.

Not as if she herself hadn't been driven to that point, several times actually. But he was still her brother, and fratricide was actually not on today's agenda.

She flexed her fingers. Getting into the high security prison of Sunyshore had, in reality, been pitifully easy. She supposed that having a gym leader with her, who oh so fortunately carried a letter with the official seal and signature of the Kanto champion made getting a visitor's visa easier in general. Still, she had to frown at the actual safety precautions being undertaken. Or rather, not being undertaken. There was still the option of being shaken down, but once the psychic at her side had so much as glared in the general direction of the police officers, there was suddenly no talk anymore about touching them any way inappropriate at all.

Which was probably a good thing. For the officers, that is.

And for her, since she wasn't keen on revealing the assortment of weapons she tended to carry on her.

"I will talk to him first. I sense that there are underlying accusations between the two of you."

J rolled her eyes. That was putting it nicely. "Just, ah…don't judge him from the get-go, okay? He's a bit weird." J had to remind herself who exactly she was telling here about her brother's bright and shining personality, and sighed. Was she cursed to be blessed with a whole bunch of misfits in her life? Where had she gone wrong to deserve such punishment, besides choosing the way of illegality, of course?

Or was all of this just an elaborate scheme to give her greater insight into what she herself as a person truly was?

She wouldn't have minded asking her companion some of her questions, despite her initial feeling that any answer she would get would probably just enkindle a dozen other questions, but the psychic was already gone, leaving J to tap her foot on the ground agitatedly.

She didn't have to wait for long, though. Barely six minutes later, the psychic walked up to her again, J's dearest baby brother Zero in tow. Who looked positively confused, clutching his sparse belongings to his chest. J had to suppress an involuntary twitch of her eyebrow when she saw him carrying a miniature doll of that thing that had encompassed his heart.

Not to mention that the other thing that had engraved its mark on her brother's mind was printed in bright colors on his shirt.

"Still a Giratina fetishist after all, I see", she gibed, all the while wondering if the police had actually confiscated his suit. She hoped they had done so. And hoped that they had burned it with ethyl alcohol later.

Zero blanched. He was still likely under shock. She clearly would have been, had she just been bailed out by a psychic claiming to be working for the government of Kanto.

And going back in time a few months…

"I am not sure…" He began, his voice still so sillily boyish as if he had never entered puberty. If J had been asked, she wouldn't have been able to tell, either, despite being nearly a decade older. "…why I am being let out?"

J smirked. "That's nice, Zero. It makes two of us. But for starters, the official rationale behind is that the league has asked me to help them rattle out a potential threat and for that, dear brother, your incredible calculating machine of a mind is needed."

Zero blinked, glancing from his sister to the woman no less stranger who had let him out of his cell. If he hadn't been so utterly baffled by her action, he would have asked her what kind of personal chip she had installed in her fingers to be able to open up the lock with a single touch. And maybe see to it that he could get into the possession of a similar item, in case he was being held against his will somewhere else again.

As his inner monologue indicated, the siblings were closer in mind and intention than they liked to believe.

Zero sighed and hand waved the last comment. "I'll see if I can be of any help to you, seeing as how I seem to remember that you favor outdated, cheaper equipment to more high-powered computers."

"Well, brother, maybe one of us didn't have his ass financed by the university, and couldn't storm the electronics shop every six minutes to get the newest model!"

"And this example illustrates perfectly how this will end, with the scrooge running for help to the genius, begging on her knees for him to calculate what her equipment obviously cannot do on its own!"

"Oh, I'll show you what I can do on my own! Shoving your bloated ego up your asshole, that I can do!"

Sabrina, who had never witnessed a sibling quarrel in her whole life, stood blissfully unaware of it in-between the two white-heads. Before J and her brother could start bitch-slapping each other, though, the psychic coughed politely.

"I think there is a task to fulfill."

Both siblings stared at her, before burying the hatchet. For a moment. Such a weapon was way too valuable to be left behind.

They left the prison wing unchallenged, although it felt like an out-of-body experience for both J and Zero. J, because she wasn't sure if she should explode with anger or anxiety, and Zero, because he still wasn't sure if the police eyeing him conspiratively wouldn't jump out all of the sudden and pin him to the ground, only to drag him back into his cell the next moment.

„Do you still have that monstrous example of an unairworthy flying battle fort?"

"No, in the meantime, I switched to a winged bicycle, as it consumes no gas, I can transport my henchmen on the carrier and I get super taut tights that way."

J had to repress the urge to bat away Sabrina's face when the psychic actually dared to look downwards at her words.

"Speaking of…here it is." She paused. She actually had to congratulate her head commander for choosing a parking place without attracting unwanted attention. It was, she had to admit, a bit finicky to park an airship the size of a soccer field without inwardly crushing anything that moved or didn't move underneath. She hardly had any space left on the exterior wall to continue her tally sheet.

Zero harrumphed. "I see you still haven't included the dimension-warpers I instructed you about."

"Yes, because being able to twist the dimensions is just so useful for my everyday work." J rolled her eyes.

"And how do you think your invisibility shields work, huh? By bending light, which is…"

Sabrina coughed politely. "Actually, teleporting involves a variant of twisting space as well, so I suppose a mechanical supported version of it would be as useful to you as my abilities have been, so far."

At her words, Zero's eyes actually lit up. "Oh, so you've experience with the other dimensions? Would it be possible for you to elaborate on this later?"

J suppressed a groan. "Fine, if you two want to talk about supernatural mumbo-jumbo, do as you please. I'll be busy actually making money while you ponder over your submission for Nobel prize in inapprehensible physics."

"Well, if you're that insistent on making profit with me, why don't you introduce me to that task you said you had for me?"

That, J had to admit, was actually a reasonable question. As they walked onto the ship, she waved towards the psychic, who was walking through the corridors with an air of confidence around her as if she had never known any other structure.

"From what I gathered from her, it's a case of industrial espionage her league- she's from Kanto, is concerned with. They fear that someone might be building huge Balls", she glanced aside to see if her brother would get the innuendo, but as she suspected, he was as sexual as a Pancham, "in order to catch a particularly tall or powerful Pokemon. The league's got data on purchases indicating such a leak of blueprints, but they apparently aren't competent enough to puzzle together who the culprit behind is. That's our mission."

Zero was silent the whole time , and if she knew him- which she obviously did, she was his sister, after all, then the fine gears behind his eyebrows were already in motion. It meant that he wasn't to be disturbed by mere mortals such as her, because they couldn't even begin to contemplate his ways of reasoning.

"And you couldn't bring my own equipment?" He asked in disgust when presented with his sister's ancient technology.

J pouted, even though she subconsciously had to admit that her brother had a point. Even her head commander had advised her to buy a new laptop, but she had declined by kicking him in the groin, on the account that her computer was still good enough to play Solitaire at night and surf the web whenever she was in the mood to look for videos of baby Meowths. At the vet. Being pricked by needles.

"That will not pose any problem." The psychic interrupted her, before she could start another argument with Zero, and pointed out that she had teleported most of Zero's belongings along, including Infi's data chip, , causing the young man to gleam with excitement and thank her effusively. The hunter scoffed when Zero actually tried to put a kiss on the psychic's hand, snatching him off her before he could even tilt his head.

"Are you jealous, sister?" He asked with glee.

J didn't bother answering. Jerking his head around and smashing it into the computer screen was enough of an answer in her opinion. "Make yourself useful and look at the data, nerd! We have to find out who has gone on a suspicious shopping spree, not shower ourselves with praise just yet!"

Zero rubbed his crinkled nose and wiped off the blood of the screen so that he could actually see the numbers clearly. "So you are jealous, sis?"

Snap.

Sabrina sighed. "Be careful, Jean. I do not think the screen can be tilted back that much safely." And neither can his neck, she quietly added.

Zero blinked, once his cheek wasn't kissing the computer screen anymore. "Jean? So she knows about your…"

Crunch.

"Jean, smashing his head through the laptop will destroy valuable property that might be of use of for us and I will not tolerate the delay of the solution of our case."

"Okay, okay…can't even have a little torture between siblings." J growled, straightening her brother's neck.

Instead, she went for the psychic's neck, but for once, she was neither murderous nor suicidal, but simply trying to tow away with the lesser of the two evils. At least that way, she could prove to her brother that she was not jealous. She couldn't be jealous when there was no question of property ownership.

"We'll leave you to your own designs…" She snarled, knowing that Zero would not argue with her, as he valued his freedom and privacy just as much as she did.

Not to mention that it would give him a freeway ticket to snoop through her belongings, likely expecting the same secrets to be unburied as her henchmen did, and therefore, miscalculating her needs and wants gravely.

"Your brother is a particular person." Sabrina said, almost casually, even though her voice could hardly even transport something such as banality.

"Oh, he is, isn't he?" J crossed her arms. "He tried to enter and rule the Reverse world, become best buddies with Giratina, that fool. Was nicked for it just recently, actually. All over the news in Sinnoh. He has had more interaction with his personal robot hologram lady of sorts than with actual human beings in the past years. I think university and his degree got up his mind. Too intelligent for his own good, if you ask me. He could have become a master thief with a mind such as his, but noooo…he actually had to try and become king of the Reverse world, that bastard."

Sabrina stared at her unemotionally, nevertheless prompting J to come up with an explanation. "I think it's all in the genes, actually." She exhaled. "He became almost as bad as…"

"Hey, sis!" The door to her personal quarters was opened, and Zero peeked out.

J glanced at her wristwatch. Eight minutes. Not bad. Not a new record for him, but he was out of practice, likely.

His face was grim, though. "I think I got our engineer. And you're not going to like it, sis."

Two minutes later, the two women were standing besides Zero, who had constructed a multilayer graph in the span of sixty seconds to illustrate his findings, and was now gesturing all over the computer screen.

"It wasn't that hard at all. Find patterns in the distribution of sale dates to isolate the continent and the approximate area or at least a line in area changes, which in itself is a hint of location in that the location might be moving, in fact. Then I looked through the bank details, looking for patterns in nationality of the bank, its classification and standard clientele, and, of course I checked the usual suspects in the blue web that might have the bank details ready for your personal use."

He looked actually smug here, and, by Arceus, J wanted nothing more than to wipe that smug grin across the computer screen, but that would blur the already close to incomprehensible words. Her psychic acquaintance didn't seem to be impressed in any way.

It was debatable if there was actually something that could possibly impress her.

"And, lo and behold, there was actually a data set that included one of the aforementioned transaction data. I purchased it immediately- you two will have to sort out who'll have to pay for it financially." J wordlessly gestured towards Sabrina. She was the one under contract here, so there was no way she would pay for any buy-out her brother made. "And from there it was pretty much a cakewalk. There were several aliases used, but analysis of distribution and a simple google search told me who was behind it either way." He hand waved that last comment, as if he had simply searched for lost kindergarten sweetheart's location and not for the name of a potential threat to the stability of the world.

"Cut the theatrics, Zero, and tell us who it is, already." J insisted, despite her brother's initial discomfort at the identity of the spy and manufacturer.

Zero sighed. "It's no other than our dear brother, Lawrence, sis."

To J's defense, Sabrina was mindful enough of the situation to let the hunter hide behind her while J's jaw hung open.

"You have to be kidding me. " She slowly emerged behind Sabrina's back, gasping for air like a Magikarp out of water. "You are kidding me, right? This is not the first time you lied into my face, like that one time you told me you actually had brought to life a robot!"

"Actually, Infi is…" Zero started, before coughing. "Forget it, sis, not going to start an argument with you about that." His face and voice had lost all hints of humor. Instead, he was a dead serious as J could see her baby brother get. Which was still a lot, despite his overall quirkiness.

"I'm 99% sure this is our brother's work." He leaned back in his chair. "Think about it. Wealthy enough to purchase material that most people would have to sell their liver for? Check. Clever and criminal enough to steal or copy the blueprints, despite them being stored in secrecy? Check. Interested in capturing legendary Pokemon? Check. Actually lunatic enough to go through with all of that? Check, check and checkmate." He shrugged. "It's either him, or someone so unbelievable similar to him that I'm tempted to think he was cloned."

„Which nobody sane would ever do, that be something we can actually agree on, Zero." J massaged her temples. Was it just her luck or had someone really hid a freak magnet in her pants recently? First the psychic, then her younger brother, and now, her older brother. It was coming to be point where she stopped believing in coincidences and came to the conclusion that she must have pissed off Arceus in some way.

And she hadn't even been actively trying to catch the God Pokemon!

"Your brother…" The psychic inquired, without raising her voice.

"Lawrence, technically, the third, but honestly, no one save for himself ever used the numbering system. We don't even know how he came up with being the third! He's the oldest!" Zero glanced at his sister. "As far as I remember, none of our male ancestors was named Lawrence." He paused. "But to be fair, our family was never good at naming male offspring."

"They were, they just had no names idiotic enough left for you, so they started numbering."

"At least my name is special, so I don't have to invent aliases that are as groundbreaking as tennis socks!"

"At least I do use an alias, unlike you, who keeps plastering his real name all over his schemes and inventions! No wonder you got busted the very first time! It was inevi…what is that?"

J turned around. She recognized the melody, but she couldn't put her finger on where exactly she was hearing it from. It was a ringtone, that much was for sure, but…

She glanced at her brother. "Not mine!" He said, shrugging his shoulders.

She glanced at the other side, finding the psychic already answering her phone.

The hunter smirked. She would have to ask her later why she found it appropriate to have the Ghostbusters' title theme as a ringtone…

"Understood. Yes, we have made considerable progress. I will connect you." She put the phone at her side, without actually hanging up. "Zero, would you be so kind as to set up a connection with Indigo Headquarters?"

"Sure!"

J watched wordlessly as her brother apparently hacked into the central processor of the Kanto league as a finger exercise.

"You could just have connected her phone with the screen if you wanted to initiate an audio conference."

"Hm, yes, I could have, sister." He turned around on the chair, smiling, teeth showing. "But that would have been easy."

Sabrina prevented Lance from being greeted by the sight of Zero's tongue smeared across the screen.

The champion glanced across the area he could see through the screen, and inhaled at the sight of J and Zero.

"I wasn't aware that you had been liberating two felons, Sabrina."

J peeked at the psychic and whispered. "You didn't have his okay for bailing my brother out?" In hindsight, she realized she should have asked Sabrina how Lance came to know that it had been the psychic who had freed her from prison as well, in addition to that to asking how the champion had come to know about her identity in the first place when they had been painfully strict in avoiding such an occurrence in the first place, last winter.

At least unless the other weirdo had bombed their plans.

"Not precisely." She whispered back. Turned to her boss, she added. "You told me to take all actions necessary to fulfill your request Lance. I only did as told. And the young man here was able to identify the culprit in a remarkable short amount of time."

Lance sighed, hand waving. "Whatever, Sabrina. If it yields results." He coughed. "Speaking off, I got an urgent phone call from Professor Oak and his assistant. You all know him?"

"Yeah, old geezer, friend of all Pokemon, forgetful enough to need to be reminded of his own grandchild's name. Well-known celebrity sixty years ago, when he was actually young enough to look somewhat handsome." J answered.

"That would be him, yes." Lance's eyebrow seemed as if it wanted to twitch, but he suppressed it successfully. "I will set the connection up so you can listen to his findings yourselves."

J had, in all of her life, never seen a dial-up that difficult, but her brother seemed to be positively delighted.

It didn't take long for the grimy face of a grey haired senior citizen to appear on screen, along with what had likely been once a young, innocent child's face, but was now an oval, coaly potato with eyes.

"CAN YOU HEAR ME!?" Oak practically screamed into the, indeed, loud speaker of his bone-shaped mobile.

Each and every single of his listeners cringed and fidgeted away, while Zero adjusted the volume accordingly.

"Can you hear me?" Oak tried again, his mouth apparently moving on his own.

"Zero, we're no Loudreds, stop goofing around!"

The young scientist threw his hands in the air. "Okay, okay, but it's not only me, sis! The connection is as bad as three weeks old Mareep's cheese!"

"Says the lactose-intolerant…"

"Yes, we can hear you, Professor Oak." Sabrina intervened, although she was likely the only one bothered neither by Oak's eardrum shattering screaming, nor by his following subspace whispering.

The professor coughed, trying to empty his lungs from the venomous dust that covered his trachea. "My assistant George and I…"

"It's Gilbert, sir."

"Oh, sorry, boy. I was distracted. Where was I…"

"You were at the beginning of your story, professor." Lance answered, who, if his exasperated face was any indication, had been through the ordeal several times already.

"Oh, right, yes. Well, my assistant Giles and I were hiking through the Silver Mountains in order to fetch the flame of the legendary Pokemon Moltres when we made a shocking discovery!"

There was a long pause.

"Which…would be?" Zero asked, when it became apparent that the professor had frozen in space and was not reacting to the constant tugging of the young boy besides him, anymore.

"Ehh…right…where was I?"

"You had just made a shocking discovery." Lance repeated, head stabilized on his hand.

"Ah, right! Well, Gerold and I had just entered the cave in order to light up the torch for the Indigo championship, you know, the torch for the flame of the legendary Pokemon Moltres, when we saw something unbelievable!"

There was another pause.

"Professor? Are you okay?"

"Hmmm? Oh right, yes, I was telling you…what exactly again?"

"You saw something unbelievable when you entered the cave." Lance reminded him, sipping his coffee.

"Indeed! Geronimo and I were exploring the cave of Moltres, the legendary fire Pokemon, in order to persuade it to ignite the fire for the tournament when we came across something unsettling."

He nodded to himself, closing his eyes and crossing his arms.

"And…?"

"Eh, where was I?"

J pushed a bottom on her control panel. "Cook? Coffee, please. My usual, one with milk, sugar and cream for my brother, and one…" She looked up. "For you, sweety?"

"Sugar. Lots."

"…and in the cave, we found something of particular interest."

"Oh, for Arceus' sake, I can hardly endure the tension! May God have mercy on us!" Zero exclaimed.

The small fry next to the professor decided to prevent a multiple mass murder organized by all three individuals at the other end of the connection by cheeping. "We found out that Moltres is missing!"

Professor Oak pouted. "Now you stole the show!"

Certainly a long-runner.

"Missing?" Zero asked. "As in, absent?"

The young boy…girl…coal-colored figure nodded. "The nest was deserted, and there were tracks of a battle having taken place."

Zero and his sister glanced at each other, before nodding silently.

"Thank you for your information, Gregor."

"Gilbert, please, sir."

"Oh, sorry, I forgot."

"We noticed." Zero added lamely.

"Well, what he said, no? We found the nest of Moltres, and it was completely deserted. Ash-cold, if you may forgive me the pun."

All four individuals watching Professor Oak nodded solemnly. Apparently, a young boy from Pallet Town had really gotten around.

"And we found traces of a recent battle. Broken stalactites, unusual masses of debris and rubble, scorch marks all over the place- which wouldn't be out of usual for the hiding place of Moltres, if they weren't literally everywhere and some of them bearing the marks of electrical burning, actually."

Zero and J again looked at each other.

"Any clues on the reason of Moltres' departure?" Lance asked. He had already noticed the conspirative exchange between the two criminals and was all the more eager to cut off the connection with Oak in order to address the two of them.

Oak shrugged. "Unfortunately, no. There could be territorial clashes with neighboring Pokemon colonies, if not for the fact that Moltres pretty much lives all alone here at the top of the mountain. Its natural rivals Articuno and Zapdos also haven't been sighted recently, so we can rule out another three-way battle for dominance."

Of course, J mused. It took an imbecile the size of her brother to unleash a world-changing contention between the three legendary birds.

And a brainless pre-teen and a native- in-origin relaxation tape to bring to world to balance, again.

Lance nodded. "I must thank you for your call, Professor Oak. Be assured that the league will take onto this matter, and see to it that the mystery is solved."

"No need to thank me, Lance. It was a pleasure talking to you."

"Likewise." Lance answered, once again reconfirming J's bias that most members of the league were brilliant liars.

"And don't forget little Gunthar here. He also did a lot of work!"

"Gilbert!"

And the line was cut off faster than any of them could have mustered to say their goodbye.

Once again, J and Zero shared a look of unhidden intentions and knowledge.

"That fits our speculation to a T."

Lance folded his hands over each other, having listened in, of course. "May I inquire what your speculation is comprised of?"

"Well, from what m…Zero here concluded after having a look at your data, we had come to the conclusion that the culprit behind might be Lawrence, also known as Lawrence the third." She rolled her eyes.

Lance furrowed his brows. „Lawrence the third. He was responsible for an uproar in Shamouti Island, a few years ago. Before, he was a well-known and respected, if a little, ah, eccentric collector of rare Pokemon. I seem to remember that Mr. Hatch held him in high regards for his particular collection of Eevee evolutions and fossil Pokemon."

J shrugged. "Indeed, he had always been a devoted collector, even as a kid. It started with trading cards, went onto trading figures, and bam, one day you find him telling you over a game of chess that he's going to collect legendary Pokemon."

"You know him?" Lance asked sharply.

"We've made acquaintance." J replied. It was a feeble attempt, as she was pretty sure that Kanto's champion could find out about their accurate relationship quite easily, but for now, she felt more comfortable leaving their true link in the dark.

"Hm." Lance didn't sound all that surprised. Maybe for him, the bright super hero, it was kind of obvious that all shady figures knew each other.

The champion unfolded his hands. "Last time, he was stopped by Lugia itself. And one Ash Ketchum, let's not forget the wonder child."

J grinned, and wasn't surprised to see Zero grimacing as well, while the psychic kept her usual coolness.

"The league put him under threateningly dangerous and originally ordered him to be detained in the high security prison on Pummelo Island. Sadly, the police force of the Islands never complied with the order."

J crossed her arms. Either she was starting to become paranoid, or Lance was hiding an accusation in there. She had no reason, though, to doubt her innocence, she clearly hadn't helped her older brother out back then. It had been his fault getting into trouble by reaching for cherries that were clearly out of his reach, so it was his responsibility to save his ass as well.

Family connections could only get you so far. Especially when she considered ditching his sorry ass as returning a favor he had done her many years ago.

"It wouldn't be out of the unusual for him to start targeting another Moltres now that he has likely gathered enough resources again for another capturing attempt. Moltres was among his recorded previous targets."

"Why is it so frowned upon to catch a legendary Pokemon, anyways?" Zero suddenly inquired. "After all, aren't there league-employed trainers who own legendaries as well?!"

Everyone stared at him as if he had grown a second head.

J rolled her eyes. "Nice, little brother, why don't you go ahead and ask Sinnoh's champion then for permission to befriend Giratina? I am sure she would love to introduce you to it, again. Have a little chit-chat, have some coffee, dooming some souls to eternal damnation…you know, the usual stuff for an ideal first date."

The psychic to her left nodded silently.

Zero crossed his arms, pouting.

"I find that to be a legit question…"

Everyone turned around to stare at the psychic, who wasn't aware of the Pandora's box she had just peeked in.

Lance coughed, changing topics. "Either way, since we have a reputable target now, we may begin the process of locating him and gathering more information before making a move." He stared right ahead. "You think you can take care of that?"

"Lance, dear, I think I'm on the wrong side of legality."

"Miss Hunter, I wasn't talking to you. Sabrina, since you're the most familiar with the matter, would you take it into your hands to locate and approach the suspect?"

The psychic nodded.

"Eh, wait a second!" J uncrossed her arms, shoving herself into the centre of the laptop's camera's focus. "I'll come with her, Lawrence's my brother, after all!"

Lance raised an eyebrow. "Oh, he is, isn't it?"

J sighed and mimicked his gesture. Well, he had been bound to find out either way…

Zero grinned. "Of course you'll come with her, she's your girlfriend!"

"She isn't!" It was fortunate, really, that Sabrina was standing between J and her brother, for otherwise, the video call would have been abruptly cut off by Zero's nostril swallowing the lens.

Zero hand waved the comment in the direction of Lance, who, to J's horror, seemed to have grinned at her brother's statement. "Don't believe her, she's in denial."

Now there was no doubt about it anymore, the champion was smirking. "I figured as much."

J groaned in exasperation, before turning to the psychic. "Say something!"

"…you are in denial."

For everyone involved, it was very fortunate that there was an area the laptop's camera could not capture, for that ended up being J's retreat zone in case of aggravating actions taking place out of her control.

"Zero, you will occupy yourself with locating your brother's ship…I suppose?" Hastily, the psychic added the question at the end of the sentence when she realized that she had been uttering a statement.

"Sure. Give me fifteen minutes, and me and Infi should have rattled him out." He stood up, saluted to Lance and packed his own laptop and equipment to look for a comfortable, quieter place to work at. Alone with his robot lady.

Sabrina excused herself as well, although she left everyone in the dark about her actual destination.

Which left the slightly embarrassed J, who silently approached the computer.

Lance raised his eyebrows. "Is there anything you would like to add, Miss Hunter?"

She took a short, heavy breath. She would have to get used to the fact that her name was now known to the league. No more Hunter J, no, now, she was Miss Hunter.

"Will there be financial recompense for my efforts?" She asked, failing to hide her smirk.

Lance sighed. It truly had come to the point where the league not only openly invited the criminals to their balls, but paid them as well, hadn't it? "If it cannot be helped, then, yes. I expect success in order for you to be rewarded, though. Don't try to trick the league. Don't even think your family band of villains will get away with it if you plan anything. Got it? Play fair, and yes, you will be adequately rewarded for all of this." And then, without waiting for J's reply, he cut off the connection.

J sighed and shrugged, taking a glance at her computer. She would have to ask her brother later on how to turn the camera off.

~*~Scene change~*~

Several thousand of miles away, Lance still sat behind his computer, his hands forming a tent over the bridge of his nose, fingertips barely touching. He had his eyes closed, as he was caught deep in thought. Finally, he opened them again and pushed a button on his phone, establing contact with a different duo of agents he had under contract.

"Yes, Lance?" A male voice answered, indistinguishable from the electronic distortion. Yet that didn't matter, as the champion was just about to reveal its identity anyways.

"Will, Karen? Change of plan…"

~*~Scene change*~*

"Northern Johto? What is he doing there?"

"Rumor has it that the legendary thunder Pokemon Zapdos resides near Crystal Lake, between Mahogany and Blackthorn. I assume this is his objective."

J let herself fall back into her chair, rubbing her temple. "So he's totally back to his old ways? Gather all three birds and then hope, for some outrageous reason, that Lugia appears? Fine, sure, okay. Makes sense."

"Actually, given that he is targeting the legendary bird trio of the Indigo region now, it does make sense. There are myths about a small colony of Lugia living around the Whirl Islands, rumored to be the original hideout of the beast of Shamouti as well."

J blinked wearily. "Stop talking like that, you're starting to sound like my brother."

"I apologize."

J waved the comment aside. "Ah, it's alright, been some time since I last spoke to Law-Law, that's all."

"…" The psychic silently contemplated what J had said, while the hunter watched her younger brother and her navigator interacting. The two got along quite well, something which wasn't out of the ordinary for nerds like them. It helped, certainly, too, that both of them were frequent victims of her abuse and had something to cry to each other about.

"…I am struck by the impression that you do not like your older brother."

J grinned. Even an emotional blind woman like her sometimes hit the mark straight. "Well, let me put it that way, Sabrina. Lawrence is the one time I wished our father had jizzed in his pants."

The psychic looked up at J's stark expression. "Is it that bad?"

"Worse."

Sabrina turned around, joining J in watching Zero. "Worse than him?"

J scoffed and took offense at the psychic's words. "I like Zero."

"You hit him."

"Yeah, so what?"

"…you nearly broke his nose." Actually, she had broken his nose, but Sabrina had felt generous enough to mend it back into place and heal it.

J grinned. "You're an only child, am I right?"

"Yes."

"I figured."

The psychic furrowed her brow. "What does this have to do with…"

"Tauroseye!" Zero interrupted her. "We got him! Actually, I got him, since I was the one supervising the frequency monitoring, but Infi…"

"Cut it out, Zero. There's no need for ego-praising just yet." J stood up and walked over to her younger brother to see the report he had been preparing. "He's staying where he is?"

"Has been, for the past two days. Might be preparing to capture Zapdos, who knows? He's very close to the area Zapdos is believed to reside, so maybe? I doubt he has captured it just yet, knowing him, he would depart as soon as possible in that case."

J nodded. Her older brother was never one to waste time. "So now we've located and cornered him. Any idea on how to proceed?"

"We should find out if he is actually in the possession of Moltres or Zapdos, or both. In case he is, it should be our duty to ensure that the birds are freed."

Sabrina glanced at J. "And make sure they stay free."

J rolled her eyes. "Hey, just doing a cost-benefit equation. Maybe I have someone up my sleeve who pays me more for the birds than your league's?" She smirked.

"Don't lie to me, you don't have any client currently interested in the birds save for Lance."

Zero giggled. "Well, too bad you're dating someone who can read your body language perfectly, sis! No more secrets!"

"Be glad that I continue to need your annoying motor mouth, brother, otherwise, you would now be a statue sunk to the ground of this lake!"

"Given his interest in science, he might actually enjoy it, seeing as how there is a unusual source of electrostatic magnetism rumored to be at the bottom of it."

J snarled. "Why are you always siding with him?"

"All tactical, sister. One day, I'm going to be her brother-in-law, remember?"

It took all, literally all of J's willpower not to make her threat come true and turn her younger brother into a statue.

„Okay, either of you got any plans on how to figure out if he's got the birds?" J said to prevent a tantrum.

"Let that be my concern." And the psychic stood up and teleported away, leaving J and her brother to wonder just what she had in mind.

"You think she's going to be all spy-movie like on him?" Zero asked, arms crossed behind his head.

J glanced at him disparagingly. "What makes you think so?"

Zero shrugged. "Well, she is an agent of the league, isn't she? Geee-Men, or how they call themselves."

"G-Men I think it is, and she never mentioned if she is actually one of them." J paused. That was something to keep in mind. In all but theory, these were her defined arch-enemies.

Her track of thoughts was stopped short by a blinding light, that was neither her head commander having turned on the headlights, nor Arceus' ray of divination engulfing her. No, it was just her personal fortune teller that followed her like a puppy.

"You're back already?" J exclaimed. That had barely been two minutes of absence! And the woman was still alive and, more or less of sane mind, it seemed, so she couldn't have possibly met her brother.

"Yes. I negotiated with Lawrence. We can enter his ship at will now."

"...forgive me my incivility, but are you sure you went to the right ship? That does not sound like Lawrence at all."

"I can assure you that my teleporting skills have never failed me insofar as location goes, unless I was misaiming on purpose."

J shrugged, but nonetheless ordered her head navigator to land the ship. "And try to break off some side mirrors this time! Last time you missed all of them!"

"What about me?" Zero asked, bidding farewell to the new friend he had made- probably the first and only one for a few years.

The hunter shrugged again. "I guess you can come, too?" She actually directed her question towards the psychic, who didn't so much as react, though, as they left J's now invisibly parked battle fortress.

"Well, our brother definitely downsized…last time, his ship almost outgrew mine, and look! This time it's barely enough to cover the whole parking lot."

She didn't question the existence of a parking lot next to a remote lake. She had long since foregone questioning any projects the league had financed with money that, thankfully, they hadn't been grabbing right out of her pocket.

"Well, economy is hitting everyone equally hard, sis. I think I had to take up two stipends to finance my own ship."

"Oh, how tragic. Maybe Law-Law could have given you a discount. Or you could have recycled his own old ship, I seem to remember that you are particularly good at turning mechanic shit into something worthwhile."

Zero was too surprised at something that might actually be considered a true compliment to react accordingly, instead standing in stunned silence in front of what was their brothers second capture unit.

"Forgive me the question, freak, but I'm death curious as to how you actually persuaded our brother to let us onto his ship. Last time someone tried that, forcefully, he tried to eject them after giving them a tour of his private museum. And while this is a method I'm not opposed to, I would rather have it not happen to our own asses, if you get what I mean."

"You may be forgiven. And it was relatively easy. I simply announced our engagement and he was positively taken aback so that he decided to invite us spontaneously to a private dinner."

"Yeah, that wor…WHAT?"

A hunter J did not trip. A hunter J was ambushed by a rogue stone that happened to try to commit suicide by hitting her heel at the wrong time.

"That's not how it works!" She, positively, shrieked.

Zero concurred. "That's right, she skipped one step! She never proposed!"

If they hadn't been directly in front of the stairs leading into the ship, J would have taken the time and dumped her brother headfirst into the lake. After cramming bricks into his trousers. She didn't have a cement mixer ready, sadly.

"Dumbass, she skipped two fucking steps! She is not even my girlfriend." And the hunter continued to pout and cross her arms.

"She isn't?"'

"No? Who told you she was, Zero?"

"Well, she herself did."

Cue to J's face blanking and turning aside for the psychic, who was still patiently waiting for the sibling quarrel to end, as if it totally didn't center around her.

"When?"

"Well, when she got me out of prison…"

"Okay, wait a moment, bro, gotta have a word with her really fast…"

"No problem. Take your time. And get yourself a room if it gets too steamy, yeah? I will watch from the balcony."

"Prepare to be sniped, Zero, if you so much as eavesdrop."

She knew him well enough to be aware of the ways and means he had in order to spy on her, and as much as it hurt her to admit, he was almost better at it than she was. She would have to rely on her psychic to tell her, and given that the psychic hadn't found it all that worrying to pose as her girlfriend even to her brother, the question of her loyalty was all the more pressing.

"Are you mad? You can't just do that! Zero will believe anything, even me having jumped over the hedge, if you get what I mean." She was a mindreader, she had to get what J meant, either way.

"Calm yourself. It is just an act. And the more honest it is played out, the more convincing it will be. Remember that this act is what brought us permit to enter Lawrence's ship." Sabrina didn't wait for J to interfere, instead proceeding towards to the entrance.

J frowned. "I have the feeling that you're getting a bit too much into the act…"