Part 3

In the underground corridors sat three teenagers, dressed in dark clothes so that if they walked through the night, they wouldn't be seen.

Q, Y, and Farrah were waiting outside the room of Miss E, one of the crime bosses of Opelucid City. The crown was riddled with crime, and Miss E was just one of the many underground crime kings and queens.

Farrah sat reading a book, unsurprisingly not engaging in conversation with the other two. Y's eyes were firmly on the golden framed door, and he was barely focused on what Q was talking about.

"I've heard Nimbasa Island is just one big theme park. The city itself was supposed to have moulded with the carnival and the two places are now just one. How crazy is that? Eh, Y?"

"Huh?" Y jumped out of his daydream.

"The door can't be that interesting, how come you can't take your eyes off it?!" Q joked.

"It's not the door, but what's on the other side," said Y with a sharp tone.

Q grumbled. She had tried for a year now (a year exactly, she thought) to try in some way to get closer to Y, but to almost no avail. Farrah had acted close to her since they had met, but Y had always kept his distance, brushing off almost everything Q said.

The large gold doors creaked open, and out stepped a large man wearing all black. Q didn't know his name (or rather identification letter) but did know he worked under Miss E, and had since before she was around.

When the man walked away, Q could see her boss through the open doors, the so-called Queen of the underworld: Miss E.

The woman was old for a crime boss, but was still incredibly capable. For a woman in her forties, she was incredibly physically built. Everything she wore was golden. From her many items of jewellery to her golden silk gown, the woman was a beacon of the crown colour. Her hair was black and wild and her eyes were brown and crazy. A few ninjask buzzed around the room and a giant heliolisk lay beside Miss E, resting on a pile of gold coins. The mighty yellow beast had a scar that reached from the side of his face down to his stomach.

The three teenagers walked into the room with a mix of emotions. Conversations with Miss E were rare, so Q, Y and Farrah didn't know what to think.

The underground Queen smiled. "Sit down," she said, motioning to three cushions on the floor. Miss E herself sat on a giant cushion, surrounded by her many treasures. She looked like a dragon from a children's book.

Farrah took a seat on the furthest cushion, while Q eagerly sat on the cushion closest to her boss.

"I take it you three know what day it is?" said Miss E, tossing a golden piece behind her hands. "Well, I know you do, Q." She lifted from her side a gramophone horn, through which Q could heard the mumbled conversations of those in the bar.

Q smiled. Miss E was a woman of many quirks, which Q admired greatly.

"It is our one year anniversary," Y said, "One year since we joined you."

"One year of thieving and robbing; one year of keeping a dragon out of sight; one year of teamwork and trust being built between the three of you," Miss E said as if it was prepared. "And now that it is the end of your first year, I have a test for the three of you."

"What kind of test?" Q asked, leaning forward on her cushion.

"There is a boy, well really, there is a man who has been thieving from nobles on my turf, and to my knowledge, he is not associated with any other crime boss. I want the three of you to teach him what it means to rob from nobles in my area without my consent. I thought this would make a good test for my three brightest stars."

"How would you like us to deal with him?" said Farrah. Y and Q both turned in surprise. Words from the girl were rare, and usually only were heard when it was a life-or-death situation.

"However you see fit." Miss E replied.

…

Brandon took a long sigh as he finally sat down for the evening, having just finished his final dance with Carla Burrton moments before. His sister Monica was doing her best to look happy as she danced with Lord Burrton, but her brother could see through the façade, catching the cracks in her smile. The little lord had come to the conclusion that his sister must have a plan; an escape route out of all of it. If she didn't, then she must have been drugged.

King Oleg of the six skies had yet to announce the formal engagement, but Brandon could see shifting at the royals' table and movements being made. The royals sat at a long table that was raised on a platform above the other tables, which were all decorated around the dance floor.

Horns were blown, and everyone's heads turned to the stage, where Brandon's father and the Sky King stood together. In his hand, the King clutched his cane, a pearly white staff topped with a crystal sphere. He knocked it on the ground, gathering the attention of the few folk who weren't watching already.

"Tonight, my lords and ladies," the Sky King said, speaking each word as if it made up a sentence, "Not only will you bear witness to a show of legendary power from Lord Cragspur's lugia, but you will also bear witness to the engagement of two of our world's most beautiful children."

He paused, either for effect or out of tiredness. The King was well in his eighties, and the night had taken his toll on him. He looked far from the man Brandon had first met when he was only eight years ago; time hadn't been good to the king. The crowd that had gathered on the floor murmured and whispered until the king's pearly white cane knocked against the ground once more.

"I am referring to the engagement of my grandson, Prince Makoll Culous, and the little lady of this very manor, Lady Monica Cragspur. We are delighted to join the royal family to this fine family, and we are assured that Lord and Lady Cragspur are just as joyous."

Brandon had quick glance over to where Monica was. He saw her smiling and blushing as the crowd turned their attention to her. This wasn't the Monica he knew; he stood by his earlier theories that it was a façade she was putting on.

Brandon also had a quick look over to the Prince. He had a smirk on his face, playing it cool, as the royal family always did.

Without another word, the king stepped back. Lord Cragspur then stepped forward. His smile wouldn't disappear any time soon, Brandon thought. The Lord asked if the crowd may part and take their seats: the main show was about to begin.

Guests hurried quickly to their seats; Monica sat beside Brandon at the Cragspur table. After the wedding (which Brandon couldn't picture ever happening) Monica would be sitting with the royals, but for now, she was still attached to her birth family.

"Hey, I noticed, the Yaksha clan aren't here," Monica said, sitting herself back in her seat. "Usually their table is next to ours, isn't it?"

Brandon had forgotten about the Yaksha family; he had been meaning to tell Monica about what had happened.

"There is no way you didn't hear!" Brandon said in disbelief. Monica missed the occasional gossip, but nothing as big as what had happened to Lord and Lady Yaksha.

"Didn't hear what?"

"About the fire on their mansion in Opelucid!"

"What? No way!"

Monica realised she was being loud, and all the attention of the night was already on her anyway. Brandon could feel eyes watch them.

"We are gathering unwanted attention brother," Monica said with a snobbish Opelucid accent. "We should discuss the matter later."

Brandon laughed. He liked it when his sister was happy; it was a rare event.

"Why on earth are you so happy?" Brandon asked after a pause, realising he didn't have an answer to his question. "You're marrying the prince!"

Monica replied with a whisper, "What's the best way to take down an army?" She paused. "Within its ranks."

…

Noise suddenly erupted from the horn beside Miss E. A bar fight had begun; it was obvious, from the rowdy way Q could hear the men speak.

"Ugh," moaned Miss E. She clicked her fingers and a Ninjask flew down beside her. She wrote a quick note, which she tied to the bug's body. "For my husband," she said, shooing the bug away.

"What did the note say?" asked Q. She felt very comfortable in Miss E's presence.

"Aren't we curious, Q?" laughed Miss E. "It told my husband to send those imbeciles my way."

"And what will you do with them?" Q asked, edging closer to Miss E.

"Crona here will deal with them... however she sees fit."

She stroked the head of her Heliolisk lightly.

"You kids can stay and watch what happens," Miss E proposed.

The three teenagers nodded. All of them were curious as to how Miss E handled situations.

Miss E waved her hand and Farrah, Q and Y all stood and moved to the side. Miss E's golden gates soon opened once more and, through the doors, two men were pushed by larger men. Q didn't know either of them; Miss E employed a great number of people.

The woman in gold stood up, and in a command rather than a question, she yelled, "Why in the skies are you two idiots fighting in my establishment?! I tolerate no fighting between my workers! We aren't too far underground from the surface, you morons, and you know what would happen if we were found!"

Q thought, and she was sure the men were thinking as well, of how counterproductive it was of Miss E to be shouting. She was, if anything, increasing their chance of being found by Sky Knights. Q then thought that was maybe what she wanted: if these two were to question her, then she could get even angrier at them, which she seemed to enjoy.

The men Q had heard being so loud before were quivering before Miss E now. She giggled, for which she received swollen looks from Y.

"So gents, why?" she queried, sitting back down.

The taller of the two men, the one with no hair on his head, spoke first. Pointing at the other man, he said, "This guy tried to steal the rob I brought in, from right under my nose."

The smaller of the men, the one with the black eye, couldn't look at Miss E.

"In this business, R," Miss E said addressing the smaller man "Trust between workers of the same group is vital. After all, we can't trust anyone else; no one but the people of our hive. Now, R, what was it that you tried to steal."

The bigger man answered for R, removing from the satchel that slung over his shoulder a blue flute. The bigger man was much calmer, now that it was clear he wasn't to blame.

"As I had suspected," Miss E said, smiling, "R, care to tell us what your plan with this blue flute was?"

R didn't speak.

"Was it maybe to sell to a buyer directly, R?"

R continued his silence. The bald man slowly backed away from him.

"I hope we aren't getting too big for our boots now, R."

R was trembling where he stood. He couldn't look Miss E in the eye.

"I think you need to be brought down a few pegs."

R's face shot up. His eyes were wide, full of fear and his legs were giving way. He fell to his knees.

Miss E stroked Crona's back in one smooth motion. Instantly, the yellow giant slithered up and onto its hind legs in front of R. It stood far taller than the thief as it glared down onto him.

The Pokémon cried out, a piercing tone to which everyone in the room, bar Miss E, covered their ears. Crona's frills opened up, which added to her intimidating appearance.

Q watched with intrigue as the Pokémon struck R down with a Thunderbolt and, soon afterwards, continued its attack by jumping on the poor man and scratching into his chest.

Farrah leaned over to Q and whispered in her ear.

"So that's Miss E's definition of 'dealing with it,' then."

…

Ok so first of all, Sorry for not updating in a while. I have had essays to write for school, my laptop had to go to the shop and then I have had no internet since Wednesday. But here is this chapter… pretty short I know but the current draft of the next chapter is 3000 words already and Brandon's parts haven't really been implemented yet so it should get longer.

To answer one reviewer's question, the islands are at different heights in the sky, so some are on cloud level some are not. Striation sits on the cloud level, while Opelucid sits below it. The clouds below aren't in fact clouds, but a thick layer of dust, but the humans don't really know that.

Also, to the same reviewers question on the safety of the islands, some islands that will come later have walls, but most of them have sky guards watching them. The amount of sky guards depends on the size of the island. Striation is fairly small and only has twenty guards but bigger islands like Nimbasa and Castelia will have much, much more.

Thank you to Emerald Dynamo for giving the chapter a read over it was a huge help.

Thank you everyone for reviewing and submitting characters. I am still taking characters but they will only be used now if they are well done, and also please do note that even if I have told you that your character would appear there is a chance they won't as I have decided to speed up the story quite drastically. Please do review, it helps me remember I have a story to write.