Lex surveyed the bathroom for an alternate exit. The window would've done, but it was on the second floor of the house. As desperate as the situation was, a broken leg isn't worth the meeting. He scowled, glancing at the watch, again.

9:15 A.M.

'Shit...'

Lex jammed the watch onto his wrist carelessly.

'Why now of all times?' Lex palmed his forehead in frustration.

*****

As the two Pokemon finished up their respective meals, a muffled furious voice rang from the upstairs bathroom.

"THIS IS NO TIME TO JOKE AROUND, LET ME OUT NOW!!!"

Immediately Brenda cast Rosa a questioning look.

"Did you have anything to do with this?" Brenda asked the Eevee, who was currently cleaning herself.

"Hmm...maybe, maybe not. Better go check on him. As you can see, I'm quite busy at the moment," answered Rosa, uninterested in the events happening in the house and more into cleaning her fur.

'Boy she's a handful. How does Lex put up with her?' Brenda thought as she headed towards the stairs. Listening intently for any more yelling from Lex, Brenda bound up the stairs 4 at a time to make sure nothing bad happened to him. The first thing she saw was a chair piled with heavy books, leaning in front of the bathroom door. Laughing a little at the sight of what that Eevee devised, Brenda shoved the chair away with ease and moved out of the door's way.

'Well, here goes nothing...' Lex thought as readied himself against the shower. 'This better work...'

After mentally preparing himself for the upcoming clash, Lex ran with all his might, shoulder leading the way. He winced as the door came within inches of his body and prepared for the bounce back. But no resistance came.

The bathroom door flung open with a fury in front of Brenda, hinges threatening to pop off. A genuinely confused Lex burst out of the aftermath hurtling towards a very surprised and frightened Combusken. Instinctively, Brenda lashed out at Lex to protect herself and jumped out of the way. He crashed on the wall headlong, adding insult to injury, and slumped down in a daze.

Today just did not start off so well.

"Ughhh," he groaned, massaging his head.

"Com...busken?" Brenda asked (Are...you okay?), obviously doing her best not to break down laughing. It wasn't funny in reality but she just couldn't help herself.

"I'm alright...thanks Brenda!" was all she managed to hear along with the ruffling of her feather crest as Lex shot down the stairs with no apparent care of whether he tripped or not, as long as he was outside and running towards the general direction of the Devon building. Brenda soon followed chuckling, calling for Rosa as she walked past the kitchen. Rosa came out of the kitchen, admiring her fur with every step.

"Hurry up. Jump on my back and hold on," Brenda ordered.

"Yeah yeah. Upsidaisy," Rosa said as she jumped on and clutched a bundle of feathers near her shoulders, holding on for dear life.

"So tell me, what did Lex do that deserved your wrath?" asked Brenda with a grin.

"Try waking up to his yawns. See if you like them as your personal alarm clock," Rosa replied bluntly. Brenda laughed while she started to catch up to Lex, who was already near the Pokémon Center.

"Believe me, I know what you mean. That's why I do my best to wake up early and train 'til breakfast." Brenda shot off without warning and the wailing starts.

Rustboro City is full of life during dawn, as usual. Many would-be Pokémon trainers heading off to the Pokémon Trainer's School, eager to learn new things about Pokémon, battling, and the many items used during travels. 'Oohs' and 'aahs' came from a clique of students' as a cheerful Combusken with a screaming Eevee clinging on its back zoomed past by them on the street. The kids were cooing to each other "I'll have that Pokémon as my starter!" and "What are those two up to?" as Brenda and Rosa caught up to Lex.

A familiar tan yellow skyscraper surrounded by a fence and dotted with lamp posts was nearing. A sign that proudly displayed

DEVON CORPORATION "For all your living needs, we make it all."

stood near the entrance of the fence.

Lex keeled over, clutching his chest to try and calm down his breathing. As he stood up and resumed walking toward the building, Brenda dropped by his shoulder with the Eevee hopping down shakily from her back.

"Eevee vee vee eev eevee EEVEE!," Rosa spat out to Brenda. (Remind me to never do that AGAIN!)

"Oh hi girls. Rose..." Lex eyed the Eevee, "That wasn't funny you know. I could've gotten fired or at least put down to janitorial duty if I was ever late again."

"Eevee! Eevee eev eevee?!" she defended herself with innocent eyes (Me? How could you?!).

Seeing that she wouldn't confess to her crime, Lex grabbed her to his chest and stared down her hazel eyes.

"You will confess..." he said in a drawling tone with wide, blank eyes, trying to hypnotize the Eevee into confession.

She just smiled, her way of showing playfulness to him.

"Hahah you little rascal," said Lex. He ruffled her furry cream colored collar of fur and set her down.

"Please don't do that again. Once is good enough," Lex pleaded to Rosa.

"Eevee..." replied Rosa, ears bending flat to her head to show her 'guilt'.

Lex continued to walk until they came up to the building. Employees dotted the parking lot sidewalk, probably taking a break. Most of them were from the Research and Development department, which he happened to be part of. Saying his 'Hellos' to the ones he knew, he headed toward the door to the R & D room and beyond. A security guard halted him, even though he knew Lex worked there.

"Your card," ordered the burly bald guy in standard security guard uniform.

"How are you doing today Jeff?" asked Lex as he handed his card to the enormous man. Jeff put the card to his nose, looking for the holographic symbol ingrained in the laminated card for authenticity. He deemed it the real thing and turned to swipe it through a scanner.

'NAME: ALEX DEAN RENNWOOD. DEPARTMENT: R & D ASSISTANT. SECURITY CLEARANCE: GREEN' the scanner chirped.

"The usual, you know, not much happening, really. I wish there was some action going on around here. Something to break the monotony," replied the security guard.

"I know what you mean. Well, I'm almost late for the meeting so could you hurry this up a bit? Oh and my Pokémon will be with me too, just in case you get any wrong ideas," said Lex.

"Sure, you're good. Tell Darin I said hi. I never see him leave for break yet, so send my regards to him if he's still alive," joked Jeff.

"Yeah, sure thing," Lex ended the conversation and headed up the stairs.

Brenda and Rosa gave Jeff an uneasy stare as they passed by him. He just gave Lex's Pokémon a goofy grin and resumed his guard duty. Even though they came here just about every day, the size of Jeff still gave Brenda and Rosa the creeps.

As he reached the second level, his ears picked up the familiar 'ticka-ticka' of computer keyboards typing down research notes and data from previous tests. Brenda and Rosa trailed Lex's footsteps as he wormed his way around many desks and people. Some of the researchers stopped what they were doing and greeted Lex and his Pokémon.

"So, how is the Eevee I gave you doing?" asked a guy with a lab coat couple sizes too large for him, hiding behind a computer screen.

"Well it depends on how you ask that question Mark," Lex replied, making his way to the President's Room.

"Still temperamental I see," the researcher-named-Mark popped his head from the side to glance at Rosa.

A balding blond top was prevalent along with blue colored eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses. She huffed and turned her face away with a nose in the air to show she doesn't care.

"Well I hope she isn't too much of a hassle for ya Lex. Bill would love to see an Espeon or an Umbreon from that Eevee he sent us. Seems as though it'll take a while for that to happen though," reasoned Mark, pushing up his glasses.

"She's okay once you get to know her. It just takes a while for her to grow on to you."

"Good to hear that. Well you better hurry and go to that meeting the Boss has been harping about since your father came up with the idea."

"Yeah, I'd already be there were it not for a certain SOMEONE to mess up my morning," said Lex eying Rosa over his shoulder.

"Heheh okay then. Hope that meeting is as important as it sounds," Mark ended and resumed typing on the keyboard. "Oh, hello Brenda."

Brenda did her best to smile at Mark, then continued shadowing Lex.

The stairs to the President's Room looked inconspicuous as ever, looking like any normal stairwell would. Unknown to anybody who doesn't work there, the stairwell was laden with sensors that scanned for the right security clearance chip implanted in the cards issued to Devon employees. Any persons not carrying the right chip would alert Jeff right away to run up and apprehend said offender. Previous encounters with Team Aqua and Magma lead to the tighter security in the building.

Lex's card was issued to him yesterday, given to him personally by the President. Trusting his card, he stepped forward and waited. Nothing happened, except for a faint whirring noise emanating from within the walls. Lex shrugged off the noises and climbed the stairwell with Brenda and Rosa on his heels.

A couple flights of stairs later, he stopped in front of a door and knocked three times.

"Come on in, we've been expecting you Alex," a voice boomed from within. Mustering his confidence, Lex opened the door and stepped in.