Chapter Twenty-Seven

While Ronan was being extremely confused down in the lower levels of the building, the abashment seemed to be all the greater on the first level of Team Lunar's underground base that appeared to be an innocent office building. Riley Giaden was in fact putting on quite a show, recognizing his cue immediately as Ellis has tapped into the unused intercom system in order to play the song, of Riley's personal favorites of course, that would serve as his lead for distraction. However it was extremely horrendous and makes you want to gag on the suggestive scale. This of course, was irrevocably and wholly Riley's goal from the bottom of his fuzzy heart.

On the other hand, Ellis wasn't all too thrilled by the idea. He reluctantly accepted when he did realize that Riley's efforts as a distraction would work all too well. Disgustingly well. And he was 110 percent right.

So there Ellis was, sitting cross-legged in the middle of a forest well outside the Team Lunar base, watching this revolting distraction that Riley had came up with. Slipping him in was the easy part, just tranquilizing the guards for a nice little sleep and then getting the buffoon through the doors on his cue.

This plan had been executed perfectly, now all he had to do was perform the distraction while Colby, Amanda, and Josh headed down to the Pokémon storage to free them. This was the climax of their elaborate plan, but not the most fool proof. If one thing went wrong, if they or Riley got caught...well they were screwed. These annoying assholes had dealt with the gang once or twice, so they wouldn't hesitate to take drastic if one of them was caught...which wasn't a good thing. Especially if Ronan got a whiff of this exploitation pie, which so far was baking golden in the oven of success.

Ellis brought his focus back to the computer monitor which their base of operations was dependent on, sighing deeply into his headset and rubbing his temples at the sight he was witnessing through the Team Lunar base cameras, that he'd hacked of course. Great Stellar Spirits...it was simply indescribable the moves that Riley was performing, in that horrendous outfit too.

Merely thirty minutes ago Ellis had tried his best to convince the flaming headed nightmare that what he was wearing was simply...well...horrible. Even if this was a distraction, couldn't the eyes of his fellow teammates be spared? Riley had just snorted and called him some offensive names, insisting that his outfit would 'be irresistible to the ladies'. Ellis chastised himself for not holding his tongue as he watched Riley's skin tight, black jump suited form strut through the halls in ways that could make Ellis's skin crawl with disgust. Oh he was right when he said it would be distracting, and not in a good way.

On the flipside, Riley was having the time of his life. As he looked in the glass earlier, using it as a mirror before his time to shine, checking himself out and liking what he saw. The ladies would be all over him, and this outfit was defiantly a keeper.

As he danced through that hallway with the music blaring through the loud speaker, he could just imagine what incredible sexiness was radiating from that bod. He thought he was hot stuff.

Riley glanced around, his dancing being a cross between a person having a seizure and a clumsy person trying to look smooth, and noticed that the grunts had finally started to notice something. Many of them were running up and down the hallways ahead, shouting to each other over the blaring music, not seeing Riley coming upon them yet. He couldn't help but grin devilishly; they were in for a show. He slowed his pace to a leisurely walk, swaying with grace (he thought) and waited.

Finally some blonde grunt noticed, calling something out and pointing to him. All heads in the hallway turned his way as he strutted towards them, a slap happy grin plastered to his face.

"Intruder!" One yelled.

Back at base camp, Ellis held his breath as his eyes were glued to the screen, hoping that Riley wouldn't screw up. If this vital part went wrong they were surely done for.

Riley though had this all under control, it was his time to shine, his time to blow their minds. Noticing there even was a girl grunt down the hall, he took that as his cue to move it. Throwing up his hands and waving them around Riley signaled Ellis for the song to replay, with the words to it memorized by Riley's heart as well as his small brain. The green-headed technician on the other end did as the signal required, cringing as he was about to perform his 'Riley Signature'.

Waiting for the words to come, he began to strut forward, all eyes on him, as he made window washing then began to sing along with the music...horribly. Ellis's poor ears almost bleed...because he was as bad at dancing as he was at singing.

When I walk on by, girls be lookin like damn he fly.

Riley looked directly at the girl grunt, winking, then doing some sort of hip thrust, and made a kissy face all at the same time. It seemed as if the grunts were now perplexed more than anything, with the lot of them standing there with stupid looks on their faces. The girl seemed horrified, making a choking noise and looking at him with horror as he continued to pelvic thrust in a circle as he kept going down the hallway.

I pimp to the beat, walking down the street in my new lafreak, yeah.

Ellis tried to keep his eyes on the screen, realizing with a sad realization that this was working. How could Riley could have been right? He hadn't the slightest clue...but at least it was working! Just at this small feat Ellis felt tremendous success, but it wasn't over yet.

Riley danced around, adding a pelvic thrust to about every move. Each move and the look on his face showed that he was extremely proud of himself, and enjoying every moment of this.

This is how I roll, animal prints, pants outta control. It's Redfoo with the big afro. And like Bruce Leroy I got the glow.

Riley turned around in mid twirl, wiggling his butt and jumping backwards at the same time, tripping over himself many times but surprisingly not falling on his face. The grunts, as well as Ellis, looked horrified at the display of the worst dancing anyone in the region had probably ever witnessed. The most inappropriate too. Whether this was worth having nightmares for the rest of his life or not...Ellis was unsure. Ah...girl look at that body. Ah...girl look at that body. Ah...girl look at that body. Ah, I work out.

All the while Riley was approaching some short grunt that was very muscular at the same time. He looked stony faced, but that quickly changed to shock at Riley's next move.

Ah...girl look at that body. Ah...girl look at that body. Ah...girl look at that body. Ah, I work out.

Riley flexed his pathetic muscle as he leaned against the grunt, wiggling his eye brows and singing along. The grunt instinctively stepped back, looking surprised as Riley did the same thing to the guy beside him. When I walk on the spot, this is what I see. Everybody stops, and they starin at me. I got passion in my pants and I ain't afraid to show it, show it, show it.

He continued pelvic thrusting in a circle until the music stopped. Then in the middle of the hall he stopped, looking down and standing completely still.

I'm sexy and I know it. I'm sexy and I know it.

Ellis recognized the next move he executed, because he was sure to mention it earlier. Riley said it was called...the Michael Jackson? Whoever that was. Just as he'd demonstrated earlier Riley snapped his head up, shooting one hand above his head and bringing the other to grab his crotch, dancing around. The horror was simply too much to bear as he moves to the next move, backwards burneying further down the hallway.

Yeah, when I'm at the mall security guard just can't fight em off. And when I'm at the beach I'm in a Speedo trying to tan my cheeks.

Ellis was just about through watching when Riley did something...he couldn't even describe it anymore. After some more pelvic thrusting Riley grabbed fistfuls of his skin tight jumpsuit, pulling with all his might. Just like it was planned that way, all of his clothes ripped off...except for a small black Speedo that could blind a person. Ellis cringed away from the screen, watching as he let the fabric drop and continued the obscene routine. Dear Stellar Spirits, just why.

Ellis finally had all he could take and turned his attention back to the other monitor, displaying the Josh Cam, the Colby Cam, and the Amanda Cam as he liked to call them. While Riley was 'distracting' Colby, Josh, and Amanda had managed to expertly sneak down a few floors, not having to harm anyone yet. Most of the grunts weren't paying attention, preoccupied on trying to get this horrible music stopped.

As of right now they were descending the last floor, and directly below them was a storage facility that by Ellis's hacking of the cameras, housed the stolen Pokémon. Though to Ellis's dismay, the level that they needed to be on housed at least ten grunts, looking irritated but still guarding the doors to each of the storage rooms that the Pokémon were being held captive in. With a sigh Ellis realized things could get a bit up close and personal. That's where Josh and Colby came in.

"Ellis to Josh, come in Josh," Ellis said into his headset.

"Josh here," a voice muttered.

"By the looks of these cameras we have company downstairs. It's going to be tricky, but we have about ten of them hanging out in the halls. If you could get to the room on the end through the air duct then we may be able to work something out," Ellis instructed, studying the map in his lap while chewing his lip in concentration.

There was a grunt through the mic as Josh cleared his throat, shuffling around in the air duct. Those things were a bitch to navigate sometimes.

"Right, we can handle it I'm sure. These assholes won't suspect a thing thanks to this nauseating music. What the hell you got Giaden doing?"

Ellis didn't respond, Josh would be horrified. Glancing back at Riley's monitor he gulped as Riley was now being chased down the hall, flailing his arms around and screaming from the pack of grunts that looked pissed. This could either go very good...or very bad.

"Look that isn't important," Ellis answered, saving himself, "you just need to worry about the Pokémon. I don't know how much longer we have." "In other words hurry my ass up, got ya," Josh responded gruffly.

"Hear that girls? Limited time only, but this isn't a sale," Ellis grinned.

He could just see Colby and Amanda rolling their eyes; he was surely the joke master of the group. Even if sometimes his jokes were really bad, no one (but Josh or Riley) could argue that sometimes one didn't need a good joke.

"Gotcha Captain Corona," Amanda replied.

"Aye mate," Colby replied in her best imitation of a pirate.

"Dropping to the room now, over and out," Josh said curtly, obviously ending the communication for a moment.

Colby was relieved as they jumped down from the vent into a dark room, taking a deep breath of air. The vents were stuffy, compact, and just plain uncomfortable to travel in. Josh steadied her arm as she landed safely, moving out of the way so he could do the same for Amanda. Her brown hair fell into her eyes, landing in its normal spot covering half of her face.

Tossing it out to of the way, Amanda adjusted her belt, containing the equipment she would need to release the Pokémon.

"Go," Josh commanded, putting his finger on his earpiece as Ellis filled him in with the plan.

Everyone listened intently as jobs were explained, turning out to be simple enough. This was it, the big moment, what they had traveled all this way to do. They couldn't mess this up, because if it failed then they were all Poke Toast. Especially if Ronan found out, if he even was in the building.

"Now luckily for us we have sort of a straight shot out of here...there are stairs at the other end of the hall that lead straight up the six levels you came down. If you can manage to free the Pokémon and herd them up the stairs and straight out the front gate...then we will be in good shape. From there on we can lead them further out into the woods somehow and I can inform the officer about it, saying we found them in the woods while on our way to the next town. Capeesh?"

Colby exchanged glances with Amanda, who was adjusting the bolt clippers on her belt. Colby slipped on her black fingerless gloves, flexing her hand in preparation for what they were about to do.

Josh looked at the girls, giving strict nods, "We ready?"

Amanda and Colby looked at each other in agreement before returning the nod.

"Let's get this show on the road," Amanda replied, a determined look in her green eyes.

Colby and Josh gave their backpacks to Amanda, who carried them with a bit of an effort at first, but seemed perfectly able to handle herself. With one last look at the camera and a prayer sent up to the Stellar Spirits, Ellis spoke.

"Proceed."


There's always something that people don't know about each other, and one of those things Ellis didn't realize, until he was told, was that Colby and Josh were both trained in a 'martial art' as they'd put it. When Ellis asked the details, Josh had put it in simpler terms. Basically they could kick ass.

That was good enough for Ellis, but he really got the impression of what they were talking about when Josh threw open the door, grabbing the guy guarding it in a fierce headlock, with him suspecting nothing. In the blink of an eye he was on the floor, unconscious because of something Colby had done to his neck, but Ellis's eyes weren't fast enough for her and Josh's movements.

Amanda burst through the door, following her orders as sent by Ellis himself, hopefully making this plan ingenious. Amanda could feel the adrenaline pumping through her as she threw her Poke Ball into the air, out popping Zero in all his glory. Her trusty Pokémon looked confused at first, but snapped his head to where Amanda was giving her his full attention.

Meanwhile the grunts in the hall had noticed. Big time. At first they looked shocked to see two figures in jumpsuits beating their comrade, but then they too jumped into attention. They were all guys, obviously inexperienced in hand to hand combat because their blows were sluggish and much anticipated. Colby and Josh were finding it fairly easy, easy as it could be with eight guys trying to attack you at the same time, to stand their ground.

They paid no attention to the little brown haired girl with a Zorura sneaking past and heading straight for what they were protecting.

"Zero, shift," Amanda said, speaking with authority, but being gentle at the same time.

The Pokémon seemed to know exactly what its master wanted, because it did something incredible. Just like the many Free Running practices they had on the roofs, Zero was able to shift into different forms. For an expert disguise, it shifted into an exact copy of its trainer.

Amanda beamed at Zero, who was now an exact copy of herself, and moved toward the doors. Luckily Zero had mastered that ability thanks to their hours of dedicated training, and it was finally paying off. Whoever ran across these two would be very confused, which was the goal. They wouldn't know which the real Amanda was!

Just as the plan ordered, Amanda pushed open the now unguarded door easily, surprised that she wouldn't have to cut a lock or have Ellis hack a keypad. Boy, for being the 'superior race' Team Lunar sure was dumb. Zero slipped in behind her, nudging the door closed. Of course the lights were off, plunging the two in total darkness.

"Zero, find the lights," Amanda whispered.

She could hear their cries before she could actually see them, howls of protest and helplessness. Zero found the lights, illuminating the room and revealing at least a dozen cages on either side of the walkway. The rest of the room appeared to be filled with storage of some kind, with boxes lining the walls over her head. She didn't have time to admire the scenery, which wasn't that good to start with. Like Ellis had said, limited time.

Quickly Amanda ran over to the cages, filled to the brim with innocent Pokémon waiting to have who knows what done with them. Not on her watch! Just as she suspected the metal cages were locked shut, which would be a challenge to pick if she didn't have her trusty bolt cutters. Once in a while Josh had some good ideas.

Pulling them from her belt, she squeezed with all her might, the small lock falling with a crack to the concrete floor. Beaming with success she threw the cage door open, releasing the pack of Pokémon of all shapes and sizes into the room. They flooded out, squealing and pushing to get out of the tortuous conditions. Moving to the next cage, she snapped the lock, repeating the process.

Back in the hallway, Colby and Josh were having some difficulties. It was going okay at first, until one guy showed up from guarding the stairs, wondering what all the yelling was about. It was just their luck that this grunt happened to be Monty, the extremely muscled and bigger than both Colby and Josh, of Ronan's group when they first met. But it didn't seem that the daft grunt had recognized them, just immediately came up behind Josh and put him in a killer head lock. It's a wonder the guy wasn't a wrestler himself.

The grunt he was battling before Monty grabbed him, smirked at Josh's surprised condition. Josh's hands grabbed at Monty's arm, trying to remove the boisterous thing from choking him anymore. The grunt took this opportunity to knee Josh in the stomach, causing him to practically fall over if Monty didn't have a hold of him. With anger getting the best of him, Josh was hissing and spitting at them both, trying to get free.

Colby just now noticed his condition, fear struck. With one last punch to a grunt, she bounded over to the grunt beating Josh and kicked him as hard as she could in the back of the head. He screeched and dropped like a rock, face planting at Josh's feet. Monty looked at her with a devilish grin, tightening his grip on poor Josh who was about to turn blue.

"Let him go, now," Colby snapped, delivering a harsh blow with her fist to Monty's chest.

It didn't seem to affect the huge grunt and caused him to squeeze tighter.

"I warned you," Colby said, pretending to turn away, but then doing one of her signature moves.

Monty didn't seem to expect the girl to be able to jump so high as to reach his face…but she did. In one quick movement Colby connected the ball of her food with Monty's nose, causing blood to spurt everywhere. In shock he dropped Josh, who fell to his knees, gasping for air and holding his neck. The big man slumped against the wall, looking down at his hand that was covered in blood from where he touched his nose.

Josh finally caught his breath, standing up with anger like no other in his eyes. Turning around he faced Monty, the only grunt left, but the biggest challenge of them all.

"You bitch," Monty roared, looking like an angry Tauros.

Normally this would be terrifying, but anger got the better of the two. Monty charged toward them, barreling at practically 90 miles per hour. They dodged his tackle, which was undoubtedly his way to take them both down at the same time. He turned around to be met by two fists to the face, one Josh's and one Colby's. She flexed her knuckles while dodging his blind punches…apparently some of the blood had gotten in his eyes.

Josh delivered a fierce uppercut to his chin, but at the same time getting nicked in the side by one of Monty's blind throws. While Monty was reeling from the uppercut Colby spun around and delivered another brutal roundhouse to his face. Blindly, raging, he ended up tripping over his own feet…and hitting his head with a sickening crack on the concrete floor.

Colby was breathing heavy as she exchanged a breathless glance with Josh, who had a bit of blood running from his mouth. He wiped it with back of his hand, and sighed.

"Thanks for saving my ass. You weren't bad," he mumbled gruffly, avoiding her gaze.

Colby smiled, he was trying, and that was obvious.

"Anytime. Next time we use Subway though."


Amanda was on the last cage in the second room, letting the lock fall to the ground. She felt a huge feeling of elation as she was about to open the door, realizing she had done it. As she was reaching for the lock, a heavy hand descended on her shoulder.

"Great Stellar Spirits Josh, do you guys have to scare me like that-"

The hand spun her around roughly, causing her glasses to slide down a bit on her face. Now there were two hands gripping each of her shoulders, not at all being gentle. She was staring into the vicious brown eyes of some grunt twice her size, both in built and height.

"Now just what do you think you're doing down her pretty thing?" He growled, sour breath being breathed into her face.

Amanda couldn't move, fear pulsing through her body. Zero was over in the other room keeping the Pokémon under control, Josh and Colby were fighting the grunts in the hall, her other Poke Balls were in her pack which was out of reach, and Ellis was powerless to watch it all. That is if there even are cameras in here. She was completely on her own. "Let me go," she shakily said, trying to wiggle out of his grip.

"Now now, don't be rude. We're just getting started," the grunt said, tightening his grip on Amanda's shoulders just enough to make her whimper.

"This is going to be fun, I'm going to get to know you real well and then we'll see what the boss wants to do with you," he growled.

Amanda's eyes got big as she kicked and started screaming, that is before the grunt covered her mouth roughly.

"Shut up," he barked.

Then just as quickly as he'd grabbed her, Amanda was released, being tossed to the floor in a heap, almost face planting if she wouldn't have caught herself. Turning over as quickly as she could she saw the guy fall to the ground like a rag doll, and was replaced with another man that was now standing a few feet away from her. In the process her glasses went tumbling, landing beside her. The figure was blurry until she put her glasses back on, blinking and gasping when she realized who it was.

Standing there in his normal light brown suit and checking his pocket watch stood the man in the suit. He slipped the watch back in his pocket and stood in front of her, running his hand through his fluffy light brown hair.

"I figure you don't have much time. So go, go now while you have the chance. Don't let them catch you, and don't stop running until you get well away from here," he ordered, something that looked like fear in his eyes.

Amanda had her back against the cage trying to figure out what just happened.

"Thank you…but…what are you doing here? Why did you save me? I thought you were a member of Team Lunar!" She babbled, standing up shakily in the process.

"That's not important. What is important is that they are likely to figure out what is happening at any moment, so you and your friends need to go while you can. Trust me; you don't want to be caught at their mercy. Now go Amanda, get out of here. Return those Pokémon safely," he said, begging her to trust him.

"I don't understand-"

"You don't have to, we'll meet again I promise. Go carefully, get out of here…and be safe," he told her, bidding farewell.

"Okay, t-thanks," Amanda stuttered, greatly shaken.

She undid the last cage and released what was left into the room, leading them with a Poffin from her bag to the door, where she spun around.

"Could I at least have your name?"

Looking behind her the man was still standing, looking up from the ground and back at her.

The man hesitated at first, but then spoke after clearing his throat, "Strider. Strider Goldston."

Amanda turned back to the door before whipping around for a double take, what did he just say? Strider Goldston? How did this guy have her last name…? What the hell was going on here?

"I'm so sorry…" He said shakily, running his hand through his hair again.

Amanda could only begin to imagine the shock that was present on her face, because the guy looked pretty stressed. He took a deep breath before he spoke shakily.

"Amanda… I'm your father."


A/N: Oooo dramatic ;) I'm sorry it's been so long guys, now that it's summer I can get back to writing again, and I blame the lack of updates on my recent addiction to Minecraft, and The Walking Dead. Also The Mediator Series, which I'll be certainly sprouting some fics on soon :P You're going to get another update soon, do not worry!

Please review! Because I would love to hear how I'm doing and your story comments :P As Ellis would say, capeesh?