Chapter Six

Team Xana was far more powerful than I ever expected. Even now, within their headquarters, seeing everything, I knew I was only skimming the surface of what they knew and what they could do. There was so much I didn't know, so much they had, and I didn't know how to attack back. I didn't know how to win.

So, all four of the Admins—Allison and Henry of the Science Labs and Silver and Lindsey of the PCC—had acquired powers from the Pokémon Conversion Center. I didn't know if every single one of the members of Team Xana had been "converted" into Pokémon, but I had a feeling that this was just one giant factory of using Pokémon as tools.

It was even more disgusting than anything Team Rocket had done, and thinking about it made me sick to my stomach. Henry and Allison seemed so nonchalant about it, just waving off the bit of nausea passing through me as something else. Nothing about the PCC was bad. They had no idea why I thought this was so wrong.

And where the hell were my Pokémon? Were they already dead?

"Oh, it's completely normal. That's why we're so strong, you know," Allison explained, but—once again—I didn't understand. "All the Admins have their own Pokémon. These ones are kept for battling purposes, not for usage in the PCC. But the reason we're so strong is because we have these Pokémon abilities and stuff inside of us. Because we're basically half-Pokémon, the other Pokémon obey us. Our enhanced abilities enhance their abilities because of the psychological effect of the bond. It's quite simple."

Oh, yeah. So simple.

Allison wouldn't tell me what they planned to do with these enhanced abilities, though I did manage to make her tell me a bit more about the situation. Clearly, some of this information was more valuable than the rest, and I wondered how many of the members of Team Xana actually knew the plan. I imagined the number to be rather small, but I had no idea what they had been telling the lesser members to make them work so hard.

"So, whose abilities did you take?" I wondered, and Allison exchanged a glance with Henry. Their expressions said it all: they were concerned about telling me too much. They knew who I was—they weren't stupid—and I was sure they knew I was against this. It could be dangerous to tell me too much. And this was certainly information that could be helpful to my destruction of the Team Xana fortress.

Then, nodding, she proceeded to tell me. "All of the other members of Team Xana know, so you might as well. We are not prohibited from telling you this." She smiled at me, and for a moment I felt a wave of trust pass between us. It was too bad that she trusted the wrong person here, considering I would eventually lead to her downfall. Hopefully. "I'm a Magnezone. That's why I'm so good with technology. I can fix anything at anytime with incredible speed, and I control the production of technical machines and parts here."

Henry raised a hand, and I stared at him. "I'm an Electivire. I control all the electrical currents and voltage throughout the headquarters, but I focus primarily on the Science Labs. The most extensive computer and electrical needs are here in the Science Labs, so I try to control this area first. And, for the record, we were assigned Pokémon based on our jobs in the headquarters. Allison and I were assigned Electric-types for a reason. And her secondary Steel-type gives her phenomenal abilities in dealing with all this technology."

"And Silver?"

"Gallade," Allison replied, and I narrowed my eyes, lines starting to connect the dots. The teleporting, the violence, the conflicting personalities that could be seen with a Psychic and Fighting-type Pokémon… Though I knew there had to be more to the conflicting personalities than just that, it made sense. "He works in the PCC, so he has to have more of a silent connection to Pokémon and the people there. He's not as much of an authority as Lindsey, but he definitely keeps things running smoothly in the PCC."

Henry rubbed his chin, a tiny smile on his lips. "Lindsey is a special one. Working in the PCC is difficult, as we've said, and things need to be done quickly. Lindsey kind of keeps everyone in line, and if anyone fights back… well, she'll take care of them without having to get Clay involved. She's a Garchomp. Not just any Garchomp, though." He held up a finger, and I swallowed. "She's taken the powers of Champion Cynthia's Garchomp."

It took everything in me to keep myself from gasping. Instead, I just pretended to look impressed, though a certain nausea swept through me. They just took the Champion's Pokémon like that and redistributed their powers? Where were Lance's Pokémon? Where was Dragonite? And Red's? His Pikachu... Blue's Pidgeot… All the other Champion's Pokémon? Where did they go? Who had them now?

Perhaps Clay…

"And what about Clay? Where does he fit into all of this? Did he get another Champion's Pokémon?" I asked, hoping that they could answer a question about their boss. I didn't see why this would hurt anything; all I could do with it is work around his abilities. But it would still be a difficult endeavor for me.

Allison made a face, looking unsure whether she could say anything. However, after a moment of thought, she sighed. "We got a hold of Mew. It came to help the other Pokémon, but Clay caught it with a Master Ball; I don't know why he had one lying around, but I think he was waiting for Mew to show up. Anyway, he took Mew's abilities. Mew can use any attack in existence. It can learn any TM, any HM… its abilities are astounding. So, Clay took it."

Mew. I never expected that. Mew was a legendary, a myth, and Clay had taken it. And, well, what now? Allison and Henry said that once a Pokémon's abilities were taken, it died. So, Mew was gone. All of these Pokémon… gone. I shivered at the thought of it, completely horrified by this. It was sick. Disgusting.

"Well, well, well, sharing secrets, are we?" A man clicked his tongue behind me, and I spun around, staring at Clay as he grinned at me. I put my hands on my hips, glaring at him. I wasn't going to pretend like I didn't know. I couldn't. He had done too many horrible things to be ignored, and I was going to show him that I didn't agree one way or another.

"You never—" Allison began, and Clay held up a hand. She stopped immediately, looking like a little puppy just scolded. What was that?

"Yes, well, apparently I wasn't specific enough when I told you not to tell her about our plans for her." Clay walked closer to me, wrapping an arm around my waist and spinning me back around to face Allison and Henry again. I tried to push myself around from him, but he just tightened his grip, reaching up with his other hand and squishing my face. "Don't tell her anymore information. Do you understand? Get out of here."

Allison and Henry nodded, excusing themselves and walking away. I yelled to them through my squished cheeks, telling them to stop, but they continued to walk. They didn't even look back. Clay just squeezed my face harder before pushing me down to the ground, looking down at me like I was no better than trash. Suddenly, I didn't feel so different from Allison and Henry, and that frightened me.

"Let us get one thing straight," Clay began, knocking me down when I started to get back up. I grunted, falling to the floor once again and feeling my ankle twist uncomfortably. "This is my organization. You can ask around all you want, but you won't be getting anymore information from anyone. That includes Silver. I know what he's told you, and let me just say that you can do nothing with the information he has given you. I have complete control here. I know everything you do, say, think, plan… None of it's a secret. Not to me." He pointed a finger to his temple, winking at me. "I've outsmarted you."

"It's a pity, then," I retorted, continuing to glare at him, "that you're wasting your brains. You could be doing something good with your life, and here you are, trying to accomplish nothing. You already have the world. What more do you want? What more do you expect? What are you going to do when you run out of places to go?"

Clay laughed, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes. "I forgot. You started that little adventure of yours when you were just ten. You missed most of your schooling, didn't you?" He smiled at me, and I squirmed uneasily. "Oh, you were homeschooled, were you? Well, clearly you didn't do well in science. There's a whole universe out there, Lyra. It is forever expanding, an infinite zone of unexplored regions. Imagine me, the ruler of the whole universe. The ruler of infinity! It's an amazing thing."

I shook my head, finding the hole in his logic. I knew what he meant, but he was contradicting himself. Clearly, Clay wasn't as bright as he liked to think he was. "But if the universe is infinite, you can't rule all of it. You can't reach infinity. At least not in your lifetime. Luckily, you'll be dead before you get there."

Clay chuckled again, apparently finding this horribly amusing. "Wrong. You're correct about infinity, but you're incorrect about the assumption that I'll be dead before I get there. See that space shuttle?" He pointed to the large mass taking up space in the giant Science Labs. How could anyone miss it? "You've heard about the space-time continuum equation, correct? Well, there's more to it than that. There's more than just going to Andromeda. But, as you know, I don't want to share any plans with you."

"Right," I murmured, silently cursing him for it. What kind of villain was he, anyway, if he didn't share the plan? Even the Team Rocket Executives shared their plans with me.

"Don't compare me to those fools." Clay looked earnestly offended, but I was just impressed that he could look earnestly anything. "This is a sophisticated organization that took me years to begin. Everything we do is entirely thought out; nothing is spur of the moment. You've been part of the plan for years. Even when we thought you were dead. We were still looking for your Pokémon. They're valuable."

I shook my head, wishing he would just leave my Pokémon out of this. How could he so easily destroy them? "You're horrible. I don't care how smart you are, and I don't care how many times you can outwit me. I am going to get you. I'm going to completely outplay you. I am going to win. There's no losing now."

Clay laughed one more time, and I seriously considered jumping to my feet and just throttling him right then and there. But if he really was Mew, he could stop me without having to move a finger. I wasn't sure I wanted to risk that.

"Oh, you're getting smarter! But, don't worry, I wouldn't hurt you too much. Unfortunately, we need you." Clay held a hand out to me, and I ignored it, rising to my feet on my own. But he saw what happened before I knew about it—my ankle gave out, and I tumbled back down. Clay caught my arm, actually stopping me from falling back down. "I need you in one piece. I know, it's horrible, isn't it?"

I groaned in reply, tugging my arm away from him and leaning entirely on my right leg instead of the left. "Yeah."

"I'll let you in on a little secret, Lyra. Don't worry, I'm not telling you any plans. I'm not doing that yet." He leaned closer to me, and I wanted to smack him across the face. But, stopping myself (and seeing him lean a little bit away), I just listened instead. "I'm the boss here. I'm the most powerful one in this entire headquarters. Stronger than you. That's why they listen to me. Even though I'm not entirely human, consider me the Team's Master. Pokémon have to obey their Master if they are respectable enough."

He smiled again, patting me on the head. "You'll never win. They have to obey me." He popped his lips, winking at me just one more time. "Now, don't you have somewhere to be?"

I shivered as he wrapped his cold fingers around my wrist, teleporting me back to the PCC. I didn't have a choice, either. But maybe I could someday… and everyone else could, too.

Author's Note: For some reason (and this seems a little late, but oh well), I want to clarify on how to pronounce "Team Xana". I think mostly everyone knows, but I just… I don't even know why I'm clarifying, really. You're probably all rolling your eyes at me right now. But I say it like "Team Zana". The first "a" is long, second short. Like… "ZAAAAAAna." XD

More information! You get a little insight as to why Silver can't tell Lyra anything (Clay controls how much everyone can say), why his personality conflicts a little bit, why he can teleport/read minds. So, there's a lot of good information in this chapter. Anymore questions? Probably. But you'll figure everything out in the end.

I'm sick. It's very sad. As soon as I get home—bam! Cold. :(

The next chapter will be up on Wednesday, December 22, not Saturday (because Saturday is Christmas!).

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.