"You know," Mira told Cheryl, "you're pretty amazing when it comes to knowing stuff about Pokemon. You knew about Happiny, Starly and now Shinx - without scanning them into your Pokedex! Mira thinks that is awesome!"

Cheryl smiled slightly and blushed. "I just enjoy reading books about Pokemon. I wouldn't call myself an expert, but I know enough to keep safe walking up and down these routes."

Mira pressed her point. "But that's still really impressive! Mira thinks you could follow a goal involving knowing a lot about Pokemon behaviour-"

"Guys," Buck told them while cradling the injured Bidoof in his arms, "have you seen the horizon yet? We've reached Jubilife City. Now all we need to do is walk this final bit of path."

It wasn't too long before they finally set foot in the gargantuan maze of buildings and paths. Cheryl wasn't lying when she said that somebody could get lost easily - Mira and Buck could barely see anywhere themselves.

"The Pokemon centre's this way," Cheryl told the two younger kids, implying that they should follow her through the twisting, turning streets that seemed to never end.

It was a relief for all three when they broke out of the crowd and into the warmth of the Pokemon Centre, where Mira abruptly found a blue cushion to lounge about on and Buck and Cheryl wandered up to the nurse behind the counter.

"Ok," Buck told the nurse without giving her a chance to greet them, "we've got a fainted Bidoof here. Would it be too much to heal it?"

The woman shook her head. "Of course it wouldn't be too much for me! Come on right in to the back room!"

As Buck and the nurse disappeared into the doorway, Cheryl looked back at Mira. "Hey, are you sure you're not gonna ask for your Pokemon to be healed as well?"

Mira groaned slightly. "But Mira finds the cushion comfortable..."

Cheryl sighed. "Come on. It's better to just get it over and done with, then you can sink into a cushion for the rest of today if you so wished. You can even snuggle with Turtwig here, if you want, just come on right now."

Mira rolled her eyes, but obeyed.

Mira sighed as she placed her foot up on the wall.

She had spent the last half an hour inside the room her, Cheryl and Buck had booked up for the night, and although the sky was only just beginning to change from day to evening, Mira had disappeared up into their room because she still wasn't feeling that energised after having to run from halfway along route 201 to Sandgem Town for the sake of Cheryl's Starly.

That was something Mira noted that was different between her and Cheryl - she had slightly less stamina than her older friend.

She had told Cheryl and Buck that she was feeling a little drowsy (or Drowsee as she noted in her head later), and wanted to rest in bed for a little while, before hopping on the escalator that led to the upper floor rooms.

At that moment she realised how utterly bored she had become without anything to do. She couldn't even bring out a Pokemon of her own since all three of them were being healed. At least she had her TV console at home...

Turtwig was sleeping beside her, making the odd snoring noise as it did so. Mira stared at it for a moment, and appreciated how it was so derpy and adorable.

The silence surrounding her was suddenly disturbed as an enthusiastic redhead barrelled through the door, followed by a forest-green haired teenage girl, which caused Mira to nearly fall out of bed in surprise.

To nobody's surprise, Turtwig remained asleep.

Buck rushed over to the bedside, not caring that he had just frightened the life out of Mira. "Guess what me and Cheryl just managed to do?"

Mira slowed down her panicked breathing slightly before replying. "Mira doesn't know, but you scared her out of her wits!"

Buck shrugged apologetically, before going straight back to his point. "But look at what she managed to get out in the city!"

He dumped his backpack on the end of Mira's bed, and searched through it until he came across what he was looking for.

He brought out the object triumphantly, before displaying it in front of Mira.

As far as she could see, it appeared to be a cuboid-shaped yellow box, made from some kind of plastic. Around the area between the lid and bottom, there ran two orange strings of the same plastic substance that acted as the seal for the box.

Mira stared at it.

"... it's a box."

Buck nodded. "Yes, of course it's a box! But it's the items inside the box that are the best!"

He pulled at the two box sections until a small clicking noise signified they had separated. He lifted the lid and showed Mira what was encased within.

Five small devices were located on a cushion that fitted neatly inside the box. The five devices were all the same in make - a miniature screen located on a strap fit for the wrist, with two buttons on the screen's right - but each was a different colour. Mira recognised them as the device Barry was wearing back in Twinleaf Town.

"Aren't they cool?" Buck insisted, "there was a promotion going on where they were giving out unique Poketches to people who could find the three harlequins in the city, and since Cheryl knows this place like the back of her hand, she located them no problem! There's the classic pink and blue ones, but they've also released promotional red, green and white ones!"

Cheryl sat down beside Buck's backpack at the end of the bed. "I thought you'd like the pink one, so I didn't hesitate to try and get that promotion. Do you like it?"

Mira paused, before a wide smile spread across her face.

"Awesome."

Buck nodded. "They are, aren't they? The ones we don't use will be spares for now. Come on, let's put these on!"

Mira grinned, before picking up the pink Poketch (as Buck had called it) and wrapping the strap around her left wrist and fastening the buckle.

If Mira was honest with herself, she didn't even know what a Poketch did. She just thought it looked really cool, and Buck seemed to like it, so she guessed it was pretty good.

"Now all you need to do is press one of the two buttons," Buck explained as he fastened the red Poketch around his own wrist.

Mira obeyed, pushing one of the small buttons lightly.

The screen suddenly lit up, and a screen displaying the current time flashed before her.

"That's just the default setting," Cheryl told her as she switched on her chosen Poketch, the green one. "Pressing the two buttons will scroll through all the apps pre-downloaded onto it. Top button scrolls up, bottom button scrolls down."

Mira was still not entirely sure what was going on with this small device, but for the sake of pure aesthetics Mira couldn't help but be thrilled. She pressed the top button once, and the screen became blank.

"What?" Mira informed the other two, "the screen just went blank. What's meant to be happening here?"

Cheryl found her way to beside Mira and looked at Mira's Poketch. "I think I know what that is. It's meant to show the current Pokemon on your team, plus their health and status. If they're fainted or have status conditions, their sprites on the screen blank out. They're not on yours right now because your Pokemon are being healed."

Mira nodded. "That makes sense-"

"Oh yeah!" Came a cry from the end of the bed that caused both girls to roll their eyes.

"What is it, Buck?" Cheryl called out to him, exasperated at her temporary companion's behaviour. She wasn't as excited as Buck about the Poketch since she had seen Barry's on multiple occasions, and Mira didn't know what she had just gotten herself into, so the both of them were quickly growing tired of Buck's fanboying.

The redhead rushed over to their side and showed them his screen. "You didn't say these were the Poketch's most recent make!"

Cheryl sighed. "The harlequin-clown guy literally stated it to our faces."

Buck shrugged, before continuing on with his point. "I'd heard that the Poketch company was collaborating with the Cross-Transceiver brand in Unova, but I never knew that their project together was released! That's awesome!"

Mira, who was even more confused than previously, tried pressing the top button a couple more times.

A graphic rolled into view that read "xTransceiver", before it disappeared and was replaced with a small rectangle at the top of the screen. The words on the rectangle read "Contacts".

"Hey!" Buck interrupted Mira's train of thought. "How about we register each other's Poketch into the Cross-Transceiver app? Then we'll be able to talk to each other if we get lost in Jubilife or something!"

Cheryl nodded, although it only looked half hearted since she was gaining a very faint headache from the boy's currently uncontrollable volume scale.

However, Mira noticed that Turtwig was fast asleep despite all the commotion going on in the room. Of course.

"There you go! All healed up!"

Mira had told the other two that she'd remain behind at the Pokemon centre and would inform them when the Bidoof was healed, before sinking deeply into a yellow cushion in the main lobby. Cheryl had taken Turtwig out to see the city, so Mira had been left alone to study the books within the bookshelves. She had been pouring through a particularly interesting fantasy manga when the nurse had informed her of the news that she could finally get her Pokemon back.

As she forced herself out of the Mira-shaped crease in the cushion, she followed the nurse to the back room.

"Here are your Poke balls," the nurse told her, picking them up from a tray. "So far we've only fully healed up your team. However, it shouldn't be too long before the Bidoof is alright!"

Mira nodded and smiled, placing the Poke balls back into her bag. There she turned around and exited the back room, returning to the main lobby and the massive cushion.

Just as Mira was about to collapse back into the cushion, a sudden beeping noise startled her.

She looked down at her Poketch, which was flashing with a message:

"INCOMING XTRANSCEIVER CALL - PRESS ANY BUTTON TO PICK UP"

Mira, in a panicked state, simply pressed the lower button beside the main screen.

The message was replaced with what looked like a live camera, showing Cheryl standing somewhere in the city. She didn't look too happy.

"Mira," Cheryl told her, "I didn't realise I'd have to use the Cross-Transceiver so soon, but we've gotten into a desperate situation."

"What?" Mira called out to the screen. "What's happened?"

Cheryl stared back at her. "Turtwig has been stolen. Buck and I have been trying to tail the people who have taken it, but so far to no avail. I need you to help us look. From the Pokemon centre, turn left and walk down to the next crossroads, before turning left again. You'll then be on the Main Street, where we are currently located. Just run down the path and you should see us."

Mira nodded. "Mira will come and help!"

Cheryl winked back at her. "Glad to have you with us."

Then the call ended, and was replaced with the current time once more.

Mira darted out of the door to the Pokemon centre, following Cheryl's instructions to the letter. Down the path to the crossroads... turn left... run down the Main Street...

She spotted Cheryl and Buck at the end. She waved, and began edging nearer with every blazing step she was taking.

Her running streak was interrupted by a sudden clash between her and a stranger emerging from the crossroads beside her.

Mira turned to the stranger, and was about to apologise for colliding with them, before she spotted the sleeping Turtwig residing in their arms.

Mira looked up at the stranger's face, and asked two simple questions. "Who are you? And why do you have my friend's Turtwig?"

The stranger, a woman with light green hair that fell to her shoulders and a strange suit coloured shades of grey with a bright yellow "G" in the centre of her chest, merely grinned. "Why, young girl, I can answer both questions right now! One, my name is Camille of Team Galactic, and two, I'm stealing your friend's Turtwig so that Team Galactic can use it for themselves!"

She was expecting a shocked and panicked reaction from Mira. What she got instead was a look of confusion.

"Who is Team Galactic?"

Camille began to look a little uneasy. "You... don't know who Team Galactic is?"

At that moment, three more people joined the scene.

From up the Main Street path, Buck and Cheryl finally managed to get to Mira's position, and they began gasping for air out of sheer exhaustion.

From the crossroads that Camille had emerged from, a man with short-cut, spiky orange hair wearing a similar suit to Camille's caught up to the commotion, and was also gasping for air.

There was a sudden awkward moment where nobody said anything as the three new arrivals to the scene got their breath back.

Then the other man on Camille's side spoke up, albeit with gasps for air in between each word.

"Fear... Team Galactic's... strongest... grunt... none other... than... Brett!"

Camille turned to her companion, put Turtwig under her left and gave him a slap to the face with the other hand. "You could've at least come a little earlier, you useless buffoon! We could've done our intro and everything!"

The three children were now extremely confused as to what was going on in this situation.

"Camille... you know you're... much fitter... than me!" The man named Brett cried out in annoyance.

Cheryl interrupted the argument. "What are thugs like Team Galactic doing here, in Jubilife City, stealing people's Pokemon? Why don't you just hang out in the Galactic Eterna building, waiting for people to hand them to you on a silver plate? I thought it wasn't the Team Galactic way to actually go out and do something."

Brett, who had slowly but surely regained his breath, straightened his posture and glared at Cheryl. "It wasn't working for us. So we've had to go to more desperate measures. Of course, it's not much of an issue for us to take a sleeping Pokemon from the arms of a mere girl."

"Except it is," Camille butted in bitterly, "we may have gotten the Pokemon, but Brett here got us lost."

Brett whimpered slightly. "It's not my fault! This city is just massive!"

Camille shook her head at her hopeless friend, and returned to glaring at Cheryl and Buck. "Well, either way, you're not going to get this Pokemon back-"

She was suddenly cut short by a young girl, who had sneaked up behind her while she and Brett were monologuing and grabbed Turtwig from under her arm.

Mira clutched the Pokemon tightly, and with a cry of success rushed back over to her friend's side.

Camille stared at what just happened, a look of pure dismay on her face. "...What?! Did you really just do that?!"

Brett shook his head in despair. "How did you just defeat Team Galactic's finest grunt, without even battling?"

Camille replaced her sour disappointment with a bitter smile, hiding how defeated she felt inside. "We'll leave you for now, but you'll bet that we will find you again. And we will snatch that Turtwig away before you can say Team Galactic!"

And with that, her and Brett turned away from them and began running as fast as they possibly could in order to avoid any police catching them.

Mira turned to Cheryl, and gave her back her Turtwig, who was somehow still asleep.

"Thanks, Mira!" Cheryl told her with a bright smile, "I don't know what I would've done if you weren't there!"

Mira smiled faintly. "You're welcome, Cheryl."

"Ah!" Cried a voice from behind them, startling all three of them slightly.

A man with black hair and a brown trench coat was rushing towards them.

When he stopped in front of the trio, he explained his point. "Where did those Team Galactic grunts rush off to! Those evil-doers are under report from the International Police!"

He suddenly realised he had an audience, and the audience of three was looking at him and wondering what he was rambling on about.

"You three!" He suddenly cried out, "do you know about the Team Galactic? And could you help me with tracking down them?"

Buck shrugged. "I guess we could help. Who even are you?"

The man stared at Buck. "Ah, I am... wait! You must only refer to me by my code name. That code name, it is Looker! I am a member of the International Police, sent here to search for and take down the Team Galactic!"

Cheryl nodded slowly. "Ok... we'll be sure to keep a lookout."

The man smiled brightly. "Brilliant!"

And without even asking how to contact the three of them, the man sped away to continue his goal.

Mira shook her head. "That man... he doesn't even know how we'll tell him if we find anything... he may be important, but he sure is naive."

As Cheryl gripped her Turtwig as tightly as her strength allowed her to, she intently listened to her younger companions and their discussions while all three of them wandered back to the Pokemon centre.

"Those people were some of the weirdest people I've ever met," Buck was telling Mira, "and they were probably some of the stupidest people, too."

Mira shrugged. "Mira has seen stupider. Just a few days ago, Mira and Cheryl met a man who claimed to be trying to reach the Lake Spirits of Sinnoh, which is highly unlikely to ever happen. Then again, it takes many kinds of people to make the world go round..."

Mira then realised she had a question that, so far, had gone unanswered.

"Who even are those Team Galactic people? They don't hang around near Hearthome City at all."

Cheryl perked up, since she knew a lot about the team - one of their bases resided in Eterna City, the working place of her mother.

"Team Galactic has been around for about seven years now. Nobody is really sure what their main goal is, but what people do know is that they set up places for people to donate Pokemon to them like objects. They believe that people who are stupid enough will just give them Pokemon so they don't have to use any effort themselves trying to catch something. This trade system has made Team Galactic extremely unpopular, and since the law either doesn't know or doesn't care, nobody can report it. One thing that everyone is sure of, however, is that nobody has a single clue who the leader is. Apparently the leader doesn't really advertise who they are, and they never really stay in one place, either. That's just about all I've been able to gather on the group, since they really don't concern me that much."

There was a small pause before Mira replied.

"They sound like awful people. Mira thinks that people should do something about it, and if not, Mira wants to sort it out herself."

Buck perked up. "I don't know as much about Galactic as Cheryl does, but I do know that they are a huge group of people. If you wanted to defeat them on your own or with us then we probably wouldn't stand much of a chance at all - the only way I could see us even having a chance is if we defeated the leader, and not only do we not know who they are, but our Pokemon wouldn't be strong enough at all."

The three of them turned the corner to see none other than the Pokemon centre nurse rushing up the path to them, slowing down as she found herself in front of them.

"You... three..." the nurse began to say, her breath being drawn and released sharply out of exhaustion.

"What is it?" Cheryl asked, a concerned tone enveloping her usual bright voice.

The nurse took a quick moment to find her normal breathing pattern, before looking at the three with a bright smile.

"The Bidoof's been all healed up. Feel free to take it away from our custody."

The evening air that day felt calm. Starlys were singing their love songs, honey trees rustled with Combees and, legends told if someone was especially lucky, they would get a chance to see a bright purple comet in the sky which said legend claimed to be Palkia keeping space in order.

This peaceful atmosphere, however, was suddenly interrupted by the shrill screech of a furious young woman.

"You idiot!" Camille yelled to her companion as they dragged their feet down Route 205, even though the man was only a few feet away from her. "You had one job, and you completely flopped it!"

Brett sighed. "For the hundredth time, Jubilife City is massive. The two of us have never been there before, so I was completely stumped on what to do at all! And you can't pass as completely innocent for this either, you know."

Camille shrugged and crossed her arms. "I wouldn't have even encountered those people and been distracted if the man who was meant to guide me, the supposed 'strongest' grunt in Team Galactic, ended up getting left in the dust because of his uselessness."

Brett made to reply, but a stabbing glare his way shut his mouth right up.

Camille began on a tangent. "Now look at us. We failed our mission to a bunch of kids, we didn't get to do our intro, and we're going back to base empty-handed. Jupiter's gonna be so mad at us like always..."

Brett turned to her. "If I'm so bad at all my missions I do with you, why do you even keep me around?"

Camille chose to give the same dismissive response as always.

"I thought I'd told you already. Jupiter always sections us off together for missions, giving me the orders since I'm a higher rank of grunt, and I don't want the mission to fail by abandoning you. Don't tell me you'd already forgotten, you dummy."

When the trio reached Jubilife City, Buck and Cheryl left Mira at the Pokemon centre since she was tired, and the two of them explored in Jubilife. After returning with the most modern make of Poketches within their grasp, they made leave again, only for disaster to strike with Turtwig being stolen! Mira rushed out of the centre, only to encounter the culprits - Brett and Camille, two Grunts of an organisation Cheryl is familiar with - Team Galactic! Fortunately, Turtwig was returned safe and sound, and when the two Grunts made leave, a mysterious yet naive police officer codenamed Looker asked the trio if hey could help track down what the team was doing! After such an eventful day in the city, will all the questions arising from it be answered? The journey continues!

Hello dear reader! Firstly, I'M SO SORRY FOR THIS BEING A DAY LATE! I can be a little scatty sometimes, but I'll try and keep to the schedule. Secondly, this part was one I really enjoyed writing. Yes, I do have OCs to be the "Team Rocket" of the fic, and I hope you enjoy their personalities and later developments! Next part will not have much advancing in the present day, and focus more on backstories, so look forward to that! Again, sorry for the late part, and I hope you enjoy!