This chapter went in a slightly different direction than I had planned, but it was a nice direction.

I used Ariana's "Japanese" name Athena without even realizing it, but I kept it in. I did the same with mentioning Archer as Apollo, along with the other Rocket Executives. The only other character I've used the Japanese name for is Kenta, and I could easily call him Hibiki or Ethan by now (I'm avoiding "Jimmy" at all costs, though).
I'd like to hear what you readers think of this. Would it be confusing if I kept it this way? Should I change their names to the original English, like everyone else's?

And for those who might just be wondering, I don't intend there to be Lance x Marina at all. Marina simply admires Lance a lot.

Chapter 63
Passwords

Geez, that was weird...

If it weren't for the time and place, Marina might have gone back to catch up with her anguished rival. But the pressure of the situation overpowered her concern for Silver. She got back up, albeit unsteadily at first, and walked down the hallway with her Quilava at a slow pace.

I've never seen him so angry at me, she continued in her shaky thoughts.

It was probably for the best that Silver had left when he did. King was no doubt furious with him, if his constant sputtering and glaring behind them told her anything. She knew had taught King to never attack people, it was never an option, but she knew that it would be possible if he were provoked enough. Her hands still trembled, and her heart pounded with adrenaline from her dispute with the boy. To say it bluntly, his sudden outburst had shocked her—scared her, even. She had never argued with someone like that before.

But there was nothing she could do about it; Marina knew as she stood before the door labeled "Boss's Room". At the moment, she had to help Lance take down the revived Team Rocket. Or, at the very least, she had to help him stop the radio signal they were broadcasting.

"Silver's just upset that he lost," Marina reasoned out loud. "I hope he learns from Lance!"

She approached the keypad affixed to the door. The buttons beeped as her fingers danced across them, but she paused. She groaned and smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand.

"I forgot; I don't have the second password. I only have one!"

And that was "Raticate Tail". Darn it! Marina turned around and rested her back against it. She sighed, finally relaxing. What could it be? Does it follow some kind of pattern? Maybe the tail of another Pokémon? If only Lance were here.

King settled down enough to sit, looking about at any sudden noise. The girl stared blankly at her feet. The floors gleamed with a pale, static glow, giving the illusion that time had stood still. She yawned, fidgeting as she searched her mind. All of the stress and excitement from her long day had drained her of energy. Her body desired to retire to the Pokémon Center and sleep, but she was well aware that was not an option. Lance probably would not have minded if she left—it might take a load off his busy mind—but she wanted to impress him. Aside from that, she personally did not want to leave. In a way, she also wanted to impress herself, to hopefully learn or get something out of the situation.

It was difficult for her to think; her mind worked far better after a full night's sleep. How late was it? It had already been nighttime when Marina rushed to the souvenir shop to pick up her diary, so it must have been later than that. She checked her PokéGear and twisted her frown; it had just passed midnight.

"Oh geez... No wonder I'm exhausted. I'm usually done by eleven," she said.

Due to the days of working as a Kimono Girl, which required strict promptness and much rest, Marina's previously-horrid sleeping schedule in the autumn had been amended. Instead of falling asleep around one in the morning and waking up between eleven and even one in the afternoon, she regained her habitual, healthy, and most importantly nightmare-less sleeping hours. She did somewhat miss the quiet nighttime, which gave her a strange liberty to think and do as she pleased undisturbed. In the end, she enjoyed the ability to start her day bright and early, enabling her to do much more with her day.

However, at the moment it was dreadfully inconvenient. Marina could feel her consciousness ebbing away if she allowed her mind to wander too far. She resisted resting her legs for this reason; if she sat down, she feared that she would fall asleep. King might be able to wake her up, but she did not want to risk it. She needed to stay as awake as possible.

"Come on, Marina. Think!" she berated herself and let her head fall back against the door. Instead of yawning, she took a deep breath. "Pokémon Tail... But what Pokémon? Maybe..."

When Marina had arrived she shop with Muu-chan for shelter from the rain, she had bought two Rage Candy Bars and forgotten her diary on the counter. During the process of buying the candy, she had an interesting conversation with the cashier about something encased in glass. It was a tail from the Pokémon Slowpoke, which the man claimed to be a delicacy. Marina had been too disgusted to hear any more about it, but it was certainly the first unusual thing she had seen that day.

Slowpoke Tail? Could that really be...?

Marina's eyes snapped open, and she whirled back toward the keypad. She typed almost too quickly for her eyes to follow, coming close to misspelling her guess. As she jabbed at the "Enter" button, she waited tensely with her nose inches from the analog box.

With a simple beep, the doors slid open so quickly that Marina backed away in surprise. She stared with a dumb look on her face at first, but quietly cheered to herself.

Yes, I was right! Her eyes quickly met with her Pokémon, who nodded. Marina did the same and, bracing herself, walked inside.

She was disappointed and a little perplexed. Lance had told her that the executive, a Rocket superior to the others she had seen, had locked himself in. But contradicting that was the empty room before her, which contained a conference table, a small library, a desk, and a bird Pokémon perching beside it. If anything, it felt anticlimactic.

The man that was supposed to be in the room had the password that she and Lance needed to get into the generator room. That was why they—or at least Marina—had been running around battling people. But without anyone in the room, it lessened the effect of her efforts drastically. She might as well have wasted her time with a nap.

"Oh well. What now? Maybe the guy wrote it down somewhere," she guessed.

The table was spotless, so she headed for the desk. The bird Pokémon was a curious Murkrow, which squawked and fluttered its wings at her approach, but did nothing more. There weren't any sticky notes that contained a password of some sort, but there was a messy stack of papers left behind. Having nothing else to lose, she took a look at them. They touched on previous missions that Team Rocket had participated in and the locations where they occurred: Azalea Town, Ecruteak City, Goldenrod City, the Ruins of Alph, New Bark Town, and Mahogany Town.

"They were in Ecruteak and New Bark Town?" she gasped, horrified. "I had no idea!"

The reports were rather lengthy and wordy beyond her vocabulary at times, so Marina skimmed them to preserve time.

In Azalea Town, commanded by "Executive Lance", Team Rocket had been cutting off Slowpoke Tails in the Slowpoke Well for profit. In order to gain control of the town, they attempted multiple times to kidnap the Gym Leader, Bugsy. They pulled out six months ago for reasons unspecified.

Cutting off Slowpoke Tails...? Oh geez. That makes sense why I saw Team Rocket at the Gym, she thought and frowned upon seeing the commander's name. His name is Lance? Bleh, how unfitting! She moved on.

The event in Goldenrod City, led by "Executive Athena", was specifically to capture the Gym Leader, Whitney, much like how they had attempted in Azalea Town. They seemed to prepare a grand takeover of Goldenrod City if this went over well. But they had been overpowered by Whitney, a stray Pokémon Trainer with an Eevee, and an unidentified Pokémon.

Marina grinned at her mentioning, but she faltered. It went further to describe her appearance, and there was even photographic evidence of her and Whitney. Some unseen person in the background had taken a picture of them during the battle. There was no picture, however, for the unknown Pokémon.

That was...Deoxys, wasn't it? She brushed her fingers over her neck. It might've been the one that gave me the choker...but I don't know. Whatever, time to go to next one. She did not want to think about it. If anything, she just wanted to avoid any more nightmares. They had been gone for months, and she liked it better that way.

The mission in Ecruteak City, as well as in the Ruins of Alph, had been to only gather information about their history—particularly on Johto's legendary Pokémon. In addition, it stated that it was at the request of a vague sponsor, whom was supporting Team Rocket financially. The writer went so far as to keep their name undisclosed and completely classified—and by classified, it was written that they simply had not been given a clear name to go by. Such secrecy was written as suspicious as first, but they had "little choice in the matter."

Marina found this report interesting, but it lacked information as to what they actually found. These tasks had been conducted by "Executive Apollo", who seemed to be given a higher amount of respect in comparison to the other executives.

Who on earth would help Team Rocket, and what do they want? Shaking off the mysterious thought, Marina continued.

The current mission in Mahogany Town was being led by an executive named "Lambda", and she already knew most of its contents. The radio signal was an experiment on the Pokémon of the Lake of Rage. Aside from that bit of information, Marina felt that Lance had explained things in a better and simpler way.

All that was left was the report on New Bark Town. This interested her more than the rest of them; not only did she not know about it, she felt upset that her hometown was violated by the criminal organization.

Wait a minute, could that be the time when...? A theory spun in her thoughts, and she grasped the last paper with zealous hands.

The mission in New Bark Town was dated at around September, the very month Marina, Kenta, Jackson, and Silver had received their starter Pokémon. Executive Athena performed the task alone; the revived Team Rocket had been operating completely underground at the time, and the mission was meant to look like an anonymous case of thievery. The target: the laboratory of Professor Elm, a Pokémon researcher.

Marina took a nervous breath, the paper shaking slightly.

Infiltrate Professor Elm's Laboratory and obtain as many Pokémon as a single person could; that was, simply, the task Executive Athena had carried out. She had been watching the laboratory for a week before the crime. During the mission, she had to retreat due to an unexpected development: the Professor's assistant had fighting Pokémon on hand and physically fought back. Athena had little choice but to pick and choose at random due to time constraints. The stolen Pokémon were distributed according to their sponsor, who had claimed the majority of the plunder. What happened to them afterward was not mentioned.

Marina let her hands fall onto the desk, looking at the paper she had read.

It almost appalled her. She and her friends had likely been watched by a heartless criminal during their more important moment of becoming a Trainer. They were all completely oblivious to what that person would do a few days later. Had she been a little more observant, and had she been less distracted with receiving the wrong Pokémon... Could she have been able to notice it and prevent the entire thing beforehand?

Probably not, but she wanted to think so.

Marina's grimace stayed as she picked up the papers, taking off her backpack to stuff them away. The only remaining things on the desk were a pen and some stray make-up products, which she disregarded. She checked the drawers, which were either empty or contained various unrelated files. Eventually, she donned her bag again and stood up straight, still upset.

"I can't believe that!" she fumed, planting her hands on her hips. "And looks like the password isn't written down anywhere. Just great!"

"Magu," King replied in a hushed tone. Marina glared down at him, still scowling.

"I bet that purple-haired guy we saw earlier was Lambda, the person we're looking for. If only we knew that; we'd have the password by now."

He whined slightly. Much like how Marina grew uncomfortable when he was furious at Silver, he was unsettled by her demeanor. She managed to notice this, and the anger slipped away. She sighed, letting her arms fall to her side.

"I'm sorry, King. But after all of this, we're at a dead end," she apologized and gently stroked his head. "I'm just tired, don't worry about it."

"Maguma..." King seemed to forgive her.

"If only we could find some other way to find the password to the generator room." Marina looked over at the Murkrow, which looked back at her from beneath the veil of the feathers on its head. "I'm sure you might've heard it before. Eheh... Would you might telling us what the password is?" She attempted to better her mood by doing something ridiculous, thinking the bird would not respond. It did not aid much, and Marina softly gazed at the maple desk, at a loss of what to do.

"Yami! Password!" The Murkrow flapped its wings, hopping about on its perch. "What is the password? What is the password? The password is...!"

Marina blinked as she heard the blatant mixture of bird call and mimicked human voice. She glanced at her just as confused Quilava, and then looked back at the Murkrow. "The...the password is? What is the password?"

"Hail Giovanni!" it squawked, taking to the air and flying out of the room. Marina and King turned and rushed after it.

"Wait! What's the password again?" the girl asked. The Pokémon's speech was clear and likely copied the voice of Lambda, but it caught her by surprise. The Murkrow looked back at them, diving up the staircase after another chirp. "Hey, come back here!"

They had no choice but to continue pursuing it, chasing it down the long hallway, down another staircase, amongst the halls weaving through the two rooms, and back up another staircase. Whenever it took a moment to rest on the ground, it would notice them and fly away again. However, it seemed to know its way around since by the time Marina had to stop for breath, they had ascended to the floor with the generator.

"Geez, I just... can't catch a break," Marina panted. She pushed herself away from the wall she had leaned on and continued at a quick trot. "At least this is helping me work off my stress."

King let out a sound similar to a relieved chuckle, to which Marina smiled. The two of them stopped as they reached a turn, silencing as they took a look around the corner. The bird Pokémon chirped to itself, hopping and walking around the doorway that guarded the generator room.

"There it is, King... This would be the best spot for us to catch it. If we can make it say the password right here, then the door will just open for us. Think we can do that?"

"Magu...!" Her Pokémon was getting eager, carefully pawing at the ground.

"And..." Marina eased around the corner. Just as the Murkrow's eye swiveled toward her, both of them jumped out into the opening. "Now! What is the password to the generator room?"

"Yami? Ka!" The Murkrow's black wings began to flap, and King pounced toward it. In a panic, it skyrocketed and slammed its head into the ceiling. Slightly dazed from the impact, it turned and flapped away from them.

"No!" Marina called out. "What is the password?"

"Hail Giovanni! What is the password? The password is 'Hail Giovanni'! Hail Giovanni! Hail Giovanni!"

The hall echoed with the Murkrow's mimicked squawks as it flew out of sight. The doors beside them scraped and moaned as they opened. She smiled, and King howled at their rewarded effort. The hum of the generator and the heat it created spilled out of the entrance. It was far more gigantic than she had expected; from where she stood, she could tell that the machine was definitely taller than her.

Finally... I wish Lance were here to see this.

She looked down at King. "Let's go turn this thing off."

"Rashi!" The burgundy-yellow Quilava bounded ahead of her. With a grin, she walked into the generator room, her eyes glued to the generator itself. The floors were now concrete, which echoed her footsteps differently from the metal. She gasped to see at least four sphere-like electric Pokémon hooked up to the generator on both sides.

"That's horrible. How long have they been like this?" She frowned. Using Pokémon to generate electricity could be considered eco-friendly, but only if the Pokémon were comfortable and given ample time to rest. But considering Team Rocket, they had likely been keeping them there since the generator was turned on.

Something let out a sudden yelp. Marina turned toward King, who was collapsed onto the ground, convulsing and growling. He was stricken with paralysis, unable to move.

"King! King, what's wrong?" she asked, sprinting toward his side.

"Hold it right there!"

A sputtering hiss whipped her ear as a large, purple blur raced by her and coiled around her Pokémon. The cobra Pokémon squeezed King until he cried out, securing him in place. Marina stopped in her tracks. She managed, however, to look over her shoulder.

At the entrance of the generator room stood two Rocket members. One was of ordinary rank, and he looked particularly smug; he may have been the one Lance had interrogated, but Marina failed to remember. Beside him was likely the source of his arrogance: a confident woman in a customized white uniform. Her stunning crimson hair was cut above her shoulders and left her ears bare, showing off a pair of gold earrings.

"We can't have a brat like you do as you please forever," she announced. Her voice contained a sharp smirk, and avenging enjoyment shone in her red irises. Marina hesitated, fighting the fear quivering in her chest. She forced a scowl, which looked as threatening as a puppy growling.

"I-I can say the same to you! You've been here long enough!" she shouted back.

The woman showed her smirk visibly on her scarlet lips. "Arbok."

Marina' Quilava let out another strained cry, struggling in the cobra's grasp.

"King!" Marina called out.

With trembling hands, she reached for King's Poké Ball and recalled him. She uttered a frightened squeak as the Arbok, free of its prey, slithered around her. The courage on her face fell away, quickly yielding to panic as it glared her down—much like her situation had been in Goldenrod Gym. She backed away whenever it moved too closely, and it stopped circling her and slid over toward the Rockets.

"Wh-who are you?" Marina asked.

"I'm Athena, one of the four interim bosses in place of Giovanni," the red-haired woman answered her.

"A...Athena?" The reports Marina had just read flooded into her mind, and she pointed at her accusingly. "Then that means you're the one that broke into Professor Elm's lab!"

"And you're the one that sabotaged the mission at Goldenrod City," Athena responded. "A child like you really can't be on the loose. It's harmful to Team Rocket's pride, you see."

Marina made another effort to glare at her, but did not speak out again. The Arbok flickered its tongue in her direction intently, its petrifying stare no doubt the reason why King suffered from paralysis. Judging from what happened to her Pokémon in mere seconds, she'd have no time to dodge if it was ordered to take her down. The thought downright frightened her.

"So, it's time to finish you. However strong you may be, you can't take both of us at the same time. Don't you agree?"

Athena was right. Marina was a mess on the inside; she really was not sure what she felt, what would happen, or how she could get out of this entirely by herself. The only thing she was sure of was the Poké Ball held tightly in the palm of her hand. Her breath had quickened for some time, and despite her underlying anger, cowardice gripped her more. Where was the strength she had hoped to gain from this? She just did not know.

I...I can't do this, can I? I'm not strong enough... Suicune's words reverberated in her mind, and she closed her eyes tensely. She clenched her hands, feeling the chill of the metal sphere in her right palm. Faith and strength in myself, faith and strength in my Pokémon...

The two adults seemed to take both pleasure and pity at her conflicted condition, which was displayed so plainly before them.

"Sorry, baby," Athena said and giggled in a diabolical yet gentle way. She signaled to her accomplice, who released a Drowzee in front of them. It and the Arbok waited maliciously for a victim to battle, even if that victim was a human. "Now, get ready to be thrashed."

Marina opened her eyes and fought back the tears that desired to flee. Ignoring the trembling of her body, she wiped her face with her sleeve and clipped King's Poké Ball back on her belt. She whipped out Prince's and Muu-chan's, pulling a desperate face of both fear and courage.

"Bring it!" Marina shouted, her voice shaking but bold. "I'm not going to run! I can beat you both!"

A mighty roar erupted nearby. Athena and her underling turned around, shouted, and fled further into the room as a Dragonite pounded its way through, sending even the Arbok and Drowzee scurrying toward their Trainers. The powerful Pokémon soared until it landed before her, followed shortly after by Lance, his cape billowing valiantly and no doubt fulfilling the requirements of a hero to the rescue—although she may have exaggerated that interpretation a bit.

"Hey! Don't be so selfish! Spread the fun around," he exclaimed. "Allow me to join the battle!"

His Dragonite released another deafening roar in response.

Marina could hardly believe her eyes, even as he stood beside her. Tears of terror turned into tears of gratitude, but she held them back nonetheless.

"Are you okay?" Lance asked her.

She forced a smile. "Yup! Ha ha… I was just wondering when you'd show up."

"You're doing well. You'll be fine," he reassured and gave her a comforting pat on the back.

Marina nodded at the much-needed encouragement. She had to dry her eyes again, but the bravery she had pulled forth earlier stopped her trembling. With a determined gaze, she threw a Poké Ball at her feet.

"Go, Muu-chan!"

"Muu!" her Misdreavus cried, floating alongside Lance's Dragonite.

Athena was taken aback for some time. Realizing her perfect advantage had been destroyed, she scowled and spoke recklessly. "What? You had an accomplice? Where is your sense of honor? As interim boss, I'll show you how wrong it is to meddle with Team Rocket!"

"I'd like to see you try!" Marina shouted. From the corner of her eye, Lance grinned in satisfaction, and another realization came to her tired, frightened, and determined mind.

She had impressed him.