Here's chapter 2! This update is so soon only cuz I've actually had this story idea for a while and been kinda getting a basis laid out, so don't expect this to be too much of a regular thing (sorry). I actually have been thinking about writing my own stuff since I first started reading, so I'm honestly here to have fun but also kind of explore that 'author' side of myself :D

I have had lots and lots of ideas stored up for fanfics for a while, so don't be surprised if I randomly start another one before finishing this lol

Also I updated my profile and put in my OC Jade's profile! It covers who she is as of the anime, but obviously I will alter personalities a bit while writing, so how I write her in these AU stories isn't necessarily how she would be in the anime, just fyi. After I've written a few stories, I'm actually planning on writing a story about Jade's origin and stuff, and maybe even one about her with Ash in the anime. But that's a ways off, and honestly lot's of what I want to do will probably just stay as ideas since I just can't put every single second of my time into this

I still hope that whoever reads this will like my writing enough to check out whatever I'll come up with in the future, but for now, enjoy the second chapter!

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN POKEMON!

Chapter 2:

Meeting

October 4th, 2022, 2330 hours. Kanto Region, Celadon City; residence of Maxie Magma

"Gary!" May cried, rushing over and kneeling down beside him. "What-"

"Behind you!" Paul yelled.

May turned, and the only thing that saved her from a vicious spinning kick to the face was Paul, who had managed to run over in time and block it with his arm before the person kicked away.

"Damn," their attacker hissed as they slid back. The voice was feminine, but cold and sharp as flint. "Just a second off."

"I'll say," Paul shot back angrily. "Why the hell are you coming after us for no reason?"

"That's none of your business," she replied, standing up to her full height. She was rather small and lithe, but her force behind the kick that Paul had just experienced told him that she was far stronger than she looked. She was dressed similarly to them, in full black attire, but in the faint light they could make out bright orange hair and sharp green eyes. "But I guess you've already spotted me."

She held her thumb and pointer finger up to her mouth, and let out a crisp whistle that echoed through the trees. A split second later, four more figures emerged from the shadows, all dressed exactly like they were, with similar wary yet defiant expressions. One, a blond male with eyes so green they rivaled Jade's, tossed down a thin metal rod that looked like it might have been apart of the tall gate. It was covered in blood, making it obvious that he had been the one to sneak up on Gary. The other three, two more boys and a girl, stood in a sort of formation, with a raven-haired young man at the head.

"What we want is for you to find out once we get it," the young man in the front replied calmly while the girl that had just jumped at them slunk behind him. From the way he was positioned to the other girls' retreat, as well as the commanding aura about him, they could only assume that he was the leader of the group.

"Who the hell are you?" Jade asked, narrowing her eyes. "Are you looking for a fight?"

"More like looking for a beating," Serena murmured, drawing her knife.

"We don't want to fight you," he said, holding up his hand as one of the boys behind him, a green-haired young man with matching eyes, began reaching into his pocket as well. "This just happens to be our target. And you guys just happened to be in the way. So we'd appreciate it if you left and let us continue. Go back to your dorms or something."

"Dorms?" May repeated as she helped Gary, who was somehow still conscious, to his feet. "You think were in college or something?"

"Are you from Shirona Corporation?" Jade questioned, ignoring both his and May's words. "This is our target. Did you guys get sent here on accident or something?"

"And why'd you hit me?" Gary added in an annoyed tone as he managed to stand, albeit a bit shakily, on his own. "That's something I would personally like to know."

"We hit you because we thought you were one of the guards," the assumed leader replied. His green comrade tried to open his mouth and retort, but he held up his hand. "Can it Drew. You know it's not impossible for us to make mistakes from time to time."

"And no we didn't get sent here on accident!" the orange haired girl snapped, her eyes flashing with a hint of anger. "You guys were probably mistaken! Go back to headquarters and stop getting in the way of our mission!"

"Misty, wait," the boy who'd hit Gary suddenly said, holding up his arm. He narrowed his eyes, their color glinting in the moonlight. "Did you just say Shirona Corporation? Is that the organization you guys are a part of?"

"...is it the organization you're a part of?" Jade asked carefully, narrowing her eyes.

"I asked first."

"Wrong. I asked before Gary asked why you hit him."

"...no," he said, beginning to draw something from his belt.

Before he could fully pull it out, Jade sprang into action, leaping at him with her hand curled into a fist. But before she could hit him, their dark-haired leader slammed into her and threw her across the lawn, making her skid through the grass before she twisted back onto her feet and slid to a stop near the walking path.

"Shit," Paul hissed as Misty jumped at him again, aiming blow after blow as he did his best to guard. "So that means you guys are apart of that damn-"

"We're from Stone Corporation," Misty spat, her blue eyes flashing with disgust as she watched him stumble. "I can't believe we ran into each other like this. Guess we'll have to beat you all into the ground before we can take his toys."

"I can't believe you waste your time taking their shit when you could just get rid of him all together," Paul growled as he dodged yet another kick to the face. "It's so much more efficient doing it our way."

"Unlike you, we don't see the point in taking a human life when you can simply immobilize them by taking what makes them special!" Misty snarled as she threw her leg into a roundhouse that smashed into the arm Paul was using to guard his head, making him wince.

May and the other girl on their side, a blunette with navy eyes, were facing off a little ways away, trading blow after blow. They seemed to be evenly matched at first glance, but little by little, May was slowly beginning to push her back with a flurry of straight punches and roundhouses.

"Push back Dawn!" their leader yelled, barely managing to jump out of the way of a violent point-blank axe kick Jade tried to slam into his head. "Try to finish up fast!"

"Doesn't it look like I'm trying?" Dawn spat as she dodged a sudden jab to the face. It grazed right past her cheek, the force behind it leaving a small cut. "She's not letting up! This lady isn't giving me the time of day!"

"I'm paying you back for using that cheap sneak tactic on Gary," May shot back, falling back from an messy hook kick before closing back in. "This one'll teach you just how big of a mistake you idiots made picking a fight with us!"

Near them, Gary was trying to hold his own against the blond boy that had hit him earlier. But with his head still bleeding and his vision blurred, he was having a hard time barely defending as his attacker relentlessly tore into him.

"Don't you think I deserve a bit of an easier fight after what you pulled?" Gary rasped as he stumbled out of the way of a blow to the cheek. His attacker didn't respond, but the immediate swing back of his elbow that rammed into his jaw was all it took for him to decide the answer was a firm 'no'.

"That's it! Finish him off quickly Gladion!" Drew yelled as he spun his knife between his fingers and stabbed at Serena, who ducked and jumped back with a giggle. They were fighting by another part of the winding path, just a ways from the leaders. "We can't fight for too long or they'll wake up before we can get the mission done!"

"He's a resilient little bastard," Gladion called back as he kicked Gary in the midsection, sending him sliding across the grass. "He's not going down too easily."

"Well then hit him harder!" Drew cried, taking a moment to glance at his teammate.

At the interruption, Serena halted her pursuit of Drew, frowning at the fact that her opponents' attention was no longer on her. She didn't like sudden pauses in her fights, especially if the fight was one with an opponent such as hers.

"Hey, grass head," she called, tossing her knife up and catching it without looking. She made a point to snatch the handle in such a way that when she swung her arm forward to gesture at him, the tip of the blade was aimed directly at his face. "Focus on your opponent!"

"You really want me to beat your ass that badly?" Drew asked, looking back and giving her a cocky grin. "Alright, you asked for it!"

He ran at her, ducking as she swiped with her knife before spinning into a quick roundhouse. She jumped back, but he managed to catch the handle of her knife with his foot and send it flying across their makeshift battlefield, stabbing into the grass a few feet away from where the leaders were fighting. Serena blinked, momentarily startled, before quickly replacing her muddled expression with smirk.

"Almost hit me!" she exclaimed, rubbing her fingers together as she took another dainty step back. "Close call, but still a bit too slow."

Drew's forehead creased with a frown, and he looked annoyed. "Y'know, normally I go pretty easy on girls. But I think I might make an exception for you."

"Pff," she snorted, not even trying to hide the disdain in her tone. "I'd like to see what that looks like."

Drew gritted his teeth and tried slashing at her again, but she quickly flipped out of the way with a neat back handspring.

"Hey Paul!" she called as he skidded by, his arms up in a defensive cross as Misty ran at him again. "Toss me another knife, will you? He kicked mine away."

"You're so needy," he yelled as he ducked another well-aimed roundhouse from Misty. He pulled a small dagger out of his boot and flung it at her, before jumping back up and punching the orange haired girl in the face.

"So aggressive!" she teased as she twisted out of the knife's path and caught it between her index and middle finger. "Thanks anyways!"

"Hey, stop flirting with everyone on the battlefield and actually hit him back!" Gary shrieked as he stumbled past. His lip was cut and bleeding, and Gladion was running at him again, a relentless glint in his eyes. Gary tried to duck as he kicked at his head, but Gladion simply let his foot sail over his head, before stopping it and letting his leg swing right back in a powerful reverse roundhouse that nailed Gary in the throat.

"Oh boo," Serena pouted, though her eyes betrayed a bit of worry for her teammate. She ducked once again as Drew tried to slug her across the face, but this time, instead of leaping back and taunting him once again, she snapped back up and threw a strong knee to his jaw.

"Ghh!" he grunted, his eyes widening. His head snapped back, and he stumbled. But before he could regain his balance, he felt his legs being swept out from underneath him, and suddenly he was lying on his back, with his head throbbing and Serena standing over him.

"Well that was easy," she remarked. She lifted up her leg, and as his eyes widened, she smashed the heel of her boot into his midsection.

Drew gasped, coughing up a mouthful of blood that splattered all over Serena's lower calf. He groaned, but she ignored it to frown at the stain he'd created, shaking her leg out a bit. A couple drops of blood spattered the ground as well as Drew's person, but once she realized that the action wasn't doing much good, she shrugged and raised her foot once again. Drew didn't even have time to look scared or panicked; she slammed her heel down into his stomach once again, and with that second blow, he fell still.

"Drew!" the leader yelled. He leaped back from a sudden knife slash that Jade attempted to land, threw her a quick kick that she jumped back from, and ran over.

"Another one!" Serena exclaimed, excitement lighting her eyes. She flipped her knife around her fingers before pointing it at Ash as he ran at her, before adding, "This should be even more fun-"

She didn't have time to finish her sentence. Their leader, who was still running at them, reached out as he tore past a tree and ripped a sturdy branch off, and while he still had momentum in his arm, let it fly straight for Serena. She broke off her taunt with a yelp of fear, before diving off to the side and just barely managing to dodge it as it crashed just next to Drew, right where she'd been standing seconds earlier. Paul, who was a few feet away, looked on in shock, only brought back to reality when Misty suddenly drove her shoulder into his chest.

"What the hell?!" he gasped, partially from the sudden pain and lack of air, but mostly due to the unreal scene that had unfolded before him. He stumbled back, allowing the momentum of the blow carry him back a bit so he could be shocked and out of Misty's 'taking advantage of his surprise 'range. "How-?"

"Doesn't matter how!" Serena snapped back, fumbling for her blade that she'd dropped in her hasty recoil. "Keep fighting, I'll handle him!"

She leaped over the branch and barreled into the leader as he reached Drew's side, pinning him down and raising her knife above her hair. She didn't care that he didn't look fazed; in her mind, she just needed to finish him before he could pull any more moves like the terrifying one from moments earlier.

"Sayonara, tough guy!" she cried, before dropping the blade down towards his face.

"Heads up!"

Serena froze. Not at the voice, who she had registered wasn't one that belonged to a teammate of hers. Not because she thought she needed to move.

No, she stopped dead in her tracks because something heavy suddenly slammed into the back of her head.

Her vision began to swim, and as her thoughts began growing hazy, she couldn't even register that the leader had suddenly kicked her off until she landed face-first into the concrete of the walking path. The pain wasn't enough to bring reality to her, though. Neither was the sudden rush of blood that practically exploded from her nose, flooding her mouth and collecting in a thin pool below her. All it could do was finish the job the blow to her head started: knocking her down and out of the fight.

The hell happened, she wondered dazedly as she felt her last bits of consciousness slip. I almost had him… I alm... most…

As she slipped out of an awakened state, Gladion suddenly peered out from behind a tree, a look of relief crossing his face before yelling, "You alright?"

Their leader gave him a simple nod, reaching down to pick up the chunk of now bloody concrete that the blond had thrown at Serena and tossing it away.

"Thank god this guy hasn't fixed up his old walking path in a while," Misty commented, shooting a small smirk at the cracked cement with satisfaction. "I actually thought she might have had him for a minute."

"Damn you!" Paul snarled. He snapped out of the shock he'd been in over Serena's quick downfall and quickly leaped up as Misty dropped down to sweep his legs. As soon as he landed, he threw in a well-timed roundhouse that caught her in the shoulder as she came back up, pitching her off to the side and straight into Dawn. As soon as she was out of the way, he ran straight to Serena's side, picking her up off the ground as gently as he could before checking her over. She had a bloody nose, and her forehead had an ugly gash across it, but other than that, she wasn't too badly hurt despite the fact that she was now unconscious. He glared at their leader as he checked over Drew, a controlled rage brewing in his eyes. He was clearly debating whether he should go for him or Gladion, who'd done first damage. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't able to come to a decision before someone else made it for him.

"Get her outta here!" Jade shouted. She was running over, keeping low the ground, and sprinted right past Paul and straight at her leader counterpart. As the taller boy quickly maneuvered himself to be in front of Drew, Jade glanced back and yelled, "Give her to Gary, and have him fall back. Come back and we'll wrap things up and get the mission done."

She turned back to the leader, who was positioning himself so that she couldn't move around him and get to Drew. Without missing a beat, she ducked under his fist, and came up with her hand outstretched. His eyes widened as she grabbed onto his face, and before he could even react, she shoved him onto his back and rammed his skull into the walking path that lay right behind him.

A loud crack echoed through the garden, and the remaining people froze.

Slowly, Jade lifted her hand from her opponent's face. Blood was slowly seeping out from under the back of his head, and he wasn't moving.

"Ash!" Gladion cried, marking the first time they'd heard his name. He quickly abandoned the beat-down on Gary he'd resumed and rushed to get to his side. But before he could reach him, May flew in and punched him straight across the jaw, stopping him dead in his tracks and making him stumble backwards.

"I don't think so," she spat, cracking her knuckles. Her previous opponent had abandoned their fight and was busy caring for Misty, who had been knocked unconscious from her impact. "Guess today's the day I pay back some bastards for cheap shots."

While she began a new struggle against Gladion, Paul ran under the cover of some thick bushes to get to Gary's side. When he reached him, he winced at what he saw. His comrade was barely standing, with more cuts and bruises along his face and arms than he could count. One eye was swollen shut, and there was a gash along his jaw so deep Paul was almost sure he could see a glint of bone.

"Hey," he said quietly, trying to keep his obvious impatience at being away from the fighting out of his voice while talking to the brunette. "Take her and fall back. We'll get things sorted from there."

"With pleasure," Gary muttered. He was shaky, and the condition of his bleeding was second only to Serena. But nevertheless, he managed to shoulder his female companion without much of a problem. "So are we still aiming to carry out the mission, or-"

"Of course," Paul replied quickly. "Just a few more to take care of. But for now, just make sure she's safe-"

Gary's face gave no beforehand indication of anything being wrong that Paul could go off of. No wide-eyes a split second before, nothing. One minute he was nodding and listening intently, and the next he was suddenly interrupting Paul to shriek, "BEHIND YOU!"

Paul didn't even have time to turn. Although, given the fact that Gary's shock and warning as well as the sudden attack all occurred within seconds of one another, that fact didn't particularly surprise Paul. But that didn't mean the speed didn't catch him off-guard. When something hard and fast kicked him in the side of the head, he was sent sprawling onto the ground while Gary quickly tried to made a break for it. He managed to maneuver his fall though, to see his attacker: that blue-haired girl, Dawn.

"I don't think so," she hissed when she saw Gary trying to get away, pulling a knife out from her sleeve. Without missing a beat, she threw it, and it stabbed straight into Gary's calf. He cried out and stumbled, falling to the ground while Serena rolled off his back and onto the grass.

Paul gritted his teeth, clenching a handful of grass into his fist. Dawn had left Misty laying under the cover of some bushes and had jumped back into the fray. Jade was still a ways away with Ash and Drew, while May was busy with Gladion. He'd have to take her down quickly.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT HERE?!"

Both parties suddenly froze as the lights flickered on, illuminating the garden in a sudden bright shine. Without making a sound, Paul quickly ran to Gary and Serena and dragged them under the cover of a nearby tree, while Dawn rushed off to hide near the bush she'd stashed Misty in. Off to the side, May and Gladion had abandoned their fight and were nowhere in sight. Unfortunately, Jade was standing in the middle of the stone path, out in the open, and there wasn't a place close enough for her to dive into. So she was just frozen in place, glaring at the older man standing at the doorway with Ash and Drew's limp, bloody bodies at her feet.

"An assassin," he muttered, glaring at her. They maintained cold eye contact, before he turned and went back inside, slamming the door. But they could all hear him yelling for his guards, and both parties came to the same realization: it was over.

"Fall back," Jade ordered, running over to where Paul hid with Gary and Serena. May joined her, dashing out from behind a small tree, and helped Gary stand while Paul picked up Serena. Without another word, they all darted away, disappearing into the shadows as they headed for the gate.

"Dammit," Dawn hissed as she pulled Misty out from the bush. She steadied her as best she could, then rushed over to Ash and Drew. Both were unconscious, lying limp in puddles of their own blood. She winced at the sight and tore her gaze away, relieved when she spotted Gladion walking over from behind the tree he'd used to hide when the man had come out.

Her comrade didn't share even a quick moment of eye contact with her though. Instead, he got straight to business.

"Help me get him on my back," he muttered when he was next to her, nodding at Ash. "Then help me get a good hold on Drew."

"Got it," Dawn replied quietly. She gently laid Misty down and got to work shoving Ash's limp body onto his back, grunting with the effort. "You sure you're good to carry both of them?"

"Fine," Gladion said as he leaned down and picked up Drew. Dawn helped steady him, and once they were balanced, she leaned back down to pick up Misty. "Stand behind me just in case, but let's go before they catch us."

Dawn nodded, and together, they took off running as fast as they could towards the surrounding gate just as armed guards burst out of the doors and began flooding the area.