Hello people! Chapter 3 is here! Once again, this is part of what I'd already come up with before actually publishing this story, so it'll be one of the last chapters coming so soon. I'll probably get roughly 1, MAYBE 2 more in before I'll have to step back and come up with more. Until then, enjoy!

Also please feel free to critique the story, since I do want to become a better writer while doing this.

I also updated my profile, so you guys can go check it out and use that information to decide whether you like or hate me! :D

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN POKEMON

Chapter 3:

Shirona Corporation

October 5th, 2022, 2420 hours. Kanto Region, Unknown Location; Champion's Office

"So you mean to tell me," the woman behind the desk asked in a low voice. "That a team from Stone Corporation came to the same location I sent you to, and during a fight that insured, one of the targets' grunts was awakened and alerted to your presence, allowing him to inform his boss and let Maxie escape with his life?"

"Yes ma'am," Jade muttered, staring at the ground.

"Don't forget the fact that he knew we were assassins, so he most likely ran off to a place we don't know, meaning it's gonna take a shit tonna time to track him down again," Serena mumbled, earning dirty looks from the rest of her team.

The five adolescents had arrived back to headquarters roughly twenty minutes earlier. Gary and Serena were sent to be treated by medical personnel, but it didn't take long before Serena and later Gary were released, the professionals having determined that the only real problem was the stab wound in Gary's leg. For a normal person, they might've been more concerned, but with these agents in particular, they knew all that was required was the light patchwork that had been administered; the rest of the recovery would come naturally to them. And they were right. Not even thirty minutes after the fight, both were standing tall and well, Gary acting practically oblivious to the plethora of bandages that decorated his face as well as the stitches the rest of the team knew were in his leg, while Serena seemed like she didn't have a care in world despite the already blood-soaked patch that covered the wound on her head and the small line of blood that was still trickling from her left nostril.

After all the care the doctor had deemed necessary, the team had been called for the meeting they'd been anticipating since the moment they'd arrived and informed the appropriate staff about what had happened. As of now, they were standing in a spacious office-type room with chairs lined up against the walls and a single, huge wooden desk in the center that had papers stacked up all around a computer. And sitting in a tall chair behind the desk, staring at them with a menacing look in her eyes, was the woman who had called them in for the meeting: their boss, Cynthia Shirona, the leader of the Shirona Corporation, though she was better known by her title as the organization's Champion.

Cynthia was, in simple terms, a dangerous beauty. With her long, sleek golden hair, stormy gray eyes, fair skin, and lithe figure, she was quick to catch the eye of anyone who passed her. And although her mainstream attire was all black, what it lacked in color was made up in style and beauty. She wore a long black coat over a simple black dress shirt, and her silky pants flowed down into wide bottoms that showed off sleek black heels. She decorated her hair, which was pale gold in color and impressively long with bangs that hung over her left eye, with black ornaments, two on each side. And although they normally kept her thick locks in check, as of the moment, the woman was running her hands through her hair so fiercely it was beginning to stick up at odd angles.

Of course, none of them would dare to tell her. They were in enough hot water as it was, they didn't need the added anger of her thinking that they were telling her she looked less than presentable.

"That little rat bastard," Cynthia suddenly hissed. The words made the team side eye one another in surprise, not just because of the strong language, but because it was clear they weren't directed towards them. "I can't believe it…"

They dared to look up and saw that she was staring down at her desk, chewing aggressively on her thumb while she curled her other hand into a fist.

"She's not yelling at us for failing the mission?" May muttered, confused.

"Shut up," Gary whispered back. "Don't remind her. I think she's too busy hating that Stone guy at the moment."

Steven Stone, head of the Stone Corporation, was their greatest rival. While Cynthia ran an organization of killers, he led people that would simply take the valuables of a bad person without killing them. To them, their methods were far less brutal while still immobilizing someone. But to those at Shirona Corporation, they simply viewed the opposing side as too weak to be efficient, so they had to make up their own morale to feel better about themselves.

"He needs to be taught a lesson," Cynthia murmured. She was practically talking to herself, completely ignoring the presence of the other people in her room. "A lesson... but how..."

May, Gary, Serena and Paul began fidgeting awkwardly in front of her, wondering if they'd actually been forgotten. But a split second before they were about to test their luck and start sidling out of the room, Jade spoke up.

"Ma'am," she said, so suddenly it made her team flinch in surprise. "Permission to speak?"

"Great," Serena grunted, rolling her eyes. "She reminded her that we're standing here."

"Permission granted," Cynthia said, ignoring the honey-blond's comment.

"Perhaps we could take one of their people hostage," Jade offered. "With one of them in danger, they're weak-minded folk would most likely surrender to whatever demands you make."

Cynthia's visible right eye twitched slightly at her words, though the team couldn't tell if it was because Jade was trying to tell her what to do or if it was something more. Fortunately, the moment didn't last long, because Cynthia gave Jade an approving smirk that made them all want to collapse in relief.

"Not a bad idea," she conceded. "We could even make demands in exchange for returning them."

"Those weak-minded snakes won't want to risk their precious agents," Paul agreed, narrowing his eyes. "That mindset of 'everyone lives' will be their downfall."

"Exactly," Cynthia said. "How do you plan to pull this off, though?"

While Jade's eyes suddenly got a faraway, thoughtful look that indicated that she was thinking, the rest of the team exchanged uncomfortable looks at the implications of Cynthia's words. Finally, after a few seconds that seemed to stretch out for much longer, Paul worked up some nerve and spoke out for the four of them.

"Um, ma'am," he began carefully, not noticing the sharp glance Jade sent his way. "Did you just say 'you', as in us?"

"Of course," Cynthia replied without a hint of hesitation. "You got us into this, you better be wiling to be the ones to get us out."

"We haven't gotten into anything just yet though," May pointed out, blatantly ignoring the fact that Jade had transferred her glare onto her. "So far everything's been normal."

"You're 'so far' stretches as far as not even a few hours," Cynthia retorted without missing a beat. "There's no telling what will happen in a day, a week, a month, even a year. I, for one, won't take any chances, and if you all want to keep your rank, you'll share my sentiment."

"Is a downgrade all we can expect?" Gary suddenly piped up. "Or can we look forward to some kind of reward if we do well?"

"Don't count on it," Cynthia replied curtly. "In any case, I expect you to get it done within the week. If you can manage that, I will consider lessening the punishment I have in mind for you all. That will be your reward. Until then, dismissed."

Jade quickly nodded for their team, and immediately turned to indicate that she was going to lead them out right then. When they were finally in the safety of the next room, they all let out a collective sigh of relief, sinking down a foot from the height they'd been at in Cynthia's presence.

"I really thought she might bite our heads off," Gary muttered shakily.

"Same here," Serena agreed with a shudder.

"If you dummies were so worried, why did you keep testing the limits?" Paul asked, glaring at them in unmasked annoyance.

"Because in the heat of the moment, it seemed like a really good idea," Serena replied with 100% seriousness.

"Yeah, it's after you've escaped with your life that you realize how close you were to death," Gary agreed.

"You sure it's not because you thought she might go easy on you because you guys got the worst of the beating?" the mauve-haired young man inquired.

Serena immediately scoffed, while Gary rolled his eyes with as much disdain he could muster.

"So yes," Paul deduced with a roll of his eyes. "Y'know, you guys should be grateful, since the only thing that saved us was her hate for that Steven guy."

"Actually," Jade cut in, her voice cold and sharp as flint. Such a tone was the only indication she ever gave that she was growing angry. "The only things that saved you was that and me. And if you all had just kept your mouths shut and let me do the talking, I might have been able to talk her down a bit."

"Right, how could we forget you're the oh-so-important daughter of Cynthia?" Serena broke in mockingly, her voice coated in feigned regret. "Why didn't we just remember that you could just bat your eyelashes and mommy would let us all off the hook?"

Jade visibly bristled, and she shot Serena a look so venomous the other girl actually shrunk back a bit. "That's not what I meant and you know it."

"Cool it right now, both of you," May suddenly interrupted, stepping between the two females before anything could escalate. "Let's just get back to the office, and start planning how we're gonna go about this new assignment."

The two exchanged a quick glance, and a sort of agreement seemed to pass between them before they re-faced May and nodded in unison. With the situation sorted, the team resumed their walk to the elevator on the other side of the waiting room, delving into some light conversation along the way.

Shirona Corporation, sometimes called S Corp for short or when on the field to remain inconspicuous, was a huge compound disguised from the first floor to the fifth as a normal office building. However, from the sixth floor and up to the 20th, it was a maze of offices, labs, and training rooms. They had scientists and engineers, office workers, and most importantly, the organization held on to dozens and dozens of teams of well-trained assassins.

The sixth through the eight floors were the offices where workers found and gathered information on targets. It was designed strategically so that should an outside client overshoot their floor they wouldn't be met with knife-throwing and karate practice. They were organized with 20 rooms on each floor connected by a single hallway, while the rooms themselves were large enough to house a small family.

Ninth through the thirteenth floors were used as labs for their surplus of scientists and engineers, where poisons as well as weapons were created and tested. Their labs were organized to be open concept and easy to walk through, with eight in total on each designated floor. The lab walls were constructed of polycarbonate sheets for high resistance as well as clarity, and the materials, appliances, and devices they worked with were all nothing less than state of the art.

Fourteenth through nineteenth floors were the training grounds for all assassins. Fourteen was used for new recruits as well as practicing with new creations from the labs, fifteen was used for solo practice and exercise, sixteen was used for sparring, and the rest had 30 rooms on each floor for each team to meet and plan for their missions, or simply work in peace. Every piece of equipment, from treadmills to combat knives to even their computers, was designed by and created within the walls of the compound, and it was always made clear that disrespecting anything within the walls of the training floors would result in a serious punishment.

Finally, the twentieth floor was used as the personal headquarters of the person who ran the company, and as of now, that person was Cynthia Shirona, descendant of the founder of the organization, Victoria Shirona. It was split into four rooms: the first one you walked into when you arrived at her floor, simply her waiting room. The second was the room where she held all of her meetings with her subordinates, whether they worked in the offices, labs, or as assassins. The third was the room the team had just walked out of, her office, where she did all of her work as the head of the organization and occasionally chewed out her agents for poor performance. And the fourth acted as her personal training grounds, because she didn't get to the top through connections alone. Despite how prim, proper and elegant she seemed, Cynthia was a deadly opponent to face, not just because of her skill, but because she felt no remorse when her victim was someone who was a threat to her or her people.

October 5th, 2022, 2430 hours. Kanto Region, Unknown Location; Team 104 Office

"So we have to capture one of them," Paul muttered. "Alright, which one?"

The team was in their private office on the nineteenth floor, Serena sitting on the floor playing with her pet Fennekin while Jade occupied the desk, typing furiously at the computer in front of her. May was filling out the report of their latest mission using the log Gary had completed, while Gary himself was fiddling around with one of the newest creations the engineers had asked him to look over, occasionally flinching when he hit a particularly sensitive bruise or cut.

But since Paul didn't really have anything to do, to him, it just looked like they weren't paying attention to the dilemma at hand.

"Um, are any of you paying attention?" he asked, frowning.

"How about that grass-head, Drew?" Serena suggested, not taking her eyes off her Pokemon. "He's an overconfident prick, and I'd personally love to see the look on his face when he comes to in one of our cells."

"I didn't need an in-depth explanation, just the suggestion would have been nice," Paul sighed. "But I agree. You guys wanna put in any more names?"

"I kinda wanna grab that Gladion guy, but that'll probably be more work than it's worth," Gary said. He sounded slightly disappointed, although Paul only had tone to go off of, since he didn't tear his attention away from the invention. "So I'm good with Drew."

"Same here," Jade called, never moving her gaze from the computer screen.

"I second that," May added, also staying focused on what she was working on.

"So then we're going to get Drew," Paul said, nodding. "Alright. Jade, what's the plan?"

"Well, if we're only grabbing one, we won't need too many of us," Jade said, finally stopping what she was doing and turning to gaze at the team. "Best to stay inconspicuous anyway. Who wants to go?"

"Well I need redemption after that blond bitch beat me to a pulp," Gary said, quickly raising his hand.

"And I wanna be the one to knock him out and drag his body back," Serena agreed, raising hers as well.

"So then the three of us will go," Jade decided, leaning back in her chair. "We'll scout around, and once we run into them, we'll just grab Drew and go. No reason to stick around for a fight anyways."

"We should head out at night and comb through a list of targets we have," Gary suggested. "They're most likely going to hit those people, and night is always just the logical time people like us show up."

"So then tomorrow night, we'll start searching," Serena squealed, clapping her hands excitedly.

May winced. "Um, hate to break it to you, but it is tomorrow," she told her. "So unless-"

"Then we'll go tonight," Serena said without missing a beat. "I-"

"Great plan. I like the dedication."

The team let out a unanimous shriek, abandoning whatever they were focusing on to glance wildly around the room for the source of the voice. Finally, May traced the noise back to the small speaker near the back of the room; it was apart of the speaker system that the head of the organization could access from their office to deliver news to select areas of the building. It had been advanced by their scientists so that the Champion could speak in range from a single room to multiple floors at a time.

"Cynthia?" she asked, trying to keep the tremor of surprise out of her voice. "You were listening?"

"Listening and watching," the older woman corrected. "And so far, I've liked what I've seen."

"Uhm, what do you mean by that?" Paul asked politely, though on the inside he was beginning to worry.

"I mean, I like that you guys are jumping right into it and are gonna go out again so soon," Cynthia clarified. "I expected you to try and get some sleep and wait until technically 'tomorrow night', but I'm impressed. And Gary and Serena are going out too, even with their injuries? I won't promise anything, but I'll admit that this has really made me sway in deciding how harsh your punishment should be."

The five of them, who had been listening with mild confusion, all paled with the realization of what her words implied.

"Wait, ma'am-!" Jade cried, but before she could even finish, a distinct click sounded from the speaker. Cynthia was no longer connected to their room.

"...So she thinks we meant we're going back out right now?" May asked after a beat of silence. "As in, without resting, or recovering from what we just went through."

"Just going back out, and then probably getting back at some ungodly hour in the morning," Serena continued.

"And then just diving right into to the day work, without even a wink of sleep," Gary finished.

The team fell into a dull silence, and after a moment, Jade broke it with a loud sigh.

"Well, I need the sleep," she said decisively. "I have that stupid leaders meeting 'tomorrow night' according to Cynthia. She's gonna be checking the progress from sections A and B, and all the leaders from those divisions will be there. I can't afford to be tired, or miss it for that matter."

Immediately, Gary opened his mouth. He was going to point out that since this was now happening within the hour, he should most likely sit it out. Unfortunately for him, May noticed and, thinking he was going to try to argue, cut him off. "I could go with them in your place."

"And I suppose I'll just be staying here doing paperwork all on my own," Paul decided quickly before Gary could even try to speak again. "Welp, can't be helped. I did get the ball rolling, so I guess it's fair that I stay and just put up with it."

Gary shot him a dirty look, knowing that now that everything had been designated, it would only be more trouble to try and get out of going. He'd already decided, the moment May had spoken up, that he wasn't going to try, though. He certainly wasn't at 100% health, but he knew himself well enough to deduce that his strength had returned enough for the situation. Besides, the chances of them actually running into them that night were slim. Close to none, actually. So he figured he really didn't have much to worry about. They'd patrol for a couple hours, then come back, maybe even squeeze in an hour of sleep. And by the next night, he'd certainly be well enough for an actual confrontation.

"So it's decided," Jade concluded. "May, you'll go as leader in my place, since you're my second in command. Paul, get as much paperwork done as you can. I'll help you out whenever I wake up."

Paul nodded in agreement. Although he didn't want to waste any more of his energy going out again, he certainly wasn't happy about having to do paperwork to get out of it. In fact, he was inwardly seething at the fact, although he refused to let that show, lest they switch him out with Gary or Serena.

"But if we run into the whole team, there's only three of us," May suddenly pointed out. "Shouldn't Paul come with us?"

The young man in question whipped his head around to face her, eyes wide with alarm. But to his relief, Jade shook her head.

"No," their leader said firmly. "I highly doubt you'll run into them tonight, after what just happened not even an hour ago. Besides, I have faith in all of you. Should anything boil down to a fight, I trust that you three can handle it."

The team swelled with pride at her words, all of them sitting up a little taller and their eyes shining a little brighter.

"Considering that she says that with Gary's current state, I think pulling this off will be a breeze," May decided, stealing a glance at the obvious injuries on Gary's face.

"And when she puts it like that, I don't see how she could be wrong," Serena added mischievously.

"It'd be a shame to put that kind of faith to waste," Gary agreed with a crack of his bruised knuckles, ignoring the pain that shot through his hands with the motion.

"So then it's settled," Jade announced, letting a small smirk play at her lips. "When you're all ready, May, Gary, and Serena will go out and start scouting out that team. If you run into them, even though you probably won't have to worry about that tonight, you'll capture and bring back one of Stone's guys. And with any luck, we'll get more out of this than just another body."