Hello hello! I know I said I could squeeze out another chapter soon, but I was busy over the weekend at a horse show (I fell off in case y'all were wondering, but don't worry, I got reserve champion twice afterwords, so it went pretty well :D). It also took a minute to write cuz I originally didn't have this scene planned, but I figured it'd be good. It'll be a bit short, but I wasn't lying about having another one ready, so chapter five will be out probably tomorrow, or at the latest the next day.

(MINOR SPOILERS FOR THIS CHAPTER) Also, just in case you might be wondering why this chapter will sound so similar to the last one, keep in mind that the story is called PARALLEL rivals :)

Anyways, I think that's all I have to say now! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN POKEMON!

Chapter 4:

Stone Corporation

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

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

"Yes sir," Ash mumbled, staring at the ground.

The five adolescents had arrived back to headquarters roughly twenty minutes earlier. Drew, Misty and Ash were sent to be treated by medical personnel, but it didn't take long before Misty and later Drew and Ash were released, the professionals having determined that the only real problem was the wound on the back of Ash's head. 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, all three were standing tall and well, Drew and Misty seemingly unaffected by the blows they'd taken to the stomach and head respectively, while Ash hadn't so much as flinched from the injuries he'd received since waking up.

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 his eyes, was the man who had called them in for the meeting: their boss, Steven Stone, the leader of the Stone Corporation, though he was better known by his title as the organization's Champion.

Steven was, in simple terms, a handsome danger. With his sleek steel-blue hair and eyes to match, fair skin and slender figure, he could make anyone swoon just by flashing an award-winning smile. And although he always wore a suit, he pulled off the repetitive formal attire by simply making it look almost too perfect on himself. He often decorated a few fingers with silver rings, although at the moment they were sitting on the desk as he ran his hands fiercely through his hair, making it stick up at odd angles.

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

"That slippery little wretch," Steven 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 risked a glance up and saw that he was staring down at his desk, gripping his jaw with one hand while he curled the other one into a fist.

"He's not chewing us out for failing the mission?" Gladion whispered, confused.

"Don't remind him," Dawn hissed. "Just let him hate that Cynthia lady for now."

Cynthia Shirona, head of the Shirona Corporation, what their greatest rival. While Steven ran an organization of organized robbers, she led people that would end the lives of their given target. To them, it was far more efficient to get rid of the threat rather than let the enemy live on. But to those as Stone Corporation, they viewed their opponents as heartless killers who were too scared to be humane and had to make up their own morale to justify their methods.

"I need to show her," Steven muttered. He was practically talking to himself, completely ignoring the presence of the other people in his room. "Show her... but how..."

Gladion, Misty, Drew and Dawn began fidgeting awkwardly in front of him, 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, Ash spoke up.

"Sir," he said, so suddenly it made his team snap their heads up in surprise. "Permission to speak?"

"Great," Misty grunted, rolling her eyes. "Now he remembers we're standing here."

"Permission granted," Steven said, ignoring the orange-haired girl's comment.

"Perhaps we could take and kill one of their people," Ash offered. "It's a good show of power, and it'll prove that we're willing to go far against them."

Steven's right temple twitched slightly at his words, though the team couldn't tell if it was because Ash was telling him what to do or if it was something more. Fortunately, the moment didn't last long, because Steven gave Ash an approving nod that made them all want to collapse in relief.

"Not a bad idea," he conceded. "We could even make demands in exchange for leaving more of their members alone."

"Those rodent-hearted bastards won't want to risk their precious agents," Dawn agreed, narrowing her eyes. "They love getting blood on their hands until it comes to one of their own."

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

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

"Um, sir," she began carefully, not noticing the sharp glance Ash sent her way. "Did you just say 'you', as in us?"

"You're damn right I did," Steven said bluntly. "You got us into this, you better be ready to get us out."

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

"You're 'so far' stretches as far as not even a few hours," Steven snapped right back. "There's no telling what will happen in a day, a week, a month, even a year. I'm not ready to take any chances, so we'd better strike sooner rather than later. And if you all want to keep your rank, you'll share my sentiment."

"So a promotion is out of the question?" Drew suddenly asked. "Or are we in for some kind of reward if we pull this off?"

"Don't count on it, though zero praise isn't final," Steven replied shortly. "In any case, I expect you to get it done within the allotted time, which will be a week. If you can manage that, I will put a lesser punishment for tonight into consideration. That will be your reward. But for now, dismissed."

Ash quickly nodded for their team, and immediately turned to indicate that he 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 and relaxed, their postures sinking down by practically a whole foot now that they were out of Steven's presence.

"So glad we didn't get our asses beat," Drew muttered shakily.

"Same here," Misty agreed with a shudder.

"If you dummies were so worried, why didn't you change your usual personalities?" Dawn asked, glaring at them in unmasked annoyance.

"Because it seemed like a really good idea in the moment," Drew replied with 100% seriousness. "Besides, my parents always taught me to be myself."

"Yeah, you never realize how close you were to death until after you've escaped with your life," Misty agreed.

"You sure you weren't thinking he might go easy on you guys cuz you got pretty beat up or something?" the blunette inquired.

Drew immediately scoffed, while Misty rolled her eyes with as much disdain she could muster.

"So yes," Dawn concluded, shaking her head. "And for the record, Drew, you're parents lied to you. When you're around Steven, never be yourself. That goes for you too, Misty. Because the only thing that saved us from those stupid personalities of yours was his hate for that Cynthia lady."

"Actually," Ash cut in, his voice cold and sharp as flint. Such a tone was the only indication he ever gave that he 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 son of Steven?" Drew broke in mockingly, his voice coated in feigned regret. "Why didn't we just remember that you could just bat your eyelashes and daddy would let us all off the hook?"

Ash visibly bristled, and he shot Drew a look so venomous the other boy actually shrunk back a bit. "That's not what I meant and you know it."

"Cool it right now, both of you," Gladion suddenly interrupted, stepping between the two males before anything could escalate. "Just be grateful that we didn't get our asses beat this time. Let's just get back to the office, and start planning how we're gonna go about this new assignment. Because if we don't pull this off, we won't be as lucky."

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

Stone Corporation, sometimes called S Corp for short or when on the field to remain inconspicuous, was a huge compound constructed to look like a normal office building from the first floor to the fifth. However, from the sixth and up, it was a labyrinth 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 robbers.

In fact, though they didn't know since they'd never been, the building was practically an exact replica of Shirona Corporation.

Just like the Shirona office, floors sixth through eight were for office workers, ninth through thirteenth were laboratories, and fourteenth through nineteenth were training grounds for agents. Everything was made within the walls of the compound, with nothing being less than perfection for use, while every room out of many for each floor was spacious enough to house a small family. And sitting at the top and twentieth floor, just like Shirona Corp, was the private floor of the head of the operation, in this case Steven Stone.

The 20th floor was designed like Shirona's and used in the same manner: as the personal headquarters of the person who ran the company, and as of now, that person was Steven Stone, descendant of the founder of the organization, Xavier Stone. It was split into four rooms: the first one you walked into when you arrived at his floor, simply his waiting room. The second was the room where he held all of his meetings with his subordinates, whether they worked in the offices, labs, or as robbers. The third was the room the team had just walked out of, his office, where he did all of his work as the head of the organization and occasionally chewed out his agents for poor performance. And the fourth acted as his personal training grounds, because he didn't get to the top through connections alone. Despite how crisp, formal and elegant he seemed, Steven was a deadly opponent to face, not just because of his skill, but because he had a rare, unwavering dedication to his company, and would never hesitate to get his hands dirty for the sake of himself of his people.

"Alright, so we're gonna kill one of their guys," Misty announced. "Who'll it be?"

The five young adults were in their private team room, where they filed mission reports and came up with plans for handling targets. Right now, Ash was sitting by the computer, typing away, while Drew, Gladion, and Dawn and her pet Piplup all sat around on the furniture, looking a little bored and listless.

"I'd personally love to go for the Jade lady, but lord knows that that's gonna be more trouble than it's worth," Gladion sighed, flexing his shoulder.

"It'd be a great show of power, but you're right," Drew agreed. "If she's out of the question though, I'd like to offer Serena. The world could do with one less crazy bitch in it."

"A simple name would have been enough, but sure," Misty muttered. "Any objection?"

"None from me," Dawn said with a shrug. She hugged her knees up to her chest and she poked at the small Pokemon in front of her, giggling as it let out a happy chirp.

"Ash?" Gladion asked, turning to glance at their leader.

"Hm?" Ash mumbled, never taking his eyes off the screen in front of him.

"You good with us choosing Serena?" Dawn called.

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Ash mumbled, barely even paying attention. He suddenly hit a key a bit more aggressively than the others, and the rest of his team flinched, exchanging worried glances.

"You alright dude?" Misty asked cautiously.

"I'm fine," Ash said, his tone a bit sharper than before.

"You nervous about us having to do this?" Drew asked. "You were the one who suggested it, but hey, I get it. We're stepping out of our comfort zone, and-"

"I'M NOT NERVOUS!" Ash suddenly snarled, tearing his gaze away from the computer to rake it over his teammates.

The rest of them flinched back, but Gladion met his eyes steadily, refusing to back down.

"Then what's going on?" he asked calmly. "You're getting snappy."

Ash held the icy contact for another moment, before sighing and dropping his eye. "I just don't want you guys getting hurt," he murmured. "I mean, you saw them. Last time they knocked out three of us, and we barely managed to take out one. I don't want you guys injured because of something I suggested."

He dropped his head down with the confession, and the team stared at him in surprise as the room was enveloped in silence.

"Oh come on!" Dawn suddenly exclaimed, making Ash glance up. "That last time was a fluke if you ask me. We didn't realize how strong they'd be, so we weren't taking it 100% seriously."

"Dawn's right," Drew agreed. "I could've been faster, but I was being more laid back since I wasn't expecting too much."

"Being honest, I could've given it a bit more too," Misty admitted, sheepishly scratching the back of her neck.

"And you were up against their leader," Gladion told him. "It's no wonder you two were evenly matched, or even that she beat you. But this time we'll be ready, and we can sweep them off their feet and onto their cocky asses."

Ash blinked, staring at his team in surprise, before finally letting a grin crack.

"You guys are right," he laughed, shaking his head. "I don't know why I was so worried. I have faith in all of you and your abilities, I shouldn't be doubting them now."

"Attaboy," Gladion said, smirking at him. "So what's the plan, mister leader?"

"We'll comb through a list of targets and start scoping them out at night," Ash decided. "Hopefully they'll have a list similar to ours, and the cover of darkness is always necessary for people like us, so as long as the targets align we should run into them eventually. We'll start tomorrow, and we'll all go, since the whole killing thing isn't really something we're all too familiar with."

"Sounds like a plan," Dawn announced, smiling as she snatched up her Piplup and gave it a squeeze.

"Yup," Ash said, nodding and letting his smile fade into a smirk. "Tomorrow night, we'll head out and kill one of Shirona's guys. And with any luck, we'll get more out of this than just a few more toys."