I will kind of be going out of order of the game's events, but it's my story so...

Thorn in Team Galactic's Side

When the morning comes Chris wakes up to find Dawn in the bathroom, getting ready for the day. Chris sits up out of bed, and stretches his body out. He comes up into the bathroom as Dawn is brushing her hair, remembering the thoughts he had as he was smoking his cigarette last night. A part of him felt like he was diving to fast into something with Dawn, who he has only known for a month, and has barely seen in that time. The other part of him is his head, which is still spinning after having lost his virginity last night.

However, last night also gave him a great excuse to head out on his own. Team Galactic is up to something in that building, and Chris will find out exactly what it is. He stand behind Dawn in the bathroom, keeping his distance as she brushes her hair. She looks at him leaning against the wall in the mirror, and smiles. "Hi." She says softly.

"Hello there." He says in an equally soft tone. She doesn't have to say that Chris was her first as well for him to guess as much.

"How do you feel?"

"Pretty good."

"Yeah? I'd have to say the same." Dawn responds with a shaky voice, and a smile.

Chris smiles back, and nods. "I do really like you, Dawn."

She chuckles. "I can tell."

Chris then frowns. "But we should split from each other for now."

Dawn now frowns back, and then turns around to look Chris in his actual eyes. "Did I come on too aggressively last night?"

Chris shakes his head, and starts to step up to her. "No, no." He says to comfort her. "It's not that." He's now holding her arms. "There's a lot of things in my past that you don't know about me. And there's one particular thing that... gives me pause I guess is the right term."

"So this wasn't just a one-night stand?"

Chris shakes his head. "I doubt it. Like I said, I do really like you Dawn. I just need some time alone to sort through my thoughts."

Dawn nods. "Okay." She says with a hopeful tone.

"Listen, head over and challenge Eterna Gym. I've got something I want to have a look at. Lets see if we meet up in Hearthome City."

She nods quickly. "Okay." The two of them gather their belongings in their bags, and get down to the hotel lobby right in time to check out. Despite what Chris has said, they walk down to the lobby hand in hand. Afterwards, they step outside the lobby to head their separate ways, then stop to face each other while holding hands. "I know that you need some time alone," Dawn starts as she looks into his eyes. "But can I still have a kiss goodbye?"

Chris cracks a smile, then leans in and kisses her. "Keep training Dawn." He says as he breaks the kiss. "I'm gonna want to see how much stronger you've gotten when we see each other next."

"I will." Dawn responds with a smile. "I'll keep what you said about my Magikarp in mind, too."

"Good." Chris says, as his hands slowly leave hers as he turns away from her. Chris eyes up the building that the grunt ran off to last night, and his expression changes to reflect his focus. His focus is so intense, that when someone runs up behind him and runs right into him, it knocks him off balance. "The fuck!" He yells.

He turns around to find Barry standing before him. "Hey, Chris!" Barry exclaims as he realizes that it's Chris he almost knocked to the ground. "You came to see the Pokémon statue, right? I'll take you there!"

Chris shakes his head no. "That's not what I came for." He turns to look at the building again. "Last night, a grunt from Team Galactic tried, and failed, to intimidate me into giving him all of my Pokémon. He ran off into this building when I intimidated him." He then pauses to look back at Barry. "Team Galactic was trying some criminal activities at Valley Windworks. I'm gonna find out what they're up to in there."

Barry nods at all of what Chris says, and then speaks. "Don't you think something like that should be left to the cops?"

Chris shakes his head. "The cops would have to wait on warrants. I don't, and I won't."

Barry gets a good look into Chris's eyes, and can see that he won't be able to sway him. "Alright. Just be careful."

"Don't worry about me Barry. Go check out that statue you were talking about. Wait for me there too if you want, just so you know that I made it out just fine." Chris nods to Barry, then sneaks his way inside the building.

Almost immediately after entering the building, Chris is greeted by a Galactic grunt with a rather familiar looking face. "Hello! It is me!" If the face was familiar, the voice may as well have spoken to Chris in the womb. It was Looker. "I have startled you, yes?"

"That's one way of putting it, Looker." Chris says, as he only just now drops his subtle fighting stance. "What are you doing here?"

"My job, young Chris."

"So the International Police don't need warrants?"

"No, my boy. I can be arrested by the Sinnoh region's police if I'm caught in any illicit circumstances, however. Fortunately for me, I am a master of disguise. Now, you need not be modest with me. You are a first-rate Trainer. Of that, I am very aware.

"Looker, I just got started." Objects Chris.

"And yet, you are already so good at your chosen career path. I therefore think you will be okay, but I must warn you to be careful anyway. Also, a word of advice. This building, it has two sets of stairs. One of them, a trap it must be. But the crooks of Team Galactic, they do not appear, how shall I say, smart. There should be an easy way to tell the stairs apart. Having said that, I shall navigate one set of stairs, while you take the other. If you find anything of interest in your search, text me your location, and I shall retrieve what you discovered in my own time."

Chris nods, then speaks as silently as he could. "You've got it, Looker." The detective heads up the stairs past two actual Team Galactic grunts before Chris gets a move on. Keeping all of his Pokémon in their balls, Chris moves silently up the stairs to avoid arousing suspicion. He makes it up to the second floor undetected, seeing a Team Galactic grunt moving some boxes around the room. His back is turned to Chris.

Looker seems to be right about the intelligence level of the grunts, but he seemed to leave out how talkative they are. Even if no one else is seemingly around. "Team Galactic is working hard to find new energy sources for the future!" The grunt exclaims as he continues moving the boxes around. Chris stays silent, shaking his head as he moves on. Down the hallway, Chris makes his first left, sneaking behind a female grunt who's typing away at her computer. He quietly makes his way up the stairs, thinking about just how ridiculous it is that every single grunt has the same light-blue bowl cut, regardless of their gender.

On the next floor, Chris spots machinery around the room, but no grunts. Still moving as silently as he can, he hides behind a large piece of tech, seemingly a mainframe, and takes a peak down the hallway. With the coast being clear, he again makes his first left to spot another grunt, male, typing away at a computer. As Chris goes to sneak past him, he stops dead in his tracks as the man suddenly speaks in a stern tone of voice. "Ordinary people like you can't understand Team Galactic's grand designs!" Chris goes to grab one of his Poké Balls as the grunt continues. "Come to think of it... I don't even know what's going on." When Chris hears a second voice seemingly coming from a phone, he realizes that the grunt has no idea that he's in the room, and continues to the staircase.

Now having reached the final floor of the building, Chris finds it to be the darkest floor in the building. Now less visible, he doesn't feel the need to move as slowly as he had been up to this point, and makes his way quickly to the entrance of the floor's only room. He takes cover behind the wall, and slowly peaks to observe the situation. He spots a middle-aged man confronting a woman who seemed to be the leader of Team Galactic in Eterna City, at least. She seemed like she might be just a few years older than Chris, much like the red-haired woman back at Valley Windworks. With fearful looks on their faces, the woman had a Buneary and a Clefairy sitting next to her. Her hair was colored purple, and she had it done up in a rather strange way. Chris had to stop himself from staring, because he found the outfit that she had on to make her appear rather sexy.

Right before emerging from cover, the middle-aged man speaks to the young lady. "What is it with you Team Galactic punks? Why did you take our Pokémon? What are you trying to accomplish?"

"Do tell." Chris says, his presence capturing the attention of all occupants of the room.

"Did you want something?" The purple-haired woman asks Chris with a sarcastic tone. "How silly of me to even ask. You want to free the Pokémon. Fine! I, Jupiter, will deal with you." She proclaims as she activates a Poké Ball, throwing it out without thinking. She sends out a Zubat, the same Pokémon Mars started with at Valley Windworks.

Chris shows no reaction to her hot-headed decision so he can let it bite her in the ass. He activates Skarr's Poké Ball, and throws it out. "Post up, Skarr!" He exclaims, as his electric-type starts the battle for him.

"That won't save you!" Jupiter arrogantly exclaims. "Zubat, use Supersonic!"

"Roll out of the way, Skarr!" Chris responds to Jupiter's attempts at confusion. Skarr does as he's told, dodging the sonic waves by the skin of his teeth. "Now, use Spark!" Despite being the same species, Jupiter's Zubat proves to be much more frail than Mars's was, and it cannot withstand the hit. It goes down in an instant.

Jupiter gasps in shock. "Wha- Zubat!" Her Zubat doesn't get up, and she has no choice but to recall it. "You'll pay for that! Go Skuntank!" She throws out her other Poké Ball, and her big, fat purple skunk Pokémon makes its foul presence felt.

"Ah, geez." Chris says as the smell fills the room. "Skarr, use Spark again!" Electrical energy emanates from Skarr's body, as he rushes forth to attack Jupiter's Skuntank.

"Skuntank, Night Slash!" Jupiter commands. Skarr's attack meets Skuntank's claws in the collision, and Skarr clearly comes out the worst for ware. Even so, Skuntank has definitely taken damage. "How insolent." Jupiter speaks up to break the moment. "Take a bite of this! Use Night Slash, once again!" Skuntank charges at Skarr, who cannot avoid the attack. The damage is enough to seal the deal, and Skarr goes down for the count.

"Dammit. Skarr, return!" The laser from his Poké Ball absorbs Skarr back within, and Chris deactivates the ball while staring down Skuntank. He hadn't taken a data entry about it in his Pokédex, so he didn't know right away. But once he put two and two together, and determined that Stunky evolves into Skuntank, he knew exactly who to win the battle with. He activates his next Poké Ball. "Let's finish this, Hawke!" He exclaims, as he calls his Marshtomp out to battle. The Mud Fish Pokémon emerges with an eager cry, and stares down Skuntank.

"What is this Pokémon?" Jupiter asks in confusion, the Sinnoh native not showing that she hasn't left the region much.

"Your end." Chris says, before calling out a command. "Hawke, Mud Shot!"

"Skuntank, dodge!" Jupiter manages to take advantage of Mud Shot not being an entirely accurate move, and her Skuntank avoids it. "Now, use Night Slash!"

As Skuntank charges at Hawke, Chris goes for a second shot. "Mud Shot, one more time!" Hawke complys, blasting Skuntank with a blob of mud, that sends it to the ground hard. With Jupiter in shock at how her attack was completely negated, Chris follows up. "Finish it with Water Gun!" at Chris's command, Hawke fires a bullet of water at Skuntank, and puts it down.

Jupiter is nearly speechless, as she stumbles on her words. "Wha- Yo- You!"

Chris and Hawke step forward. "Take your time." Chris says to antagonize her.

Jupiter starts to growl. "Losing to some rookie... Being careless cost me too much." She starts. "You're certainly tough, I'll give you that. It's okay, though. Our official Pokémon statue investigation is finished. Mars has collected energy from the Valley Windworks. We're pretty much finished here. I'll let you in on one little thing." Chris is perfectly content to let Jupiter dig a deeper hole for Team Galactic as she reveals more. "Our boss is researching the myths of ancient Pokémon. With the power of mythical Pokémon, he will become the ruler of Sinnoh. I suggest you keep out of Team Galactic's affairs from now on. This is your last warning!"

"Are you done here?" Chris asks, having heard more than enough. Jupiter's stunned reaction at his words makes her go silent for a moment. "I'll take that as a yes. Take your warnings, and shove them up your ass. Get out of my sight." Chris has left Jupiter speechless, and she storms off with a huff.

Now alone with the middle-aged man and the two Pokémon, the man approaches the two. "These were my daughters." He says as he kneels down between Buneary and Clefairy. "That Team Galactic... they said 'Cleafairy came from space. Hand it over!' Then they took Buneary seemingly just for the sake of it. I'm still recovering from a surgery, and was still to weak to stop them."

"That didn't stop you from trying to get back here, to rescue them." Chris says.

"No, I guess it didn't. Still couldn't do much in the end however. So I thank you very much for your efforts, young man." Chris nods to him, before he continues. "Anyway, they're gone now. I thank you again. Stop by my dealership later. I'd like to do something for you in return."

That offer particularly intrigues Chris, as he has gotten tired of the long walks from town to town already. "I think I will. See you soon." The man nods at Chris, then waves as he heads out of the building with his daughter's Pokémon. Once he was alone, Chris texted Looker. He told him that there may or may not be data in the computer in the room he was in, but also told the detective all the information that Jupiter spilled to him. He let Looker know that Jupiter was the only one on the top floor, and that the room was clear whenever he could sneak his way up there. By the time Looker did make his way up to the top floor, Chris was long gone.

Back outside, Chris walked over to the Pokémon center to have his Luxio healed up. Whilst waiting inside the center, he sits alone to record an entry on Skuntank on his Pokédex, and is suddenly approached by a blonde-haired woman, in all black. She had to be only a few years older than he was, and she seemed like she may be the exact same height as he is. "Oh, that device you have..." She starts, her somewhat familiar sounding voice taking Chris's attention away from his Pokédex. Her warm smile seems to finally calm his nerves from sneaking around Team Galactic's building. "Is that a Pokédex?"

Chris returns her smile. "Yes it is." He says.

"Wow. That brings back some memories." The more Chris looks at this woman, the more familiar to him she becomes. "Pardon me, but what's your name?"

Now Chris stands up, and extends his hand to her. "Chris. Chris Harper."

"Okay, hello Chris Harper. I'll be sure to remember that name. My name is Cynthia. I'm a trainer, just like you." Cynthia's name certainly sounded very familiar to Chris, but given that he couldn't quite put his finger on it, it had to have been when he was a street urchin that he first heard it. So many more things were far more crucial to him at that time, than any one person's name. "I've been studying Pokémon mythology lately, just out of curiosity. Here in Eterna City, there's a statue of an ancient Pokémon. Have you seen it?"

Chris then suddenly remembers the statue that Barry was going to wait for him at. "Oh, shoot. I haven't seen it yet, but a friend of mine was going to be waiting for me by it."

"Oh, so do you need to get going?"

"Yes, but they're still healing my Luxio. I don't want to leave him behind. Do you know anything about the statue?" He asks Cynthia.

"According to myth, it was an extremely powerful Pokémon. Who knows? You may encounter something like it while you're travelling with your Pokédex."

Suddenly, Nurse Joy's voice speaks on the intercom. "Attention," She starts. "Would Chris Harper please come up to pick up Skarr the Luxio. Repeat: Chris Harper, please come up to pick up Skarr the Luxio."

"That's my queue." Chris says, as he looks towards the front desk.

"So it would seem." Cynthia starts. "Luck be with you, young trainer! And one last thing. Give my regards to Professor Rowan!" She says, as she walks out of the Pokémon center. Chris can't help but admire her curvy figure as he walks away, and makes a mental note to find out why she's so familiar to him. Then he gets up to the front desk, and collects his Luxio. He then gets out of the Pokémon center as fast as he can, and rushes over to the statue.

He sees Barry waiting impatiently for him, and the blonde boy then throws his arms in the air as Chris finally arrives. "There you are! I've been waiting for you for hours!"

Chris catches his breath, then responds. "Yeah, well, I ended up having a battle inside, and my Luxio fainted. I wanted to heal him up at the Pokémon Center."

"Alright, whatever." Barry then turns to the statue. "Check this out!" Chris steps up next to Barry before he continues. "There was a plate with some words written on it on the pedestal, but it looks like someone removed it. Anyway, that's the statue, check it out!" Barry then starts to run off, before stopping himself dead in his tracks. "Oh, before I go! Don't be that late again, or I'm fining you a million!" Then he dashes off before Chris can get a word in edgewise.

Chris looks at Barry as he runs away, with a bewildered look on his face. "You can't fine someone for being late." He says to himself. "Even if they work for you, you can only fire them if they're late." Chris shakes his head, before taking some time to gaze at the statue in wonder. As he turns his back to leave, he can suddenly hear a voice speaking behind him. "So this is Eterna's Pokémon statue." The voice starts, as Chris turns back around. A man stands before the statue, looking up at whatever Pokémon it is dedicated to. "Shaping our world are time and space, in an intertwining spiral. Revered in Sinnoh are the Pokémon of time and space. Sinnoh's myth... it's truth needs investigation." Without ever even looking at Chris, the rambling stranger turns and walks away from the statue. Chris has no idea what to make of that man, but it is interesting to him that his hair is nearly the same shade of light-blue as the Team Galactic grunts.