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01.

A NIGHT ON THE TOWN

Teleportation was one of those things that had lost its magic over the years. For instance, before this job, I dreamed about being able to teleport. Now I actively wish I didn't dream about it, because teleporting feels like flushing yourself down a toilet. Way to flush my dreams, property of transference of energy.

I pulled out from a shelf a glossy orange folder for Victini, and held out my free arm. A rolled-up paper bound with a ribbon the color of the folder zipped towards me. I caught it effortlessly, then opened it. It was a probation order. It looked like Victor "Vic" Victini was going to be spending another week as a growlithe, and I would have to be the one who did the dirty deed. I sighed. He was getting probated for the exact same thing he got probated for two months ago. He could at least try to be a bit more careful.

Glimmers of white power surrounded me, and one toilet flush later I was in the neighboring region of Unova.

Fun Mew fact: I hate Unova.

My first breath of the ambient dust and must from the hotel room hit me like a hyper rydon covered in stun spores. Hotels in Unova didn't housekeep very well… although, it was league season, and on second glance this looked more like a shabby attic than a motel room. Almost too much like an attic.

I didn't know the motels here were like the ones in Johto. I'd have to note that down for later.

"Ann!"

Victor "Vic" Victini flew out from behind a few dusty boxes that had been set up like a victini-sized bed, zipping up towards me with a nervous look on his face.

"Fancy seeing you here," he laughed. "What pushed you to drop by?"

"Wanna guess?"

I held up the glossy orange folder, giving him the blankest face I could muster. We'd been through this enough times that he knew exactly what that meant.

"Aww, seriously?" he complained, thrusting his arms. "But it was just an accident! I can't be faulted for that!"

"Come on, Vic, you know the rules," I said, sighing in defeat. "I know you get worked up over these things, but… this isn't the first time."

'Worked up' was an understatement. Vic's job was to keep the energy levels in check whenever one of the Titans that slumbered beneath the earth disrupted the world's power balance, but he'd always been a big follower of the various Pokemon League tournaments on the side. Which made him pretty easy to find, since there was almost always one league going on at any point in time. He had the bad habit of getting too invested in the moment and accidentally infusing the pokemon he was rooting for with extra energy boosts, which led to that team getting disqualified from the tournament when they tripped the League's energy checks. They had implemented a whole new energy tracking system just because of him.

"Surely we can work something out!" Vic exclaimed, zipping around me in anxious circles. "I don't wanna spend the rest of the day as a growlithe!"

I almost didn't have the heart to say he'd be spending an entire week as a growlithe, not just the remainder of this day.

"None of us do; that's why it's probation," I said. "At least the League will have no reason to suspect you as a growlithe when they go around looking for the troublemaker. Remember what happened last time?"

Don't ask what happened last time. I'll just say that I had to get Uxie to very forcefully suggest an entire squad of armed policemen forget everything they had seen that day, and leave it there.

Vic couldn't argue, and just from the look on his face I could tell he knew it. He huffed, folded his arms, and hung his head, awaiting punishment.

"Just do it."

I held my free paw out towards him, watching radiant light gather around it. The room flashed bright orange, and when the glow dissipated only a growlithe unsteady on four paws stared back up at me.

"I hope you're happy," Vic grumbled. The only reaction I could muster was a forlorn shrug, before my body began to light up with the bright light of a Teleport.

"Hey, at least teleport me out of the attic," the growlithe yipped before I could fully disappear. "I don't wanna have to get out of here myself."

"Come to think of it…" I looked around, letting the teleport energy dissipate. "Why are you in an attic? I thought this was some dinky motel in a bad part of town."

"No-one ever looks in attics," Vic said. "Especially not this one. And the humans downstairs make some great food, let me tell you—"

One flash of light later, and we were on the street outside the house. Vic looked around. "Ehhh…" he said. "Could you drop me off near the river down southwest? The big one."

Another flash, and then we were near the river. The place was completely secluded in the middle of a forest. I couldn't see a house for miles. The air felt like lukewarm canned soup.

"That better?" I asked him.

"Yeah," Vic said, fluffing up his fur and swatting some of the flies in the area away. "This is better."

Just before I teleported back to the Hall of Origin, I wondered how he expected to be better off in the forest instead of near an eatery he could pilfer something from, but I didn't dwell too long on it. Vic and I had known each other for a while. That's what being forced to chase after him every other week for something or other did to a mew.

He'd manage. He always did.

\|M|/

Everyone tells you that Mew is some magical legend who birthed all pokemon for some terrible reason—which honestly sounds pretty fucked up, looking at you, Wailord—and helps rule the world from up on high. And if you ever see it or catch a photo of it or pick up its droppings or something then you're blessed to have even seen a single pink fur from Mew's sacred hide.

Turns out, Mew is actually Arceus' glorified assistant. The equivalent of that secretary in the lounge of every important building who is probably chewing gum and gossiping about you in real time to stay sane. Funny thing, when every memorial ever in history depicts Mew as a joint gig with Arceus. Fat lot of rubbish the Church of Arceus is onto.

A year or two ago, I was giddy just to do this. To be the High Council's secretary. Happy, naïve days. Now it's like a day job you get paid minimum wage for, except you don't get paid.

The marble walls and pillars of the Hall of Origin extended upwards and faded away into the morning sky, where the sun reflected off the clouds in the distance and bathed the spacious room in the golden rays of dawn. This was Sinnoh, and we were located at the top of the tallest mountain in the region, because of course we were, so the hall was as chilly as it was empty.

On a normal day, I'd be zipping around from place to place, doing the High Council's dirty work like delivering task slips to the lower legends, going out to investigate when the Titans were stirring beneath the earth again, and getting those Sinnoh-brand sticky buns Lugia can't get enough of, and also can't get at all because even when he's in his copperjah form, he's just too big to enter the store. And then the sheer amount of automatically-generated paperwork I had to file away. I swear you could get lost in the Hall of Origin's Room of Records.

Today was not a normal day. There was going to be a meeting between the High Council—the actual High Council, not their glorified secretary or something—and I had to make sure everything was spick and span. I blinked into the Hall of Origin with a flash, tossing Vic's folder on the front desk as I soared past. I'd put that back where it belonged later; I was going to be late!

There were eight seats on the High Council in total, and I had prim and prepare each one of them. Arceus' throne had to be polished, dander had to be picked out of three seats, and fur out of two others. And Zapdos was going to want his 'I've been a good bird today' badge shined.

I didn't have any clue why such a meeting was being called out of the blue—I'd only been given a day's notice, and Arceus hadn't seen fit to tell me what was going on when I'd asked. Not that he told me much anyway. On a good day, Arceus was aloof; on a bad day I tried not to share a room with him. Most of our interactions boiled down to him giving me a job to do or otherwise instructing me to play messenger delibird, so it wasn't a surprise that he'd dropped news of a big meeting on me just a day before it happened.

The tidying up was done just in time for me to teleport back to the front desk and take a tentative midair seat. The meeting was within ten minutes, so I could expect to see the High Council filing in any minute now.

They filed into the hall one by one. Lugia had a bowtie and was making his best effort to look dapper, while Moltres, Articuno, and Zapdos all quietly squabbled amongst each other to the side. Solgeleo watched them with something between contempt and annoyance, Lunala was focused on something off in the distance, and Zygarde slithered past with no discernable emotion on its face. If it had a face. Were all those hexagons all over its body eyes?

Brr. Zygarde freaks me out.

Then, Arceus descended from the roof. He strode past them all, dwarfing every single other 'mon in the room.

Arceus. Sterner than a mountain skidoo, more quiet than a loudred with a serious aversion to sound. It's mean, but every time I look at him, I imagine an absol that got half a fence stuck to its midsection, and had it encrusted with gems to help stave the embarrassment. I wonder how he sleeps with that thing on. Does he just… take it off? That's like wearing a crown that's so big it goes around your waist instead of your forehead.

Which honestly? Sums up Arceus pretty well. I'll go with that.

"Mew," he said. A single word, which to his credit was more than he usually said to me.

I floated aside and gestured politely to the stairs. "The meeting room is this way. Follow me."

As I led them all up the stairs, Arceus lowered his head down to my level and whispered down: "You'll be sitting in. I expect you to take notes."

I nodded, making to fly down and grab my notepad before the meeting room closed. "Let me just jot back and get something to write on—"

"Would it not be more efficient to teleport?" Arceus interrupted.

I took a deep breath and held it in before I could say something I'd regret.

"Yes," I said, exhaling. "Yes, it would."

One manual trip to my desk and back, and the meeting hall was silent. None of the High Council had said a single thing yet. Their faces were as stern as their beaks and snouts. Zapdos huffed, puffing out his chest where his "I've been a good bird today" badge was pinned. I floated to the side with a wry frown, a notepad and pen I'd teleported in floating behind me.

Then, Arceus saw fit to speak.

"As you all know," he began. "Section V of High Council Code prohibits higher legends from interacting with humans entirely. Why? Because humans are ambitious. Their lust for power knows no bounds. If they were to get ahold of even one of the High Council's orbs, the consequences could be disastrous. This is why the affair before us demands the utmost level of scrutiny."

I suddenly tensed up, my psychic hold around the pen I tightening to the point where it nearly cracked. Did… did Arceus know? Was that why he wanted me to sit in today? I had to fight every instinct not to teleport out of the room at that very moment. Because then he'd definitely know.

"It has come to my attention that a human group by the name of "Team Rocket" has been experimenting with Infinity Energy," Arceus continued. A wave of relief spread over me. He didn't know at all. And if he did, it wasn't his largest priority right now.

"I believe they seek to recreate the power of those on the High Council. They will fail, of course." He paused for emphasis. I took the pause as an opportunity to quickly scribble everything down.

"Nonetheless, we must not continue to become complacent. This human impudence requires immediate correction. Your thoughts."

There were slight murmurs of agreement from the entire council—with the exception of Zygarde, who was perpetually silent and unmoving.

"So what's our first step?" squawked Moltres, ever-quick to action. "When do we attack?"

"Assessing the situation is our first step," said Solgeleo disdainfully. "We do not yet know what these humans' strengths are, nor the best way to punish their arrogance. As such, you must temper your own. Remember you are not invincible."

Moltres puffed out some smoke, but didn't say anything.

"I do quite agree that gathering information should be our first step," said Lugia in that antique galarian accent that only existed in television tea parties. "Assuming we don't currently know the position of their bases—" I saw him glance up at Arceus for confirmation "—Employing Zygarde for this purpose would be most useful."

All heads in the room looked at Zygarde. Zygarde didn't say anything, but its body glowed once. I hadn't seen Zygarde in a while, but that probably meant it was in agreement.

"Any objections?" Lugia asked, looking around the room. None came. The silence was punctuated only by my pen's punctuation.

"Then it is decided," said Arceus. "When we next meet in this room again, it will be to decide how best to discipline these arrogant humans. Until then, I expect each and every single one of you to be on your guard for any signs of revolt. Remember the importance of Rule V, and do not underestimate ambitious humans. Are there any questions?"

The room was silent, except for the furious scribbling of my pen as I tried to keep up.

"Very well," Arceus said, noting the silence. "Meeting is adjourned."

\|M|/

It had been a long and tiring day, moreso than others. What Arceus had said in the meeting loomed over my head as I did the rest of my work. Were they going to tighten security? What did that mean for me?

In the meantime, I filed the seemingly never-ending flow of paperwork that flowed into the Hall of Origin from all corners of the world: Titan Groudon was shifting in Its slumber, and that meant Mt. Chimney could become an active volcano a few years down the line; there had been a minor boat crash in Alto Mare about a week ago caused by a sudden red blur apparently racing a wingull (naturally); and some weirdo pokemon trainer had broken into Jirachi's cave and filmed himself hitting Jirachi over the head with a stick until Jirachi woke up and blew him clean out of the cave. The trainer had needed to be hypnotized and mindwiped by Uxie so that he never remembered the experience at all. The camera was destroyed.

I was running out of favors with Uxie.

Each incident went into its own designated file in its own designated cabinet on its own designated shelf in the Room of Records. Stuff had been filed away here for eons, and the massive districts of shelves extended both ahead into the sunset horizon and down into the mist of Mount Coronet below. I was pretty sure Palkia had some hand in allowing this room to even exist, but like Dialga and all the other big Legends, Palkia was a Titan, which meant they hadn't woken from their slumbers in centuries. And I'd need a couple more years at least before I could even find the Palkia section of shelves.

I flew through the massive corridors full speed ahead, tucking away the folders where they belonged—a maroon cabinet for Groudon, bright red for Latias, and banana yellow for Jirachi – and then made a direct U-turn for the entrance. It took me almost a full minute flying as fast as I could to make it back to the door. I quickly closed and latched it behind me, shuddering a bit once I had. I would have teleported, but something about the room seemed to counteract it. It just added to the room's creepiness.

As magnificent as it looked, the Room of Records was really creepy. There was just something about it that didn't seem right, like when you walk into a place and just know the air is off. If I didn't know better, I'd say Titan Giratina was hiding somewhere in there. But, I did know better—It was probably all the fog and stuff. And the teleport thing. Yeah.

Emerging back into the Hall of Origin's main lobby, I took a look up at the clock and noticed that it was 5:10—I was late! I looked one way, then the other. It didn't look like anyone was going to object if I left now. Not that anyone else was there, but I wasn't complaining.

There were a set of rules that legends on the Legendarian High Council were bound to follow. Most of them were outdated and didn't apply to me. Rule V was the most important. It stated that none of us were to go down to earth and mingle with humans unless it was completely necessary. We had responsibilities up here, and that meant we were forever barred from living a normal life, or doing any of the thing all those people and pokemon down in the streets got to do. If someone down there got ahold of our powers, the results would be catastrophic. I'd never seen it, but I knew that violating it was an offense of the highest caliber. Arceus had personally stripped legends of their power for disobeying it before.

So naturally, I teleported out of the Hall of Origin and rematerialized two regions across the world for my weekly night out. Toilet flush.

When the light of the teleport faded from my eyes, I was outside a highway in a large forest. A human girl leaned against a jeep that was parked right by the road in what was probably the most conspicuous position ever. When we'd agreed on this spot, I hadn't realized we were going to be so close to open territory! I shifted into my non-Mew form—an Espeon—as quick as I could.

"Hey, what gives?" I telepathically broadcasted to the Human as I approached the jeep. "We're so close to the road—someone could see us here!"

"For the record," Cherry started loudly. "I'll have you know that no-one comes down the highway at this time of da—"

A car drove past us, stealing the voice outside of Cherry's mouth.

"…Almost no-one comes down the highway at this time of day," Cherry corrected. "And we are also invisible right now. Behold."

I craned my neck to the right, seeing that the entire jeep and the air around it were subtly shimmering. From the other side, not a single soul would know we were there.

"I'm not that sloppy, c'mon," Cherry finished proudly.

Cherry, otherwise known as Latias, was my one best friend and probably the only reason I hadn't gone zu-bat crazy working my Mew job. We hit it off two years ago when I popped in for those routine check-ins the Hall of Origin does for most of the lower legends annually and she realized I wasn't anything like the rest of the High Council. Since then, we'd been sneaking off to goof around any chance we got.

Up in the Hall of Origin, I felt out of place. I was like a little kid in a house of full-grown adults, if those adults were century-old stiffs with outdated ideas about everything under the sun and also the sun. Not that I didn't feel a sense of importance from my Mew job, but down here with people like Cherry and Vic, I could relax and unwind and do things I actually had fun doing. The lower legends just "got" me. So every other week or so, I snuck down here to go out and do silly things with them. It was completely harmless, and we hadn't been caught yet. As long as I was around to clock in and off, Arceus wasn't studying me close enough to notice. Though, after that briefing about Team Rocket…

"Fair enough," I said aloud. With the barrier up, there wasn't a need to be stealthy. "Listen, I've been thinking… maybe it's better to call it off today."

"Oh?" Cherry raised an eyebrow, eyes still folded. "Why the change of heart? I thought you were looking forward to today. I got reservations at that fancy-ass place and all."

"Listen... you didn't hear this from me," I said. "Or at all, actually, Arceus will smite me, but he briefed the entire Council today about some group that's been trying to tap infinity energy. He wants the whole High Council on high alert. And here we are, being…"

"So, the same old shtick he's always had?" Cherry asked. She didn't sound convinced. "Ooh, you're a high legend, you can't leave that shiny floaty palace on the mountain, what if the 0.0001% chance of someone actually seeing you happens? I mean, c'mon, isn't that what mindwipes are for? That's your day job."

"Well, I don't know if you remember, but I have been bribing Uxie a bit too much lately and I cannot mindwipe a whole group if I have to," I said. "And maybe we'll be fine against them, but we will not be fine when I have to explain to Arceus why he shouldn't smite us both."

"Just throw Uxie a snorlax-sized candy bar," Cherry shrugged. "You know she goes crazy for those things. And who says Arceus has to know anything about it?"

"He'll figure it out the moment I don't show up to clock in the next morning," I said.

"And what are the chances of you not clocking in the next morning?"

"0.0001 percent," I admitted. I was pretty good at my job.

"Exactly," Cherry said. "Look, the way I see it, you've griped to me before about how you're not nearly as powerful or as privileged as those legends on the High Council. That rule should apply to them, not you. You deserve to be doing stuff down here with us. And you should. Don't let Fence Gogoat spook you out of your night out. Everyone knows he'd jump if he saw a mouse in the Hall."

We both snickered. He would.

Cherry's car flew across the forest mountain highway at what I was sure was almost double the speed limit. She was swerving madly, messily drifting around the bends and occasional crossing wild pokemon.

"Are you sure this is safe?" I asked anxiously, looking out the window where the scenery went by in a blur.

"It's legal in Hoenn," Cherry said, her eyes trained on the road.

Cherry was just as much a speed demon behind a steering wheel as she was in the air. How she still had a driver's license was beyond me, although I had seen the stash of unpaid speeding tickets she had overflowing out of her dash compartment once. I always wondered why she never wanted to go back to Unova...

She slowed down once we neared Saffron City and more cars, people, and lights became visible. I was glad; the last thing we needed was to get pulled over for speeding on our night out.

Cherry had booked reservations at a fancy restaurant that seated most pokemon. Then, we were going to go see a movie. Or shop. Or just look around the town. We'd decide when we got there.

"So what's it like in Hoenn?" I asked, trying to make small talk while we were going over the menus. Any region where speed driving was legal had to have a good story or two behind it. The waiter had given us water already, but we hadn't chosen what to eat yet. I found the pokemon menu somewhat lacking, but didn't want to draw attention to us in such a public place by requesting the human one. I didn't need to come back to the paperwork machine in the Hall of Origin spitting out a file on me I would have to destroy.

"Oh, you know…" Cherry fanned her menu out like a newspaper. "Lots of islands and forests and tropical storms in the fall; those are fun. Heat. Beach. Alto Mare."

"Isn't Alto Mare in Johto?" I asked. Just because I was expected to sit around in the Hall of Origin all day didn't mean I didn't know my geography.

"Might as well be in Hoenn!" Cherry exclaimed somewhat loudly, turning a few heads from some of the more elderly customers. One of them wore sunglasses. Cherry glanced around, noticing how many people were staring at our table. She cleared her throat uncomfortably.

Most of the customers had gone back to eating by now, but the woman in sunglasses continued to stare in our direction. It was like she was fixated on us to a weird degree, like when you stare at something you really want but can't have. Weird.

"Can I take your orders?"

We both looked up to see the waiter staring down at us. In an instant, both of us were sitting up straight, struggling to keep our composure and not look like we'd been acting like complete children for the last five or so minutes. We also realized we hadn't decided what to order yet.

"Um… I'll have… I'll have the weirdest thing on the menu, please," Cherry said.

\|M|/

"Why didn't you stop me?" Cherry retched, staring down at the remnants of her dinner in a trash can. "That was disgusting!"

Neither of us were really sure what it was when it had arrived, the menu was in Kalosian, but it looked like muk intestines, or at least something's intestines. I had gingerly eaten my generic pokechow that I was pretty sure was the standard kind sold at most pokemarts, but I was happy eating supermarket pokechow compared to whatever that was. Cherry's stomach must have agreed, because she puked almost the moment we'd left.

All I could do was shrug. "How was I supposed to know that the weirdest thing on the menu would be that… weird?"

Cherry leaned back against the wall of the restaurant, clutching her stomach. "I'm not eating anything else tonight," she moaned.

She got herself a pretzel ten minutes later.

The night was still young, so we decided to go for a walk around town before hitting up the movie theater in Downtown Saffron.

"So what are you going to do after this?" Cherry asked as we strolled through one of the quieter streets. There were few people around at this time of night, so we didn't have to worry about being overheard.

"Go back to the Hall of Origin," I said. "Crash. File some more paperwork. Try to make it look like I haven't been gone half the night."

"No, I mean what are you going to do about the High Council thing?" Cherry asked.

"Well, what do you mean?" I responded. There wasn't anything I could do about it.

"Like, they can't just keep you locked up there," Cherry said. "Have you ever confronted Arceus about it?"

To no success. "I'm pretty sure he'd demote me on the spot," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Hey, I'd still hang with you," Cherry said. "Heck, we could bunk together if that happened. I could take you wingull-chasing in Alto Mare. We could go fishing with Dot."

"As great as that sounds, I don't think a demotion from Arceus would be all sunshine and rainbows," I replied.

Suddenly, Cherry stopped walking. When I looked dead ahead, I saw why: in the shade of the lamp, there stood a dark figure obscured by the shadows. All of the sudden, we both became frighteningly aware of how empty the streets were.

"Hello?" Cherry called out. I saw her tense up. The figure walked forward, and it soon became clear they weren't alone. There were figures emerging from the shadows all around us on every side. Pokeballs flashed, and several different pokemon came out of their balls. We were surrounded.

My fur bristled. Of all things, I didn't think we'd get mugged!

"I'm going to teleport us out of here," I said silently, clinging to Cherry's leg. "They'll never know what hit them."

I gathered the energy for a teleport, and closed my eyes, bracing myself for the flush. But it never came. I opened them, and we were still in the alley. That didn't make sense! I tried again, as those creepy figures in the alleyway moved in quicker, then a third time. No dice.

"Now would be a great time to get that teleport going…" Cherry muttered out of the side of her mouth.

"I'm trying…" I grunted, scrunching my face up and trying my hardest to make the teleport work. It didn't make any sense, it was like something was blocking me from leaving!

"It's not working!" I finally admitted.

Cherry's eyes narrowed. "Okay, climb on my back!"

Before I could ask what that meant, she jumped up into the air and morphed back into her legend form in one fluid motion. She scooped me up in her hands and then we were off into the sky like a shot.

Flying over Saffron at the speeds we were, everything was a blur. But the city was vast, and it would be a good minute before we reached the lot where Latias' car was parked.

"Who were those people?" Cherry asked as we flew, a somewhat agitated look on her face. I didn't know – were they just criminals looking for an easy target in the middle of the night? In that case, I didn't think we had much to worry about. But in case they weren't…

I took a chance look behind us, and spotted the dark figure of a pidgeot soaring towards us from behind. It was quickly gaining ground on us, and it looked like it was going to…

"Duck!" I cried out. Cherry swerved downward, just in time to avoid a twisting draft of wind that soared above us. She did a U-turn in time to see the pidgeot, then barely swerved around another Gust. The move knocked Cherry off-kelter, and she dropped me. The pidgeot shot by us, flying into the night sky.

"Ann!" Cherry shouted, watching me fall. I quickly shifted back into Mew once my brain what was happening, and then, still hurtling towards the ground, began to shift again.

Another fun Mew fact: Mew isn't just some floating blob of cat. Mew has a power too. Mew is the Transformation Pokemon. I spread my arms out wide, watching them crack out longer as the bones shifted and the fur was replaced with growing feathers. My cord-like tail disappeared into my body, replaced with a taillow's V-shaped tail feathers. My head grew smaller and sprouted a beak. Just in time, I spread my new wings and caught an updraft, surging upwards with speed I could never know in either of my forms.

I then zipped back up to where Cherry was flying, flapping back down and perching on her back. A sudden, body-wide cramp made me gasp, and the feathers and beak were violently pulled back into me. I could never hold transformations for long. Full body ones lasted only a minute. Clutching Cherry's back, I stared in the direction the pidgeot had gone in.

"These guys are still tailing us?" I asked in confusion. Then I realized: we were a pair of legendary pokemon in public, and we'd just exposed ourselves for the world to see. Of course there were targets on our backs. But these people had been prepared for something like this before that. Had we walked into some kind of elaborate trap?

A black figure rode into the distant moonlight, and I saw that the pidgeot rider was banking around for another go. Cherry had noticed the same thing, because she ruffled her feathers in anger.

"Time to lose these jerks for good," Cherry growled. She offered her back as a riding spot. "Grab on!"

I knew better than to try and play catch-up with Cherry when she was angry. I tightly clutched her neck with my paws, and then we were off.

The pidgeot kept scary time with Cherry, even at her top speeds. At the last moment, she sharply banked upwards, heading further and further up into the clouds. Her feathers shimmered, and then she disappeared. The sheen spread over me, and I watched my own paws disappear before my eyes.

For a moment, we floated silently in the sky, with nothing but massive clouds and the moon around us. Then the pidgeot rider swooped up into the cloudscape, making a wide turn right in our direction. Cherry held her position in the air, watching the pidgeot slowly soar straight for us. It held true, like it knew we were there.

"You don't think…" I whispered.

Cherry and I were in silent agreement: We didn't want to risk it. At the last moment, she shot out of the pidgeot's way. The pidgeot flew past us, the rider looking back at us as it went—He was looking at us. He knew we were there. There were a pair of bulky goggles strapped to his face – was that what he was using to see us?

"Hang on tight," Cherry said.

The pidgeot banked around after us, and Cherry took off downward towards the lights of Saffron.

We flew down until we were on the streets of the city. Cherry swerved around cars, streetlamps, and other flying pokemon at speeds so fast I was constantly worried she was going to slam into something. I glanced upwards at the sound of a sudden whoosh—The pidgeot dove straight into the frenzy, soaring above the buildings but tailing us all the same.

"He's still on us!" I called out. Cherry nodded. She swerved around a tight corner, knocking a streetlamp out of shape as we ricocheted past. The pidgeot shot onwards, banked around a skyscraper, and then continued to chase after us.

Spinning around, I anchored myself to Cherry with my tail, and began to charge up a Psychic in my front paws. We were going far too fast for the pidgeot to dodge—the Psychic slammed full-force into both it and the rider and sent them tumbling into the traffic below.

Cherry rounded another corner just to be safe, then we took off for the skies.

"Did we lose him?" she asked, going too fast to look back now. I scanned the cityscape, but saw no sign of the pidgeot or its rider.

"I think so!" I called back.

We flew all the way up to the top of a large skyscraper, and only then did Cherry see fit to drop her invisibility. She shifted back into her human form, falling on her behind against the building's roof.

"Who were those guys?" she asked, breathing heavily. "They were able to see us. " she repeated it again, to herself. "They saw us… they saw us. Who were they?"

There was a white flash behind us. We both spun around—a dark, skeletal humanoid figure approached us from the other side of the skyscraper. An alakazam floated behind them, its eyes glowing with psychic energy. As the man walked forward, he entered the light enough for us both to see a dark red R on his shirt.

They had a teleporter.

Well, so did we. And if they could teleport, then I sure could too. I grabbed onto Cherry, and all of the sudden we were in the woods outside Saffron, where it was dark and the lights of the city were only a distant mirage. We both collapsed against a tree, shaken.

"R," Cherry breathed out, still staggering from the wind of the teleport. "That means Team Rocket. W-what did you say that group was again?"

A flash, and there they were again, walking towards us like nothing had happened. They had tracked us through teleport? How? And what else could they do? They'd been this prepared already. I didn't waste time—I grabbed onto Cherry, and we teleported again.

This time, we stumbled into the parking lot where Cherry's car was. Cherry staggered to her feet. When we saw the car, we made a break for it.

Cherry yanked open the door and stumbled into the driver's seat. I teleported into the gunshot seat. A flash in the distance visible through the side mirror, and there they were again. Behind us. Cherry turned the key, pulled the gear, and spun the wheel. The car swiftly turned around, leaving tire marks on the pavement, but a psychic from the Alakazam blasted it back several feet. We slammed into another van, denting the back truck and shattering the rear window of our car. Glass sprayed into the back seat of Cherry's jeep. We both screamed. Alarms blared from both cars, but Cherry slammed the gas undeterred. The car revved and took off, making a beeline for the rocket man and his alakazam—

Another flash, and they were gone just before we hit them. I couldn't sense them reappearing anywhere near us.

"How long before we lose these guys?" Cherry asked as we drove down the deserted street, for the first time sounding somewhat shaken. "Can't you just teleport us into the Hall of Origin?"

"Really bad idea," I said, frantically glancing back. "They're tracking us somehow. Wherever we go, that alakazam is going to follow."

Unless I teleported across the highest mountains and the widest oceans, they'd follow. Teleports could be tracked almost anywhere. And I was running out of energy. Too many teleports took a lot out of me, and I'd only have enough energy for one more. It had to be used wisely.

They must have been tracking our energy signatures this whole time; that was the only way the pidgeot and its rider would have been able to see us. But… how? They'd been using goggles—was it some kind of new technology that hadn't been released to the public yet?

There was a jolt from behind us, and the sudden loss of momentum flung us both forwards in our seats. Cherry slammed the gas pedal into the ground. The car revved, but we didn't go anywhere. I looked out the window and realized we were much higher above the ground than we should be—we were being lifted up!

The car suddenly went flying sideways towards the wall of a closed shopfront. We both screamed as the car flew, but I teleported us out onto the street just in time. The car crashed into the shopfront and landed on its side. Seconds later, it burst into brilliant orange flame.

Cherry and I zapped out to the front pavement, where we stumbled to the ground and quickly caught our breaths. The hulking wreck of Cherry's car burned from right outside the shop. No sooner had we looked in the direction of the city did we see the shape of the Alakazam standing all by itself in the parking lot.

But it wasn't doing anything; it was just standing there.

"What's it up to?" Cherry asked. We both eyed the alakazam uneasily, unwilling to look away from it.

There was a sound I could only describe as a fuzzy 'vworp', and a man dressed in the same black military gear as the men who'd been tailing us suddenly appeared near the alakazam. I realized: it was teleporting people in. One, two, three more teleported before I could even react, and by the time I had worked up the energy to teleport again we were already surrounded.

The last person to teleport in was someone dressed differently. I didn't see his face, only his teal hair illuminated by the flaming car behind him, and that he was wearing white and not black.

Someone suddenly clamped a rag over my face from behind. Taken off-guard, I breathed in a mouthful of whatever the rag was covered in before I could stop myself. I could only look at Cherry, who was also being smothered under a rag by a pair of bulky gloves, before the Sleep Powder kicked in and I began to slip from reality.