Maia had been in almost deliriously high spirits since they had left the boundaries of Cherrygrove city. Olivia had been surprisingly positive when saying goodbye, to Meowth's relief. He had half expected her to change her mind but she had waved them off with a smile and a meaningful look to Meowth. He knew what it meant. Get her in and out of Violet city as quickly as possible and stay out of trouble. Do not pass go, do not collect £200. Truthfully, he himself was a little anxious. He planned to see Jessie on his way back after leaving Maia with her friend in Goldenrod city but he was hoping not to run into her while Maia was with him.

She was doing pretty well so far and with Chimecho's help, had even managed to catch her first pokemon on route 30, a little Aipom who had immediately struck up a friendship with Chikorita and the two of them were insisting on walking, or in Aipom's case swinging, ahead, neither of them wanting to go in their pokeballs. Maia didn't seem to mind, she was smiling watching them running and jumping around.

They ran into a few other trainers on the route and Maia had found herself well matched with them, taking her fair share of wins and losses. Aipom was actually a pretty good scrapper despite mostly relying on Astonish to get the upper hand but Chikorita wasn't fairing so well. It had a decent technique but very few of its hits ever actually seemed to land. She shrugged it off for now, reassuring her downcast Pokemon that it would get better with practice.

"Aipom lived wild, remember?" She comforted. "It was already used to battling with other wild Pokemon. You're starting from scratch. It'll be okay, you just need lots of practice."

Chikorita bravely rallied a little at her words and darted ahead again to catch up with Aipom and Maia and Meowth exchanged a look. She wasn't ready for her first gym battle. Not by a long shot. Aipom was doing well but she'd need to catch and train at least one more Pokemon if she didn't want to rely too much on Chimecho. Ideally she wanted to use just her own Pokemon and reserve Chimecho for emergencies or backup if they ran into trouble but she was beginning to consider using it if Chikorita didn't get the hang of battling soon.

Meowth gave her what he hoped was an encouraging grin. "I'll go n get ya some more potions and stuff. You whip em into shape!" With that, he made a beeline for the Pokemart and Maia was left to take in Violet city for the first time. She smiled. It wasn't particularly remarkable but it was new. An adventure.

Snapping her mind back to business she caught up with her two Pokemon. "Okay! Come on you two! Time to train. We need to win the Zephyr badge so lets get started. Chikorita vs Aipom!"

They both leapt eagerly into place opposite each other. First move is Chikorita, Chikorita, use Scratch!" The two Pokemon traded blows for several minutes but she could see that Aipom was hesitating, allowing Chikorita a chance to move and as usual, very few attacks were even making contact.

"Too much flourish." A voice came from behind her.

She turned, "Excuse me?"

A woman stood opposite, watching the battling Pokemon with a critical eye. "Your Chikorita. It'd be great in a Pokemon contest, it'd win a lot of points for that Vine Whip attack, its elegant and well balanced. But for a real battle its moves are too flashy and its costing it speed."

Maia turned back to the battle, watching Chikorita closely. The woman was right. Every move was elegant and sweeping movements, smooth and precise. But it was slower than a sharp direct hit would have been.

"Thanks." She replied, frowning. "I hadn't noticed but you're right, that's why its attacks aren't landing. Chikorita!" The last to her partner. "Go in faster. Don't worry about it looking pretty, just focus on making contact. More speed!"

Chikorita nodded an acknowledgement to her and did as asked. This time the Vine Whip was much faster, much more direct. No more sweeping arcs, it went directly for Aipom, throwing it back several feet. Aipom squealed in surprise and caught itself by its tail, swinging back in close to take another shot. "Yes!" Maia jumped in delight. "Way to go! Thats more like it."

She turned back to the woman. "Thanks for...Hey, are you alright?"

The woman had gone pale, so pale that she looked ill and was staring at Maia as if she were a ghost.

Maia approached her cautiously, "Are you okay?"

"Maia!" Meowth's voice made them both jump and the woman seemed to break out of her daze.

"Yes" She replied quickly. Yes, I'm fine, just remembered something. It was nice to meet you." With that she turned and walked away, almost running in her haste.

"Uh, okay, thanks for your help!" Maia called after her but the woman did not acknowledge her words.

She turned to Meowth, "That was so weird. I wonder what spooked her, she was fine a minute ago."

Meowth shrugged. "It was probably me. Ya don't see that many talking cats ya know. Now come on, daylights burnin!"

She grinned and ran after him as he took off down Route 32, Chikorita and Aipom hot on her heels. It was supposed to be a good route for beginning trainers to practice and she was determined to get her Zephyr badge first time. Violet city was tiny and despite her initial curiosity about it, she was quickly losing interest and didn't want to linger too long. There wasn't much to do and her friend Abby had said she would meet her in Goldenrod city and they could travel together. Abby was a year younger than Maia and had just started her journey so it made sense and she was excited to battle with her friend.

After several trips to the Pokemon centre and an overnight stay in Violet city she was hoping she would be ready to face the gym leader. Meowth was getting a little antsy and was clearly ready to go so she went for it, despite still having a few reservations. She made it through, just. Chikorita was at a major disadvantage and Chimecho had saved their bacon with its Extrasensory attack and ability to heal the other members of its team.

She got her badge but was pretty sure Falkner had looked disapprovingly at her use of it. It wasn't really the done thing to use a parents Pokemon and Chimecho was clearly battling at a much higher level than Maia could have trained or compelled it to. But the badge was what counted, she told herself. She could get her own Pokemon up to standard on the way to the next gym and this time they would do it by themselves.

She was shaken from her musing by Meowth grabbing her hand and yanking her backwards. "Call them back." he told her sharply.

"What?"

Chikorita and Aipom, recall them now!" She had never heard him sound so forceful and found herself immediately moving to obey. "Chikorita, Aipom, return."

Meowth was still pulling at her, dragging her to crouch behind some tall grass.

"What are you doing?"

"Keep still and be quiet."

Her eyes followed his and she saw a group of people in the road ahead arguing. 4 of them were dressed the same in some kind of uniform and the other was much younger, a child probably her own age or a little older. He had a small Pokemon huddled behind him whom he was clearly attempting to protect.'

"What have we here?" A voice startled her from her focus on the group and panic gripped her as she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder. A man hauled her up and pushed her to the ground on the path. "Its not polite to spy, little girl. Hand over your Pokemon and maybe you walk away."

"Like hell!" She retorted.

The man laughed. So we've got a fiesty one!" His partner took a step forward.

"You should mind that temper. Could get you into trouble."

The first man raised his eyebrows a little. "That it could. You ever hear of Team Rocket, kid?"

She shook her head. She had of course. Not much but she knew they were a criminal organisation.

"We like kids with some spunk. Do a few little jobs for us, could set you up pretty sweet."

"Thanks but I'm too young for a job." She was proud that her voice didn't waver.

He laughed again. We don't worry about stuff like that but if you insist we could start you off as a uh...voluntary employee."

"She said no." Meowth's voice was low and even, brooking no argument.

Both men did a double take. "Did he just...?"

A slow smile spread across the second man's face. "Meowth. Good to see you again. Wouldn't have expected to run into you around these parts. Unless... no way! Is this...?" He gestured at Maia. "Damn, I see it now."

"You stay away from her." Meowth didn't break eye contact. "You let us pass and don't dare even look at her or I'll make sure you go the same way as the last lot that came after us."

"How you gonna do that kitty cat? Do you think we're afraid of you?" His voice took on a more serious tone and Maia realised that while Meowth had been facing off with them, the rest of the group had joined them and the two of them were now surrounded.

Their face-off was interrupted by a Shadow Ball attack crashing into their midst.

"How about us?"

Maia whipped around and saw that the woman from earlier was standing in the middle of the path. And she wasn't alone. A Gourgiest, a Mimiku and Seviper were with her, one of them apparently responsible for the Shadow Ball that had nearly hit the group.

"Back the fuck off or the next one won't miss." She sounded so calm.

A woman from the group stepped forward. "Jessie. Still a bore I see."

"Cassidy. Still a brown nosing, psychotic bitch I see."

Maia resisted the wild urge to snort with laughter, knowing it probably wouldn't be well received.

The man who had grabbed Maia took another step forward, putting out a hand to still the blonde woman, Cassidy, she reminded herself. She might need to identify them later.

"Cass." The reprimand was soft. He turned his attention to Maia and Meowth's defender. "Jessie. I was sorry to hear about James." he hesitated for a second before continuing. "And you being... the way you were treated. That whole sitch was fucked up."

"Yeah." Jessie's voice was cold and steady, "And if you don't let them go, you're going to be fucked up. Don't think I can't do it." Her attention flicked to a man at the back. "Rogan. You think I didn't spot you back there? He was your friend, you spineless loser!"

Rogan threw his hands up in the air. "James has been dead for 12 years! He doesn't give a shit if I stick up for his kid or not! Get over it already! Fuck!" The last as he was knocked back by another Shadow Ball directly to the gut.

"Don't you dare talk about him! Don't you dare tell me what he would want. Get away, this is your final warning. Team Rocket killed my best friend and I've had over a decade to get really pissed off about it!"

Rogan was about to answer but was cut of by the first man who again put up a hand in a calming gesture. "Lets all just take it easy. We're going, no-ones getting hurt, everyone goes their separate ways."

"Butch...!"

"Cass." In the same soothing tone. "We've bigger fish to fry and this don't sit right with me anyway.

"But she..." Rogan opened his mouth to protest.

"His kids off limits!" Butch's tone was sharp. "He's owed that much. They're owed that. Move out." He turned to nod at Jessie as the rest of the group filed away. "Like I said, I'm sorry for the way it went down. I won't mention seeing you."

"What?!" An outburst from Rogan earned him a glare from Butch and a shove from Cassidy to back up her partners words.

"No-one's going to mention seeing you."

Jessie nodded. "Appreciated." Her words were short and clipped.

Maia's heart was pounding as she watched her assailants retreat. She knew instinctively that she had been in serious danger and as the adrenaline receded she began to process what she had heard. They obviously had all known her father and she was starting to realise that from what she had just heard, her father had not died in a random shooting as she had been told. Had in fact been involved with, if not part of, a criminal organisation.

How could her dad be a criminal? Was he a bad person? Was that why they had lied to her? Her head was spinning. Had her mother known? Of course she had. She must have. Meowth couldn't have managed a cover up like that by himself and her mother must have known the man she had married. Being a criminal mastermind wasn't exactly something that would be easy to hide.

She stared between Meowth and Jessie who were looking awkwardly at each other but with obvious familiarity. Familiarity that they hadn't shown earlier. In fact Meowth had acted like he had never met her. He had lied to her.

"Meowth..." She didn't even know what to say. "How could you...? Why didn't you tell me." The words came out soft and plaintive.

Meowth regarded her sympathetically. "I guess I gots some explainin to do."