“Hurry up, man, the commander's waiting!” Darren ordered over the sounds of their urgent footsteps.

  “Shut up! I'm so sick of hearing you say that! Are you stuck looping the same lines of dialogue like an NPC?” Alex snapped.

  “What the hell are you talking about? If this was a video game, I'd be the main character while you'd be stuck as a no-name grunt. Now hurry the hell up!”

  In the back alleyway of a street, two strange men, in their early twenties by the looks of their faces, weren't doing anything suspicious at all. Well, save for rushing through a dark alley with a metal briefcase. They were dressed in simple grey overalls with a golden "G" embroidered where their hearts were, in the pedestrian-filled lightshow of Jubilife City at night.

  Rush Hour.

  “Get out of the damn way! Jeez, you people think because you have desks and computers you're so important, huh?” one shouted as they rammed through crowds of rushing, knocked-off workers on their way to the tunnel leading down to the subway.

  Ding-dong!

  “A train is now approaching Jubilife Station. Please wait at the edge of the platform."

  “Hear that? Look what you've done! We're supposed to be right there to meet her, and now we're gonna be late because you don't know how to run!” Alex snapped in panicked frustration as they nearly stumbled down a flight of stairs. Handfuls of people double-backed in a mix of fear and confusion at the duo with funny hair and somewhat wacky costumes.

  They had no respect. No empathy.

  “You always do this—don’t try to push the blame on me, Darren, you piece of shit. If you weren't so fucking stupid, we could've found the way to the subway in no time—”

  “Stop right there!” A man dressed in security blue, gripping a Poké Ball in his hand marched up to them. “Team Galactic! Your kind is not allowed in Jubilife. All you do is cause chaos and—”

  A mean fist knocked the chubby man right to the floor before any of his rambling reached their hard ears.

  “How about you suck my balls, fatty?” Darren snickered.

  “Yeah, you can be in charge of these nuts since you wanna ride us so bad, you fucking Snorlax,” the other grunt swiped the officer's Poké Ball off the ground. “Thanks for the generous contribution—and listen up: If any of you have a problem with us, come and say hi like Baldilocks over here. We won’t be shy to take your little precious monsters too! Team Galactic is always grateful for the donations! We're here to change the world!”

  The people in the station stayed distant and silent with no say over the situation.

  Nor any security to control it.

  “No, dumbass—we're here to create a new world entirely!”

  “Shut the fuck up, Darren; damn grammar police always on my dick—at least you do a better job than the actual police. Sometimes this shit’s too easy—let’s go before you keep crying about being late like a bitch again.”

  The pair dashed off in the opposite direction, past startled people as a long metal snake slid into the station with a sharp screech. They stood firm by the train's entrance as people poured out, parcels in hand.

  “What an idiot! He should've just used that baton instead of trying to be cool and popping out his Poké Ball. Did he think we were gonna join him or something? Pokémon aren't even allowed outside their balls in the Metro!” Darren said, "Well, not like I'd give much of a fuck if push came to shove..."

  “You're complaining? He gave us a free donation. It's probably not half bad since he's a security officer,” Alex replied.

  “That's not the point! That guy undermined our intelligence by thinking we were gonna engage in a useless battle instead of just beating him up. Adults always think the youth is stupid, always try to use us and then throw us away, promising everything under the—”

  “Shut up, she’s here!”

  Indeed, she was there. And she wasn't alone. Strutting out the doors was a young woman with predatory, sharp scarlet eyes that suffocated the pair of grunts. Behind her was a fleet of men and women in the same far-out uniform as the duo, their hair cleanly cut in perfect bowl cuts tinted an alien teal

  “Get the hell out of our way! Do you know who the commander is? Show some respect!” a female grunt snapped, shoving a man onto the platform edge.

  The pair stiffened up, straight backs and all, as they mechanically saluted on cue when they saw her. Blood-red hair curled by her cheeks like horns, and she was fashionably decked out in a deep black trench coat.

  Always ready for the job, always with the slickest precision, always right on the hour and not a second later.

  “I'm flattered, a welcome party? Good evening, gentlemen… 216. 217. I hope the Capital has been good to you...” Her heels stabbed the ground with firm clicks.

  “Commander Mars! It's a pleasure!” Darren immediately shifted gears like a Klink.

  “Yes, Ma'am! Welcome to Jubilife City! We secured the delivery, no casualties as you ordered!"

  Mars stared at the briefcase with a Staraptor’s eyes. It was solid metal, sealed shut with a brass padlock. As if anyone would even dare to look inside… Jupiter always did too much; nonetheless, her units still managed to get to the station on time, so it didn’t matter.

  The only thing that did… was the mission.

  “Beautiful" she said, handling the briefcase with her black gloved hands and handing them over to one of the female grunts behind her, "Make sure this gets to Pluto now. The three of us will rendezvous with the rest of you at Floaroma later, you're in charge until I arrive, 221."

  "Of course, Commander Mars. Leave it all to me." She said.

  Mars picked a stray strand of cotton off her coat.

  "We leave at eight o’clock sharp. Not a second later. You two…” she pointed at the pair of grunts, "Shall we go for a walk?"

  18:09

  Dawn pulled the plug out of the wall, coiling it in a seamless rope of black wire and packing it into the bag along with her laptop. She sighed, swiping through her phone and slipping it into her trench coat’s pocket.

  “Alright, he’s here,” she said, grabbing the papers off the table and slinging her bag over her shoulder. “Let’s go. We’ve only got around fifty minutes before the library closes, and Canalave is twenty minutes away…”

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  Toffee hopped out of the chair she’d been slouching on for the past… how many minutes? Or was it hours? She’d dozed off the minute Dawn pulled out that laptop. Experience had long taught her how long her partner would be sitting there after opening that thing up. Always slaving away for the old man with little appreciation.

  But today was different.

  They’d gotten a job for once. A real job. Not the habitat surveys they’d been stuck doing for the past eternity since they’d been hired—no. A real job that actually mattered. One Dawn seemed excited to do for once, which was all that really mattered to her.

  Of course, it wasn’t as fun as dressing up in cute outfits for their concerts, but it was way better than sitting down for hours while Dawn punched numbers into a spreadsheet.

  Still, even if they were just sitting around in the school library for hours, she would’ve rather been sitting around with Dawn than anyone else.

  There was no separating them.

  “Come on, let’s go,” Dawn repeated, scrunching up an empty cup of coffee and flinging it into a nearby bin before exiting the room with the chocolate bunny quickly bouncing behind her.

  Closely hugging the papers to her chest, Dawn moved through the school’s empty hallway towards the glass door at the end, a glowing green EXIT sign posted above it, being splashed by a crisp gust of winter wind as she pushed through it. They hadn’t even left the school, and the congested honking of traffic in the distance still managed to find its way into their ears; not that the city had many vehicles in the first place, less than you would expect for a capital, but around this time, the roads always had a particularly lively influx of vehicles.

  Not as much as the commuters flocking to the stations like Taillows every evening. No, not nearly.

  The sky was a darkened mixture of clouds and strands of thinning sunlight that did nothing to illuminate it.

  “Yeah, it’s definitely not a good time to be out in the wild,” Dawn said, being careful not to slip as she went down the stairs leading up to the door. “Hopefully, he made it out without any casualties. It would be a shame if anything happened on the way, don’t you think?”

  Toffee nodded, her little head constantly turning as she scoured the street…

  “Nevermind that…” Dawn said, hugging the papers even tighter as excitement rushed through her blood. “It’s strange… I wonder why the Professor trusted us so suddenly—not that I’m complaining—just… remember what Dad said? About responsibility last night when we were going to bed? I guess I was still a bit worked up about the Professor—I mean, what does he mean he picks based on our ‘capabilities’? I’m capable. You’re capable. Plus, it’s not like Paul's… what’s wrong?”

  Dawn finally noticed Toffee’s off behavior; she knew exactly what was going on. Something was wrong. She seemed to have her senses on something else, her ears, like fluffy flowers, were rolled up and constantly recalibrating like satellites as they exited the school premises and marched down the street. The lamp posts buzzed, illuminating the pavement, although not doing a very good job of it.

  Then...

  “Are you from the Pokémon School?”

  Dawn’s steps stuttered and stopped. She didn’t recognize the voice. It was mature, soft as a rose yet frighteningly frigid… and undeniably womanly. She quickly turned around.

  A lady.

  Her hands in the pockets of a black trench coat. But the first thing Dawn noticed were her blood-red eyes.

  “Yes…” Dawn hesitated, a cloud of fog trailing out her lips. “Can… I help you?”

  The lady sighed, tracing her lips with a stick of scarlet lipstick and fixing one of her dangling pearl earrings, which had been bothering her.

  “Yes,” the lady said. "My ears tell me... Professor Rowan has been quite dilligently researching evolutionary traits. Do you know anything about that?”

  Toffee inched forward, Dawn putting her hand out and stopping her from advancing any further.

  “Umm... I don't think its appropriate for me to discuss it in detail, not that I would know as much, it's not my department...”

  “I see. Tell me, dear, in the interest of time: what do you know about the legendary Pokémon Palkia and Dialga?"

  “Sorry, but… I have to meet someone, and I’m in a bit of a rush. I hope you understand, miss…?”

  “Ms. Mars,” she said, pulling a Great Ball from her coat pocket with a blasé look and promptly pressing the button. “I understand, dear. I’m in a rush myself. You’re positive this is the one?”

  In an instinctual fit, Toffee hopped into action and swung a kick like a sweeping edge aimed at the lady’s legs, fully prepared to do the worst—but was stopped by a loud clap that banged in sensitive ears and made her freeze in sudden fright, stunned by what sounded like a bomb exploding in her eardrums.

  Dawn screamed, the stack of papers dropped to the floor as a set of arms locked her up from behind and lifted her into the air.

  “Yes, Commander Mars,” Alex said, picking the papers from the floor with haste and dusting them off. “This is one of the them. We have reason to believe she might have intel on the whereabouts of Lustrous Orb as we said. She usually leaves around this time on the days she stops by the school."

  Dawn felt her heart plummet down her body as her eyes locked onto the golden "G" on the man’s uniform. There was no mistaking it.

  Toffee shook herself out of her daze, fury boiling within her as the image of her one and only partner being handled in such a crude way burned itself into her mind, and the only thing she wanted to do in that moment was kill them!

  She charged in, balling her fist with raging fury—

  “No, Toffee, run away—”

  “Body Slam.”

  Like a truck dropping from the sky, a hefty clump of clobbering mass crushed the little Buneary’s back and smashed her into the rock-solid pavement! Dawn screamed but was muffled by a gloved hand covering her mouth.

  It was an abomination.

  Bulky, athletic and ugly, mercilessly smooshing Toffee’s little body under its frame and squeezing all the breath out of her with a bland, whiskered face, glaring ceaselessly with its feline gaze into Dawn’s eyes as if to mock her for being so useless.

  You would never expect such a classy-looking lady… to be commanding something so unapologetically brutish as a Purugly.

  Dawn was useless.

  “Commander Mars, ma’am, you might want to see these papers…” Alex said, quickly handing her the stack of papers for her to browse through. Her killer carmine corneas analyzed each word in complete silence before her voice cut through the air once again.

  “Excellent work, 216,” she lauded, handing him the papers. “Be sure to check her bag for any more useful information, and take that laptop of hers. Yes, I am quite pleased with your find. Those papers might be the most valuable asset for us to have at this stage of our plan… undoubtedly.”

  The sound of her heels clicking against the ground squeezed Dawn’s heart in a grip of fear as she inched closer to the Buneary helplessly twitching under the Purugly’s weight.

  “Good girl, Phobos. That’s enough for now; she won’t be getting up for a while… if at all.” She glanced at Dawn, who flippantly squirmed against the other grunt’s grip. She made her way to Dawn’s bag, pulling apart its contents and pulling out a sleek plastic card. “Dawn Oriana Diamond… what a beautiful name you have, darling. ‘Oriana’ almost rings a bell… if you were to replace the ‘O’. And… what a wonderful little partner you have here; she wasted no time. I was scared she was gonna break my legs. Well… not entirely, thanks to my precious Phobos over there; she is quite a darling. Bring me her Poké Ball.”

  Toffee spasmed and jerked on the floor, unable to move after the crushing pounds dropped on her body, no matter how much she wanted to. In that moment, the only thing she was seeing was red… worst of all, all she felt was pain; her beady black eyes twitched, completely frozen on Dawn, whose eyes were locked into a stare-off with that… that evil red-headed witch!

  Dawn kicked hard, flailing around as she tried to push the word ‘help!’ out of her mouth. But she was helpless. Tears welled up in her eyes as she watched pedestrians stroll by, only to see her situation and imbue their steps with fearful hustle; all while she was ransacked by criminals out in the open.

  This couldn’t have been happening.

  Anything but this.

  Not her partner.

  Not her Toffee.

  This wasn't fine. This was the furthest thing from fine—she could feel the seems of her false contentment ripping; all Dawn was seeing was red.

  “Quite the fighter, wouldn’t you agree?” Mars said, taking the Poké Ball from his hands, wasting no time in absorbing the Buneary to its capsule and stashing it away in her pocket, “Well, my dear Dawn… I don’t want to suspend you any longer, especially since someone’s waiting on you. Phobos…”

  The big cat strutted towards the lady, whipping its twin tails in the air.

  “Stop it! What the fuck—help! Someone help me, I'm being robbed! You’ll go to hell, bitch! You better pray to fucking Arceus I don't find you!"

  "No, dear. You should know it isn't very charming to let your temper get the better of you. Word of advice, from me to you... hypnosis.

  A looping wave of rippling psychic energy echoed in her ears and flowed into her mind, rapidly eroding her consciousness… and the last thing she saw was the disgusting image of a fat cat and a finely-dressed woman with hair as red as blood as she collapsed onto the concrete canvas.

  Left behind by the criminals.