FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

My Gardevoir partner and I rushed down the grey metal hall as silently as we could and stopped at a nexus in the complex; hugging the wall as I looked around the corner. I took a moment to be thankful for the training we had received since leaving the civilian police as I surveyed the corridor to my left. One of it's perks was that Clara now knew how to tweak the minds of people near her and block out certain sensory inputs; in this case it was what little sound we made as we advanced through the compound. It took a lot of effort on her part though, and covering just our footsteps was taking nearly all she had after the exhaustion of the previous weeks.

"That's good for now, Clara, the hall's clear for a while yet." I thought to her, and she nodded. I felt my ears pop as the effects of her telepathy faded and stepped around the corner, proceeding slowly and silently down the hallway. Clara followed close behind. About halfway to the next turn I shed the black uniform I had been wearing for the past month, as it was useless now anyway; revealing a t-shirt and shorts hidden underneath.

"Mark, she should be waking up any minute now." Clara said worriedly from behind me. I nodded and sighed before tossing the shirt with the big red R on it aside. I had been assigned undercover duty to investigate the crime group which calls itself Team Rocket, and after being recruited I lost track of my location since they black-bagged trainees to their randomly assigned initiation centers. It took weeks for me to get a moment of privacy long enough to contact my commanding officer, and she informed me that I was somewhere in Celadon City in Kanto. Unfortunately, that was when the administrator of the facility I was in caught me and blew my cover. Clara was quick with a Hypnosis, but we had to move quickly if we were going to make it out of here.

"Hey, Steve!" A rookie team member called out to me as he came around the corner ahead of us. I jumped and instinctively reached for my belt, ready to call Flare out if things got messy. The rookie looked at me confused. "Hey, why are you out of uniform? You know we're not supposed to take them off even on break, right?" He asked.

"Clara, now." I said out loud. Clara sidestepped me and fired off a hypnosis at the unsuspecting grunt. He fell to the floor with a heavy thud, snoring loudly. We continued down the hall, moving faster now than before.

The corridor suddenly flooded with red light as a wailing alarm sounded up. "All troops, we have a spy. He came in with the recent batch of recruits and is accompanied by a Gardevoir. The first to bring him to me gets a bonus in this month's paycheck." A frustrated female voice announced from overhead; barely audible through the siren.

"Running out of time Mark." Clara said impatiently as the sound of footsteps on metal began to echo from both ends of the hall.

"Any chance you could Teleport us out of here?" I asked, slowly backing towards my partner.

"I still have no idea where we are, we'd risk getting stuck in a wall." She said.

"Not worth it for these guys." I sighed.

Clara looked up at me surprised. "You're giving this one up?" She asked.

I nodded. "Even if we try to smash through with Flare we have no idea which way's out," I explained. "Plus I'm not sure what kind of metal they built this place out of. If I have Flare get crazy with his fire attacks we could very well end up cooking ourselves."

Clara chuckled. "You have a point." She said stretching as I pulled her modified pokeball from my belt. "Guess I'll see you when you find a way out of this mess." She said. "Try not to make them too mad."

I nodded as I called her back. She disappeared inside the usual red flash before being pulled inside the device, which snapped shut. After a moment, the four extra clasps spaced out along the pokeball's seams snapped down tight, locking her inside. It wasn't long before the first grunt showed up around the corner and began shouting. I did my best to seem casual as I snapped Clara's pokeball back on my belt next to Flare's. Footsteps echoed throughout the hall as more grunts arrived to back the first one up and shortly I was surrounded, with more and more grunts packing in to earn that bonus crammed closer, blocking any chance of escape. The ones at the front of the wave had their hands on their belts, ready to send out a pokemon at the first sign of resistance. The sea of grunts came to a halt and began parting in front of me as a familiar red hairdo muscled it's way to the front of the crowd.

"Real cute." The Administrator growled as she broke free of the crowd. Her hair was still messed up from being crammed face-first into a closet after we knocked her out. She wore a black beret that seemed to be standard issue to all female Rocket agents, as well as high cut tank top that showed a good amount of her midriff below which she wore black denim jeans which weren't standard issue uniform, but she got away with it being in charge. Apart from her pants and vivid red hair, the only way to tell her apart from any of the other female recruits present was the full team of six pokemon clasped to her belt. "Alright, first question. Who are you really?" She demanded.

"Special Agent Mark Emmet." I said in an official tone.

"So, Mark." She said. "Where's your back up?"

"Just me and my pokemon." I said, gesturing to my belt.

"What the hell were you thinking trying to sneak in here on your own?" The Admin asked.

I chuckled and shrugged. "This is actually my first assignment." I said.

She looked at me baffled for a few seconds before scowling and turning back. "Take him down, we'll get what we need out of him later." She ordered, strolling back into the crowd. A moment later I was tackled from behind and pinned down on the floor. I put up no resistance and after a few seconds I felt the stabbing pain in my thigh I had been expecting. It took a few seconds for the sedatives to start to take effect, just as they had the first time they moved me to this facility. The world around me slowly faded to black as I vaguely registered being lifted off the ground and carried off before losing consciousness completely.

...

** "** Mark, what the hell was that?" My Coach yelled as Clara and I stumbled over the finish line, exhausted.

"Gimme a break, you've had us running since dawn!" I panted, plopping down on the grass beside the track.

"And I'll have you running until midnight unless you finish your laps," She threatened, "Now come on and give me ten more, maybe then I'll let you call it a day."

Clara and I groaned in unison as we hauled ourselves back to our feet and set to jogging once more. Flare meanwhile sat by the track next to our coach, panting and wagging his tail. Our coach and future partner's name was Lily, and that's all we knew about her. I tried to get her last name once and earned an extra dozen laps for my effort. She had been assigned to us after a short interview process to get a scope on my personality type; which at the time seemed stupid to me. Five weeks later, I'm starting to see why they picked her. Her iron fist approach to training us was an all but perfect counter to my tendency to slack off.

"Come on, faster!" Lily demanded, causing both Clara and I to wince and pick up the pace. As much as I hated her methods, I had to admit they worked. I was in better shape than I had ever been in my life, including my time at the academy; and Clara was now able to keep up with me and even outlast me when it came to endurance training. Flare was in peak form and easily cleared whatever challenges Lily put before him early in the day, so he spent most of his time watching us or lazing about, much to Lily's disdain.

Finally, we finished our ten laps and collapsed on the grass. Lily deigned to show mercy and called it a day. Had I known the training they'd put me through after joining the World Police would be this intense I may not have joined, but then again we were learning a lot more than we could have figured out on our own. The three of us headed to the cafeteria and ate a mediocre a la cart dinner before heading back to the dorm rooms we had been assigned. Lily had made it there before us; even at what passed for home we weren't safe from her. She was sitting in her usual chair in the corner reading one of her many training manuals. Tonight's read was apparently a self defense guide. New recruits were assigned to live with their coaches quite frequently, as these pairings often ended up being partners down the line and the faster they got used to each other, the more effective a team they'd make. I quietly retreated to my bedroom in the back for some privacy before breathing a sigh of relief.

"You okay Mark?" Clara asked me telepathically after sitting down on the bed.

"Yeah," I responded in thought, so as not to raise the ire of my future partner. "It's just she's giving me flashbacks to Coach back at the academy."

Clara suppressed a giggle. "Yeah, but we made it through that all right didn't we?" she asked.

I nodded, "How're you holding up?" I asked.

"Sore, but that's nothing new." Clara said matter-of-factly.

"You guys done bitching about me back there yet?" Lily commented from the front room. Clara and I both winced.

"How would you know if we were?" I asked, trying to sound casual.

There was a disappointed sigh from the other side of our dorm. "Looks like tomorrow we'll have to do something other than endurance training if we're going to get you two up to par." Lily Sighed.

...

Cold wetness hit my face, dragging me out of the darkness slowly. Somewhere far away, someone mumbled to hit him again and a fresh splash dragged me the rest of the way out of the dark. I opened my eyes tentatively, flinching as they adjusted to the light.

"Good morning officer Emmet." A female voice said, then turned to the two grunts to her side. "You can leave now." She said, more as an order than a statement. They hurriedly left the cell, closing the door behind them with a thud.

I blinked groggily up at the woman as water dripped from my face. She was a little on the short end with long blond hair and sleek glasses. She wore a white lab coat with a few pens in the shirt pocket, something which would have seemed almost cliche if she didn't seem so comfortable in them. underneath was a turtleneck sweater and cargo shorts with a couple pokeballs strapped to her belt. "Who are you?" I mumbled, still groggy from whatever it was they injected me with.

"Just a lab tech." The woman said, smiling. "Now lets see if you can guess how then next few hours of your life are going to play out." She asked, gesturing behind her. I blinked slowly, examining the room we were in and it's contents. It was about ten feet by ten feet even with fluorescent lights above us and a single door with a small barred window set in its upper half. In front of me was a small cart like you'd see in a hospital with an assortment of syringes and vials set on one end and on the other were two familiar pokeballs and a toolbox that sat open next a pile of stuff that had been on my person. Aside from the self described lab tech and myself, no one else was in the cell.

"I'm guessing you're going to try to interrogate me" I said with a sigh. "And when that doesn't work you'll turn to chemicals to either torture me into telling you what you want or some kind of drug to get me to talk, that sound about right?" I asked.

The woman smiled. "That was a good guess, but let's hear a better one." She said.

I looked up at her confused. "Mind filling me in, because now I'm lost."

"What could we really stand to learn from a lowly World Police grunt?" She asked.

I looked up at her confused, "So what? The drugs are just for show?" I asked.

"Come on officer Emmet, you're smarter than that, you made it into the World Police after all." She teased.

"Alright, if it's not info you want, and you haven't outright killed me, I'm guessing you need me for something?" I asked, my head starting to clear. "maybe as a hostage?"

"Getting warmer Mark." She said, picking up one of my pokeballs off the cart. "It is information I'm after however."

"Good luck getting those open." I said, struggling against whatever restraints they had tying me to this chair. From what I could feel, they seemed to be cloth, but felt softer than that.

"Oh!" The woman exclaimed, "You must mean the locks they've started installing on your pokeballs?" She asked. "Yeah, those aren't hard to get through." She said, tossing the pokeball on the ground in front of me to prove her point. There was a flash of red light as a massive canine appeared in front of me, who seemed bewildered for a few seconds before spotting me as the woman caught the ball neatly on the rebound. Flare growled deeply before turning to face the woman who had let him out and charged her. As if anticipating this, she simply called him back inside the device before he could even get close. She smiled at me and set his pokeball back on the cart. "See?" She said.

I held my breath for a few seconds, waiting for Flare to pop back out of his pokeball. The woman looked at me confused. "I don't like that look." She said sternly. "What don't I know?" She demanded, stepping back from the cart. As if on cue, the ball burst open again, releasing the roaring Arcanine back into the cell and sending the medical cart tumbling back against the wall. The lab tech scowled and crouched low as Flare charged her again. I felt a brief flash of hope as it looked like the tackle connected, but it quickly turned to confusion as the woman suddenly sprung over Flare's back, using his head as a vault before landing behind him and rolling towards the downed cart. "Clever trick." She muttered to herself, calmly picking up his pokeball as Flare looked around wildly, having lost track of her in his frenzied state. The Canine spotted her just in time to be called back inside the ball again. This time she engaged the locks manually to keep him in. "Need to reduce the delay on the auto locks for sure on the next line." She mumbled before resetting the tray to its upright position.

"Exactly what are you playing at?" I asked, now pretty sure this woman was not an average Rocket member, even for her job.

The woman looked up at me surprised. "Oh? Catching on now are we?" She asked half-sarcastically.

"You're not working just for Rocket are you." I said flatly.

"Ding ding," she said smiling as she started picking up syringes from the floor, which had somehow gone undamaged in the scuffle. "Or maybe I'm not working for Rocket at all." She said.

"You're familiar with the locks on my pokeballs," I said, "So you're somehow in on R&D for us at the very least."

She stopped in the middle of picking a needle up and looked at me with a sly grin. "That model is actually my own design." She said cheerily.

Gears upon gears began turning in my head, trying to make sense of this all. 'So you're some kind of double agent?" I asked. "Then what do you need me for?"

She sighed. "Time's up Mark." She said as she strolled up to me with a syringe full of reddish liquid. with one swift motion she slid the needle into my bound forearm. Fire filled my bloodstream, lighting up my nerves with intense pain before being replaced by a somewhat pleasant numb everywhere as it passed through my veins. My head began to cloud as the chemicals hit my brain. Whatever gears were still turning ground to a halt as a warm haze filled my mind.

"What the hell was that?" I mumbled incoherently as it became harder and harder to focus.

"Just a little cocktail of my own design." The Admin said, sounding more than a little proud of her brew. "Basically a whole lot of dopamine mixed in with some muscle inhibitors and a few other fun things." She said, looming over me as my head swirled. "Perfectly safe, and perfectly potent."

I groaned as I felt my body slowly slump against my restraints. "Why?" I mumbled.

"The fun part about this is I just need you to stay put and let them find you to get what I need." The woman almost cooed in my ear, getting closer. "We've got nothing but time to kill until then, so I thought I'd have a little fun." She said, grabbing another syringe from the cart and sliding the tip into my forearm in the same location as the first. I felt a much more pleasant rush of heat this time now that my nerves were dulled to the sensation, and after a few moments the world faded to black once again.

...

Nervously, Clara, Flare, and I approached the training fields much earlier than we normally would. Lily had told us to meet her here at four AM sharp and we knew better than to complain or be late. My thoughts were preoccupied with the idea that Lily could somehow listen in on our telepathic communication. That possibility meant she might know about my relationship with my pokemon, which was terrifying at first, but that possibility combined with the fact that she hadn't ratted us out about it led me to worry more about the possibility of her trying to black mail us.

"Relax Mark, we don't even know for sure yet what she knows." Clara said from my right. As if in agreement Flare affectionately butted his head against my shoulder.

"Yeah, you're right." I sighed. "I just hope it turns out well." I said as we closed the remaining distance to the fence and opened the gate; which had already been unlocked for us. We stepped onto the greens as morning began to peak its head over the line of trees in the distance which made the dew shimmer in patches. After a moment we spotted Lily near the treeline which was far from any of her previously established training spots, and next to her was a tall figure we couldn't make out yet. Lily waved us over in her direction and with a sigh we began the long hike to meet her, much to the disdain of Flare who promptly heated himself up to evaporate whatever dew he came in contact with and thus left a trail of steaming paw prints behind him in the grass.

"Who's that?" Clara asked, gesturing to the shadow standing beside Lily as we walked.

"Can't you sense who it is?" I asked Clara.

"Normally I could, but for some reason I can't even feel a presence there." She said worriedly. "Come to think of it Lily's kind of like that too." She mumbled.

"What do you mean?" I asked as a loud hiss followed by a grunt from my left alerted me to Flare having accidentally stepped in a puddle.

"I don't like reading minds without permission unless I have to." Clara said resolutely. I nodded, understanding. "But occasionally I'll take a peek or accidentally pick up on something." She said.

"Accidentally?" I asked. "Doesn't it take focus to read a mind?"

"Sort of." Clara sighed. "Look, some people are louder than others when it comes to telepathy. You're one of them. In spaces with a lot of minds crammed together all thinking at once its pretty hard not to, it's like accidentally overhearing a conversation at a party."

I nodded. "So how's that come back to Lily?" I asked.

"Well," Clara began, "A while after meeting her I thought it was strange I hadn't heard even a mumble of her thoughts even while being around her so much." "So you took a peek?" I asked.

"I took a peek." Clara admitted, sounding more than a little guilty about it.

"And?" I asked.

"And nothing." Clara said flatly.

"What do you mean nothing?" I asked, looking up at her confused.

"I mean nothing." She repeated. "Not even a murmur. Its like she had nothing going on upstairs at all." Clara explained, rapping her knuckle on her head to illustrate her point.

"Why does that not surprise me." I mumbled looking ahead to our Coach as we closed the remaining distance between us. I could now make out the shape of the person beside her, and it turned out not to be a person at all, but rather a pokemon.

"You're on time for once." Lily remarked flatly. "Anything I should know about?" The humanoid white and green figure beside her looked us up and down without emotion. He stood taller than any of us with a proud green crest above his stark red eyes, the same red as Clara's. His thin frame seemed solid and was white while his arms were a deep emerald with what looked to be very sharp blades extending from his elbows.

"A Gallade." I mumbled to myself, recognizing the alternate evolution of a male Kirlia.

"What was that?" Lily asked sharply.

"Nothing." I said, shaking my head. "Anyway, why are we out here this early?" I asked.

"Because you seem to think you're the only person with psychic pokemon." Lily said flatly.

"Not really." I said, feeling a little defensive. "You clearly have a Gallade here and my friend back in Jhoto has a Medicham." I said.

Lilly shook her head with a sigh. "Not what I meant rookie." She said, this time without moving her lips.

I blinked, trying to process this visual input for several seconds before it occurred to me. "You're using your Gallade to communicate telepathically?" I asked.

Lily chuckled. "You wish." She said, this time out loud. "Though that is one thing that can be done, so don't forget that."

"Wait, you're telling me you're psychic?" I asked, not believing the words as they came out of my mouth.

"I was born and raised with my partner here." She said flatly. "It just rubbed off on me."

"So you've been listening in on our conversations?" I asked, feeling panic start to bloom in my chest.

"Kinda hard not to." Lily said. "You can't expect to be in the elite class of law enforcement while still making sloppy mistakes like using unsecured lines of communication."

I looked over to to Clara, who looked just as worried as I felt. "I'll skip to the point here, what are you going to do with us?" I asked, swallowing hard.

Lily cracked an honest to goodness smile at that, the first one I'd ever seen her show; though i'd seen that same smile from our academy coach. "I'm going to turn you into the best agents you're bodies can handle being." She said resolutely, "Even if I have to drag your minds screaming along for the ride. I don't care what you do with your free time, my only job is to train you."

Clara and I stared at her dumbfounded.

"I will hold that information against you." Lily warned, "If I ever sense that for one second you're not taking this job or training seriously, I will make you regret not staying in that little quiet town in Jhoto."

"That's not fair!" I exclaimed, exasperated.

"I don't care." Lily said flatly.

"Why hold us to this then rather than turn us in and apply for better partners?" Clara interrupted, sounding far calmer than she should given the situation. I looked over at her confused and to my surprise I saw her seeming deep in thought rather than panic.

"Simple." Lily said. "You've got the potential to be some of our top tier agents."

"And just how do you figure that?" I all but shouted. A hand fell on my shoulder causing me to jump.

"Calm down Mark." Clara said reassuringly to me, holding my shoulder firmly. "She already said she wasn't going to turn us in."

"I'd listen to your partner." Lily said, folding her arms across her chest.

I sighed, feeling defeated. "So then what do you plan to do with us?" I asked Lily morosely.

Lily smiled than all to familiar sadistic smile once again. "That's the fun part. Follow me." She said, turning and walking into the woods behind her as her Gallade did the same. I looked to Flare and Clara for some sort of guidance and sighed when they started walking forward ahead of me after Lily. I shook my head as I followed suit, feeling like this was the end of life as I'd known it.

...

"You weren't authorized to do this!" A familiar voice called out through the haze, drawing me slowly back into the light.

"Look, I'm working on the interrogation, just like you ordered!" Another familiar voice shouted back. Groggily I opened my eyes, wincing as the light hit them at first, but after a moment I could make out the scene in front of me. The Rocket Admin in charge of the location stood in front of me with her hands on her hips, leaning forward aggressively as she berated the woman in a lab coat in front of her.

"Then where's my information Emily?" The Admin shouted. "I've given you a lot of leniency under your assurance of results but so far all you've given me is a drugged up insurgent. Who is he? Who's our leak? How did he even get past recruitment without being discovered?"

"I already told you the drugs need time to work!" The frustrated Lab tech shouted back.

"All you've had is time!" The admin retorted. "You've had Eight hours with him on your own and you've so far only managed to cause a partial security breach!"

"I had it under control!" Emily shouted back. "Only three percent of pokemon have the ability to unlock their own pokeballs anyway, How could I account for it?"

"That wasn't what I was talking about!" The admin said, pointing a finger at Emily's face. "I'm talking about you ordering your assigned guards out of the room who were there in case something like that happened, which is highly suspicious to say the least!"

"Are you accusing me of something?" Emily asked, now visibly nervous. At this point I noticed the two grunts standing by the door who almost blended in with the walls. In unison, they reached for their belts in case Emily tried something.

"Yes I am." The admin said, sneering.

"Hold the phone." I mumbled out, causing both of them to look over at me surprised. I blinked slowly, trying to shake the sleepy state I was in to no avail. the constant warm tingling all over my body didn't do much to help.

"You're awake?" Emily asked, surprised. Both Rocket grunts looked up at me with equal shock, their hands tightening around their pokeballs at their side.

"About time." The Admin said turning to face me. "Who was your in?" She demanded, leaning down close enough for me to smell her cinnamon perfume.

"I don't even know." I heard my voice say. I blinked and looked around for the source of it confused, but quickly had to shut my eyes as the room began to spin.

"You're not even trying are you?" The admin growled.

"He's telling the truth." Emily sighed, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

"You be quiet." The Admin snapped back at her before returning her attention to me. "Tell me who our rat is." The red haired woman ordered.

I shook my head as my vision swirled again and tried to think of an answer. Once again my voice spoke up without my input, sounding heavily intoxicated, "Its a standard procedure for us," I mumbled, "The field agents doing recon and insurgence are kept deliberately in the dark so as not to bleed information."

The Admin stared at me in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me." She muttered.

"Honest truth." I muttered smiling absently.

"I told you I know what I'm doing." Emily said.

"You're not off the hook!" The admin snapped back at her.

"I've had enough of this." Emily sighed. As if on cue, both guards at the back of the room vanished.

"What-" The Admin began, but was cut short by Emily lunging forward and driving her knee into the unsuspecting Admin's stomach. The Rocket doubled over with a wheeze. "I knew it." She gasped, stumbling back.

"Knew what?" Emily asked, sounding bored as she regained her composure.

"None of your references checked out." The Admin growled "You were hired way too fast and got your clearance approved by command almost the instant you walked in the compound. There's no way you were legit, you're some sort of agent." She reached for her belt, and called out one of her pokemon. With a howl a black hound emerged from a flash of red light with white curved horns protruding from the back of its head. "Houndoom, use Dark Pulse!' The Admin shouted. The pokemon reared its head back right before vanishing as the guards had. "What!?" The admin shouted, reaching for another pokeball.

"You have a short memory," Emily remarked disinterestedly, "but I commend you for routing me this early; however we still have the problem of me needing more time to get what I need from this."

"What are you-" The Admin began to say but doubled over again as the words turned to mumbling in her mouth. Slowly, she sunk to the floor and curled into a ball there, eyelids half closed.

I found myself smiling despite something inside me knowing this was a very bad situation. "She was noisy." I said, half giggling.

"Yes." Emily said, surveying the room. "Might as well seal the door." Emily said to seemingly no one. A few seconds later a bright tongue of flame erupted from the empty space in front of the cell door and began bathing the seams in its heat, slowly welding the door shut. After a couple minutes the job was done and the door was sealed, the melted metal still glowing faintly. "Now then, what to do with you two in the meantime." Emily mused to herself.

I shrugged, or at least tried to given my restraints. The Admin continued to mumble to herself on the floor. Emily strolled over to the medical cart and fiddle around for a bit before picking up what looked like a watch from it. I recognized this to be part of my main form of communication with my CO, it acted as an antenna and controller for my com device, which was surgically implanted in my ear canal shortly before this mission. A few seconds later I winced as the device started up with a hiss of static in my ear. "There we go." Emily said, satisfied. "A little risky, but risk is what we need right now."

"Mark, what the hell happened to you?" Lily spoke up in my ear. Emily looked over at me curiously.

"Oh hey Lily." I mumbled. "Nothing much, just sitting in a cell drugged up is all." I said rather nonchalantly.

There were several moments of silence before Lily spoke up again. "You're being serious aren't you." She said worriedly.

"Yep." I said, cheerily.

"How did you get your com on?" Lily demanded.

"Oh, this lady here turned it on for me I guess." Emily waved at me as she continued to fiddle with my watch.

"Who?" Lily demanded. "Why can't I track you?" the line suddenly cut to silence as an orange spark flew out from my watch.

"There we go." Emily said, seeming content with herself. "We only have a few hours before your friend there catches wind of where you are."

"She's not gonna be happy when she gets here." I remarked.

"I'm actually banking on that." Emily remarked as she knelt down next to the incapacitated Admin. "We could have some fun with you in the meantime." Emily mused.

"No..." The Admin mumbled, curling tighter.

"Oh come on now, don't be such a grouch." Emily teased, poking the red haired woman's cheek; which caused a blush to bloom there. "Mark over there's pretty cute isn't he?" Emily added. The Admin only blushed deeper.

"M-maybe..." the admin mumbled, then shook her head. "No!" She growled.

Emily sighed. "Hit her again I guess." There was a giggle from somewhere in the room right before the Admin convulsed with a throaty moan.

"What was that?" The Admin asked bewildered.

"Just a little love tap from a friend of mine." Emily cooed. "Now about that Mark there." She said placing her hand on the Admin's shoulder. "Doesn't he look tasty all tied up and helpless there?"

Suddenly I felt both sets of eyes on me and the until now pleasant buzz I had been feeling from the drugs in my system turned to cold worry. "Wait, what?" I asked, fidgeting weakly in my seat.

"You do have a point there." The Admin mumbled, blushing deeply.

Emily smirked, "So what should we do about it?"

...

"This will be you're new training ground." Lily remarked as we entered the clearing. In front of us was what looked like a large lake with a glass smooth surface, but as Lily continued walking out on to it I realized it was actually a marsh of some sort. Lily only sunk up to her ankles as she strode out across the water, causing ripples to spread far across the pond. My depression from the hike let up a bit as I looked down into the reflected sky before me. Flare growled grumpily and took a seat a few feet back from the edge of the water.

"This place feels... weird." Clara commented, seeming excited.

"This is a special place to psychic pokemon and people." Lily explained. "It's very quiet."

"So why are we here?" I asked.

"First things first, we need to stop you from broadcasting your telepathy so broadly." Lily said.

"Broadcasting? Its about as private as it gets." I said.

Lily sighed. "You know from personal experience you can get into people's heads easily with psychic pokemon, I've read your files. So why can't other psychic pokemon or people like me do it too?" She asked.

"Well..." I started and trailed off. "Alright then what do we do to stop it then?"

"That I can't teach you." Lily said. "its something Clara needs to figure out on her own." She said.

"So how do I go about it?" Clara asked.

"We're gonna force you to through stress." Lily said flatly.

Clara swallowed hard. "So its a battle then." She said.

"Pretty much." Lily said.

"Great." I sighed. "So how do we go about it then?" I asked. "Just one on one?" I asked.

"Exactly, though not in the way you think." Lily said, strolling back towards me. "It's gonna be my Gallade against your Gardevoir, and you against me." She said, cracking her knuckles.

"Wait what?" I asked, steeping back.

"You see, Clara doesn't need your help to figure this out." Lily explained. "And I can't just let you sit and do nothing the whole time she's training."

"So you're gonna make me fight you?" I asked, still not believing what this woman was telling me.

"Yep." Lily said, smiling. "To be honest I've been wanting to knock your lazy ass down a peg or two for a while yet."

"How is that at all relevant?" I asked, exasperated.

"It'll give you a chance to test those submission grabs you've been learning on a less than cooperative target." Lily explained. "Now are you gonna keep making excuses or can we get down to training?"

I sighed again and stepped forward against my better judgement to face her. I squared off in what I approximated to be an efficient fighting stance, which only elicited a chuckle from my now sparring-partner. Clara and the Gallade squared off against each other as well, seeming to understand what was expected of them without further explanation. With a grunt I made the first move of the engagement and the first of many, many mistakes on my part of that day. Countless light jabs and kicks found their way through my sloppy attempts at guarding, and Lily deftly slipped out of most of my clumsy attempts to grab or disable her limbs. After a mere twenty minutes I was panting and bruised while Lily hadn't even broken a sweat. Lily refused to let me quit.

Meanwhile Clara and her sparring partner were engaged more in a battle of wits than a physical contest. Left to their own devices and lacking the additional perspective and input of a trainer, they were forced to rely on instinct; which for Clara meant keeping her distance and relying on ranged attacks. Unfortunately the Gallade she was facing seemed to prefer using those blades extending from its elbows; which was making it hard for Clara to keep away from him. The real challenge came from both pokemon making use of their Teleport skill. The result looked somewhat like a dance, with Clara usually Teleporting out of the way of a powerful slash and firing a counter attack off at her rival who similarly Teleported out of the way, usually to her flank or rear, trying to catch her off guard with his following attack. The first time he used this tactic it worked well, sending Clara all but flying across the pond with a splash, but she quickly healed the wound off with her Heal Pulse skill and after that never let him land another blow.

My own partner never let up on me, but despite that I knew she was holding back her full strength. The bruises began to add up and turned slowly to a deep muscle ache with the hours, causing me to slow down, but I kept pushing on despite that. By now it had become a matter of pride for me: I didn't want to leave Clara feeling alone in her training, but mostly I was fed up with Lily toying with me. I was determined to put a stop to her antics of dodging and counterattacking constantly, but I would be satisfied with catching her just off guard enough to force her to show her real strength at least once. I decided to play the slow game, feigning further fatigue and soreness while closely watching her attack patterns; I even began to think nothing but song lyrics in what I felt to be a clever way to prevent her from using telepathy effectively, if she was using it at all that was. I slogged on, letting blow after blow connect, but watching carefully where they came from and what provoked them. After another half hour of this I felt like I had found a weak point in her patterns. Each time I attempted to put her left arm into a lock she would quickly twist around and deliver a counter kick with her right leg, but for a brief moment this maneuver left her back turned to me. I waited for my chance and after a few more minutes the opportunity presented itself. I made a flailing grab at her exposed arm and as expected she slipped out of my grip. I quickly turned as she spun, prepared to catch her leg as it came whipping towards me. To my surprise it worked. My body had become so in tune with the speed and timing of her attacks that if was as easy as catching a ball once I knew what was coming. There was a grunt of surprise from my partner as my arms locked around her leg, and wasting no time I yanked it upwards before she could react, pulling her off of her other foot before slamming her back down onto her front with a splash. There was a short period of gurgling as Lily's face was forced underwater while I torqued her leg up over her back while sitting down on her middle, pinning her neatly.

"Finally." I panted, though my victory was short lived as just a moment after the words left my mouth Lily managed to twist her entire body around underneath me, letting her knee bend unnaturally in the process before rolling back in a sort of half somersault, overpowering me and throwing me into the water where she had been and in another moment she had reversed the same hold onto me and stretching my leg painfully back as my inflexible body cried out in pain and locked up.

"You're good for today." Lily said after spitting the mud out of her mouth. "Points for tenacity, but no one else will give you nearly that long to adapt." She warned. All I could muster in response was a groan. Lily released the lock and let me climb to my knees, something which i could barely manage by now.

On the other side of the marsh Clara's battle continued on, though Clara was just as fatigued as I was. By now all she could manage was to dodge with her Teleports and very rarely managed to fire off a counter attack. Occasionally she was forced to take a blow or awkwardly dodge one rather than Teleport as she tried to catch her breath. It wasn't long until the final blow was dealt; a sloppy dodge from Clara left her wide open for a second slash which sent her sprawling across the pond. With a gurgle Clara admitted defeat and slowly pulled herself up from the mud.

By now the sun was getting low in the sky and Lily dismissed us for the evening, strolling off with her Gallade, who showed no signs of being tired to my surprise. I managed to regain my feet and trudged over to help Clara get back on hers.

"It was like fighting a void." She muttered as I slung her arm over my shoulder.

"What?" I asked, feeling the world lurch around me as I tried to heft Clara off the ground.

"At first it was simple enough," Clara started, "I just figured out his trick and planned my moves around it," Once she got her feet under her the work got easier and we both headed over towards Flare, who was in the middle of a long nap at the edge of the pond. "But I just couldn't make an attack connect with him. Even when I tried his own trick against him, but every time he disappeared like he knew what I was going to do before I did."

"I know the feeling." I said, feeling my legs crying out in pain as we walked.

"After a while I figured Lily wanted me to try some sort of telepathy to beat him, but when I tried to read him there was nothing." Clara continued.

"What do you mean nothing?" I asked

"I mean it was like he wasn't even there." Clara said. "I couldn't even sense when he was behind me even when I could hear him there."

"Is that what Lily's trying to teach you?" I asked.

"I think so, but I don't even know how to begin to go about making that happen." Clara sighed.

"You could try what I did." I said.

Clara looked up at me, disbelievingly. "You had an idea that worked?" She asked.

"I'm not sure if it worked but it made sense at the time." I explained.

"Go on?" Clara asked.

"Well, I thought she might be reading my mind to predict my moves." I said.

Clara nodded. "And?" she asked.

"Well I gave her something to read instead." I said.

"You what?" Clara asked, not understanding.

"I started reading song lyrics in my head." I said. "As loud as I could if that makes a difference. I figured it might not stop her from reading my moves but it might make it harder for her to figure them out in the frenzy of the fight." I explained.

Clara got really quiet, seemingly deep in thought.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah." Clara said after a while. "Hey Mark, do you mind if I spend the night out here?" Clara asked.

I looked up at her. "You onto something?" I asked.

"I might be, but I can't be sure unless I try it." Clara said resolutely.

I nodded, understanding, and pulled out my cell phone, silently thanking the manufacturer for making this model waterproof. I gave my supervisor a call to let her know that my partner pokemon would be staying out tonight as part of her training and referred her to Lily for authorization before hanging up. after a few minutes my supervisor called back to let me know everything checked out but that this would be a one time ordeal. I breathed a sigh of relief and nodded to Clara who in the meantime had recovered enough to use a Heal Pulse to shrug off most of her fatigue.

"Thanks Mark, hopefully I won't let you down here." Clara said, smiling.

I smiled back. "You haven't yet." I said, handing my cell phone over to her. "Give our dorm phone a call if you need us, I know you can't talk through the phone but I'll know the caller ID." I added.

Clara nodded and took the phone before strolling out to the middle of the pond. Not wanting to get in her way, I limped my way over to Flare and woke him up. With a yawn the large canine stood up and gave me a lazy lick of greeting before letting me use him as a crutch. The long hike back to the dorm quickly turned harsh as the sun went down, leaving me cold and wet; though the walking furnace next to me did dry me off after a while. It took about an hour to get back to the dorm at my gimped pace, but thankfully we made it back before lights out. Once inside, I saw Lily sitting in her usual spot, reading another training manual with her partner nowhere to be seen. This night was apparently baking, which threw me off, but I dismissed it with a shrug before stumbling back into my bedroom and collapsing onto the sheets. The next thing I knew it was morning and someone was kicking my foot to wake me up. I blinked slowly, letting my eyes adjust to the light before realizing I had passed out on the spot without changing.

"Time to go, rookie." Lily said from behind me, giving me a fresh kick for emphasis. I grunted and hauled myself back up, wincing as my muscles cried out worse than the night before. Once upright, Lily shoved a glass of water in my face; which I took gratefully. "Open wide." She said, holding up a few little red tablets I recognized as ibuprofen. I sighed and played along, letting her pop them into my mouth before downing them with the rest of the water. After that Lily led me out the door and to the fields. Once at the gate she pulled a pokeball off of her belt and called out her Gallade, who showed the first sign of emotion I'd ever seen from it with a long yawn before looking me up and down and shrugging.

"I know, shut up." Lily muttered before unlocking the gate and letting us through. Flare let himself out of his ball halfway across the fields to the surprise of the Gallade, but Lily was already well acquainted the dog's antics and continued walking. We reached the edge of the woods at about the time I felt the pain medication start to kick in. By the time we reached the clearing, the constant screaming from my wounds had been muffled down to a dull roar.

When we got the the clearing again I couldn't help but stare at what we found. The water was once again glass smooth and above it in the exact center of the pond levitated Clara, just barely above the water's surface. I thought she might be sleeping until she noticed us and smiled.

"I've got about one good fight in me before I pass out." Clara said right before yawning.

"Is that so?" Lily remarked. Clara nodded. "You seem confident enough, though I hope you actually have this figured out and aren't just trying to impress me. If you put on a performance like yesterday's again I'll make you regret it." Lily warned. Clara nodded and yawned again, lowering herself back down into the water; which caused a ripple to slowly spread out from her feet. Lily, grinned, seeming confident. "Well, you know what to do Spade." She said, looking over to her partner. The Gallade nodded and waded out to meet his rival, though this time seeming a bit more wary. I could tell right away from his body language that something was different this time.

"Careful Clara," I warned. "He's actually had sleep in the past twenty four hours, just keep that in mind before you try anything."

Clara nodded sleepily and stretched her arms above her head before looking over at the advancing Gallade. "Well, shall we dance?" She asked, half teasing. her rival nodded and made the first move. He lunged forward, extending his elbow blade to slash at Clara, but caught nothing but the air as she Teleported away. Unlike before, instead of immediately Teleporting after her, he looked around confused before a tap on his shoulder made him jump and swing wildly behind him; again slashing at Clara just as she disappeared and reappearing several yards behind him. This time He spotted her right away and charged her, but Clara once again vanished at the last second, this time appearing several feet above him before falling straight down on top of him butt-first, knocking him to the ground as she giggled.

"Enough." Lily barked.

"Aww." Clara said, sounding disappointed. Her Gallade-chair promptly disappeared and reappeared by Lily's side, clearly blushing but looking furious nonetheless.

"Well, let's hear you describe it for Mark so he can understand what just happened." Lily said, sounding satisfied.

"Well, everything that thinks puts out a low level of telepathy it turns out." Clara said, standing up with a yawn. "When you told me about your plan it gave me an idea that had to do with this pond. You were sort of on to something; though you lacked the ability to actually pull it off, but the idea of actively changing the thoughts you naturally put off got me thinking. At first I tried to just turn it off without much success, but as I sat out here I began to notice that the pond wasn't nearly as quiet as Lily said it was. It turns out that this mud is just teaming with life, but all of it so basic that the thoughts they broadcast are almost impossible to notice or even sense, if they could even be called thoughts. So basically I wasn't able to stop putting off that telepathy, but I did manage to change it, and basically I've just been sitting out here for six or seven hours practicing copying the life in this pond here."

Lily nodded. "A little basic, but you're on to the gist of it." She remarked. "Spade here may be brutal in a fight when he knows where you are, but as you can see when you take that away from him he's lost. Its the same scenario out in the field when your enemies have psychic type pokemon as well, this will give you the edge you need to keep your cover and win fights when you need to."

"So then what do I do about Mark?" Clara asked.

I looked around confused, suddenly put in the spotlight.

"Unfortunately he's not telepathic in the slightest." Lily said. "So there's no way he'll learn this trick."

"So then?" Clara asked.

"So then you're in a unique position to help him." Lily said. "normally you couldn't alter how another being broadcasts its thoughts, but you're very intimate with him emotionally and mentally; so you'll have to pull double duty and cover his tracks as well." She explained.

Clara sighed. "Figured it'd be something like that." She said.

"This goes far beyond the realms of telepathy as well." Lily continued. "If you master this ability you can extend it to sensory input as well, even going so far as to temporarily blind or deafen someone. Which are things you might need to do in this line of work."

"So I'm basically just along for the ride then." I said, feeling disappointed.

"Not if I have anything to say about it." Lily said, turning to face me. "Clara may be off the hook for today, but you've still got a whole day of sparring ahead of you. If Clara can't handle something with her abilities its up to you to be the muscle to back her up, and I intend to make that a strong muscle." She said, dropping into her fighting pose. "Now get ready to fight or brace for a beat down." Lily ordered.

I could only shake my head in disbelief as I took my own fighting stance and, having learned from yesterday, let her make the first move; which was the first of several small improvements I made that day.

...

I blushed deeply as the Rocket Admin crawled slowly towards me with a hungry look on her face. I looked over at Emily who was grinning slyly at the other woman. "You're a professional right?" I asked apprehensively. "This can't be how you spend your time on the job." I said, trying to reason with her.

"Call me an independent agent then." Emily said giggling as the red haired woman closed the last few feet between us.

"What about you? you can't seriously want this after such a major security breach!?" I asked trying to talk some sense into her. My body was very receptive to her presence despite what my mind had to say however.

"Don't care right now." The Rocket Agent purred as she ran her hands up my legs and down the inside of my thighs. I tried to speak up but the words turned to a stifled moan in my mouth as her hands seized upon my groin. "Mine." She growled possessively before unbuttoning my shorts and pulling the zipper down. The now growing bulge in my boxers poked free from the new gap, seeming to strain towards what it wanted. I had to bite my lip against another moan as the woman worked her fingers into my waist band and pulled my underwear and pants down as low as my bondage would allow, freeing my erection to the cold cell air.

"Very nice." Emily cooed from across the cell, her hands now idly slipping into her own pants as she watched.

The Red haired woman between my legs took a few moments to appreciate the sight in front of her before deciding on her next course of action. With a grin, she took my cock in her hand and began to pump it firmly and slowly, getting a feel for it as she worked me up further. A drop of pre formed at the tip and she stared as it slowly dripped down my length before setting to work milking more out of me. Several times I tried to speak up to stop her, but I was helpless to protest as the words turned to groans in my mouth. She continued slowly massaging my length until she had coaxed enough pre out of me to slick her hand, after which she picked up the pace. I once again bit my lip to keep from moaning as more pre leaked out of me, making it feel even more intense. "Cum for me." The Admin growled as she firmly grasped my testes with her free hand and continued stroking my member as she kneaded them. I forced myself to hold out longer which only resulted in her jerking me off faster, forcing me over the edge. With a gasp I came, splattering my seed across her face and the front of her uniform, staining white smears across the red R that adorned it. The Admin looked down at the mess surprised, as if not sure what she had done. "He made my uniform messy..." she mumbled.

"Better punish him then." Emily said between breaths as she was busy rubbing between her legs. "But first you'll need to get rid of that messy shirt." She added, stifling a squeak as she hit a sensitive spot.

The Admin nodded and quickly pulled her shirt over her head and off, exposing her bra; which she also shed after a moment freeing her erect nipples. She took a few seconds to wipe the sperm off her face with her shirt before returning her attention to my slowly deflating cock. "No, you stay hard until I'm satisfied." She ordered, taking hold of my malehood and squeezing it almost to the point of pain, but the stimulation in addition to the sight of her exposed chest was enough to regain my erection.

"Please" I managed to say finally. "Go easy on me." I panted.

The Admin looked up at me with a scowl before slipping one hand underneath my groin. "Not until you've paid for the mess you made." She growled as she slid her cum-slick finger up against my rectum and forced it inside. To my surprise my back door yielded immediately to the sudden entry, but any thought past that was wiped out by pleasure as she hooked her finger around and into my prostate, pressing hard against it. I squirmed weakly in my seat as she wiggled another finger inside my ass and began rubbing my prostate aggressively. She collected some of the pre that was now liberally drooling from my tip and began jerking me off quickly in time with her anal massage, quickly pushing me back to the edge, but just as she was about to push me over again, she pulled her fingers out of me. I looked down at her panting and disappointed. "Not yet." She teased as she leaned forward, pressing my cock into the fold between her breasts. I groaned at the friction as it slid between them. The pre coating my length was more than enough to slick her cleavage as well. After an excruciatingly long wait, she began moving again, sliding my cock between her soft warm breasts slowly at first, but picking up pace as she got into rhythm. I couldn't keep from panting and moaning as she slowly worked me up again, even taking the tip into her mouth with each thrust down my length.

Emily in the meantime had shed her pants and underwear, and was quickly plunging her fingers inside her snatch as she watched the forced show. Every now and then she would seize up and shudder as she brought herself to orgasm; but would immediately get back to work fingering herself afterwards. The Admin brought me to another peak before stopping without release. I groaned and tried weakly to thrust into her breasts to finish myself off, but she just pulled away from me leaving me frustrated and rock hard. "I think he's had enough teasing." Emily mused crawling closer, her hand still buried between her legs jilling herself.

"You've been a good boy so far I guess." The Admin said standing up. I couldn't help but stare as she unzipped her jeans and shed the remainder of her clothes, revealing her now dripping twat. Without delay she straddled me in the chair, which thankfully felt like it was bolted to the floor. I could feel her breath on my face as she ground her pussy up against my shaft, spreading more lubrication on the already dripping wet tool. "Now for your reward." She grunted as she took hold of my cock, lining up with her pussy before sitting down, forcing it deep inside her. I moaned loudly as she began working it in and out of her quickly, and she joined me as her until-now neglected pussy got the attention it had been craving all along. I felt her walls ripple and tighten around me in pleasure as she rode me faster and faster. Her breaths came faster and faster and soon the air around me smelled of pussy and cinnamon. I felt another peak slowly beginning to rise as she slammed my member insider her deeper but as soon as it started, her vagina seized up around my member, locking me inside her as she came hard, she moaned loudly and shivered as she bucked weakly down onto my lap until the orgasm had passed, leaving me close to the edge and straining once again.

"That's not fair." Emily teased from my side as the Admin slipped herself off of my painfully erect dick, panting heavily.

"What?" The Admin asked as she slumped back to her knees in front of me.

"You gotta let him have his reward." Emily said sternly.

The Admin looked back at my throbbing member with uncertainty.

"Like this." Emily said with a grunt, placing one hand on the back of the Admin's head and forcing her down in front of my cock until she got the message. Tentatively, she began licking the crown of my penis, clearly not used to the taste. "There you go." Emily cooed as she slipped her free hand between the Admin's legs and slid a couple fingers into her still wet snatch. The Admin let out a surprised moan, which Emily took advantage of, forcing her head down and my cock into her mouth. I let out a moan of my own as the Admin now eagerly set to work sucking up and down my cock, getting more than enough encouragement from her friend's deft hand. I thrust weakly into her mouth in time with her bobs as she brought me back to the edge once again, and this time, sent my flying over it. I came hard inside her mouth; almost causing her to choke. Emily crammed her fingers deep inside the Admin's pussy as soon as she saw the first drop of cum spill out from between the Admin's lips, pushing her over the edge as well. The admin pulled off my member moaning loudly as I continued ejaculating onto her face and breasts as she seized up, her hips bucking wildly. I panted heavily for a few seconds, as the Admin slumped in front of me but soon felt immense fatigue set in and felt myself passing out once again.

I awoke to the wail of a siren with a massive headache and still tied to a chair; though my shorts were back in place which led me to question whether I had just dreamed what had happened or not. The cum stains on the cement in front of me told me otherwise. Emily was in the corner of the cell still fiddling with my com watch, seeming to ignore the noise. The Admin was nowhere to be found, though her clothes were still on the floor next to me. "What happened?" I asked groggily, feeling my head beginning to clear from whatever drugs she had injected me with.

"Oh, finally up." Emily remarked. "We're just waiting to be let out now." She said flatly.

There was muffled footsteps and shouting from the other side of the sealed door, though I couldn't make out what the commotion was for. With a beep, I heard my com come online again. "Lily, where are you?" I asked immediately.

"On my way downstairs to get you." Lily responded with a grunt. There was a distant shout followed by the sound of flesh colliding with flesh. "Where are you?"

"Sub basement in a cell." I said, looking over at Emily, who seemed entirely uninterested. "Some woman here named Emily sealed us in, she's some sort of double agent." I explained.

"Emily?" lily asked confused.

"She knows about the security on our pokeballs." I said. This provoked a sly grin from the woman across the cell from me.

There was a moment of silence from the other end of the line. "Mark do not let that woman out of your sight." Lily ordered.

"I'm tied up in a chair away from my pokeballs." I explained.

"Then think really fucking loud!" Lily barked, causing me to wince. I could hear her footsteps now as she picked up her pace.

Emily stood up and stretched. "Well officer Emmet, it's been a blast but I think this is where we part ways." She said.

I opened my eyes wide, trying to ignore her as I attempted to broadcast my thoughts as loud as I could; despite being fairly certain that was impossible.

Emily strolled towards the door and waited patiently as I started thrashing against my bonds, but they held firm despite my efforts. "You aren't getting out of here." I said resolutely.

"If you think that then you have a shorter memory than that peon with the red hair did." Emily remarked, sounding bored.

I glared at her and time seemed to stand still until a clatter outside broke my focus. There was a clicking noise as someone attempted to open the door to our cell. "Spade, Psycho Cut!" a muffled Lily yelled from behind the door as well as clearly in my ear. There was a pause before a screeching noise assaulted the chamber as two glowing purple blades forced their ways through the steel door and downward, cutting an inverse V into the metal before something slammed into it hard enough to bend the metal in before the blades re-emerged at the bottom and cut the rest of a diamond into the frame. A bang from the other side knocked the freed section of metal to the floor with a crash, and both Spade and Lily leapt through the new opening; which gave me a view of several world police agents running past to secure deeper sections of the base. Lily immediately pivoted without looking and lunged at Emily, who was caught off guard, but rolled with the tackle, throwing Lily off as she regained her feet. "Get him free!" Lily barked at Spade as she rushed Emily again, who was trying to slip out through the new opening. Lily's second tackle caught Emily's middle and pulled her to the ground; which looked like it would be the end of it. Spade reached my side quickly and began cutting through my bindings with relative ease. Lily meanwhile, had gotten herself pinned as Emily reversed the hold she had been put in.

"Clever one aren't you." Emily muttered as she tried to pull Lily's wrist up behind her back to her neck in an arm lock. Lily fell back on her unnatural flexibility and seemed to just bend out of the hold before slamming her fist across Emily's face in a wicked counterattack. Emily stumbled back from the blow, dazed and Lily quickly followed with another as the last of my bonds were cut and I jumped up from he chair, making a dash for the cart and for Clara's pokeball.

A red flash broke the melee between Emily and Lily as Clara leapt forth into the room. "Clara hit her with Hypnosis!" I ordered.

Clara sent the pulse attack forward as Lily tumbled out of the way, leaving only Emily in the line of fire. The move hit its mark, and Emily doubled over before collapsing on the ground.

"Good work!" Lily shouted once she saw the move had hit its mark. She strolled over to the incapacitated woman. "You're under arrest for.." She began and trailed off. "Wait what am I saying, she's out cold." she mumbled

An unfamiliar voice spoke up in my head, catching me off guard. "That was curious." A higher pitched voice said, though I couldn't discern its gender. Clara reeled around to face me, then started looking around for the source of the telepathic voice. "Well I hate to spoil anyone's fun but I can't let you take her from me." The voice added. A moment late Emily vanished from the ground, causing Lily to cry out.

"She's got a partner with Teleport!" I shouted making a dash for the hole in the door. "She can't have gone far!"

Lily followed me immediately and ordered the closest agents to start a complete sweep of the immediate area and to detail anyone they found in a lab coat, then call in immediately. We fanned out, thoroughly searching corridor after corridor and turned up empty. After three hours we had searched every nook and cranny and had a complete map of the compound drawn up, but with no Emily to show for it.

"Damn it!" Lily shouted, slamming her fist down on the pop-up table that served as a desk in our make-shift command post that had been set up shortly after the raid began.

"Lily relax," I said, "We've got over a hundred arrests of grunts and supervisors today, all with legitimate charges to bring them to court with. We even found the Admin of the facility naked in a closet; today is a win for us."

"You're right." Lily admitted with a sigh.

"Who was that woman anyway?" Clara asked.

"We don't know her actual name," Lily said. "all we know to date is she's a master at infiltration and seems to have a serious amount of chemical and engineering knowledge. We've been after her ever since she made off with some critical intel on the next gen of pokeballs we'll be using after infiltrating our research team. Not only did this set us back to square one on that project, we can't even safely replicate the research until we know what she's done with the research and who she's sold it to."

I nodded. "So we can assume she was at Rocket for something similar, right?" I asked.

"What makes you think that?" Lily asked looking up at me.

"We know Rocket has been doing a lot of research on pokeballs, specifically trying to replicate Silph's Master Ball." I said.

"I think you're on to something Mark." Lily said tapping her chin.

"We've got other problems though." I said.

"Like?" lily asked.

"She turned on my com to get you guys to come here, so clearly she had already pulled the data she needed." I said.

"She didn't make it easy to find you either." Lily added.

"So what did she need all that time for if she already had the data?" I asked. "Or why didn't she just walk out the front door after getting it?"

"The com..." Lily said, slapping her forehead.

"I think she was going to but lucked into me breaking cover." I said. "I don't think my com's safe to use anymore at the very least." I said.

"It'd take someone at least twenty four hours to crack our encryption with direct access." Lily said. "So I don't think she compromised our communications in their entirety."

"Ma'am." An agent said, walking into the room.

"Yes?" Lily asked, looking up from the table.

"Word from HQ." The agent said. "They want you and Agent Emmet to track down this woman. That is your mission until further notice."

"Great." Lily sighed. "Clean this site up for the legal team when they get here; they're gonna need a lot of lawyers to represent these guys. You're dismissed" She then turned to me as the other agent left. "I hate these cold start cases. We have no idea where she's headed next."

"I think I have an idea." I said.

"I'm all ears Mark." Lily said. "Make this a good one."

"If we use my com we could bait her to a location of our choice." I said. "Provided we make the bait good enough."

Lily thought about this for a few seconds before grinning. "Alright, lets get this mission started then." She said, sounding confident as she picked up her phone.

_ To be continued... _