A/N: So sorry for the wait y'all. It's been a pretty busy week for me. Bunch of college stuff, then it was Mother's Day, and now I'm actually in Arkansas for a friend's graduation while I'm writing this.
In any case, I'd say it's past time for a new chapter, wouldn't you say?

So let's get this started!!

*Sorry for any grammatical errors that you might encounter.

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(Ash's pov)

Serena, Dawn, and I made our way down the halls toward Serena's room.
We decided to talk there because it was more private than Dawn's room.

She didn't want to risk exposing any info on what the council's final decision was, or anything we would be discussing.

After all, you can never be too careful about these things. The last thing we need is mole getting wind of our plan.

When we made it to Serena's room, we stopped to make sure we weren't followed.

"I think we're clear, let's head inside." Serena said.

Dawn and I nodded and did as she said.

As we walked in, Serena looked over her shoulder one more time, then closed the door.

"Take a seat you two." Serena said in an uncharacteristically authoritative voice, causing Dawn and I to tense up.

"Yes Ma'am!" Dawn and I said with a yelp and a salute.

The two of us quickly scrambled over to the chairs in the center of the room and sat down, our backs still straight, almost as if we were soldiers at attention.

'This vibe... it feels different from her princess mode, and is certainly a far cry from the way she was acting a few minutes ago. This is more like, General Serena. I don't think I'm mentally prepared for this!' I thought to myself, not exactly know what to expect.

Serena noticed our strange behavior, but knew this was not the time for laughs. She simply walked over and sat down on the sofa across from us.

"Okay, before we begin, I need both of you to swear an oath of absolute secrecy. If any word of what I am about to tell you gets out, our entire operation will be compromised. And the calling the consequences severe would be an understatement. Are we clear?" Serena said, clearing aiming that last part at Dawn.

"I swear." Dawn and I said as sincerely as we possibly could.

A brief smile formed on Serena's lips, but faded as soon as it appeared.

"Excellent, now that we've gotten the formalities out of the way, let's get down to business. Ash, would you bring me my laptop? It's over there on my nightstand." Serena said, her voice sounding much more relaxed than before.

"Sure thing, just a sec." I said, quickly getting up to retrieve it.

After giving Serena her laptop, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a SD card and popped it in. While she was getting everything ready, I noticed that Dawn looked a little uneasy about something.

"Hey, you alright?" I asked.

Dawn turned to me and gave me a sheepish smile.

"Y-yeah, I just have a lot on my mind is all. I don't really wanna talk about it." She replied.

"I gotcha, I imagine this whole situation must be hard to take in." I said.

"Yeah, I'll be okay though, it has to be done." Dawn replied lowly.

Dawn's bleakness certainly didn't help the already tense atmosphere in the room.

"All done, go ahead and take a look at the screen." Serena said.

"Uh, what screen Sere?" I asked, a bit confused.

Serena pointed toward her fireplace. I turned to see a massive, 75 inch screen that covered most of her mantle.

"WHAOOO! What the- that wasn't there before! How did- I mean where did that thing come from!?" I stammered as my brain tried it's best to comprehend the situation.

My antics caused Serena to let out a giggle, briefly breaking her out of General mode.

"It's called Bluetooth Ashy, and my TV os built into my ceiling. See, watch this." Serena said, grabbing her remote.

With the press of a button, Serena's massive TV retracted itself back into the ceiling. Then when Serena pressed the button again, it came back down. Needless to say, I was officially starstruck. There's just no end to the awesomeness of this place, is there!?

"Coooooool!" I said with the dorkiest grin I could've mustered.

Dawn was trying her hardest not to crack up, while Serena simply smiled and shook her head. I felt like I lightened the mood a bit, which is nice.

"Can we please get serious now, this is no time for games Ash." Serena said.

"Yeah, sorry about that." I said, scratching the back of my head.

Serena let out a sigh, then turned to the screen and opened up a tab. It was a map of Kalos, but it had four red squares, each located in a different area of the region. Two of the four have big red Xs marked through them.

"Okay, so based on the intelligence gathered by the KBI, we have been able to conclude that the scale of the Berlitz Operation is far greater than anyone had anticipated." Serena said seriously.

"Seriously, what do you mean?" I asked, both concerned and confused.

"It appears we aren't dealing with a few corrupt businessmen looking to bank off of the Academy. No, the situation is far more complicated than that. Do you see the areas marked on the map?" Serena said, pointing at the screen.

Dawn and I nodded.

"Those are hideouts used by the conspirators. They were able to find them by tracing their radio transmissions. As you can see, two of them are crossed out. Those are the facilities that have been raided by the Kalosian Military. They went in expecting a small group of businessmen, but what they found instead...was very troubling." Serena said.

"W-what did they find. Father told me there are only about twelve people involved in this, and they're mostly all his committee members." Dawn said, sounding truly confused.

Serena shook her head.

"No, if only that were the case. The soldiers initial infiltration of the facilities went as planned. They had made the arrests they were assigned to make, however things quickly went South. Out of nowhere, the squads at both facilities found themselves being ambushed. Thankfully, the soldiers were able to repulse the attack, but two of the conspirators escaped." Serena said.

I was listening intently, I found myself shaking. This is insane! I turned to Dawn who was completely horrified, she was white as a ghost and was covering her mouth with her hand.

"Things quickly went from bad to worse. It turns out the group that ambushed the soldiers were from a radical separatist group called the "Flare Syndicate." The group have virtually no public support, but they have proven to be a major threat to society. However, it was not until the next day, after the area was declared secured, when a shocking discovery was made." Serena said, as she moved to the next slide.

What was on that next slide sent chills  coursing through my body. Then I heard Dawn let out a cross between a scream and a gasp as she began to realize just what her father was doing.

On the slide, was a picture of a large store room filled with long wooden boxes, smaller metal boxes, and four large vehicles. All stamped with the crest of the Sinnohian Military.

"Are...are those..?" I started to say.

Serena nodded.

"Yes, they're weapons. The Berlitz family, with the backing of the Sinnohian government, are plotting an armed insurrection."

To be continued...

A/N: BOOOM! Didn't see that coming, did ya! I was stumped for soooooo long, but I finally decided to take a chance and throw in a little political drama into the mix, so I hope you like it! I really need to get my act together, huh. After all, it's been like a month or something since I last uploaded this. So sorry about that. I've been going through a move so I've been busy lately.

However, I should be settled in my apartment on Monday, so yay!

If you haven't been following my rants book, I'm transferring to Stephen F Austin State University and since that's over 2 hours away from me, I'm moving down there!

Man I'm excited!

Anyway, sorry again for the delay. Dunno when the next one will be up, hopefully not nearly as late.

See ya next time 😁!

Next time on Amour Academy...

Operation Sandstorm Part One