Things had changed significantly since coming back from the kidnapping mission with the way the other grunts treated me. Many of the grunts around me used to completely ignore me, but now people would actively seek out my company. I was quickly becoming known as someone that was easy to poke fun at, but surprisingly capable.

Looking back, I wasn't exactly sure when it had happened, but during pokemon training battles grunts would often come up to me asking how they could improve their pokemon's strength. Somehow I had turned into an unofficial coach, which I was fine with, but I had noticed Celeste glaring in an even angrier-than-usual way whenever I helped them with their training. I hoped I wasn't making an enemy of her.

Director Falon was very pleased with my report the day Neptune had confided in me her backstory. As inexpressive as she was it had been hard to tell, but I thought I had seen a spark of validation when I had explained about Neptune's revenue source coming from Cyrus's inherited businesses. She had urged me to do everything I could to increase my time spent with Neptune and foster the "loyalty" that she obviously thought she had from me so that she would tell me even more important secrets.

I was glad that I had been able to give the IIA some useful intelligence, but the more I was here in the Team Galactic headquarters the more I just wanted to pack my bags and leave. Having to pretend that I thought everyone had a valid reason for killing off the entire world was exhausting and it was getting harder and harder to keep up the pretense of a goofy failed trainer who had given up on the world and everyone I had known.

"Satoshi."

I couldn't keep myself from flinching as I heard the familiar confident and commanding tone that my name was said in. The guys that had been walking with me towards the mess hall all turned and immediately dropped into a bow, showing me that I hadn't been mistaken. Holding in my sigh I turned and bowed slowly since Pikachu was on my shoulder, and he held onto my ear and shifted his weight so he wouldn't be sent crashing to the ground.

"Can I help you?" I asked politely, moving back up into a standing position and looking down at Neptune's small frame.

She tossed her head, sending her silky hair tumbling from her shoulder down her back. Then she gave me a smug smile which seemed to say, "I am about to tell you to do something and you have no choice but to accept." Steeling myself for the inevitable I tried to go for a casual and somewhat expectant smile. It probably looked more like I had a stomach cramp though because Neptune let out a slight breath of air through her nose that seemed like a withheld laugh.

"Walk with me," she commanded bluntly, turning on her heels and beginning to walk purposefully in the opposite direction of food.

My stomach growled and the grunts that had been hanging out with me walloped me in the arms and back, raising their eyebrows up suggestively before turning and continuing on their way to the mess hall. Pikachu slumped down more solidly on my shoulder, seeming as disappointed as I was that our lunch was going to be interrupted. Ignoring my grumbling stomach, I quickly went after Neptune, lengthening my stride until I had caught up to Neptune's quick pace.

"I hear that I have you to thank for making some of our grunts less incompetent at pokemon battling," Neptune said, cutting through the awkward silence like a knife without looking over to see my reaction. 

I wasn't sure what the appropriate response was to that and after another moment of silence one corner of her lips quirked up in a semblance of a smile.

"No, I do not usually keep track of my lower grunts progress," Neptune said, sliding one eye to look at me out of her peripheral vision in time for her to see me flinch in surprise. She smiled broadly and I knew that she was happy knowing that she had correctly guessed what I had been thinking and I tried to smile instead of looking creeped out. "You are a special case though, Satoshi. I don't plan on leaving you as a low-tier grunt for long."

"Uh... thank you?" I said hesitantly, allowing my surprise to show in my tone and trying to keep the conflicting feelings of success and discomfort at her announcement from showing.

"You'll have to earn your promotion, of course," Neptune continued, her smile dropping and her eyes refocusing on the tunnel in front of us that I knew was leading us towards the jet hanger. "But I have a plan on how you can do that."

"I'll do anything to help you, Miss Neptune," I told her.

To my surprise, as I looked down at Neptune's cold persona, a ghost image of a honey blonde young woman with clear blue eyes smiled up at me. Blinking quickly, the image of Serena disappeared, but I couldn't help but think how much I would have preferred to be out helping Serena on her pokemon journey rather than helping a crazy lady further her plans to destroy the world.

"Don't call me 'Miss', Satoshi. Just Neptune," Neptune ordered firmly, giving me a hard look and I nodded silently in agreement. 

We continued on our way in silence. There weren't many grunts around since it was lunchtime and those that we did pass I didn't recognize, but I noticed that anyone who saw us was quick to bow to Neptune and I could feel their eyes following me as we continued on our way. The attention made me uncomfortable, but I ignored it since this was what Director Falon had been waiting for, so I had to make sure I didn't mess it up.

I followed her to the jet hanger (as I had been expecting) and as the large doors opened my eyes immediately fell on the broad back of the green-haired captain. It had been a while since I had seen the guy that seemed to shadow Neptune wherever she went, but he was wearing a lab coat over his team galactic suit and was in a tense conversation with one of the jet pilots.

"Proteus, glad to see you made it," Neptune said as a way of greeting. 

The large guy, who was at least a hands span taller than me, turned and leveled a cold glare directly at me. I sketched a half bow to him, hoping that would pacify his unexplained anger, but I felt Neptune place a hand on my arm, halting my bow and pushing me back into a standing position. The guy's coal-black eyes narrowed in on Neptune's hand, which she had yet to remove from my arm, and his glare turned even colder.

"Satoshi is here to be briefed on the assignment," Neptune announced and I saw one of her thin eyebrows arching up in a challenging expression towards her captain. The man grunted noncommittally towards Neptune before looking over at the man he had been arguing with and then over at me again.

"I'm Proteus, Team Galactic Captain and head of Research and Development," the tall guy said while taking one step closer and holding out his hand. 

I closed the distance between us and placed my hand in his, not surprised when he attempted to crush my hand like a grape. I returned the strong grip, figuring that it would be better to seem competent rather than someone easily bullied, or else I had the feeling that I was going to get steamrolled by this guy in the future.

"I want Satoshi to lead the search you requested, Proteus. Give him the details and have Karl pick out two or three guys to go with him," Neptune said, her tone as commanding and firm as always. 

Proteus gave me a quick sneer before masking his annoyance and nodding down to Neptune. I watched with interest as they made eye contact for a few seconds and what seemed like a hidden message was passed between them. I nearly jumped when Neptune patted my arm before she took a step back.

"I'll leave you boys to it then," she said imperiously before turning and leaving the jet hanger without a backward glance. I heard Proteus let out a humph but when I turned to look at him I was surprised that his previous animosity seemed to have disappeared.

"Are you a Sinnoh native?" he asked suddenly and I blinked in surprise.

"Yah, I grew up outside of Sunnyshore City," I responded casually. Proteus nodded and folded his arms comfortably.

"What do you think of Oreburgh City?"

"About what?" I asked, feeling majorly confused.

"Like, what's the first thing that comes to mind," Proteus clarified with a roll of his eyes.

"Ah..." I said, glancing over at Pikachu on my shoulder who had been silently watching our interactions this whole time from my shoulder. "I guess I think of the mines and fossil pokemon."

Proteus nodded, seeming at least mildly pleased that I had said something right.

"Exactly. But did you know that there used to be a vein of the Oreburgh Mines where they found evolution stones?" 

 I shook my head since I had never heard of that before, and even if I had I doubted I would have remembered. Proteus smirked and gestured to the guy next to him who hadn't spoken since Neptune and I had come into the hanger.

"Karl here is in charge of all the pilots we have in Team Galactic. He is going to choose a few men to go with you and you are going to search for a hidden opening into that vein of the tunnel. As soon as you find the opening you'll mark it on this map," Proteus explained while handing me a small box. He pressed a button on the side which then winked into existence a digital version of a map of a section of forest.

"Do you have any idea what the 'hidden opening' will look like?" I asked, feeling very much like this might be a 'needle in a haystack' type of assignment.

"All we know is that Cyrus's old team Galactic left a natural marker by the opening," Proteus said with a self-satisfied smirk. 

It seemed that even though he was upset at Neptune personally assigning me to this task, he was getting a lot of pleasure out of giving me such a tedious and seemingly impossible assignment.

"Okay, a marker as in our G burned into a tree or carved into a stone?" I asked, glancing at the black G stitched onto Proteus's outfit. He frowned, but then shrugged in agreement.

"Most likely, but the journals we found didn't specify or they were too burned to decipher anything. Neptune wants access to those evolution stones though, so don't come back until you find the opening. Or just don't come back at all, I could care less," Proteus said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Pika pikachu pi," Pikachu muttered under his breath in an unflattering imitation of Proteus. I had to work hard not to laugh at him, but I managed to stay calm and nodded my understanding. Karl then took me back to the jet he was assigning us for the mission.

Since I was the leader of the group I was given the responsibility for managing the supplies kept in the jet and logging whenever we took anything out, whether that was food or reserve fuel. I was a little nervous when he introduced me to my pilot and copilot that would be going with me to search for the hidden mine since I was still one of the lowest tiers of grunts on team Galactic. They, however, didn't even mention our difference in ranks, and just seemed happy to be getting out of their training schedules.

The next day Proteus and Neptune came to see us off. Proteus was once again acting extremely prickly towards me. Seeing the way he hovered within inches of Neptune I figured that he somehow saw me as a rival for her affections or something ridiculous like that, so I just ignored him and bowed to Neptune. Her eyes seemed to be smiling as she nodded in acknowledgment and I walked onto the small jet, ready to start my search.

Hours later, after carefully landing in a clearing on the very edge of the potential searching area and concealing the jet, we began our search. Proteus's research team had narrowed the search to a five-mile circle in the heart of the forest between a tiny village called Jezin Town and Oreburgh City. We decided to break the area into five sections and once that was decided we all got to work. It was well past noon and I was just about to suggest we head back to the jet for a quick meal when one of the grunts with me suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"What?" I asked, glancing over to where Pikachu had just ducked under a bush to try and find a hidden G.

"Did you hear that?" he asked, going on his tiptoes and looking around as if he were searching for the sound again.

"Hear what?" the other grunt asked.

"It sounded like a girl," the first grunt responded.

"We should head back to the jet then, we don't need anyone seeing us like this," I said, looking down at our team galactic jumpsuits and grimacing at how dumb they looked.

"Just a sec," the guy said, beginning to move off to the left.

"What are you doing?' I called after him as Pikachu poked his head out from the bottom of the bush and looked over in the direction that the grunt had just gone.

"Pipi chu?" I frowned, not sure what that meant. After spending so long with Pikachu I had pretty much figured out what he was saying, but even though that phrase had seemed somewhat familiar, I couldn't put my finger on when I had heard him say it before. There wasn't time to puzzle over it though because Pikachu had taken off after the guy and my other helper was quickly following them. With a pat on my empty stomach, I began making my way after the group.

As we walked through the trees I realized that they were beginning to thin a little, signaling that a clearing was up ahead. Getting a little grumpy from the lack of food, I reached out to grab the guy's lapel in front of me and start dragging them back to the jet when the lead grunt finally stopped.

"Look! I knew I heard a girl!" he whispered loudly, crouching partially behind a bush. "Dang, look at her," he whispered again and the other grunt ran up to stand next to him and he let out a low whistle.

"Pikapi! Pipi chu!" I blinked when Pikachu suddenly ran up to me and tugged on my pant leg, urging me to move closer with some obvious concern.

Frowning, I strode forward silently and looked over the two grunts' shoulders. My eyes widened as I glanced across the clearing and over at the river and my gaze fell on all too familiar honey blonde hair. Serena was facing away from us at the moment, but as I watched she slowly began to spin around.

I watched, transfixed, as she dragged one of her hands along the surface of the water while she spun calmly and slowly. Her hair was covering almost all of her back with the tips dragging along in the river, but as she turned I had to swallow quickly to lubricate my suddenly dry throat. She was wearing a very flattering bikini top. It was a thick white fabric that covered her well, with straps that had a row of multicolored beads going over her shoulders, but her flat stomach and lean arms seemed to glow gently underneath the sunlight. Even more radiant than her skin though was the gentle smile that was pulling up both the corners of her lips and her eyes.

I swallowed again, wondering why my throat was so dry, and looked down at the river where Serena's eyes were trained. Just then, Serena lifted one of her hands a little above the river's surface and I saw a greyish blue fin poke out of the river as if following her hand. I felt a smile begin to tug at my lips as I realized that she must be playing with the Feebas she had told me about.

"Wow, she's gorgeous," one of the grunts, I couldn't tell which, breathed out heavily. I felt my muscles tense at the tone in his voice and I felt a surge of protectiveness begin to stir inside of me.

"We could probably have some fun with her," the other guy whispered, his eyes never leaving her chest area. Electricity began to build up around Pikachu's little body as he outwardly expressed his anger at that comment and I tensed even further.

"Time to go," I stated, my voice coming out rough and hard.

"Oh, come on, Satoshi. The world is going to be erased anyways. Besides, she looks like a girl who could be okay with a fun night out," the grunt that had originally heard Serena said with a lecherous grin.

Not stopping to think, I reached out and grabbed the guy around the throat and pulled him to within an inch of my face. His eyes went huge and he scrabbled at my iron grip on his throat uselessly.

"We are not here to traumatize an innocent girl, we're here to find the entrance to a mine. Get your head out of your pants and get Back. To. The. Jet. NOW." 

I could see the terror in the guy's eyes and frankly I was a little surprised he didn't wet himself. Once I had calmed myself down a bit I finally let go of the guy and he crumpled onto the ground before quickly getting up to his feet and dashing away, not even looking back once at Serena. I glared over at the other grunt, who had been watching everything with a slack jaw, and he quickly stood straight and waved his hand in a calming gesture.

"Chill, dude. We were just joking," he stammered, even as he tiptoed around me and began to speed walk after his friend. Letting out a sigh I looked down at Pikachu, who had calmed down as well, and saw that he was watching Serena and Feebas. In that short amount of time, Serena had both picked up her speed in her circles and Feebas was now actually jumping out of the water in order to follow her hand.

My anger disappeared and I smiled over at her, wishing I could tell her that whatever she was doing looked like great training. But one glance down at my dorky Team Galactic uniform nixed that idea and I turned away from her.

"Pipi chu," Pikachu said sadly.

I looked down at him to see that he was looking over at Serena with his little shoulders slumped. A brief sadness gripped me and I wondered if Pikachu missed having a normal trainer and spending calm days like this training and playing with me and all of our pokemon friends. With a sigh, I reached down and patted his head.

"Maybe we can take a vacation after this mission is over," I whispered down to him. 

Pikachu smiled in a way that seemed to say, "don't kid yourself" and I chuckled. With a few practiced leaps, Pikachu climbed up my arm and took his normal position on my shoulder. He nuzzled his cheek against mine and I smiled, scratching him lightly under his chin as I allowed myself one last look at Serena before turning and following after the two idiots I would have to work with for the foreseeable future.

A/N Hello everyone!! I'm sorry that my updates have been so inconsistent :( Thanks for your patience with all of this. I am trying to dig deep and find the time and energy needed to keep writing. But I think my two month break has been good for me. Hopefully, I'll be able to AT LEAST update once a month from now on. If I can do more then I will though.