Should she be disappointed at how trivial it was to locate the warehouse? There had been a whole plan set in place to leverage Marco's position at the port to find the location and then she spotted the idiots sporting the bright red beacon that was their hair.

For a brief period, she entertained the idea it may be a trap but that line of thinking was soon discarded. There was no nervousness in their gait, looking over the shoulder, or signs of silent communication. Either they were consummate professionals or, more likely, simply complacent.

It was Dacia with slightly different skin. Blind confidence in their abilities, believing themselves to be infallible. And somehow, it was up to her to disabuse them of that notion. It wasn't a lesson she was in any rush to give. The closer she could get to the truth without them noticing her prodding the less danger she'd be in.

Which meant tonight would be a gentle touch, in and out without anyone the wiser.

The docks rated for cargo were on the north side of the city. Out here, the berth had less protection from the natural bay and she suspected the ships were relegated to this location due to their deeper drafts. That or the city thought them eyesores and wanted them away from the more touristy parts.

That might be changing given the recent construction going on, demand must have been high with the amount of new builds going up in the area. Tanya sat in one such building, a future condominium if she were to guess. She was on the fourth floor looking out of a hole where a window would be placed sometime in the future.

A noise sounded next to her and she turned to find Mawile smacking her right fist into an open palm.

"Wile."

The Pokemon was unusually focused. It did not take a genius to understand what the little battle maniac was trying to instigate.

"We're not going down there and busting heads." This was not the first time she had stated her decision and she was wondering if all those Iron Heads hadn't caused some brain damage. Why else would the Pokemon constantly repeat the question and expect a different result? "Either sit patiently or go back to your ball."

The others were content to rest, having gotten bored by the impromptu stakeout. She'd split from Marie shortly after fulfilling her obligations at the store. The down payment had been made and she was once again, flat broke. It wasn't an enjoyable feeling but if she could find a couple of well-off trainers it was a solvable problem.

The Holo Caster Marie had opted for was one of the models out of stock so the girl would have to visit the store again to pick it up, without Tanya. They had traded numbers but she did not expect to ever contact the girl again. The food and board were appreciated but it wasn't like a small child would be any help in tackling a region-wide conspiracy.

The sun was beginning to dip behind the horizon, casting the city into darkness.

She brought her pair of binoculars back up, spying on her target and taking advantage of what daylight was left. From her elevated vantage point, she could see the squat structure. It was a single-story tall with white painted walls covered by a red tiled roof, facing the water was an opening a truck could slot into. The design was upscale for its purpose and it wasn't the only of its kind, surrounded on either side by carbon copies. She counted ten total divided into two rows. The entire lot bordered the water and was fenced off by a tall iron and brick fence.

Originally, she had feared the entirety of it to be owned by Team Flare however the interactions she viewed during the day painted a different picture. They avoided contact with the other tenants and conversations were short. If they were in charge she would expect them to be lording whatever power they had over the others.

Of course, without audio, she was relying heavily on body language. It wasn't ideal but she'd spent enough time with the grunts to know how expressive they were. A hand rose to her mouth, stifling a yawn.

This type of work was undeniably dull but it did lessen the risk she would face upon infiltration.

Something caught her eye.

In a perfect world, she would take notes over multiple days before going in. Perfect was the enemy of good. One of the attributes that contributed to her success as a commander was her ability to seize opportunities once they presented themselves. While others were lollygagging around she would order her troops to exploit openings the enemy was kind enough to present her with.

It was with those thoughts, that she recalled Mawile and went further into the building. In a small corner, she found her stashed pack and she swiftly took what was needed, leaving the rest for later retrieval.

Her entire body was now covered in long gray clothing, a beanie on her head, and a scarf wrapped tight around her face. She palmed a Pokeball and Ralts appeared in a flash, blinking sleepy eyes up at her.

"It's time. Do you understand your role?" The Pokemon nodded and she was thankful at least one of her subordinates was able to retain information. "Good, I'll be counting on you."

Ralts raised her arms and Tanya knelt down. When she rose again Ralts was secured to her chest, it was a crude solution using a series of belts but it would allow her to retain the use of her hands. Perhaps later she could look into proper harnesses but she doubted they sold anything that fit her specifications.

She gave it a few experimental tugs for personal reassurance before finding the staircase and descending the few flights. Coming out into the street, she kept to the shadows and approached the perimeter. She stilled as a pair of headlights appeared from her destination and watched the golf cart roll on by, the three redheads seated inside oblivious to her presence.

Seeing them all pile in had been what she needed to pull the trigger on this operation. That number represented every Team Flare member she'd logged today and while there could be more hidden inside, that was why she had a handy radar strapped to her chest.

She'd debriefed all her Pokemon earlier today. Mawile had been a disappointment, saying point blank that she did not pay too much attention to Xerosic's dealings. Carbink similarly, had nothing important to add. Ralts was a mixture of satisfaction and disappointment. On the bright side, she had a startling amount of moves for such a young Pokemon. The fire she used during the match ended up being Mystical Fire but she was also able to use Disable, Confuse Ray, Confusion, Hypnosis, Disarming Voice, and Teleport.

On paper, that presented a very versatile tool set. Reality was another story. The Hypnosis had been tested on a compliant Carbink who, despite closing his eyes for a moment, was fine after a few seconds. Disable had unreliable effects with Mawile not being deterred but Carbink losing access to harden for a short duration. Confusion had a noticeable impact on performance but was slow and easily dodged. The biggest letdown was Teleport being limited to the Pokemon herself and even then it was only a few meters. Tanya had stressed the importance of that move and promised they'd work together to expand that range and capacity.

For now, Tanya would rely on one of Ralts' unofficial moves. The Pokemon was an empath and what came with that was the ability to sense the location of others. It was why she hadn't bothered to dodge the Sand Attack from yesterday. With that and a series of coded actions, she was far more comfortable prowling in enemy territory.

As she neared the fence, she sped up. Aura pumped through her and she leaped, her foot touched iron and she pushed off again to crest the obstacle. She landed on the opposite end with little fanfare, moving towards Team Flare's warehouse.

The loading dock came into view, the garage door was shut but beside it was a ramp leading to what she hoped was an unlocked entrance. She was reaching for the handle when her right side was squeezed and she dove to the side. Back resting against concrete, she was nestled in the crook between the ramp and garage door. Above her, she heard the door squeak open.

Footsteps followed and she cursed silently.

"Bastards," The man unknowingly echoed her sentiments. He leaned on the rail above her and she heard a clicking sound. There was a loud inhale and then an exhale. "I swear those dice were rigged. I can't believe I have such shit luck getting stuck on the night shift after a full shift."

This one must have been cooped up inside all day.

The smell of a cigarette wafted over and she wrinkled her nose, it reminded her of the days she'd spent choking on the brass's cigar smoke.

Her head peered over the ramp and she resisted the urge to neutralize him then and there. He was on the other side of the ramp and less than two meters away. His attention was towards the city lights. It would be trivial and her instincts honed from years of war begged her to put him out of his misery. Alas, they were in times of peace and leaving a trail of bodies would make a poor impression.

The door he'd come from sat tauntingly open. Smoke breaks took on average five minutes? She wasn't sure. Was that enough for a quick peek inside? Potentially but there was no guarantee he wouldn't end it early.

She felt Ralts shift and Tanya wrapped her arms around the Pokemon, stopping the movement. The belts must have been chafing. She was not about to readjust now so Ralts would have to deal with some discomfort.

The Pokemon stilled and she was relieved to find the man still ignorant of her presence. If only he was out of the picture. She could visualize it easily, having done the maneuver countless times.

A simple toss of the knife, then his windpipe and spine would be severed in one fell swoop. There would be no chance for him to resist and he'd collapse like a puppet cut loose of its strings. The blood was a problem, it was spurting out of the wound and a stream was already traveling down the ramp to form a puddle at its base.

Wait.

What?

Crap!

She vaulted over the railing and grabbed the body, dragging it backward and into the warehouse. It wasn't a far distance and she dumped it at the entrance. There was a switch near the door that she flipped, making the exterior light flicker off and concealing the evidence. She chose not to remove her embedded knife and cause a bigger mess.

What the hell! She'd not made any moves. Was it the mental corruption again?

'Good?'

A feeling of hesitant pride welled up in her chest. Or what was attached to her chest.

Ralts…

Apart from being an empath, the Pokemon also had general telekinetic abilities. It must have launched her knife.

Clearly, the Pokemon held some trauma over her mother's death and a result was prone to excessive violence. Which meant she was carrying around a budding Psychic psychopath.

The benefits still outweighed the risk, she just had to steer her on the right path to being an upstanding citizen, or Pokemon in this case.

The pride wavered and began to morph into something uglier.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Objectively, it was a good throw. In fact, it was exactly how she would have done it. The implications of that were filed away for later.

Focus on the positives then. She removed some of the belts and settled Ralts in front of her, holding her stare and patting her head.

"It was a good throw, you dispatched him quickly and quietly." She let that settle for a moment before continuing to the criticism. "However, there is a time and place for these things. We were not in danger of being discovered so your actions were excessive. Tailor your actions for the situation at hand, jumping to violence is something a simplistic brute would do and that's not you."

At least she was hoping it wasn't. Speaking of brutes…

Mawile was released. Her eyes traveled to the corpse and she pouted, tapping her foot with her arms crossed.

"Ma."

Technically, the head was in one piece. However, pointing that out to the Pokemon would come across as childish.

"There were complications," Tanya didn't pay any mind to the raised eyebrow that earned. "Start tearing open boxes. I'm heading to the office."

Things had already gotten out of hand and there was no use crying over spilled milk. Now her goal had shifted to extracting as much intel as possible out of this place. It was a small mercy that she spotted no cameras. No doubt their absence was to further facilitate their illicit dealings.

Mawile shrugged and padded deeper into the warehouse. There were pallets with wooden crates stacked high and Tanya heard the yanking of wood signaling the Pokemon was doing as instructed.

The office was a small sectioned-off area with thin walls separating it from the main floor and a large window to observe the workers.

Its door was unlocked and she immediately went for the computer. Clicking on the keyboard, a password was prompted.

Flare, Team Flare, Lysandre, and Password all turned up as duds. What else could it be…

She typed 'Beautiful and better'. A wheel spun and she was rewarded with the homescreen. Her next hurdle appeared quickly. This system was unfamiliar, she had no idea where the manifest was saved.

The mouse moved and document after document began to be opened. Her search was methodical and painfully slow.

'Mama?'

She turned to see the Pokemon had followed after her and was pointing at a filing cabinet.

"Good thinking. Start going through it. Flag anything you think is relevant to me."

Were they dumb enough to leave printed-out evidence? Hard to say.

Cults attracted different sorts of people; the gullible, the greedy, the desperate, and the stupid. She hoped the latter were in charge of this facility. Otherwise, everything important would have been long-shredded.

The thought triggered something in her memory and she kicked herself for not realizing it sooner. She'd been away from proper technology too long.

It took some trial and error but eventually, she found the computer's recycling bin.

No, no, disturbing but not criminal, no, no, why was this even on here, no, and finally something useful.

Glancing at Ralts to see her on the floor with spread-out sheets of paper, she left her to it and entered the main floor.

"What are you doing? I told you to search not play dress up."

Mawile shifted the pair of red-tinted sunglasses down and gave her a look before gesturing to the opened crates. Tanya stepped over pile and pile of designer clothing. She idly noted an entire pallet of hair spray.

What did she really expect from them?

She brushed by the Pokemon dressed in an oversized blazer and used the numbers painted on the floor to guide her. Her eye spotted the crate. It was the highest on a stack of three and she was about to find out why its existence was deleted.

"Bin?"

Carbink groggily blinked its eyes after being released.

"Knock the top one off, gently."

The levitating rock shook itself awake and rose to the height of the box. Carbink impacted it and the crate toppled down.

With a huff Tanya caught it, placing it down. Mawile was soon by her side, her interest being piqued. They pried it open.

It was like a gumball machine had been broken, miniaturized Pokeballs spilling out of the gap. She picked one up, expanding it. Sharing a look with Mawile, she clicked the open button.

Nothing happened. Another was retrieved and the same events played out.

"Why on earth do they need so many empty Pokeballs?" She spoke out loud and Mawile shrugged, kicking one of them away.

Blackmarket Pokeballs? It was a possibility. She'd done some research and discovered these things talked to each other. It was the reason they didn't work on already captured Pokemon. The information was collected in some database which resulted in the government knowing who owned what Pokemon. She suspected it was how she'd been caught at the Pokemon Center.

As long as she didn't plug her balls into a machine or have someone with a PokeDex scan her Pokemon she should be fine.

Experimentally, she lobbed one at Mawile. It bounced off her forehead and the Pokemon returned a glare.

"I was checking something."

Tanya briefly considered doing a more exhaustive test when a ball was beamed against her forehead. She coated herself with aura in time, negating any injury.

"Wi. Ma." The offender said innocently.

Tanya found it difficult to argue with the words thrown back at her.

The restrictions didn't look to be lifted, as far as she could tell they were normal Pokeballs. So why hide them? A thought occurred to her.

Tax evasion.

Regular Pokeballs were not that expensive but purchasing in bulk would drive the cost of anything up and Team Flare had many members. They must be buying them under the table and not paying sales tax.

This wasn't the dastardly crime she was angling for. She imagined the authorities be much more concerned with the body she left.

Tanya righted the box, stopping more of its contents from spilling. From her pocket, she produced her singular item ball and 'captured' the crate. The clothes might have been more expensive but those would be easier to trace. With that amount of PokeBalls, she could replenish her cash reserves. It was a good thing she knew where to try unloading them.

Her sight scanned the room. There were still more crates but there was no telling how much use there would be in opening them.

The body, she had to deal with it. Luckily, they were near the ocean and she was a strong swimmer. Without being attacked by hostile Pokemon or combating a storm, she could carry it offshore along with something to weigh it down.

She'd stage the scene to look like the grunt cut and ran. The blood outside would have to be cleaned. She looked towards the sides of the warehouse, there had to be cleaning products around here somewhere.

The buzz was the first thing to alert her something had gone wrong. The next was Mawile cracking her neck and knuckles. She tackled the Pokemon behind a crate as the garage door lifted and headlights shone inside.

"Jerry!," A voice yelled. "You sleeping again? Get your ass up. I want to tell you how Bennard managed to get us kicked out of the club."

Tanya struggled to keep the Pokemon from revealing them, wrapping her legs around Mawile and covering her mouth.

"Shut your trap-. Fuck! Jerry!" She heard the sound of rushed steps stop short. "What's the matter Poochyena?"

"Obviously they're still here you numbskull." The original said in a derisive manner and she heard more cries as Pokemon were released. "No use hiding, just come on out."

As if she'd be stupid enough to do that. Her head shifted up, she'd take out the lights and then-

"Bink!"

Damnit Carbink. She was seriously considering donating him to a concrete plant.

The Pokemon floated out and Tanya withdrew her limbs from Mawile who wasted little time stepping out.

With a sigh, Tanya joined them.

Opposed to her group were a Poochyena, a Scraggly, and a Zubat. Behind them were three grunts standing close together.

"A midget?" Tanya repressed any outward reaction to that. "Whatever, recall your Pokemon or else."

She ignored the command, examining the competition. In contrast to their trainers, the Pokemon were fidgeting. Scraggly was the worst, its eyes darting back and forth with a foot inching back.

A feint? It was a dark type so she'd not let her guard down.

'Time, Place?'

The office door swung open, attracting all eyes. Ralts waddled out, dragging a folder behind her.

"Yes, I think it is." They said no plan survived contact with the enemy but she was surprised at how spectacularly this basic one had gone awry. "Don't make too much noise."

She didn't see any other tenants have night guards but with her luck, one would come around soon enough.

"I don't like your attitude kid," the leader of the pack spoke, identifying her age. She hadn't bothered masking her voice. "Call it in Bennard, we'll need a clean-up crew. No way am I getting my suit dirty."

The one known as Bennard reached into his breast pocket, producing a Holo Caster.

Tanya reached for her knife, belatedly realizing she'd left it with the corpse. Ralts must have sensed her intentions because it shot out, coated in a pink hue.

"Chy!" Poochyena exclaimed while using its jaws to snap the knife out of the air.

Tanya was already running forward, unarmed or not she couldn't allow that call to go off. The nervous Scraggly showed some backbone and a leg swept towards her. She jumped out of its reach.

A rock was launched from behind her and she watched it clip the side of Zubat. Helpful but not the priority. To her chagrin, she noticed Mawile had not taken a step. The Pokemon wore a smug smile.

Did she not realize...oh. Tanya realized the battle maniac was probably hoping for the call to complete and attract more targets here.

She heard the sound of numbers being dialed and swore. She wasn't going to be fast enough.

A piercing shriek cut through the warehouse. The Team Flare grunt was on his knees, cradling a stump.

Tanya watched the shadow slowly retract into a doll.

The doll she'd left with the rest of her gear.

"Mimi, Mimi." An eerie chuckle filled the area.

The unease it filled her with was damped by Mawile's full belly laughter that joined it. Carbink contributed soon after however, Tanya had doubts about whether or not he understood what was going on given that she was struggling herself.

Her mind worked to piece together the process of events when Ralts interrupted her.

'Friend.'

Tanya would be the judge of that.

Later.

First, she needed to deal with this mess.

The unharmed grunts backed into each other, their Pokemon sticking close and forming a small circle.

With the doll at their rear and Tanya plus company at their front, there was no escape.

The disarmed grunt continued to wail into the night and Tanya's face twisted in disgust.

"What part of keep it quiet did you not understand?"