"Are you done yet?" Sabrina called through the heavy wooden door, sounding very impatient.

"Yup." I answered as I opened the door. I was met with the sight of my favorite human psychic. Also the only human psychic I know, but that's beside the point.

The girl in question was impatiently banging her palm against the vomit green concrete wall, trying to express her impatience without making it too obvious.

"And how do I look?" I asked with a shit-eating smile.

"Don't flatter yourself." Sabrina didn't look amused which only added to my amusement.

I myself thought I was looking cool as heck, being dressed up in the new clothes I received from the Commander. I wore a black hoodie that had the logo of the Hunt printed on it. The logo was rather simple, just the word 'Hunt' spelled out with a big font with a metallic texture added to it and as a finishing touch, it had a silver arrow strike behind the letters.

Apparently, it was some unshipped Hunt merchandise and I had to admit it looked really cool, not over the top and edgy but at the same time, it had some weight to it, making it not look childish.

I got blue jeans too and awesome sneakers that were extra sturdy and had a cool red and black color scheme going on.

I swung my backpack over my shoulder and followed Sabrina through the long hallway that could have been copied straight out of Alcatraz. Not that I've seen it but this is how I imagined a prison would look like, long gloomy corridors and no windows whatsoever.

"Where are your Pokémon?" Sabrina asked without slowing down.

"Uuhhmm, I left them with Caleb for some group therapy, so we could have some privacy. Besides, your boss said it was okay."

Sabrina stopped. "Group therapy?"

I shrugged. "There were some complications during the Hunter J situation, mainly Luna trying to get rid of Fay and Fay trying to kill Hunter J herself."

"You are joking right?" Sabrina asked incredulously.

"Wish I was."

"And you left the two together, alone?"

"Caleb's there to babysit them." I said unsurely.

"You are the worst trainer I've ever met." Sabrina shook her head.

She was only half right. True, I had no idea how to deal with Luna's betrayal and Fay's failure. I could talk big but in the end, I had no real idea what made them tick and how I could make them act more nicely and feel happier.

I never knew, to be honest, just winging that kind of shiz has always been my strategy and I was about to do it again. However, there was logic behind my ideas.

Luna and Fay had to talk it out together one day, so why not now? Luna would not kill Fay but Fay might get angry at her once she revealed her schemes.

"If I were to be present, there would be the chance that my Pokémon only pretend to be cool with each other, now they have only each other to figure it out with." I explained. "There's not much I can do unless both find a compromise first."

"And what if they can't?" Sabrina countered.

"Then I'll just take the one that comes out alive."

Sabrina gave me a horrified look.

"That was a joke," I sighed, "You should try them too."

"I do know what jokes are," Sabrina glared, something she does a lot. "Yours just aren't funny."

She refused to look at me after that. Without using her hands she opened the door in front of her and I followed after her into another empty room. This one looked like it was once a dining room. It had plastic white tables scattered all over the room. Looks like the previous occupants just dropped dead while setting up a fake meal.

"This place is lit." I murmured as I scraped my finger over one of the tables, only to find my fingertip covered with dust.

"Fuck off."

"So," I rolled my eyes. "Is there a reason you hate me? Is it just me being a blind spot or something else?"

She hesitated a short moment before answering. "I don't like not understanding things."

"We all have that." I laughed. Fuck, I still don't know how I got into this world or why I am even here. "But that's no reason to be an ass about it."

"We all have that?!" Sabrina asked, suddenly the lights in the room started flickering. She gazed at me and I saw the purple flames around her eyes. She returned in full force, "WE ALL HAVE THAT?!!!"

The furniture began shaking, seemingly on its own. A weird buzzing sound filled the room and I could feel the temperature drop. Sabrina eyed me with a venomous glare. "My entire life I dealt with the unknown and just when I feel like my life is finally getting on track and I get my first chance to use my powers to do something useful,” the glass on the counter shattered. "And then you come in and somehow everything gets worse! Suddenly I am the one who messed up!"

She was shouting at me but she didn't sound angry anymore, just more desperate and sad. "Did you know that our losses increased just by you being there?! Hunter J was supposed to die but instead, we only have the vague hopes that the Zapdos bomb killed her."

I cast my eyes down, unable to say something snappy or to make a counter-argument. I did not feel guilty per se but I felt bad for Sabrina.

A silence followed and the things in the room stopped shaking, the lights went back to normal and a comforting warmth flooded back into my body.

She said with a small voice, her eyes avoiding mine, "I just want to know why it all went wrong."

"I'm sorry, but mind you that I did not ask for any of this, I don't know why I am a blindspot either, in fact, there's so much I don't understand yet but I am sorry that it caused you so much trouble."

Sabrina let out a deep sigh and calmed herself down, the glow dissipated as she closed her eyes.

She didn't accept my apology, nor did she refuse mine. Instead, she began talking with a calmer voice. "Let's continue, you wanted a tour right?"

Without waiting for a response she opened one of the big sliding doors and urged me to follow.

"This did not happen." She added as she stepped through the door.

"Sure?" I said while feeling confused and at the same time relieved.

Pretending like she did not have an emotional breakdown a few seconds ago Sabrina began talking. "Well, I do happen to know quite a lot about the Hunt and this base. I was of course one of the founding members."

Without using her hands she opened a door in front of her but this time it did not lead to another hallway. Instead, I found myself on a long metal walkway that hung suspended in the air. Metal cables prevented it from falling to the ground and an extra set of cables prevented it from swinging. The path was narrow, barely wide enough for 2 people. Underneath us, it was a madhouse.

A gigantic, almost hangar-like room was underneath us, stretching out for a good while with gigantic trapdoors and big ceiling lights hanging in the air. The same concrete walls I had seen before made up the massive walls that surrounded the room in a desperate attempt to cage the that took place.

I saw people underneath me working on strange transportation devices, ranging from vehicles to helicopters to actual planes. Big and small Pokémon walked around underneath us, all in different shapes and sizes. Actually, Pokémon were just everywhere and in all shapes and kinds as well.

I saw a big Gyarados casually slithering through the room, carrying a full fridge in its tail, but I also spotted smaller Pokémon like Roselia and Alcremie down there.

The people below were all dressed up differently, some wore just casual clothes while others were partly covered in protective body armor, like they were ready to get into a brawl. I saw people playing with their Pokémon, some were grooming them or feeding them by hand while others seemed to be content with just watching the Pokémon.

Saying it was chaos down there would be an understatement, there was no way to see which Pokémon belonged to who or what anyone was doing.

I saw two guys working on what looked like some sort of helicopter, while not even a full step away a guy was playing fetch with his Furfrou.

This room was big enough to store a cruise ship and even have space to spare, yet it looked crowded.

"I know it looks like a big mess down there." Sabrina looked down with a distasteful gaze. "But the artificial living areas for the Pokémon are not done yet so they stay in the main hall for the time being."

"That's a lot of Pokémon." I commented.

"Indeed, all the members of the Hunt have their 6 Pokéball limit removed."

The people underneath us didn't seem to either notice or care about us. Some humans and Pokémon gave a quick wave or greeting but most just ignored me. I idly noticed that none of the greetings were directed at Sabrina. Some noticed her but just continued with their duties, whatever they may have been.

Guess she was not that popular around here.

"It's my power," Sabrina stared down. "It scares them, either subconsciously or consciously but they stay away from me. They don't voice their thoughts or fears but I can read it in their eyes even without using my psychic powers."

I stayed silent, trying to come up with a response that was a bit more meaningful than ‘that sucks’.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Well, have you tried talking with them? I know first hand that you can not expect others to start a conversation."

"Doesn't work," Sabrina sighed. "Either they see me as some kind of freak or as a higher-up they can't talk to. Also, I don't think I should take advice from you, seeing how you only have 3 phone numbers saved in your Pokédex."

I pretended not to see her smirk by looking at a girl walking around with two swords strapped to her back. For some reason swords are more effective to Pokémon than a bullet, not sure why. It does look badass though.

"So you actually went through my stuff, eh? They did invent this thing called privacy, you know?"

Sabrina gave me an innocent looking shrug. "I had to dig out your backpack from underneath the sand. After that, I had to make sure everything inside was still in one piece."

She gave me a menacing smile. "I think that someone's possessions can tell a lot about someone, for example, you keep your Pokémon's Pokéballs inside your backpack instead of your pocket."

I groaned. "That says nothing about me, they stay outside of them anyway so unless I am battling they might as well be kept away safely."

And there was this fear that I might lose their Pokéballs like I always manage to lose my pen in class, not that I told Sabrina. Maybe I really should look into getting a belt as well, maybe one that could holster a knife as well, preferably hidden.

"I also found 2 guns, one gold, one silver, they previously belonged to Crimson, the infamous bank robber."

"Crimson switched targets and accidentally met me, the weapons just exchanged ownership once I got him into custody.” Damn, don't I sound badass. "They are very shiny."

"But the most curious thing I found," Sabrina continued, unaffected by my explanation, "A notebook full of weird lines and slashes…and poetry?" Sabrina raised her eyebrow at me.

I gave her my biggest shit grin. "I just love poetry."

That was not a lie and it was a good distraction for whoever found the notebook.

Seeing how remembering details from the entire Pokémon multiverse was getting a lot harder than I had thought, I decided on writing them down. I started with a cipher that only uses the forward slash, backslash and a straight vertical line. Using a combination of those three would give you the route to traverse an imaginary tree that had letters at the end of each branch, with the more commonly used letters closer to the roots of the tree.

It was a funny code I had once found in a book as a child and for some reason, it stuck with me. After that, I threw in some internet slang and only used keywords so even when it was decoded it would only make sense to me. To anyone else, it would look like the scribbles of a madman.

It was more meant as a quick refresher than anything else. I really need a better way to get my knowledge recorded in such a way no one else will ever be able to figure it out. If only there was a Pokémon that could function like a voice recorder.

"Seriously, what does the code mean?" Sabrina narrowed her eyes, "Why go through such lengths to hide something?"

And she was back at being scary.

"They are my personal notes," I haphazardly tried to find a good answer while talking. "My diary if you will call it. Secret techniques I worked out using scientific findings."

I really became good at bullshitting I noticed, I always have been but the circumstances in this world forced me to be even better at it. It was actually a very good alibi now I think about it, considering I was actually doing research, just without all the official protocols that made it valid and legitimate.

Feeling somewhat cocky I smiled. "You do know that I'm going to become the best Pokémon trainer in the world right? Knowledge is power and making sure only I can access my own knowledge is just good riddance, right?"

Sabrina stared at me for a long time, trying to detect lies.

Apparently, she could not find any because she frowned and said, "You are quite arrogant."

I shrugged.

A blond girl feeding an orange Dragonite spotted us on the catwalk. We locked eyes for a brief second. Unlike most, she didn’t avert her eyes from Sabrina.

The girl quickly mounted the dragon and with a few flaps, the pair flew towards us.

Briefly, a look of displeasure crossed Sabrina's face before the girl came to a stop in front of us.

I recognized her as the one who fought Hunter J and her Salamence during the battle. That had been an impressive feat, seeing how chaotic the entire battlefield had been. As she came closer I got the chance to get a good look at her. She had ash-blond hair tied in a high ponytail and black eyes. The most noticeable thing was the black cape she wore on her back, next I noticed the belt she wore across her chest. The black belt had multiple knives strapped to it, every single one of them kept in a small sheath but clearly they could be drawn within a second. Underneath it, she wore what seemed to be a regular short-sleeved shirt and sweatpants.

"Dust, meet Alexandria Strike," Sabrina said. "Alexandria, meet Dust Wildfire."

"Sup." I greeted the newcomer with a wave. "Cool cape."

She ignored me completely and instead turned to face Sabrina. "Is this a new recruit?"

"No, he is a guest." Sabrina answered with a cold voice. "Now could you please tell me where Blink is?"

"No time for small talk today?" Alexandria pouted mockingly. "You're never getting friends if you keep acting that way."

Sabrina didn't even blink. "I asked for Blink, not your advice."

"Fine, he is at the weapon depot" Alexandria shook her head in disappointment, "Well see you later."

The girl riding the Dragonite flew away and disappeared into the crowd

underneath us.

"Soooo," I started. "That was a thing." I felt like I had seen something I shouldn’t and it was quite awkward.

"Come, we are leaving." Sabrina began walking and an invisible force gave me a shove.

I followed her and we were met with another black door. I opened it and we left the hall behind and were once again back in the concrete maze that made up like 80% of the base.

"Alexandria Strike, eh? Sparkling personality." I mused, "What's up with her?"

Sabrina didn't look at me as she answered. "She was the Indigo league finalist 2 years ago, she managed to beat the Elite Four only to lose against the current Champion Lance. It made her pissed off so she took the second best thing that could get her fame and joined the Hunt."

"I see you don't like her."

It was just good to know I was not the only one on Sabrina's shitlist.

"I just can't stand people like her,' Sabrina murmured, "The ones who get everything and expect even more."

"No shit, no one likes them."

"Well apparently people do-" Sabrina stopped dead in her tracks, "Oh shit we're going the wrong way."

Sabrina turned around and I saw her eyes were glowing purple. "Blink isn't at the weapon depot, he's in the library. That fucking bitch lied."

Remembering how scary Sabrina could look when she became angry, I quickly diverted her attention with a question. "Well, this hall looks like any other, no wonder we could get lost here. What is this place even?"

"It used to be an old Rangers outpost," Sabrina dragged me into another random direction, hopefully the right one this time.

"What happened to the Rangers?"

Sabrina shrugged. "Nothing tragic like you would expect. there was just not a lot of use for a Ranger base in the middle of the sea so it eventually got closed down and abandoned. And now we moved in here, the perfect spot to cover all three regions. Aaahh, I found it!"

We were walking through a big and dark storage room that had big metal shelves with weird machinery on it. "We are still renovating this place. Expect this place to be vastly different next time you see it."

I nodded. "Cool beans, now quick question. Are we underwater or on an island?"

If we were to be underwater I might need to start worrying about drowning.

"Of course not," Sabrina rolled her eyes like an underwater base was the stupidest idea she had ever heard. "This place is constructed on the top of big pillars so it stays above sea level, they thought it would help against sea storms but it kind of doesn't, thus we have anti-teleport fields and force fields that cover the entire base.

I thought back to what Luna had told me about being unable to teleport home, now that I heard about the fields that covered the base, it kind of made sense.

"And we are here." Sabrina stopped in front of a wooden door that looked different from the others. I had noticed that this hallway was more modern looking with a fresh layer of paint and less trash on the floor. The door I was looking at right now was beautifully decorated, mythical scenes were carved into the wood and intriguing patterns ran over the length of the entire door.

Sabrina expectantly moved to the side. "Behold."

She did her thing again and the door opened on its own and I entered the room. I was looking at a big cozy-looking room that had big wooden bookshelves placed against the wall. I saw multiple stacks of books that reached the ceiling with sticky notes on them that divided them into different categories. Multiple wooden desks were placed in the

middle of the room and a crystal chandelier hung in the air.

It was like I just walked into a library from 2 centuries ago, old looking scrolls were drawn out one of the tables. A big map of the world was displayed on the left wall like a piece of art. Talking about art, paintings and photos of people and Pokémon hung on the wall, some looking like they had been made by Michelangelo himself while others were more modern looking and seemed to be taken with a photo camera.

It was not all old and outdated, however. A projector hung next to the crystal chandelier and multiple computers were placed on the desks with all kinds of techy stuff lying on the table.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Sabrina smiled when she followed behind me.

"It's a shame that the research team isn't present right now. But at least Blink is here."

I glanced around the room and saw a big pink Pokémon standing in the corner.

The creature was big and bulky, its tail was almost half its size and looked to be some kind of weird shell.

"Meet Blink." Sabrina said.

"Blink is a Slowking." I stated to see if I was dreaming.

The Slowking did not even look up as I got closer to him, instead, he kept looking in front of him, seemingly staring at a wall.

"Blink is the strongest teleporter in the world, excluding Legendaries, of course, Blink can move entire armies across regions within a second."

While Sabrina talked I gave the Slowking a good look, it still had not moved nor even blinked.

"He is one of the key players in the Hunt, we have more teleporters but Blink is undoubtedly the strongest."

I stared into Blink's eyes, it was like nothing was going on there. Like his body was there but the lights weren't on.

"You are sure he is the world's strongest teleporter?" I waved my hand in front of his face. "Because to me, and this is only an opinion, he looks like he is..."

"...retarded?" Sabrina offered when I didn't say anything.

I snapped my fingers in front of his face a few times but I got no reaction.

"Mentally challenged." I said.

Sabrina gave me a small smile, "He might look like that but he's actually really smart."

"Well, isn't that some weird shit."

"But he can teleport you to wherever you need to go, just tell him the address."

"You are sure that works?" I asked suspiciously, "Because I seriously doubt the lights are on, maybe he glitched?"

"Just do it already."

"Fine, Rosefort Forest, it's near Floaroma Town in Sinnoh. Please don't teleport me into a lake...please?" I looked at Sabrina. "That's all?"

She nodded. "Yes, 8 hours and 43 minutes from now you'll be teleported back, make sure your Pokémon are near you or they might miss the teleport and you'll have to wait a whole other day for them."

I gulped, "Wait 8 hours?"

"Yes," Sabrina smiled. "Blink's biggest drawback is the amount of time it takes to teleport people and Pokémon, it can take him from an hour to an entire week, depending on the quantity and distance."

"You are kidding, right? An entire day?" I stared at Slowking, "That makes him basically useless during a crisis."

"It does," Sabrina admitted. "That's where I come in. I can predict the location and time of future threats and give the orders ahead of time."

She looked very proud of herself as she said that. "As long as I get a vision the Hunt can preemptively intervene. Of course, we also use other methods such as the International Police Database and the Absol system but most B and A level threats don't hang around long enough to organize a counter-attack."

"That's clever," I thought out loud, "On your own the two of you are useless but together you can form a deadly force."

"Did you just call me useless?" Sabrina fixed her dark blue eyes on me.

A sudden knock at the door followed.

Sabrina turned to face the door with confusion. I too was confused.

A second knock followed and the door began to change color. Slowly a white layer began to cover the wood. Slowly but surely the door began to turn blue until the entire thing was frozen solid.

A third knock followed and this time the door shattered with a loud bang. The pieces fell to the ground where they either broke off into smaller fragments or slid away. There was nothing left of the door. A white fox stepped through the ruined doorway.

"Yip." A high pitched bark followed.

Next, a white Pokémon shot towards me.