The Recruits

Disclaimer: Because I wanna be just like everybody else, I'm going to put up a disclaimer: I NO OWN. Only the plot and Gweneth Hylar are mine, so no touchy!

The room was silent and dusty, the only light was from a lamp, dangling from the ceiling, casting everything in a dingy glow. As the phrase went, it was always best to hide in plain sight, as is the case here. Cynthia, Champion of Sinnoh and ranking G-men, watched calmly as Lance paced back and forth, his cape flowing behind him. His face was screwed up in worry and agitation as he paced. "He's late," he growled. "Again."

"Well, Steven is from Hoenn. It takes him a while to get here," Cynthia offered.

"And you're from Sinnoh." He argued. "He knows that it takes a long time."

"True, but you and I know full well that I wasn't in Sinnoh when we called the meeting." Cynthia smiled faintly as she saw the flash of blush crawl on Lance's cheeks. He suppressed it as best as he could when he noticed her watching him.

"Still.." Lance trailed off when he heard the warehouse door slam open. Both trainers reached for their pokeballs, fearing some intruder had found their meeting place.

"Okay, you can put them down people, do I look like some criminal to you?" It was Steven, champion of Hoenn, raising his hands up at the sight.

"You're late." Lance stated, arms crossed.

"Yes yes, I know. Currents are a pain to study, you know that?" Steven took a chair and flopped down in it, clearly exhausted. "I study earth and fossils, not wind currents."

Lance opened his mouth to say something, but Cynthia shushed him. "Okay, now that everyone is here, let's get started." Cynthia pulled out a manilla folder from a bag that was sitting at her feet "Now, as we all know, there has been a rash of burglaries from various breeders and Pokemon Centers."

"Sounds like old hat from Team Rocket," Steven said, running his fingers through his hair.

"It does, but here is the catch. Some are only temporary, with some of the pokemon coming back, a little woozy from what appears to be a tranquilizer, others, don't come back at all, or worse, we find them, dead, with parts missing and all the blood fully drained from them." She paused as Steven tried to maintain his composure, but she could tell that the news made him ill. "The pokemon recovered all had the same tranquilizer makeup, so we know they were all captured by the same people. The problem is making a connection from those cases to the dead pokemon."

Lance nodded. "It seems to be by the same people, but we don't know how they're connected, nor can we investigate every case. Too many of us have other assignments."

"Plus there are only a handful of us anyways," Steven added. "Is there any evidence at all to any organization?"

"No, there is nothing. Team Rocket's been off the radar for almost years now, plus the others have been broken up."

"Alright" Steven stood up, stretching. "So, we have no idea who it is, why they're doing it, nor do we know how they're connected. Oh, and we don't have enough people. How do you want to go about this Lance?"

Lance bit his lip. For the Champions, it was always difficult for them to balance the duties of Champion and G-Men, but they managed, sometimes. Also, their ranks were spread out and thin, making it even more difficult to investigate. It was obvious that this was amounting to something big, because of the increase. Something came to him suddenly, but Cynthia beat him to the punch.

"Simple, we get new recruits."