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Amy awoke with the buzzing of her pokepalm, opening her eyes to find that her room was still dark. It was morning, though, by the glow of red light on her clock that said "3:15AM". Way too early for her tastes, but then again whatever had been sent to her must have been important. Since, she'd likely kill the person who was up in HQ this late trying to be funny. Carefully she went to sit up, trying not to disturb the little brown and cream rodent that slept on her stomach. Obviously this was useless, because at that instant she saw an ear flick in her direction with the murmuring sounds of "... Mommie, I don't want to wake up, yeeet." The woman had then stopped her movements, and waited for the pokemon to go back to sleep with some small hesistation. The idea of just picking him up and putting him besides her was in ponderation, but the annoying buzzing of her pokepalm and reasons of Zigzag now laying at an awkward angle changed all this. "Okay, okay, I'm up. What's for breakfe- AMY!" She braced for impact.

The flying furball lunged, tiny paws grabbing onto her shoulders and acting exactly like a puppy would. The weight of her little buddie caused her to fly backwards, and hit her head on the bed's headboard. This was enough to get Zigzag to stop, and he jumped down onto the floor with a surge of giggles as Amy had the pleasure of rubbing her new bruises. "MOOOORNING, SLEEPY HE-" The woman chucked a pillow at him, following it up with a soft, whispering hiss. "Quiet! You'll wake everyone else up if your not careful, Ziggers." The creature yelped, ducking just in time for the pillow to miss and gave a grin in response. "And as I remember, you were the sleepyhead." That comment had caused the pokemon to simply stick out his tounge, but he otherwise stayed silent. For once.

By the time she had grabbed the pokepalm, the buzzing had stopped and was instead replaced by a flashing green dot to show she had a new message. She flipped the contraption open, searched her messages for the recent one - since she had a horrible habit of not throwing away the old ones - and finally opened it to read what was inside.

"Wake up, you need to do mission! ~ Dunas."

". . ."

Oh, yes. Somebody was going to die.

She scrolled down to read the rest of what had been sent along, which was the actual mission that she 'had' to do. Sure, it was seperated into different parts, but to her it was just one big puzzle that needed to be put together. Which... needed a lot of work and time to complete. Oddly enough, though, it caught her interest like lightening to a metal pole. Only when she finally made up her mind did those eyes wander over towards her zigzagoon and give a small grin. "Hey, Zag. Up for a mission?"

"OH MY FLIPPIN' POKEGOD! YAAAY! LET'S GO, LET'S GO!"

Without a moment's thought he soared out of the room, leaving Amy sitting on her bed and laughing wildly. That had been until her bestfriend decided to voice her own opinions on waking up this early in the morning.

"DANGIT! AMY, SHUT UP!"

Amy tried to muffling her laughter when she heard Rui's voice from next door, bringing her hands to cover her mouth while the giggling continued.

So far, it wasn't a bad start to what was likely going to be a very long day.

-*-

"Arrogance, huh?"

She scratched her head, glancing towards Zigzag as she headed away from the doors of HQ. The fresh, crispy morning air and spray of water from the waterfall had awakened her senses, and she was pleased with the way the sky had gone into a multiple of colors ranging from purple to orange. Sunrise was always a beautiful thing to see, but mostly for it's way of pronouncing the new day like trumpets did for royalty. Plus, it simply just made her mood a lot more energetic and alert than it had been before. Her hand raised upwards to adjust the green backpack on her shoulders, which had been filled with all the supplies she knew she needed and likely didn't need. Her MP3 player that hung off her belt was included with the useless baggage, but Amy didn't seem to mind this fact. So long as she had her music, she was happy.

"Sounds like a bad man to me, Amy. Really, really bad. Pokeballs are mean enough without making them hurt." Amy glanced towards Zag for a few moments, watching him hop along with a small frown. When he turned back to look at her, he saw it and spoke very quickly in an apologetic whine. "Oh! No, no Amy! I didn't mean it like thaaaaaat! I'd rather be in your care than anyone else's, I just mean most don't like being treated as storage." Oh, yes. That made her feel plenty better for those that were currently in the PC. She said nothing, however, and gave a smile in return to his words as they continued to walk towards the main road.

Underneath her arm was the old-fashioned hoverboard of helpful transportation, which she planned on using once they had reached the long, endless path to Saffron city. Flying would have been much easier, of course, but she didn't think Jack would have been able to handle it. He still had to rest up from their previous trip... and Amy didn't really want to go through that all over again. Once was good enough for her, thank you. The sudden loud whine that came from her traveling partner broke Amy's thoughts, causing her to look at the raccoon with a questioning glance as she stopped besides him. This was mainly incase it had anything to do with something nearby. "What is it?"

"I don't waaanna walk all the way to Saffron city! It's too faaaaaaaar, Amy." The puppyeyes that were sent her way told everything, which caused the woman to place her hands upon her hips and frown. They weren't even halfway there yet!

"We're not going to walk all the way. We're going to hitchhike... Maybe. There's going to be a lot of hoverboarding, though, so if your going to complain then hop on my shoulders like you normally do. I won't die from your weight, I swear."

"Kay! If you start hoverboarding, you'd better not do what you did before though! YOU ALMOST KILLED ME WITH THAT NUMBER THINGY!"

"A one-eighty?"

"Yes. That evil thing!"

Zigzag gave a flying leap, clinging onto her backpack before he climbed up the rest of the way and onto her shoulders. The rest of the walk to the main road was silent - not counting the sounds of 'High School Never Ends' by Bowling for Soup on her MP3 player's headphones. Attemping to avoided any and all contact with surrounding trainers in the area, she simply kept her eyes straight ahead and ignored the challenges that were issued her way. She was on a mission, and was in no mood to deal with some young whelp or old man at the moment. Once she had finally reached the road, however, was a grin given as she activated the hoverboard and jumped upon to get the two travelers on a more faster pace towards their destination. A few complaints from Zigzag occasionally as Amy did a random trick or two, but at least they weren't one-eighties... Considering kickflips were more fun.

"The whole damn world is just as obsessed,
With who‘s the best dressed and who's having s--..."

God, it was funny how much she loved that song.

-*-

By the time they had arrived at Saffron City, the sun had already gone down and left the simple lights of buildings to shine down on the numerous alleyways and nightlife. The flashing neon signs were otherwise ignored, but to her it was just the same as any other place. The people, the noise, the drama, and so on... it was all dreadfully boring. As for the actual place, however, she couldn't help but admire the scenery. The sparkling of glass and metal that mixed in with the cobblestones below made the city look somewhat enchanted, and the occasional rubbish pile and various unknown things seemed to only add to it's mystery... if not make it look a tad bit unhealthy. Amy, however, had a knack for seeing what was beyond a city and into it's inner core. Otherwise know as being somewhat of a tourist, but she knew it was better not to believe that a place was completely innocent. There was always going to be rats to worry about, and even the best of resturants had to deal with them.

Zigzag clung tightly onto her hair, eyeing the passing strangers with wide eyes while he kept his mouth shut. He already knew that a talking pokemon wasn't exactly a common thing, and would likely grab too much attention for both her and Amy. Attention he would otherwise like to avoid, since he wasn't a fan of strangers unless they knew Amy. Otherwise, that was a big 'No' on his zigzagoon charts of do's and don't's. The whining of pure uneasy feelings as they finally stood infront of the building only caused the woman to bring her finger to her lips and glance upwards at the pokemon upon her head. Ziggers nodded, but gave a small frown in the process. She had already gone over the plans numerous times throughout their way here, and because of this he couldn't help but be a tad nervous that he'd screw up. What he gathered from Amy, though, that wouldn't be too hard of a thing to accomplish.

The first thing she noticed was the two guards out front, causing her to give a large frown and tilt her head. She knew the security here had grown exceptionally larger over the years because of past takeovers by random teams, but she didn't see the point in being this overly cautious. Especially coming from the biggest damn tower in the city - it wasn't like people wouldn't notice something happening! Then again, that was probably why the place had been taken over so many times in the first place. She quickly placed her hands into her pockets, walking forwards and towards the two towering figures with about as much calm as a breeze during a sunny day. Even though they were wearing sunglasses, both Amy and Ziggers could feel their eyes watching her as she approached.

She took a deep breath. "Is this place opened to the public at night? My first time here, I'm afraid, so I'm not really sure how things run around here. Hope you two lovely gentlemen could help me?" The airy, caribbean accent that flew from her lips held a style of innocence that was quite uncommon with Amy's overall personality, and as she peered over her sunglasses to eye the men with a smile, they appeared to be a little cautious themselves about her.

It took a moment for one of them to reply, and by the way they acted she could tell that neither of them were very good at their jobs. Too timid, too nice, and simply too weak to really uphold the simple job of being guard dogs. This was useful advice in the long run, but she couldn't really judge them just by how they acted. "Uh, yes. The first floor is, anyways. Uppers ones are always off limits, though, so don't try anything." Amy smirked. "Of course not. Wouldn't want to cause any trouble for you." Her shoulders rolled in a normal shrug, causing Zigzag to shift uncomfortably on her head and glance from human to human. With the first part of her plan in action, she gave a polite nod to the two men before wandering into the building with rekindled confidence. Everything was going well so far, and she silently hoped it would stay that way.

The first thing her eyes noticed when she entered was the next guard that stood infront of the steps, and the cameras that were randomly placed upon the lower floor. Not exactly easy, but then again when had her current occupation fallen under such category? Her attention turned to Zigzag, who gave a small squeak of understanding before he hopped off her head and onto the floor. Nothing was said, and Amy simply walked around to examine random things of interest.

Zigzag had ignored the guard, pretending to follow a scent that had caught his attention while walking to the main desk. The woman who calmly sat there kept her eyes on Amy and payed little attention to the rodent, which likely meant that they were use to seeing pokemon out of their pokeballs quite often. This was another useful tool, since not many people would suspect a harmless zigzagoon to create any type of chaos so easily. Since, they obviously did not know Zig very well.

The little pokemon hopped upon the woman's desk, taking a slow stroll along the counter before he sat down infront of her. This had caused the woman's eyes to shift from Zig's trainer with a smile, and act like any other person who had a puppy or kitten infront of them. Spoil them with compliments. "Aaaaaaw, now aren't you adorable? What's your name?" She reached a hand to pet the spikey creature, which caused the pokemon to shift backwards a little and give a small whine. The woman paused then, but kept that smile upon her lips. "It's okay. I won't hurt you." The one behind the desk went to reach out and pet Zig once more, giving another smile in the process.

Zigzag freaked, his spikes going sharp almost instantly and sending quills flying in all different directions - mainly at the two cameras which were angled to cover the entire room. The woman herself let out a scream, ducking below the safety of her desk while the guard dove to the floor as well. Amy, however, had been missed completely and instead brought her hands to her mouth with a 'surprised' gasp that followed with a rush of apologies. "Oh god, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?!" She rushed over to the guard first, lowering herself down besides him and offering her hand. "He's not use to strangers, really. I shouldn't have kept him out..." Just as the other woman went to stand up again and give her own apologies, Zigzag headbutted her right in the face. The man was caught off-guard, allowing Amy the pleasure of a swift kick to the jaw and thus send him propelling backwards to slam his head onto the bottom step. Hopefully that wasn't enough to kill him, but it stopped the man from sending any instructions via earpiece to the other guards. That bought them more time.

"Wonderful, Ziggers. Let's get going before the two outside notice."

Amy searched the man's pockets for any type of cardkey, which was mostly habitual for reasons of having done this before, and pocketed it as she motioned for Zigzag to hurry up. The earpiece that had been in the man's ear was grabbed as well, and thus stepped on by the weight of her combat boots for reasons of not wanting her plan to become ruined by some communication device. That would have really pissed her off.

Once she was satisfied, Amy took her time up the staircase as Zigzag move left to right with a large grin on his face. He was very pleased with the fact that his job was done and over with, and that he hadn't messed anything royally up as of yet. That had been until he heard Amy's next comment, which did not go overly well in his book.

"I need you to scout ahead without being seen, Ziggers. Just to take out any cameras and see how many guards are up there... Can you do that for me, please?"

"Aaaaaamy, but I don't waaaaaanna."

"Your going to have to if you don't want us to go to jail." The auburn eyes landed upon Zigzag's black ones, holding a slight impatience that was common during such conversations. Her headphones had already been placed back into her ears, and the faint noises of 'Get Off My Back' whispered into the silence as she waited for his reply. Though, she was mildly happy the people here weren't smart enough to stick cameras infront of the staircase, or else they'd be in some terrible trouble.

"But they don't take pokemon to jail..."

Amy's hand was brought up to run through her hair, stopping halfway up the steps to pay full attention upon her friend. If he wasn't going to cooperate, than she'd have to rethink this idea of her's all over again.

"Okay, look. Do you want to let that guy make a pokeball that'll hurt and possibly cause permanent damage to any pokemon that comes into contact with it?"

"... No."

"Alright, then. Get going so we can get this done and over with."

Ziggers gave a long sigh, lowering his ears and zigzagging his way up to the top of the steps and onto the next floor. This had caught the attention of the guard nearest the staircase, who nudged his partner and pointed in the pokemon's direction with a hint of humor. "Hey... how'd that little fellow get up here?" The other man shrugged, leaning against the wall and giving a yawn. "Dunno, might have somehow gotten pass Benny. Hasn't been the first time... should we get it?" Just as the other was about to speak his opinion, Zigzag went into action once again. He darted forwards, causing both guards to exchange glances before they dived at the slippery pokemon, which simply had to jump on one of their heads to pull off a frontflip into the air. Doing another quick pin missle at one of the cameras, he landed on all four paws to finish the job by giving off another round of quills.

While all this was happening, Amy had rested against the walls of the staircase and tapped her fingers along with the steady tempo of the current song. Her green backpack was slung over the shoulder that was opposite the wall, with most of the hoverboard sticking out of the largest pocket. Occasionally she'd whisper one of the song lyrics while Zigzag took down the cameras, leaving the upper floors blind to their actions for now. Sure, they probably knew something was wrong, but they didn't know there was a human behind it as of yet, and that was another thing that bought her time.

"Well you think that you can take me on? You must be crazy."

Zigzag faced the two guards, who were currently pinned to the wall from the spray of spikey attacks. For one sugar-happy Zigzagoon, he took pride in his aim - though it wasn't exactly perfect. This was taken note from the scratches that were visible along the men's faces that caused trickles of blood to roll down their cheeks. The pokemon was almost apologetic, if it wasn't for reasons that he was in a rush and couldn't bother with simple things like that. Amy would have be angry, anyways. Repeating the same action as before, he gave a headbutt to the nearest one before he landed and sent his full weight into the other's stomach by useage of tackle. The moves knocked both men out, and left the room guardfree. So much for security.

"There ain't a single thing you've done, thats gonna phase me..."

Zigzag gave a huff, turning to notice that there were a couple of scientists still on the floor. However, they didn't seem to notice the commotion as they worked behind their desks, which pretty much gave another advantage as Zig wandered over to the stairway and nodded at Amy.

"Oh, but if you want to have a go! I just want to let you know..."

She pushed her weight from the wall when she saw Zag, walking up the rest of the stairs to eye the job that her friend had done. When she saw the guards pinned up against the wall, a pleased grin followed before she motioned for him to hop upon her shoulders as she headed for the elevator's doors. Taking a few moments to grab their earpieces as well, of course, and doing the same as she had done before. The scientists, even if they did take a peek at her, were completely ignored as she slid the cardkey into the elevator's slot and waited patiently for the doors to open. She had sidestepped beforehand just incase there happened to be a camera within there as well, and only when Zigzag confirmed there was only one that he quickly destroyed, did she stroll in to go up the final level.

The elevator music wasn't exactly what she would call 'entertaining', however.

She leaned cautiously against the wall of the contraption, not much of a fan with being in something that was only held up by a few simple cables. Humans always did have an odd way of making things that were suppose to be easier on the population slightly deadly as well. The sudden cheerful 'ding' sounded to announce they had reached the third floor, and when the doors opened to reveal the scientist's offices was a greatful sigh whispered past the woman's lips. Zigzag was the first to jump out, again repeating the same tactic as before by making a quick sweep of the place to destroy the cameras while avoiding the hands of three guards that chased him once they noticed the little critter. Amy simply kept her foot infront of the elevator door, and only when her pokemon finally came back to give the 'OK' did she finally leave it altogether.

The guards were no where in sight, however, and caused Amy to look down at Zigzag curiously who only gave a grin in reply.

"You made them collide into eachother, didn't you?"

"Yeap."

"Genius."

She patted the pokemon on the head as he reclimbed up to sit on her backpack, heading for the supposed scientist's office with a soft humming noise. She already knew how to handle this jerk, and was pretty confident that he'd change his mind once she got through with him. The MP3 player was placed back in her pocket, and was instead replaced by a pair of earmuffs. Another pair was then placed upon Zigzag's own ears just before she entered into the man's lab.

"Afternoon, your working late."

The man was too much into his work to notice her arrival, adjusting the finishing touches to his project while he gave a hurried reply. "Oh, well yes, but I have to if I wan't to get this done." Zigzag's eyes wandered around to the many research papers and boards that were covered in numerous symbols and letters, deciding to not even try understanding any of it.

"I see..." She moved forwards then to quickly grab at the Hunterball, taking a few steps back only when it was firmly in her grasp. The scientist was not at all pleased by this, proof given by the curses that followed as he turned to face her. "You - you! Who are you?! How dare you come waltzing in here and steal my work!" The woman was now leaning against the door panel, twirling a pair of earmuffs with one fingertip as a light smile appeared from his question. He gave her a flustered look, but she otherwise ignored it . "I'm Amy. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Scientist."

The scientist glared, standing up from his chair and taking a step forwards in attempts to get past her. "Guards! Guards, we have an intruder!" Amy's smile spread into a large grin, raising a hand to gently, but firmly push the man back towards his chair. "Chill, I'm not here to hurt you. Even you don't mind some social debate once in awhile, right?" He gave a huff, folding his arms across his chest and turning away from her. "Your not one of those pokemon 'rights activists', are you?" Amy smirked.

"Uh, no... If I was, however, I might have killed you by now. Your idea isn't exactly popular, yanno." Her eyes narrowed somewhat, which caused the man to shift uneasily in his seat while he glanced at where his project was. Her hand. "So? An idea does not have to be 'popular' to be a good one." The woman shook her head, placing the earmuffs around her neck so she could spin the Hunterball carefully upon her fingertips. This caused the scientist to flinch, but he otherwise ignored the action. "I can build more now that I know how to make it, so breaking it won't change my mind."

"I know, wasn't planning to." That was when she grinned, pushing her weight off the door while Zigzag peered over her shoulder. "This contraption of your's... what does it do?"

He seemed excited about that, leaning forwards in his chair to point at the step-by-step instructions he had written down on the board. "It tells you over there, but, I can give a summary if you'd like. All it does is give off a high-pitched whistle that can stun a pokemon long enough for capture. It's brillant, if I say so myself." She frowned, glancing at the man with an annoyed look. "Oh, really? I wonder how you would feel if some trainer came by and threw this at you? Not very well, I believe - Oh, wait! I know! How about we figure this out first-hand!" The woman pulled the earmuffs over her ears before the man could protest, and had chucked it quite hard at the man's chest.

The high-pitched, glass-breaking whistle caused the man to scream, raising his hands to cover his ears just before the contraption knocked the wind right out of his chest and landed with a 'thud' on his lap. It being heavy had only added damage to his groin area, causing the scientist to fall forwards and onto the floor. Amy had folded her arms, waiting till the man recovered as Zigzag hopped down to get the pokeball again. "Have you changed your mind, yet?"

"WHAT?"

She couldn't help but laugh at this, moving towards him while the rodent placed the pokeball back in her hands. "I said, HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND YET?"

"NO."

The woman growled, raising a hand to lightly smack his forehead while he sat up. "LET'S TRY THIS AGAIN!"

"N-no! Wait, wait! Okay, okay! Just don't hurt me again, please!" The woman halted mid-throw, raising an eyebrow at the man before slowly pulling off her earmuffs. "What did you say?"

"I'll do whatever you ask! Just - just don't throw it again." Amy smiled, dropping the pokeball to the floor as she made her way over to him. "Very good! See? Thats exactly how the pokemon would have acted. Is that how you want them to be treated? You guys make stuff to help them! Not hurt them! Oh, and if I find out you did go through with it... Well, I'll be back and I will do much, much worse. Okay?" He nodded. "Good. Sorry for hurting you, too. I promise I won't bother you again so long as you do what I've asked. I'd rather not have you tell anyone about this meeting, either. You understand, right?" Another nod. "Anyways, I hope the rest of your night is a good one. See ya." She brushed her hand lightly across his cheek, stuck out her tounge, and headed for the exit. Just like that.

As soon as she closed the lab's door she ran for the stairs, with Zigzag clinging tightly onto her backpack in the process. What was sticking out from the hoverboard was used as a sort of man-made backrest, which was quite helpful when Amy started sliding down the stair's railings. The same was repeated for the ones that connected the second floor with the first, hopping over the man that was still laying on the floor before she flew out of the doors and waved to the two men that guarded the entrances.

They waved back, making Amy smile as she grabbed her hoverboard and replaced the MP3 player back in her ears. Having already figured it'd be a long, long trip back to HQ, the girl picked 'Real Emotion' as the best song for it. Plus, it helped block out Zigzag's screaming as she one-eighty'd and kickflipped the rest of the way.