1- For Hire

Tick, tick, tick.

Somewhere in Azalea Town…

A clock in the Pokémon Center's guest room slowly counted out the seconds… the minutes… the hours…

Tick, tick, tick.

The clock, located on a Pokétch on the table in the room clicked slowly, the hour hand inching its way towards the 10 on the second hand, and the 11…

Tick, tick, tick.

Another clock simultaneously aligned, this one electronic, displayed the seconds with equally agonizing slowness…

11:58.

11:59.

12:00.

Tick, tick, tick.

The clock pulsed, and a face appeared in the window; a man wearing the traditional black costume, adorning a large capital red "R", opened the window silently, and loaded a dart into a straw. He took careful aim, and shot it at the girl's arm; the girl flinched and stirred, but by that time, the man was gone, and the only evidence was the dart in the girl's arm. But by the time she woke, in about seven hours, the dart would have dissolved into her bloodstream.

Already a mile away, the man checked his map; he had 2 more targets left to hit. It did not matter who the victims were or what happened to them afterwards; the only thing that mattered to him was that he had been paid the handsome sum of 1,500,000 PokéYen had been paid to his private account, and he would be paid that amount once more upon completion of the three jobs, when he reported back to his client. Who his client was, what he did, the man did not know or care. All that mattered was the money, and when tomorrow came, the money would come, and the man would be that much happier. But now was not time to think about that. Focus on the mission.

The man slipped through another window, loaded another dart, and took careful aim once more. In a few hours, he would be ¥3,000,000 richer.