Hello, readers! Hope your ready for another story. This one was requested by PEARLSHIPPERBRETT. Cheers to him for the idea.

Hopefully this will be a more realistic story. No magic, or forbidden powers or 'love conquers all'. Time will tell.

OK, some characters may be OOC here, so be warned. But I'll try to keep to what I'm given. Also, Pikachu and Piplup do not factor into this.

Here we go!

The Salvation of Three

The scene: Veilstone City, Abandoned Warehouse.

Living in a place where extraordinary things were common gave you a large sense of belief. A sense of superstition, at times. Thus, you could also be easily fooled.

The population of Veilstone City had been told great tales about the meteorites scattered throughout the city. They were awed and naturally, believed those tales. And so it was that Veilstone City had indeed been fooled. Effortlessly, considering the complicated work the secret organization occupying the 'abandoned' warehouse usually performed.

If one looked around hard enough in the dark and desolate building, they might find several movable wooden planks in the wall. But figuring out how to set the boards was much more difficult than simply finding that they could be moved in the first place.

All the boards were identical to the naked eye and there could be an infinite amount of probable solutions. So, naturally, they disregarded it all. Which in turn, strengthened the secrecy of the Assassin's Guild.

This cold, cunning organizations took contracts from all over Sinnoh. The actual Assassins were never physically in contact with their clients. They simply did the job and got their pay. And did they do it well!

Despite the secrecy of the Guild itself, the cold efficiency of the Assassins was the stuff of legend. How exactly they came to know of these skills were irrelevant, as these rumors had been cause for concern amongst the Guild at the beginning, even though the people still considered it all a myth. Eventually, they managed to dampen down the rumors even further, ensuring that it remained a myth.

The contracts received by the Guild were for human beings alone. It was one of the Guild's tenants to never intentionally bring harm to any Pokemon, whether wild or under command of their target. The Law of Arthas, the guild's founder, stated that:

1- No living being, other than the contract's specification, shall be harmed.

2- No Pokemon, wild or otherwise, shall be purposely harmed.

3- Publicly speaking of the Guild away from the Hideout bears the penalty of death.

Secrecy is our Salvation.

These words were the very definition of this group. They were swift, silent, cunning and secret. The ultimate assassins.

Trying to comprehend this, Ash Ketchum could only shake his head in awe. It was all so perfectly done. He realized he had been standing in front of the wall with movable planks for nearly a full minute and put them in place. The key was to examine the wear on each board and place them accordingly. They did not rot, so the pattern never changed. But only the trained fingers of an Assassin could even hope to perceive the faint but unique creases on each board. Click.

A door revealed itself out of reach, feet above Ash. Or so it seemed. These surfaces were only climbable if you dared to undergo the rigorous athletic training of Assassins.

With expert agility, Ash raced at the boarded wall below the raised door , leaped at it, kicked and sprang back and finally landed on a narrow beam as high as the door.

That procedure of entry never got old. Smiling to himself, Ash proceeded into the lift and began his descent to the Assassin's Guild. It was not extravagant, neither was it inhospitable. It was quite modest. The floors and walls were of polished wood, while the higher ranking members had rooms of marble.

No stranger would have guessed this place hid a group of killers. It seemed very scholarly to be honest. There was a battle arena, yes, but in addition; the hideout possessed a library, lounge and even an indoor garden, which somewhat lightened the impression of being underground due to the lack of windows.

Despite the modern state of the outside world, the Assassins kept things blissfully simple, and that decision often served them well. He made his way toward the lounge, donning the simple white garment of the Assassins, as did those who passed him. These garments were usually worn in the hideout alone, since disguises were often provided for assignments.

This secret hideout was their home. They slept here and ate here. Only on rare occasions were they allowed to roam the land freely, even then for a short time. But none of them, none of them knew just how little of freedom they saw. They enjoyed their work, telling themselves it got them further in life, coldly taking lives for payment. Emotionless. They felt no remorse, nor hatred nor love. Only a grim satisfaction that was not in itself a truly human emotion.

As Ash entered the spacious lounge, he saw two other Assassins with whom he got along well with: Drew and Paul.

Drew was fairly neutral to all his comrades, treating some with enough kindness and treating his work of killing as blindly as any of them. He didn't take particularly like taking lives, but neither did he hate it and he seemed to recognize a fraction of how limited their lives were, though he never spoke of it.

Paul, on the other hand, was cold and arrogant, even by the standards of the Assassins. He actually seemed to take pleasure in his work-- which often disgusted Ash-- and was even unfriendly to his fellow Assassins, turning hostile at the worst of times. Ash and Drew were two of the only people he got along with.

Ash himself tried to believe each of his targets had done something ruthless or evil to whoever the client was. Otherwise, he was no killer at heart. He had not tried to change the personalities of his friends, for he knew it would do no could for any of them. They were not truly matched up as friends, but they had been working as Assassins for equal time periods and had known each other in their earlier teen years as well. Thus, they stuck together well enough.

Ash made his way over to Drew and Paul, who seemed to be fairly deep in conversation. "Mind if I cut in?" he inquired, taking a seat next to Drew. "What's going on?"

"Oh, hey Ash." Drew greeted. Paul merely nodded. "I was just asking Paul about how easy he went on his last target. After all, she was quite good looking and that's always guaranteed to work on our Paul!" The green-haired boy smirked.

"And I," Paul answered Ash, fuming at Drew, "was just informing Drew here what a complete idiot he is for thinking that. I don't give a damn how they look. I just take my work seriously. Unlike others." The arrogant Assassin gave Drew a sideways glance who merely chuckled.

Ash too smiled wryly. To them, Paul was all bark and no bite. To others...well, you didn't want to get in his way. It was for this reason they joked around him. They had occasionally been informed by other Assassins to be cautious about doing so and they had waved them off, receiving responses like: 'OK, it's your funeral..." to which they had simply laughed.

"Seriously though, Ash." Drew said, "Where did you go? A contract? You didn't say anything about a job."

"Must've slipped his mind." Paul muttered. "As usual."

Ash's smile remained as he curtly nodded to Paul, then answered Drew. "Yeah, I guess Paul's right. I was just a bit eager to get out of here. Don't get me wrong, it's great, but I need a change." Paul snorted. Ash ignored him. "Anyway, I had to go to Snowpoint to take care of someone who may have been importing illegal substances from Kanto. Some guy called Errol."

"And?" Paul asked, his arms folded. Aside from assassinations he himself performed, he seemed to enjoy listening to others recount their own jobs, to either berate them for being merciful or to experience the pleasure of hearing of other victims' final moments. All this rather disturbed Ash and he avoided recounting his own tales whenever possible. "I did the job Paul." Ash replied aloud, smirking, "I'd worry about myself if I were you."

Paul merely muttered, "Humph." and dropped the subject.

"So what about you?" Ash asked. "What did you do while I was away?"

"Well," Paul began, "after we discovered you left, we..." Ash listened to the two recite their tale, as they had been doing for so long.

***

The scene: Eterna City.

Miles away from the Assassin's Guild in Veilstone City, in a room of the hotel labeled 'Natural Foundations' were three teen girls. One was a slim, attractive blunette with a cheerful voice and smile, one was a pretty and caring brunette and the third was a redhead who exuded an aura of confidence and safety: Dawn, May and Zoey. They were all childhood friends and had been through thick and thin together. When they left school, they had decided to travel together, exploring the natural wonders of the Sinnoh Region.

They had stopped in Eterna City, a place which flourished in beauty and had a true aura of Mother Nature around it, and decided to stay for a few days. And boy, had it been good. The landmarks, the lifestyle! And the shopping!

They had picked up their share of souvenirs from their so far brief time here and they now sat in the dining room eating lunch. None was bad at cooking, but neither were they brilliant. So they decided in the form of a game, usually. This time, Zoey had lost at Rock, Paper, Scissors, much to the glee of Dawn and May.

"You've outdone yourself, Zoey!" May said cheerfully. "This is only half as bad as last time!"

"Har, har." Zoey replied, although a smile tugged at her face. "Well, I suppose Dawn's taught me a thing or two." she nudged Dawn, who grinned. "Thanks, Zoey. It's the least I can do."

The redhead's eyes frowned in mock puzzlement. "Who said it was a compliment?" that was all she could take before she burst out laughing, as did the other two. Yes, indeed, this journey would be something they would all be sorry to leave behind when it finally ended, as all good things did.

When they managed to control their mirth, they finished eating and decided to check out the nearby Eterna Forest. "It's still daylight, so no need to worry! Besides, we'll only take a little look!" Dawn chirped, before the others could voice their concerns of the wild Pokemon in the forest that sometimes... frowned upon their territory being violated. Of course, who couldn't be comforted by such a tone? Not May or Zoey, as they trusted her assurances, whether by choice or not.

While en route to the forest, May voiced a rather unexpected question. "Guys?" she asked. "Hm?" Dawn responded. May looked up at the sky and spoke. "Do you think we should, you know, settle down any time soon?"

They stopped. "Settle down?" Zoey inquired, looking confused. May avoided meeting her eyes for some reason. "You know, umm... settle down. With someone." she added.

"Oh!" Dawn exclaimed, her cheeks coloring slightly. "Uh, I think we may be still be too young for that, May. I mean, who would want us?"

May frowned. "What do you mean?" Dawn waved a hand, "Never mind that. I think we should take our time with this subject. Zoey?" she asked, for Zoey still didn't seem to get it. When she finally did, she shook her head, smiling slightly. "Not gonna happen." and they continued to the forest.

I wouldn't be too sure Zoey. Heh, heh heh.

Well, I gave you what the two trios are doing. Ash, Drew and Paul are blindly living restricted lives while Dawn, May and Zoey are happily journeying together. I hope you're intrigued. This story has a lot more potential than I first figured. Thanks again for the idea, Brett!

Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter. R&R, dear friends!

Daijobu!