I flew to the main base with Steven, and I was filled with excitement. All the top members in one place, the best of the best. I wondered what they looked like, and if I'd fit in. But really, I just hoped they wouldn't hate me. As we landed Steven returned his Salamence. Pikachu squirmed on my shoulder in excitement. I gripped the straps of my backpack, that was holding my egg, tightly.

"Now there's one important thing you need to know before we go in," He said to me.

I looked up at his serious face and nodded my head.

"The only one's that know you were forced to be a top member are Brian, Oliver, Cal, April, Caleb, and myself. Let's keep it that way." He stated.

"What does it matter if the others know?" I asked out of curiosity.

"They all worked hard to get their spots as a top member. All of them earned it, and if they find out you didn't even want the spot, and you got it by association, they might not take well to you." He said with a frown.

I gulped as I thought what would happen if half the top members hated my guts. I made a personal note to not bring up how I got in. I then followed Steven into the building, he led me up a flight of stairs and into a large luxurious room. It was an open space that looked like it could fit a hundred people and not just the five currently in it. There was a large circular couch that took up a good portion of the front of the room, and looked more than spacious enough for the ten members that would sit on it. There was a large kitchen in the back of the room, most likely stocked full of food. Next to the kitchen there were ten computers each with a number one through ten above it. I was completely impressed. As soon as we walked in, every head turned. I immediately recognized Oliver who was sitting at the computer under the five. So that meant his rank was number five. I looked back at the couch to find four other members giving me strange looks.

"Who's the small fry with the rat?" A girl questioned in an intimidating voice. She had dark red hair that was tied up in a ponytail with bangs framing the sides of her face. She looked to be around my age, and despite the fact that her face looked to be locked in a permanent scowl, she was rather beautiful. Pikachu growled at her rude comment.

"You're picking them awfully young now, aren't you?" A deep voice mocked Steven. The man looked to be the oldest in the room, perhaps somewhere in his late thirties. He had brown hair that was shaved military style. He had a slight beard growing and his tank top really showed off his massive muscles. Steven smiled, but it was that fake smile he gave when he was mad.

"Actually, this lady belongs to someone else." He stated as he ruffled my hair.

"Quit it," I whined.

"Is she perhaps," a small girl started. "the new member?" The boy next to her finished. These two creeped me out a little. Despite clearly being opposite genders, they looked almost exactly the same. It was obvious they were twins. They looked like they were a little younger than me. They had brown hair, the girl's went down to her chin, while the boy's hung slightly in his face and went a little passed his ears, much like Brian's. They were even wearing matching outfits.

"That's right, we finally have a new number ten." Steven stated proudly.

"Well she doesn't look like much," the red head stated bluntly.

"Now you can't judge a book by it's cover." The muscular man stated as he walked over to me and held out his hand. "The name's Sawyer."

I reached my hand out to his and his strong grip practically crushed it. "Nice to meet you," I said as I clutched my now sore hand to my chest.

"I'm Mai!" The small girl chirped. "Tai," Her brother said after her.

"That grumpy sour puss over there is Rachael," Sawyer said as he jabbed his finger toward grumpy red head.

"I'm Kate," I introduced myself. "And this is Pikachu," I motioned to Pikachu on my shoulder.

Sawyer slapped my back. "Now that's a strong name!" He laughed. Now my back was as sore as my hand.

"Your Pikachu is really cute!" Mai said in a shy voice. "Pika!" He exclaimed as a thanks.

"You must be good, with Alec as your older brother, and being trained by Brian," Tai mused.

"I-I'm alright," I stuttered.

It was then that I noticed a line of pictures that I didn't see when I first came in. I walked over to the pictures and found they were pictures of all the members in order of rank. Alec was number one, he had a big smile on his face and I had almost forgotten what his smile looked like. I reached out and ran my finger down the picture, suddenly feeling down. Steven walked up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder in comfort.

"I think he'd be proud of you," He said over my shoulder. I smiled up at him as I moved on to the next picture.

Brian. Of course he wasn't smiling, but he was still just as handsome. I smiled to myself, there was a shine in his blue eyes that indicated, despite the lack of a smile, he was happy. The next picture was Steven, his smile was just as big as Alec's. I looked over my shoulder to find the same smile plastered on his face. I guess I was right when I thought Brian out ranked Steven, even still, I felt honored to be so close to the top three members. I moved on to the fourth and was greeted with Sawyer's picture. Just like Brian he wasn't smiling, but he still seemed happy. The fifth was Oliver. He had a grin so big it looked like it would jump out of the frame. I looked back over to him still typing away on his computer, he hadn't even noticed I was there. It was like he was in a whole different world.

Number six was Rachael, of course she wasn't smiling in her picture either, but there was no sign of happiness present. I could practically feel her glaring at me from behind, but I decided not to turn around. When I reached the seventh picture I was frozen. Just as I saw the picture, the person walked in. I whipped around to find Caleb standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"You!" I yelled at him.

He awkwardly rubbed the back of his head as he stood there looking sheepish. "Surprise," He muttered.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

"You never asked." He stated with a shrug. "It's not like I was keeping it a secret. It was recent and just not really something I brag about."

He had a point, I was suspicious for a while, but I never did ask him directly. Which means Brian, Oliver and Steven had to know. I looked at Steven and he shrugged. "It's not really my place to talk about other people's personal life," He said.

I sighed as I looked at the rest of the pictures, Tai was number eight, followed by Mai at number nine. The last frame was empty, my picture had yet to be placed.

"So what's this meeting about?" Sawyer questioned Steven.

Steven nervously scratched is cheek. "Unfortunately I don't know," He answered. They all looked at him with confused expressions. Noticing I had no idea why everyone was confused that he didn't have the answer, Steven decided to explain how things work.

"See usually the highest ranking member at the meeting is given a debriefing before hand, and then goes over it with the rest of the members, who then collaborate on making decisions." He explained.

"But you're not the highest ranking member here," Oliver said as he finally joined the conversation. He pulled a drive out of the computer he was working on as he walked over to join everyone else on the couch.

Everyone in the room had a surprised face as Brian came in the door. He sighed as soon as he saw everyone looking at him. "How annoying," He muttered as he walked into the room. As soon as he appeared, I noticed a change in Rachael's demeanor, she almost actually looked happy.

"What are you doing here?" Steven asked.

"Last I checked, I'm a top member." Brain replied as if Steven were an idiot for asking.

"And last I checked, you don't show up to these meetings. Something about them being an annoying waste of time?" Steven told him bluntly.

Brian smirked. That certainly did sound like something he'd say. "Maybe I had a change of heart," He stated as his gaze fell on me. I felt a blush creep onto my face. Everyone in the room instantly looked at me, then back to Brian.

"When you said she belongs to someone else, did you mean..?" Mai questioned Steven as she looked back at me.

"That's right. Kate and Brian. Cute aren't they?" Steven said with a big grin. Caleb rolled his eyes as Sawyer whistled in approval.

"What!?" Rachael screeched. I flinched from her outburst. "This is a joke right?" She said as more of a statement than a question. Well that basically confirmed my suspicions. It was more than obvious she had a crush on Brian.

"Oh get over it Rachael," Oliver said with a roll of his eyes.

She turned to glare at him for his comment. Brian sighed again as he went to the wall by the couch and pushed a button causing a large screen to appear from the wall. He nodded over to Oliver who put the drive he had in his hand into a computer. With some typing the image appeared on the screen. Well now I know what he was doing on the computer that whole time. It looked to be a map of the Sinnoh region. Steven and I made our way to sit on the couch next to Caleb. Brian had everyone's attention.

"Sinnoh is completely under the control of Team Moondusk. We lost Harthome City three days ago." He stated. Rachael, Sawyer, Oliver, and Steven didn't look like this was new to them, but the rest of us had shocked expressions.

"Well you know whose fault it is. If that pathetic shrimp didn't have half of our top members distracted playing babysitter, we could have stopped it." Rachael said as she glared at me.

I froze on the spot. Was that true? Brian, Steven, Oliver, and Caleb were all with me three days ago. I clenched my fists, it was my fault.

"It wasn't anyone's fault. We were on a mission given by the leaders three days ago. You can't exactly blame Kate for that." Brian stated as he glared at the redhead. She looked like she was going to say something else, but his glare shut her up. Although I could tell the fact that he defended me made her even more angry.

"The point is, something has to be done before they expand further. With Sinnoh completely conquered it's safe to say that Johto will be next, since it's already half way there." He said getting back on point.

"So what now?" Caleb asked.

"Well, we need intel, and the best place to get it is from someone high enough in their ranking."Brian answered.

"How are we going to go about that?" Steven inquired.

Oliver started typing away on the computer and the map zoomed in on Jubilife City.

"We've scoped it out before and found that Jubilife is the source of their commands. I'm guessing they have a pretty high ranking official giving the orders from there." He stated as he stared at the map.

"So, we sneak into the city and interrogate whoever's in charge. One problem, it's probably well guarded, how will we get in?" Sawyer finally spoke up.

"We'll split up. Team A will create a distraction in Floaroma Town, and Team B will do the same in Sandgem Town." As he said this, Oliver circled the two towns above and below Jubilife, on the map for a visual. "Neither town is well guarded so this will force them to send out reinforcements to each town from Jubilife, splitting up their forces. Team C will take that opportunity to go in and get the information we need."

"Not a bad plan, now I remember why you outrank Steven," Caleb commented, receiving him a smack in the head by Steven.

"So what are the teams?" I asked.

"Team A will be Steven, Tai, and Mai." He said and the three nodded in approval.

"Team B is Sawyer, Rachael, and Caleb. While Kate, Oliver, and I are Team C." He finished.

I could see Rachael was unhappy with that. "Of course you'd pair yourself with your girlfriend." She seethed. Oh boy.

If there was one thing you never did, it was question Brian's decisions.

"I picked the teams based on skill level. Tai and Mai are going with Steven because they balance out. With me being the highest ranking, and Kate the lowest, we even each other out. If you have a problem with my decision, you can sit out. I don't really care what you do either way." He told her with a fierce look. She huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest in defeat.

"There's one thing you all have to be cautious about. We know Team Moondusk is after top members, he's already gone after Brian a few times. By going out into Sinnoh we're practically waving ourselves in front of them for the taking. Watch each others backs and be careful." Steven stated. We all nodded in understanding. This was going to be the biggest mission I've faced, well aside from that prison break. One thing was for sure, I was going to show no fear. I was a top member, and I had to prove I could handle the position, no matter what.

So there you have it, all the top members! Sorry this chapter was a little short, but this was really just an introduction for them, you'll see more of their personalities eventually. But what do you think of them so far? Have a favorite? Stay tuned for the next chapter, because you're going to see just how bad Sinnoh has fallen!