A/N: Let me start by saying, oops. It's been a while hasn't it? Stop yelling! I have feelings too! Details and my pitiful excuse for an excuse can be found on my profile page. Anyhow, I feel I never properly explained the rules. The rules at the top are the standard rules all Slowking are taught before journeying out into the wide world in pursuit of knowledge. The ones at the bottom are Sawyer's versions of the rules based upon his experiences and personality. Read, rest, relax, review... Repeat?

Rule 3: Never act on impulse. Evaluate the situation carefully and only then should you decide whether to act in the first place.

Sawyer's mind raced. This person knew Holo wasn't human which could have all sorts of implications. His immediate concern was in how she knew. He took a few minutes to consider where they might have messed up, but nothing he could come up with fit the puzzle.

'Should we rewrite her memory?' Holo projected to Sawyer, 'I don't like that someone knows my little secret.'

'That would take too long even for us,' he responded, 'and I'd rather not have to read her mind.'

'Then what should we do? Threaten her?'

Jenny took what she perceived as silence as evidence she was right. Walking from behind her desk, she shut the door to her office. As soon as it shut, she became giddy, coming very close to actually jumping up and down. "I knew it!" she exclaimed, "You're her!"

"Huh?" Both Sawyer and Holo asked. Sawyer wasn't sure what she was talking about and the sudden enthusiasm did nothing to clarify the situation.

"Don't play dumb!" Jenny said, "Teenage girl with dark red hair? You have to be her!"

"I never play dumb," Sawyer said, "What are you talking about?" Holo sent him an image of him dressed as a court jester, but he ignored it.

Jenny frowned. "The facility on the mainland... You're not the girl that escaped?"

"This is the first I'm hearing of it," Holo said.

Sawyer sighed. They were going to be late if things didn't speed up. "Start from the beginning," Sawyer said, his eyes glowing a light blue as he spoke. "Who is this girl with dark red hair you're talking about?"

Jenny's eyes became glazed over. She only needed a little coaxing to tell them everything. "A few months ago, my officer O'Mally detected a series of pokeball transfers that weren't recorded in the official pokecenter logs. Things are so slow around here that I gave him the thumbs up to investigate further." Sawyer frowned. If they weren't using main channels to make the transfers then there was probably criminal involvement.

"Did he find something?" Holo asked. She was starting to get interested.

"Yes, he did," Jenny said. "After he detected an unusually strong energy transfer he was able to get the general location of where it was sent and was even able to worm his way into the rogue network's database. Unfortunately, all he really found were some useless employee files and some e-mails. Most of them were personal messages from friend to friend and gave very little information except for this one which we intercepted a few days later." Jenny walked back behind her desk and rummaged around in her drawer for a few moments. Finally, she pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to Holo.

Holo read it aloud, "Attention all employees, Subject B-4 has escaped her holding cell and is hiding somewhere within the compound. It is of the utmost importance that she be recaptured or terminated. She has the appearance of a teenage human girl with dark red hair. Do not be fooled by her appearance. She is extremely dangerous. The organization appreciates your cooperation." Holo looked up from the paper after she finished.

Jenny continued, "A few hours after we intercepted that, the database crashed and we received reports of an explosion on the mainland in the general area where we'd traced the pokeball transfers to."

"And since Holo matches the description, you thought it might be her," Sawyer concluded. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but she's not the one mentioned in that message."

Jenny glared at Sawyer. "I'm aware of that now. Your reactions told me as much..." Her eyes regained their natural appearance and her mouth dropped. "Why the hell did I just tell you two that!?"

"Hypnosis," Sawyer said, "in some cases it can be more effective than reading someone's mind."

"I've been trained to resist all forms of psychic intrusion!" Jenny held her head between her hands in dismay.

Holo smirked and replied, "You obviously weren't trained well enough. Now I'd like my reward."

'Our reward,' Sawyer reminded her.

"Fine, just take this!" Jenny handed the pokeball sitting on her desk to Holo. "You beat it so it's your responsibility! Now get out!" She pushed them out of her office, past the officers, and out onto the street before slamming the door.

"Uh... Sawyer?"

"Yes?"

"How are we going to split a Tauros?"

"Sawyer!" Bianca called as she waved to him. "We're over here!" Sawyer and Holo worked their way through the restaurant and sat down at the table. The restaurant wasn't particularly fancy, but it had still taken some convincing to get the hostess to let Sawyer dine at the table with the others. Much to his chagrin however, he'd become somewhat of a celebrity around town and that fact was useful in persuading the restaurant's hesitant staff.

Holo followed Sawyer through the maze of tables to where the others were sitting. As they sat down Alex said, "We almost ordered without you." He was dressed with probably the only clothes he carried with him that could pass for being nice: his better pair of jeans and a long sleeved, pearl-snap, collared shirt. It seemed like he was in much higher spirits though and Sawyer hoped he would be able to get a good discussion out of him. With all the time he'd spent with Yuki over the course of their voyage to the island, his conversations with the trainer had been few and far between.

"We had some unexpected delays on the way here," Sawyer didn't mention those delays included Holo stopping in an antique shop to insist a Vulpix figurine in the window had been her favorite toy as a pup which she'd lost somewhere in the course of her long life. The puppy dog look she'd given him had been too much for him to endure and he had ended up spending half of his cash reserves to buy it for her despite his suspicions this was the first time Holo had even seen it. Pushing the memory aside, he continued. "Bianca, Alex, this is Holo. I hope you won't mind if she joins us. We've run into each other several times in the past."

"Sweetie!" Holo exclaimed, "You make it sound like we're nothing more than acquaintances." Her voice became seductive and the next sentence seemed to bubble out from between her lips. "I'd say I know you much better than that."

Alex seemed oblivious to the meaning behind her words and was preoccupied trying to flag down their waiter, but Bianca picked up on the innuendo and just about choked on her soda. "You- you two- together?" she asked in between coughs.

"Don't take what she says seriously," Sawyer replied. "Where's Yuki?"

"She stayed back at the hotel. She seemed tired," Alex said. He then cursed when he realized the waiter had passed by when he had turned away to talk.

Sawyer sat down, happy there was a hole in the back of the chair his tail could go through. "I see." Yuki would have just gotten upset if she had come so it was probably for the best.

'So is that the girl you were telling me about?' Holo projected so only Sawyer could hear.

'She is,' Sawyer thought back, 'I'd had my suspicions about her, but after hearing what that perverted police officer had to say-'

'Perverted? I thought you said you didn't want to read her mind!' Holo interrupted.

'A momentary lapse in judgement as we were booted out of the building. Anyways, she matches the description perfectly. It's quite possible, likely even, she's the one that was mentioned in that e-mail.'

'I'm more interested in what you saw in Ms. Police Chief's head. Did it have anything to do with that Tauros we took off their hands?'

'None of that matters!' Holo had an affinity for getting under Sawyer's skin. 'You get more vulgar every time I-'

"Hey you two!" Alex had been trying to get their attention. "Mind including us in your little discussion?"

Holo apologized, "Sorry, I had something private I wanted to share with him." Bianca choked on her drink again and Holo waited for her to clear her throat before continuing. "So do you have any Pokemon of your own Bianca?"

"Well no," she replied, "I've never had my own Pokemon."

"But isn't it dangerous for you to travel without one?" Holo asked. Sawyer's plan seemed to be going smoothly so far. Since neither he nor Holo wanted the Tauros, they were going to try and pass it off on Bianca. Taking care of a stubborn Tauros would be a liability to both of them and took precedent over their joint curiosity involving the mystery surrounding the eccentric girl.

"I've got all the protection I need right here!" Bianca gave a wide smile and locked her arm with Alex's. This took Alex by surprise and he struggled to disentangle their arms. When he failed to free himself, he sighed and returned to trying to wave down the waiter.

"But it still would be a good idea to have a back-up plan in case he isn't nearby," Holo reasoned. "I know!" She feigned an epiphany and pulled out the Tauros' pokeball. "I've got a Pokemon I only just recently caught. I was going to release it, but why don't you take it?"

Bianca was hesitant to take the ball and for an instant Sawyer thought he saw a fearful expression on her face, but it was very quickly replaced by a smile and Bianca took the Tauros. "Thank you very much!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe I've got my first Pokemon! Isn't that great Alex?"

Alex had given up on getting the waiter to take their order and was instead eying Holo with a suspicious glare. He could tell there was something else going on. "Good for you," he said, "So- Holo was it?- Tell us about yourself. How do you know Sawyer?"

Sawyer was slightly impressed with the diligence Alex was keeping. His guard was up and whether it was genuine concern for Bianca or just a suspicious nature it seemed he wouldn't be content until he knew more about their guest. Holo flashed a devilish smile toward Sawyer. "Well the first thing I need to tell you is that Sawyer here is quite the charmer..."

The dinner had been torture, Sawyer decided. He'd spent the entire time refuting everything Holo said. Alex seemed to know better and actually found Sawyer's discomfort entertaining, but Bianca was convinced there was an immoral relationship going on between the two of them. Holo never told them that she was really a Ninetales and that any relationship between the two of them would have been perfectly acceptable by society's standards, but that was beside the point. The springs of the hotel bed squeaked as he fell into it face first and let out a yawn. He'd paid to have his own room, on the opposite side of the building, so he could have some privacy. His funds were starting to run low and he would have to take a job soon to replenish them.

Sawyer sighed and turned over to find Yuki's ghostly eyes staring down at him from above. Their eyes locked and for a moment neither of them said anything. He still held out hope that she miraculously hadn't noticed him. 'Well?' she asked, 'What do you have to say for yourself?'

'Damn it,' he thought to himself as he rolled back over.

'Don't just ignore me!' Yuki's voice ringed in is head.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Sawyer lied. After the day he'd had, he desperately wanted to be alone.

'Bianca's in the other room hysterical because you're in an scandalous relationship with some human girl! Explain yourself this instant!'

"Bianca got the wrong impression," Sawyer said, "Just ask Alex. He was-" Sawyer stopped mid-sentence. He pulled Yuki close to him and used Protect. A loud crash suddenly shook the entire hotel. Pieces of the ceiling fell around them.

'What the hell was that!?' Yuki screamed into his head.

Sawyer yelled, "Stay put!" and dashed out the door and into the hallway. It was as if a chunk of wall had just been ripped out of the building. He heard Bianca scream and quickened his pace, making his way around piles of rubble. A heavy cloud of dust clogged his throat as he ran. The building had visible cracks all over the walls and ceiling and it kept getting worse until he reached Bianca and Alex's room.

Sawyer ripped the door off its hinges with Psychic and burst into the room. Just as he had expected, there was a massive hole in the wall. The room was in shambles with debris thrown everywhere. Bianca was standing in the middle of the room facing the hole. "It's not my fault," she whispered. Sawyer tried to grab her hand to turn her around, but he was flung against the wall. When he looked up, Bianca was staring at him. Her eyes seemed dead and lifeless. "It's not my fault!" she said again, this time screaming.

Her eyes glowed and blood flowed out as if she was crying. Sawyer braced himself as he realized what was happening and strengthened his mental barriers to their maximum levels. The illusion faded, revealing Bianca was collapsed on the ground unconscious. Sawyer fell to his knees gasping for breath. Surveying the room, he saw Alex under a pile of drywall along with a growing puddle of blood.

Sawyer stood up and stumbled to where Alex was buried. He touched his arm and took a deep breath, scanning his body. Alex had three deep gashes across his chest which seemed to be the source of most of the bleeding. Sawyer lifted the chunks of wall off him and turned him onto his back. Using a technique he'd learned from Holo, he stitched the wounds shut with psychic energy. The stitches would fade in a quarter of an hour, probably less, but it would stop the bleeding until Sawyer could get him to a doctor.

Venturing toward the hole in the wall, Sawyer peeked outside. There was a human in civilian clothing lying on the ground next to a Weavile. Both of them were unconscious. What struck Sawyer though, was that he couldn't read any thoughts from the human at all. He was alive and breathing, but that was it. Yuki phased through a nearby wall asking, 'Sawyer? What happened!?'

"I don't know," he answered. "But we have to get Alex to a doctor. We can worry about specifics later." Sawyer touched Alex's arm again. Looking at Yuki again he yelled, "Do not, I repeat, do NOT lower your mental barriers until I get back." After that he closed his eyes, scanning the town. Once he had identified the nearest clinic, he initiated a teleport. When he opened his eyes again he was at the clinic he'd sensed. A receptionist looked up and jumped when she saw Alex hovering over Sawyer's head.

"When did you come in here!?" she asked frantically.

'This boy is badly hurt and needs immediate medical assistance!' Sawyer projected. He laid Alex onto the ground and bent over holding his stomach. Teleportation didn't agree with him, the reason he rarely used the skill on himself. Numbing the feeling, Sawyer looked up as the clinic's doctor rushed into the room. Bending down to examine Alex, he asked, "What the hell happened to this poor kid?"

"I suspect he was slashed across the chest by a Weavile," Sawyer said. "I've temporarily stopped the bleeding, but that won't hold for much longer. Please take care of him until I get back." The doctor might have said something right before Sawyer initiated another teleport, but Sawyer didn't have time to dwell on it. Opening his eyes to find an undressing Holo staring blankly at him, Sawyer bent over again and groaned. His stomach felt like it was being twisted in a knot.

"Knowing how much you hate to teleport, you must have really wanted to watch me strip," Holo teased while she waited for Sawyer to recover.

Regaining his composure, he said, "Bianca and Alex were attacked. One of the intruders is incapacitated, but I'm worried they might have friends nearby. I'm going to try to find them, but I'll need you to take care of Bianca and Yuki at the hotel until I do."

Holo gave him an irritated look. "I'll help, but after all of this is settled you're going to owe me one."

"Fine, fine," Sawyer said as he began to focus his senses on the hotel. He wasn't worried about being discreet, so he bombarded the area with psychic energy to form a sort of sonar effect. Reading the psychic pings for anything or anyone that seemed out of place, Sawyer grew frustrated when he didn't find what he was looking for. Increasing the radius of the search area by several miles, Sawyer sent another wave of psychic energy and got a response. Three humans, running away from the hotel like their lives depended on it. Sawyer grinned and said, "Bingo. I'm going to cut them off Holo."

Holo shook her head as she finished putting her clothes back on. "Contact me if it's more than you can handle although I doubt that's possible at the moment."

"Thanks," Sawyer replied before initiating another teleport. When he opened his eyes this time, he saw three men running toward him. Suddenly noticing him, they stopped and stared, not sure what to do next. Whispering amongst themselves Sawyer became irritated and yelled, "Hurry up damn it! I don't have all day!"

"Then get out of our way!" One of the men yelled back as he threw a pokeball. A Steelix appeared in a bright flash of light and gave out a deafening roar. "Steelix, use iron tail!" the man commanded. The giant, iron snake swung its tail around ripping up the ground as it went. Sawyer took a deep breath and ducked while giving the Steelix's tail a slight psychic tug so that it sailed harmlessly over his head. The man yelled, "Again Steelix!" It obeyed and swung its tail back in the opposite direction.

Sawyer's eyes glowed red as he stopped the Steelix mid-attack and threw it over his head with psychic. The Steelix crashed into the ground, turning most of the road into rubble in the process. In obvious pain, it moaned and twisted its body. "Is that all?" Sawyer said coldly. The man who had sent out the Steelix began to tremble. His knees shook as he tried to step away from Sawyer. The other two were shaking as well, unsure of what to do next.

Sawyer slowly began to walk towards them, scanning their thoughts as they did so. Thoughts of a failed plan to capture Bianca flashed through their minds. Sawyer increased his mental presence as he moved closer and the one who had commanded the Steelix buckled under the pressure and fell over unconscious. He was followed shortly by one of his comrades who also fell to the ground. The third man was still standing, but it took all of his willpower to do so. "H-how is this possible?" The man seemed to have psychic abilities and Sawyer had to give him credit for not succumbing to his presence.

"Why did you attack the hotel?" Sawyer asked while lifting his presence enough for the man to speak.

"The four of us were hired to kidnap the girl, but we didn't know she was a damn monster!" The would be kidnapper was becoming distressed. The situation was catching up to him and he probably wouldn't last much longer.

"Who hired you then?" Sawyer asked. He was getting worried the man might not know anything substantial about what was really going on, but was unable to find out as the third man finally collapsed.

"Hold it right there!" Sawyer turned to see Chief Jenny running toward him. She must have been off duty since she was out of uniform and in a set of pink pajamas covered with Buneary prints. "You! Errr.. Slowking! Cease whatever it is you're doing!"

"Cease what?" Sawyer replied. "I'm already done."

"Holy crap!" she exclaimed as she surveyed the battle field. "What the hell happened to this poor Steelix!?"

"It tripped. Now if you don't mind could you arrest these three men?"

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" she yelled, "You can't just go around rendering people and Pokemon unconscious!"

"It was imperative I stop them before they escape," Sawyer shot back. The third teleport catching up to him, pain shot through his stomach almost bringing him to his knees. When the pain and nausea had passed he looked up again to see Chief Jenny staring at him. "Something on my face?" Sawyer asked in a joking manner.

"Err, you just seemed like you were really in pain," Jenny answered quietly.

His composure returning, he said, "Don't just stand there. Make arrests, read rights! If you need handcuffs I can provide them."

Snapping out of it, Jenny nodded hesitantly and went to work.

Sawyer spent the rest of the night at the police station. In the right or not, Chief Jenny didn't like vigilantes and had insisted Sawyer spend the night in jail and wait for his "trainer" to pick him up. Sawyer's snide remarks regarding the pheromones the Chief seemed to be releasing probably didn't help his case.

The cell was bare and a bit chilly, but he'd had worse nights so he didn't bother complaining. The cell next to his held the three crooks from the night before. Officer Issac had informed him that the fourth member with the Weavile was in the hospital in a coma. The four were brothers and ran a less than respectable business which specialized in shady work for shadier people. Despite picking through each of their minds with a fine tooth comb throughout the night, Sawyer couldn't find any useful information about who might have hired them.

"Sawyer! I'm here to pay your bail!" Holo shouted from the other room. Issac unlocked the cell door and it opened with a loud clang. Sawyer stretched and quickly joined Holo in the station lobby.

An officer with a thick grey beard, O'Mally, who had been more than happy to talk with Sawyer the night before was giving Holo the necessary paperwork to have Sawyer released. "Be sure and teach him some delicacy ma'am," O'Mally was saying, "As much as I love seeing the chief blush, she hates being embarrassed and takes it out on us." Sawyer chuckled when he heard Chief Jenny groan from her office, but that was quickly replaced with a bit of fear when he saw the way Holo was smirking at him.

"I can understand Yuki, but why are you flirting with a police officer?" she growled.

'You're a human right now remember? If you get jealous now they'll be suspicious,' Sawyer joked. When she didn't respond Sawyer knew she was genuinely upset. While waiting for Holo to finish filling out the paperwork he tried to come up with some sort of solution to the problem at hand. Going back to jail was always an option and was most definitely easier than dealing with an angry Ninetales.

"So we'll be seeing you two in two and half weeks when the circuit judge comes back in town."

Sawyer snapped out of the daze he had been. "Wait, what did you say?"

"You'll have to come to court in two and half weeks to see if your trainer is liable for the damages you caused," O'Mally repeated. Holo was looking at Sawyer, obviously annoyed.

"I see... Well if that's all we'll be going." Sawyer turned and walked out of the police station with Holo following closely behind him.

"Well you've certainly pulled me into another of your big messes," Holo complained as they walked through the streets.

"I've always wanted to try my hand at law," Sawyer mused, "I think I'll represent myself."

"I used the same name in there that I typically use for business. I hope you're ready to wipe every memory this town has of us if you fail," Holo huffed.

"We'll deal with that when it comes," Sawyer responded. "But for now I'd like to check on Bianca and Yuki."

Holo became serious. "Yuki's with Alex at the clinic, but I can't for the life of me find Bianca. She wasn't at the hotel when I arrived to pick them up."

"According to Yuki, she does that every once in a while. Since she's capable of evading even our detection, I can only presume that she's a very powerful psychic," Sawyer replied.

"Great! Now we both have to take turns fighting her to reassert our dominance," Holo joked, finally getting over the fact she might have to change business names again. Taking refuge behind the alley trashcans from the eyes of any early birds who happened to be about, Holo stripped the clothes she'd been wearing and handed them to Sawyer. Blue flames engulfed her as she returned to her true form. 'You head back to the clinic for Froslass maintenance and in the meantime I'll sniff Bianca out the old fashioned way.'

"Sounds like a plan," Sawyer replied.

'Don't get any ideas about skipping town and leaving me to clean up your mess,' Holo warned, her thoughts resonating in Sawyer's head, 'Hell hath no wrath like a Ninetales' curse.'

"The correct phrase is 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,' but I get your point." And with that the Ninetales was gone. As Sawyer weaved his way through the streets, he tried to work together the various pieces of the puzzle that was Bianca. The Hoenn region had been relatively peaceful ever since the disbanding of Team Aqua and Team Magma. Any attempts by other existing criminal organizations to gain a foothold had been crushed by the International Police who had a strong influence over the area's politics. But Hoenn was a vast region with much unexplored wilderness so the possibility of a new group with a new cause forming was not only likely, but inevitable. Research on weaponizing psychic abilities was also not uncommon and Sawyer had even done some consulting work in the area.

Deciding to take a detour, Sawyer found his way to the town's only cybercafe and let himself in. Finding a seat at a terminal near the back of the shop, Sawyer checked all of the main news websites for any information regarding the lab explosion Chief Jenny had described. Not finding anything substantial, Sawyer then logged into his account on an information network meant solely for psychics. The network had been the brain child of Sabrina, the gym leader of Saffron City, in an attempt to give psychics a way of exchanging information on a mass scale. Only those capable of decoding psychic waves would be able to understand what any normal person would view as garbled text. Psychics were few in number and even fewer actually knew about the network so it was unlikely any information had yet been posted.

After putting out a request for details on the explosion and sorting through his very full e-mail inbox, Sawyer resumed his walk back to the clinic. He felt strangely refreshed and took his time, enjoying the simple pleasure of bouncing possible scenarios of the events to come around his mind.

'Bianca's an escaped psychic with the power to destroy the entire world!?' Yuki's bell like voice violently disrupted Sawyer's train of thought.

"You have a very annoying tendency to eavesdrop on other people's thoughts!" Sawyer half yelled at Yuki. "Of course she's not capable of destroying the entire world, I was just playing with the idea in my head!"

'Don't get mad at me!' Yuki protested, 'You were so deep in thought you didn't notice me so I just took a little peak at what was on the surface.' The ghost wrapped her kimono like arms around Sawyer, allowing herself to be pulled along behind him as he continued to walk.

"Fine, sorry I snapped," Sawyer said. "How is Alex? Has he woken up yet?"

'He's awake and very enthusiastic about leaving the clinic, but the doctor's refusing to let him leave so Alex sent me to find you,' Yuki chimed. She seemed to be in good spirits. Sawyer hoped this was a sign her mental state was improving.

Sawyer nodded to himself having determined his next course of action. "I may be leaving Alex in your hands for a while."

'Wait, what? Why? I'm mentally unstable, remember? You need to keep me under constant supervision so I don't freak out and start freezing people!' Yuki didn't seem like she meant what she just said, but Sawyer couldn't be sure.

"Even if you're tipping toward homicidal," Sawyer said, "I can afford to leave you alone for a little bit while I check up on something. You can busy yourself by looking after Alex."

"Fine, but at least tell me where you're going!" Yuki whined.

"I'm going to Hoenn."

Rule 3 (amended): Being slow to act is a vice, not a virtue.