Dear Arceus, I am sorry for my record-breaking absence. I don't even have an excuse besides continuous procrastination and writer's block.

But the good news is that now I have both a Plotline and a Beta-Reader. Thank you to Lucarioninetales for that.

Onto the reviews:

Species Unknown: Thanks, I will. Even if it's not very often.

Mr 001: Thanks.

trainer bubbles: Thanks, I might be able to use your OC in later chapters, but for now, we'll stick with what we've got.

HazelFireSky: Sorry to keep you waiting. Enjoy :)

Tanon: I've fixed the infodump(Sorry for not spotting it earlier) and thanks for the tips. I'll keep it in mind.

AliceTheBloodyRabbit: Agreed on the updates. Agreed on the info dump(fixed). I wasn't in a rush, I was just tired and forgot to reread it. Sorry. And Mrs. Hemlock is evil because she's evil.

Dustchu: Thanks. Not dead, just semi-unconscious.

Shaystorm: Thanks.

Besides the above edit of the infodump, there were some grammar/spelling issues, not least in Ch1 where apparently I'd forgotten to change one instance of Leo's name from the original 'Roy' and it stood there unnoticed up until recently.

All that aside, Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 4: Enter the Admins

'These meetings just go on forever.' Thought Sean Loredan, as he watched uninterestedly while his dad, Head Administrator Temrai Loredan, gave the usual dull orientation speech to the new recruits. Sean glanced at the clock on the wall nearest him during a pause in the speech, when those seated at the table were allowed to relax for a moment and digest what they had just heard.

'11:53' He sighed in relief. 'Only 7 more minutes to go.'

At the head of the table, Admin Loredan finished by saying "Well, that concludes the orientation. If any of you still have some questions, now is the time to ask them."

Sean rolled his eyes. He had been to so many of these pointlessly long speeches that he could predict exactly which questions were going to be asked. 'Someone who didn't listen at the start will lead with "But how are we in a video game?", follow it with "And why can't we leave? Why do we have to stay here? What about our families?" and finish in a massive riot with everyone trying unsuccessfully to be heard.'

Sure enough, the first question asked was a tall, thin man with brown hair saying "So... We're in a video game?"

Loredan smiled tiredly, like someone who is being asked a question for the hundredth time. "Yes, Venart, we're in a video game. Or rather, two video games, Pokemon Black and Pokemon White to be precise."

"But... how? I thought video games were... well... just games. Not whole other worlds that we could actually go to."

Loredan sighed. "Well. Would someone who was paying attention please answer Mr. Langley's question? Vetriz, he is your brother, perhaps you could do the honours?"

Vetriz, a tall, thin woman with darker brown hair than her brother Venart, looked up from her notebook for a moment, then looked back down at it before speaking. "Well, I don't understand quite how we got here, but the reason it's possible at all only makes sense if you change the way you think about video games. Rather than viewing them as unimportant things of no consequence, mass-produced and sold identically to people, view them as windows into another world. This world, actually. All we've done to get here is open that window and climb through it." She said, all in a single breath.

Venart looked embarrassed, but pressed on. "All right, let's accept that we've climbed in an open window into a video game world. Can we climb out again?"

Loredan sighed again. "Unfortunately, it's not quite that easy, Mr. Langley. You recall that a Mark appeared on your hand upon your arrival? Yes, that one. Well, while our main duty as Administrators is to prevent unauthorised people from entering this world accidentally and to maintain the purity of the game, our secondary duty is to prevent not only them, but anyone with a Mark, from going back to our world." The uproar from those assembled was deafening. "THE REASON BEING," Loredan continued at a shout, "TO PREVENT ANYONE FROM UPSETTING THE BALANCE OF THE WORLD WE CAME FROM BY USING THEIR MARK WHILST THERE!"

The uproar died down. "And what would happen if we did?" Asked Venart, always inquisitive.

Loredan's face was grim. "It would be absolute chaos. Can you imagine the consequences to our world of groups of people suddenly able to understand animals and transform into creatures never before seen on Earth, most of which defy or actively break the laws that govern our universe? If you can think of a beneficial end to that with a realistic chance of happening, feel free to let me know. So unless you were to remove your Mark, a feat which has so far been impossible without simultaneously removing all memories of this place, you cannot go back."

Sean stared at the clock, willing it to cover those last few seconds before he died of boredom.

"And sir-"

Whatever that random person had been about to say was cut off by a loud buzzer.

"Ah, time for lunch break!" Exclaimed Loredan. "Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the orientation. If you have any further questions, please consult the PDA which you will receive on the way out of this room. Adieu!"

Sean got up, stretched, and walked out after his dad, glaring at him.

"I still don't see why I should have to sit through that every time. It's hardly changed since the first time and it's getting really boring."

Loredan glanced back. "Sean, we were the first family to come here as Admins. You're going to take over at some point, and you need to know how to handle yourself in front of initiates."

Sean rolled his eyes. That speech hadn't changed since the first time he'd heard it either.

After the bombshell that Zoe was in fact a Zoroark had subsided, Serenity immediately rounded on Tom. "How did you know what species she was just from looking if you got zapped in here without a chance to even play the game?"

Tom looked uncomfortable but replied "I researched everything I could about the new games before they came out so I'd have an idea of where to go and what to expect. I'm pretty sure the place we're in now is called Lostlorn Forest. It's just off Route 15, and it's not too far to Nimbasa City from there."

Serenity opened her mouth to say something, but Kenta beat her to it, saying "If you know all about the region, then what the hell was the place we just left?"

Tom thought for a minute. "Well, if we came from that way without passing a route, and we went over the river... that would make it the Pokemon Transfer Lab."

"The what?"

"The Pokemon Transfer Lab. It's how you transfer Pokemon from older generation games to the new ones. It's like the Pal Park."

This seemed to satisfy both Kenta and Serenity, for the moment at least, and that was enough time for Zoe to announce that if they were leaving, she had some presents for them. "It's standard trainer stuff." She said. "There's your Xtransceivers, to stay in touch with each other, your belt holsters, to hold Poke Balls, and your DSD, or Digital Storage Device, to hold any items you find along the way."

"Digital Storage, huh?" Luke remarked. "Well, that explains how you could theoretically carry around 999 of everything in existence at once."

"It does indeed, and I've stocked them with some Potions, Antidotes, sandwiches, Berries and other useful items." Replied Zoe cheerfully.

"Now, if you're ready to go, there's just one last thing I want to discuss with you, and that's your Marks. You probably all know that each Mark needs a specific event to trigger it and initiate your first change. What you probably don't know is what those events are." She turned to face Tom and Kenta. "Your Marks can mean either Fighting, Ground, or Rock type. The events for those types are high adrenaline levels, being partially buried alive, or eating rocks respectively. I recommend you try them in that order." She faced Serenity, who had been trying unsuccessfully to interject for a while. "Your Mark is Electric type, meaning that your condition is to be struck by lightning." Finally, she turned to face Luke, ignoring Serenity's attempts to get her attention. "And your Mark is Dark type. Therefore, your condition is simply to see a full or new moon at midnight."

In the momentary pause that followed, Serenity was finally able to get out her question: "But how do you even have this stuff in the first place?"

Zoe smiled cryptically. "That, Serenity, is a secret. For now, at least."

"Well, thanks for everything, Zoe!" said Tom, clearly in a hurry to leave. "See you later!"

And off they went, Serenity complaining the whole way.

As Sean trailed behind the newest group of initiates on the way to yet another boring lecture, a siren suddenly rang out, causing everyone present to jump.

"S-sir," Venart stuttered, "W-what d-does that m-mean?"

Loredan assumed a practised poker face, giving nothing away.

"That, Venart, is the alert that means that one or more unauthorised presences have been detected somewhere in Unova. It is also the signal for the team on duty to go find these intruders and apprehend them by whatever means necessary."

He turned to Sean.

"You have so far showed no interest in the administrative side of the business. Perhaps you will show some more interest in the practical side of things. Go with the team and watch them at work." He sighed. "You may not make Head Admin, but at least you could be a Head Operative. Do not let me down."

Sean blinked in surprise. "Uh, sure thing, I guess."

Meanwhile, blissfully unaware of their impending doom, Luke and the others had just reached Route 16 from Lostlorn Forest.

As she had been doing periodically, Serenity pounced on Tom yet again.

"So which way now, brainiac?"

Tom thought for a moment, then replied "Right."

"Alright then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Yelled Serenity.

Who then promptly ran headlong into a police officer, knocking him over.

Serenity picked herself up, looking pale.

"Now missy," The man said, getting up quickly despite his size, "I can understand that you're probably excited to get to Nimbasa City, but you need to watch where you're going. This is a popular spot for cyclists and if you'd run into one of them like that, someone would probably have wound up in hospital."

By this point, Serenity looked like she wanted to disappear. Or more specifically, as she glanced over her shoulder, like she wanted Tom to disappear for not telling her there were policemen on this Route.

"Now, I'll let you off with a warning this time missy, but you'd do best to be more careful. You hear?"

Serenity nodded quietly.

"And that goes for the rest of you kids too. Besides that, I'd say enjoy Nimbasa."

And with that, he walked off, leaving the group walking noticably more slowly towards Nimbasa.

As Sean watched the operatives gear up for the mission, he noticed that they were taking virtually no equipment with them. When he asked, they glanced at each other and started struggling not to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Sean asked?

"You don't really get how this works, do you?" Said the lead Operative for the mission.

"Obviously not, since you're laughing like hyenas, so why don't you explain it?"

"Fine, fine. We don't wear uniform or protective gear or anything because the point is to blend in, and uniforms and weapons don't tend to help with that. Secondly, we're not taking much equipment because we don't need that much equipment. This-" He held up a disk that looked a lot like a TM "-is a modified TM that wipes all memories of this world from someone and puts them into a coma. We go in, unnoticed, and wait untill noone will see us use it. We put them into a coma, they get sent to hospital, we fake a transfer to bring them to base, where we remove their Marks, if they have them, and send them home. The second part will use a bit more equipment, but for now, we're good to go."

"WHADDYA MEAN, WHAT PLAN!"

Serenity's voice rang out over Nimbasa city, causing flocks of Pidove to fly off in fright.

"Well, uh, you asked where the nearest town was, and I told you. I thought you had some kind of plan."

Luke and Kenta stood off to one side of the deserted alley they were in, watching as Serenity and Tom got into an argument. Which started by Serenity asking Tom what the plan was, and Tom apparently not having one.

"YOU GAVE THE DIRECTIONS, YOU COULD HAVE LED US SOMEWHERE USEFUL!"

"This is the closest place to where we were. You want to keep walking for another day?"

"THAT'S IT!" Serenity, apparently enraged by the use of logic, charged at Tom and swung a punch that, if it connected, probably would have taken Tom's head off. Luke and Kenta rushed forwards, having realised too late what was going to happen. But it didn't matter, because Serenity's haymaker never connected. Because when it was a split second from Tom's face, he disappeared. Serenity, unable to stop, found herself tripping over a small cream-and-red coloured Pokemon. She got back up quickly, looking around for Tom and not seeing the Pokemon at her feet.

Luke however, did. "Tom?"

'Tom' let go of his head and looked around. "Why is everything so big?"

It was Kenta who replied. "Because, Tom, you seem to have activated your Mark."

"Wait, WHAT?"

Tom looked down at himself. He saw a small, cream-coloured body with short, red legs, red arms with cream-coloured paws, and when he looked behind him, he saw a cream-coloured, red-tipped tail. He put his paws to his face and felt a muzzle and that his ears were now at the top of his head. He closed his eyes and started taking deep, shaking breaths, trying not to panic. When he looked around again, he saw his friends looking back, worried(Though Serenity was doing a good job of hiding it.)

"So, what exactly are you now, peabrain?" Said Serenity, with her usual tact.

"I.. I think I'm a-"

Tom was cut off by a robotic voice from the end of the alley.

"Mienfoo. The Martial Arts Pokemon. In fights, they dominate with onslaughts of flowing, continuous attacks. With their sharp claws, they cut enemies. They have mastered elegant combos. As they concentrate, their battle moves become swifter and more precise."

"Cool." A young voice rang out from the same place, as everyone turned to look. "A Mienfoo, huh? I thought they were only around Victory Ro-"

The boy cut off his sentence when he saw Luke. Not surprising, since they were virtually identical.

Sean looked out of the helicopter window at the waves below.

"I hate air travel. I always get motion sickness." "ETA, anyone?"

"Roughly twenty-five minutes, sir."

He sighed. "At least we'll be there soon."

The identical kids stood stock-still staring at each other for about five seconds before Serenity broke the silence.

"Who are you and why do you look exactly like Luke?"

The other kid gave a start.

"I'm Hilbert. And if you don't know why I look the same as... as Luke, then I guess that puts us on the same page, since I don't know either."

A high-pitched, worried voice rang out.

"Hilbert, where the hell did you go? The show starts in four minutes!"

Hilbert went pale. He dashed down the alley and dived behind a Dumpster.

"You! Luke! You'd better hide too! If she sees you, she'll drag you along, and she won't take no for an answer!" Hilbert whispered from his hiding-spot.

Luke, his mind filled with images of Mrs. Hemlock-like women abducting him to wherever they were going, dived behind the same Dumpster.

"Yoohoo, Hilbert, are you down here?"

Luke didn't dare to look. Kenta, Serenity and Tom(Still a Mienfoo) did though, and they were surprised at what they saw. The person wasn't a Mrs. Hemlock-ish person. At least not by sight. The person they saw was a young teenaged girl with a green beret, a green handbag, and a white dress under an orange shirt.

"Oh, hi. Sorry to disturb you, but have you seen a kid with a blue shirt, a red-and-black hat and black pants run down here? His name's Hilbert, and we're supposed to be going to a musical together at the theatre, only he keeps running off and getting himself into battles. No? Sorry to bother you."

As the cries of "Hilbeeeeert, where aaaaaaare youuuuuuu?" faded a bit, Hilbert came out from hiding.

"Is she gone? Oh thank Arceus. Uh, and thank you guys for not telling her I was here. Those musicals are just death by boredom. I have no idea what she sees in them. Uh, I'll be going now. She's checked the Pokemon Center already, so I can hide there for a while. Bye."

And with that, he ran off, leaving the group blinking in confusion as to what the hell just happened.

Twenty minutes later, they were in the theme park in the south of Nimbasa. Serenity had asked Tom what exactly there was in Nimbasa once he turned back, and after a list of stadiums and events and random stuff, he mentioned that, oh yeah, the Gym is in a theme park. The Gym wasn't operating as a Gym because there were no challengers that day, so the roller coasters were free. The group was basically relaxing and having fun.

Then it all went to hell. Luke, who had been sitting on a bench relaxing, heard Kenta yelling and saw him running away from the ferris wheel chased by a random guy wearing a black and orange jumpsuit holding something small that Luke couldn't really see. Serenity and Tom, who had been on the roller coasters, came out of the Gym building running in the opposite direction followed by a girl in a pink dress and a limping boy in a grey outfit, each holding similar objects. Without thinking, Luke got up and ran to help his friends. Figuring Tom and Serenity would be fine since Tom could turn into a Mienfoo, Luke ran for Kenta. When he got closer, Kenta said breathlessly, "Don't let him hit you with that thing. He barely touched the person I was standing next to with it when I ducked, but they were KO'd straight away."

Luke tried not to panic as the jumpsuit guy got closer, squaring up for a fight, when suddenly- "LEAVE THEM ALONE YOU CREEP!" -a bolt of lightning came from the left and as the guy half-turned to see what was happening, it hit him dead on. He flew a few feet back and landed in a bush. Luke and Kenta turned to see that their saviour was a little yellow mouse with red spots on its cheeks and a lightning-bolt shaped tail. It was a Pikachu, the mascot of the Pokemon series. And alongside it was a familiar Mienfoo, now sporting a black eye.

The guy in the bush got up, groaning. When he saw that he was outnumbered four-to-one and that the lightning-bolt had seemingly melted the device he was holding, he went pale, then ran off as fast as he could, muttering to himself the whole way.

Luke and Kenta stared at the Pikachu. "Serenity?" Kenta said in disbelief.

"Nooooo, I'm just a random Pikachu that happened to be wandering around." She said sarcastically. "Of course it's me, blockhead."

"Any chance you're going to tell us how exactly that happened?"

"Yeah, but not here. This is too public. We need a place to stay the night anyway. And Walking Wikipedia here says that we can apparently stay the night in a Pokemon Centre for free, so allons-y!"

And with that she turned back and started walking out of the park. The rest of them turned to look at each other, then shrugged and started walking after her.

"So, I take it the mission didn't go entirely according to plan?"

Sean looked over the three faces giving him venomous looks. One, the girl, was severely bruised, while the others looked like they'd stuck their fingers in light sockets. The 'ace trainer' sighed.

"Not entirely, no. Those kids have more power than I thought they'd have at this stage. Normally it takes about a week or so of practise with a Pokemon form until you get that good. Those kids..." He sighed again. "We need to retreat for now, rethink our tactics, get backup, and go after them again before they disrupt anything too much."

Sean smirked. "And before all that, you need to file a report with my dad."

The operative turned pale and gulped. He was not looking forward to this.

Later that night, in the Nimbasa Pokemon Center, Serenity finally decided to tell the others what had happened.(Having kept Tom quiet with threats to shock him into oblivion) "Well, we were in the Gym, when that creep with the grey outfit decided to sneak up on me without realising I could see him perfectly in the glass of the roller coaster pod in front of me. I turned around and kicked him where it hurts and ran like hell. Turns out Tom had the same sort of experience with another creep, so we ran out of there as quick as we could. The creeps caught up with us fairly quick though, and when Tom turned into his rat-thing-"

Tom interjected. "Serenity, it's called a Mienfoo. And your Pikachu form is closer to a rat than that."

Serenity went on, unperturbed. "His Mienfoo form then, and went Rocky Balboa on that kid. THe guy I'd kicked between the legs decided it'd be a good idea to pin me up against the wall before he did whatever, but that was a bad move 'cause he stuck me right on the circuit breaker box. So I got a static shock and turned into Pikachu, and he got the electricity from it and got a new haircut. Then we ran around the corner and saw you guys, and I just focused and blasted the guy."

There was a period of silence where no-one could think of anything to say. Then Luke did a double-take out the window, then looked hastily down at his watch, which made Serenity start smirking.

"Serenity, why do you have that look on your face?" Asked Luke nervously.

"Because I checked the lunar phase with the nurse before we checked in. We won't have a new moon for at least two or three more days." Said Serenity, smirk growing the whole time.

Luke sighed and just fell back on the bed.

"Well, goodnight then."

"Goodnight"

"'Night"

"Goodnight"

In her cabin on the ferry, Lauren was going to sleep too. "Unova tomorrow."

She thought as she drifted off.

So, what do you think?

Any questions, feel free to put them in the reviews and I'll try to answer them next time I update, which hopefully will not be in- how long was it, nine months? - that long anyway.

Until next time, Lucario Out!