Hina worried. It was her thing. She knew it, and she accepted it. She liked to think that in accepting her weakness, she could overcome it to the extent of becoming a relatively well-functioning and valuable member of her team. But then the re were the days-the many, many days, as well as early mornings such as this one - when Sasha and Giles were screaming at eachother (Sasha hadn't yet stooped to insulting Giles' truly horrible bleached hair yet, but Hina could tell her was getting close) and Nick was lazing against the Academy Gate and absently petting his skarmory, Mora, without a care in the world. Nick wouldn't bother himself by stepping in. Because, Hina thought, in one of her previously rare fits of pique that now came upon her more and more often since she had bee n assigned to her team, That would mean that he would have to actually get off his lazy butt and do something for a change!

"I AM NOT GOING TO WASTE MY TIME TRAMPING AROUND IN A FOREST, CELERA!" Giles screeched, "NOT WHEN THERE IS A PERFECT SOURCE OF INFORMATION AN HOUR AWAY!"

"That's just like you, Fitzroy! You never want to get your hands dirty ! Why did you even come here if you weren't willing to work?" Sasha snarled. "You're more like Hard y than I thought!"

Giles flushed. "I am willing to work! I just don't see why should have to run around some woods that are a region away when we can get just as much information from the K-Brigade offices that are nearby!"

Sasha puffed herself up. "Because that kind of investigative work is just lazy! 'Any input from outside sources has the potential to alter the perception of the Investigative Agent, causing him or her to reject potential evidence'! Or have you forgotten what happened in Azalea?"

"I can quote too, Celera! 'All effective investigators must have a complete understanding of the terrain and potential hazards before entering an unknown or unsecured area'! Or have you forgotten what happened in Pastoria!"

Mora drew herself up and smacked Nick on the back of his head with her wing. "Alright," he grumbled. "Look," Nick said , "This is too early to fight. Why don't we just split up."

Giles turned on Nick, ready to attempt t o wrangle an actual confrontation with N ick, before deflating abruptly.

"Oh." Sasha muttered.

"Yes, Sasha. Oh."

"Then- we'll just, um-"

"Giles can take Hina to the K-Brigade Of fice. I'll go ahead with you to the inci dent site. By the time Hina and Giles are done, you and I will have already gotten a look around, so we'll be able to match what the Brigade tells us with what we see there."

Sasha nodded, a flush visible on her face. "Right-yeah, right. Come on, Nick, if we hurry we can make the 6:45 ferry, that'll get us to Cherrygove."

Sasha took off running south towards the marina, with Nick slouching along behind her, occasionally being chivvied along with a swipe towards his head, courtesy of Mora. Hina sucked in a fortifying breath, and looked at Giles. Giles looked back. After about a minute of waiting for the other to do something, Giles crack ed. "So-shall we go see if the Express i s running yet?"

. . .

The Express, as it was commonly called, was a unique feature of the Academy. It was run by Noland Tremblay, who, according to campus gossip (meaning Quincey) was a former Frontier Brain; before deciding to retire on Alto Mare and start a private piloting business exclusively for Academy missions, with the occasional mentoring of any student whose flying poke mon had problems. The air field was located on almost the other side of the island, which Hina thought to be inefficient , even though the island and the town on it was fairly small, especially when sh e compared it to her home of Saffron Cit y. Mister Tremblay had an exuberant nature and a strong work ethic, but also kept once principle ironclad: Noland Tremblay did not get out of bed before 8:30 for anything short of the apocalypse. His machamp, manectric, and venusaur were very effective in enforcing this policy, much to the displeasure of overachievers and morning people.

Giles was frustrated, and trying desperately to reconcile his emotion with his instinctive desire to revere all authority figures. Since Hina knew Giles well enough to recognize that he was at once restrained and belligerent, she was not surprised that he chose to take his frustrations out in a pokemon battle. Hina did wish, however, that he chose to pick a fight with one of Mister Tremblay's pokemon, rather than her Drake. She also wished that he would leave them alone because Giles, like Sasha, played very hard, very fast, and sulked when he didn't win enough or often.

"Ladybird!" Giles called, "Start off wit h a Dragon Dance, then hit him with Drag on Pulse!"

Hina started, and hastily forced the battle to the front of her thoughts. "Ominous Wind, Drake!"

Ladybird reared back and became covered in a cracking energy field before letting out a challenging trill and breathing out a magenta shockwave towards Drake. Drake took the blast head-on, grunting in pain; then raised his arms behind his back and slammed them forward, summoning a burst of heavy purplish smoke from out of nowhere that was easily dodged by Ladybird. Hina moaned in frustration. "Drake, quick! Use shockwave!". The bolt connected with Ladybird's chest, forcing her to the ground in an undignified sprawl. Hina felt a quick flare of hope that the battle might be over quickly, which was quickly extinguished as Ladybird shook herself off and took to the air again.

Giles let out a triumphant laugh. "Bad move, Hina! Now you've just made her mad at you! Ladybird, get higher in the air and hit them with Draco Meteor!"

Panicking, Hina flailed her arms. Nononono-Drake! "Drake, quick, Destiny Bond!"

"HINA!" Giles howled. "How are we supposed to have a battle when you keep cheating and using Destiny Bond! You know we can't afford to have Ladybird faint w hen we're on a mission!"

Oh, well, I'm sorry that I don't have bloodlust like you and Sasha. I'm sorry that I don't like to see Drake get hurt, w hen you clearly don't have the same issues with Ladybird. I never wanted to fight with Drake; I've only ever wanted to help rescue people. "I-I'm…I'm sorry, Giles, I guess I just forgot…"

Giles snorted, and recalled Ladybird. "Just-. Just do better, Hina. How can you expect to be better if you don't fight for it?"

Being better doesn't matter to me, Giles. It's only ever mattered to you and Sasha.

. . .

Mister Tremblay let Hina and Giles off o f his plane at the regional K-Brigade just outside of Goldenrod City and about a quarter of a mile from the Brigade Headquarters. "Are you k ids going to be alright here?" He asked, a desperate attempt for a balance between sympathy and studied distance; scratching at the ears of his manectric. "I've heard from Eve-that's Ms. Barlow to you - that your team is hanging on the edge of being held back. Is there anything that I can help you two with?"

Yes, yes, please help us, I don't want t o leave the Academy, I love what they're trying to teach us there, I love what they're giving me a chance to become. "...I-"

"We're going to be fine, thanks!" huffed Giles, indignation sticking out everywhere in his posture. "I won't fail, and n either will the rest of my team. We're going to be better than anyone and everyone else, we just have to work out the kinks. And we can do that on our own. Come on, Hina. If we hurry, we can catch a K-Brigade member when they're on their lunch break."

Giles grabbed onto her elbow and hauled her away. As she was dragged down the road, Hina heard Mister Tremblay sigh at h is manectric. "Ahh, Josette. There's one group like them every year, isn't there ?"

. . .

When Hina thought of the K-Brigade, she saw tall figures with impressive pokemon , with both pokemon and trainer well-muscled and always, always calm and assured with the belief that they were the most capable people in the room, a nd with their training there was nothing and no-pokemon that could stand in their way. The motto of the K-Brigade said i t all: Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici- By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.

Nikki Huang, apparent Junior Agent of the K-Brigade, and her emboar partner, Zola, were everything that she ever imagined. Except for calm. And quiet, which Hina was just hoping for as a matter of personal preference.

"Soooo- you're from the Academy, aren't you? Yeah, I bet you are. You've got that look about you. It's one of t hose things that you hear everyone talk about, but you don't really know what it looks like until the very first time yo u see it! Now, it's been a while, but when I went there Academy students were always super-super serious, super-super scared of everything, or super-super bouncy and happy-go-lucky. I was the happy-go-lucky type, as you can see. You two look like…wait wait let me guess!"

Giles and Hina had staked out the bistro nearest to the K-Brigade headquarters t o find a likely looking member that they (meaning Giles, with Hina hanging around looking pitiable for sympathy) could ambush and pump for information about the disappearances. When Giles had honed in on a youngish-looking, bespectacled boy with a Kirlia, Nikki had zoomed over and began throwing questions at them with an aggressiveness that rivaled Sasha at her most nosy. Hina felt as though she had again been hit hard over the head with a blunt object. Giles was sputtering and attempting to regain control of the conversation.

"You, with the bad dye job! You look like the serious type. Nothing has ever gone totally right for you in your life, right? I bet you've got a bunch of neuroses!" While Giles squawked, Nikki turned towards Hina, who flinched back in alarm. "Oooh, that lil'flinch says it all, missy! Super-super scared for the win!"

Hina could see Giles making a visible ef fort to pull himself together. He failed .

"So! This is perfect, just perfect! Max would've been no help to you at all. This sort of thing is my specialty!"

Giles made another valiant attempt to re gain a semblance of control. "What are y ou talking about? All we want to know is -"

"Yeah yeah yeah, I know! You're taking over the Solberg-Parr case! I was the on e who was next up on the roster to get i t, so I called up one of my old teachers - Mister St. Germaine, he teaches art? H e has that smeargle, Michelangelo?- and he talked to Ms Barlow, and she talked t o Noland, and he talked to Headmaster Lance-is he still hot, by the way?- and so then I knew that Team CFHM was the one to get it!" Nikki stopped to take a breath, and continued speaking in a serious voice that was a startlingly different from her previous bouncy tone. "And this case is really important to me. So I know why you got this assignment, but I don't care. I'll tell you all about it, as long as you let me come with you to investigate."