If there was one thing worse than working for a company twenty-four days, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, it was getting absolutely no recognition for it. That's how most of the grunts working for Team Miasma had felt, especially for grunt number 119. He had thought that working for an organization for five years, he would get at least some sort of recognition, but the furthest he got was standing in a meeting with the admins and their fearless meetings.

While they got to sit down, he had to stand with his back to the wall and watch. It annoyed him, but he reminded himself all of the reasons he was working there. Like everyone else, he had convinced himself it was for the greater good, but deep down, even the lowest ranked grunt knew what s/he was working for: a paycheck. Despite not having the best coworkers or boss to work alongside, the pay wasn't horrendous.

Still, the grunt thought to himself, it would've been nice if they would've remembered our names rather than a number.

That's all they were to the admins and leader of Team Miasma: a simple number. They were disposable. At any moment, if one of them would make a mistake, they could just be tossed out. If anyone had doubted that fact for a second...well, it was proven to be true a couple of weeks ago when the admin, Lantana, was thrown out to the streets, not to be heard of since.

Since then, every member in Team Miasma listened to what needed to be done. The leader of Team Miasma loved ruling by fear, and with it, everyone feared for their lives if they had stepped out of line.

All grunt number 119 could do was watch the meeting in front of him as the three remaining admins sat across their boss. They kept their eyes on him, waiting to see what his response was when the Krait twins were convinced Swanna Girl was done for.

"You're positive of this," the boss asked one of the Krait twins, bending his arms on the table to be eye level with him.

The Krait twin nodded. "She would've been back by now if she didn't give up."

"But, Braviary Man isn't going to stop," the other Krait twin added.

"You're a bunch of idiots," the third Admin, Gila, muttered. Her voice was so soft that you almost had to have been paying attention to her to listen in.

Regardless, when grunt 119 heard of this, it sent shivers down his spine. He thought about it for a moment. It's been well over a week since Swanna Girl had shown her face. Every attack they've sent, Braviary Man would show up, not her. He was convinced that she was done. Afterall, her name was Swanna Girl. There was no way someone so young would be so brave in doing that.

Then, of course, grunt 119 had to remember how old Braviary Man was when he started out. It was a few years, and people were convinced that it was a man, not a child. Even the grunt knew Braviary Man started out when he was in his early teens.

"Like I said," Gila repeated, looked at her two colleagues, "you're a bunch of idiots to think she's going to stay low forever. She's just like the him, only much smarter."

"How come?" the boss asked.

Gila leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling. "It's like Hunter said. She's smart in battle. It's as if she knows how to plan ahead even when her Pokémon is knocked down. Who else knows how to plan around like that unless you're a Gym Leader, a Pokémon Ranger, or a Champion?"

Grunt 119 let out a short breath, causing his boss to snap his head towards him. The grunt froze for a moment in shock. In all his years of working for Team Miasma, he never thought his boss would even spare a glance at him.

What came next shocked the grunt.

"Grunt 119," Boss said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "What's wrong?"

"Sir, I mean no disrespect," the grunt started, "but how do we know this girl is something so special? She's only disrupted two missions."

"Because this Swanna Girl has disrupted our two most valuable missions. We would be able to move onto the final stage had it not been for her," he argued. "Anything you'd like to add to that, Gila?"

The girl turned her head towards the grunt and smiled. "This girl has some training, that only Braviary Man could do."

Seeing as he was being spoken to, the grunt decided to take a risk by speaking out once again. Only this time, instead of just speaking up, he questioned the admin. "How do you know?"

Gila just smiled, for she was waiting for someone to ask this question. "Trust me. I know how Braviary Man thinks. Besides, I think it's about time I paid him a little visit, especially since our last meeting ended a bit too short for my liking."

(-o-)

I tied the mask around behind my head as I looked up to see Landon standing in front of me. Rudi would've had my head if he knew what I was doing, but I had to. What made things a bit better was that his dad helped me in any way he could, well, behind his wife's back that is.

It's been two days since Rudi went to Opelucid City and got himself hurt. In that time, Team Miasma seemed to be on the down low. Key words: seemed to be. That was until Landon got word from someone that Team Miasma had made an attack in Driftveil.

Luckily for me, I've been training extra hard. I wasn't going to have Team Miasma hurt anyone else. Not when Swanna Girl was still available.

"Poké Ball," Landon asked.

My hand tapped Swanna's Poké Ball.

"Map?" Landon asked.

My hand reached inside my cloak, showing him the map for a brief second before tucking it back in.

"Good," Landon said, taking a step away from me to catch a better glance a me. He smiled. "You look just like your mother did on her first mission. Ready to kick some butt?"

I nodded my head.

"Nervous?"

I nodded my head. "I should be fine."

Landon nodded his head before I grabbed Swanna's Poké Ball as threw her out.

As much as I didn't feel ready, I had to do this because I was ready. I just needed a little push.