October 13th (Celadon City, Kanto)

(Leaf's POV)

"Well, let's go down and see what we find," Misty said tiredly.

I looked at Misty concerned, "Are you doing okay, you look a little pale?"

Misty nodded, "I'm fine, I'm just really tired. It is 2:00 AM after all."

I frowned slightly but said nothing as I climbed down the ladder into the hole.

"See anything?" Misty asked.

I looked around and couldn't see anything because it was pitch black.

"It's too dark down here to tell," I reported.

"Hang on, Dawn is coming down," Misty called.

I heard Dawn come down before she released a pokemon.

"Quilava," it called.

I smiled at Dawn's idea, "Great idea Dawn," I complimented before looking at Quilava. "Can you light the flames on your back so we can see?"

"Quilava," he said before he ignited his flames lightly so we could see.

"Thanks Quilava," I said as I looked around while Misty climbed down to join us.

"It looked like there is a tunnel down here, I wonder where it goes?" Misty wondered.

"Only one way to find out," I said as I started walking.

We walked for what felt like ages, "How long have we been walking?" Dawn messaged in what I would guess would be in a complaining tone, not that I blamed her.

I looked at my compowder and groaned, "An hour and a half."

We all groaned, "We are so complaining to Clair after this, no more all-night missions," I said annoyed.

"Hey Leaf, can you track where we are on you poketch?" Misty asked before sneezing.

"Sure," I said as I typed a few buttons and frowned at where we were. "We're under the Viridian Forest."

Misty shivered causing me to sigh, "Misty, there are no bug types down here."

"There better not be," she muttered.

As we continued walking, I felt myself start to feel hot and cold along with feeling slightly achy.

"Anyone else feeling slightly achy?" Dawn messaged.

I frowned, "You feel crappy too?" I asked.

We all stopped and looked at each other in concern.

"This is way too weird, all of us feel achy? This can't be a coincidence," Misty said concerned.

"I'm not sure, we'll look into it right after we finish investigating," I said as I looked ahead and squinted. "I think I see something up ahead."

We walked toward it and saw a ladder as well as a small driving cart over against a wall.

"Something is definitely up," Misty said as I sneezed. "Bless you."

I nodded, "Let's go up and look."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

(Misty's POV)

I climbed up first and carefully pushed up top to let me see a small sliver of light. I looked around to see no one up there.

"It's clear," I called as I got up into the room.

Leaf and Dawn then followed up and we looked around the room to see a chemist's table as well as a file cabinet and a computer on a nearby wall.

"Leaf, you look at the chemist table. Dawn, you look at the file cabinet. I'll look at the computer," I directed.

Leaf and Dawn both headed off to their areas to search while I turned on the computer and applied the eye shadow again for the glasses to appear. I looked at the files on the laptop that talked about the statistics for a flu virus that they were testing. From what I could understand, the results showed that this virus was tested to be deadly and was contagious.

I looked over at Dawn to see her taking pictures of multiple documents before looking at Leaf to see her looking at the samples while taking pictures of a notebook.

"From the looks of this, they were testing this virus and see if they could mutate its DNA," Leaf said as she finished photographing the last page of the notebook.

"That's what the files on the laptop showed as well. From what I could tell, the virus results showed that it was contagious by breathing it in and that it results in death after being exposed to it," I reported.

Leaf walked over to the laptop and applied to eyeshadow to hack, "You're right, but why would a medicine company be trying to mutate a deadly flu virus?"

"Create more an epidemic to create profit from the vaccine?" Dawn messaged in a guess.

Leaf frowned, "It is a very plausible theory, but why would they mutate the virus? It would make it more difficult to produce a vaccine."

Leaf typed something pulled up another file, "What's that?" I asked.

She scrolled through it, "This is a complied file with newspaper stories and pictures are surrounding Oliver Richards."

"The guy who owns this company?" I asked slightly confused.

Leaf nodded, "This is weird. Years ago, he applied to work at PHPA as a consultant for helping with medicine, but he was declined when he tried to put through ideas of using biological tactics in taking down criminal organizations. After being turned down, he started his company to produce medicine for all over."

"But why would we get a tip that he's doing shady dealings, we found no evidence of it. We only found clean records for his company," Dawn messaged.

I began to rifle through the desk and I pulled out folder that was marking 'Plan of Success'. I looked through it and froze at what I just stumbled on.

"Guys, I think I know what's going on?" I said nervously.

"Whatcha got?" Leaf asked.

I said nothing as I gave her the folder, she looked through it and frowned worriedly.

"It looks like Richards is trying to get revenge on PHPA," she said quickly as she continued to skim the file.

"But what's he planning to do?" I wondered as I shivered from a cold chill.

"The virus, he's planning to plant it at headquarters," Leaf said quickly in panic.

"That way everyone there will get sick and die," Dawn messaged looking scared.

"We need to warn Clair," I said quickly only for us to hear a beeping noise.

I applied the eye shadow to look around and gasped as I looked into a room next to ours, "RUN!!" I screamed.

Dawn and Leaf looked at me with panicked faces, but did what I yelled. We ran out of the room to go into a hallway that led to a front door. We reached the door as the bomb blew up, I felt the heat as we flew outside and crashed into the trees a couple yards away.

I coughed as I looked at where were to see a huge ball of fire, "Girls, you alright?" I shouted over the roar of the flames.

"Just a couple burns," Leaf shouted as she and Dawn stood up.

"We need to put out this fire before it gets out of control!" I shouted before throwing all my pokeballs up. "Let's go!"

Everyone came out and frowned in seriousness at the serious situation before them, "Corsola, use Bubble Beam, Politoed and Azurill, use Water Gun, Golduck, use Hydro Pump, Gyarados, use Rain Dance," I shouted.

Everyone did there attack while Dawn and Leaf also called out their pokemon, "Espeon, use Sand Attack and Piplup, use Hydro Pump," Leaf called.

After battling the fire for fifteen minutes, we were finally able to put it out. The bad news was that the cabin was destroyed with all evidence along with the fact that it was still raining and that it ruined our barrette cameras, compowders, and watches.

"Worst night......ever!" Leaf said flatly as she sneezed and leaned against a nearby tree.

"Do you think the fire destroyed the virus?" I asked Leaf.

She shook her head as she heaved in breathes of air as if she was having difficulty breathing, "No, he's not that dumb. He would store the virus elsewhere than his hideout which means we need to warn Clair and everyone else before it's too late."

"We can't really do that with everyone's means of communication soaking wet," I said annoyed. "I think what we need to do now is get out of the rain and find shelter."

"How are gonna do that, it's pitch black and we can't have Quilava help us cause the water will hurt him," Leaf argued.

"We'll have to make do and feel our way, we can't just stand in the rain," I snapped slightly before sighing. "Let's at least find a big enough tree to hide under."

"Alright," Leaf agreed as we started to trek off into the forest in search of shelter.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

(Drew's POV)

The guys and I were currently waiting for the girls to come downstairs so we could leave for classes. I checked my poketch again. If we didn't leave now, we would be late.

"You guys better go see if they're up," I said tiredly.

They sighed and nodded before going upstairs to check. A few minutes later, they came back down frowning, "They weren't there," Gary said causing me to frown.

"That's odd, it shouldn't take this long for them to investigate an anonymous tip," I said concerned. "Have you tried calling them?"

The guys nodded, "No one picked up," Ash said.

"We should call Clair," I said as I got out my wallet.

After a few rings, her face appeared, "What can I do for you boys?" she asked.

"Have the girls reported in?" I asked.

Clair frowned, "No, I've been waiting for them to contact me for a while now."

The guys and I looked at each other with concern, this wasn't good, "I want you boys to come in and look for them, I'll notify Steven that you won't attend classes."

We nodded before I shut my wallet and a jet showed up a few minutes later with a hologram of Clair and Lance waiting to debrief us.

"Did the girls tell you anything as to what they were supposed to do?" Clair asked.

"Yea, they said they had to investigate an anonymous tip about a company doing shady business," Gary recounted. "They weren't happy about being called so late to do it."

Clair sighed, "If you ever want to spy on someone without being caught, you do it at night. Granted, I could have given it to them tonight instead of yesterday," she admitted. "Anyway, the company they were investigating was RicTec Pharmaceuticals."

I frowned, "I recognize that name, isn't the CEO Oliver Richards?" I asked.

Everyone stared at me in mild surprise, "Yes Drew; that is correct. The tip was that his company was making faulty pharmaceuticals so the company could pocket money," Clair explained. "How did you know that?"

"My dad has done a little bit of business with him," I said as I shrugged my shoulders.

"So the girls were sent to snoop around the company and find any evidence to support the claim that their business was dirty?" Gary asked in a recap.

"That is correct," Lance answered.

"Could you track their compowders or poketches?" Paul asked.

Clair shook her head and sighed, "We can't find a trace of it meaning it must have been destroyed."

"Can you track their movement from the tracking number on file or at least the last place that showed up?" Gary asked.

"We're running it now," Clair said as a monitor appeared with a map and a rapid moving small square trying to find the girls location.

The square then blinked rapidly on Celadon City before the map zoomed in on the building. From there the image went 3D with a model of the building and showed the girls' movements of investigating the building. At around 1:50 AM, the girls joined Leaf in a corner on the first floor before they vanished off the map.

"What happened?" Ash asked.

"That's as much data as the computer could get back," Clair said.

"What about their communicators, any chance their conversation was recorded?" Ash asked.

"We should have it since we decided that all conversations would be recorded in case of something like this happening," Clair explained as we saw movement on another monitor pull up audio feed.

"This is a few minutes before the girls converged on the first floor," Clair informed.

"Anyone annoyed that these motion alarm pencils aren't working?" Misty said in annoyance.

"I am," Leaf muttered before we heard a thump. "Ow."

We heard silence, "I bumped my head cause I had to dive under the desk to avoid getting caught."

"Pause it for a second," Paul called.

The recording froze, "Did you hear something?" I asked.

He shook his head, "It's what I didn't hear, there was pause of silence before Leaf explained why she said 'ow'.

"So?" Ash asked confused.

"Normally the girls ask what's wrong when one says they're in pain and Misty didn't say anything," he explained. "Which means Dawn must have asked. Can you add Dawn's messages to the audio feed in a IM style conversation?"

"Nice catch Paul, give it a minute," Lance said as we saw them add Dawn's messages.

We then read the conversation of what was said and typed from the beginning.

"Anyone annoyed that these motion alarm pencils aren't working?" Misty said in annoyance.

"I am," Leaf muttered before we heard a thump. "Ow."

Dawn's message then appeared, "What happened?"

"Nice catch with that Paul, now we can fully understand what's going on," Clair complimented.

"I bumped my head cause I had to dive under the desk to avoid getting caught." Leaf said in annoyance. "I say this anonymous tip was a dud, I'm not finding squat."

"Did you finish searching the first floor?" Misty asked.

Leaf sighed, "Not yet, I'm in the last room for the floor."

"Well, Dawn and I found nothing, we're waiting on the fourth floor for you," Misty reported tiredly.

Leaf sighed again, "I think I found something, well.........at least something odd."

This got all of our attention and we leaned forward to hear more.

"What do you mean?" Misty asked.

"The office I'm in is a third smaller than what the measurements on the blueprints say," Leaf said.

We looked at the map of building to find Leaf walking before stopping a few yards from the wall.

"We'll be there in a few minutes to look," Misty called.

We watched as Misty and Dawn's dots traveled to the first floor to join up with Leaf.

"You're right, it doesn't match up," Misty agreed. "Let's see if x-ray vision can help us out."

Thirty seconds later, a message from Dawn appeared on the monitor, "The opening is behind the shelving."

"But how do we activate it?" Leaf asked in thought.

Another message appeared from Dawn, "Maybe pull out a book?"

There were a few seconds of silence, "Nice one," Leaf complimented. "Who knew that a picture frame would be the opener."

"Now let's look around, it's getting incredibly late," Misty said before she yawned.

The girls' dots in the hologram then disappeared.

"So it looks like the girls found the room, can we get an image of that office?" I asked.

"It's technically illegal to do that, we'd need proof in order to get their security footage or pictures of their offices, it's a highly secured area," Lance called.

"Screw that," Gary muttered as he got out his wallet and typed something.

"What are you doing Oak?" Lance asked suspiciously.

"Nothing, just responding to a text from Max," he said with a shrug. "Check it if you don't believe me."

Lance frowned but said nothing, "So what's our move?" I asked.

Clair sighed, "We can't do anything until after dark when we can sneak back in."

"So we just sit here when they could be in trouble?" Ash asked angrily. "Why can't we go in and search since we know that they were there?"

I sighed and rubbed my face, "Because the girls were there illegally for snooping, we could be charged with illegal search and seizure. Plus, whatever the girls found can't be used in court if this goes to trial."

Ash growled slightly but said nothing, "I expect you boys to do as you're told," Lance said sternly before his hologram disappeared.

We sighed and looked at Clair, "Listen to Lance and bring them home," she said sternly with a slight grin before her hologram disappeared.

The guys and I smirked, "You heard her, let's find the girls," I said as I walked to the computer panel and pressed a button to create a safe area so we couldn't be listened into.

Gary typed a number into the computer and called Max, "Hey guys, are we on for gaming this weekend?" Max asked. "Actually scratch that, most of you guys will probably be busy."

We looked at him so confused, "What the heck are you talking about?" Paul asked.

Max flinched, "You guys are terrible, you do realize what the date is right?"

"Uh......Friday the 13th?" Ash said uncertain.

"Well......yea, but what's tomorrow?" Max pressed.

"The 14th?" Ash answered.

"Max, what are you getting at, we don't have time for this," Gary said sounding a little annoyed.

Max sighed, "What happened with the girls a year ago?"

Paul sighed as he rubbed his face, "Crap."

"Now you finally got it," Max muttered.

"I'm still not making the connection," Ash said confused.

I sighed, "You guys got with Leaf, Dawn, and Misty a year ago, tomorrow's your one year anniversary," I said bluntly.

Gary facepalmed and Ash sighed, "We're really bad."

"No kidding, you better come up with something quick," Max scolded. "Anyway, whatcha need?"

We frowned, "The girls haven't come back from their snooping mission last night. We can't find them after they went into a secret office in the RicTec Pharmaceuticals building because we lost the signal of their compowders and poketches," Gary summarized.

"We were able to follow their movements in the building as well as listen to a recording of their communication," Ash added as Gary said the audio and tracking recordings to Max.

After giving Max a few minutes to review the footage, he frowned, "So what do you need?"

Paul sighed, "Lance strictly says we can't do anything until tonight when the building will be mostly empty and we can't obtain the security video because we don't have a stable reason to get."

"Can you give us security feed of the office the girls were in?" I asked.

"I'll do you one better, I have something that just might help us out," Max said with a grin.

I heard a beep and I looked at the monitor where the noise was coming from, "We'll arrive in Celadon City in a little while," I announced.

"Okay, I'll meet you there in front of the building," Max said before his face disappeared.

The guys and I then took our seats on the jet Max sent as it took off.

Gary groaned, "I still can't believe we almost forgot our one year anniversary."

I nodded, "You guys owe Max big time."

"No kidding, it's just weird because we've known the girls for a couple years now and it seems we been together with them for more than a year," Ash said thoughtfully.

I frowned slightly as I looked out the window and thought of May. Our one year anniversary wouldn't be for two weeks and not knowing where she was or what she was doing worried me to no end.

"You alright Drew?" Paul asked causing me to snap out of my thoughts.

I sighed and looked at their concerned faces, "I'll be fine."

They frowned, but said nothing. After a while, we landed and made our way to RicTec Pharmaceuticals. We found Max waiting for us at a picnic table in the park across the street from where the building was.

"So what have you got?" Gary asked.

Max pulled something out that looked a tiny tablet on wheels, "This."

We looked at it unimpressed causing Max to give us a flat face, "Just watch," he said as he pulled out a laptop, a small box, and a joystick out of a bag at his feet.

He set the thing on the ground and began to control it with his keyboard and joystick.

"You gonna tell us what you're doing?" Paul asked bluntly.

Max continued to control the small tablet to the front of the building and hid it behind a potted plant at the front entrance of the building before pausing to look at us.

"It's a new spy gadget I'm working, kind of like a spy droid on wheels. It has multiple functions to take in all sorts of evidence and it also has a cloaking mode that lets it go invisible for a few minutes," Max explained.

I raised an eyebrow slightly impressed, "Let's hope it'll help give us some answers," I said as I watched Max activate the cloaking and go inside the building.

We saw people walking and talking as if it was a normal business day. Max then hid behind a column and zoomed in on a person.

He frowned, "What?" I asked suspiciously.

"I don't think those people are real," Max said as he pulled up a program to scan the image from the live feed was getting. "I think these people are holograms."

We frowned, "What gives you that idea?" Gary asked.

Max pointed to his screen as he zoomed in even closer, "You can see that these people look pixelly, they don't have a solid form."

"Are all the people in the building like that?" Ash asked.

"I can find out by going on the roof and scanning if there are any human auras in the building," I said causing Max to frown slightly.

"Have you trained enough with your aura to do that?" he asked.

I nodded and sighed, "I've been practicing a lot more since May left. I figured if I tried to practice and meditate, I might be able to make a connection with her."

Max gave a small sympathetic smile, "May would be proud of you training," he said as he handed me an earbud communicator.

I nodded as I put in the earbud communicator, "Sneak in to the crappy apartment next door and then you can jump to the roof," Max explained.

I again nodded and made my way to the apartment building. A guy was leaving allowing me to slip in and then take the stairs up to the roof where I then jumped over to the roof of RicTec Pharmaceuticals.

"I'm on the roof," I reported.

"Can you sense anyone?" Max asked.

"Give me a sec," I said as I cleared my mind and focused on what was below me.

I found nothing causing me to be concerned, "Max, there isn't anyone in the building," I said concerned.

"What? That's not possible, there has to be at least a few people," Gary argued.

"Well, I don't sense anyone," I argued.

"So why would a building be full of holograms, it makes no sense," Ash said confused.

"Something fishy is going on here, I'm gonna go in and check," I said as I made my way to the door.

I was about to touch the handle when I heard beeping coming from the earbud communicator, "Drew, get away from there!" Max shouted.

"Why?" I asked as I stepped back.

"The air sensor from the spy droid is screaming that the air is contained with something to raise a huge red flag," Max said quickly. "Get back to the park, now!"

I did as told where Max threw a box into the air to reveal a shield that surrounded me.

"Sorry Drew, but you might be contaminated," Max said quickly as he got out his wallet and typed in a number.

"I liked to report a Code Red on the RicTec Pharmaceuticals' building in Celadon City," Max said quickly before giving the address and hanging up.

Five minutes later, Hazmat came along with PHPA causing a huge nightmare. I had to give up my clothes, shower, and be tested while the guys were getting scolded by Lance.

I put on the jumpsuit the Hazmat guy gave me and was placed in a see through isolated tent as the guys, Lance, and Clair walked up to me, "Have they figured out what's in the building?"

Clair shook her head and frowned, "Now I'm more worried about the girls."

"No kidding, how are we going to find out where they went if our only lead is off limits?" Gary muttered in frustration.

"Actually, maybe we do know something," I said in wonder. "When I was trying to sense any presence of auras in the building I sensed nothing meaning the girls aren't there."

"The question then becomes, where are they?" Clair muttered.

"Champion Lance," the captain of the Hazmat group called.

Lance and Clair left us to talk to the captain, "We have got to get inside that building," I muttered.

"How do we do that, no way in hell are they going to let us in there," Ash argued.

Lance and Clair came back looking extremely worried, "Did they figure out what it was?"

"It's the FM5 flu virus," Clair answered in a whisper.

"Is it bad?" Ash asked.

Lance frowned, "It's one of the worst, it was supposed to have been extinct years ago. But not only is it back, the genetic makeup of the virus has been mutated."

"And it's leaked in the building?" I asked.

They nodded, "Can they figure out when the flu was leaked in the building?" Ash asked in slight panic.

Clair shook her head, "We need to find the girls, if they've been exposed to the virus......" she said as her voice quieted.

"How bad is it?" Paul demanded.

Lance frowned, "The virus is incredibly contagious and is absorbed into the body from inhalation, death occurs in twenty-four hours," he said bluntly.

We froze, "Tell me you're joking," Gary said angrily.

Clair sighed, "He's not. About eighty years ago, there was an outbreak of this virus and thousands of people died before an antibiotic and vaccine were created. Due to that, we were able to contain the virus and it was mostly killed off. Somehow, the virus has been brought back and mutated making the only antibiotic in existence useless. We need to find those girls."

Clair then got out a phone and walked away to call someone, "This can't be happening," Ash muttered in worry.

A hazmat guy soon walked up to us and unzipped the isolation tent, "You tested negative for the virus, you can go."

I nodded as he left and I walked around to Max and the guys, "There has to be another way to track down the girls without having to investigate inside that building," I said determined.

"There might be," Max said aloud in thought. "But there is a long shot that it will work."

"Whatever you have Max, do it. We don't have any other ideas," Paul grunted.

"Alright," Max agreed, "but we can't do it here. We have to go back to my main computer."

Before we knew what happened, we were in the Petalburg Pokemon Center's basement where Max's computer was located.

"How the heck did we just get here?" Gary asked astonished.

I then felt a buzz in my pocket and pulled out my wallet to show a text message from Clair saying to keep her posted.

"Clair gave us a ride," I said as I pocketed my wallet as I looked at Max. "What's your idea?"

"I might be able to hack into the building's security video and get footage of that office the night the girls were there," Max said as he started to bring up multiple windows and start typing in access codes.

"What do mean 'I might'? You're the master hacker here, this ought to be a piece of cake for you," Ash said surprised.

"I have to first bypass the company's security and then bypass the block that Leaf put up when the girls were digging around," Max explained. "The company's security should be no problem, it's PHPA's. As much as I hate to admit it, they are getting better at their security."

"How does it work to get footage when the girl's put a blocking file to block incoming filming?" Paul asked.

"It's rather interesting how that works. When PHPA does that, it blocks the actual recording from being seen, but they keep what they block on file so that they can access it for records and such," Max explained.

We stared at him in surprise while Ash looked a little confused, "It means they put a filter on the video so that no one but PHPA can look into it with the right codes," Max simplified.

Gary smirked, "So you finally have met your match since you deem PHPA might be hard to hack into?"

Max gave him a flat face, "Not in the slightest. I can still hack into it, it just takes a little longer than usual."

I rolled my eyes and smirked slightly as I watched him hack into the company. Max then typed rapidly as he fought his way into the blocked footage.

"Come on, come one," Max muttered as he continued to type at a furious pace.

All the windows then cleared causing Max to raise his fists in the air in victory, "Yes! I'm in."

We smirked at his enthusiasm as he pulled up the video footage and sped forward til we saw Leaf come out from the security room. Max then sped up the video slightly as we matched the multiple panels show the girls snooping around all the rooms. We then played it at normal speed as we watched two security guards walk near to where Misty was snooping around. She froze as she heard the voices and jumped into a nearby closet. After the guards disappeared, Misty continued to look around the office.

Max frowned, "The pencils work fine, I'm not sure why they didn't work when the girls used them," he said as we continued to watch the sped up security footage.

When we saw Leaf poke around the last room, Max set the speed to normal as we watched Leaf dive under the desk so she wouldn't get caught.

We flinched as we watched her bump her head, "That's got to hurt," Max cringed.

As we listened to the girls again complain about the motion alarm pencils, Ash dawned a realization of horror.

"Max, set up a monitor to show a split screen of the guards appearing near Misty and Leaf," he said quickly.

Max did as told and we zoomed in closer to see that the guards looked pixelly causing all of us to slightly panic.

"This is really, really bad. If the guards were holograms when the girls were snooping around last night, there's a very high chance they were exposed to the virus this whole time," Gary said worried.

"We have to find them to cure them along with stopping any chance of the virus spreading," Paul said quickly as we continued to watch the security feed where Dawn tipped over the picture frame and the panel of wall swung out.

Before we could get a good look, the panel swung back in as the girls went inside, "Crap, we still can't find out where they went from there," Ash muttered frustrated.

"Hang on, I think that room has security cameras as well," Max said quickly as he pulled up a new window to enter a bunch of computer codes.

"What makes you say that?" I asked quickly.

"Think about it, this is a company who wants to be secure so their work doesn't get stolen by anyone so all rooms need to be monitored including the hidden office," Max explained as continued to work his hacking magic. "If I go off the security network in the offices that are known, I should find a trace to the one in that office."

After a few seconds, another window appeared and Max immediately burst into action typing one code after another.

A live video then appeared, "I've got it, but I can't keep this program up forever, we'll be kicked off in a few minutes," he said quickly as we watched the girls enter the room and begin snooping around.

After a while, we saw Dawn type something, "Is there a way to figure out as to what she typed?" Ash asked.

Max shook his head, "The shield blocked PHPA's connection in recording what was said and sent, we can only see and hear what the video picked up," he said as we watched Leaf drop her head on the desk.

"Correctamundo," she muttered before she sat back up and frowned. "Actually, don't you think it's weird that this office is hidden yet there is nothing suspicious on this computer?"

Misty sneezed causing Ash to frown in worry, "You have a good point, the files that Dawn and I went through showed nothing funny either. So if nothing is suspicious, why hide this office?"

Dawn shrugged her shoulders as she fiddled with rotating a pencil container on the desk to trigger a hole in the floor. We looked in surprise as we watched Dawn quickly type something in shock.

"No kidding, the blueprints don't call for a basement," Leaf said stunned. "Maybe there is truth to the anonymous tip."

"Well, let's go down and see what we find," Misty said tiredly.

Leaf looked at Misty concerned, "Are you doing okay, you look a little pale?"

Misty nodded, "I'm fine, I'm just really tired, it is 2:00 AM after all."

Leaf frowned slightly but said nothing as she climbed down the ladder into the hole.

"See anything?" Misty asked.

The window containing the video immediately closed causing Max to type rapidly before sighing in frustration and pounded his desk, "I can't get the file back, I've been kicked out."

Gary groaned as he rubbed his face, "This is a load of bull shit. Every time we find something, we get cut off. We don't have time for this," he said frustrated. "We need to get into that office."

We frowned knowing that there was no way that would happen, "I wonder.....," Max said as he immediately started typing and bring up more windows that I couldn't figure out.

"What?" Ash asked as we leaned forward in to seeing what Max was doing.

"Well.......it's kind of.....illegal," Max said hesitantly.

We gave him blunt faces, "And that's stopping you?" I asked.

"What I have in mind requires I use top secret technology so I can scan the ground underneath the building," Max explained.

"Do it."

We looked at Paul, "You've always done whatever you had to do to keep your sister safe. This is the same thing. If you care about the girls as much as we do, then you should know the answer," he explained sternly.

Max frowned and nodded before turned his chair around and began pulling up multiple windows. After hacking his way in, he positioned the satellite over RicTec Pharmaceuticals and scanned the ground below it.

"I've got something," Max said as he zoomed in. "It looks like a tunnel."

"Where does it go?" I asked quickly.

Max typed in a few phrases to move the satellite in the direction of the tunnel. The end of the tunnel was in the Viridian Forest.

Max called out Kirlia and directed her to contact May's Gardevoir to have her teleport us to the spot.

Max then walked to a nearby table and handed me a few metal balls as well as giving us a few face masks and communicators, "Throw these into area you wind up, I'll be able to take a sample of the air and analyze it for any presence of the virus," he explained.

We nodded and put on our masks as Gardevoir appeared before us, "Hey Max, does this virus affect pokemon as well?" Gary asked.

Max went to his computer and pulled up files on past cases of the virus, "From what I can tell, the virus has no effect on pokemon," he reported.

Gary nodded as I looked at Gardevoir, "Can you teleport us to where Max found the end of the tunnel?" I asked.

She shook her head, "I need an image in order to teleport there," she explained calmly.

"We'll just have to teleport on the edge of the forest, it's the closest we're going to get," Gary said quickly. "Can you teleport us there?"

Gardevoir nodded and we were teleported to the outskirts of the forest, "Hopefully the air here doesn't contain the virus," I said concerned as I threw a sphere up so it could snag a whiff of air.

I then caught it and waited for Max to scan for the virus, "The air here is clean," he reported. "I also sent the coordinates for the end of the tunnel on your wallets."

"Thanks Max," I called as I returned Gardevoir and pulled out my wallet to see where we needed to go.

"Flygon, let's go," I shouted as I threw his pokeball up.

Gary and Ash followed suit with Arcanine and Charizard before we set off for where the end of the tunnel was located. After thirty minutes, we found the remains of a fire causing us to worry.

"What in the heck did those girls stumble on?" Gary asked in bewilderment as I threw a sphere into the air to catch an air sample.

"No kidding," I muttered.

"The air where you are is clean," Max reported.

"Thanks Max," I said as we started to poke around the burnt remains of the cabin.

"Guys," Ash called worriedly as he picked up a snippet of golden yellow cloth.

"The girls were here then, but where did they go?" Gary wondered.

"Before we look anywhere else, we should report to Clair about this so she can send agents to see if they can find anything," Paul said as he got out his wallet to make the call.

Gary then took the clothe sample from Ash and walked to Arcanine, "Sniff this and see if you can pick up the scent," Gary directed as he held the cloth for Arcanine to sniff.

Arcanine sniffed it as Paul walked over having finished his call to Clair, Arcanine then raised his head to sniff the air.

He then howled as he pointed east of the cabin, "Let's go," Gary called as he and Paul got on Arcanine while Ash and I got on Flygon and Charizard.

We followed Arcanine and spotted a huge tree in the distance. Arcanine stopped a couple yards away allowing Gary and Paul to get off while Flygon and Charizard landed nearby.

"Thanks Arcanine," Gary said gratefully as he pet his head.

We tried to walk closer to see if the girls were inside the trunk of the tree when we heard a "Pip lup lup lup" and a Bubble Beam came our way.

"What the.....?!" Gary shouted as we dodged to the side.

Soon a very distressed Piplup came out, "Pikachu, go take a look inside," Ash ordered gently.

Pikachu nodded before scampering to the tree to investigate inside with Piplup. A few seconds later, Pikachu came out looking distressed and cried that the girls were in there in bad shape.

We tried to get closer again but Piplup attacked us with Bubble Beam, "Damn penguin," Paul muttered. "We want to help the girls as much as you so quite attacking us!"

Piplup furiously shook its head as Espeon and Azurill appeared. They then explained how their trainers ordered them that no one was to be near them before they fainted.

I then grabbed a sphere, "Pikachu, put this inside the tree," I called as I rolled it towards him.

Pikachu then guided the sphere into the tree with its tail.

We waited worriedly for Max to give us a report.

"Wherever you took that sample shows the virus in the air," Max reported. "Where did you take the sample?"

I sighed, "From the tree where the girls are hiding in."