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((Obligatory Mission: Impossible music here

The post order will be: Ren, Qixel, Bo, Nashi))

Zinnia was filled with exhaustion and dread. She suddenly recalled Shadow Mew's words, spoken (telepathically) to here scarcely days before: You have benefited from joining Team Rocket for two years now. Thus far you haven't been ordered to do anything unpleasant; you were only twelve when you joined. But you are fourteen now, and they will see you as an adult. Sooner or later, they will command you to hurt or steal pokemon. Apparently, the order had come sooner rather than later. She had brushed off Shadow's warning at the time, although she had lost much of her naivete since she had first joined up. She knew now that what Team Rocket did was wrong, but she couldn't figure out how to leave the team without getting herself even more deeply into trouble.

It certainly did not help things that her gengar had begun to consistently give her nightmares every night before proceeding to eat them, leaving the poor girl frightened and sleep-deprived. Apparently the ghost pokemon was still harboring ill-feelings toward her for Zinnia's performance during their last battle in the pokemon stadium... Had that taken place only a few days before? It all seemed so insignificant in light of this dark deed she had been commanded to perform.

The mission was supposed to be an easy one, good for a first-timer on a non-scouting mission like Zinnia. She and Walpurgis were to rob a pokemon center in the dead of night. The pokemon they were to steal would be weak enough not to put up a fight, and there probably wouldn't be any random trainers defending the center so late at night. The nurses would be asleep. There was no way the operation could go wrong, much to Zinnia's disappointment.

She worried about those pokemon. What if they were in critical condition? What if removing them from the center would result in their deaths? What did Team Rocket want to do with weakened pokemon, anyway? These were all questions that twisted her up inside and made her heavy with guilt. She did not want to do this. She couldn't do this. But if she didn't... What would happen to her? Would Walpurgis turn her in? She looked sideways at her companion as they walked together, already close to the Katarina pokecenter. Zinnia dropped her hand to the pokeballs attached to her belt for comfort. If she did this, what would her best friends-- her pokemon-- think of her?

Nyla actually didn't mind the night shifts. The cover of darkness meant that more criminals were willing to try things, and she got to see more action. But that didn't mean that night shifts were always crazy and hectic though.

Like tonight. There was nothing out of the ordinary happening. She was stuck in the station, filling out paperwork to pass the time. That's right. She had to resort to paperwork to keep her from getting bored out of her mind.

At least she had her Espeon out for company. Daybreak was currently curled up by her feet, in a half-nap. And there was one other officer with Nyla at the station, someone she didn't interact with much. She considered striking up a conversation with him, but it was hard to do so when the building was quiet in the dead of the night. Breaking the silence now seemed like a monumental feat.

Zinnia hesitated at the glass doors of the pokemon center, which had already slid open to admit them. Though there weren't any lights on, the door was kept unlocked 24 hours a day, every day, just in case a trainer had desperate need of the center's services. But no one did need their services so late this time; it was silent as the grave and almost pitch black; they had only the moon and stars to light their way. Using flashlights or having a pokemon use Flash would have made their position a little obvious to anyone looking out their windows, so Zinnia took a deep breath and stepped through into the darkness.

Her heart seemed to be pounding in her throat as adrenaline rushed through her body. Her strides became half-steps and she kept looking around nervously. If her gengar could see her now... Well, Dreydonna would have enjoyed Zinnia's distress and only added to it. She did wish that she could take Zyk or Shadow out, but how would she explain the situation to them? She hadn't told them about her orders. Not even Dreydonna would approve of what she was about to do.

"Um..." Zinnia whispered, squinting until she spotted Walpurgis in the dark (which was no easy feat from all the black that the Rockets wore). "Um, do you think I should stay at the door in case anyone comes?" she asked. She tried to sound aloof, but she just sounded nervous. Like a coward, she was trying to leave the dirty work to Walpurgis. Her conscience was already weighing heavily on her; she thought that she might break down altogether if she had to complete the mission with her own hands.

((Lawl, through the front door. 8D But I mean, why not?))

"Oh?" Nyla was pleasantly surprised by the news, then the realization that they had something to do dawned on her. She tried not to act too excited, since that was unprofessional, but she couldn't hide her enthusiasm as she got up to leave. Daybreak let out a quiet yelp as the feet she was resting on suddenly disappeared. She was quick in recovering though and followed Nyla out the door.

"O-oh, okay, I guess that makes sense..." Zinnia whispered back. When the door opened, she stared at it with a mixture of revulsion and dread; but, luckily, the darkness masked her expression well. She took a deep breath to compose herself, then followed Walpurgis through the door.

The room appeared empty at first, but a little ways down the hall there was a faint light. As the Rockets made their way toward it, they could see that it was, in fact, shining through a glass window. Inside the room that the glass separated them from were a few pokemon in emergency care boxes, also visible through the glass. There was another locked door before they could break into this room, so Zinnia turned away for a moment to hide her face from her partner in crime.

She covered her mouth with one hand and tried to think. Her brain felt frozen; was this due to her inadequate sleep? Or was she just panicking? She tried to take more deep breaths quietly enough that Walpurgis wouldn't hear.

What would Shadow do in a situation like this? She tried to imagine the mew's voice in her mind, but she was drawing a blank. Probably Shadow would just teleport them away from there before anything bad happened, but Zinnia would get into huge trouble if she left the pokecenter without those pokemon. But she couldn't take them! They might die outside of the nurse's hands!

No... She wouldn't take them, and she wouldn't allow Walpurgis to, either. She turned back toward the window, and this time the dim light revealed her determined features as her thoughts raced ahead.

The two police officers arrived at the Pokemon Center, which was dark and revealed nothing suspicious. Still, if there was some criminal activity going on, they weren't going to turn on the lights and broadcast to everyone what they were doing.

Nyla entered through the front doors with Daybreak by her side. She had a flashlight in her hands and the Espeon's gem was glowing with a faint light. A quick scan with the flashlight revealed nothing worth noting, though she did find the light switches which she turned on promptly. Her eyes blinked to adjust to the sudden light. Even though she had a full view of the main room, there was still nothing out of the ordinary. Or rather, the lack of a clueless trainer with an injured Pokemon and the eerie silence indicated something was up.

Zinnia whirled around as the room behind her suddenly grew brighter. Her heart leaped into her throat and she could hear her own pulse. "Someone's here!" she hissed unnecessarily to her accomplice. Despite her panic that they were about to be discovered, Zinnia was grateful for this unexpected intrusion. If only Walpurgis could be convinced that they had to escape without any pokemon, she would be able to put off her first act of truly illegal and harmful activity a bit longer, by which time she would hopefully have come up with a better plan.

Still, they had a few precious minutes, surely, before whoever had turned on the lights would discover where the Rockets were standing. Both to delay Walpurgis's suspicions and to help close the time gap before their discovery, Zinnia accidentally-on-purpose dropped the pokeballs that were meant for stealing the weak patients of the pokecenter. They clattered loudly on the floor and rolled every which way, their echos abnormally loud in the empty room. Zinnia scrambled after them clumsily, kicking them even further away. "Let's get out of here," she suggested, her voice rising with genuine fear.

Nyla didn't need Daybreak's psychic abilities to tell that something's up. Both trainer and Pokemon glanced towards the door that lead to the emergency care Pokemon once they heard the unmistakable sound of Pokeballs falling to the floor. It made her sick that someone would victimize weakened Pokemon in their criminal pursuits, but luckily they were caught before they could do anything. At least, she hoped they were in time.

The door opened rather too easily, considering that it was supposed to be locked. It only confirmed what she already knew. Nyla however did not know that there were be Pokemon waiting to attack. Daybreak pounced on the largest Pokemon there, a Liepard, while Nyla pulled out the Pokeball containing her Absol and sent her out, just so it would be a fair two-on-two fight.

She was so caught up in the ambush that she didn't notice the small figure in the background that was the Rocket's accomplice.