Part One
"Rush"

      Her breaths coming out short but heavy, a tall, thin, yet muscular-built woman quickly ran across the gray cement floors, arms pumping at her sides, one pokeball tightly gripped in her hand. Wind weaved through her long straight waist-length blond hair, almost white, as her sharp forest-green eyes scanned her surroundings. All around her were the flat rooftops of other buildings, similar to the one she was running on now, as the objects closer to her were turning into blurs of colors as she ran on. But most of them were skyscrapers, much taller than the one her quick footsteps were echoing off of.

      "You can't run from us forever!" A scratchy male voice shouted from somewhere behind. Without slowing down, the woman took a moment to glance over her shoulder at the three men hot in pursuit, just a matter of yards away. Running away? Me? As if. But the woman did not reply, she only turned her head back around to look towards the front again, her heart thudding quickly in her chest. Not from fear, never from fear. But from the excitement, from the adrenaline rush. Fear... it's been a long time since I've felt that, she thought to herself, slightly amused. I'm starting to forget what it feels like.

     At the end of a small warehouse atop the roof, she took sudden turn to the right. There, right in front of her - the rooftop of another building, around the same height, maybe slightly lower. As she drew near the edge of the building she was on, the woman estimated the distance between the two. Maybe... ten meters or so? Far too much for her to jump. She skid to a stop five meters away from the edge when she realized this, the sounds of honking cars driving across the streets far below them. The woman then whirled around to look at the three men drawing closer, now wearing triumphant grins on their faces when they realized her situation.

     The woman raised her eyebrows at their expressions. "Ponyta, go!" She called, tossing her pokeball into the air and then catching it again as a Ponyta emerged neighing out of the glowing bright light.

Single minded...

     Gripping her hands around the Ponyta's neck, feeling nothing but air around the flickering flames, she swung her leg over the pokemon's back in one swift motion so she was sitting on top.

...to the point...

     She pointed at the rooftop in front of them with a "Go!". That was all the Ponyta needed to starting galloping ahead. As they neared the edge, the woman then hugged her body as closely to the Ponyta, gripping the flaming horse tightly, tensed up and ready for what was coming.

...of recklessness.

      Upon reaching the edge, the Ponyta pushed off with its legs into the air. There was a split second of silence free from the previous sounds of hooves, and the woman closed her eyes and smiled to herself. The moment ended when the Ponyta swiftly landed on the roof of the building they had been aiming for. The woman leaned up straight again and swung her leg back over, hopping to the ground. "Good job," she told the pokemon, still smiling. "Now return!" She called, and the Ponyta dissolved back into the bright light and back into the pokeball once again. She then turned around and observed the three men standing at the edge of the other rooftop. They cursed at her, shaking their fists. The woman crossed her arms at her waist and leaned her weight on one leg, waiting. Any moment now...

      A large boom sounded through the air as billowing purple smoke suddenly came up from the ground right at the three men's feet, sending them into coughing fits. She watched as they doubled over, clutching their chests, and eventually collapsed to the ground unconscious. Her smile became wider at the memory of dropping the timed mechanism on the ground right before her Ponyta leapt.

      "Sky, is everything going alright?" A male voice buzzed with static at her side. Sky glanced down at her police uniform and the walkie-talkie they were required to wear. She unattached it from her waist and held it close to her face to speak, holding down the button. "Yeah, mission accomplished," she replied, glancing back over at the three unconscious men on the other rooftop. "I've got three men down on the eastern side of the rooftop of the Pokemon Center at 145th and Q. Gassed them. Can you come and round them up? I think I still may have something I need to do."

      "Oh God, and what would that be?" The voice asked. Sky didn't speak as the increasing sound of choppers came up from behind her. She whirled around to the sight of a large black helicopter with tinted windows emerged, a symbol of a blue crescent moon on every window.

      "Relax, I'll be fine. Just give me a sec." She replied assuringly, reaching for a different pokeball at her belt as she slowly took a few steps backwards, still staring fixedly at the helicopter.

      "Then what the heck is that noise in the background? Sky, if you need reinforcements, then call for them, damnit!" He replied in a frustrated voice.

      "No, I'm telling you, I'll be fine. Now shut up for a moment.. I need to concentrate."

She's single minded to the point of recklessness.

      The man on the other end of the walkie-talkie didn't speak after that, but she could imagine him quietly cursing to himself. So what if she did things on her own sometimes? It didn't matter to her if she knew she could handle it. As for the rest of the police force... Oh, what do I care about what they think? My ranking's high enough anyway, she thought to herself. But Sky's thoughts were diverted back to her current situation as she took another step backwards and carefully balanced on the railing of the roof, still staring down the helicopter. With one quick motion, she let herself fall back and off the edge. Her stomach leapt to her throat as the G forces came, and Sky spread her arms and legs out wide, slowing her speed down slightly. Still tightly gripping the new pokeball, she called out, "Skarmory, go!", and with a flash of silver wings, her Skarmory emerged and lashed out its talons, catching Sky and halting her fall. But the stop didn't last long, and soon the Skarmory was diving down towards the ground even faster than Sky had been falling. Her eyes started watering from the quick-moving air as she heard the whooshing sound of the helicopter directly above them. "Now!" She called out. Her Skarmory took a sudden 180 degree turn as it soared back up towards the sky, zooming past the helicopter in one movement. They soared yards directly above the helicopter, and Sky took a round mechanism from her pocket and aimed it at the helicopter. Squinting her eyes, Sky pressed a button on the mechanism so that a red light flashed on, and then she brought her arm back and tossed the mechanism at the helicopter with all the strength she could muster. "Get away, now!" She ordered her Skarmory. It obeyed, cawing at the sky and flapping its metal wings as it soared away.

      They put enough distance between themselves and the helicopter just in time, as a large explosion rumbled and a sudden rush of air came from behind and blew Sky's hair into her face. She glanced over her shoulder to see the helicopter crash down on top of the roof of the same building the three unconscious men were lying on, now engulfed in flames with various chunks of metal coming apart. Grinning, Sky told her Skarmory to land, and she hopped off the pokemon's back and returned it to its pokeball just in time to watch several police offers emerge from the door to the top of the rooftop that held the unconscious men and the flaming helicopter filled with more men, all criminals. From her location, Sky could only see their silhouettes. One of the officers on the rooftop put a hand on his hip and raised his hand near his face.

      "How are you doing, Sky?" The same male voice, now irritated yet awed, asked from her walkie-talkie.

      "How do you think I'm doing? Did you just see what I did?" Sky replied, catching her breath.

      "Yeah, I did. Don't you think that was a little overly dramatic?"

Recklessness.

*****************************************************

      Sky remembered it well. Ever since she was just a kid, before she was even old enough to have pokemon of her own, she had let go of fear and given in to the adrenaline rush. Her body had received more physical harm than the average elementary school girl, and even though she didn't like it, pain was something she was learning to get used to. Besides, later on in life Sky eventually found out emotional pain could be a thousand times worse than any actual injury. Maybe that increased the recklessness even more... if that's what you wanted to call it. At least, that's what her psychologists called it.

      "Sky has no serious mental problems," the female doctor confirmed, sitting down in the chair placed in front of Sky and her parents, looking down at her clipboard. "She's simply... well..."

      "She's single minded to the point of recklessness. That's all."

      That's all. Sky sighed, the words echoing around inside her head. She would always remember them. She agreed, but that didn't make her act safer. She saw nothing bad in being single minded. When I want to get something done, I can do it, Sky thought to herself.

      There was a loud ringing beep that sounded from the ceiling of Sky's office, the sound of the intercom. "Sky, can you come down to the interrogation room for a moment? We've picked up a suspicious-looking man who claims he's not a criminal, but we're having trouble deciding what to do with him," explained the same male voice that had spoken to her before.

      Sky leaned her head back on her chair and took a sip of her coffee. "Oh fine, I'm coming," she replied. She listened to the intercom beep again, the sign that it had been turned off. Sighing once again, she set down her coffee on the desk in front of her and stood up, stretching her arms out, taking her time. I'd much rather be out there instead of in here, dealing with stuff like this, she thought grumpily, shoving open her door and turning to walk down the narrow hallway. As she passed dozens of doors, her footsteps vibrating loudly across the empty walls, Sky stopped paying attention to where she was going and let her thoughts drift to the memories of the actions she had just survived earlier that day with the helicopter. Her legs already seemed to know where to lead her, simply from walking down these paths almost every day. After a few minutes, she found herself standing before a gray windowless door. After knocking, Sky turned the handle to let herself in, letting the door swing shut behind her as she gazed at the scene in front of her.

      In the middle of the dark room was a small table, with a boy only slightly younger than herself sitting in a chair next to one of the edges. His hands were handcuffed to a bar in the center of the table, and he was leaning his elbows on the table, his head hung down. The boy's sandy colored hair was tangled and unkept, sticking up here and there, flopped down in front over his eyes as he continued to hang his head down. The pokeballs containing his pokemon were attached to a separate table guarded by three police officers; a required safety measure. What stood out the most about the boy's appearance though, was the black uniform with the blood-red letter R embroidered on the front... the Team Rocket uniform. No wonder they found him suspicious.

      Sky carelessly sat down in the chair across from him. "What's his name? Have you looked up his criminal record on our database?" She asked, never taking her eyes off the boy. Even at the sound of her voice, he continued to hang his head down.

      "Yes. His name is Jason Delgo, and he has no criminal record that we know of. However, it appears he's part of Team Rocket, though he claims he isn't."

      Jason finally raised his head slightly, revealing his piercing dark brown eyes. Through the bangs of his hair, he glared across the table at Sky with loathing. Boy, if looks could kill... Sky thought warily. He obviously didn't want to be here any more than she did. But even without the Team Rocket uniform, he looked like the criminal type. Also the falsely accused prankster type.

      "That's because I'm not part of Team Rocket," he spat. "At least, not anymore. I don't want anything to do with them! I doubt they'll even notice I've left. Quit wasting your time with me, you idiots. Didn't your fancy computers say I haven't done anything wrong?" Jason raised up his head all the way, but his eyes shot away from Sky's face to a random part of the ground, refusing to make eye contact with anybody in the room.

      "And yet you're still in your Team Rocket uniform," Sky observed.

      "You think they'd let me quit? I stopped on my own, I don't need them anymore, they don't need me, nobody needs me!" Jason kicked one of the legs of the table, his teeth now gritted together. "I don't need anybody, everybody can just go and DIE!" He kicked the leg of the table again so that his handcuffs clanged together. The police officers on the perimeter of the room made cautious movements slightly closer towards Jason, but Sky remained unmoving and calm, still bored with the situation.

      "When we patted him down, he didn't have any Team Rocket ID card on him," one of the police officers noted.

      Sky remained silent for a moment, gazing at Jason, who's shoulders were now heaving up and down as his breaths came out slow and heavy, like a bull getting ready to charge. All this guy needs is some anger management classes, Sky thought to herself. "Okay, you heard him, he's not part of Team Rocket anymore and from what we can tell, he hasn't actually committed any crimes. Let him go." Just get him out of my sight.

      The other police officers exchanged doubtful glances, but proceeded to unattach the pokeballs from their containers on the other table and uncuff Jason's hands. As they did so, Jason continued to glare down at the ground, but snarled out more words. "Good guys and bad guys, that's the only two groups you people ever divide others into. You judge and then you forget, you pretend to care when all you really want is their help!" His voice was growing louder. "But not me. Am I the only one here that knows how to be independent?!" Now he was shouting.

      "Save it, will you?" Sky told him. "The room is small and your loud voice is hurting my ears. Just be glad we're letting you go." And with that, she took the bag of pokeballs handed to her by the other police officers, and tightly gripped Jason's shoulder as she lead him out of the room and down the florescent-lit hallway. But his loud words were still ringing in her ears. Not me, Sky wanted to say. Not me... I don't lump everybody into just two groups, don't associate me with them, there's a reason I'm letting you go... She bit her lip.

      They walked down the hallway together at a brisk pace in silence. Jason, whom was once again hanging his head down as he trudged on, tried to shrug off Sky's hand once, but she wouldn't let him and only gripped tighter. After she took him down one last hallway and they drew closer to the door with the eerie glowing red exit sign, Jason spoke. "This light makes your hair look white," he observed.

      "Don't remind me," replied Sky, mentally wincing. More silence dragged on by, and Sky quickened her pace. "Ugh, I hate this job," she muttered.

      Jason rose his head slightly as his eyes shot towards Sky's direction, but still not directly into her eyes. "Then why don't you quit it?" He asked.

      The expression on Sky's face softened. "Because of a man I'm in love with," she answered.

      Jason snorted. "Love is overrated," he spat. "It's just something people like to talk about to make themselves feel special. I want nothing to do with it."

      "You sound like a toddler who believes in cooties."

      "Yeah well, it can't be all that great if that's what's making you do a job you hate."

      Sky didn't reply. She pushed open the door as they reached it, a sudden brisk rush of air blowing into their faces as blinding sunlight met their eyes. Sky let go of Jason's shoulder and held out six pokeballs in her hands. "Here's your pokemon. Now get moving and get something to wear other than that uniform if you don't want to get arrested again," she ordered.

      Jason quickly grabbed the pokeballs from her hands and lazily shoved them in his pockets. The two of them stood there for a moment, not moving, simply staring in different directions. "So why does loving this guy mean you have to stay on the police force?" Jason asked.

      Sky weaved her fingers through her hair. "One year ago, there was... an accident. Lead by that new criminal organization, much more dangerous than Team Rocket. I'm sure you've heard of them. Well, I tried to take things into my own hands. I was battling them by myself, and I was careless with my own safety... but I had no idea that would also mean being careless with the safety of those around me. One of the men was using a Scyther, and I lead the battle too close to my love." Sky stared at the ground, shifting her weight from leg to leg, not sure what to do with herself. "He was... badly hurt. That's all I can say here. And it was all my fault. So I vowed I'd stay a part of the police force as long as I could, in hope that it could help train me to not be so reckless with my actions."

      Jason raised his eyebrows. "And is it working?"

      Sky looked back up, but he continued to refuse any eye contact. "...Not yet," she admitted. "I think it will take some time. Being part of the police, I'm helping protect many people every day."

      "I still don't see how any of this benefits you," Jason told her. "How do you expect to protect others if you can't protect yourself?"

      "I don't need protecting," she replied simply, her head held high. "And this is not about what will benefit me. I don't know if I'll ever deserve any benefit again."

      And she whirled around, pulling the door open and shoving it closed behind her, leaving Jason gazing at the spot where she once stood.

*****************************************************

      Staring out at the streetlights glowing brightly in the night, Sky pulled up on the driveway of a small blue house that she knew so well. My love's house. Sky thought, yawning widely at the tiredness numbing her mind and body. It had been another long hard day at work, but that didn't stop her from visiting him every day. Almost like she felt obligated to.

      Slamming the door shut behind her, Sky walked towards the front door and rung the doorbell three times in a row, her own signal. As she stood waiting on the front porch, she shoved her hands in her jacket pockets and rocked back and forth on her heels, tensing up her shoulders against the occasional gust of wind. Autumn had only just begun, but she could feel it more clearly on some nights than others, slyly nipping at her cheeks instead of caressing them. Eventually the door opened ever so slightly, and a the face of a man with smooth dark-brown hair and deep blue eyes poked his head out. At the sight of Sky, he smiled.

      "Come on in," he told her, retreating back inside the house.

      Sky obeyed, opening the door wider and then carefully closing it, letting the sudden warmth of the house comfort her tenseness. It was always soft and quiet inside the house, just like the man's personality. But Sky liked it that way. "How are you, James?" she asked.

      "I'm okay," he replied simply. "And you?" Across the hallway, he turned around the look at her again. This time, under the light of the small chandelier carefully hanging from the ceiling, a large dark-red scar could be seen etched on the right side of his face, slightly puffy, stretched all the way from his hairline to his neck and under his shirt, where Sky knew it ended halfway down his back. A fresh wave of guilt washed over her at the sight of his injury, and her whole body sagged with the weight of this guilt as she hung up her jacket on the tall coat rack placed next to the door.

      "Well, the first half of work was good, but the second half was pretty boring." Sky walked over towards James and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as she continued on her way towards the kitchen, only too familiar with the house. "I did get to meet this.. interesting.. guy, though. I'll call him 'interesting' for lack of a better word." Sky grinned to herself. "Name's Jason. He has... some problems." But then again, don't we all?

      "What sort of problems?" James asked, following Sky towards the kitchen, but pausing to lean on the entrance frame.

      "Doesn't think anybody needs him, doesn't think he needs anybody, pretty much angry at everything."

      "That must be... lonely."

      In the process of opening the refrigerator door, Sky paused in mid-reach to glance back over at James's face, which was as expressionless as ever except for the calmness. "Yeah," she breathed out, pondering the idea.

      "You should go and try to visit him again," James suggested, moving forward so he was standing beside Sky. "Try to convince him otherwise."

      "Maybe I will," Sky said slowly, still gazing at James. They stood there like that, Sky still holding open the refrigerator door, both of them gazing at each other in silence.

      "What is it?" James asked, starting to smile.

      "Nothing... I just love you." Sky whispered, letting go of the refrigerator door to pull her arms around him.

      "I love you too," he whispered back, leaning in to softly touch his lips to hers.

      But as they stood there in each other's arms, Sky's heart was slowly cracking. But you shouldn't, Sky thought, the guilt drowning her out. You shouldn't still love me.

      Because I couldn't protect you, and I'll never be able to.