It was a sunny day in the quite village of Moonstone, nestled is a small cranny of a valley next to Mount. Moon - the famous crossroad for many travellers taking the overland route to different cities.

Moonstone is not on many maps. Its population is tiny, made up mostly of elderly people clinging to the old ways of life. The houses were traditional with little electricity and water came from a small fresh spring, which wound down a nearby forest or a large pump in the town square. If anything caused a stir in Moonstone, chances are anyone outside would never hear of it. A perfect spot for a crime of most devious intention.

Joshua Wood, Mr. Wood to his associates and 'Boss' to his underlings was smiling. After climbing up to the top via several great capers he now controlled a mighty part of Team Rocket's Research and Development and had big plans. The Rockets had done special ‘research’ into Pokemon for quite a while now but his R&D team had been instructed to look at the situation from a different angle. Although it had been denied in Giovanni’s Newsletter, Wood knew Team Rocket was having a few problems -this opened up an opportunity for him. An opportunity to get into one of the biggest and most dangerous games in existence. One that played with people lives and promised ultimate power to the victor… He and a few loyal followers had made the plans and the research results had been falsified. All that remained now was to wait for the right moment.

Autumn - a beautiful time in Moonstone when the forest turned a brownish yellow and every house was topped by a golden crown. The winds were chilly but the sky stayed sunny and nothing could have helped uplift Rachel's spirits more. She skipped up the ancient path that lead up the near vertical cliff to he hometown. School had been fun but the winter holidays were almost here and nothing seemed to matter anymore.

She hugged her grandmother and took off her shoes as she entered the house, flopping her book-filled bag onto her desk as she entered her room. Just a few more days and she'd be free, but... she sat down on her chair and thought. The village would be great in the winter but there were no friends. The path would be used only in emergences due to the slippery frost and building snowmen by herself could get old very fast. Yet she couldn't leave. Her father had left her in the care of Grandma and she felt she had to stay.

Then she smiled as she remembered her English Teacher's gift to her. Zipping open the bag she pulled out the shining new Pokeball and examined it. She had always wanted a Pokemon and the forest was supposed to have a few Pidgey who sheltered from the harsh winter in the cosy valley.

Wood smiled as he observed the girl through a hidden camera nearly a mile away. Picking up the clipboard on his desk he ticked the approve box. The head scientist smiled as he took the paper and the boss leaned back. "We have twelve months to do this Doctor. Twelve months to make our bid for fortune and glory."

The scientist nodded. "Field Research starts by the end of the season. We'll have them rounded up by the start of winter and monitored at sites A and B."

"Good. Get the equipment ready. Our Agents receive their assignments and leave by the end of the week." He sat back leisurely and reviewed the situation. The first hand had been dealt and the stakes were higher than they had ever been before. If he played his hands right not even Giovanni could stop him.

"Don’t give me that Zak. I’ve done all I can to get our systems up to date so just do your job." The chief of the department hovered over Zak’s desk brandishing several important looking papers in one hand.

"Come on Jack, you know I can’t feed all this stuff through the restricted program. There’s just too much." responded Zack, leaning back and taking the occasional glance at the mound of data he had to sift through.

"Alright! Here’s the deal… I’ll give you full access to the server but I want to be able to see everything loaded by lunch tomorrow. No overtime bonus either."

Zak sighed and nodded - anything to get the grouch away. Why he had to go through all this rubbish anyway was beyond him, but at least he had access to the server of one of the world’s most prominent genetic research programs. The rest of the day went smoothly but as the staff drained away at night he found himself alone with the security staff prowling around downstairs.

Now he had a chance to make a bit of money. Slipping in a disk he’d always kept in his desk he started off a mole program that sucked up any high priority data it could find. With full access, no one would know if he deleted the night’s access files. Scanning the incoming files, something caught his eye. A text-file emailed in from one of the other labs… scanning once and then twice he found himself sweating onto his keyboard. This was big-stuff. Top-secret even.

Slipping down to the labs (telling the guard he wanted a soda) he located the recently shipped box in a far corner, surrounded by what looked like new equipment and slipped on a pair of lab gloves. A quick jimmy with a crowbar revealed hundreds of loaded syringes stacked neatly in several magazines. He recognised the type as Tranquilliser cartridges from a time back when the Safari Zone needed to round up a few sick Pokemon with a special mixture (mixed up at the labs) since the standard version was too powerful.

He sifted around the crate among tons of sponge-rap and found several ‘spare’ syringes, not loaded into the cartridges. One wouldn’t hurt so he carefully hid it away and closed up the box, returning to the office to finish off his work.

"Hybrid? Say again?" Zak leaned back into a pile of old candy wrappers and beer cans. Bobby was one smart dude (if a bit messy) and probably was Zak’s only real friend. "I don’t get it."

Bobby scratched his balding head sat down next to him with the papers Zak had printed last night. "You must have heard of them?"

"Seriously, I’ve been out of touch for a while." Zak mused on that last though. Too much time spent on work and not enough on himself.

Bobby leaned over and pulled out his scrap book paging through it to a date almost a year back. "Here… Pokehybrids, see for youself." He unclipped a picture of what looked like a slowpoke wearing clothes and lazing around on the beach surrounded by reporters. Zak blinked. "Found dead the next day? Someone probably did it as a joke… though it’s a bit sadistic."

Bobby nodded. "Most of the ones printed in the papers had the same fate."

"Most? You mean there’s more? One I can understand. My uncle took me to a circus when I was a kid and…"

Bobby swatted Zak with the papers. "This stuff is well known. There are probably some out there now…" Zak took out the little box in which was the stolen syringe. "You better take a look at this, found it yesterday among others."

Bobby took out a monocle (Zak didn’t know anyone else that used them) and studied it and the papers some more. "Give me a day. Maybe two. I might be completely wrong but keep you hands clean until I contact you. Now get outta here, Donna’s coming over for dinner."