The Frostbitten Land

Chapter 4

Sneaking in wasn't the hard part, usually. At least not in Edward's book. The hard part was figuring out where to sneak in. Thankfully, it was the easy part for Diana, one of the Admins who worked under him. They didn't have much manpower, so Diana was a really good find.

"And.. Done. Our scouts somewhere in this area.", Diana said, sipping a coffee as she triumphantly showed Edward the map.

Diana was just the average girl you'd find at the nearby shopping mall while ordering McDonalds and then never see her again, with her very orange hair, blue-rimmed glasses and some going-out clothes. That would be your first mistake, because this girl also happened to be an Admin of Team Gaia, and the one who managed the Communications and Tech stuff within the team. Caught some criminals and you need to get them in base? Diana's faction covered that. Need to do some hacking? Diana's here. Want to figure out a hidden warehouse where your scouts were kidnapped? Diana's to the rescue!

Really, considering Gaia had only a total of 3 Executives, 5 Admins, 14 Captains, and about 80-ish Guards, having Diana, a former Ranger working for them was a good catch. She was like a gem in the haystack, the shiny pokemon in a forest, the.. He was running out of ideas. 

Of course, she couldn't really do anything else though- She only had a Trapinch after her pokemon were stolen by Rocket and she'd lost a leg during the ordeal. Gaia had given her refuge after she'd left work in disappointment. Battling was kind of a no-go for her nowadays.

"Thanks, Diana. You're the best.", Edward said, slinging an arm around her as he looked at the map. She was the best at her job, and Edward was grateful for it. He wouldn't be able to do it, at least not as quickly and efficiently.

"Oh don't worry about it, Ed, this was easy work. I just had to track their movements and where they went off the cameras. Do mention this to Herbie though!", Diana said, giggling as she mentioned Herbie. Edward grinned as the printer printed out the map, snatching it as he stood up straight again.

"Sure will, Diana. He's been worried sick about this, so I'll make sure he thanks you.", Edward replied, as he walked away. Diana simply grinned goofily. As Edward exited her office though, he couldn't help but feel a bit bad for her. It was unlikely that Herbie would return her feelings, not when he always had that business suit on him. The man was too serious and too socially inept to figure that out. Edward wasn't even sure if he liked her or not- One time he'd commend her for being the best at her job with a smile and the next he'd be completely impassive towards her.

Either way, he had people to save. And saving he will.

. . .

He hated evil people kidnapping other people. No, really, why couldn't they just shove their schemes up his face and show him where they kept the kidnapped people?

He'd been riding on his Gaia™ Bike, looking around while posing as a suave biker. So far? No luck. It seemed that he'd explored every nook and cranny of the area which Diana had circled.. Although when he looked at the map his Gaia™ Bike showed, it looked like he'd covered barely half. He shouldn't complain, honestly- This gave him something to do at least, and he should know by now that this stuff took time. But seriously, bring the old-school villains back! They would probably be much easier to deal with.

He rolled into another parking lot, going slowly and checking out the vehicles in there. If the captors were there, they'd likely parked the vehicle somewhere. He highly doubted they'd be careful about some scouts.. Would they?

"Bloody hell.. Where'd they take a crew of scouts?", Edward mused to himself, as he slowly rode around the parking lot. It was then that something caught his eye. A black van. Very stereotypical in kidnappings, no?