Mary-Ann Michaels

Silence is Safer

Mary is a generally rather quite person. She's not exactly shy, thought she only very rarely starts conversations unless she has a reason for it. The reason is simple: Anything she says could be used against her. Rationally, she probably knows that nobody is that interested in her or the crimes she's done, so the vast majority of people she meets are presumably just ordinary people - But you never know, and that's the problem. If Mary says the wrong thing to the wrong person, who even knows what might happen?
Even aside from that, though, she just doesn't feel as much of a need to talk. The exception is if someone managed to get her to talk about one of her favorite topics, computers or (small) Pokémon - Then there's a chance she'll talk that person's ear off.

Helping's a Liability

After her experiences with Leon, Mary finds it hard to trust people. She used to enjoy helping others back when she was younger, but after that desire to help was abused like that, she tends to just look away and take care of herself, not anyone else. The exception to that are Pokémon; they still get to see Mary's more altruistic side, especially the ones that were "thrown away" - like being abandoned because they couldn't work as well as their trained wanted them to or weren't pretty enough, or the ones who are just ignored even if they still have their trainer. People who treat their Pokémon like that get nothing but scorn from Mary.

A Gentler Dream

Mary's dream job would have nothing to do with the hacking and blackmail that she's currently doing. If someone asked her what her dream job was - and if Mary answered that question honestly - she'd probably say that she'd like to have a farm, or perhaps her own Pokémon Shelter, to offer something for all the Pokémon with no or bad trainers, so they all have a good place to stay. Money could be earned by offering trainers to let their Pokémon board there during vacations and the like.
Of course, that is just a dream, and Mary is far too pessimistic to ever actually believe something like that could happen. Even if it would be nice if it did.

A Good Kid

Mary grew up in Nanos City with her parents and her older sister Lissy. Back when she was a child, you could have probably found Mary's picture next to the dictionary entry for "Good Child"; of course she had tantrums or told white lies occasionally, as all children do, but most of the time she did as she was told, and none of the things that would make her family worry about her. Her childhood was somewhat sheltered, between doting parents, house pokémon used to children's antics, and some good friends at school.
Lissy meanwhile was four years older than Mary, and in many things the exact opposite. Unlike her little sister, Lissy was stubborn, loud, and wanted to walk her own path. And though Mary never said it out loud - Sometimes, she envied Lissy for that self-confidence, and thought it would be nice if she could be like that, too. When Lissy snuck out of the house to go to a party, Mary often stood by the window, dreaming about what would happen if she followed Lissy. She never did, though, and instead stayed in her room with her laptop.

Good Girls want Bad Boys

Mary was 13 years old when she fell for the "bad boy" at her school, Leon. He was two years above her, though he'd also repeated a class once, making him 16, and he broke just about any and every rule that didn't get him thrown out of the school completely. In Mary's eyes, he was the coolest boy she'd ever met. Today, Mary couldn't really say why; maybe the thought of doing something her parents wouldn't approve of, or maybe the idea of just being a bit more wild in general, because as Leon's girlfriend, she'd be sure to go along with the things he did sometimes, wouldn't she? Or perhaps the naive idea that she could be the one to change him.
No matter the reason, Mary had a big crush on him, though she didn't really expect it to go anywhere further than daydreams and yearning.

And Bad Boys take Good Girls

About a year later, though, Mary would be proven wrong. Leon had noticed her using her laptop a lot in school and asked her for help, so they got to talking. Did she use her laptop a lot? Did she know how to code? Those kinds of questions. Mary was floating on cloud nine, since Leon was talking to her, something she hadn't been expecting at all. Eventually, Leon asked if Mary had any experience with hacking, since she was good with computers - And if not, whether she'd like to learn.
Mary did not, since she didn't want to be caught up in anything illegal. Daydreaming about breaking rules was one thing, but breaking laws? But then Leon told her they could use hacking for something good, unveil dirty secrets of big companies, and the like. And Mary, with her rose-colored glasses, believed every word he said and started learning.
Of coure, that also meant that Leon would talk more and more with her. Her parents noticed, and did not approve; after all, Leon did not only have a certain reputation, but was also quite a bit older than Mary was, and both those things in combination spelled trouble. They tried to discourage Mary from meeting him, and for the first time in her life, Mary refused to listen to her parents. Perhaps Lissy would have been able to do something, but she'd moved out into her own flat once she'd turned 18, and didn't know about what was happening.
Mary and her parents fought more and more often; her parents didn't understand what she saw in Leon, while Mary didn't understand why her parents wouldn't trust her to make these decisions for herself. They had their biggest fight when Mary was 15, with lots of yelling, after they tried to ground Mary so she couldn't meet Leon, and Mary said the words that probably no parent wants to hear:"I hate you."
Mary stormed out of the house and to Leon, crying and telling him what had happened. Leon suggested they could run away together, out of Nanos and to one of the bigger cities like Racos or Votan. And Mary agreed.

Heaven?

They settled on Votan. It took them a while to get there, travelling by hitchhiking and with some of Leon's money, and finally managed to get a small flat for just the two of them. Despite the fight with her parents, Mary felt like she was in heaven. She was with her crush, who kept acting like he felt the same for her, and perhaps she also enjoyed not being the good daughter for a change.
Leon soon told Mary about a company he'd heard about, rumors had it they treated their workers badly and the Pokémon they used even worse, and asked if she could find out more, with her skills at hacking. Mary agreed immediately, not just for Leon - though, also for him - but also for the innocent people and Pokémon, and started her trials to get into the company network. It took her a bit, but she succeeded, looked around - And found nothing. A few private things of employees and even the CEO, but nothing about Pokémon abuse or mistreatment of workers.
She told Leon, but he seemed to find everything he'd been looking for. Mary didn't quite understand his interest in the CEO's private life, but assumed he just had a different view of the problems than she did, and she trusted in him to figure out what her findings meant.
Until he vanished.

Alone

Mary and Leon had both been gone from the flat, and Mary returned first and waited for him. And waited. And waited.
When Leon didn't return by the next day, Mary started looking for more information. She was terrified; what if the CEO had found out about her spying, but thought it had been Leon? What if something had happened to him? She ignored the company she'd been looking into, all her efforts focused on finding her Leon.
Until she finally did meet him again. Dressed in expensive clothing, with a pretty girl a few years older than Mary in his arm.
He finally explained that he'd used the more spicy kind of private information Mary had found to blackmail the CEO, and the money he'd paid him to keep quiet had been quite a lot. Mary didn't even hear him thanking her as she ran back to the flat, tears in her eyes.
Mary felt lost, afterwards. Leon didn't return, and she didn't know if she'd let him in if he did, anyway.

On Her Own

But Mary couldn't wait and cry forever. Leon had been the one to get money before, and Mary had never asked how. But she couldn't go home, either. Mary didn't want to confess to her parents what had happened, how Leon had used her and how she'd helped blackmail an innocent man. So, if she couldn't wait for him and couldn't go home, in Mary's mind she had only one choice: Further "research".
She didn't want to do it in a large scale like Leon did, and she didn't want to harm just anyone. instead, Mary looked for people who seemed like they might, if not deserve it, at least have actually done something bad. She focused on people who seemed like they were mistreating their Pokémon; those would then find threatening mails in the e-mails, telling them to drop the Pokéballs at a specific place to a specific time, where Mary could then collect them. The rare Pokémon Mary sold to breeders, and most of the others she just released. A few she kept, though, the ones who weren't rare enough for a breeder but who might not make it in the Wilderness if she just released them.

A Friend

The first of those Pokémon was a little Skitty. Its former owner didn't have much illegal things, just the smaller things almost everyone did occasionally - illegal music or movie downloads, one video where she was trespassing - but it was enough. Mary herself was also new to it all, and had just seen a blog post of someone else who'd taken a photo of the Skitty and its owner, complaining that Skitty was treated more like an accessory than a living being. That also explained why she was so quickly willing to part with her Pokémon; after all, accessories were replacable. The other Pokémon all went to breeders or were released, but Mary couldn't bring herself to do either with the Skitty. It reminded her too much of the Pokémon her parents had had when she'd been growing up, a pair of Delcatties, so Mary decided to keep the Skitty, naming it Princess.
Mary felt at least a little better now that she had Princess by her side, and the fact that her blackmail had worked raised her confidence in her skills. So instead of waiting until she really needed new money, Mary almost immediately went looking through social media sites for someone else who deserved a punishment - or at least, deserved to lose their Pokémon. After all, or so she told herself, she did the Pokémon a favor by making sure they'd be separated from trainers like that.
For her next target, Mary again only found small things, illegal music and the like. But that had been enough for Princess' former owner, so Mary assumed it would be enough this time, too.

A Dangerous Mark

She was wrong. Instead of a quick and timid agreement that they'd do what Mary told them, Mary instead got an angry message with threats that the target would go to the police, and that she couldn't expect him to part with his valuable collection this quickly and easily.
Now Mary had to decide: Was it an empty threat to make her give up? Or would they make good on their threats? If they deleted music and movies from their computer, the police probably wouldn't look too closely - not to mention that blackmail was a much bigger crime than illegal media downloads. And even though Mary had tried to cover her tracks it was perfectly possible that someone might be able to find her anyway.
Mary would've preferred to switch flats immediately, but that would take time, especially in a busy city like Votan. Instead, Mary started by formatting her laptop, and making sure not to use the "Zombie" she'd been using to send that message again. Despite that, every time her doorbell rang Mary feared to find the police on the other side of the door, until she finally managed to move into a new flat. It was smaller than her last, but cheaper, and it was already furnished, so she didn't have to deal with finding new furniture.
The experience taught Mary to be more careful, to only look for new marks when she actually needed the money, and not before, so that it might look like singular cases and not a series. She also made sure to change the zombies she used regularly. Her best protection, though, was going for targets who had a lot to lose, either by being exposed or by going to the police - Preferably they'd committed crimes themselves, but even just someone with a bit of an online following and a secret that'd risk their standing worked decently.
Of course things didn't always go smoothly regardless, and often the people just refused to give up their Pokémon. In those cases, Mary posted her findings online, if she could directly from the target's account, if not, she made a throwaway with one of her zombies. And, especially if it was a better known person, she also posted it to news forums under the alias of "Hana".

More Mouths to Feed

Mary knew, of course, that more Pokémon would mean that she'd need more money, too. Despite that, Princess would not remain her last; the second Pokémon she kept was a Furret. It belonged to a man who was training guard Pokémon; she'd seen him at the park a few times, and, in her opinion, he was far too strict with his Pokémon. It took some more research, but in the end, she could convince him to part with his Pokémon. Mary had expected to be able to sell all of them, either to breeders or perhaps some to trainers. Until the Furret came out of the ball and immediately tried to drape itself around Mary's shoulders like a living scarf, so she named it Smartie and let it live with her.
Mary's third Pokémon didn't come from another trainer. Mary was on the way to a drop-off point when she heard some strange noises from a back alley, and when she looked more closely, she saw something run off that looked like an injured Pikachu. After a moment of hesitation, Mary followed, and instead of a Pikachu she found a different Pokémon that was hiding the bottom half of its body behind an old, torn newspaper so that only the big Pikachu-like head of its costume was visible. Mary had never seen a Mimikyu before, but she had heard of them, and aside from the newspaper it didn't seem all that shy, so she carefully gave it some pets before going on her way again.
After that, Mary made it into her habit to check Mimikyu's alley at least once a day, and after a few days, it stopped hiding the bottom half of its costume. It seemed to enjoy the company, too, and eventually when Mary turned to leave, Mimikyu followed for a few steps before retreating back into its alley. The next day, if followed Mary further, and even further the one after that, until it finally followed Mary all the way to her flat. She decided the Mimikyu really needed a friend, and took it in, naming it Jessy.

One Final Pokémon

The youngest and newest of Mary's Pokémon was a little Alolan Vulpix. Its former owner was not the type of person that Mary would have usually researched, and she had no reason to assume that he was treating his Pokémon badly. But she'd already missed rent once, had barely managed to beg for another extension, and the Pokémon food was running out, too, so she had to target someone to earn some money.
Most of the trainer's Pokémon seemed healthy and well cared for, though very confused as to where their trainer was. The one exception was the Vulpix. While the other Pokémon let Mary pet them, the Vulpix fled underneath the nearest armchair and cowered there, looking frightfully at what else was going on. Mary doubted that was the trainer's fault, considering how the rest of his team looked; perhaps it had come from a worse owner before, or was just scared of strangers. After all, it had never seen Mary before, and its trainer was nowhere to be seen.
Luckily, Smartie immediately spotted the Vulpix and joined it under the armchair, curling around it until it couldn't really see anything else, covered in soft fur on all sides, which helped it calm down. As an Alolan form, the Vulpix might have fetched quite a bit of money had Mary sold it to a breeder, but as Mary looked at it and Smartie, she didn't want to separate the two. So she kept the Vulpix, naming it Leala.
It took a while for Vulpix to leave the safety of its armchair, and even then only when it could stay right by the side of its protector Smartie. Over time, though, it did dare to explore the rest of the flat, and though Leala remained a bit shy and scared of strangers, she eventually started taking a liking to Mary and the other Pokémon she lived with.