This chapter was officially rewritten by Twin2 on 4-12-07.

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Four: Coded

May 27th, spring

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By the next afternoon they were halfway through the Petalburg Woods and the kits showed even less inclination to leave than before. Rue sometimes swapped with Ace for a ride in the sling (forcing Wing to carry her whenever Rue kicked her out), while their brother Trick insisted on either following the group at his own pace or hanging off Wing's plait.

"I named him well," she remarked more than once.

They stopped when the sun touched the horizon, preparing to settle for the night. "We have two possibilities," Rowan began, "as to why we're not there yet. One, we didn't read the map right and we're lost."

"Two," Wing interrupted with a cheeky grin, "someone swapped the signposts around for a joke so we're going in circles. Or three, someone's decided we're a liability and have to be trapped in this forest and have set up holographic projectors showing trees where there are normally paths."

Rowan and Sparks stared at her, one with mild confusion and the other with not-so-mild exasperation.

Wing grinned, eyes sparkling mischievously. "If you don't consider the impossible, you will be thoroughly surprised later. Prepare for the impossible, and expect the unexpected." She leaned back a little, hands behind her head casually, the most infuriatingly contented expression she could muster glued in place.

"Are you teaching those kits all this survival stuff?" Rowan asked suspiciously, gritting his teeth against her blasé expression, which had been hand-tailored over many years just to annoy him, and anyone else within eyeshot.

"Yep," said Wing airily, happily aware of how much she was irritating him. "They'll need it to survive anywhere near a human settlement, let alone actually with a Trainer. This stuff will keep them alive a while longer. The songs earlier teach them to keep their spirits up."

If she starts drilling them in moral codes, I may need to rescue those Eevee, Rowan thought, before snorting. I could try, but the probability of success is extremely low. Besides, she's right. "The sort of stuff you teach Pokémon, not just your own Pokémon but any you come across, is usually a good varied course," he commented absently, "not all attack and defence. You teach your Pokémon spirit and the will to survive as well."

"Survival isn't strength," Wing said, apparently quoting someone by way of explanation. "Strength isn't intelligence, intelligence isn't speed, and speed isn't spirit. Survival relies on all, not one."

"Spare me the philosophy and get us un-lost," said Rowan darkly. Wing's quotes and general careless attitude were annoying enough on a good day. In murky twilight with no city in sight, they were more aggravating than usual.

"Lost? Who said we were lost?" Wing asked innocently, her wide-eyed expression making Rowan want to hit something, although he contented himself with a clenched fist. "I thought there was a reason you were leading us in circles."

"Very funny, Wing," he said instead of punching something, preferably her. "But what do you mean, we aren't lost? We don't have a clue where we are or how to get to Petalburg. We've apparently been walking in circles for four hours and you say someone wants us to be lost and has been employing all sorts of tricks to do it! We're lost, Wing. Trust me, we're lost." He sighed and ran a hand through already-messy brown hair: he tended to follow the movement when annoyed. Safe to say, when he was around Wing, he did it a lot.

"No we're not," she said in an annoyingly sing-song voice, tapping her staff on the ground in a parody of playfulness. Ace squeaked in amusement from her sling, the noise a giggle even to humans.

A vein pulsed in Rowan's temple, but he held his temper under control, knowing she was only teasing, and would only laugh and laugh hard if he lost his temper. "Pray tell, then, if we're not lost, where are we?"

"The eastern border of the Petalburg Woods," Wing replied promptly. Rue added something, but no one, not even Sparks, who glared in confusion, could understand what. Something rude was Wing's guess.

"So how do we get out of here?!" Rowan snapped, throwing his arms wide and glaring at the dusty blue sky.

"Simple, really," she replied carelessly, yanking Trick off her plait and tucking him into the crook of one arm. "The shortest route – as the Pidgey flies – is that path there." She indicated one that they had passed three times before and Rowan had ignored, thinking it would lead them in the wrong direction.

"How long have you been in here that you can memorise all of the paths?" Rowan asked, moving towards the trail she'd pointed out. "Never mind that, why didn't you tell me before?" He glanced over his shoulder and paused halfway through a step, seeing she hadn't moved, but it was a half-step too far and the earth collapsed underneath him.

"Ow," he groaned from the bottom of a deep hole.

"That'd be why," she informed him dryly, her head peering over the edge carefully – not too close. "This whole path is dotted with pitfalls – I can see four more from right here. Sparks, rope, please." The small electric type had been scrabbling in her backpack and now drew out a long rope that had seen many uses but was unfrayed.

Wing threw it carelessly down into the hole, bracing herself firmly, more carefully than one would expect from her usual demeanour, and Rowan climbed up easily, hoisting himself out of the hole with relative ease. The Master coiled the rope swiftly and passed it back to Sparks, where the mouse could put it away again.

"I was trying to figure a way around it, this path – since we were going in circles I knew we'd come back to it eventually." Wing shrugged airily as Rowan walked on, shaking his head and muttering to himself, "Lugia defend us, she's in logic mode."

Wing hit him lightly on the back of the head with her staff, making her friend stumble and glare. "I heard that. Logic works, and it's saved your life more than once. Don't diss it!" Trick batted at her plait and she scooped him up quickly, but still didn't start to move.

"How'd you know the trap was there, anyway?" Rowan asked curiously over his shoulder. His foot plunged through the branches covering a second hole and he reeled back quickly, faster than anyone else would have, and avoided actually falling in by about a millimetre, instead falling backwards onto his butt.

"These are poorly engineered," Wing answered, drawing even with him and poking disdainfully at the new hole. "The dirt cover is slight and overset by leaves, very badly hidden. The edges of the dirt cover used are not blended with the surrounding earth properly – and they're fresh, it's still damp – which gives the holes a distinctive warning shape. Plus, the trees nearest them are marked with red cloth."

Rowan made a face as he stood up and dusted himself off, moving carefully around the deep hole. "I've been away from you too long. I forgot how dangerous your life is."

"No kidding," Wing replied, prodding at the edges of the fissure with her staff, making dirt crumble into the hole. "And your eyes are way sharper than mine. You should have spotted the traps, not me."

"Don't rub it in. All I've used my eyes for recently is to not trip over tree roots," said Rowan gloomily. Sparks passed Wing the rope again, laughing silently, and the Master slung it over one shoulder with a dirty look at the mouse, looking otherwise resigned.

Rowan sighed and scratched his head, looking at the trail with despair; he could see the pitfalls easily now. "Whoever dug these had a lot of time on his hands. So, how do we get through here?"

Wing shrugged slightly. "You lead. The dirt's drying; you'll spot them more easily than I will. Lead me, Sparks and the Eevee around them; if you slip up I've got the rope. Easy as."

"I hate logic mode," said Rowan with a weary grin. Wing laughed and tapped his shoulder gently with her staff.

"Put a sock in it and get to path-breaking!"

----

"Damn," the man in black whispered. "Fearow to Eyrie, Fearow to Eyrie, do you read me?"

"We read you, Fearow," the radio crackled. "Have the Pidgey been caged?"

"No sir. The Raven noticed the cage, and now the Eagle is leading her and the birds through the bars of the cage. His eyesight is as good as his namesake."

"Stall them. We need the Raven. We're sending the Flock and their Tremor in. If she puts up too much of a fight for you to hold her back, attack the Eagle. He'll fight too, but he's not as dangerous as her, and under death threats, the Raven won't risk his or the birds' lives. You have to love her morality that way."

Fearow rolled his eyes. They'd been told 'strictly business' for the radios, but whoever was manning the Eyrie seemed to be chatty.

"Message received. Approaching target, the Raven is at the rear, Eagle the head. Fearow out."

The man in black sped towards his destination. I hope the Flock gets here soon, he thought grimly. The Raven and the Eagle are no easy fight.

----

The forest around them was rattling and hissing in the wind. "First it's too quiet, then it's too loud," Wing said grimly, eyes narrowed. "Something's definitely up." The Eevee triplets voiced their agreement loudly from her shoulders. "And it's very hard to balance with the three of you up there."

Rowan kept them on the path around the holes. "Are they this desperate to catch us?"

"They're that desperate to catch someone wandering around the forest," Wing said dryly. "How many holes have there been now?"

"At least thirty two," Rowan replied grimly. "And their covering is getting better. I actually have to concentrate on where I put my feet. Be careful here – there's a pair of holes really close together."

Wing tiptoed around the edge of the holes, very careful where she put her feet and staff. Sparks snorted at them disdainfully and jumped over cleanly. It was obvious she thought this sort of balancing act was boring and embarrassing.

Wing yelped suddenly and fell sideways, only just catching herself in time to avoid falling into a hole. She balanced on one foot and said loudly, "Trick, if you do not let go of my plait this instant I will have to kill you."

Rowan, Sparks and the other two Eevee laughed as Trick clambered up Wing's back to lick her cheek, trying to pacify her. Wing grumbled under her breath and moved out of the danger zone.

"One could almost swear that someone knew we'd be coming this way," said Rowan. "I hope there isn't a welcoming party at the other end."

Wing shrugged. "I dunno. At least then we'd know who we were up against. I don't know if this is Team Rocket, Magma, Aqua, or an ally trying to catch someone else." She tapped the butt of her staff against her leg. "Which reminds me, how are the others doing?"

Rowan shrugged, eyes sharp on the path. "They're doing alright at the moment, although Kite fell off a roof two weeks ago and broke his arm."

"The idiot. What was he doing on the roof in the first place?"

"Tell the truth, I really don't know. He does weird stuff like that sometimes."

"Believe me, I've noticed." She paused in talking to edge around a particularly wide hole, stumbling and almost falling in, but skipping over at the last second. "I meant earlier, after… y'know, the big one."

Rowan winced. "Well, you know what happened with… um… the big fight. The captured ones from my end were nervous, like, really nervous, for weeks afterwards." He paused. "None of them saw if you'd died or not. The clean-up crew was shocked by the destruction. That reminds me, Shrake wants to know if they set a bomb or something, or even just an Electrode, because the damage was incredible."

Wing coughed into her hand. "I might have had something to do with that…"

"They handled it, but they didn't like it. Everyone thought it was impossible." Rowan glanced back at her nervously, obviously wondering how she was taking it.

"Well, obviously it wasn't," Wing said tartly. "What about Professor Cedar?"

"Like I said before, she threw two fits over your disappearing act. It took a lot for us to get her to concentrate on what we needed to get done." Rowan made a face. "Stubborn old hag."

Wing snorted, but she seemed more subdued than before, pain obvious on her usually impassive face. "I got them all out, ASAP," she said abruptly, answering a question he'd never asked but had wanted to know for two long years. "But I couldn't find her. I was in a panic, rushing all over the place. I was terrified, and furious, and I really didn't know what I was going to do. I was starting to wonder, and then I finally found her…" She took in a shuddering breath. "You know what happened from there."

Rowan did, and it hadn't been pretty.

He let her walk in silence for several more minutes, before she broke it with a quick, harsh growl of, "How are they back?"

He didn't get a chance to answer, as she continued, her voice rising in anger, "I leave for a couple of years and come back to find Team Rocket back up and running? How did they do it and what the hell have you guys been up to?! We kicked their butts! They can't be back!"

Rowan grimaced. Wing had a vendetta against Team Rocket, one that he didn't know the details of, which meant it was dangerous to talk to her about the evil organisation. "We still don't know who their boss is. There was a rumour that he was the Leader of the Viridian Gym back in Kanto, but he's never there, and every search has yielded absolutely zilch. He's the one funding every stinking operation – even the Ecruteak raid. To take down the Rockets, we're going to have to take down the boss."

Wing was quiet for approximately four seconds, before speaking again, her voice barely above a whisper. "I will find him, if it is the last thing I do." For her. For them. For everyone they ever destroyed.

Team Rocket. The most evil organization on the planet. The news never covered the big things, like the Ecruteak… say, problem two years ago. Pokémon thefts were publicised, but not the real things they got up to. The Rockets didn't care who they hurt to achieve the ultimate: world domination. Trouble was, they had tried to use Wing and her Pokémon. If they hadn't gotten her involved, they might have succeeded.

She was just a Trainer, a young girl just starting out, when she first met Team Rocket, and since then, she'd had more encounters with them than any other Trainer on the planet had come out of alive. And with every battle, she had more reason to fight them. Ecruteak would have been the last straw if she hadn't disbanded them that very night. But if they were back…

She had another chance for revenge.

Rowan, although his cheerful, open, quick-minded attitude might not show it, was an agent of Team Skyler: a team who opposed all the misuse of Pokémon. They fought against Team Magma and Team Aqua in Hoenn, Team Rocket in Kanto and, once upon a time and now yet again, in Johto.

Wing had worked alongside Skyler before: when you were as vigorous in attacking Team Rocket's strongholds as she had been as a thirteen-year-old, you tended to get noticed. And the Skylers, desperate for backup, had agreed readily to having a powerful young Master on their side. Even if she was independent as heck.

Wing's mouth tightened. In her mind, Team Rocket did not deserve to share a planet with the Pokémon they exploited. They didn't deserve to share the universe.

She blinked and brought herself back to the present. Rue, at least she thought it was Rue, was rubbing against her cheek. Ace was snoring faintly and Trick… he was sitting on her head, batting at passing dust motes. "We must be nearly there," she said, frowning slightly. How long was I spaced out for, anyway?

"Yeah, we should be," Rowan agreed, careful to keep his voice calm. "Unfortunately, if you will remember your maps, then perhaps you will notice that this path is not a straight line and we are lucky to be able to see five metres in front of us!"

"Oh. Right. Sorry. But you know I'm bad with maps!"

They continued, Wing scowling as the path narrowed. It was hard enough for her to limp around as it was. The rustling faded away abruptly as a man clothed in dull black stepped out from behind a shrub, making Rowan jump, Rue and Ace squeak, Trick fall right off her head (Wing shifted her arms quickly to catch him), and Wing herself caught her breath. It didn't seem to bother Sparks, mind you; the flying mouse was glancing around, looking supremely bored.

"Who the hell are you?" Rowan asked sharply.

The man shrugged slowly as he took out a fistful of Pokéballs. "It don't matter, kid."

"How do we attract all these weirdoes?" Wing sighed, shifting her grip on the wriggling Eevee.

"I have absolutely no idea," Rowan growled, taking up two of his Pokéballs without looking.

"Numel! Mightyena! Let's go!"

"Marika, Cloudgem, I choose you!" The four Pokémon (the Mightyena and Numel, plus Rowan's Azumarill and Pidgeot) appeared in a blaze of white light. "Ready for a fight, guys?"

"Maa, azumaari!"

"Pidgot-tto!"

"That's a yes, then. Marika, Bubblebeam Numel. Cloudgem, Wing Attack Mightyena!"

"Numel, hang tight! Mightyena, dodge it!"

Despite the Dark-type's best attempt, Cloudgem struck it with a full-on Wing Attack. Rowan smirked. "You'll have to do better than that to evade Cloudgem. Use Gust!"

The Flying-type whipped up a tornado of winds, which slammed violently into the Mightyena. Marika was still dousing the Numel and Rowan wondered if the Pokémon was even aware that it was wet. "Keep it up, both of you!"

The Mightyena collapsed under the continuous force of Cloudgem's attacks and returned to its ball.

"Numel, use Ember!" the man ordered, seemingly not to care that he was halfway towards a loss.

The Numel spat fire at the Pidgeot, which it dodged easily. "Both of you, attack together!" Rowan called.

The two Pokémon powered up their attacks, ignoring the small fireballs the Numel was still spitting, then released the energy simultaneously.

The Numel finally worked out how weak it was, and fainted. The man recalled it, looking calm. Rowan glowered at him. "Are you going to get out of our way now, or what?"

The man didn't say a word but melted into the shrubbery again. Rowan scratched his head in confusion.

Wing shrugged, moving alongside him. "I repeat, how do we attract these weirdoes?" She had stayed quiet during the entire encounter, probably guarding them from the rear. Wing did not like getting snuck up on. "Let's get moving. Where there's smoke, there's fire; where there are grunts, there's trouble headed our way." Suddenly her voice was serious, collected and calm, a big change from her weirdly light-hearted bounce earlier.

Rowan nodded silently and moved on, more swiftly than before. When Wing went serious, it usually didn't mean much. But her analogy was correct: where there's smoke, there's fire.

There was a faint rumbling, like thunder from far away, and Wing tensed. "I hope that's not a storm brewing," Rowan muttered, before glancing at the cloudless twilight sky and frowning.

"This doesn't bode well," said Wing grimly, grabbing Trick up from the floor and putting him on her shoulder, telling both he and his sisters to hold on tight as the thunder growled a second time, much louder and much longer. Wing stumbled, setting her staff into the ground fast and wincing ever so slightly as said ground trembled under her feet, and Sparks squeaked in surprise.

There was a gunshot crack from behind them that could have indicated a falling branch, but Wing suspected otherwise, and tightened her grip on both her staff and her will, preparing for trouble.

"If I might make a suggestion," said Rowan cautiously, as a hidden pitfall off to the left suddenly collapsed, unsettled by the earth's movement, "run!"

The Master needed no further encouragement and bolted, moving in an odd, bounding lope that favoured her bad leg, her staff supporting it whenever it was on the ground. Rowan sprinted alongside her in a more balanced movement, not having such problems, although he did glance at her with concern.

I hope she's okay, he thought. That leg cannot be fun to walk on.

All of the pitfalls were collapsing ahead of them, unable to hold steady in the earthquake, so it was a simple matter to leap around or over them: judging from more loud 'cracks' behind them, they really didn't seem to have time to tiptoe around.

Wing suddenly tripped, stumbling as the earth jerked violently under her feet, and Ace went flying out of the sling. Of course, Murphy's Law being what it is, there was a hole directly in front of them, so that as Wing continued to fall, bracing herself, the Eevee began to fall into the hole.

"Ace!" she shouted, stretching out a hand, although she was too far to reach her. Rue shrieked and leaped after her sister, Trick yowled and sprang after both of them, and Sparks sighed before jumping after all three.

Rowan skidded to a stop as his friend dove headfirst into the hole, her upper body falling into it with her arms stretched out, obviously reaching for the Pokémon. He sprinted back, struggling not to fall like Wing had barely ten seconds ago, but the sight of the hole made him pause.

Wing was holding out her staff, which Sparks was clinging to with her teeth, her little hands and feet tight on Trick's tail. Trick's teeth had a good grip on Rue's furry tail, and Rue had grabbed her sister Ace by the ruff, the youngest of whom was staring downwards in terror. Thus they were all suspended over a bottomless pit of blackness.

Rowan swore, looking into the hole. Wing glared at him out of the corner of her eyes, the dirt holding up her lower body beginning to crumble under the stress of the quake. "How deep is that thing?" Moving quickly, he leaned down, grabbed Wing's shoulders and pulled her up, before taking control of the staff and lifting the chain of Pokémon up with it. Rue and Trick spat out clumps of fur, ignoring the shaking ground, while Wing removed Sparks from her staff: the weight of four Pokémon had embedded her teeth rather deeply in the wood.

"I can't keep this up," she told Rowan flatly, picking up the three Eevee and standing, definitely shaky. "And those things aren't just holes anymore. They're pipes. Pipes we're supposed to –" The rest of her sentence was cut off at a particularly violent judder of the ground as she and Rowan suddenly fell away from each other. Wing lurched backwards, slamming her head against a low tree branch and sinking quickly to the ground, shaking her pounding head.

Rowan wasn't quite as lucky to get a crack over the head and a nice spot to sit down. With a shout, the ground he had fallen on crumbled underneath him and he fell backwards into the pipe.

Suddenly he was falling headfirst, disoriented by his sudden fall, metal slipping past his shoulders, wind whipping at his hair and gravity dragging him on.

This is going to hurt when I hit bottom, he thought, gritting his teeth and trying to turn so that his head wouldn't hit the ground first, but not succeeding: the pipe was just too small. The tube widened a little, and as he began to tilt his body, trying to get his head tucked up and his shoulders first, the angle smoothed out. Okay, it'll still hurt, but not as much. I hope.

Suddenly, the metal disappeared, and he flew on his own momentum for a second and a half before slamming into a wall, and everything went black.

----

Rowan slowly came to, eyes blurring and refocusing at random intervals until he let them flutter shut again. Damn… that was one hell of a headache… what the heck had he been doing?

Slowly, memories of the last forty-eight hours permeated his head and Rowan jerked upright, cursing. It may not have been such a good idea. Stars flashed in his vision, making him wince, but it definitely wasn't as bad as it could have been. At most he had a minor concussion; at worst a fractured skull. He'd survive. He had definitely had worse.

Rowan stood up slowly, cradling his head carefully and checking his neck for strains – no damage – and then began to investigate his surroundings as quickly as he could. It was pitch black, which really didn't help.

Forty two seconds later, he had decided he was in a cell, about ten by ten, with a concrete floor, walls made of an unfamiliar but hard substance, and one wall was made up of hard bars, running vertically, probably steel or bronze.

This had definitely been planned.

Rowan ran a hand over the bars, invisible in the darkness, considering their thickness. He leaned his pounding head against one, letting the iciness of the metal quiet his headache. Too strong for him to bend, but…

"Argyro," he said quietly, pressing the button on one of his Pokéballs. A Kirlia formed, shaking green hair out of her eyes with a soft rustle and twitching her shoulders restlessly. "Argyro, we're in a spot of trouble. Can you Teleport here?"

She shook her head apologetically, and made her hands into a box shape.

"Barrier, huh? Well, can you bend these bars apart so I can get out? No way am I strong enough to do it on my own."

She trilled agreeably, and two bars began to glow blue, lighting up the area so that Rowan could see her eyes shut in concentration, the room thrown into dull relief.

But more importantly, he was on his own. Wing wasn't here.

He'd doubted it: if she had fallen down the same pipe as him, he'd have noticed, even while knocked out: Wing was very noisy when annoyed, and this sort of problem would have pissed her off to no end. So she wasn't down here.

All the same, he cursed softly.

Maybe she didn't get caught, part of his mind rationalised, but he knew that that was not a very likely outcome.

She can't balance properly. She uses that staff as a weapon, but she still needs it to walk. Her leg was shattered two and a half years ago, and it hasn't finished healing yet, the bloody thing. It was a real mess – I saw the X-rays. Her Espeon splinted it from the inside, but it's still damaged. And for all I know, she's broken it again recently. She's bad with bones.

----

Wing gulped down air exhaustedly from her position about fifteen metres up an oak tree: as far up as she'd been able to get. She had one arm looped around the trunk for stability as she watched the rippling motions of the ground stilling as the earthquake vanished, as quickly as it had come.

"Taking Rowan with it," she muttered bitterly.

It had been close to four long hours since he'd fallen through the ground. Wing had spent too much of that time scrambling through the forest and trying not to get crushed by falling trees (of which there were also too many). "I keep telling him it's dangerous to hang around me! Now he's stuck maybe a hundred metres underground, and if I go down to help I'll probably get the same!" It was dark now: pitch dark, at least midnight, but the Master didn't feel the slightest bit tired. Just anxious, and furious, and guilty. "But no way can I leave him… I won't. Never. Ecruteak was bad enough. But if I get caught…"

She quit arguing with herself when she heard human voices, instead opting to kneel gingerly on her branch and listen.

"Man, this place is torn up worse than a muddy Ponyta corral," someone grumbled.

"Quit griping," a second voice ordered. "We're just a clean-up squad, to make sure nothing gets left behind, and make sure someone didn't do a vanishing trick and escape the traps."

The crackle of a radio pervaded the conversation, then whined into a sharp peak as someone began to shout. Wing listened closely to the transmission: "Attention all units. Attention all units. The Raven and the Eagle are still on the loose, I repeat, the Raven and the Eagle are still on the loose. If spotted, radio for backup. Do not attempt to take them on your own. Over and out."

Wing ignored the panicked whispering from the squad below and began to think. 'Eagle' was Rowan's code name in Skyler… and Team Rocket no doubt have their hands on all of the codes thanks to the Ecruteak raid. Wing swore quietly. Mew blast Eloril, that traitor. No one else even understood the words the Skyler agents used for codes – they were apparently the names of birds from faraway places – let alone used them. But who the hell was 'Raven'? Wing didn't know anyone who used that code. Had someone been following Rowan for backup?

The only solid information I have is that Rowan is free. And that probably means that he's gotten loose, which really isn't a shock. He's Rowan. No cage can hold that boy for any period longer than twenty minutes. This is the longest I've heard of… he must have gotten knocked out…

"But I'm still worried," she murmured to the Eevee and to Sparks, all four of whom were mercifully silent. Sparks understood the seriousness of the situation; possibly she'd told the Eevee to shut up, too. "He'll have to fight his way out, and there've got to be hundreds of them around. I need to do something." The cleanup squads below were now arguing raucously. Wing ignored them, aside from half an ear pricked in case they said something useful. "I'll have to follow them when they head back and slip in," she decided quietly, and Sparks nodded. "See what we can learn from the inside." Wing stood on her branch, pleased that she'd thought up a method of attack. The wood beneath her wobbled slightly, and she had to dig both hands into the trunk for balance.

Wing made a face as she climbed down, mostly using her right leg, because her left leg had been shattered in a rockfall, and she had smashed it again just last year like Rowan had guessed, which really did not help matters. The bone was healing neatly, but slowly, and in the meantime she was stuck hobbling around on her staff. It hurt, but she ignored it. The inner splints she had were keeping it together, but it was definitely going to take a while to heal.

Having half a mountain dropped on you was not good for bones.

----

Wing trailed one of the four man squads back to their base. "I can't believe they're going to hold those twerps in our base, if they ever catch them," one grumbled. "What if they get loose? They'll make such a mess!"

There was a meaty thud as someone either punched the grumbler or kicked him in the shins. "Stop whining! The boss says whiners have to…"

The man whispered something too low for Wing to hear and the squad erupted into laughter, except the grumbler who now looked slightly pale in the little light the stars and moon gave off.

They walked in through a concealed entrance, still chortling. Wing grinned. "Thanks, boys. I would never have found that on my own." The Eevee chattered quietly as all three of them clutched onto the back of Wing's neck and shoulders. Sparks hung onto the backpack.

Her staff held firmly to her side to avoid making noise, the girl flitted into the base with only a slight limp to her pace…