Chapter Eleven

Amber smiled as Gavin flicked his torch off, trying to resist the urge to run over and pull him into a hug. How long had it been? Five months? It felt like longer. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she'd missed him. Now that he was standing in front of her, desperately trying to keep his cool composure, the whole situation didn't seem quite so bad. Maybe it was selfish, but she was glad he was there.

"Wait, you two know each other?" someone else said, stepping out from behind Gavin. It was that good-looking blonde from earlier. Nathaniel, was it? What the hell was going on?

"Yeah, me and Amber go way back," Gavin said. "It's a long story."

"We can go into later," she said. "There are more important things to discuss. Namely, what are you two doing here?"

"Oh, we came here to catch a thief," Gavin said casually, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "You wouldn't have happened to bump into him, would you?"

"This thief of yours," she said. "Tall man, long black hair, wears a stupid-looking cape?"

"Yes, that's him," Nathaniel said. "Where is he?"

"No idea. I saw him a while back, but he slipped away. I did manage to find this little guy though." She prodded her bag with her elbow, and the abra popped its head out to greet them.

"Oh thank God," Nathaniel said. "We've been looking for her. But why would the thief just let her go...?"

"I think I can explain that, too," she said, turning back to Gavin. "His name is Quinn. He's one of those nut-job Plasma admirers."

Fear flickered over Gavin's face, but it was gone in an instant. "Well shit."

"Plasma?" Nathaniel asked.

"Another long story," she told him. "Let's just say that I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of him."

"Yeah, those guys always have a way of showing up exactly when you don't want them to," Gavin said. "As if this whole thing wasn't a big enough pain in the ass already."

"Yes, well, we can worry about that once we've gotten out of here," Nathaniel said.

"Ah, about that..." she said. "There's a... slight chance that there are a bunch of moderators searching the cave for me as we speak."

"What?!"

"Amber, what did you do?" Gavin asked, not sounding at all surprised.

"It's-"

"Don't tell us it's a long story," Nathaniel said. "We need to know exactly what happened. And... what happened to your bracelet?"

She looked to Gavin for help, but he just gave her a wordless shrug. "Okay, fine," she said with a sigh, and launched into her story. She didn't leave out a single detail. Gavin knew her too well; he'd be able to tell if she was lying.

"I should have known that boat was your fault," he said once she was finished, still sounding remarkably calm about the whole thing. Did she really get herself into trouble that often? "Although I have to say, I'm not sure breaking your bracelet like that was a good move."

"We can talk about this later," Nathaniel said. "We have to go. I'm sorry, Amber, but I don't see any other options. We're just going to have to take that abra and leave without you."

"Woah, woah, woah," Gavin said, "I'm not leaving her behind. You can go if you want, but I'm sticking with her."

She felt her heart lift a little. It was nice to have someone properly on her side. "Yeah," she said, "and if you want the abra, you're just going to have to take it from us."

Nathaniel groaned. "Alright, fine, you can come with us. We'll just have to find a way to sneak you out." With that, he turned around and headed down the dark path, not even waiting to see if they were following.

"Well, you heard the man," Gavin said. "Do you want a head-start?"

She couldn't help but smile at the line. It was good to see that he still hadn't changed. She hadn't either, not really, and in normal circumstances she'd have given him some snarky response. But these weren't normal circumstances. "Actually, do you mind taking my arm?"

He scoffed. "What, are you planning to distract the moderators with a waltz?"

She slapped his arm. "Don't be an idiot. It's just, I really hurt my ankle back there."

"Ah, I see," he said. "You need my help. Well, I'd be happy to offer it. For a small fee, of course."

"How about you take my arm," she said, "and I don't have Emolga thundershock you so hard that you go blind?"

"That's fair." He held his arm out and she took it gratefully, resting her entire weight on him. "Now, shall we?"

The torch was flicked back on and the two of them headed down the corridor, Amber still limping painfully but finding the walk a lot easier now that she was in pleasant company.

"Okay, don't let this get to your head," he said, "but I'm really glad you're here. And I don't mean in an, 'I'm really glad that you're part of a tournament on a strange region that we're never going to escape from' kind of way. I mean in a genuine, 'I'm glad that you're with me' kind of way."

"Wow," she said, "that was actually kind of sweet. You feeling okay?"

He shrugged. "All I'll say is the last two days weren't exactly fun. The kid I woke up next to was totally anti-social. That's me saying that, by the way, and I've been friends with you for the last seven years."

"He must have been bad, then."

"You have no idea. We woke up together, travelled up Route 101 together, ate lunch in the pokécentre together, and I don't think he spoke a single word the entire time. When I woke up the next day, he was gone and I haven't seen him since."

"Well, he still sounds better than my sleeping-partner," she said.

"Ah, that Francesca girl you mentioned, right? Yeah, I suppose my partner didn't steal and then capsize a boat, so that's a plus."

"In her defence," she said, "it was still a better plan than taking on the gyms. I mean, can you imagine following this tournament's rules? That's the real crazy move."

There was a moment of silence before he said, "Yeah, I guess you're right. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, it's good to see you."

"You too," she said with a smile.

"And," he said, "it's good to see you up and about again too."

"Hey!" She gave him another slap on the arm. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you not spend your time away from me moping around the house?"

"No!" she said. "I also... er..." What had she done in the last six months? She couldn't think of a single important or productive thing. On the other hand, she could remember a lot of TV programmes, a lot of books and a lot of meaningless, annoying conversations with her sister.

Huh, maybe she had just been moping around the house.

"That's what I thought," he said smugly.

"No, I was just thinking of all the amazing things I've been doing without you," she said. "Like that time I, er, went to Castelia City to buy some clothes."

"Ooo, adventurous," he said. "Who did you go with?"

She hung her head. "My sister."

"And?"

"And my mother."

"I knew it," he said. "I knew you couldn't live without me."

"You know, it's not just because you weren't there," she snapped, desperate for any kind of defence. The moment she said it, though, she regretted it.

"Yeah, I know," he said, his voice suddenly serious. "Sorry."

"No, don't be," she said. "It was my own fault. Really, I'm just... I'm just glad you're back."

He looked to her with that classic Gavin-smile, showing off his dazzling teeth. "Me too."

"Would you two hurry up!" Nathaniel called from up-ahead. "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to get out of here before tomorrow!"

Francesca sat with her feet kicked up on the pokécentre's table, nursing her wrist with a bag of ice she'd found in the fridge. That bracelet had been sturdier than it had looked. Three bashes with a rock and she'd only scratched the screen. Another three and it cracked. It took five after that for the screen to finally cut to black. She had no way of knowing if she'd broken the tracer inside it, but she guessed by the lack of guards swarming the centre that she probably had.

If only she'd had an electric type with her. A quick jolt and the bracelet would have been dead for good. Maybe she'd been too hasty in separating herself from Amber. But no, the girl had refused to follow her lead. She couldn't keep working with someone like that, regardless of how closely aligned their motives might have been.

Gently, she lifted the ice off her wrist. It wasn't doing much good anyway. The bracelet was still in the way; she'd tried everything to get it off, from brute force to Xatu's psychic powers. No such luck. She guessed she'd just have to fight through to the end with a dead weight stuck to her arm. She wouldn't have minded so much, but she'd felt something sharp cut into her wrist when the thing had broken, and a sliver of blood was trickling out from underneath the metal strap.

If she was a more trusting person, she might have tried to find someone to help her get it off and, indeed, to help her fix up her wrist. But, alas, she was not, and so she accepted her fate. It wasn't going to make the journey easier, but she didn't really have a choice in the matter.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by a sharp beep from the back of the room. She headed over to the counter, heaved open the healing machine that sat behind it and pulled out Xatu's ball. It was a good thing she knew how to work those machines. After their crash landing in Littleroot Town, she doubted he would have been much good for anything.

She clicked the ball back onto her belt and returned to her seat, trying to figure out her next move. If the room wasn't pitch-black, she would have pulled out a notepad to jot down her ideas. She didn't know how close those guards were, though, so she figured it was best to keep the lights off for now.

The whole tournament was really beginning to piss her off. Everything from the moderators, to all the idiots that she expected to compete against, to the jagged rocks and the strange fog that prevented her escape. They hadn't exactly surprised her, but they were still annoying. What she needed now was a plan.

The first step, she supposed, was to find out who was behind the whole thing. After that, though, she had nothing. It would have helped if she could actually catch some pokémon. Her knowledge of Hoenn's wildlife would have been sure to give her an advantage over her opponents.

She realised that was barely even the beginning of an actual plan, but she had absolutely nothing else to go on. As small as it was, though, it was still something, and it gave her a good idea of where to start: Rustboro City. It was, after all, the biggest city she could reach at the moment. There were bound to be some clues there.

And so, she leaned back in her seat with a content smile. She would head off as soon as the sun rose. Until then, all that she could do was sleep.

"Well, can you see anything?" Amber asked. Her and Nathaniel were pressed up against the cave wall while Gavin peered around the corner, searching the area with his torch.

"Yeah," he said, stepping back to join the two of them. "The entrance is just up ahead, but there are two guards watching over it."

"Only two?"

"The others must still be searching the cave for you," Nathaniel said. "We got lucky, but we'll need to move fast. Whereabouts are these guards, Gavin?"

"One's to the left," he said, "the other's to the right. You and Amber can take the left one and I'll-"

"Woah, no thank you," Amber said. "I do not want to pick a fight with them."

"And yet you helped steal and destroy one of their boats," Nathaniel said through gritted teeth. "Now are you going to help or not?"

"No," she said. "I'm sorry, but I'm no fighter."

"Ugh, still?" Gavin said. "Alright, fine. Nathaniel, you take the left one, I'll take the right one."

"What, aren't you going to fight her on this?" he asked. "She's the one who got us into this mess. The least she can do is help us get out of it."

Gavin turned to her, but before he could make any kind of case, she rose her eyebrow and shot him a warning glare. She knew it would work. After all, she'd been using it for eight years and it hadn't failed once.

"Sorry, man," Gavin said. "She's not backing down on this."

"Okay, we'll go with your plan then," he said. "But if we both die, it's her fault."

"Oh, I totally agree," Gavin said, giving her his own cocky look. "And I promise, I will come back as a ghost pokémon and I will haunt the shit out of you."

"Will you shut up?" she said. "You'll be fine. I'm sure you can handle one little guard."

He winked. "Damn straight I can. Nathaniel, let's move." He unclipped a ball from his belt, gripped it tight in his hand and ran off to the right.

"Just so you know," Nathaniel said, scowling at her as he removed his own pokéball, "I'm only doing this for the poor kid that's missing his pokémon. If it was up to me, you'd have to deal with those guards yourself."

"Please just go," she said.

Without another word, he took off and disappeared around the corner.

She was too nervous to even look, but she could hear the fights breaking out. There was a lot of yelling coming from the right. That'd be Gavin, she guessed. He always did go over-the-top with his battles. The left, on the other hand, was surprisingly quiet, but if she concentrated she could just about hear the angered voice of the guard.

She waited about thirty seconds before moving. The fights were in full-swing by that point, so it was the best chance she had. Slowly, she peered around the corner to make sure she was in the clear. The exit was just up ahead, the burnt orange light of the sunset flickering through. It wasn't far, but she wondered if she could make it with her dodgy ankle. Then again, there was only one way of finding out.

Her foot scraped behind her as she limped into the dim light ahead of her. As she got closer, though, she began to pick up her pace, first to a light jog, then to a full-on run. Her ankle was killing her, but she didn't care. All that mattered was getting out of that cave. She kept running, ignoring everything else that was going on around her. Bangs and crashes were coming from the left and right as the battles grew more intense, but she did her best to tune them out.

The ground crunched beneath her feet, the air grew steadily warmer, and suddenly she was free, basking in the evening sun.

And then her ankle gave way and she fell face-first onto the sand.