Twin2: The title will be explained later in the story. Or maybe even in this chapter if you think on it for a while.
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Fourteen: Zanna the Fierce
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"That was too easy," Wing complained, striding down the whitewashed hall.
"Just be on your guard," Soluna advised her, still in the safety of her Pokéball. "Don't get cocky, don't get noisy, and don't attract attention to yourself."
"Oh no, it's not that I think it was a fake. That guard hadn't slept in days. No, my problem is that that was BORING!" Wing threw up her hands in exasperation, making the keyring she had pickpocketed from the snoring guard jangle. "I was hoping for a good fight."
"And yet again, I am made aware of the fact that one of the world's strongest Masters is completely insane," Soluna sighed. "I can't believe I forgot."
Wing found the door she was looking for and paused for a second, making sure that her connection to Zanna was clear, and then unlocked the door, only fumbling with the wrong key twice.
"That's gotta be a record," Soluna muttered as the Master stepped into the room.
"Hey! It's not my fault there are so many stupid doors in these places!" Wing hissed, her eyes scanning the room. It was filled not with cages like she'd been cynically suspecting, but pens, and quite comfortable ones, too. Maybe Team Magma had been taken over by someone smart for once…
The Pokémon inside them looked mostly quite cheerful, or if not that, usually at least content. Some of them seemed less than happy, and Wing took note of the numbers on the outside of those pens, stopping to stroke each of the sadder Pokémon as she passed them. Don't worry, she said silently to a frankly miserable-looking Kirlia. I'm going to help you.
But Zanna took priority. As Wing moved swiftly down the aisles she became aware of the sounds of a struggle nearby. A Pokémon shrieked, followed by lots of human swearing. Wing turned a corner, then another, before stopping dead to raise an eyebrow at the scene before her.
Four men were waving ropes and nets, shouting various bad words that Sparks occasionally used if she was especially pissed off, and trying to corner a flapping Swellow. The Swellow was shrieking defiantly and even as Wing watched dove down and wrestled a rope from one of the men, tearing it to shreds in midair.
If it wasn't an anime cliché she'd have sweatdropped. "These people have no idea how to handle a flying type," she muttered irritably, and strode forward.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she bellowed when she was just behind them, tapping one foot and trying to imitate a higher-up in the facility as much as she could remember.
"We're trying to get this damn bird under control!" one of them snapped, wielding a net with obvious ill-practice.
"No, you're failing at getting the bird under control," Wing growled. "You do not wave nets at birds! Honestly! And who let her out of the pen in the first place, anyway?!"
"She got out on her own!" another yelled. "Blasted bird, you'd think she was a Trainer's!"
Wing had had quite enough of this. She slammed the nearest person with her staff and he collapsed. It was only a matter of seconds before they were all sprawled on the ground, unconscious. She shook her head, glaring at their bodies, before looking up at the ceiling, where the blue and red bird was hanging upside-down from a light fitting.
"Anyone would think you're a Zubat," she grumbled. "Alright, Zanna-girl, fun's over. You can come down now."
The bird glared at her and shrieked, "Why did you knock out the guards? I was having fun!"
Wing rolled her eyes again. Of course, this was a familiar action when Zanna was around: the bird was sassy beyond belief, cheeky, a prankster, and one of the fastest Pokémon who fought alongside Wing. She could be a pain to deal with, but it was really one of her charms.
"Zanna, I apologise for interrupting your game, but we didn't have time to mess around. We still don't, because I've decided I want to visit the guy in charge of this facility. So get your tail feathers down here!"
The bird regarded her carefully for a few more seconds before swooping down and landing on the concrete floor, talons clattering. She cocked her head to look the Master in the eye, and Wing looked back calmly, waiting for the verdict.
It was a bit of a shock when Zanna swept her wings back in an unmistakable bow. Wing's eyes, now changing from their purplish blend to the usual brown, widened. "Cripes, Zanna, it's bad enough when Zeek does it! Not you, too!"
"Master Wing," said the Swellow solemnly, completely ignoring the girl's complaint, "it is good to have you back with us."
Wing sighed. "That's what Zeek said, too. Now, Zanna, can you tell me what's going on in here?"
The Swellow rose from her bow and nodded. "Yes. Team Magma has been capturing wild Pokémon with nets. They were sweeping the forest near where I was, and when I went out to help the Pokémon I got stuck in the nets. We are well-treated here, even when they are training us. So far none of us have been injured in any way, but five of us – six including me – belong to Trainers. They're moping. I was trying to figure a way out."
Wing nodded as well and started to walk, Zanna clicking along beside her. "I suspected as much. I took down their numbers and I'm going to tell the high-up in here to let 'em go or deal with me." She swung the keys on one finger. "I'd release them myself, but it'd take too long. I'm too fumble-fingered when it comes to keys and locks – Rowan's better than me with that."
"The wild Pokémon are all perfectly content," Zanna continued. "They're well treated and none of them are pining or anything – they're all happy."
Wing bobbed her head again and turned a corner. "That's good."
"Hey! What the –" Great. They'd run into a three-grunt patrol. "Kid, get away from that thing! It'll tear you apart!"
Wing glanced up at her old friend. "What did you do to leave such a lasting impression on these people?" Zanna would've grinned had she a mouth instead of a beak, but Wing read the smile in the bird's twinkling eyes and rolled her own.
She didn't say anything to the Swellow and instead barked at the men, "You! I want to see the guy in charge, right now!"
"Kid, I'm not joking, step away from the bird!" one of them ordered, now levelling a (hopefully only) tranquillizer gun at Zanna.
Wing growled and stepped in front of the bird. "Fire that gun and you're going to have Zeek, Soluna and Sparks on your neck," she warned. "And trust me, they'll be pissed. I am going to see the guy in charge of this operation and I don't care if I have to kick your asses to the moon and back to get to him! Comprendé?"
Whatever these guys did, they were not paid to antagonise and/or obstruct Pokémon Masters. They led her to the right office and let her in, eyes still on the apparently dangerous Zanna.
The room was dark. What a cliché, Wing thought in annoyance. Still, the shadows would help hide her face. If possible, she'd like to go through this without anyone figuring out who she was. A man of maybe thirty years was bent over paperwork on the desk, only a small lamp lighting the room. Wing could have just waited for him to notice her, but the young Master waited for no one. She threw the keys onto the desk to get his attention and he glanced up, blinking at her owlishly.
"Yes?" he asked, then, upon spotting Zanna, yelped. "Did that bird escape again? She's a right escape artist. She didn't manage to hurt you, did she?"
Wing sighed. "Zanna wouldn't hurt me, not on purpose or unless she was really mad at me. No, sir, I didn't come to complain about the bird flying free, I came to investigate this operation and shut it down if I had to."
The man blinked again. "Why would you want to shut it down? The Pokémon here are mostly happy. We do not harm them in any way, and the ecosystem is undamaged by their removal. We have been monitoring the area we caught them from, and other Pokémon have already moved into the area in their stead."
Wing nodded and leaned on the desk, glaring him in the eye, looking for signs of deceit. "Correct, but you disturbed the other Pokémon, those who didn't get caught. They're basically over it now, but the main reason I came here was you inadvertently captured Zanna at the same time, and I don't take kindly to my Pokémon being captured by other people."
"Oh, so that's why she was always so upset?" the man asked. "We thought that must have been it, or something similar, because she wouldn't let anyone touch her and tried to escape at every opportunity."
"Correct, again. I came to pick her up. But also, the Pokémon in pens 39, 51, 52, 64 and 78 are Trainer's Pokémon, and if you don't release them immediately then I will." Her voice was flat and calm, unapologetic. It was Team Magma's fault for catching all of these Pokémon without even checking their Trainer records.
The man was already dialling a number. "Professor? Yes, Professor, the Pokémon in pens 39, 51, 52, 64, and… did you say 78?" Wing nodded. "And 78 have to be released. Immediately. That is all. Thank you." He hung up and turned back to his unexpected intruder. "Well, if that's all, I think I'd like to know who you are to have come in here so easily, and to know which of our Pokémon belonged to Trainers."
Wing shrugged. "Knowing the Trainer Pokémon is an instinct, and Zanna pointed them out to me as we went by," she explained, lying smoothly. Talking to Pokémon was an unusual bond, and she felt she'd caused enough of a stir already. "And your only outside guard was half-asleep. It wasn't so hard. But as for who I am… Well, if you start to mistreat these Pokémon, I'll know, and I'll come back, with reinforcements. Treat 'em well, and you may as well forget I exist."
Wing put one hand on Zanna and tapped Soluna's Pokéball: the signal. Immediately the two of them were engulfed in blue light, and even as they Teleported out, the man shouted, "Guards! Come in here! Who was that?!"
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"Teach him to mess with us," Sparks said cheerfully.
Zanna screeched her agreement, soaring overhead, keeping a close eye on the twisting path below.
"Where are we going now, Master Wing?" Zeek asked.
The Master shrugged, her eyes finally their normal brown. "I dunno. Why plan things out if they'll work out just fine on their own? Just let things happen around you and act accordingly. I walk where my feet take me."
"You don't plan much, do you?" Soluna said sarcastically.
"I don't like to. Just let things happen. React. And sometimes, if you need to, act before it happens." Her eyes shone slightly. "Sometimes you have to be faster. And sometimes even that little bit of extra speed isn't enough."
A tinkling beep in her ear distracted the Master, and she tapped the receive button without even thinking about it. "Yes?"
"WING!" Rowan bellowed.
"Ow," said Wing, smiling in spite of herself. "I'd forgotten I'd left you that phone."
There was a pause, before he asked, "How the hell did you get into my room without me sensing you? No, never mind, that's not important, why the heck did you run off again? Where are you?"
Wing shook her head, her smile widening. "I was just picking up an old friend." Her Pokémon were watching her curiously, only able to hear one side of the conversation, and wondering why she was smiling like that. Sparks pressed her head up against the earpiece and just managed to catch Rowan's retort of, "And what was so insane about that mission that I couldn't come?"
"The old friend was stuck inside an enemy base," Wing replied. "I didn't know if they were hostile or not, so I figured to play it safe."
"And she says she never plans anything," Soluna muttered.
Wing listened to Rowan's inquisition, neatly dodging around any answers she didn't want to give (like where she was), but as he finally gave up and began to talk normally, she relaxed a little, smiling and nodding as she walked along.
"I've got a new mission in Lavaridge," Rowan said, having accepted that Wing wouldn't tell him where she was. "Apparently there have been some weirdos running around there, and Flannery can't handle them on her own. There aren't many Trainers in Lavaridge and it's pretty easy to wipe them out with a ground- or water-type. So I'm going to go back her up, see what's going on."
Wing nodded slowly, checking her compass bearing. North by north-east. Hmm…
"Good luck with the mission, Rowan, and say hi to Rue for me," she said, and abruptly hung up.
"What was that for?" Soluna asked. "I was enjoying that conversation."
"Probably best that I interrupted it, then." Wing smiled sardonically, one side of her mouth twisting up more than the other. "But my feet seem to have decided we're going to be making an unscheduled stop in the near future."
Zeek smiled, eyes glinting. "It is time we told the world that our Master is back in action."
"It's past time," Wing agreed. "The world has almost forgotten who we are. I think it's time we reminded them."