Chapter Twenty-Five

Seven stared up at Stonebough Prison's high stone walls, crowned with a thick tangle of barbed wire. Six towers jutted from each point of the hexagonal walls, and two guards watched from each. Beyond the walls, footsteps echoed on a stone courtyard, making audible trails as guards patrolled around the squat, blocky building. Footsteps rumbled by without end, and no gap lasted longer than two seconds.

She stood in a tangle of bushes twenty feet away from the walls, sheltered from the view of the guard towers and the pedestrians in a nearby park. Her tangle of brush stood in a no-man's-land, far from park paths for proper maintenance and too far from the prison walls to suffer the clippers and axes of the prison's groundskeepers. Old weathered stumps stood like graves around the walls, and stunted bushes huddled like mourners amidst the chopped trees.

For good measure, Seven wrapped her thicket in an illusion as she called out her Pokémon. The sudden use of power squeezed her chest like a Seviper, but she forced herself to keep breathing. They huddled beneath the brush with her, Horus hissing at the oppressive overhead cover, and the others staring at her.

"Listen closely," she told her five Pokémon. "There's a lot of humans in there we need to get out." She took a tiny portable camera out of her hair, which had a Velcro strap attached, and fixed it onto her Noctowl's forehead. A muted squawk rumbled in its beak and it scratched at the Velcro, but it didn't try to peck her. "Horus, perch on a tower and keep lookout. Guide me through while I'm invisible to the service door, one hoot for forward, two for right, and three for left. Watch for a red dot, and don't let me run into a guard." Seven pressed a finger against the earpiece in her right ear, wiggling it around to make sure it wouldn't fall out. "Once I'm in, I'll open a window so you can join me."

After the Noctowl chirped in agreement, she turned towards the Porygon and Haunter. "Thoth, Set, you two find their central computer network. Set, make sure you both get through unseen. Use Hypnosis only if you have to. Thoth, you will hack into their system." Seven tapped a screen tablet strapped to her wrist. "Keep in contact so I can give you orders."

The Haunter cackled and bowed low, while the Porygon gave a rapid nod of its blocky head. Then Seven looked at her last two.

"Ra, Magneton, you two will stay with me, in case I need to make a distraction or fight my way out.

The torkoal nodded slowly, as if its neck were draped with lead weights, while the Magneton buzzed and blinked at her. She called four back while Horus took flight and settled on top of the nearest tower. She watched the nearest guards, but neither noticed the owl perched above them.

Seven looked at the courtyard through the tablet on her wrist. Two dozen guards, each in pairs, marched wide circles around the perimeter. When she saw a gap forming, she cloaked, dug her nails into the stone, and clambered up. She grit her teeth when her fingers found the barbed wire and pulled them back to the edge of the stone wall. Then, heaving with all the strength in her shoulders, she vaulted over the wire, fell thirty feet, and landed nimbly on her legs.

A few guards heard and went to investigate the sound. Horus hooted three times. Seven raced. She flinched as the invisible needles and scalpels drifted towards her in the all-consuming darkness. Imagined metal caressed her skin as she whirled right, and needles slipped into her veins as she felt her hands touch stone. Holding a hand over her panting mouth, Seven rushed into a hidden nook next to a door and let the illusion vanish. She fell to her hands and knees, breathing deeply as the sting of scalpel cuts faded from her skin.

Holding the pokéball against her chest, Seven called out Set and ordered it to peer through the door. The Haunter grinned and melted through the doorway. Holding up two fingers, it floated above the building and pointed at two spots through the roof.

"Any cameras?"

Set nodded.

"Alright, let's get started."

Seven called out Thoth and pointed at the security panel next to the door. The Porygon melted into it, and the screen flashed a string of binary code before the door pinged open. Seven threw it open and ducked around the right side of the door. One guard came out, gun raised and looking around. Just as he was about to round the corner and stumble on Seven, she threw a noisemaker to the left of the doorway. It went off with a small pop. The cop jumped and started towards the noise, and his partner came towards the doorway to watch him.

Seven disappeared and slipped through the doorway in the seconds she had before the way was blocked again. Thoth and Set followed behind, camouflaged to look like the surroundings and lurking in the shadows. Just as she felt her chest splitting open, Seven stumbled into a bathroom for the guards. She took the farthest stall, sat on top of the toilet, and took a water bottle out of her hair. She guzzled half of it, wiped the water from the fur around her lips, and put it back. The clip only half closed around the bottle, but after a minute of fiddling with it, Seven decided to leave it.

When she came out of the bathroom, Set and Thoth were waiting. "Get to work."

They vanished, and Seven went back inside the bathroom, shivering as it slowly sank in that she was trapped in another prison.

"I'll get out of this one too," she mumbled. "Just stay calm."

As Set floated away with Thoth, the Haunter chuckled to himself. The Pokémon, though it looked, talked, and acted like a human, couldn't hide her secrets from him. The torment and self-doubt emanating from her tasted like sugar crystals wafting on the wind. It thought about hiding in her shadow, feeding on her misery until he burst with it, but that Porygon would tattle for sure. He flapped his tongue in the air as she turned towards the door, getting one last taste of her anguish.

Following after Thoth, slipped past six guard patrols, went around two motion sensors, passed through three sets of infrared beams, and drifted unseen beneath countless cameras. Set felt his amusement fading as the sense of danger went away, but he perked up when they encountered a thick metal door. An unsettling electrical signal clung to the walls around this room that made Set's body tingle when he tried to pass through it.

"How do we get in?" Set asked Thoth. "As much as I'd love to get fried to a crisp trying to unlock it from the inside, I'm open to suggestions."

The Porygon looked at him and said in a flat, monotone voice, "I can't hack the console, not with all this electrical interference. The optimal way into this room is to steal a keycard from one of the patrols, and then disable the ECCM from inside."

Set chuckled. "I wonder which guard has the tastiest dreams."

"That won't be necessary." A white light glowed at the tip of Thoth nose. Leaning forward, Thoth pressed the light to Set's forehead, and the light swam before his eyes.

"Technical Machine Thief downloaded. Now you can acquire the card without disturbing the guard."

"Nice rhyme," Set said with a laugh. Then he scowled without breaking his smile. "Hey, why did you make me forget Destiny Bond?"

"It was the least optimal move for this situation."

"Goddamn it, that was my favorite move."

"There is a 100% chance that you will have to deal with it."

Set smothered a laugh in his huge, ghostly hands. "Was that sass? I thought computers were supposed to be boring."

Thoth glared at him. "I calculated the optimal language to earn your cooperation. It would appear you respond best to snarkiness, crass humor, and human misery.

"You got me there." Then he gave a low bow. "One keycard, coming up."

It didn't take long to find a patrol. The guards reeked of boredom and pent-up frustration. Licking his lips, Set snuck up behind the pair, reached out, and swiped a thin plastic card out of his pocket. It had a black bar on one side, and a bunch of letters and numbers on the other.

"Hmm… maybe this isn't the one," Set whispered to himself. "Better take more just in case."

Set didn't stop until he dug every last item from the officer's pocket, including a plastic slab with the man's face on it, a green card with a small black square on the end, and a thick black wad with slips of green paper inside.

Set chuckled at the handful of stolen loot and turned away. But then he wondered what else he could steal. Setting the cards in a corner, Set lurked in the officer's shadow, reached up, and stole the gun from his holster. The Haunter turned the weapon around in his hands before setting it aside. Another Thief earned him a handheld radio. Set almost pressed one of the buttons, just for the hell of it, but Thoth get mad at him for it. Next, he got a flashlight. He examined the glass bulb, and this time, he gave in to the button's temptation. He nearly dropped it when the light blinded him. Set turned it off and glanced at the guards, but they didn't notice.

"I better go before I do something stupid." Set gathered up all the cards and floated towards Thoth, but then he decided one more couldn't hurt. The Haunter gathered all his shadowy energy in his right hand, darted forward, and swung it at the officer. He came away with a bundle of black fabric.

"Hey, what happened to my pants?" the officer shouted.

Set looked back at the officer. His thick, hairy legs and his light blue boxers were exposed. The Haunter couldn't help himself. The pants fell to the floor, and Set rolled in them as he laughed.

When he recovered, both guards were looking at him, guns raised. His mirth vanished almost as fast as he did. The guards were startled when Set suddenly slipped into the shadows, but the guard with his pants on reached for the radio on his belt.

A quick dose of Hypnosis sent both men to the floor with a thud. The Haunter glanced around for cameras and other guards. Satisfied that nothing saw, Set gathered his stolen loot, grabbed both guards by the collars of their shirts, and dragged everything back to the sealed room.

Thoth gave a start and then scowled at him when it saw the two unconscious guards.

"I calculated a small probability that you would fuck it up, but I never imagined you would do something so stupid."

Set shrugged and held up the handful of cards. "Hey, I got the keycard like you asked. Well, one of these has to be it."

One card, the green one with the black square, wriggled out of Set's hand and floated in front of Thoth. "You were ordered to use Hypnosis only when necessary. The keycard would've been easily acquired without attracting attention."

"Hey, you can't blame me for getting a little carried away. I had to get used to my new move."

Thoth sighed. "I suppose I'll have to factor that into my calculations next time." It looked again at the guards, and its eyes widened at the one officer's bare legs and exposed underwear. "What the hell happened to his pants?" Set started to chuckle, and Thoth glared at him. "No, don't answer that. Now, I hope you're ready to explain yourself to our master."

Set blanched and grabbed Thoth by the chest. "No, come on, you don't have to do that! It was just a little mistake, we can handle this!"

"The master must be apprised of all abnormalities we encounter." It gave a sidelong glance at the bare legs and said, "That definitely qualifies as abnormal."

"You'd be blamed too. You're the one that told me to steal the keycard."

"And you were in charge of stealth. The error is clearly yours, and the probability of me facing disciplinary action is less than four percent."

"But four percent isn't zero. Wouldn't it be safer to make sure our master never finds out? We can keep them with us and knock them out whenever they wake up. That's a good plan, right?"

"It's a horrible plan. The odds of their absence not being noticed within half an hour is ten thousand to one."

Set scowled. "Can't you do some computer stuff so no one notices?"

Thoth considered it for a moment. "I'd have to look at their security system first. In any event, it will be very difficult to juggle that task and whatever else our master wants. If I notify master…"

"If that's what you want? I might get a chuckle out of watching you suffer with me."

Thoth gave him an appraising stare. Set imagined gears spinning in the Porygon's head and chuckled.

"Then how about this?" Thoth's nose glowed, and it pressed the light into Set's forehead. With a start, the Haunter realized he knew Destiny Bond again.

"Use it on me."

"What?"

"Just do it." Thoth's eyes locked onto Set's, and the ghost shifted uneasily. "Or do you want me to call the master?"

"Alright, I'm doing it!" A shadow passed from Set to Thoth, and the blackness wrapped itself around the Porygon before it vanished.

"Good. Now, take my hand and swear an oath."

Set cracked an uneasy smile. "But you don't have any hands."

Thoth just glared at him. "Fine, fine," Set said, grabbing one of the Porygon's polygonal limbs. "Now what?"

"Say that you will do me one favor, no questions asked, when I ask for it."

Set said the words and shivered when he felt his own shadow stir with the words. He jerked his hand away and stared at it. "What just happened?"

"The bond was made. Now you have to fulfill that oath, or you'll be destroyed." Set could've sworn the Porygon would've smiled if it had a mouth. "There are many applications for Destiny Bond, if you're intelligent enough to find them." A hint of disdain coated Thoth's last words.

The keycard floated through the air and slid through a slot on the security terminal. The door swung open, and Thoth floated inside. "Let's get to work. You wasted enough of our time as is."

Set dragged the two bodies through the door. For the first time in his existence, he frowned.

Changelog

10/27/18 - I changed up some of the descriptions, especially around Set. Doesn't feel right that the ghost type's getting spooked by humans.