READ! Note from the author:
Several things to get to you guys about! First off, I hope that some of you at least caught the League of Legends references in the last chapter. If not, look up the two newest characters' names on google images to get accurate representations of them.
Second, I do want to really encourage you guys to review! Last chapter I only received one review, and honestly, as a writer who has written so much, it does make me feel like a failure. This chapter marks my surpassing 100k words mark! I am hoping for some major views after this!
Third, the next Silverfieldsofroses competition is kicking off right... now! For this, please write a haiku about Allora Silverfield the story (not just the character, though you can if you want!) and submit it in my inbox! The competition will end when I get back. That's the other thing...
This coming Tuesday, in two or so days, I will be leaving for 10 weeks over this summer. 10 weeks, only on of which will I even MAYBE get some writing done. I will try my best for you guys, but no promises. I am going to work as a camp counselor at a summer camp where I live, while also finding time in there to go on vacation to St. John.
Once again I just want to thank you guys for being such awesome fans!
Silverfield
Lee Sin and I started walking just as the rain began. It started soft at first, pelting down on our heads and soaking my hair. It was getting darker by the minute.
Erik, where are you? I thought, broadcasting it as loud as I could. Lee Sin and I had headed away from the police, back between buildings and out of sight of the radio tower. We weaved between buildings
A few seconds later, I felt a response. Allora? I am with Ahri. She knows what I am. We are behind the… There was a pause, then; The building called a 'mall.'
I gulped, thinking hard. Ahri knows what he is? I quickly relayed to Lee Sin what I knew, who didn't question how I knew it, and we headed north towards the shopping mall. The Saffron City mall was four stories tall, but not even half as tall as the radio tower. As we approached the back side of the building, we could see the three standing around, talking in low voices.
It dawned on me then that Ahri could read minds, because it took neither her nor Erik much time to understand our plan. Erik touched Articuno on the temple, and in no time at all we were all on the same page. "I cannot go," Lee Sin explained to Articuno when she asked. "Because of my eyes." He fingered his blindfold. "I would be too noticeable. And besides, Jenny says that no more than four would be believable. She also says that you should only take two pokemon." At this, he looked at Erik's belt, and his six pokeballs.
Erik nodded, and without question, took four of them off and handed them to the karate master. "I will be back for them. Take care of them," he said, and Lee Sin nodded, understanding. He seemed unfazed by the rain.
"I will, Mewtwo," he answered, to my shock. Erik too, looked baffled.
"I told you to tell no one!" he hissed at Ahri darkly. She looked at him and shrugged, ears flattening against her skull.
"We two have a connection, not unlike you and Allora. I don't hide many things from my life partner, and I suggest you do the same." She looked into his eyes. "No one else shall know, I swear it."
He stared at her, fists clenched, before he finally relaxed. He sighed, looking towards the ground. "I am sorry, but it is extremely important that this secret not be known to too many people. It puts not only my life in danger, but the lives of my friends."
Ahri nodded, understanding. "It is alright, we understand." Her ears perked back up, and she smiled broadly. "I do have to ask something however." She began to bounce on her toes. "When you get your powers back, will you come visit at my gym? I would love to learn from the greatest psychic pokemon to ever exist."
This brought Erik back to his usual self. "I will honor that request," he said, nodding his head.
"Okay… that's nice, but we do need to start moving," Articuno said urgently. "Arceus knows what they are up to."
I nodded, agreeing. I fingered Sunny and Noche's pokeballs on my belt, suddenly becoming nervous. We had had our break, but now we were back to facing the real enemy. We had all been jerked back to reality.
Ahri regained her composure, and gestured for us to follow her. We walked back, through a few ally ways, and back to the gym. I was curious as to what was going on, but I didn't question her yet. She seemed to sense my confusion, however, for she started to explain.
"This isn't the first time Rocket has tried to control the Radio Tower," she said. We entered the dark gym and shut the door behind us. "Well, a Radio Tower anyway. In Goldenrod, years ago, they did something similar." We headed to the back of the gym, stepping on a warp panel and finding ourselves in a smaller space, nearly pitch black. Ahri focused, and a small floating light appeared in front of us. A will-o-wisp. She really was channelling a ninetales. "So, around the regions, in our important broadcasting buildings, gym leaders built passages into the towers, to break in and stop tragedies like this."
The light had illuminated a hallway, a short one, leading to another warp panel. This one, however, when Ahri commanded the will-o-wisp to enter it, turned purple. "Stepping on this will take us to the Tower." She looked between us. "Lee Sin and I have been discussing in our minds, but we believe that sending him in first for a distraction will make access for us easier, as well as give me a glimpse into their location through our connection."
Articuno and I stared vacant, but Erik nodded. "Makes sense," he said.
"Won't he get caught?" I said, worried then. Lee Sin smiled.
"Hopefully not without a fight," he said. "They will hold me hostage like the rest, but I shall be fine. Hopefully." And with that, he turned, and stepped onto the warp panel, vanishing into thin air.
And then, it was just us four. Ahri had said that we needed to wait until she felt like we could go, whatever that meant. In the meantime, she focused, and lost her tail and ears, looking then just like the rest of us. "When we get in, we are going to have to work together to incapacitate a group of Rockets, and get their uniforms," she said, pulling her hair back into a ponytail.
"Well, what are we going to do once we get inside?" I wondered. Articuno and Erik nodded, looking to the gym leader for a plan.
"Our job is to only free the hostages," she said. "The police, once that has been done, can take down those controlling the equipment upstairs. Arceus knows what they are using it for."
Suddenly, she closed her eyes, and gasped. After a moment, she opened them and jerked her head to the ceiling. "We can go. Lee Sin has been captured. I can see what he has seen in my mind, and I can lead us through the first few levels of the building. He is being taken to where the hostages are… we should be able to find them." Then, she took a step, clenching her fist.
"Let's go."
I took a breath, and stepped onto the warp panel. Then, I was trapped in darkness, surrounded on all sides. Something with wet, slimy tentacles was brushing against my head. It wasn't until Articuno appeared next to me that I could make anything out. Her blue hair gave off enough of a soft glow for me to see that we were in…
"A janitor's closet?" I hissed, moving the mop off of my scalp. Ahri appeared beside me, and shrugged.
"It had to be somewhere inconspicuous. Now come on!"
We four opened the closet slowly, looking both ways down the hallway before stepping outside. The hall was empty, and it was eerily quiet. The fluorescent lights along the ceiling were half on and half off, creating a dim, eerie lighting. Office doors were spaced evenly along the walls, as well as windows, which through the darkness outside, let in the steady sound of rain. We left the closet, shutting the door.
I felt exposed then, and turned to Ahri for a plan. Her eyes were closed, focusing. Finally, she opened them. "There is an elevator to our left, and a staircase farther down. We should take the stairs." It made sense, and we all followed.
Our footsteps seemed to make a lot of noise in the quiet of the hallway. We walked along the inner wall, passing the dark windows that would occasionally flash with lightning, the rumbling thunder almost immediately after. Looking out the windows towards the ground, you could see the red and blue flashing lights of the police. We seemed to be several stories up.
This was confirmed when we passed the elevator, proudly declaring that we were on the eighth floor. Even then, we weren't even halfway up the tower. We rounded another corner, finding ourselves in front of the stairwell. I went in last, looking up towards the ceiling. The tall, tall, 24 story tall ceiling. I gulped. The broadcasting station was on the top floor.
Ahri closed her eyes again, and then motioned for us to follow her. We had suddenly reached a wordless agreement that we needed to be silent, and that we did, gently placing our footfalls as we made our way up the stairwell.
We reached the tenth floor, and then stopped by the door. "There are four Rockets coming this way," she breathed, eyes closed, focusing. "We need their uniforms." At this, a pokeball seemed to appear in her palm, and she pushed the button, releasing her ninetales silently. Erik and Articuno did the same, Erik releasing Rimo, is ghastly, and Articuno releasing her weavile.
I grabbed Noche's pokeball, quietly sending him out. I knew he would be quietest and most effective in a sneak attack, for he was silent on his feet. Rimo faded into the wall, and the rest of us stood just behind the wall, waiting for the patrolling Rockets to round the corner again. I could hear their footsteps clacking closer, and my body tensed, ready for the jump.
Erik held up a hand before we leapt out, closing his eyes. Suddenly, the lights in the hall outside the stairwell went out. "What's going on?" came a voice, followed by a crashing noise. "Shit!"
"Calm down," said a female voice, cool and collected. "Get your pokemon out. We have company."
"Now," Ahri whispered, and we all jumped out.
Rimo had used a night shade to bring the hall into darkness, and the resulting fight happened really fast. Articuno's weavile was scary fast, and sprinted around the feet of the Rockets, tripping them and sending them to the floor. In the confusion, Ahri's ninetales produced several will-o-wisps, sending them flying around the room, into the faces of the Rockets
"I… I can't see!" one of them shouted. I could barely see myself. The bright light of the will-o-wisps mixed with the darkness of the night shade was blinding.
Noche, however, was doing perfectly. As each Rocket was blinded, he would use a faint attack from behind, knocking them out. Rimo was incapacitating their pokemon with hypnosis, floating in and out of the floor, right in front of their faces.
"What is… who are you?" shouted the female Rocket in the commotion. The will-o-wisps moved in front of her face, blinding her, and Noche sent her into unconsciousness. Then, it was quiet, and the lights came back up.
On the ground we had four members, laying in very uncomfortable looking positions. Rimo was floating above a pile of pokemon, tongue lolling out of his mouth, grinning happily. "Gha?" he asked.
"Yes, you did good," I said, still looking over the bodies on the ground. There were three men and a woman, all wearing standard Team Rocket uniforms. They were all fairly skinny, and three of the four wore hats, with the woman being the only one who neglected to don one.
We began the process of undressing them, which was actually more difficult than I thought it would be. I took the woman, removing her shirt and leggings and boots, which were only one size too big for me. Under her shirt, she wore a necklace on a simple silver chain, with a purple-black crystal suspended on the end. I put that on too. In just her undergarments, I began stripping my own clothes off and dressing her back up again as Allora.
Her hair was blonde, and pulled back into a bun. I did not have a hair tie, so I removed hers, letting her hair free. It was straight and blonde, a little darker than my own. I pulled my hair back into the same hairstyle, finishing just as the others finished their disguises.
Ahri looked at the faces of the Rocket's and used some of her psychic energy to draw symbols on our faces. "What is that going to do?" I asked as she drew on my forehead.
"I can provide disguises for our faces to make us look like the ones on the ground," she explained. "It is simple, and uses little of my power. Ask Erik." I looked at him, and he was nodding.
"She is only providing a false image over your face, however, if someone touches your face, it will be broken," he said, letting her do the same to him. "It is not like what I have done, which is change my entire body into something else. You should look exactly like the woman on the ground."
Articuno was the only one who was going to have issues. Ahri had a hair tie around her wrist, but had to use it for herself. But the legendary pokemon's hair was waist length and blue. I searched through the pockets of the Rockets, trying to find something that would help. I didn't find anything, but Erik found…
"Scissors," he stated, holding them up. Articuno sighed, taking the hat off and bowing her head in acceptance. Ahri and I took turns cutting her long hair, until she had a light blue pixie cut hairdo. It hid perfectly under the hat.
Ahri used her powers to pick the lock on one of the doors, and we dragged the bodies of the Rocket members into the room. Ahri, being the only one who could comfortably do it, used the mind slaving pokeballs to return their pokemon. We couldn't carry the pokeballs with us without looking suspicious, but then again our regular pokeballs also looked suspect. But Ahri took care of that.
Using the same energy she uses to create her fox tails and ears, she created illusory cases around our pokeballs in the same style as the mind slaving ones. Leaving the room, we all four looked just like Team Rocket grunts.
"Now what?" I asked, looking around. We were back in the eerie quiet of the hallway. Thunder boomed from outside, rattling the windowpanes of the building. I flinched, hating thunderstorms since I was a kid.
"Lee Sin is still three floors above us. We should take the elevator, so we look less suspicious. If someone saw us leaving the stairwell, they would suspect something." Ahri's logic was undeniable. She had put her black hair into a bun as well, tucking it into her hat. Erik's hair was also hidden by the large cap. Mine was the only exposed, but still pulled back.
We made our way towards the elevator, and I flinched again with another crash of thunder from outside. The machine dinged, and we hit the button for the fourteenth floor.
"Shouldn't it be thirteen?" Erik asked as the door closed. "We came from ten, and it is three stories above us."
"Most tall buildings don't have a thirteenth floor, it's bad luck," I explained as the elevator his number eleven.
"But… it is impossible. Even if the floor is not called thirteen, it is still the thirteenth floor if you count up from the ground level." Erik's brow furrowed, confused. Twelve.
"Erik… It's just the way humans do it," I said, exasperated.
"I will never understand human customs," he grumbled.
Fourteen.
The door opened and I froze, shocked, to see another Rocket member waiting for the elevator as well. He didn't even blink. "Ah, Admin Ciara, your shift over already?" he asked, moving aside and letting us out. He was addressing me. "Why the stop on this lucky floor?"
Captives! a female voice screamed in my head. Ahri's.
"I'm, um, here to check on the captives," I said, raising my chin like I was confident, and leaving the elevator.
"Well, you should keep your guards with you until you return to the broadcast room, yes? We will be waiting for you," he said, smiling. "Your expertise on pokemon evolution is crucial to this project, yes?"
"Of… of course!" I said, nodding to him. Inside my head I was screaming. Three grunts followed him into the elevator, and the door shut behind them.
Oh my God! I thought to Erik.
Ahri cannot speak to you like that again, it is hard to speak telepathically unless you have a connection, he explained. However, she can speak to me because we are both psychic. I will translate to you.
"You are an Admin," Ahri breathed quietly as we made our way down the hall. "Admin Ciara, he said. He also said you are important to their project, because of pokemon evolution."
"They are probably doing some sort of signal to force evolution so they can capture that energy," Articuno whispered. "If that's true, then you are going to have to go up there. You'll have to slow them down somehow. I can destroy the machinery if I can get in there."
Erik looked at her, and she held up her hand. We kept walking. "I will be fine, Erik. I will be with my brothers."
I gulped, knowing what she was planning on doing.
We rounded another corner, and reached two Rocket grunts guarding a door. They stood up straighter when they saw me, reminding me of the demeanor that I needed to keep. "You can relax," I said, standing tall as I approached.
Ahri says that Rocket Admins are normally not very nice to grunts. She says be a… bitch, Erik informed me, sounding slightly confused as to the meaning of the word 'bitch.' I narrowed my eyes in response.
"You're done here, move along," I barked. The grunts flinched, and I had to resist smiling.
"Miss, we are supposed to be here all night and-"
"But, ma'am, we aren't to leave here and we were assigned-"
"I said move along," I interrupted, dangerously quiet. They both stopped arguing and shakily nodded their heads, nearly sprinting away down the halls.
Once they were gone, we opened the conference room door to find fifty or so employees of the radio tower. They were all huddled under a table or against the walls. All except for one.
"What is going on!" I turned to my right. A man around the age of twenty was marching towards our group, finger wagging in our direction. "I was in the middle of my article when you thugs decided to come busting in here, locking us up, and taking mmph mmph mmph!" Erik had clapped his hand over the man's mouth, muffling his last few words.
"Would you be quiet?" I hissed. Erik let the man go. "We are not your captors, we are here to get you guys out of here!"
"Oh," said the man, taking a step back. "Well good luck with that."
"What do you mean?" I asked, scanning the room for Lee Sin.
"Well, this place is crawling with Rockets, and I'm sure they have people at that front door. And even if you had some secret passage into the tower… Ha!" He laughed at that thought. "How would you expect to get all fifty of us out of here without them noticing?"
"Who are you?" Ahri asked, cocking her head. The man looked at her.
"Sorry about that, the name's Kane. I'm a writer here at the station," he said, holding his hand towards the psychic. "I was on when this was the the Silph Co. Headquarters, and helped them transition to a Radio Station when Silph Co. went out of business." Ahri shook his hand slowly, looking around the room.
"Lee Sin must have been moved…" she began, still scanning the room. "Something… is blocking our connection. I don't know what it is…" She closed her eyes, trying to focus, then opened them, frustrated. "I can't detect him. Knowing he is a gym leader, they probably have him holed up in the broadcasting room."
"It's on the top floor," Kane said, looking between us. "I don't know what you guys are planning, but all of their operations have got to be there."
"We know," I said, thinking. "Kane, we got in here through a warp panel… it leads to the gym. Do you think you could sneak a few at a time downstairs to get out of here?"
Kane looked around the room, taking a deep breath. "Maybe," he said finally. "I could try."
"It wouldn't work," Ahri said. "You need my will-o-wisps to access the panel." She leaned against the wall, crossing her arms.
"Then, you should help him," Erik said. Ahri stared at him.
"I want to find Lee Sin, and make sure he is alright," she said. For the first time, I heard fear in her voice.
"We are both psychic, are we not?" Erik asked, looking at her. Kane's eyes widened a bit, but he stayed quiet. Ahri nodded. "Well, simply use the window of my eyes to accompany us. But these people need your help."
It was quiet for a long moment before the psychic gym leader finally agreed. "I suppose you are right," she said, sighing and closing her eyes. "I will help them get out of here, if you guys can find my partner."
I nodded, and so did Articuno. We looked between ourselves. First we were five. Then four. Now three, preparing to head to the top of the building.
I swallowed. If we lost anyone else, it probably wouldn't just be temporary.
It would be for good.
READ! Note from the author:
Several things to get to you guys about! First off, I hope that some of you at least caught the League of Legends references in the last chapter. If not, look up the two newest characters' names on google images to get accurate representations of them.
Second, I do want to really encourage you guys to review! Last chapter I only received one review, and honestly, as a writer who has written so much, it does make me feel like a failure. This chapter marks my surpassing 100k words mark! I am hoping for some major views after this!
Third, the next Silverfieldsofroses competition is kicking off right... now! For this, please write a haiku about Allora Silverfield the story (not just the character, though you can if you want!) and submit it in my inbox! The competition will end when I get back. That's the other thing...
This coming Tuesday, in two or so days, I will be leaving for 10 weeks over this summer. 10 weeks, only on of which will I even MAYBE get some writing done. I will try my best for you guys, but no promises. I am going to work as a camp counselor at a summer camp where I live, while also finding time in there to go on vacation to St. John.
Once again I just want to thank you guys for being such awesome fans!
Silverfield
