CHAPTER 20

The winch hummed as it respooled the thin nanofibers, and Alex's breath caught as the mechanism turned. Then, with a hiss, the thread spiraled off the guiding coil and knotted itself in a thick snarl. "Damn it," Alex growled. Torstein, the engineer that shared Alex's work bench, glanced up from his own project and made a sympathetic noise.

Alex noted down his observations on the latest failed test and did his best to untangle the mess of cable. His attempts to create a grappling hook had not been going well, and for every modification and improvement he made for his design, it introduced three new problems. The mechanism had to be as small and light as possible to not disrupt his weight distribution during flight, but he had been running up against hard physical barriers when making the mechanism that respooled the cord. Too small, and the cable got tangled, but too large and he wouldn't be able to carry it with him. Jiro had told the other engineers that Alex was designing the hook for mountain rescue teams and first responders to collapsed buildings, but everyone else in the lab was too intent on their own projects to pay Alex much mind.

"Torstein, why don't you take five?"

Torstein looked up from his work, shrugged, picked up his mug and walked over to the lab's coffee machine. Jiro Sasaki sat down across from Alex and glanced down at the grappling hook prototype. "No luck?"

"Nope." Alex couldn't hide the bitterness in his voice. "Seems like everything I'm trying just makes it more complicated." He gestured at the tangled mess of cable. "That's how my brain feels right now."

"Alex, how are you feeling?"

"I… frustrated, I guess?"

"How much are you sleeping?"

"I don't know. Not much last night, but I was chasing down this guy who—"

Jiro reached across the table and put a hand on Alex's shoulder. "You're not taking care of yourself. Protecting the city is important, but you can't do that if you keep burning the candle at both ends like this."

Alex looked down. "Sorry."

"You don't have to apologize to me." Jiro smiled. "Take a break tonight. Tomorrow is Saturday, so sleep in too. I'll give Isabelle a call, and she can patrol Avenbrooke tonight. Okay?"

"But—"

"I know crime doesn't sleep. If there's an emergency, then by all means suit up. But you've got to rest a bit. Order some takeout, have a beer, watch a movie, and take it easy, all right? I'm sure Hierro will appreciate a little rest too."

Alex nodded. "All right. For Hierro's sake."

Several hours later, Alex sprawled out on the sagging couch in his apartment, a steaming mug of tea perched on the coffee table next to his laptop. He was scrolling through a list of movies to stream, but couldn't settle on any to watch. The Unovan action flicks and Johtonian kung-fu movies he used to be into had lost their appeal when he started living them on a nightly basis, and he had never been able to sit through a plot-heavy indie film under normal circumstances, let alone when he was antsy about taking the night off.

He was starting to wonder if he should have taken Jiro's advice and had an actual drink, but ever since becoming Hawlucha Man, he hadn't had much interest in alcohol. Still, the corner bodega would be open for another hour or so, and while he debated whether or not to put on his shoes and walk over, he heard a rapping at his window. Hierro sprang off the back of the sofa, his feathers rising, while Alex grabbed his batons off the counter. The rapping came again, more insistent, and Alex unlocked and slowly eased up the window.

As soon as it had raised an inch, a shadowy figure dropped down off the fire escape and shoved it up enough to tumble through the gap. "Thank Arceus you're here," the figure said, dusting herself off. "Because I am fucking boned, birdbrain."

"Shadow? What the hell are you doing?" Alex gestured for Hierro to get in position. "How do you know where I live?"

The freelance thief beckoned her Purrloin and Haunter in through the window before slamming it shut and ducking into his kitchenette, out of sight from outside the apartment. "I tailed you once, obviously. I was really hoping to catch you before you went all heroic tonight, because I need a favor."

"You need a favor."

"Is there an echo in here? Yes, I need your help."

Alex figured she wasn't going to jump him, but he still stepped back as far as his small apartment would allow. "What's the favor?"

"So Envy's been after this Sinnohese diamond for a while, and he contracted me to get it for him. But see, the thing is, I kind of don't want him to have it. It's rumored to have some properties that I'd rather not have fall into his new boss's hands. I contacted the Baron to see if he wanted to take it off my hands, but he's not interested either. So now Envy knows I've got the diamond, and I've spent the past three days going from safe house to safe house, but Envy's goons have been closing in. I have one last bolthole in Greenpoint where I can stash the rock, but I don't think I'll be able to get that far on my own. The Sins are on the lookout for me, and there's a lot of ground to cover between my last safe house and there. You were on the way, so I figured it was worth a shot seeing if you wanted to tag along?"

"You want me to protect you from the Sins?"

"To make sure Dominion doesn't get her hands on this diamond." She opened a pouch on her belt and showed Alex a glimpse of a fist sized, multi-faceted gem that was probably worth more than Alex would make in a lifetime. "It could be the rumors are true and this can amplify an esper's powers, or the Sins could sell it to buy a metric fuckton of weapons. Either way, it doesn't look good for Clarus City. That's the kind of thing you goody-goody types care about, right?"

"I… well…"

"Listen, I know we're technically not on the same side here. But I'm trying to do the right thing by this city tonight, and if I don't get this diamond to St. Wulfric's church in Greenpoint, it's going to be bad for a lot of people. I'm at the end of my rope here, and I've got no one else to turn to. Are you going to help me, Hawlucha Man?"

"This is just a lot to take in."

The Shadow groaned. "I need an answer now. Envy's people are closing in as we speak."

"You led them to my house?"

"I didn't have a fucking choice!"

"Fine. Let me suit up. We'll be out of here in five."

Three and a half minutes later, Alex and Hierro were racing up their building's fire escape behind the Shadow and her pokemon. "St. Wulfric's is in the northeast part of Greenpoint," the Shadow said. "Just follow me, but if Envy's guys get the jump on us, I'll let you take the lead."

"Got it."

"And birdbrain? I know I brought you along to watch my ass, but you could be a little more subtle about it."

Alex felt himself go red under his mask. "I'm not… I don't mean to… you're just…" The Shadow laughed and jumped up onto the roof. Alex and Hierro were a step behind her, and together they approached the edge. "So how are we doing this?" Alex asked. "Hierro and I can fly from building to building, but you might not be able to keep up."

"No need to worry about me, Hawlucha Man." The Shadow unclipped a metal rod from her back and twisted it from side to side. The rod expanded into a long quarterstaff, and the Shadow backed up several paces to get a running start. "I'm as used to operating on the rooftops as you are." Her Purrloin jumped up onto her shoulder, and the Shadow raced past Alex, using her staff to propel herself further.

Alex and Hierro were just behind her, and Alex glanced over at his partner. "So much for a night off, huh?" Hierro chirped and angled for a better landing. When his talons touched down on the next rooftop, he glanced at Alex and shrugged. "Yeah, we probably never would have decided on a movie anyway."

They ran into the first of Envy's men only a few blocks later. "Shadow!" a rail-thin woman shouted as she sprang across an alley. "The boss is going to have your head!" A knife glinted in her hand, and Alex raced forward to intercept. He activated the electric charge on his batons as the rod caught the blade of the knife, sending the charge down through the metal and making the woman drop the weapon. "You?" she managed to gasp as Alex drove his second baton up under her ribs. "But she…"

"Roped me in, yeah," Alex grunted as the woman dropped.

"Ten o'clock!" the Shadow called, and Alex whirled as an Ariados sprang on him. Hierro intercepted the arachnid, hurling it off the roof before pivoting and springing towards two Bisharp that a second assailant had summoned. The Shadow spun her staff around and settled into a fighting stance. Alex noted that she looked far more confident in her hand-to-hand combat than in their first encounter, but a few months of hard training was no match for the years of experience he and Hierro had. "Alecto! Apate! Go!" Her Haunter shot into the air and unleashed a pulse of spectral indigo light, dropping a flock of Golbat Alex hadn't even seen coming. The thief's Purrloin darted through the legs of the trainer commanding the Bisharp and gouged at the man's eyes with wickedly sharp claws. "Back, Apate!" the Shadow called as she rushed in, swinging her staff in an arc. She swept the man's legs out from under him. As the man dropped, she brought the staff around and shoved the tip into his chest, driving the air from his lungs. Then, she drew a knife from a sheath strapped to her leg and prepared to drive the blade into the fallen man's throat.

"Stop!" Alex shouted. "So long as I'm here, no killing!"

"Are you fucking serious, birdbrain?"

"If you do, you're on your own!"

The Shadow scowled, but settled for knocking the man out with her staff and sheathing her knife. "I should have left you at home." A Sableye burst from the darkness, and Alex whirled to knock it flat with his batons. The dark type shrieked as electricity coursed through its body, and Alex turned back to the Shadow and raised an eyebrow. "Good save," the thief groaned. "We should keep moving, these two aren't acting alone!"

Her Purrloin jumped back onto her shoulder, and they were off again. Envy's coterie of thieves and enforcers were never far behind. A trainer with a swarm of Beedril ambushed them at Sixth and Laurel, and once they had beaten them off, they were set upon by a skilled knife fighter with a pair of Drapion. Alex and the Shadow had been forced to cut and run from that, only to be waylaid by an enforcer with three Galvantula and Mandibuzz just two blocks later, just at the Avenbrooke and Greenpoint line. Hierro had managed to deal with the electric types while Apate and Alecto subdued the trainer. Alex and the Shadow had kept a Mandibuzz at bay.

When the vulture had finally dropped to the roof in a heap of feathers, the Shadow turned to Alex. "Once we're out of Avenbrooke, this is going to get even harder. Envy has probably called in as many of his cutters as he can to wait just outside the Baron's territory to hunt us down."

Alex shrugged and holstered his batons. "That's fine with me. Hierro and I are warmed up now. Think we could lure out Envy himself? I've always kind of wanted to take a crack at him."

The Shadow laughed. "Well, aren't you feeling ballsy." She winked. "Are you just talking tough to impress me?"

"Why would I want to impress you?"

"Because guys like impressing beautiful women."

"You see any beautiful women around here?"

"Ouch. That's cold, birdbrain."

Hierro rolled his eyes and made an insistent shriek. Alex nodded. "Right, we've got to get a move on. Where do we go from here?"

The Shadow sighed and pointed towards a glowing cluster of buildings. "Just keep heading that way. The Greenpoint Galleria is pretty hectic around this time of night, so I figure we might lose a tail in the confusion."

"Or at least hold them up long enough to buy us some breathing room."

"Exactly."

They took off again, but it wasn't long before the Sins' men caught up to them. They were darting over the long, flat roof of a self-storage building when someone seized the Shadow from behind. "Where are you going in such a rush?" the man hissed as he placed a gun against the thief's temple. Alex drew his batons, but the man clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Let's not be hasty. If you so much as twitch, I'll blow the little lady's brains out. Now then," he said glancing down at the struggling Shadow, "I think you have something the boss wants. If you hand it over, I'll let you and your friend here walk away."

"Go to hell," the Shadow growled.

The man smirked. "I'll see you when I get there." Just as he was about to pull the trigger, the Shadow reached back and squeezed the man's groin hard enough to make him yelp in pain and surprise. His arms flailed back, and the shot echoed off into the night. Alex was on the man in an instant, clubbing him across the face and knocking the gun from his grasp. The man spat blood and ground his teeth together. "So you want to do this the hard way? Fine! Get 'em!"

Two more figures jumped up onto the rooftops from an access stairway and were briefly illuminated by the flashes of pokeballs. A Weezing, Ariados and Turtonator appeared, and Alex fell in beside Hierro as he braced for a fight. A man with tattooed arms covered in Alolan spiral designs whistled through his teeth, and the Turtonator's shell began to glow red. Fire erupted from its snout, and the Shadow darted out of the way.

The Ariados pounced, giving the fallen man time to retreat to his comrades. Hierro and Alecto worked together to knock the arachnid off the rooftop, and the Haunter fired off a barrage of spectral orbs at the enemy trainers. In response, the Weezing exhaled a cloud of noxious gas that the fire type quickly ignited, making the rooftop erupt in a nimbus of flame. Alex and the Shadow hit the roof as the fire roared over their heads, extinguishing just as quickly.

"You see that big guy, the Alolan?" the Shadow hissed.

"Hard to miss."

"He's not one of Envy's." The thief cringed. "He's one of Wrath's guys, a lieutenant. Looks like Envy called in some reinforcements."

Alex scowled. That certainly complicated things. Envy maintained a network of thieves not unlike the Kuromori across the river, a crew of subtle operators who prided themselves on their ability to infiltrate targets, take what they needed, and get out undetected. The Shadow's plan had been solid, to deprive their pursuers of their cover and discretion by losing themselves in a brightly lit, densely populated area like the Galleria. But if Wrath's anarchists were in the equation now, that plan wasn't going to work. While Envy was a subtle operator, Wrath probably couldn't even spell subtle. If the Sins wanted the diamond badly enough to deploy Wrath's mad bombers, they wouldn't hesitate to cause carnage at the Galleria to get it. The kind of collateral damage that would cause was unthinkable.

"We need a new plan." Alex said.

The Shadow nodded. "No shit. I know another way into St. Wulf's, kind of a backdoor. But it means we're going to have to loop out and around."

"We'll have to risk it."

"All right. But first we need to get rid of these guys."

"Leave that to me." Alex caught Hierro's eye and raced forward. His partner picked up on the signal and matched his pace. "Focus on the Weezing and keep the bad guys off me as best you can," Alex said. "When I give the signal, send it my way."

Hierro chirped the affirmative and jumped at the hovering poison type, battering its two heads with a flurry of slashes and kicks. The Weezing moaned and attempted to shoot the Hawlucha out of the sky with a noxious projectile, but Hierro proved too quick. He looped in the air, and the sludge struck one of Envy's men, knocking the man flat and reducing him to a coughing fit.

Alex sprinted towards the Turtonator and ducked under a stream of fire. "Come on, big guy," he muttered. "Show me what you're made of." The hulking fire type moved far too slowly to keep up with Alex, and he kept an eye on its shell. When the carapace was glowing white-hot, Alex whistled. "Now, Hierro!" The Hawlucha jumped up and delivered a two-foot kick to the Weezing's larger head, knocking the poison type off its axis. Then Hierro seized it by its smaller head and hurled it through the air at Alex and the Turtonator. The Turtonator bellowed as Alex jabbed his stun baton into his chest and sprinted for the edge of the rooftop. The Sins' men seemed to realize what was going on and ducked for cover. Alex heard the Shadow's footfalls and Hierro's claws skittering across the gravel behind him.

They had just cleared the gap when a resounding boom nearly knocked Alex off balance, and a fireball appeared just above the rooftop they had vacated. Alex spared a glance over his shoulder to see the Turtonator waver on its feet before collapsing, all of its energy spent. Wrath's lieutenant and Envy's two goons were scrambling back up to the roof, their faces blackened with dust from the explosion. The Shadow crowed with laughter. "You're one crazy son of a bitch, birdbrain!"

Alex shrugged. "What's the new plan?"

"Tell you on the way." They ran off towards the west, away from the Galleria. "You know how Clarus City used to have tons of smugglers back in the old days to get around the Unova embargo? They built all these tunnels between buildings to move the contraband around, and some of them are still there. I know this one in a warehouse that will take us pretty close to St. Wulf's. I can't be sure that the Sins don't know about it too, but it's a risk we'll have to take at this point."

"Underground?" Alex and Hierro shared a glance. "Well, if we've got no other choice."

Envy and Wrath's grunts appeared every few blocks, and Alex and Hierro had to be careful to limit the damage of the fire types the anarchists summoned to apprehend them. "Stop playing by the rules!" the Shadow snapped as she hurled a Darumaka into its trainer, and both went down. "This isn't even your home turf anymore!"

"The whole city is my home turf!" The Magmar Alex was fighting inhaled sharply, only for Hierro to drop out of the sky and distract it from producing another gout of flame. "I can't just let them burn up half of Greenpoint. These old wood tenements will go up like kindling!"

The Shadow whipped her quarterstaff around, knocking a Hitmochan off its feet as her Purrloin pounced. "You're such a goody-goody."

"I'm one of the good guys," Alex muttered. "It's literally the job description."

They managed to get clear again, and soon found themselves standing at the head of High Street, the main artery of Greenpoint's commercial district. Late-night boutiques and fashionable bistros lined the wide thoroughfare, and the buildings were irregularly sized and clustered close together. Alex knew they weren't going to be able to keep to the rooftops, and they would be forced into the open. The Shadow sensed his apprehension and sighed. "We've got no choice. Once we get through here, it's just another three blocks to my bolt hole, and then we should be in the clear." She rolled her shoulders back. "Let's get this over with quick."

Alex and Hierro shot out over the street while the Shadow scurried down a drainpipe. Some of the civilians looked up as Hawlucha Man passed overhead, and Alex could feel their apprehension. They had no doubt seen the explosions from his fights with Wrath's goons as he fought his way across the borough, and he hated being exposed where this many innocent people could get caught up in the fighting.

When he had lost his altitude, he alighted on the street and tried to give a disarming smile as a crowd clustered around him, the air humming with concern. "No need to worry, citizens! Just a routine patrol."

"There you are, you bastard!"

Alex looked up and saw three of Envy's capos sprinting down the street. "Well, crap."

The Shadow blew past him, her staff whipping through the air. She batted aside a shrieking Crobat and sent it flying into another goon's Mawile as Alecto grappled with a Banette. Alex whistled to Hierro and then raised his voice to the civilians. "Please remain calm and move out of the street! My associates and I will handle this and you can go back to your evenings." A noxious ooze seethed up from a nearby storm drain, and Alex barely had time to recoil as a Muk burst from the sewers. "You've got to be kidding me!"

Hierro bounded to the Shadow's side and took over the fight with the Mawile. The fairy type's tensile horns snapped and gnashed at the flying type, but Hierro was far faster, able to jump and dodge every move. One of the capos called out a Roserade, and Hierro turned to deal with the new threat.

Meanwhile, Alex was trying not to get pinned by the Muk's sludgy arms while keeping it away from the fleeing civilians. He saw two young men go for pokeballs on their belts, but Alex waved them away. "Let me handle this! You two get everyone clear!" One of the men looked like he was about to argue, but his buddy grabbed his arm and pulled him along. One of Envy's men whistled to the Muk, and the hulking poison type started to turn its ponderous bulk towards the fight with the Shadow and Hierro. "Oh no you don't," Alex growled and seized one of the wrought-iron chairs from the patio of a nearby bistro. He hurled the chair at the Muk's head, where it sank into the sludge. The Muk bellowed in indignation and wrenched the chair from its head before turning back to Alex.

He turned to the open door of the restaurant and saw the stunned customers huddled inside. "Give me something to throw!" he shouted. His fists and batons would be useless against the Muk, but the chair had done something, so it was worth another shot. One of the waiters rolled a small fire extinguisher out the door, and Alex grinned. "Yeah, that'll work."

As the Muk drew itself up, Alex sprayed it with a burst of white foam. The Muk recoiled from the substance, and Alex fired several more times, driving it back towards the storm drain it had bubbled up from. With each blast from the extinguisher, the poison type's body became reduced in size as the absorbent foam ate away at it. Before it slipped back through the cracks, its trainer returned it to its pokeball, and Alex turned his attention to the other fight.

But Hierro and the Shadow had held their own, and had Envy's capos on the run. Hierro hurled the Mawile back at its trainer, and sent both of them to the ground. Alecto and Apate ran circles around the Banette before Apate sucker punched it into the recovering Crobat. The Shadow ducked past the Roserade's thorny whips and used the butt of her staff to knock the grass type sprawling. When Alex joined the fight, he used his stun batons to quickly drop two of the capos, and the third cut his losses and ran off.

The Shadow hissed through her teeth and grabbed her left arm. "What's wrong?" Alex asked.

"The damn Roserade got me," the Shadow said, and moved her hand just enough for Alex to see the tear in the fabric of her sleeve. The wound below was a long, shallow cut, but the skin around it was already starting to go a mottled yellow and purple as the toxins from the Roserade's claws seeped into the Shadow's bloodstream. When she saw the concern on Alex's face, the Shadow waved him away. "It's going to slow me down, but I can keep going. I'll get it taken care of at St. Wulf's."

They took off into the night again, and it wasn't long before the Shadow dragged Alex into the doorframe of an abandoned three-story building. Her hands shook as she pulled out her lock picks and tinkered with the deadbolt. After watching her struggle for a moment, Alex glanced up and down the quiet street. "No one lives here, right?"

"No, it's been abandoned for at least a decade. Even the squatters don't come around here anymore."

"Then stand back." Alex threw out a kick just to the side of the lock, and the door fell back on its hinges with a bang. The Shadow managed a coy smile. "You sure that's in the hero rulebook, birdbrain?"

"Let's just keep moving."

The Shadow led him into the basement of the sagging building, and Alex wrinkled his nose at the smell of rot and mildew. The Shadow felt around on the floor before flinging back a trapdoor. Hierro shuddered as he looked down into the yawning black tunnel, but Alex rubbed a hand through his feathers. "It's just for a little while, buddy."

Alex, the Shadow, and their pokemon descended into the depths. Apate and Alecto took off ahead and vanished into the darkness. The Shadow fumbled at her equipment belt before pulling out an industrial glow stick. She cracked it, and soon the corridor was filled with sickly greenish phosphorescent light. They trudged along through the tunnel, and after a little while, the Shadow sagged against the wall. "Just give me a sec," she said through clenched teeth. She gathered herself up and continued to limp along. Hierro made a concerned chirp and glanced at Alex. Alex nodded and stooped to get under the Shadow's dangling left arm before standing up to bear her weight.

"What the hell are you doing, birdbrain?" Alex knew she probably meant to sound indignant, but she just sounded tired.

"I promised you I'd get you to St. Wulfric's, and a hero doesn't break his promises."

"You sound like a moron."

"You might be surprised to know that I actually am a moron."

The Shadow's face brightened up, and she let loose a peal of laughter. "Yeah, birdbrain, I noticed."

Eventually, they reached the end of the tunnel. Alecto and Apate waited at the base of an old wooden ladder, and Alex left the Shadow with her pokemon as he climbed up and raised the trapdoor on this end and inch to survey the surroundings. They were in the basement of another seemingly abandoned building, and once he had ascertained that no one was lying in wait for them, he helped the rest of them up.

When they emerged back out on the street, the Shadow nodded towards a church steeple rising above the rooftops. "It's just over there."

"Okay. Stay with me now."

Hierro and Alecto led the way, while Apate crouched by her trainer's heels. At this time of night, just a few of the tenement buildings had lights in the windows, and most of the streetlights had turned off. When they finally emerged in the small square in front of St. Wulfric's, Alex let out a sigh of relief. As he and the Shadow made their way up the stairs to the carved wooden doors of the Arcean church, he heard the heavy tramp of steel-toed boots on the cobblestones behind him.

"Found you," a woman rasped as she ducked out of the shadows across the square. An Arbok slithered after her, and she drew a long, curved knife from her belt. "Get them!"

Three more men appeared, accompanied by their pokemon. Alex slid the Shadow off his shoulders, and she slumped against the door. "Damn it," she whispered. "So fucking close."

"This isn't over yet," Alex growled.

"We can't win this, birdbrain."

"But we're sure as hell not giving up. Hierro! Let's go!"

He and his partner raced down the steps and jumped in tandem to deliver a double kick to a pouncing Liepard. The feline recoiled with a snarl, and Alex and Hierro stood back to back as their foes advanced. Alex knew the odds were long, but he had come this far. Part of being a hero was never giving up, no matter how dark things seemed. The Hammer made no secret that he would always bet on the heroes of Clarus City, and Alex was going to take those odds, even if they seemed long.

As their foes closed in, Alex felt Hierro take a deep breath and puff out his feathers. "So much for a night off," Alex said. When Hierro shrugged, Alex couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, sitting at home isn't really our style." The Arbok lunged, but before Alex even had the chance to counterattack, the snake was blown away by a concussive blast of sound.

"Bang! Bang!" someone screamed, and two more of Alex's assailants were lifted off their feet and flung backwards. "BangbangbangbangbangBANG!" With each vocalization, more of Envy's goons were hurled back against the surrounding masonry, clearing the square.

A dark shape dropped out of the sky and shrieked, making the stained glass windows of the church rattle in their frames. A figure jumped off the Noivern's back and swung a red guitar around on her shoulder. A Loudred and an Exploud jumped down from two nearby buildings, and Alex felt his knees go weak with relief. "Echo! Am I glad to see you!"

"Hawlucha M-Man? Wh-What are you doing in G-Greenpoint?"

"It's a long story." The woman with the Arbok managed to get to her feet and shouted to rally her stunned allies. Alex switched his grip on his batons and settled into a fighting crouch. "For now, want to help me deal with these guys?"

Echo face twisted into a fierce, predatory smile. "Let's wr-reck their shit."