?, Sinnoh
In the dead of night, a familiar Snivy was rummaging through her room.
Sophie put a familiar, yellow backpack on her bed. She let out a brief sigh as she looked at it. The Snivy looked around her room, quickly locating a flashlight in her closet. It was old, and mostly covered with lint and dust. She wiped off the flashlight, hoping that it would work.
When she pressed the button on it, it flickered a bit before covering the targeted area with a dim light. She looked at the emitted light with a deadpan expression, before reluctantly nodding.
"Good enough..." She thought, beginning to walk out of her room.
She gripped the flashlight in her hand, wondering why she was doing this. She knew it was the right thing to do, but when was she ever concerned about doing the right thing? It wasn't like her to do things like these.
The Snivy walked out of her room, only to be immediately met by a familiar Drifloon and Monferno.
"Sophie?" Lana asked, moving closer to her. "Why are you up so late? We're not on night patrol today."
"I could ask you the same, Lana." The Snivy replied, lowering an eyebrow. "Why are you up at this time, too?"
"We heard noises from your room." Trevor interjected, "Don't start thinking that you're slick." He gave a deadpan expression.
"Well, it's nothing. I just needed some water." Sophie told the two, beginning to walk off. "You two can go back to bed."
As she walked off, Lana and Trevor looked at each other with confusion.
When Sophie rounded the corner, she instantly let out a shaky sigh. She was almost caught before she even did anything. After taking a moment to breathe, the Snivy was hit with a sudden wave of guilt.
Lana and Trevor, despite the clear differences between her and them, were still her closest friends. She hated to lie to them about what she was doing in her life, but knew that it would be for the best that they don't risk getting involved.
She looked around the dark hallway, turning on her flashlight to navigate it. She scanned the light over the door at the end of the hallway, seeing that it led to the main room.
A determined glare developed on her face, knowing that as soon as she crossed the main room, there would be a thin line between keeping a good reputation, and being confined to her room until further notice.
She shook her head softly, walking over to the door leading into the main room.
Sophie quietly walked into Oliver's cell, crouching down to see that the Oshawott was sleeping. She also noticed that Oliver's shackles were broken from the wall. The Snivy confusedly looked at the wall, realizing what had happened.
"S-Sophie?"
Her right eye suddenly locked onto the Oshawott before quickly using Dragon Claw. Oliver saw the attack before quickly leaning as far as he could to the left. The attack struck the wall, making it crack. He let out a shaky sigh, looking at the purple claw in the wall.
"Please don't kill me!" Oliver exclaimed, "I won't tell anyone about your eye, I swear!"
It must've been then.
Sophie let out an exasperated sigh, tapping the Oshawott's head in an attempt to wake him up. She continued to do so until she heard a soft groan.
"Sophie...?" The Oshawott asked, groggily lifting his head.
"Hey, Oliver." The Snivy greeted, her cold expression softening a bit. "Are you doing okay?"
"I'm fine..." Oliver answered, sitting up from the floor. "...But why are you even up this late at night?"
"How do you know it's late at night?" Sophie inquired quickly.
"Well I noticed that it gets a bit colder whenever you leave to go to sleep." The Oshawott told her. "Also, the areas under your eyes are slightly darkened..." He commented.
"Nevermind that." The Snivy quickly interjected, rubbing the areas under her eyes. "I have to tell you something."
"What is it?" Oliver asked, raising an eyebrow.
"So that member that's going to erase your memory..." The Grass Snake Pokémon began to sweat nervously, "...She's coming tomorrow morning."
Oliver's eyes widened. He was put into a quick state of shock for a moment. But as quick as the shock filled his mind, he felt a different feeling in his chest.
"Doesn't that mean... I won't remember you after tomorrow?"
"You will." Sophie shook her head, "Because I won't let that happen to you and your friend."
"What do you mean?"
"...I'm getting you out of here. Now."
"Wait... You mean...?"
"I'm going to try and help you escape."
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" The Oshawott excitedly jumped towards her, hugging the Snivy. "You're a lifesaver!"
"Hm... Yeah." A small and unnoticeable smile formed on Sophie's face as she returned the hug.
Oliver and Sophie both snuck out of the cell, looking around to see if there was anyone around. The Oshawott slung his backpack over his shoulders, making sure to tighten the straps. Once Sophie registered that they were alone, she instantly dashed off, grabbing Oliver's paw and pulling him with her
"Where are we going?" The Oshawott asked, trying to keep his footing.
"To your friend's cell." She answered determinedly. "Hopefully he's there."
The two continued to run through the halls of the basement in silence, only their faint panting and light footsteps could be heard. Oliver decided not to speak for a while, as he was a bit confused by the Snivy's actions.
They weren't enemies, but it wasn't like they were exactly friends either. They were friendly, sure, but Sophie seemed to make it clear to him that they weren't friends. Why was she helping him now? Why hadn't she done it sooner?
"Sophie."
"Huh?" The Snivy looked back as she ran, looking at the Oshawott. "What's wrong? Do you need to stop?"
"No..." Oliver shook his head. "...I just wanted to ask you something."
"Shoot."
"Why are you doing this?" He asked reluctantly, "Isn't this a deliberate act of betrayal to your gang?"
"Technically, I'm not a member of the gang."
"What? You're not?"
"Yeah, I was somewhat roped in with this gang." Sophie explained, "I didn't really have anywhere else to go, so I just began to live with them."
"Oh... But that still doesn't explain why you're doing this." Oliver told her. "We barely know each other, and you don't really consider me a friend."
"I don't. But you and him still don't deserve this."
Sophie knew she was lying. No matter how hard she tried to hold up her long-standing coldhearted demeanor, she couldn't deny that she had grown quite fond of the Oshawott. She could actually tolerate whenever she was around him, and considered him her friend.
But she couldn't tell him that. He would grow attached to her and end up getting mixed up in her mess. It was a little selfish, but one of the reasons she was trying to break Oliver and Jacob out was so that she wouldn't get attached to either of them herself.
The duo stopped at a spiraling staircase leading downwards.
"Is down there where Jacob is?"
"Yes, and no."
"What do you mean?" Oliver looked at her confusedly, adjusting the backpack rested over his shoulders.
"On the way down the stairs, there's a secret passage leading to solitary confinement." She answered, "It's hard to see, since the door is made out of the same material as the walls."
As Sophie spoke, she began to walk down the tattered concrete steps, followed by Oliver. The Snivy scanned the wall with her hand, focusing on the slight bumps on it.
Eventually, her hand traced over a part of the wall, which was dented inwards. "...Found it." She pulled on the dent lightly, causing a door in the wall to open.
Oliver noticed that as the door opened, it harshly rubbed against a stair the door was leveled with. "Who made the design for this? It's really bad.." The Oshawott commented as Sophie walked in.
"The gang did themselves." The Snivy told him, gently tugging him into the hidden hallway, as well.
Once Oliver was in the hallway, Sophie went to quickly close the door. The Oshawott looked down the hallway, and noticed a cell. When Oliver looked a bit closer, he could see a familiar Pikachu sitting down against the wall.
"Jacob!" The Oshawott immediately ran down the hallway and towards the cell, gripping his paws on the cell bars.
"Huh... Oliver...?" The Pikachu looked up to see Oliver looking back at him. "Hey what's up, dude?"
Sophie walked over before unlocking the cell, allowing Oliver to run in. As the Oshawott slid to a stop in front of Jacob, Sophie walked up as well with her usual flat expression.
"Thank Arceus you're..." Oliver looked at all of the Pikachu's bruises, "...Somewhat okay."
"Yeah." The Pikachu chuckled, rubbing the back of his head softly. "I might've... Resisted them a bit."
The duo laughed for a moment before Jacob quickly stopped.
"Wait, what are you doing here?" He asked quickly, "Same for you, Snivy. What are both of you doing in this place?"
"Snivy?" Sophie raised an eyebrow, before remembering that she had never told Jacob her name. "It's Sophie."
"I'm Jacob." The Pikachu grinned, standing up. "So why are you guys in here and not in some cell?"
"Sophie's planning to break us out of here." Oliver explained, "Once we figure out how to leave, we'll be finally safe again."
Sophie flinched at the Oshawott's cheerful explanation. She knew that they were going to leave eventually, memories or not. But up until she decided to plan an escape for them, she was counting on them losing their memories, and Sophie would originally forget about them over time.
Before the Snivy could speak up, the three suddenly jumped at the sound of the entrance to the hallway leading up to the cell opening.
"Shit." Sophie cursed, looking around for a solution.
"Oh no... What do we do?" Oliver looked around, pacing back and forth. He then noticed something on the ceiling. "Guys!" The Oshawott quietly exclaimed, "I have a plan."
The hidden door opened, revealing to be a slightly agitated Binks. He let out a huff of hot air from his nose, beginning to walk over to Jacob's cell.
While the Emboar approached, Oliver managed to break something on the roof using his scalchop, along with the help of stacking on top of Sophie and Jacob.
Earlier, Oliver had spotted an air vent at the cell's top. It was directly above, so they had to stack and open it up. Once Oliver had broken two parallel screws on the vent, it opened up, the other two screws keeping it hanging.
The Oshawott quickly climbed into the vent, followed by Sophie, who jumped up and grabbed Oliver's paws to pull herself in.
"Jacob, come on!" Oliver quietly shouted, hoping that Jacob would grab his paw.
Jacob looked between Binks, who could nearly see the Pikachu, and his friend Oliver, who wore a panicked expression. The Pikachu dashed towards a wall before jumping off of it and slamming the vent shut.
"Go without me." The Pikachu told the two as he hung from the vent. "I'll be fine for now." He let go of the vent before landing on the ground.
"The idiot." Sophie sighed, crawling to be in front of Oliver.
"That was actually a smart move, Sophie." The Oshawott told her with a nervous smile. "By this time, people must be figuring out that I'm not in my cell anymore, so it would raise a higher alert for both of us to be on the loose."
"I guess you have a point." The Snivy began to crawl through the vents, Oliver shuffling behind.
Meanwhile, the Pikachu fell to the floor as Binks finally walked up to his cell.
"Why were you hanging from that vent?" The Emboar asked, "Were you trying to make another escape?"
"Yeah, but the vent's too strong to open..." Jacob groaned dramatically, sitting down."
"You're damn right it is." Binks huffed cockily, "Our gang built this place from just some random hotel. You'd need some type of tool to open that."
Jacob chucked, thinking about Oliver's scalchop.
"What are you chucklin' about there?" The Emboar asked loudly, "You know that in just a few hours, you'll have your memory erased. Same for your friend."
"Sure." The Pikachu joked, rolling his eyes with a confident smirk.
"You seem pretty sure of yourself, huh?" Binks asked, his eye twitching slightly.
"I guess you could say that." Jacob let out a content sigh, putting his paws behind his head.
The two climbed out of the vent, appearing to be in a dark room. Soon after Sophie climbed out, she turned on the light, showing the Oshawott that it was a bathroom.
"Sophie?" Oliver asked, climbing out after her. "Why did you lead us to the bathroom?"
"This is the closest place to my bedroom."
"How do you know that?"
"I used to go into the ventilation system a lot when I was younger, so once I could recognize where we were, it was easy to navigate."
"Oh, okay." Oliver nodded, slightly unsure as to why Sophie would be in the vents when she was younger. "You lead the way."
The Snivy nodded, turning the light back off before slowly opening the door. Once she realized that the hallway lights were still off, she let out a sigh of relief, non-verbally signaling Oliver to follow behind her.
The Oshawott nodded, staying behind her as they quietly moved through the hallway. Once the two approached Sophie's room, she opened the door, only to see Lana and Trevor sitting on her bed.
"Sophie, there you are!" Lana exclaimed, "We've been meaning to talk to you-" Before the Drifloon finished, The Snivy slammed the door shut.
"What's wrong?" Oliver asked.
"Back to the bathroom, go!" She exclaimed in a hush shout, pushing Oliver to run back. She held the door closed, and once she saw Oliver enter the bathroom, she let go of the door and ran back herself.
Trevor and Lana both came out of the room, seeing the bathroom door shut down the hall. The Drifloon and Monferno both looked at each other, giving the other a nod. The two then began to walk over to the bathroom door.
While they walked over, Sophie pinned herself against the door, making sure that it wouldn't be opened by anyone.
"What just happened?" Oliver asked, taking deep and heavy breaths.
"Lana and Trevor were just in my room..."
"Who?"
"The only two Pokémon here that I consider actual friends." After the Snivy spoke, there was a knock on the door, making her jump. "Get in the vent."
"What?"
"Get in!"
The Oshawott quickly nodded at her commanding expression, opening the vent before crawling into it. After he crawled in, Sophie dashed over before closing the vent back up and letting out a sigh.
Soon after, Trevor opened the door, looking into it. "Sophie?"
"Yes?" The Snivy turned around, trying her best to put on her usual uninterested face.
"We've been worried about you lately." Lana told her. "Whenever we try to see you, you're either holed up in your room, or down in the cells to watch that Oshawott."
"I've been busy." The Snivy replied, "I was given an actual assignment to carry out, and I've been putting all of my effort in to accomplish that."
"But this morning, you were acting all strange." The Monferno interjected, "You were sneaking around, saying that you needed some water. It was weird, because you always keep a stash of food and water in your room."
Sophie's expression darkened. She hadn't expected them to actually remember that she would do that. The last time they've been in her room before that night was a few years prior.
"I needed some cold water. I had a nightmare."
"I thought you never got nightmares." Lana gave her an inquisitive expression.
"Well, there's a first time for everything." Sophie quickly replied. "Listen, you two. There's nothing to be worried about. I'm just fine."
"Well... If you say so." Trevor shrugged, walking out.
"Just... Stay safe, alright?" Lana smiled nervously.
Sophie nodded in response. Soon after, the two left, going to their individual rooms.
Once the Snivy knew they were gone, she let out a sigh of relief. "Oliver, you can come out, now."
The Oshawott opened the vent hesitantly, looking around. "Your friends are gone, right?"
"Yes." Sophie answered, helping Oliver up. "All I have to do is get you back to my room, and we can make a new plan on how to get Jacob back. Understand?"
Oliver nodded in confirmation.
"Good." The Snivy looked out of the door. "Follow me."
Sophie turned off the bathroom light, making the whole area become pitch-black. She grabbed Oliver's paw in order to not get separated, and quickly ran through the hall until they reached Sophie's room.
She let Oliver go in first before looking around and walking in herself. The Snivy walked through the dark room, eventually turning on a lamp in the far right corner.
"Wow..." Oliver looked around. "...Your room is so... Tidy."
"What'd you think it would look like?" The Grass Snake Pokémon raised an eyebrow, looking at the Oshawott.
"Maybe a bit more messy.." Oliver commented as Sophie reached into a nearby drawer, pulling out two Oran berries.
"Well, I guess you were wrong." Sophie bluntly spoke, throwing over the Oran berry to Oliver. "Eat up. We have a long morning tomorrow."
"It isn't morning now?" The Oshawott questioned.
"No." The Snivy climbed onto her bed before pulling out a device from under her pillow. "We have about six hours before it hits seven in the morning. I'm setting an alarm for seven-thirty."
"Wait... Are you going to sleep?"
"No, we're going to sleep." Sophie replied flatly. "You can have the other side of the bed after you finish that berry."
"How can you be so calm about having me in here?" Oliver asked, "Wouldn't you be the first to be asked about me when they realized I escaped?"
"No. They would only check for you on the date of when it's planned to have your memory erased, tomorrow, and all I have to do is come up with a feasible lie."
"Oh, fine then." The Oshawott nodded, biting into his Oran berry. "...So what are you going to do after we're gone?"
"I decided that I would stay here, and maybe begin to look into my history." Sophie explained. "I know I've been dancing around it, only looking into how I can use my abilities. I want to know where they come from."
"That sounds like a pretty good goal." Oliver smiled.
"Honestly, I hope I can figure out my history." The Snivy continued, "...So I could build a future that I'm proud of."
"Wow..." The Oshawott's eyes widened. "...That's pretty poetic when you think about it."
"I guess so."
"I hope that one day I can find a goal to chase after."
"You don't have one?" Sophie raised an eyebrow. "What about travelling?"
"That's more of Jacob's goal." He answered, "I just came along because I didn't have much to do, and because it sounded fun."
"Hm..."
"So no, I don't really have a goal."
"So?" Sophie asked, "You don't necessarily need a goal to reach in order to travel. Just doing it for fun is more than what others can say about their accomplishments."
"I guess you have a point." Oliver took his backpack off and opened it up.
"What are you doing?" Sophie asked.
"I haven't taken out my contacts in days." The Oshawott put his contact case down in front of him. "That can't be good for my health." Oliver took out the contact that was in his left eye, putting it in it's container.
"I didn't know you wore contacts."
"Yeah, well that's how it is." He shrugged, taking out the other contact. Once he put both contacts into his case, he let out a satisfied sigh.
"We should probably get to sleep now." Sophie tucked under her covers. "We have a long morning ahead."
"You're right." Oliver put his contact case into his backpack before climbing onto the other side of the bed.
"Night, Sophie."
"Goodnight, Oliver."