Furret Abigail barely talked to boys her age. Whenever she did, they were kind of gross. She couldn't relate to them. It could be part of why she found herself falling quiet as Buizel Zen, Quilava Gawain, and shiny Zorua Aaron set her things down around her new room. She stood in the middle with the water pit in front of her and the velvet bed covered with curtains behind her. When they finished, her muscles in her mouth locked her face.
The three pokemon all turned towards her after finishing up, closing the distance between each other and walking with a city swing in their legs.
"Hey, Abigail," Zen said, "it's okay if you just want some time to yourself. We don't want to stress you out."
"Oh, I'm good," Abigail said. "Sorry."
"Well, we just want you to be happy one way or the other."
"Or the other," Aaron snickered. A smile invaded Zen's face while Quilava Gawain didn't seem to react.
Although they weren't doing anything, their attention somehow turned to the water pit. The princes all walked around it, stopping at its edge and gazing down.
"Hey, I can show you how to use this," Aaron said. "It's a thing on your phone. Should be like an app or something."
"I think I got it," Abigail said, "but I didn't know it was on my phone."
"You should fire it up. Zen loves sitting in water. A lot. A whole lot. All the lots."
"I'm good, man," Zen said.
Abigail grabbed her phone while setting down her cape on her bed. On the screen, a new layout greeted her when she opened it, along with new icons.
"What's up?" Gawain asked.
"I don't... know," Abigail said. She looked at the names of the new apps, but it didn't help.
"Lemme have a look," Aaron said, approaching.
Abigail bent down and gave the phone to him. His eyes grazed over every screen he flipped through.
"Oh, right. That special rank, Lodestar," Aaron said. "They gave you some extra permissions that even master ranks don't have. Looks like they named this set of perms the Compass."
"What do they do?" Abigail asked.
"Lots of overarching commands. Definitely looks like they're trying to shove you in the direction of Overlord rank... You can direct teams to respond to situations, get a color coded view on crime levels updated daily, and tons of ways to micromanage however you want for big bads. That's almost all the info the N.A. has, but it looks like there are some training wheel things."
"Is there something I have to do?"
Aaron scrolled for another second. "Nah. And they'll explain it better than I could, so you can ignore that. What you should totally check out is this app."
Aaron tossed the phone in the air to reach up to Abigail's paws. When she grabbed it, the screen background was of a calm ocean.
"You can turn it on and off," he explained, "change the temperature and amount. Only platinum ranks and above have these since they live in the building."
"When you say it like that, it feels like I'm cheating." Abigail pushed the button until it responded and turned on the water pit. She increased the temperature to about ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit and selected to start.
The pit gave off a buzzing sound, then steaming hot water poured out of faucets along the edge.
"Well, which part of your training felt like an internship?" Gawain asked.
Abigail got a smile plastered on her face from a memory. Curiosity flashed between the princes' eyes.
"There's a story there," Aaron said, smiling.
"Mmmm," Abigail sighed.
They all sat around the edge of the pit while it filled up.
"Ok. Fine," she said. "Sarah Murrow, a Jolteon. My mom never said how they met, but they were in a Guild the first week of our training, she had me run errands for her all day everyday until I lost my cool and toppled a tree."
"Was there some kind of convoluted lesson she was doing?" Aaron asked.
"She thought I was too young to actually do anything. After that tree came down was when she actually started to teach."
"Well, experiences like that brought you up here," Gawain said. "So there's nothing to feel awkward about. Except maybe Zen."
Abigail turned her attention towards Buizel Zen, but had to look around. She found him when she looked down.
Zen had gone into the water pit. His head, darkened from being wet, stuck up from under the surface. He stared back with a blank, happy expression without responding.
Abigail turned towards the other two and shrugged. She put a foot in testing the heat before dipping them both in. She swung them back and forth letting out a long sigh and closing her eyes. There were other stories she could tell that would be interesting.
"Sarah had a track record of being pretty aggressive before she sent me off to do chores," Abigail said. "Probably still is. But I was pretty impatient to get started, with her being my first teacher and everything. I do remember one day I was happy to help, though."
"What for?" Aaron asked.
"It was this Luxio she was trying to... get to know. Watching her fail just kind of… I don't want to say it felt great, but it was entertaining."
"What'd she do?"
"She tried to impress him by showing off how strong she was," she explained. "The stuff you'd expect guys here to do to show off. Including, but not limited to, curling his entire body with one arm."
"Zen doesn't mind being tossed around," Aaron said.
Buizel Zen whipped his tail, sending water droplets smack him across his face. Zorua Aaron leaned back and covered his face in time.
"Well, his pride kept getting all hurt till he left that part of the woods," Abigail said. "I'm not sure if she ever found someone."
Abigail lowered herself into the water, biting her lip. The water's temperature soothed her muscles. A relaxed sigh slipped between her lips.
"S-so," Zen's voice cracked, "is there anything you want to do in the city?"
"Uhm, I don't know," Abigail said.
"The way you say that makes it sound like you know."
"I don't know," she repeated.
"No need to be shy," Aaron said. "We won't judge you. I also want to go to a party and finally be the cool one."
"I guess I've been kind of wanting to go to a spa..." Abigail muttered. "I've never been to one, and I know they have cool styles and stuff."
"We could set you up with the best spa tonight," Zen offered. "Announce that we're coming for a reservation."
"That sounds nice... but I'd prefer a normal reservation."
"Keepin it chill," Aaron observed, "clean."
"Clean," Zen repeated.
"Clean," Gawain said.
Abigail opened her eyes and looked up at all of them. They were all giggling to each other.
"What?" Abigail questioned.
"Oh," Zen blurted, "uhm..."
"Do you know what a meme is?" Aaron asked.
Abigail had definitely heard the word before, but didn't know the exact definition. She had seen a bunch of different things be called that and couldn't tell.
"No," she answered.
"We'll explain it later," Zen said, "it's complicated. And kind of weird."
Abigail wiggled her back, sending a few light ripples through the water. When it cracked, it sent a wave of looseness all the way to the tip of her tail. A short, gentle rumble left her throat as she smiled.
"Oh, crap..." Aaron murmured. "Hey Zen... Shoot."
Abigail opened her eyes and looked at Zen. He stared straight at her, with a bit of an unnatural dumbfounded look. Although it would normally be creepy, he stared past her face. It didn't seem quite normal.
"He got overloaded," Aaron said.
"What's that mean?" Gawain asked.
"Well, you know how the Veritan blessing makes emotions stronger?" Aaron asked. "Zen's Veritan blessing is strong, so he spaces out sometimes when he's... you know. Feels an emotion. Strongly."
"It's like staring at a pretty girl, but multiplied?"
"Hey," Aaron hushed, "dude, cheap shot."
Abigail's face had heat flow into it. She'd normally call him a creep, but it wasn't even something in his control. Still, it felt creepy knowing that. It wouldn't be fair to be harsh about something like this, though. She could deal with it.
"It's okay," Abigail said, "I understand."
"Before we could tell anyone about the blessing, it just kind of sucked," Aaron groaned. "I'm glad he can be himself without us having to make all sorts of lies about it."
A few seconds later, Zen's eyes snapped back to life. His confused stare darted around from one pair to another.
"It's okay," Abigail said.
"Uh, sorry," Zen said, "Uh, what just happened?"
"The, uh… thing."
"Oh…" his eyes fell. "Uh, sorry."
"It's okay."
Abigail pushed a small tuft of fur on her forehead. She smiled and swiveled her tail in the water. Before Zen could reply, Abigail's phone rang.
Zorua Aaron stood up and brought it to Furret Abigail from her bed. He scrolled through it as he came back over to the rim on her side.
"Looks like an alert for a crime," Aaron said.
"What kind of crime?" Abigail asked.
"A robbery. At some antique store."
Abigail grunted and pulled herself out of the water. She squeezed the water out of her tail, making a short rainfall in the pit before she took the phone in her paws.
"I think I better get on this," Abigail said.
"Nightlights are always close by in this area," Zen said. "There are people around to react to these things. Your only job is that orb, remember?"
"Remember what Anne said about antiques? I should probably check this out. How do I work the window?"
The princes all fell silent at her question. Abigail had a feeling she knew why.
A glider made for her rested against the wall in the corner of the room. Nightlights, specifically ones in the tower, used them to react to crimes by jumping out of the window and gliding to the scene within two or three minutes. Most Nightlights didn't really do it anymore, but Abigail went through training to be able to. She wanted to get to that store, fast.
"Push that red button on the wall there three times," Aaron explained. "Two times fast, then wait a second or two. then press it again."
"Aaron," Zen hissed.
"She wants to. And she's got this. Right?"
"Yah," she said. "I've trained for this."
Abigail went to her bed and grabbed the Grapplers along with her brown cape. She slid the metal bracelets over each wrist and checked the metal cylinders on top with a tug. After, she went to the wall close to the line of windows that were covered by curtains.
The glider was a long, steel pole with brown fabric wings leaning against the glass covering the red button. She grabbed it and used her other paw to open the glass panel and press the button how Aaron told her to.
The pale white curtains over the windows rolled back, and her phone made a small beeping noise back in her cape pocket. The windows opened from the bottom.
The blast of cold wind dampened her spirit, but she kept it alive. Abigail glanced back and saw the three princes hugging the wall on the other side of the room.
"Have fun!" Aaron called.
Abigail leaned forward to look down over the edge. A chill made her reel back.
Skyscrapers reached up towards a clear, blue sky. Movement pulsated on the streets. The concrete buildings above it all were still lower than where she looked out from. She held the handles of the glider as tight as she could and jumped.
As soon as she fell down, Abigail wrapped her body around the pole for more control. She let herself fall to pick up speed, then pulled down on the handles to catch the screaming, cold wind. The glider shot up into the air. The ragged cloth wings became firm.
The short, mid-air journey ended up much more peaceful than Abigail imagined. The concrete buildings were all in rows, so she didn't have to move to avoid colliding and possibly dying hitting a skyscraper at sixty miles per hour. The wind tugged her ears to the back of her head and pulled on the sides of her face, but she could endure that much with ease.
The hardest part was figuring out where to go. Abigail glanced at the location and chose the right direction, but she didn't know how many blocks down to go. The street was still far underneath her, and it stopped her from picking out how the general atmosphere of the streets below differentiated. She decided to take a guess at her only clue, a street dense with pokemon moving away from a certain point. An empty area in the streets at this hour drew her curiosity one way or another.
Abigail pushed up on the handles. The glider's momentum deteriorated into nothing. She twisted the handles and put them together, stretching the glider into a makeshift parachute for her to float down with.
At first, she thought it'd take a while, but Abigail fell at a good clip. The windows of the skyscraper she was next to whizzed past at blood curdling speed. She braced for impact with the street below.
Her feet stung. Abigail stomped on the gritty street with each foot to get the feeling to stop.
The scene she landed in paused. Abigail brought the glider down to her side as she looked around herself in a circle to see where she ended up. Every single pokemon she saw stared back at her. A Mankey hanging on a lamppost and a wall of other pokemon froze down the street, along with a carriage on the road.
A view of antiques through a window in the building right next to where she landed caught her attention. A Mawile, Simisage, Dedenne, and Hypno were lined up in front of the entrance with sacks over their shoulders. She had caught people red-handed before, but the sacks over their backs were a little overkill.
"Aaaaaaw, hell no," Simisage said. "This ain't right."
Abigail swayed her weight and crossed her arms. She blinked a few times. Their looks of sheer horror brought it all together. She landed at the right spot.
"Sorry," Hypno said. "This is past the worst-case scenario."
"No kidding," Simisage huffed. "Okay."
They had a plan. Abigail acted fast and rushed forward.
They all charged except for Hypno. He turned and ran.
Mawile reached her first. She punched at Abigail, trying to use her whole body in it.
Abigail sidestepped it and wrapped her tail around Mawile's second mouth. Dedenne jumped to tackle her to the ground. Abigail grabbed his face and chucked him away.
Simisage came last, jabbing with his left. Abigail blocked two jabs, then ducked under a wide right swing. She jabbed him in his side, then swung her whole body and the Mawile wrapped in her tail.
Abigail cringed at a few breaking sounds when they crumbled to the ground with their bags, but she had to go after the Hypno now.
Hypno ran fast. He turned the street corner when Abigail looked up. She couldn't catch up to his head start on foot with the buildings in the way, but she could grapple over them. She ran to the center of the road and aimed her arm up at the roof. She put a touch of red hot energy through her arm.
It didn't fire. Abigail tried again with a lot more force, but it still didn't work. With fast-pumping blood, she turned the Grappler over to see the problem.
Abigail cried out. The Grappler shot off and hit her across the nose. She held her nose in her paws as the cylinder flew up in the air.
It fell back down on top of her head. She grunted again, cussing into her paws while the metal bounced on the street.
The cylinder snapped back on her wrist, which was on her face under her nose.. Abigail screamed when it hit her.
Her nose hurt like a miniature, hot hell now. She closed her eyes, tugging the Grapplers off of her wrists and letting them fall to the ground, then went back to holding the fire on her nose.
"Is she alright...?" someone asked.
Abigail grabbed the hood of her cape and put it on. She wasn't catching that Hypno, or letting a single soul see her face after that.
