[Author's Note: This chapter is a little unusual, so I highly recommend that you read it in its proper format (PDF file) here: bit.ly/szWeGT
(Edit: Fixed the link!)
See you next Friday!]
One door after another. The time is running together. How long have I been here? I can't Comprehend it. I don't even know.
But I will not give up. I must find the way.
–* * *–
Saffron – the City of Golden Radiance. Even after all that Ash had seen, the bright lights and teeming millions never ceased to amaze the small-town boy.
"All right, we'll come along with you," Misty and Brock had finally agreed. "But only if we get to go to the legendary Saffron City Mall first!" After which, they found a table at the food court to sit down.
"That was a close call at Cinnabar, Ash," said Brock. "But I hope you have a plan here. 'Cuz the Silph Corporation Headquarters is one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the world."
"Yeah," Misty added. "I don't think your usual 'make it up as you go' approach is gonna work here."
"Way ahead of ya, guys." He produced an orange reflective vest and a pink tutu.
"…"
"…"
– – –
They gathered in a huddle in the lobby of the Silph Headquarters building, next to the grand fountain. "All right, you guys ready?" asked Ash. They nodded, and placed their hands together.
"Okay. One, two, three…"
"Getto da ze!" said Misty.
Misty punched the button in the nearby waiting elevator, and as it rose upward at high speed, she made an effort to summon artificial tears. They came right on cue, just as the door opened to the fifteenth floor.
The guard in the lobby took another bite out of his doughnut, glancing at the clock. 5:58… just another two minutes…
"Excuse me, sir?" He turned to the little girl in the pink tutu who was tugging at his uniform. "Have you seen Abra?"
"Uh… sorry miss, what's the matter?"
"My Abra ran off and I don't know where he is! I've looked all over!"
"Well, what do you want me to do?" the guard asked.
"Can you help me look for him?"
"Damn it, my shift's almost over! Can't you just catch another one? And what are you doing here, anyway?"
The little girl hugged her doll and stared back at him with wide, watery eyes. "But Abra… he was my friend… Please, I'd do anything to see him again!" she sobbed.
He replied with some reluctance, "All right, all right, just stop crying already!"
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" She hugged him as hard as she could.
"Okay, where did you last see it?"
"I think he might have teleported into that room there." She pointed at the entrance to the Electronics Research Lab.
"Oh no, that's a restricted area, I can't take you in there."
"But– Abra– my friend–"
"Fine, fine! I'll tell you what. You wait here, and I'll go in and look." She nodded silently, and the guard entered with a card key. As the door was falling closed, Misty quickly slapped a piece of duct tape onto the latch and threw off her uncomfortable costume, just as Ash came around the corner.
– – –
"Getto da ze!" said Ash and Brock.
Ash turned to address Brock. "Okay, now we need to find a way into the basement."
"Right. I think the stairs are over there somewhere." He walked over towards the corner of the building, trying not to appear conspicuous. However, the variously preoccupied employees of the Silph Corporation evidently had more pressing concerns than the shifty young Pokémon trainers lurking in their midst. Ash followed him to a door, which was, incidentally, designated "STAIRS."
Brock turned the door handle, to no avail. "Oh no, it must be locked!"
"Don't worry, I got it." Ash fished through his pocket to pull out a rectangular plastic card, which he bumped against the sensor by the door, causing it to unlock.
"Hey, where did you get that?"
"Uh, I found it on the floor…"
"I'm just gonna take this for what it is," he said, accepting the card from Ash. They entered the stairwell. "Okay, so now what?"
"Here. Take this, and this." Ash handed him the orange vest and Pikachu. "Now remember, wait for the exact time, down to the second. Oh, and don't forget, let's synch our watches."
Brock held their watches together and squeezed two buttons at once.
"Okay, good to go! Good luck Brock, Pikachu!"
"You too Ash." "Pi-ka!" Brock and Pikachu disappeared down the stairs to the lower level.
Ash emerged from the stairwell and strode back to the elevator to follow Misty up to the fifteenth floor. When the doors closed, and as the chimes were counting the floors up one by one, he threw a Pokéball to the ground. "Abra, I choose you!" With a loud burst he appeared.
"I hope this works," he muttered, checking his watch again nervously.
By the time he reached the top, Misty, out of sight around the corner, was well into her rehearsed routine. He quietly prodded Abra to follow the guard into the laboratory, and went around to meet her.
"Terrific performance, I almost believed it myself!"
"Yeah, well, I'd better get well compensated for this," she replied.
"You did good. But we're not done yet. I'll go ahead; you meet me down on the ground outside."
"Whatever you say, boss." She parted from him, back over towards the elevator.
Ash pulled the door open and went inside, where Abra bumped the gullible guard in the leg.
"Oh, there you are," said the guard, picking up the little Pokémon. "Miss, miss, I found your Abra!"
"That's right you did!" Ash shouted. "Teleport, now!"
The guard began to glow blue as he realized what was happening. "You – you little scoundrel."
"Haha, so long!" Ash taunted. Abra and the guard faded away, and Ash turned his attention to a door marked "Authorized Personnel Only." He looked at his watch one last time.
"Five, four, three, two, one…"
– – –
Misty mumbled to herself, "I can't believe I'm here helping him break into the headquarters of a multinational mega-corporation! I think he's become a bad influence on me…"
Along the way to the elevator, she clumsily shoved the pink tutu into a nearby "Biohazard" box, as if to spare others the indignity.
She serenely rode the elevator down, snapping and humming along to the relaxing music being piped in courtesy of the Silph Corporation.
"Dada dum dum dum, dada dum dadada dada–" But suddenly the elevator stopped and went dark.
– – –
Brock put on the vest and took some deep breaths to try and settle his nerves. "Okay. I can do this. Confidence is the key. Just stay calm…"
"Pikachu!" He at least was confident.
He came out from the column he was hiding behind, and walked briskly past the three guards standing in front of a door marked "DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE." "Quick!" he shouted, "We've got a, uh, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot situation up on the seventh floor. Hurry, I'll secure the area!"
The guards ran off, prompting Brock to observe, "Wow, they're stupider than I thought." He carded himself into the door, making sure it locked behind him, and scanned the panels of wires and switches for the one he was looking for. Pikachu meanwhile had a look about him resembling a kid in a candy store.
"Pi-pika!"
"All right Pikachu, here it is. 15th floor, Electronics Research Lab. You ready?"
"Kachu."
"Okay, here goes." He donned a pair of rubber gloves and carefully attached alligator clips to two of the terminals inside the panel, running wires to electrodes on Pikachu's cheeks. "Wait for it… wait for it…"
Sweat collected on their brows as they counted down the seconds on Brock's watch.
"Five, four, three, two, one…"
"Pi-ka-CHU!" He sent a surge of voltage into the panel, tripping the circuit breakers or some such thing.
"Nice work Pikachu. Now we just have to get back outside without them noticing."
There was a rattling at the door. "You in there! What's going on?"
"Oh no!" said Brock.
The door beeped and the guard came in–
– – –
The lights flickered out and the door clicked open. Ash opened it and entered, just before the auxiliary power kicked in a moment later.
Inside, he surveyed the rows and rows of shelves stretching out before him. He looked at the carefully copied number written on his arm, and with determined efficiency located the correct shelf. "Wait, is that it? Yes it is!"
It was a box so small he nearly missed it – no larger than a paperback book. He opened the box reverently, revealing a small purple electronic device with eight buttons on the front. "So this is it. The Universal T–"
"Over here!" Ash heard the shouts of the guards outside. Throwing away any remaining pretense of stealth, Ash shoved the box into his pocket and made a dash back out the door, which set off a wailing alarm as it opened.
– – –
Just before Misty's full reaction of panic could set in, the lights came on and she resumed her descent.
"Phew, that was close."
At the bottom, the doors opened to a ground lobby filled with commotion. A mud-splattered guard marched angrily on by, leading a team behind him. "This way. Fifteenth floor!" She exchanged a momentary glance of recognition with him.
Oh no, she thought to herself. Abra didn't take him far enough. Ash won't have enough time.
Another trio of orange-suited guards bumped her as they sped past, one shouting into his radio, "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, seventh floor, now!"
She walked out to the door to the agreed meeting place, but was abruptly startled by a loud alarm and blinking lights coming from inside.
– – –
–and saw nothing, as Brock and Pikachu had climbed up above, into the ceiling tiles.
The guard surveyed the room with his flashlight. "Huh," he said, and exited. Pikachu and Brock breathed a sigh of relief.
They climbed their way up through the narrow spaces, leaning on various pipes and protrusions, and resurfaced through a hatch in the ground outside. Misty came around the corner, as an unmistakable alarm began to sound.
"Misty, where's Ash?"
"I don't know, Brock!" she replied. "But it's not looking good. They're gonna find him if he takes any longer!"
"So what are we gonna do?"
"I don't think there's anything we can do! We just have to hope that he gets back out here real soon."
"How in the world is he going to get all the way down here from the 15th floor?"
"Well–"
"They must've already locked down the elevators and stairs."
"Wait, what's that?" Misty looked up.
"Is that–"
– – –
Ash found himself staring the doughnut-eating guard in the face.
"You again!" he scowled.
Ash dodged his attempts to grab him, and, thinking fast, ran out into the hallway and up five flights of stairs to a door at the top, which read:
UNAUTHORIZED PRESENCE ON THE ROOF OF THIS BUILDING IS PROHIBITED AND WILL RESULT IN A p50 FINE
"Sorry!" He burst through the door, threw a Pokéball over the edge – "Pidgeotto, go!" – and dove after it, catching Pidgeotto's feet just in time for a painful but nonfatal landing next to his accomplices on the ground, twenty stories below.
"Ash!" they shouted in unison.
"You guys, I got it! We have to get out of here!"
"Not so fast, twerp!"
The three of them spun around to search for the source of the voice. "What? Who–"
"Prepare for trouble!"
"Make it double!"