Cherrygrove's Winter Knights

…

-Glorified Interns

In the days shortly after Pokemon Master Red was defeated at the hands of Johto's own Gold, the world as people knew it changed dramatically. Red had kept Team Rocket from taking over the largest company on the continent; Gold had wrenched Goldenrod City from their menacing grasp. The stage was set for an international showdown of child gods, but the boys themselves had other plans. The two Trainers, independent of any country, agreed to an alliance and parted ways.

From then on, wherever an evil syndicate lurked, it would have to fear the might of these two warriors. Word of their heroic deeds spread like wildfire across the world. In less than a year, Red and Gold announced that their agreement was not exclusive; any powerful Trainers were invited to take up their cause. Soon, Brendan of Hoenn joined the cause, ushering in a new pride in Hoenn's trainers. Sinnoh's champion Dawn joined not soon after, expanding their meager duo to an assembled team of skilled Trainers.

The four keepers of justice created a banner under which no evil could stand. Under this banner of righteous might, they christened themselves the Covenant of Light.

Unlike the organizations that already existed, these heroes were not bound to any specific cause. They were not sworn to uphold cross-national unity like the mighty Band United, they did not strive to work with Pokemon to better mankind like the heroic Pokemon Rangers, but neither did they seek the end to our world like Team Galactic. The Covenant of Light, composed of the greatest protectors of man and Pokemon alike, fought to maintain that relationship from all who would threaten it. Wherever injustice lurked, they would come to protect those who could not protect themselves, to help the helpless, to be the force of good that the world lacked.

And standing before Aubrey and Rory, facing down two mercenaries of Team Cipher, was one of those very members...not that the men believed her. The Covenant of Light was known for its sheer might, presence, and uncanny ability to strike fear into the hearts of the opposition. Teenage girls were not the face of this mighty brigade.

"Whatever you say, Marie Green," the man on the left mocked. "'The Covenant of Light', she says...please. Little girls have so much imagination these days." His voice dropped to a serious bass. "Metagross!"

The blue steel Pokemon tensed its turquoise, hardened muscles. Marie could see the raw insanity in its deep, purple eyes. It looked hungry, the way a man starved for a month might look upon freedom.

"Make mince meat out of her," he ordered.

As the Metagross crouched down and lined up its pouncing, likely terminal strike, Marie saw her chance. She tore a Pokeball from her belt, just above her back pocket. There was no fear in the motion, only cool and collected instinct.

Aubrey noticed how different this Pokeball was from the simple red-and-white affairs that she had seen all her life. This blue and white ball shined impossibly bright, the silver of the ball's rim reflecting everyone in the room like a mirror. Aubrey saw the gold of the lock button as Marie threw the ball into the air. It twirled like a shooting star that flew through the sky.

It erupted halfway through its descent, bursting in a wave of teal light—

"Emolga, Aerial Ace, now!"

None in the room had even seen the Pokemon emerge from the ball, but Marie didn't need to see the game board to know the positions of the pieces. Without warning or any kind of prior signal, a blur of yellow and gray struck down and through the Metagross, almost as through the rock-solid combatant were made of warm butter. The Metagross tumbled onto its backside with an accompanying crash. It flailed its legs wildly, unable to stand, much less to attack.

"You're not out of this yet!" Its owner said. He sounded far less than certain. "Use Shadow Blitz!"

Marie's eyes widened; her legs tensed and grounded themselves. What came next, neither Aubrey or Rory had seen before.

The Metagross began to radiate a violet light.

It was no glow like that released from the Pokeballs; it started out like a small line of smoke, as though the Metacross were on fire from the inside. The smoke grew to a haze, engulfing the incapacitated Pokemon entirely. The haze slowly started to dissipate—

Two bursts of bright violet shot forward from the haze-covered Metagross, racing for the yellow figure above them—

Marie's emotions remained invisible. Aubrey could read this new girl as easily as she could a statue.

"Emolga, fly…Now!"

The gold blur raced for the ceiling, and just when the violet bullets were about to collide into it, the flying Pokemon dived. It crashed into the Metagross's unprotected, exposed belly from a nearly ninety-degree angle; tile and rubble exploded apart as the Pokemon was jammed even further into its crater.

The Cipher men were stunned.

Rory was too caught up in the fight to think about anything else.

Aubrey, however, became gripped by a definitive fear. It was no longer a fear for herself, for Rory, or even for the Chikorita that she found herself attached to. Rather, it was a fear that this battle was somehow her doing.

The Metagross was in terrible pain, its body growing bruised and scraped by the second. But did it deserve any of it? By itself, the Metagross had done nothing wrong. It simply fell into the hands of evil men, and it found its way into a fight. The new girl's Pokemon was beating it into a pulp…but Metagross was simply following the orders of a man who obviously didn't care. When was this going to stop? When the Metagross was left utterly defenseless? When it passed out from the beating?

But Aubrey couldn't just blame these men, could she? After all, the Covenant girl is forcing her own Pokemon to hurt the Metagross. Rory was goading it along like a glorified cheerleader.

Aubrey started to wonder. If she had to...could she stop it?

Suddenly energized just enough to regain control of her body, Aubrey looked up for the briefest of seconds. It was long enough for her to connect with Marie's onyx eyes; Aubrey shot her petrified gaze back toward the floor. Marie's stare wasn't like the trainers that came to the Day Care; it was the penetrative stare of a combat master. There was no doubt; only calculation.

Emolga dived for one more strike. The room shook from the resounding magnitude of the earth-shattering strike.

Marie seemingly relaxed, losing her dramatic pose and waving an arm upward. "Let's wrap this up," she said. This time from her pocket, she produced a normal Pokeball, with the red color instead of the Covenant design. Marie gripped the ball in her left hand, and Aubrey couldn't be sure, but the girl's fingers seemed to be made of a wiry, almost rusted metal.

With a pitcher's iron force, Marie threw the ball into the makeshift arena—

The explosion of gold light nearly blinded Rory. Meanwhile, still ducked safely behind her new friend, Aubrey could see exactly what this was. The ball hovered in midair as—she could scarcely believe her eyes—a hand made from light reached forth and grasped the fallen Metagross. The intangible hand lifted and pulled the Pokemon back inside the ball, and the latch snapped tight. The Pokeball fell back down, a few inches in front of Marie's feet.

It wriggled once, twice, three times before the lock glowed red, and finally faded.

Aubrey was no stranger to the way Trainers conducted their work. She was obviously no Trainer, nor did she ever plan on being one, but she knew how Pokemon battles worked. Catching another Trainer's Pokemon...didn't that break fundamental laws? Wasn't that banned by the Pokemon Leagues of every country, worldwide?

Apparently that didn't matter to this new girl. Marie snatched the ball up quickly, flipped it once in her hand, and put it on her back belt. The yellow blur had flown up in the ceiling, virtually invisible, and the Cipher men were now overcome with a distinct sensation of dread. With no Pokemon to defend them, the men were sitting targets.

The Covenant girl watched the Cipher men with challenging eyes. "You were saying?"

The yellow blur zipped across her body so quickly that it looked to Aubrey like her clothes had blown themselves.

The men stared at one to the other, eyes frantic. The man on the left began fishing through his pockets desperately, his hands shaking, while the other looked between Marie and Rory with overflowing hubris. "You Covenants think you're so great," he said, "Wait until the Big Man gets through with you!"

"Yeah!" the second man said, his threat sounding far less than certain. "You'll get what's coming to you!" Aubrey had a feeling that all Pokemon-abusing gangsters were required to say something like that.

The second man produced a small box from his pocket. Aubrey noticed multiple buttons on it, all surrounding a central button with what looked like a shovel emblazoned on it.

The man slammed his entire fist onto the center button in violent desperation. As soon as he left go of the button, the two men appeared to rotate quickly as they stood in place, spinning faster and faster until they disappeared from sight. A final flash of light saw the men utterly vanish from the Pokemart, leaving no trace other than the crater in the room.

The three girls seemed to pause, waiting for some signal to tell them that the danger had passed.

Aubrey hesitantly walked out from Rory's protection, the recovered Chikorita still bundled in her arms.

Marie pulled her hood back up, turned, and made her way to the exit. Her long strides suddenly made sense. This was the walk of a girl who never lost a fight. Defeat was no option. To her, victory was not a matter of 'if', but 'when'.

Rory scoffed. As if she were going to let a girl from the Covenant of Light just walk out like that.

"Hey!" Rory called.

When Marie seemed entirely unfazed, Rory tried again. "Hey!" She shouted, "I'm talking to you!"

Marie stopped in her tracks, but she continued to face away from the loud, obnoxious girl behind her.

"If you're going to start talking, then actually say something," Marie said. It definitely came off as more of a challenge than a greeting. Rory simply saw it as a chance to flap her gums. "If you don't mind. I don't enjoy wasting my breath."

"There's something weird going on in town," Rory started. "Nobody's here, the buildings are all closed, and now there's talk of…whatever gang that was. First I thought everything was all wonky because of the weather, but I get it now. There's something going down, isn't there? Something big."

"What makes you think that?"

Rory smirked so loudly that Aubrey was surprised she didn't just end up sneezing on herself. "Don't play coy with me! I'm a Junior Leader in Violet City, so I know what the Covenant of Light being here means. They sent you here to take care of something. So, what is it?"

"A Junior Leader," Marie repeated. Her listening skills might have been compromised from the vicious sounds of recent combat, but Aubrey could swear that the Covenant girl was saying the title with a deep condescension. "I don't suppose you're the kind that roams around the outlying counties too, right?" Marie continued.

"You got that part correct!" Rory boasted. Whatever fear, worry, or hesitation showed itself moments ago had disappeared entirely. The girl flicked her head from side to side. Her fiery plumes of hair rocked with a rhythmic procession. "Part of a JL's job is to always be training. We've gotta be in tip-top condition!"

"Always training," Marie continued in a less than proud tone, "because the Junior Leaders are so weak that it's almost embarrassing. They're glorified interns."

Rory didn't need to say anything. In a swift motion, Marie lowered her hood and turned back to face the girls. The insult was worse than its face value; Aubrey saw in Marie's expression that this was a genuine belief. Marie wasn't being mean simply to be mean. She wasn't even trying to be offensive. In her own way, Marie was simply telling the truth.

"Though I suppose you'll want to challenge me on that," Marie offered sarcastically.

Rory started a sentence and stopped it halfway through. She quickly weighed her options. Of the many skills a JL required, being able to pick your battles outside of the gym was a necessity. What did she want, to fight this Covenant Operative or to say she helped one?

"Not at all," Rory resigned. Her boisterous attitude had reigned itself in. "This isn't about your…really, really wrong opinion of us," Rory said. She was proud of herself for staying mature, though she refused to show it.

"What I'm asking about," she went on, "is why the Covenant is in town when all signs point to there being a crisis. And, since I'm a government-sanctioned official, I'm pretty sure there's a law somewhere that requires you to tell me. Or something like that. Probably."

Aubrey rolled her eyes. The Chikorita looked up over Aubrey's arms and into the ceiling. It blinked its small eyes rapidly, trying to keep up with the zipping figure above them. It quickly gave up trying, instead opting to rest its head against Aubrey's chest again.

After throwing around heavy words like 'government-sanctioned' and 'crisis', Rory was more than confident that this Covenant Operative her own age would start to cooperate. Marie had other plans.

"I don't know why you're going on about this," Marie sighed. "I doubt you'll be of much help. I'm on an official mission, as you are obnoxiously aware. However," Marie said skeptically, "the manuals do say that local officials are allowed to offer assistance—"

"Good! Then you'll let us help!"

"Us?"

"Us! I'm Rory White, and this quiet chick behind me is Aubrey," Rory stabbed the air behind her with an enthusiastic thumb. "She's not gonna do anything, though. I'm the one the crooks are gonna have to worry about."

Aubrey wondered with a disgruntled thought, how did she always wind up with friends like these? Her parents often chided her for not having many friends to bring over during the summer vacation, but that's because the friends Aubrey did make were all weird. The last kid Aubrey had been friends with enjoyed eating glue and folding Origami out of coffee-soaked white paper. That was a few months ago—the kid moved away and was allegedly hospitalized for a glue overdose—but things obviously hadn't changed. Here she was, about to be dragged into some ridiculous journey with a girl she just met.

But as Aubrey hurried to find a way to excuse herself from tagging along, she realized her options were as barren as Cherrygrove City itself.

What else could she do? Violet City had the nearest Pokemon Center, but she didn't know the way, and it was allegedly another day's walk, so she couldn't go and be back in time for dinner. New Bark Town was still an option, but the Chikorita would still be given away to a Trainer and made to face a similar fate to the Metagross: never-ending battle. Aubrey would die before she submitted a defenseless creature to that kind of a life. But there was nothing for her or Chikorita in this town, either…

Her stomach growled violently. Aubrey had forgotten how hungry she was.

"That's her saying 'yes'!" Rory continued to steer the conversation. "We'll just need to feed her along the way, but you can count us in!"

It was now Marie's turn to give Aubrey a once-over. The pathetic of a frail little girl bundled up against the winter cold, holding a small grass Pokemon in her arms that had probably never fought before, was not exactly the picture of 'assistance' that Marie was looking for.

"Do you have a Pokeball for that thing?" Marie asked. She pointed a lax finger at the Chikorita in the small girl's arms.

Aubrey shook her head.

"You want one? It's gonna get even colder out there."

She shook her head again. "We're fine, thanks," she said. It came out more sharply than she had intended, but that was okay. Marie got the message; she shrugged again and dropped the subject.

"Fair enough," Marie said, sounding more defeated than accepting. "Just don't get in my way." She turned her hood back up and started for the door. "Emolga, return."

Without looking where she was pointing, Marie held the gold Pokeball out at arm's length. She pointed it back toward the Pokemart ceiling; a red beam of light darted from above the girls and inside the ball. Marie put the Pokeball on her belt and continued without missing a beat. Rory struggled to keep her composure, but she couldn't help herself. Here was a real-life Covenant Operative, and she was so cool that she didn't even need to look at her Pokemon as she returned it to the ball. Talk about style!

Aubrey thought it looked more conceited than controlled.

Still, Aubrey was more than eager to leave the ravaged storefront behind. Aubrey bit her tongue and followed out behind Rory. She took special care not to trip on any blasted tile or debris in their way. Her feet landing on the concrete outside was one of the most relieving sensations she could remember.

The three girls were back on the cold streets of Cherrygrove City. The snow had begun to fall harder; what was covered in gray was now buried under a sharply white blanket. The previously gentle snowflakes had grown to a constant spray of ice that pelted their faces incessantly. The Chikorita began to shiver as the snow dropped onto the leaf on its head; Aubrey pulled the jacket further over the Chikorita's body and brushed the water away. Once she made sure the Chikorita was warm enough, she looked back for Rory and Marie. They were already on the next block over and showing no sign of slowing down.

"So, where are we going?" Rory asked vigorously. She failed to keep the excitement out of her voice this time; the words were those of a child going on a school field trip. "I hate to break it to you, but the whole town's deader than Disco."

"I know that," Marie shot back. "The Pokemon Center should have the answers I'm looking for."

"Sorry…Marie, right? Hate to break it to you, but Aubs and I hit up the Pokemon Center when we first got into town. It's way closed."

"I assumed so at first, but that last confrontation more than belied that situation."

"Sure," Rory said. Then, after a long pause, she added, "So, what does 'belied' mean?"

Marie groaned. The girls turned the corner; the Pokemon Center once again loomed before them. "In other words, the Pokemon Center is only closed because there's something inside that someone wants to hide."

"How do you know that?"

"It's obvious. The Pokemon Center closes, but the doors never actually lock. The nurses do not have the authority to shut them down like that, because it renders the buildings unusable as a shelter in case of emergencies. The equipment can have power cut, but the doors never stay closed.

"At first, I thought that perhaps all of the buildings here were locked, but I just proved that false.

"As such, the only possible conclusion to make is that the Cherrygrove Pokemon Center is locked tight for a reason."

"Right!" Rory agreed vehemently. "I was thinking the same thing."

Rory kept her mouth shut after that. She wanted to know more—What was Marie's mission?—but that would only make her look less and less intelligent in comparison. Rory knew that she was rash, and that she often acted without thinking, but that didn't make her stupid. If she was going to stick around a Covenant Operative, and quite possibly prove herself to the organization in the process, then Rory had to give Marie as few reasons as she could to leave her behind.

The two of them stopped just short of entering the Pokemon Center. Marie walked to the front entrance without missing a beat. When the doors didn't automatically zip open, she took hold of the doors' handle. She pulled lightly with her left arm—

The door's tore away from the entrance. The locking mechanism crashed to the ground in an army of blasted shards. Rory recognized molded steel along with computer chips. Evidently, someone had taken a lot of effort to make sure the door remained closed.

Suddenly, Marie's theory held a lot more weight.

While Rory examined the locking mechanism, Marie looked inside the Center itself. The lobby looked as it should; couches, a computer in the corner, and a front desk. The lights had been cleverly switched off; there was no way to see more than five feet in front of her face. There wouldn't be any sign of things being tampered with until she went inside. Which, in turn, simply meant asking to be attacked by whatever lurked in the dark. Marie suddenly regretted bringing the two girls along. She hoped that all of Rory's outrageous bravery at least had something to justify it.

Aubrey finally walked up to the front entrance. She looked at the snapped lock, at the excited Rory, and then at Marie, who was already making her way inside. A slow crawl went up her spine.

"Hey, Aubrey?" Rory perked back up. "You look like you've seen a ghost, or something."

"Don't say that," Aubrey joked half-heartedly. "Half the time they say that on TV, ghosts actually show up, you know."

Rory pursed her lips and nodded. It was a little too serious of a gesture. "You have a good point. I'd better not bring it up again." She flashed a brave smile and turned toward the door. "Now, let's get moving!"

Aubrey's feet remained grounded. She could no longer make out Marie's silhouette inside the pitch-black room; Rory was mere inches away from being similarly invisible. There was no way of knowing what lie for them inside…what if there were more battles?

"Hel-lo? Aubrey?" Rory asked with a chiding tone. "Hurry up, already. Less thinking, more walking."

Aubrey put one foot in front of the other, doing her best not to think about what could be awaiting them. She had made her decision to follow Rory and Marie back inside the Pokemart. It wasn't some kind of set-in-stone decision, but it was what she had decided on. And again, what else was there for her to do?

And maybe this wasn't nearly as bad of an idea as it looked.

For all Aubrey knew, she could have been overthinking this whole thing. Maybe there' was just some hardware that needed to be fixed. Or maybe whatever was going on could be cleared up with a quick phone call to another city.

Hardly.

Aubrey knew in her gut that the city might be in a little more trouble than that, but again, she turned the thoughts off like a light switch.

Just put one foot in front of the other. Left, right. Left, right.

Left, right.

Aubrey looked down at her feet, too nervous to look at anything else. Chikorita met her gaze and grinned.

A/N: Finish this story by the end of August? Dual internships laugh at my pitiful ideas of finishing a story by August…But! Thank you for sticking around and waiting for this chapter. I appreciate it immensely.

As always, thanks for reading, and if you think I'm doing a good job, please let me know.