Cherrygrove's Winter Knights
…
- "Do the research."
Growing up, Aubrey tended to be one of the more adventurous girls in her class. When the boys would throw mud at the girls they turned out to like, or when the teachers would have field trips out to the tall grass, Aubrey was the only one among her peers to not turn away in disgust. It was often just the opposite: she didn't mind a little rough and tumble play. Dirt might as well have been her best friend, if not for the Pokemon that she played with in the nursery section of the Day Care. There was very little to be afraid of in the wild, after all. Aubrey saw the world for what it was: simply a place where all beings co-existed.
After the sun went down, the world became another entity entirely.
The darkness shrouded Aubrey's bright childhood world under a veil of the deepest black. The stars came out at night, and Aubrey's parents had to live in a rural part of the country in order to get the most foot traffic from Trainers. Yet even under a moonlit sky, life seemed to wither and fade away in all directions. Things only got worse in the fall, when thunder and lightning sent Aubrey cowering under the sheets. Aubrey grew out of that habit after some effort—why was she afraid of something that the most harmless of Minun or Plusle could cause with ease?—but the fear of darkness stayed. Growing out of early childhood and into her teenage years, Aubrey had been instilled with a wariness of the inky black that fell with the sun.
Or, in this case, the same darkness that came from scaling the Pokemon Center.
Marie led the way without hesitation, as though she had been inside the complex once before. It was more than likely, considering how the governments were trying to make all of the Centers as identical as possible. Marie strode confidently through blackened corners and down narrow hallways filled with a near-tangible certainty. Rory followed close behind, her hair trying hard to act as a nightlight as it soared behind her. If Marie walked with a purpose, Rory tagged along like a toddler searching for action.
The silence had been punishing. Aubrey was used to silences, but this was absurd. Each of their footsteps echoed like an atomic explosion.
Rory stopped as they turned down what felt like the millionth corridor. They had long since left the main sections of the Center where Trainers were meant to be. Aubrey looked at the arrows on the walls and wires on the ceiling. So this was what the Pokemon Center was like behind the scenes.
"Hey, Covenant Girl?"
Marie stopped walking, but she did not turn around.
"Hoy? Did you forget about me over here?"
"I remember," Marie said in a stern monotone. "I have a name. I simply prefer it when people use it."
If there was any sort of upside to the darkness, it was that Rory couldn't see Aubrey's amused smile.
Rory exhaled a dramatic huff. Her crimson hair whipped around as she cocked her head. "Marie," she tried again. "Are we lost?"
Marie faced the girls with a seamless turn. It was as though she were a dancer, and the turn had been coordinated to see her clothing fly with her. "Excuse me?"
"Are we lost?" Rory repeated the question more slowly. "It's feels like we've been down this same path for a bazillion years. If you don't know where we're going, you could at least let us know."
Aubrey assumed the darkness also hid Marie's surely comical reaction. "This is a fourth-generation Pokemon Center. All of them were constructed exactly the same, and so all of their hidden passages are also exactly as I remember them. We are very definitely on the right path.
"From now on, if you're going to follow me, I'd suggest you keep that large mouth of yours on a tight leash," Marie chided violently. "Can we go now?"
She took off without waiting for an answer. Rory grumbled something under her breath before following.
The walk began again, with Aubrey walking quickly to keep with the other girls' pace. If she were left behind, not only would she be stranded inside of the Center's criminally complex innards, but she'd also be alone.
Except she wasn't entirely alone. The Chikorita had been a perfect guest in the free transportation vehicle that was Aubrey's arms. She had been carrying the Pokemon for what felt like quite a while now, but only now did Aubrey realize just how weightless it actually was. Chikoritas on the whole were rather chubby Pokemon, with their short legs and round bodies being perfect targets for flying opponents. Yet, to her surprise, Aubrey felt absolutely no strain on her arms or her back. Not that she was complaining.
The Chikorita was also distractingly silent.
"I noticed that, too," Rory commented when Aubrey brought the topic up again. Rory kept her voice lowered, as if she were afraid Marie might overhear something. "What do you think? Is something wrong with it?"
Wrong with it?
"I mean, Pokemon usually make noises and stuff. They're alive, after all," Rory clarified. "But that Chikorita…it's a bit quiet, that's all." She put a finger to her lips, but thoughts didn't seem to come as quickly as she would have liked.
Although Aubrey had no qualms with taking care of the innocent Pokemon, she herself had a few problems with these circumstances. The Chikorita must have been left out intentionally. Why else would it have been left in the cold if someone weren't planning on rescuing it later? And if so, perhaps Aubrey was simply stealing someone else's starter Pokemon?
…But, if that someone were to have been a trainer—which was incredibly likely—then was Aubrey kidnapping or rescuing?
Rather than ask either of her newfound companions, Aubrey kept the question to herself. It would be something she'd ask her parents about once this was all said and done.
The three of them turned through what felt like the umpteenth corner. Unlike the other times, however, they appeared to be getting somewhere. Aubrey could hear moving gears coming from further down the darkened corridor. She and Rory stopped to listen while Marie continued onward in a never-ending display of bravery. Bravery or bravado; Rory was starting to make a decision on that.
"It's the wireless Internet generators," Marie said. Her voice echoed as she continued down the hallway with a faster pace. It was as though she had discovered purpose. "The Wireless is the first thing to go down in a crisis, in order to divert power to the Pokemon Center's primary facilities. Whoever's in here is trying to communicate to someone outside the city."
"And…rather than wait for back-up, you're going to barge right in and ask for the 411?"
Marie halted in her tracks. "In case you were wondering, there is no back-up. This city sent out a warning beacon when its gates closed, and I was the Covenant operative sent."
"True, but you do have someone that could help out. Namely, me," Rory said nonchalantly. "So, don't you think we should pause and think of a plan first? I'd like a plan."
"I like this idea," Aubrey said. Her voice squeaked out like a Pikachu's whisper.
Marie waited for the Chikorita to agree. When it didn't, she almost felt disappointed.
"Fine. Then here how the plan is going to work," Marie turned around. Her jacket billowed out from under her. Aubrey was reminded of Rory's crimson hair, and suddenly realized she was the only one without some kind of stylish…billowy thing.
"I'm going to go in with Emolga. If there are any people that need assistance, you will go to help them. No Pokeballs fly until I give the signal. Fair?"
"Like love and war!"
"And you…Aubrey, was it?"
Aubrey nodded.
"You do nothing. Your colorful friend has some skill…hopefully," she added, "But you're a civilian. Anything that happens to you would lead to my being penalized, and I would like to see more of the world before that happens."
"That's right, Aubs," Rory danced between the two girls with happy marching steps. "Just let us do our thing. We're gonna save the city! Just you watch."
Why did that sound so jarringly untrue?
A brief pause passed in the corridor. Marie returned her attention to their destination, moving with a pronounced purpose. This time, the other girls made an effort to stay close behind.
Within a manner of seconds, they had come to the door of the hour. Light shone from underneath, almost like a gateway to heaven in contrast with the near pitch-black hallways. Aubrey glimpsed above their heads: large wires extended through from the room and out into the rest of the Center. The simple sounds of machinery had grown into the definitive groans of machinery. As Aubrey stood perfectly still, she could feel a gentle breeze from hardware fans brush past her legs.
Rory jiggled the metal knob. When she looked to Marie for a suggestion, the Covenant operative was already one step ahead. Marie's pulled her left arm back slowly. Her legs went into a braced horse stance. Aubrey didn't understand until she saw beams of light from the room bounce off of the arm; it was the metal one Marie had displayed back in the Pokemart. Rory dived against the wall with a fraction of a second—
With a world-shaking crash, Marie punched the door and sent it flying backward, now decorated with the violent indent of a teenage girl's fist. Golden light poured out and singed Aubrey's eyes. Her nerves finally reached their peak: Aubrey looked away and braced every muscle in her body. If a battle was going to happen, this time, she would be more than prepared.
Instead of a commotion of Pokeballs erupting and Trainers shouting commands, the air was filled with the same whirring noise of machines, and then an eerie silence.
"…Interesting," was the only thing to leave Marie's mouth.
"You can open up, Aubs!" Rory gave Aubrey a playful push. With her muscles braced and her arms growing more and more tired, Aubrey found herself almost tumbling against the wall. "There's nothing in here," Rory said. She put her gloved hands on her hips and strutted into the light. The intense shades of red in her hair almost stung Aubrey's eyes a second time. "Looks like it was all a wild goose chase.
"…Marie, that's the part where you correct me," Rory added. Aubrey detected a tinge of hope in her comments.
Enough time had passed for Aubrey to be certain that nothing would jump out at them. She took tentative steps into the room, and watched carefully as the light first hit the leaf on the Chikorita's head, then the puffs on her jacket, and then finally washed over her entire body. Aubrey began to wander the surprisingly large space, hoping to find something that would explain the situation. Rows of unfamiliar hardware lined the walls, while an infestation of wires covered the ceiling. Nothing looked familiar. Worse than familiar; Aubrey hadn't seen anything like this in her entire life.
"It's like being in an alien spaceship," Rory drew out the words. She craned her head back to try and follow the power lines above them. "What does a Pokemon Center need with all of this?"
"It's the server room," Marie's voice boomed from opposite end of the room. "Every modern Pokemon Center has one. The hard drives in the wall store data on what Pokemon utilized the facilities, when, and for what purpose. The facilities back up their data into here every hour, twenty-four hours a day."
Marie, standing on her tiptoes, placed a hand on one specific cord on the ceiling. She walked forward slowly, following it as she went.
"This isn't a power line," she said. "And it isn't a computer cable like the others. And as we already know, this Center was broken into. Which leaves one possibility…"
Marie's deduction proved accurate; the cable split from the rest and curved into the wall. Landing back on her feet for a brief moment, Marie gave the wall a gentle kick. A wall-colored panel fell through and collapsed, echoing the sound of cheap plastic as it went. The cable connected into the cubby hole, then back down to something Aubrey had seen before in her short life: a laptop.
Before Marie could finish giving the obvious explanation, a new voice called from through the hallway.
"You're going to put that back the way you found it," said the boy.
As he entered, Aubrey could tell instantly that he was a Trainer like the rest. She didn't have to be a rocket scientist to know that much, between the beanie with the generic Pokeball logo, and the way his Cherrygrove High School messenger bag hung low by his cargo-jean-covered legs.
The boy pushed the frames of his olive-shaped glasses as he faced Marie. "That's not what it looks like, I promise you. If you pull that plug, you'll destroy everything I've been working on."
"What have you been working on that involved breaking into a Pokemon Center?" Rory interjected. "Hacking the government? Planting some deadly virus into the city? Torrenting 'Everyday Time Scale's new CD? Huh? Answer the question!"
"I don't have to answer anything," the boy recited calmly.
"Have it your way, then," Marie said coolly. Her leg rose as she went back to the laptop—
"The city went on lockdown after a Pokemon made the healing hardware crash," the boy started again, this time racing through his words. His tone lay somewhere strange, between a panicked frenzy and an uncaring drone. "The rest of my class went back home because the police said it was being taken care of, but it obviously wasn't. So I went to investigate."
"And that meant copying the records from the Pokemon Center," Marie seemed far from convinced. "You do realize that if I were to report this to my higher-ups, you could land in a federal prison."
"That's right!" Rory pointed an over-excited finger. "That's a Covenant of Light operative you're talking to, so stop cracking wise and sober up!"
"I'm not lying! There were Cipher grunts all over the city, so believe me, I didn't want to go out any more than you did. But when Lanette said she needed anything I could get my hands on, I thought—"
"Wait."
Aubrey found herself smiling, against all other logic. Marie's voice was like any other girl in her class, but for whatever reason, this teenager could command legions with just a cough. The boy jumped out of his skin at her sly order. Aubrey suspected she let the boy just wait there for a moment out of cruel fun.
"Are you telling me that you know Lanette?"
"I do, but it's complicated. I can't tell you anything—"
Marie's foot was inches away from the laptop screen—
"B-but I can take you to her if you want."
Marie sighed, like a fed-up parent. "You're lying. Lanette lives in another country. Don't throw names around if you haven't done the research—"
"She's at my friend's house right now. Lanette was coming here to stay with one of my friends, but I was the only one that knew how to work computers, and so I went on my own—"
"Friend? Lanette doesn't have friends. What would she be doing across the planet? And give me a better excuse."
"She is seeing a friend. He's this guest teacher in my school."
"Is that really the best you've got?" Marie tilted her neck and sighed. "I'm going to count to three."
"I don't know his last name. He's only a few years older than us. Probably college, at the latest."
"One…"
"His name is Wally. He's got this ridiculous hair, and I think he's from Hoenn because of the accent, but I can't be sure. I've only had a few conversations with the guy, so that's really all I know!"
Aubrey tightened her hold on Chikorita. If this came to blows, could she do anything she hadn't done before?
Thankfully, Marie's foot landed back on the ground safely. The boy showed no sign of relief, however.
Aubrey scanned his face in the inbetween seconds. He couldn't be much older than she was; premature whiskers poked out at his chin, and his lanky arms dangled from awkward shoulders that belonged on a man. But it was his eyes that stopped Aubrey's inspection and sent her stare diving into Chikorita. His baby-blue eyes lit up the room in a way the bland overhead lights of the pedestrian Pokemon Center could never dream of.
"That sounds better," Marie said. "You're taking me to see Lanette and Wally. Right now."