Cherrygrove's Winter Knights
…
- The Gale Remains
"Aubrey, you're a smart girl, right?"
Aubrey nodded, her mouth too full of delicious food to bother with words. Paddy didn't have to ask if she was hungry or not; in the time it took Aubrey and Lanette to sit on the floor and get comfortable with one another, Paddy had left and returned with a loaded peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
"It's kind of all we have left, unless you want beans and, like, green beans," Paddy had smiled playfully. "My folks didn't really stash the fridge before this all went up, you know?"
His smile was golden.
Lanette's annoyed stare—which was more annoyed like an older sister than like a superior—had Paddy sitting beside Aubrey on the carpet. Her continued glare sent Paddy scooting further away from Aubrey; he sat so close that their shoulders were almost touching, but neither of them had noticed.
Aubrey almost gave that some thought, but instead she delved into peanut butter heaven, and that was the end of that. She briefly wondered what happened to her traveling Chikorita companion, until she found it on the other side of the room, lying on the vent in a state of warm bliss.
Life was good.
Lanette grinned; it was obvious that their new guests weren't much for socializing. "While you're devouring that," she started, "I'll just get started with filling you in on what you walked into.
"Now…the story kind of starts way before you, hon. I think I was your age when Wes got the ball rolling."
Wes?
The name rang a bell. He was the boy that saved the Orre region from Team Rocket some ten years ago.
"Is that what they're telling kids in textbooks these days?" Lanette sighed. "It's not that surprising, come to think of it. Orre's not even recognized in the Pokedex. Bill and I were ordered by Lance—Lance!—to delete the country's data for traded Pokemon. It just says the Pokemon came from 'a faraway land' or something bogus?
"Anyway, getting off point. Team Rocket had nothing to do with it. They've never even set up operations outside of this continent."
Wait.
"It was Team Snagem and Team Cipher," Paddy said. "Lanette hit me with that, too."
Two teams..?
"Exactly," Lanette said excitedly. She held up two hands, almost like the scales. "See, Orre wasn't exactly a…social place? There was a lot of strife. For example! Team Snagem created the Snag Machine for the express purpose of capturing Pokemon of other Trainers.
"Team Cipher, on the other hand, created Shadow Pokemon. You've already seen a few of them, right? I mean, you haven't been taken yet, so you must have had to defend yourself from them."
Aubrey remembered the skirmish in the Pokemart, back when she had only just met Rory and Chikorita. The Metagross had tried to attack them, but Marie appeared to defeat and capture it. And when Aubrey thought hard enough, she remembered how Marie captured the Metagross with the Pokeball in her metal hand.
The metal hand…that had to be the Snag Machine Paddy talked about. And the aura around the Metagross meant it was a Shadow Pokemon.
"Shadow Pokemon have had their hearts closed off by Cipher machines," Lanette said. "The Snag Machine steals Pokemon, but it's possible to steal Shadow Pokemon and purify them. Two wrongs make a right, oddly enough.
"We don't know how a Snag Machine wound up in the hands of the Covenant, or why it's not in the hands of a more experienced operative, but that's beside the point," Lanette continued. "Wes isn't the hero you probably think he is."
In her fifth grade class, Aubrey's teachers had said Wes was the Orre equivalent of Red from Kanto. That is, just a boy that beat all the gyms and defeated Team Rocket.
"Wrong! For one thing, Wes is older than I am. Early thirties by now, at least. And he definitely wasn't an average Trainer."
Aubrey couldn't tell if the pause was because Lanette and Paddy didn't know how to explain it, or if they were simply being dramatic.
Paddy swallowed hard. "Look, Aubrey. Think about it this way: how could Wes have gotten the Snag Machine?"
He defeated their evil organization?
"Technically true," Lanette said. "He was a member of Team Snagem. One of the strongest ones, to boot. They had a fight over something—we honestly don't know—and Wes blew up their base out of spite."
"But not before taking the Machine for himself," Paddy said. "He only started fighting Team Cipher because some girl he met convinced him to fight for like, justice, or something."
"Point is," Lanette finished, "Wes is no hero.
"And hey, we're on a tangent.
"Like I was saying, I was your age when this started. Wes just finished taking down Team Cipher. The Covenant of Light was just Red, Gold, and Brendan, so it's possible that they overlooked it, but Cipher grunts got into Sinnoh. Just waiting for an opportunity.
"While they were waiting to get their heart-closing-gear back, they got into Underground technology. You know what that is, right?"
"Ten bucks says she doesn't," Paddy grinned. Aubrey attempted her annoyed look, furrowing her small brow and pursing her lips, but her bulging cheeks—actually chewing was somehow just an opinion—made her look like a rabid Pikachu. Paddy's smirking only made her angrier, and then more comical.
"Actually, not knowing this just says that you're normal," Lanette said, ignoring the banter between the two. "The Underground is only actually online in Sinnoh. It's a social space that runs underneath the entire continent. Every space in Sinnoh's Underground is accessible from anywhere in the above-ground country, so it's got this massive potential for connecting the nation.
"The logic is that Sinnoh is the beta-test for the technology," She continued. "But that would be too easy. The Underground didn't see much use, because the tech needed to find people once you got down there was a bit too hardcore for normal people. These days, it's just used by corporations and drug dealers.
"Funny thing is, the Underground tech wasn't as important as we all thought. The tech that everybody knows just beams a person into the area. But the stuff on the engineering side—the hardware that creates the Underground space—isn't too difficult to create at all."
"Every space has a pre-determined Underground layout," Paddy chimed in. "The only thing the Underground hardware does is make that space habitable by humans and Pokemon. So the problem is—"
Lanette's hand flew over Paddy's mouth, nearly knocking him in the face. She sat straight up, suddenly towering over Aubrey. The excitement flared in her large eyes. If the situation were as dire as everything looked, Lanette was either really enjoying it or simply really engaged. "This is where I have to ask you, Aubrey," she started. "Why do you think I brought up all of these seemingly uninvolved scenarios?"
Aubrey seemed to be thinking hard, tilting her head and running her tongue around the inside of her cheek. When her eyes met Paddy's, it became obvious that she didn't have any clue. Her eyes couldn't stop laughing. It was like taking a test she hadn't studied for.
"It's all connected," Paddy fought the urge to laugh at nothing with her. "Team Cipher is back. They've taken Underground technology and used it on Cherrygrove. In one day, they kidnapped everyone and took them down…well, down there."
"And the fact that a Snag Machine is here tells us that there's more going on than we know," Lanette added.
But, hold on. There was a plot hole. If Marie was so important to figuring out what was going on, then why was Paddy okay with leaving her behind? She has a Snag Machine. That's the key to this.
"It was never Paddy's job to find your friend," Lanette answered. "There have been…Hmm. I'm not sure we should tell you that part yet," she added with a taut grin. "Sorry. Winter Knights only. I'm sure you understand."
Winter Knights.
Why did that sound more ridiculous than it should?
"We're Cherrygrove's Winter Knights," Paddy said proudly. "Or, to put it less awesomely, we're the only ones left to fight the Cipher grunts. Everyone else, as far as we've seen, is gone.
"We don't know what they want exactly, but lucky for us, we're a pretty well-equipped unit ourselves. Maggaly and Lanette are great behind computers, and Summer and Leaf are basically our offensive units. If you want to call them that."
"Leaf wouldn't mind," Lanette laughed. She noticed that Aubrey wasn't exactly thrilled.
Though in Aubrey's defense, she had just walked into what looked like a warzone.
Paddy looked ready to move a hand toward her, but stopped short. "I know it's a lot to take in," he said.
And yeah, it was a lot.
"Let me see if I have everything right," Aubrey said. Her mouth felt sticky from the peanut butter, though that might have just been nervousness and this newfound ridiculousness. "An overseas crime syndicate has kidnapped everyone in the city, so you guys are trying to fight them. The five of you."
"Just the five of us," Paddy nodded. "Though don't worry, we're not going to, like, draft you or anything. For one thing, you can't even fight."
That was insulting. True, but still.
"What my student-turned-soldier means is, you're a civilian," Lanette corrected. "We can't just go around forcing everyone around to fight. If anything, we should protect you until we get this taken care of. Or lose. Which we won't."
That all sounded fine and dandy.
Except it didn't. For one thing, Aubrey had to be home tonight. Her parents would be missing her—
"They probably think you've been taken by the Ciphers already," Lanette said gravely. "The city's been out of communications with the outside world since this morning. The world knows something is up. The Pokemon League won't get to mobilizing soon enough, though. By the time they get involved, it'll be too late."
'Too late'. Too late for what?
"Classified information," Paddy shrugged, giving Lanette a sidelong look. "Point is, we're on a time limit. We have a few secrets of theirs, and the fact that your friends are out there working is just another plus.
"Really, we've got more in our corner than they do in theirs. When you really think about it."
Unless Marie and Rory were taken, and Team Cipher has the Snag Machine.
"I doubt it," Lanette put the fear to rest. "What did you say your friend was? A Covenant Operative?"
"Marie's the Covenant Operative," Aubrey said. "Rory's a Junior Leader from Violet City."
"There you go, then!" Lanette stood up, bouncing on her knees as she went. For a woman old enough to be an aunt, Lanette had the energy of someone Aubrey's age. She spun her chair around and fell into it, surprising even herself when the chair didn't snap into bits. "Your friends sound like they can handle a few punks. Kenneth's all bark and no bite. Trust me on that."
Aubrey moved to stand, but a sudden alarm blared through the room, accompanied with flashing red lights along the ceiling. Paddy was there in a flash, holding her hands to keep her from crashing to the floor. Aubrey's first worry was the Chikorita: when she looked, Chikorita was up on its feet as well, darting around before coming to Aubrey's side.
"Pads! Boss-lady! We've got trouble!" Maggaly called from upstairs. Paddy raced for the staircase, though Lanette sat at her desk as though nothing had happened. She remembered what was said before: Maggaly and Lanette were just the computer people. Whatever this was, Lanette must have had more important things to deal with in the time they had.
Aubrey followed Paddy upstairs, Chikorita at her heels.
The two cousins hovered over one of the computer screens, both of their expressions worried.
"It's Summer," Paddy said.
"Well, duh. I can see that. The problem is, she's not coming from the main tower. Which is not good."
"What's not good?" Aubrey asked, then instantly regretted.
Maggaly tacked away at her keyboards with fingers fit for a ninja. "Nunya beezewax," she barked.
"I think I mentioned Summer, one of our friends?" Paddy ignored Maggaly's barbs. "She went with our other friend to the downed communications tower."
"To try and warn the Pokemon League?"
"Exactly," Maggaly said. "But like I said, it's dangerous to send them together. This is just Summer's SOS alert, too! There's no telling where Leaf went off. They might even—"
"Don't finish that sentence," Paddy said briskly. He went to the desk behind them and pulled a coat from the many that engulfed the chair. Maggaly's head turned so fast, Aubrey almost jumped.
"No way, Pads." Maggaly sounded like an especially-ticked-off mother. "Nothing doing. If you go out there, you'll be taken. You can't defend yourself."
"Then I'll have to be sure not to get caught."
"This is crazy!" Maggaly huffed, this time getting out of the chair to bark at her cousin all the way from her core. "And going alone is even worse. What's supposed to happen if a Cipher attacks you? Good luck outrunning a Shadow Pokemon."
…This whole time, Aubrey's voice had tuned out.
From the moment she awoke this morning, to just now, she lacked the courage to help when Pokemon needed it most. She had seen who knew how many innocent Pokemon be forced to battle, and even though she might call Marie and Rory her friends—fast friends, to say the least—even they used Pokemon for fighting.
But suddenly, a foreign, frighteningly alien thought raced through Aubrey's mind. Team Cipher created Shadow Pokemon in an attempt to rule the world through doing something far, far worse than making Pokemon battle. The people in this room were the only ones capable of preventing all of Johto from maybe going to war.
Wasn't this a cause worth fighting for?
…No, Aubrey shook her head. There was no cause worth fighting for. All she had to do was go to the head of the Cipher group and just…talk it out. Maybe ask them politely to stop fighting?
What about that girl..?
Gracie was her name?
"I'll go," Aubrey said meekly.
"If I don't go out there, then we've already lost, Maggaly! We're a team."
"But you know the rules! It's dangerous to go alone. You need a Pokemon for your protection!"
Maggaly and Paddy were too busy arguing to hear…so Aubrey used her voice.
"Paddy?"
His head craned to her like a magnet.
"I'm going with you."