Cherrygrove's Winter Knights
…
- Cue the Battle Tutorial!
At age thirteen, Aubrey had stepped into a brave new world.
The cold pierced her jacket worse than before, and Chikorita had taken to riding on Aubrey's head to avoid freezing its feet in the snow. When Chikorita had leapt onto Aubrey the first time, she expected her neck to snap from the weight and for her adventure to end right then and there. As it turned out, Chikorita was light as a feather.
Thankfully, it was an opportunity for Aubrey to diffuse the tension. "Neck of steel?"
It didn't quite work.
Aubrey and Paddy had started down the barren suburban roads, this time walking in the street without any effort to conceal themselves. The sun had begun to set; in a few minutes, night would do the concealing job for them.
Unfortunately, that looked like the only job Paddy didn't have to take care of.
"Wally's nowhere near you," Maggaly had said in her charismatic brogue. "There's nobody to come after you if you goof this up." She turned back to Aubrey, then to Chikorita, and gave the two of them a distinctly dissatisfied glare. The kind Aubrey gave her parents when they returned a baby Pokemon to an obviously-battle-hardened Trainer.
"And don't get me started on you," she scowled. "That Chikorita's a dead weight. If you try to battle with it, you'll probably end up worse than if you didn't try anything at all."
That wasn't...entirely true?
"It's fact, gawker. You don't know how to battle. Period! End of story!"
Aubrey was seconds away from doubting her sudden bravado and sentencing herself to hiding out in this makeshift bunker—
"I can show her how," Paddy said. His voice seemed to have a run-in with puberty in that very moment, going from carefree and boyish to lower, concerned, and...though Aubrey felt curious thinking it, certain. "If anything happens, I can teach her."
Maggaly's deadpan could turn a man to stone. "You're kidding," she sighed.
"Are we going to stand here and argue, or are we going to do something? Our friends are in danger."
"I—"
"Come on, Maggaly!"
The pigtailed girl grew quiet. Anyone could see that she had been veto'd; Maggaly wiggled her freckled nose in annoyance.
"Don't forget to turn on your tracker," she had said defeatedly. And with that, Paddy went into the frosty outdoors. Aubrey and Chikorita followed like meek, unsure, and all the same, entirely-willing soldiers.
Aubrey's walk had taken on a stiff quality. Her knobby knees seemed to bend too quickly or too late. Her arms wouldn't move back and forth unless she told them to, and even then, Aubrey looked like a badly-programmed machine. Chikorita lying on her head only made things more awkward; she moved her head as though it were on a pole.
"You don't have to be so tense," Paddy said, putting his hands into his jacket pockets. The jacket obviously wasn't his; it was meant for a man at least twice his size. It could have been a thick, black trench coat on Paddy's lithe frame.
"It's my Dad's," he shrugged. "He wouldn't mind me using it."
"Your dad," Aubrey paused. "Is he..?"
"Mind if we don't get into that?" Paddy said a little too quickly. He noticed it, too. His deep breath created a cloud in the icy air.
"I don't mean to snap," Paddy sighed. "I just don't really want to think about where my family or my friends are. It might be kinda distracting."
Aubrey could imagine that. If Paddy stopped to worry about his loved ones, he might start to doubt himself. She knew about that emotion intimately.
"Well, it's more like it's against the rules."
Rules?
Lanette said that Team Cipher had only taken over Cherrygrove City this morning. Wasn't it a little early for the five of them to have rules? Or...or trackers and arguments and tactics?
Paddy smiled out of the corner of his mouth. The cold decorated his long cheeks with an honest blush.
"Sorry, Aubrey," he smirked. "Classified information."
They could now see the base of the tower, just down the street. Cherrygrove's layout played in their favor: it seemed as though every road funneled into downtown, and the radio tower formed the crux of its center.
"That's the radio tower up ahead," Paddy said.
Aubrey nodded along. "Yeah, I know."
"You've seen one before?" He paused. "Are you from Goldenrod?"
"My cousin goes to school there," Aubrey said thoughtlessly. While she had definitely been outside the national landmark that was the Goldenrod City Radio Tower, security kept tourists outside. Aubrey understood why—there had been an incident back when she was a baby—and she found herself wishing that security had been here as well.
"You're telling me," Paddy groaned. "Every city has a communications tower, but Goldenrod's the only one people know about. And if you ask me, it's famous because it got attacked first."
From the sound of things, the Cherrygrove tower didn't have much security on it.
"Didn't have 'much' is being too gentle," Paddy said.
Now that they were back in downtown, Aubrey felt that walking in the middle of a road was like painting a target on her back. The lights of the radio tower were a kind of light at the end of the tunnel. And though she was with Chikorita, and walking with a boy she trusted for no good reason, nothing could tell her feet that going forward wasn't a terrible idea.
"Let's stop here for now," Paddy said, tugging on the puffy white sleeve of Aubrey's jacket. They were just outside the radio tower now, and Aubrey flashed back to earlier in the afternoon, when Marie had led her and Rory into a building similarly abandoned. No lights inside, no bodies, no open entrance and very-probably no way out without going though the front way. Just like the Pokemon Center…
"And probably-definitely no back-up," Paddy laughed. He went quiet when he saw Aubrey's bleached expression.
"I'm guessing you're not just pale from the cold."
She fought to clear her throat. "If we go in there…"
"That's why I'm stopping you," Paddy turned to face Aubrey. The cold went away—no, it had never existed—and all that remained was the warmth this strange boy radiated with his every word and breath.
Get a grip, she thought.
"I'm not a fan of lying to people," he started, "So I'm being perfectly honest. We're going to run into Cipher grunts in there, and they'll have Pokemon. They're going to try and capture us."
She knew what was coming—
"I'll bet dollars to donuts that we're going to have to battle. And unless you have any other Pokemon, your Chikorita's all we've got."
Aubrey nodded. She knew the choice she'd made by stepping out here, going out into the open with him. She was putting Chikorita in unnecessary danger, and every step forward just drew her closer to that inevitable first battle.
"It's fine that you don't know how to fight," he smiled. "I can help you through that. I just want us to be, like," He paused for the word. Paddy waved his hands between them; his knuckles had gone white from the cold. "I don't know, on the same wavelength? If that makes sense?"
It made plenty.
"Cool beans," Paddy turned back toward the tower. Aubrey remained paused in the space between them for an instant longer, and when she finally snapped back into reality, she wondered if Paddy had noticed. "Let's do this, yeah?"
"Yeah," Aubrey sighed.
In a startling surprise, the door whisked open like normal. Which was quite un-normal, when Aubrey thought about it.
The Ciphers knew they were coming. That's why the doors were unlocked. This was a trap!
"Relax," Paddy said as he took tentative steps inside. "Maggaly's been tracing the Ciphers' use of Underground tech in and around this area. The door is unlocked because it'd be annoying to have to keep re-opening it for every Cipher guy that came through, you know?"
Only barely. The lights still hadn't switched on. If the tower were really idiot-proofed…
"…Then we wouldn't be fumbling around in the dark, right," Paddy mused. He reached inside his jacket pocket and removed what looked like a cell phone, but on closer inspection, had to be anything but. The small, rectangular flat of metal reminded Aubrey of a metal tile on the side of a building than any phone. All the same, Paddy pressed a button on its screen, then held it to his ear.
"Mags?" He asked. "We're inside…and something's weird. The doors work like we thought, but the lights aren't on."
"I figured as much," Maggaly's voice resounded from the plate. Paddy jumped from the volume; he held it further back from his ear, and made a face at the overly-concerned Aubrey. "The building has motion-sensor lights."
"Is that good for us or bad for us?"
Maggaly typed with the speed of the wind and the volume of a particularly enraged Donphan. "Hm. It seems like activating a light outside of the Ciphers' pre-determined trail sets off the alarm."
"Bad for us," Paddy said casually.
"Not entirely. If I know the Team Cipher—which I don't—then they'll have all kinds of firewalls up on their Underground servers. But…
"Bingo! The tower server itself is a joke. I can get the code for the pattern. You guys go in undetected, and that's the end of that, right?"
Paddy snapped his fingers. "You said Leaf and Summer are in the building somewhere, right?"
"Of course. You and Lanette never listen to me—"
"What floor are they on?"
More key-tacking came out of the not-phone. While Paddy waited, he got a glimpse of Aubrey literally turning around in circles, watching the inside of the pitch-black lobby and the empty streets with her huge, frightened hazel eyes. Chikorita turned it into some kind of comedy routine, looking in the opposite direction Aubrey was facing and turning at the same rate. They were like a wound-up clock.
"Got it," Maggaly said distractedly. "Leaf's on the move.
"Get this, Pads. Leaf's on the ninth floor, doing who knows what. Probably going through with the mission on her own."
"Sounds like Leaf."
"Lucky for you, actually," Maggaly started to rush her words. "Summer's down on the third floor. She's stationary, so she's probably still captive. If Leaf keeps their attention drawn on the upper floors, then breaking in and getting Summer should be a breeze."
"That's only if we keep their alarm system off, though," Paddy trailed off. Aubrey saw him put a finger to his lip: the universal symbol of plotting.
"Maggaly, can you turn off the alarm and turn the lights on for the entire complex?"
Maggaly must have been eating something; she started to choke on the other end. "Are you out of your mind, coz? You'll blow Leaf's cover, and her phone's got to be dead or something, so I can't warn her about the metric ton of bad news that would be coming her way if—"
"That's the point," Paddy said calmly. "They'll think it's Leaf, thereby focusing all of their attention to the top floors. Aubrey and I can find Summer without having to fight anything."
"This is insane—"
"Leaf can handle coming under fire for ten minutes. That's all we'll need. Just shut the lights off as soon as my signal meets up with Summer's. Sound good?"
Maggaly went silent for a moment.
"I can give you ten minutes," she barked back. "After that, I can't guarantee that their firewalls won't trace back to us."
"Brilliant, Mags. You're the best."
"Keep an eye on the lights," she said. With that, the line went dead.
Paddy shoved the metal plate back into his jacket. Aubrey had stopped her flawless imitation of a broken clock. When Paddy turned his attention back to her, she was already staring back, hands holding each other in an awkward embrace, fumbling over and over again.
"You heard all of that?"
Most of it. Something about his other friend being nine stories up..?
"That's Leaf for you. The second time Team Rocket went after Saffron City…well, let's just say she likes to think she's a one-woman battering ram.
"It's not our problem right now, though," Paddy's eyes scanned the room until he found the lone staircase, tucked away in the corner. "How's your cardio?"
…What?
"When the lights come on, you run."
Well, if that wasn't the most informative instruction ever.
"Whatever you do, don't go some bogus other way, got me? Follow me."
If it were Paddy saying it, why did Aubrey feel like she'd follow him anywhere?
Punishing yellow light flooded the room, stabbing Aubrey's vision and springing Paddy into action—
His hand grabbed hers with a warm vicegrip, and they took off like rockets. Chikorita fell from its perch and ran alongside, its small paws proving themselves surprisingly capable.
Paddy flung himself shoulder-first against the door to the dilapidated staircase, its bronze handle and thin steps screaming in agony as the two of three of them raced higher and higher. Aubrey heard all kinds of business moving from the other floors. Men shouted words she didn't recognize in a very-recognizable, enraged manner.
As they passed the second floor landing, the door opened slowly—
Surprised men with masked faces watched as their legs tore through—
"Don't look back!" Paddy called. "One foot in front of the other!"
One foot in font of the other. Left, right, left, right.
Third floor was just before them—
Left, right, left right…
Men just a few paces behind them, and looking very much like she and Paddy weren't invited to the party—
Aubrey's heart raced at a mile a minute, her heart threatening to explode from her chest with nuclear force. The door they needed burst open at just the wrong moment, flying open with two Cipher men staring Paddy down—
"One side, fellas!"
Surprise was definitely on their side: Paddy slammed himself against one of them, letting centrifugal force careen Aubrey against the second and knock both men into the wall. They bolted through the floor quickly enough that Aubrey couldn't get a handle on her surroundings. What was this? An office space? The seemingly-endless aisles of closed doors with small windows could have to anything. Her imagination didn't have the time to go wild—
"Maggaly, where are you?" Paddy shouted into his not-phone.
"I'm just behind my desk. Where are you?"
"Mags, I swear—"
"You're coming up on an intersection," she said in a business-like tone. "Take the left, then count down five rooms. It's the sixth, on your left. Summer's in there. Everything good on your end?"
Chikorita leapt onto Aubrey's shoulder, just in time to avoid being swiped—
"Yeah, everything's just bloody peachy-keen!"
Aubrey could see the intersection just ahead. The burning in her calves just had to be quiet, and her hand in Paddy's just had to keep itself from melting—
"Slide!"
What?
Paddy slammed on the breaks a foot away from the turn. His shoes squealed as the momentum had him sliding along the tile floor. Aubrey tripped over herself, and only Paddy's hand kept her from faceplanting and making this an especially-quick rescue mission.
"This way!"
They had made the left turn, pursuers still pursuing and light still lit up above them. Paddy counted the doors in his head as they flew through. Almost there. Almost there—
Sixth door!
"That one!" Maggaly screeched—
Paddy's foot bulldozed the entrance: the door flew back and stayed back as he and Aubrey looked desperately for the next move. But no, they were standing in an empty white room—
"Maggaly…Help? Need a little help."
"Door on your right!"
"Got it."
Aubrey moved for the door, caught up in the speed of the moment—
"Paddy, the guys behind you stopped moving. Something's up. Whatever's behind that door with Summer isn't good news."
"That's not terribly descriptive—"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up! Just…don't open it yet—"
A lonely click from the doorknob, and Aubrey stood at the entrance to the first battle of her life.
What had to be Summer—a girl with pigtails, an odd pair of red goggles, and a more peculiar outfit of blue short and a gold scarf—sat in the corner, bound with thick ropes and gagged with a kerchief. Her eyes bugged out of her head at the sight of Paddy, just before darting to the young man beside her. His hands rested in his purple sweater's pocket, and his body leaned casually on the wall.
Aubrey remembered what happened in the Pokemon Center—
"Do you hear me?!" Maggaly continued to bellow. "It's a trap! T-R-A-P! Trap!"
Kenneth smiled at the two of them, flashing his pointed teeth.
"Sounds about right," he said.