Cherrygrove's Winter Knights
…
- The Cherry Blossoms
Until now, Aubrey had Paddy down as the makeshift leader of the field group. Lannette had to be the head of the organization, but Paddy, it seemed, called the shots in the midst of combat. This made it quite strange that Summer had taken the lead when the trio took to the staircase.
Then Aubrey remembered, Summer is a Pokemon Ranger.
Pokemon Rangers were native only to the more northern archipelagos, which had recently created their own union and expanded the operations; as Trainers were banned from entering the regions, Pokemon Rangers worked to keep the peace from those organizations that would have been stopped by the occasional hero. Aubrey never expected to run into one in her life; why would she go to Fiore, Almia, or Oblivia when everything she would ever need was only a few towns away?
The boys at school would probably kill to see a Ranger in action. More commonplace than the Covenant of Light, but far more amazing due to their unorthodox style of combat, watching a Ranger was a feat.
The door to the ninth floor burst back as Summer slammed her shoulder into it, her practiced momentum charging them forward with unstoppable speed. Aubrey and Chikorita struggled to maintain the pace, watching Summer's gold scarf flow as she ran down the narrow office corridor; only when it came time to turn did she notice that Paddy had stopped.
Aubrey would have gently tugged at his sleeve, but Summer didn't have time to waste. "Paddy!" She shouted. Her words had a sweet manner to them, as though she might be another girl-next-door type if not for the situation. "Move it! What are you doing, staring into space like an idiot?"
Paddy turned in a slow circle, staring at the ceiling.
"Paddy!"
"Quiet," he said, putting a lone finger to his thin lips. "I'm listening."
"For what?"
"Leaf's not exactly a ninja," Paddy offered under his breath. "If she's captured, we won't hear anything."
Summer folded her arms. It made a strange kind of sense. Aubrey didn't understand, and Summer could read it on the girl's face.
"What's your name?" She asked in a curiously casual way.
"I'm Aubrey," was the polite response.
"Aubrey and her Chikorita, huh?"
Aubrey bit her tongue.
"Well, I'm Summer," she said with a curt smile. "Riddle me this: do you play video games or anything? Sports, maybe?"
"I read a lot…"
Summer rolled her eyes. It was more a thoughtful gesture than a condescending one. "Hmm…that doesn't really help. See, in our ragtag bunch of misfits, Leaf's the tank."
"Tank?"
"She's who you send in to level an army, essentially. And if we don't hear her creating carnage, then she's not out doing her job, and there might be trouble."
Aubrey nodded, relieved that she could just barely follow along. "Well, what exactly would hearing her…you know, sound like?"
Summer pursed her lips—
A thunderous crash boomed from just down the corner—
Paddy traded one look to Summer. Her gentle command was law: "Let's move."
They didn't have to move far; Aubrey's feet skidded to a stop while Summer and Paddy moved forward into the middle of a warground. The would-be offices opened into a wide space, the kind in those office comedies her parents watched, with metal dividers separating workspaces. Aubrey looked around and supposed that the blasted wood, metal, and papers were what remained of the space's mundane purpose. And worse, Pokemon were scattered along in masses of bruises and bloodied limbs.
She pulled herself back and examined further. Not one, not two or even three, but a grand total of five Cipher grunts surrounded the makeshift coliseum, Pokeballs drawn and knees pulsing with tension.
Summer narrowly stopped herself from running into the fray, with Paddy close behind.
"Patrat!" Aubrey heard from one of the Ciphers, "Get back in there, you coward!"
"You too, Geodude!"
From outside of Aubrey's sights, the two opponents leapt into the center arena, the stone Geodude from below and the cunning Patrat from above. If they were aimed at Chikorita, giving a command would be impossible—
Another voice her age came from the heat of combat—
"Ivysaur! Vine Whip Tornado!"
Green lines flew up from the carnage and tore through the empty space. Patrat was gone as soon as it had come, lashed by the soaring vines and sent careening into solid concrete wall. Geodude fared no better as its body was rebuffed and sent spinning, like a bowling ball, into the rubble. Aubrey covered her face as desk shards rained down in a torrent.
"Any other takers?" The voice came again. Aubrey got a better look, her eyes first landing on the young Ivysaur, with its mighty legs and the bulb on its back occupying that youthful space between bud and bloom. It retracted the vines and spun around in a slow, confident gait.
The Trainer next to it had dressed for function over form. Her hair hadn't been cut in a long time, but it didn't receive the care that Rory had obviously given her lavish mane. Her skirt was the khaki variety sold in convenience stores, worn to allow range of movement over allowing boys to ogle. The same went for her stained white tank top and tennis shoes. The only item that maybe could be for fashion was the girl's white hat, as well as the matching messenger bag.
"You're all a bunch of sissies," the girl said happily. "If you'd just let me through, we'd have finished like, hours ago."
"Sorry to disappoint you, kid," Summer took the chance and ran into the fray, "But I get the feeling that kind of thing takes intelligence."
"The kind Ciphers don't have?"
"You bet'cha."
Aubrey reached for Chikorita and pulled it close to her. When she looked back up, Paddy was at her side and smiling. "I don't think you'll need to fight for a while," he said. "The Cherry Blossoms have this covered."
"Cherry Blossoms?" Aubrey could hear the capitalized letters in the name.
Pokeballs came from the rest of the other Ciphers. Recent Pokemon League regulations specified that Trainers could only legally have one Pokemon for battle; it was why working the Day Care had become a bit slow as of late. That these men were pulling out other fighters was heinous, even for them.
"Not a worry," Summer said. "And Aubrey? Yeah, Cherry Blossoms. Check us out online when you get the chance."
"Check this," A Cipher bellowed, signaling the beginning of combat.
What ensued wasn't so much a battle as it was a demonstration of skill. Ivysaur fought like an unstoppable glacier, taking minimal blows while dealing out punishment with impossible accuracy and force. Summer handled herself with the grace Ivysaur had no need for, diving over and under attacks and aiming her Styler with ease. It was almost a dance; all Aubrey needed was the music.
In a manner of seconds, five more Pokemon were out. They were worse than out; the Pokemon blinked back to life as if having woken up from a spell. Aubrey and Paddy remained perfectly still as the herd ran past them and back to freedom.
The grunts had all bunched into a group without noticing it. Summer and Leaf stared them down, neither hero showing even the possibility of mercy.
Leaf tilted her head slightly. "Do I even have to say it?"
The Grunt who had spoken before, undoubtedly the leader, threw a key card at them with a shaky hand. "T-take it," he stumbled.
Leaf strode comfortably to the key and picked it up with a lax hand, seemingly oblivious of her surroundings. And when the Grunts looked like they might muster something resembling courage…
"Boo!"
The men scattered past Aubrey and Paddy and out the way they had come, scrambling like children.
"Figures," Leaf said disappointedly. "They weren't much work anyway."
Aubrey was content to let the assembled Winter Knights finish their work and leave her alone, but that was a pipe dream. Leaf's eyes went to the meek girl holding a Chikorita, and her own mahogany eyes lit up. "Another grass Trainer, eh?"
"Aubrey, this is Leaf," Paddy waved a hand between them, then focused on Leaf. "And she's just a kid caught in the wrong place at a worse time."
"Fair enough," Leaf nodded. "A civilian. Cool to meet you, Aubster."
Aubster?
"Yeah. Got a problem with nicknames?" Leaf asked innocuously.
She shook her head. "I…no, it's okay."
Before the situation could become awkward, Summer took charge, reaching to Leaf's hand and taking the card. "This is what we came for, right? Mission accomplished?"
"Almost," the rushed voice came from Summer's Styler. "Leaf? Good to have you back. We almost needed a new girl to eat us out of house and home."
"Lovely to be back, Maggaly. Did you happen to finally shave your legs while I was out?"
Aubrey stifled a nervous giggle as Paddy winced and took the lead. "Mags, we've got the key card and we've got both Cherry Blossoms. Where do we go next?"
The keyboard clicks on the other side of the line rang out loud. "Actually, you're on the right floor for it. Just past that room you're in is the broadcast platform. The key should get you in."
Leaf raised a hand, and the group went quiet. Paddy and Summer smirked.
"What is it, Leaf?" Maggaly answered.
"Is there anyone here that's actually worth a fight? Or am I just gonna be a walking piñata for the rest of this?"
"Hate to disappoint myself, but you're not gonna get your face pounded in today. It actually looks like you beat down every guard in the building. Though if you're not out in a few minutes, that might change…"
"We'll be long gone," Paddy said definitively. He beelined for the room in question, going past the door the Grunts had been blocking, twisting the knob, and going forth with a purpose. Summer, Leaf, and Ivysaur followed close behind. Aubrey sat Chikorita back down, and the two brought up the rear of the group.
They reached the door of the hour; Aubrey recognized it by the five security bolts that the Ciphers had added to the outside, and the keycard slot just beside them. Summer handed Paddy the card, which he slid inside with a calm composure. The locks clicked back in a rhythmic procession until the door finally opened on its own, swinging inward and hanging ajar. Paddy pushed it open all the way with a controlled force.
The figure inside sent a magnum wave of terror through Aubrey's small body—
"Quilava, fire wheel!"
She had to move—
Aubrey plunged forward, knocking herself and Paddy to the carpeted floor as the ring of flames raced for them. Summer and Leaf retreated to opposite sides of the hallway, watching as the attack set the tower wall ablaze.
The entire room was only the size of Aubrey's bedroom, in her family's small house on the New Bark Town outskirts. To the far right wall was the control panel, which looked more like mission control on a spaceship than anything else. Knobs, sliders, and an army of buttons commanded a trio of screens on the wall. Strangely enough, none of it caught Aubrey's attention.
When she looked up, all Aubrey saw was Kenneth's devilish grin.
"Whoops," he teased at the budding fire. "Looks like that's coming out of my paycheck."
Paddy pushed Aubrey off of him gently, and then stood strong and unafraid. "Don't you know when to quit?" He said.
"Actually, I could say the same to you," Kenneth said. "The little bruiser back there takes down my entire troupe, the Bearer and the Ranger beat down the downstairs guards, and suddenly you're all the way up here when the building's on fire."
"That might be a problem, to be honest," Summer said from behind them. Aubrey didn't have to turn around; the heat spreading had her and Chikorita already sweating bullets.
"Sorry to say," Kenneth put his hands in his pockets, "But you'll have to get past me if you want to tamper with the radio signal."
Paddy raised an eyebrow. Kenneth was onto their plans. "I didn't think Ciphers could figure things like that out."
"Oh, they typically can't," he replied. Aubrey and Chikorita watched cautiously as Quilava, the sly fire-type Pokemon with snide eyes and the flames on its back to match, glided back to its master's feet. "They also typically never have their own Pokemon. They don't understand how Pokemon and humans can be friends, so how could they?
"And with all of this awesome take-over-the-city stuff, I figured, we can't let Shadow Pokemon have all the fun, right?" Kenneth licked one of his pointed canine teeth.
Paddy had become a statue, gears quickly moving as he assessed the situation. He wasn't the leader; he was the battle strategist. Summer and Leaf were only a few feet away, but he'd need them between himself and Kenneth in order to do anything.
There was one answer. His smoldering stare darted down to Aubrey. Already caught up in the tension and excitement, wasn't going to stall the moment this time. She knew a handful of commands, and hoped it was enough—
Her morals were on the backburner, replaced by trust for these strangers—
"Chikorita? Tackle for me!"
Chikorita responded like a soldier, leaping upward and diving for Quilava—
Vine whips zipped out from behind it, gripping the blazing opponent and dragging it out into the hallway. Ivysaur slammed it into the ground, singing the carpet and catapulting stone into the air. As it scrambled to its feet, Quilava found itself sandwiched between Ivysaur, already poised for combat, and Summer, her Styler on and ready.
Kenneth groaned.
As Chikorita scrambled back to Aubrey's side, the girl realized why he was the most frightening boy she had ever met, and the most dangerous man she had ever known. Aubrey had turned away her morals and unthinkingly ordered an innocent to attack a Pokemon that could have burnt it to a crisp, in the name of getting the five of them out of a flaming building with their lives. Kenneth's Pokemon was about to face off with two experienced warriors, all Paddy had to do was tamper with the radio controls before them…
And Kenneth simply groaned. For Aubrey, this was the adventure of a lifetime. For Kenneth, it was just an annoyance.
To drive it home, Kenneth looked at Paddy, then at his Quilava's unfortunate situation…and little Aubrey didn't even register. He walked past Paddy with the gait of a predator approaching its wounded dinner.
When Paddy remained motionless, Kenneth clicked his tongue. "What are you waiting for? I'm letting you go for the controls."
Paddy moved hesitantly for the control panel—
"You've got thirty seconds," Kenneth sang. "That's how long this battle will take."
Kenneth and Quilava stood in the doorway, Summer and Leaf's Ivysaur blocking the hallway. The flames had spread across the floor and were undoubtedly spreading to other levels…
"Quilava?"
Summer and Leaf braced themselves for battle—
"Let's stretch our legs for a bit."