Winona
Magma’s HQ?
No sooner had Winona woken up in an empty room then two Magma grunts appeared at the door.
“Maxie wants to see you. Come.” The pair grabbed her roughly by the arms and dragged her through a set of hallways until they reached a strange platform surrounded by blinking control panels and lights.
“What’s that?”
“Teleporter. Only way in and out of the Command sector.” Without another word, they shoved her in.
She reappeared, disoriented, in another completely different room, where two other Magma grunts immediately grabbed her and duct taped her hands. “You don’t have to worry about me escaping. I don’t even know where the fuck I am.”
This pair of guards silently dragged her through another few hallways to a storage room. Inside, they sat her down in a chair, then locked the door. A second later, a teenage girl in an official-looking Magma vest walked in.
“Hello, Winona. You may not know who I am, but I know you better then you think.”
“Do you?” Winona inquired.
“Yes, I know you. And I’d like to apologize for the guards treating you so roughly. There was no need for them to tie you.” The girl pulled out a pocketknife and started sawing at the tape.
“You’re really bad at this whole ‘villain’ thing. Everyone knows you always leave the athletic girl tied up so she can’t start kicking ass and taking names.” Winona paused. “By the way, what is your name? I know you know mine.”
The girl grinned. “I can’t even remember my given name; you can call me Courtney. See, here’s the thing. I don’t need you tied up to get what I want from you. I have all the collateral I need-your pokemon.”
Winona nodded; it was the obvious move. “So what happens if I, say, stood up with my free hands, took this knife, and killed you in a dramatic fistfight?”
“You continue your escape attempt. The sensor wired to my heart alerts the Magma guards that you attacked me, and they catch you in the hallway leading to the teleporter, which you can’t even use without a passcode that I’ll never give you. Then, one of your pokemon pays the price.” Courtney paused. “That enough explanation for you? Good, then we can start asking questions.”
“Can I ask you one first?”
“What?”
“Why’d you untie someone bigger then you?” Winona jumped out of her chair and punched Courtney in the face. The smaller girl stumbled back against the wall; Winona lunged forward for another punch, only to have her right leg swept from under her. Courtney kicked at Winona’s head; she covered with her elbow and rolled away as Courtney drew the knife from her pocket.
The smaller girl stabbed at Winona’s stomach. She sidestepped while kicking Courtney in the back of the knee; the Magma admin’s leg buckled, and she fell to the floor. Winona threw her leg over Courtney’s neck and laid back on top of her, forcing the hand with a knife into an arm bar she had learned from Larsen back in his military days.
The two gasped for breath. “You reach for that radio, and I’m gonna snap your arm.”
Courtney reached for the radio. Winona lifted up with her hips and pulled down on Courtney’s arm, and a gruesome crack filled the room.
------------------
“Please...it hurts...” Courtney whispered. Winona had stripped her of her Magma vest, her mask, and her gun and radio; her dimpled face was scrunched with pain from her broken right elbow.
“Sorry. I’m afraid I can’t let you see a doctor. Would kind of blow my cover and all. And seeing as you were threatening to kill my pokemon, I don’t have a lot of sympathy for you.” Winona She brought her fist down on the smaller girl’s broken elbow as she finished swaddling her wrists in duct tape.
“OW!”
“You’re really noisy, too. And you probably have a boot knife or something to cut yourself loose. Let’s take care of those too.” Winona mummified Courtney’s legs with the tape, then dragged her into the corner of the supply closet. Hidden by the filing cabinets, nobody would be able to find Courtney unless they were specifically looking.
“Now, I’m a good person,” Winona whispered, “So maybe I’ll only hurt you a little bit more.” She covered Courtney’s mouth with tape, then stomped on her nose, breaking it. “Have fun back here, by the way. Don’t think anyone will find you for a while.” Winona moved a filing cabinet from the far wall, completely hiding the bloodied girl.
Winona put on Courtney’s vest and mask, then wiped the blood off her shoes before leaving the room. She retraced her steps to the teleporter, before realizing that she didn’t know the code.
Instead of turning back to extract the code from Courtney, she ran through the hallways, looking for another way out. Her eyes flickered, watching the doors for signs that they were about to open. She didn’t even notice the near invisible wire strung across the hall. She fell flat on her face as a live flashbang grenade dropped from the ceiling, deafening her and filling her eyes with a blinding light. Hearing the noise, two grunts came out of a door and bound her again.
She had failed. Someone was going to pay.
Skarm
2 days later
Lilycove Town
“Wally, where are we going? Thought you said we were going to find a way into Magma’s base.”
“This isn’t Mt. Pyre anymore. If we’re going to attack Magma’s base, we’re going to need some hardware. And someone trained.”
“So the police?”
“No, a friend of mine who’s in the Navy reserves.”
“Reserves?”
“Well, by reserves I mean a group whose cover story is that they’re in the reserves, and by a group I mean the Pokemon Warfare Application Team. And by that, I mean that if you talk about this to people who shouldn’t know about it they’ll throw you in a cage for a long time.”
“Oh.” We continued on to the door of a rather nondescript building, where Wally spoke into a microphone before being allowed in.
“We’re here to see Steven Stone.” he said.
“Wait. THE Steven Stone?” I asked?
“He’s here.” Steven emerged from a side door, his trademark silver hair gleaming in the utilitarian lights. “What can I do for you?”
“Let’s talk somewhere more private.”
“Alright, my room then.” We retreated to Steven’s room, which had a rather sexy touchscreen table in the center. “So, why me?”
“Because you know as well as I do that Magma’s getting more dangerous. They’re trying to awaken Groudon.”
“That’s interesting. It’s also a fool’s errand, because Groudon can’t be revived.”
“Well, they’re holding a gym leader hostage and they’re demanding the one thing that could possibly do it, so I’d take them more seriously.”
“Now you’re talking.” Steven tapped the table, and a map of the surrounding area. “Where do you think Magma’s base is?”
“My Gardevoir and Skarm’s Swellow are out scouting possible locations, we should hear back any time now.”
A distinctly female voice rang out behind us. “Or, I could just tell you.”
Steven drew a pistol seemingly from nowhere as he whirled around. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m Courtney. I used to be a Magma member, but then...” She looked up, and her nose splint and black eyes together with her arm in a sling told the truth. “They said they wanted to revive Groudon, and they were serious. I told them I was scared of what Groudon might do, and I wanted to leave.”
“What did they do?”
“They let me onto one of their boats headed for town, but on the way there they dragged me into a little room on the boat and beat me. Then they tossed me in the water, thinking I wouldn’t know how to swim.”
“Do you have anywhere to go?” I asked.
“Nope; parents split up years ago and don’t want to see me, no other family. That’s why I joined Magma in the first place.”
“Tell you what,” Steven said, lowering his gun. “You handle a gun before?”
“They taught us all. I’m a decent shot.”
“If you can get us plans for the interior, as well as guard rotations, you’re in. Just draw it on here.”
Courtney set to work on the map while Steven continued talking. “Now, are you planning on bringing your Pokemon?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t bring any that aren’t fully evolved and ready to go. If there’s one you want to bring who isn’t fully evolved, send them out now and let me take a look.
Wally shrugged his shoulders as I sent out Aron, King, and Ashe.
“Here’s the thing. I have this stuff called methevotamine. It’s a chemical that breaks down into Evotamine in the bloodstream, which is the chemical that causes Pokemon to enter the evolution process in high enough concentrations. I can inject it into your pokemon, and it will cause them to begin evolving within the next 5 minutes. But this isn’t a choice you want to make quickly; there’s no undoing it. What do you say?”
I thought of Winona and the lengths I was willing to go to to rescue her. “Do it.” Steven opened a cabinet and withdrew three syringes filled with a greenish clear liquid. He knelt next to Ashe, rolled up his sleeves, and-
“No. Not her. Inject the other two.”
“I don’t want you bringing a pokemon who’s not fully evolved. Only reason I’m letting Aron come is because he’s got skin that’s literally made of steel.”
“She’s sneaky and quick right now, but that takes months of practice. We need her stealth for this.”
Steven thought briefly, then nodded. “Your call.” He gently injected Tentacool, then held the plates of Aron’s leg and body apart with one hand while giving Aron the injection. Three cold fingers wrapped themselves around my wrist, and I looked town to see Ashe softly squeezing my hand. Thanks? Unhappyness? I didn’t know what she meant.
“This will be painful.” Steven said as my pokemon began to spasm. A few minutes later, their skin exuded a white glow that faded quickly, revealing their larger forms. “We’ll go after Magma in two days. They’ll need the time to get used to their new bodies.”
Two days later
On the deck of the boat, Steven took one last check over all of the weaponry we had with us. “We’re good.” He tossed each of us a pistol, and we hopped in the water, swimming into the base and climbing out inside the base. We entered a single file line, and I released Ashe into the middle of the group.
“She’s got great senses.” I whispered. “She can warn us if anyone’s coming.” Steven nodded, and motioned for us to go single file into the base.
Courtney followed in the back of the group, guiding us down the hallway. I was nervous about Ashe being so close to her, but I figured that Courtney had really changed sides judging by the beating she’d taken.
“Teleporter should be just down the hallway. Passcode is 5520.” Without a word, Wally and Gardevoir vanished. Code is good.
As we turned the corner, Courtney drew a syringe from her sleeve and jabbed it into Ashe’s back. My partner arched her back and cried out. Steven spun around.
“What the hell?!”
“She just started evolving. Who can tell when nature calls?” Ashe’s body glowed as she thrashed on the floor. Her limbs grew until she had arms like branches, legs like tree trunks, and the aroma of a field of flowers. Then the glowing stopped, leaving her gasping on the ground.
Before we could react, a door slammed open in the hallway we came from. Two Magma grunts flanked Courtney, who had drawn a pistol from somewhere. The Magma grunts pointed pistols of their own at Steven and I while Courtney pinned Ashe with her boot and held her gun to her head.
Steven tossed his pistol to me, and drew another one from his belt. “What do you want?”
“It’s simple. Skarm wants Ashe to stay alive, I want the Red Orb. You give me the orb, we back off and let you leave here. You don’t give me the orb, we shoot you and take it anyways.”
“It’s not that easy.” Steven said. “You’ve all got semis-mine’s fully automatic. Any one of you shoots and all three of you die.”
“We have one more person right now, and a whole base full of them waiting in the wings. If I’m not alive, how do you think you’re getting out of here?”
“So what’s the deal? You know we can’t give you the orb. You might as well shoot us now.”
“That might be best,” Courtney admitted. “Just give me the orb, I give you Ashe, and all of us walk out of here.”
“All right, I’ll do it.”
“Skarm, what the hell?”
“Trust me.” I unstrapped my backpack and tugged on the zipper. The Red Orb rolled out, and I pinned it with my foot. My pistol lowered itself towards the orb.
“Not good enough. I want Winona too.”
“Really, you’re not in a position to negotiate.”
“Let’s see how well your orb works for you once I’ve shattered it with a few bullets.”
Gardevoir
The other end of the teleporter
Gardevoir preferred impressions and emotions to words, but the current circumstances demanded that she be direct instead of abstract. I’m still scanning, Wally. We should be cautious; I can’t sense any humans, but something is odd.
Don’t worry, Gardevoir. They’re probably out on a mission right now. From inside Wally’s head, Gardevoir could hear echoes of Skarm’s situation through Wally’s earpiece.
Wally, I’m serious, it’s not right. There’s something about this place that I can’t place. And Skarm is in trouble; we should go back and help him.
Courtney said the teleporters don’t go to the same location both ways. Wally stopped short. Look! There’s Maxie’s office. With some kind of strange poke ball inside.
Wally, let me teleport and get it---NO! NO! IT’S A TRAP! Gardevoir mentally shouted with everything she has, even throwing a barrier in front of her partner. It didn’t make a difference.
Wally tripped over a nearly imperceptible wire strung across the hallway. 2 slots opened both in front of them and behind them, and Electrodes rolled out from the walls, one tapping against Wally’s foot. They glowed red, beginning to detonate themselves.
“Gardevoir, I’m sorry.” he said. Through his mind, Gardevoir could hear the gunshots coming from the other side of the earpiece, a fight that Skarm and Steven couldn’t hope to win.
She braced herself with the milliseconds left to her, then teleported Wally away. She didn’t know where he went, and didn’t have time to wonder. Then, with all the focus she could muster as the blast waves approached, she teleported herself.