Pokémon Will Somebody Stop These Kids?

[icomeanon6]

Chapter 7​

June, 2017

Krissy rubbed her eyes. It was still early in the morning, and she had been walking for over three hours. This would have been trying enough if she’d been sticking to the trails, but she had opted for a more secluded route back to her house. She stopped and checked the topographical map she’d bought in town the day before. The mansion was only a quarter of a mile away.

She kept going. By the time she reached the top of the next hill, she was dragging her feet. She leaned against a tree, took some deep breaths, and decided it would be best to take a longer rest. Approaching the enemy stronghold while exhausted was always a poor decision.

She collapsed to the ground, closed her eyes, and wondered if the boys had woken up to find her letter yet. Even though she knew no good would come from it, she tried to picture how they would react upon reading it. Jason was easy enough: he would show more than a good deal of righteous indignation at how she’d acted unilaterally. And she imagined he’d be sad, even though he’d probably be too proud to show it. Then again, this could be nothing more than projection and wishful thinking. It wouldn’t be the first time she misunderstood how someone felt about her. Or second.

Travis’s reaction was even easier to guess. He was mad that saving Wyvern was out of his hands now, but he was hiding how glad he was to be rid of her. The thought churned her stomach more than a little, so she turned on her side and tried not to think about it. The important thing was that she was making process. This attempt at making friends had lasted a year and fifty-nine days longer than her first try, hadn’t it? All she had to do was wrap up a few loose ends at the mansion, and then she was free to find some new kids who might become her permanent comrades. So, there really wasn’t a good reason for her to feel as sick and miserable as she did.

She must have nodded off at some point, but it was still morning when she awoke. It would take a conscious effort, but she decided not to think about the boys for the rest of the day. Now that they were in checkmate and had no choice but to go to a Pokémon Center, there was no point in wasting any more of her mental stamina on them. She stood up, judged herself ready enough, and took a heading of west-south-west for the final stretch.

Before long, she was standing behind one of the last trees at the edge of the mansion’s front lawn. A good forty yards of open grass lay between her and the entrance. The building was comprised of two long stories covered with large windows where anyone might look out and see her approach. She could think of no way to eliminate that risk. The real decision was the vector of entry. The front door was a non-starter, but it was also the only entrance to which she had a key.

She clicked her tongue. Her best bet, then, would be to find Alessa somehow and get her to let her through the service entrance around back. Coming into contact with anyone was an obvious risk, but the chances of Alessa being unsympathetic seemed low. Krissy just hoped she wouldn’t ask too many questions. With no options remaining that involved the front of the mansion, she stuck to the trees and made her way around back.

The trees were somewhat closer on this side of the property. An added bonus was that there were also fewer windows, as the only people who came back here were ones her father didn’t care to impress with architecture. If Krissy remembered rightly, Alessa’s window was one above and two to the right of the steel service door. She grabbed a pebble from the ground, looked both ways, and ventured, heart pounding, into open space. She tossed the pebble at the window.

She missed by a mile. In a panic, she scrambled back for cover, then broke her own rule by wishing Jason were here to make a decent throw.

She shook off the stray thought and composed herself. But her composure was lost again almost immediately when the steel door opened with a loud scraping noise. She pressed her back to a tree and waited for whoever it was to pass by.

“…saw Slate earlier today. Dude looked like shit.”

“Well, can you blame him? You ever spent fifteen days in the brig?”

Unfortunately, neither speaker was Alessa, as Krissy might have hoped for. She continued to listen carefully, though, as she’d never heard of anyone receiving a sentence of that length. She could barely imagine spending even two days underground.

“Didn’t say I blamed him, just said he looked like shit, jeeze.”

“Never shoulda got sent down there in the first place, that’s what gets me.”

Krissy thought she heard one of them light a cigarette. Smoking was forbidden inside the building itself, including in the basement and sub-basement.

“Course not—wasn’t even close to his fault. I don’t think anyone would’ve gotten out of there without losing Pokémon. Like, you’re this close to moving on from Grunt and bam.”

“Yeah. But just try telling that to Rus—”

“Hey! Watch it, dumbass—the walls have ears.”

“Whatever. Oh, y’know what else I heard was…”

The Grunts went back and forth for a while on topics of no concern to Krissy. As they rambled on, she considered the matter of this “Slate” who’d just been released from the brig. It seemed likely he would hold a grudge against her father, which meant there was a tiny possibility she could use this to her advantage. Trying to find and deal with this person would have to be plan “D” or later, given the risk it carried, but it was still important to keep all options open.

Eventually, the two went back inside. Krissy waited several minutes until she felt safe enough to give the window another try. She picked up three more pebbles, took a deep breath, and walked out into the open again. She pulled her arm back, taking more care than usual to aim. But as before, the pebble bounced off brick instead of glass. She bit her lip, tried to adjust the motion she’d just gone through in her head, then convulsed as the steel door to her left slammed open again.

She jerked her head over. Standing there with a look of intense anger and incredulity on his face was the last Grunt she ever wanted to see again. It was the old one with the crooked eye, the Golbat, and the two Ursaring. The very same who’d kidnapped Wyvern and would no doubt like to see her and her friends dead. For a moment that felt far longer, Krissy froze.

The Grunt took a step forward and started to say something that would probably have been, “Hey, you!” In that instant, Krissy’s adrenaline took over. Her hand moved on its own to her belt. Before she knew what her plan was, a Poké Ball was on its way to the midpoint between her and the enemy. The right words came out of her mouth at the same time.

“Ice Punch!”

The Grunt only had time to stop in his tracks and lift his hands halfway to where they needed to be. As soon as Frostbite appeared, she leapt straight for his head and retracted her claws faster than a human can blink. Her knuckles glowed blue as they clipped the Grunt’s right eye.

“Gaaaaaah!”

The Grunt dropped to a knee. Even behind his hands, Krissy saw frost and blood on his face. Rather than wait to see any more and give him any chance to retaliate, she swiped Frostbite’s ball from the ground and sprinted for the woods. Soon, her Pokémon was running beside her, and no sooner did Krissy return her to the ball. That was when she heard the enemy shout something incoherent, or maybe she just couldn’t parse the words with how her head was just then. If he was calling for reinforcements, then they would be coming her way any second. She ran harder.

At some point, she tripped and had to catch herself to keep her head from colliding with a tree trunk. Her heart felt like it was about to pound out of her chest, which made it hard to hear the voices coming from different directions behind her. She forced herself to run farther away from them. The analytical functions that dominated her brain under normal circumstances were gone. The closest thing she had left was an overwhelming instinct to escape the danger.

“Away” and “escape” meant uphill, and her legs were dying from it. As the adrenaline wore off, her body gravitated toward the more level way. But this put her on a tangent from the optimal trajectory, which at any other time would have been obvious to her, and indeed to anyone who knew forwards from sideways. When she had to stop for air again, this dawned on her despite her spinning head.

She put a hand to her temple and tried to calm herself before she made any more mistakes. To her left was the base of a small bluff, to her right was downhill and therefore peril, and in front of her was a tall, dense clump of shrubs and bushes. The logical course would be to backtrack. But then, she heard the fast feet coming from behind.

Her hands shook. Running downhill was an unsustainable solution, so she had to fight here. She took Lucia’s ball from her belt. She hoped she could incapacitate the enemy before he could shout. When she turned around, the sight of the black outfit with the red “R” almost sprung her into action. But she stopped.

It was Alessa. She stood still, breathing hard, seeming at a loss for words, just like Krissy. Then, she advanced quickly but unthreateningly. Krissy didn’t move a muscle when she wrapped her arms around her.

“Holy shit, Lucy. The hell were you thinking?”

Krissy didn’t know what to say. It had never crossed her mind that she’d have to talk to Alessa immediately after she possibly maimed one of her fellow Grunts. For that matter, she’d never thought she’d maim anyone, which did just as much to rob her of words.

When she didn’t answer, Alessa said, “I thought you might leave and burn all your bridges someday, but picking a fight with Slate? Twice?”

Did she say “Slate?” thought Krissy, and “twice?”

“…H…How did you—”

Alessa pulled back and held Krissy’s shoulders as she stared her right in the eye. “Wait. You thought we didn’t know about that?”

Why would they? Krissy had never seen him before the first fight, and he’d never seen her. She shook her head.

“You and your pals made him lose three top-notch Pokémon in one day! Your dad grilled him for hours! How many preteen girl-geniuses with a Bayleef do you think are out there? Slate just had to ID you in a photo and we knew it was you!”

Not a single step in this chain had occurred to Krissy even once. It felt like she had been traversing a minefield for hours without knowing it, where “hours” meant over two weeks. She felt her eyes grow wide.

Alessa continued. “Don’t tell me you’ve been this close to home the whole time! Guess that’d explain why they haven’t found you up north yet.” She then began to drag Krissy by the arm. “Well, come on! They sure as hell know where to look now. We’ve got to get you farther away from here.”

Exhausted as she was, she managed to move along with Alessa.

“You better appreciate how dead I am if they find me with you.”

“…I’m… sorry…”

“I don’t need you to be sorry. I need you to be smart. Now pick up the pace!”

Krissy tried, but it was immensely easier said than done. Somehow, she made it close to another mile through the woods before she slowed down so much that Alessa nearly had to lift her to get her to move at all. Her eyes had trouble focusing, and it hurt her throat to breathe.

Alessa sighed. “I guess we can take a break. Gotta be somewhere out of sight, though.”

Nearby, there was an ancient tree whose roots covered a wide dip in the earth. Alessa lead the way underneath. When they sat down, Krissy collapsed into her side.

“Still finding it hard to run, huh?”

Krissy was gasping too hard to answer in words, but she nodded. Alessa rubbed her back. She felt somewhat soothed.

“I suspected for a while, but if you’re still having trouble after a year of exercise, I think you might just have small lungs.”

Neither of them said anything for a while. At length, Krissy’s pulse slowed and her breathing came closer to normal. Only when she was ready to talk did Alessa ask, “So, three questions: Have you had any adventures yet, did you meet any cool people, and what the hell were you doing snooping around the mansion?”

The answers to these questions were inextricably tied together, so Krissy began her explanation with Jason and Travis. Though she tried, she remained disappointingly unable to fully describe the mechanics of Jason’s uncanny talent for catching wild Pokémon. She devoted so many words to this element of Jason’s character—as well as to Travis’s knack for teaching advanced Water-type abilities to young Pokémon—that, by comparison, the revelation of her crusade against Team Rocket was brief and blunt. If Alessa found anything peculiar about this—or offensive about the fact that they were ostensibly enemies now—she gave no sign. The sole major omission in Krissy’s version of the tale was the matter of her new name.

When she was finished, she emphasized the most critical point: although she and Travis were not friends as she formerly believed, Wyvern still needed rescuing.

Alessa nodded. “Yeeaaah… that’s not something I’d ask your dad for help with. Still think it’s pretty dumb to try stealing his PKI card.”

Krissy forgot everything else for the moment and jumped on this clue. “Card? Do you know what it looks like?”

“Forget it. And before you ask, I don’t know where he keeps it, either.”

“I think it either has to be in his office or on his person. And—”

“Look. Lucy.” Alessa sounded more serious than Krissy had heard her in years. “Don’t you think this is awfully far to go for someone who’s not even your friend?”

Krissy hadn’t thought about it this way yet, which she could hardly believe herself. “Well… he’s a friend of a friend, anyway. Or friend of maybe-a-friend.” She thought about it for another moment and felt ill. “…Friend of a former friend, maybe.”

Alessa said nothing. Krissy shook her head and brought herself back to the real reason. “It was my fault. He didn’t want any part of this, and I pushed—well, maybe Jason did most of the actual pushing, but I—”

“It’s not your responsibility what he does with his Pokémon. I’m sorry about what happened—you know I wish we’d only steal from assholes and banks—but his mistake ain’t worth risking your neck.”

Krissy had predicted that Alessa would react in roughly this way, but she had hoped otherwise. She’d learned about heroes and heroines from Alessa’s books in the first place, and heroes and heroines knew their necks existed for risking. She wanted to explain to Alessa how it wasn’t nearly enough to run away from home: She had to be her father’s antithesis. That meant saving Wyvern.

She was about to say something along these lines, but the sound of snapping twigs cut her off. Then there were footsteps, and more than one set of them.

Alessa put a finger to her lips, then crept forward without making a sound. Krissy stayed where she was, not daring to move a muscle, not even to reach for Lucia’s Poké Ball. She could only hope the other Grunts were only passing through, unaware of their presence. Alessa rose to her feet—it seemed she had a plan.

“Hey!” she called out to no one Krissy could see. “Anyone seen her yet?”

For a long second, there was nothing. Alessa turned to her left and looked over the edge of the depression, which is why she didn’t see the body flying in from the right. Jason yelled at the top of his lungs as he landed on Alessa’s back and hung on by her neck.

“Aggh! Who the fuck—”

Krissy’s jaw dropped. She rushed forward to break them up, but as soon as she was out from under cover, a second flying body knocked her to the ground. This one, smaller and furrier, proceeded to lick her face. As she tried to remove herself from underneath Rabies, someone grabbed her hand and tried to pull her up, but this only threw her physical predicament into further confusion.

Meanwhile, Alessa continued to rave. “Get off me, you little shit!”

“Never!”

“Bark! Bark!”

“Come on, we’re getting you out of here!”

Krissy would have liked to explain to Travis that (besides her being stuck under a large puppy) she was in no need of extrication. As she was finding the concept difficult to articulate, she had to settle for yelling, “Guys! Guys! Knock it off!”

*********​

Krissy felt more acutely awkward than she ever had in her entire life. She was sitting on the ground with Alessa on one side and Jason and Travis on the other. She had meant for them to all sit in a circle, but it ended up being more of a squat triangle as the boys and Alessa mutually refrained from sitting as close to each other as to Krissy. At the moment, everyone was staring at her, while she was staring at the trees. She had just finished explaining the gist of her situation to Jason and Travis.

It hadn’t gone the way she’d imagined it would a year ago. There was no drama, no artfulness to how she’d explained it. It wasn’t nighttime or even raining. She’d said something to the effect of “Mariano Russo is my father. I want to defeat him and get Team Rocket out of Johto someday. I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t think they’d want to be around me.” It was straightforward. On-the-nose. Boring. You were supposed to at least make poetic use of the third-person when revealing something of such significance.

She waited, and at great length, someone finally said something. It was Jason. “So… do you want us to call you ‘Lucy,’ then?”

Krissy shook her head.

“Actually,” said Alessa in an uncharacteristically small voice, “I think I’m the only one who calls her that. It was usually just ‘Lucia.’”

Krissy endured a moment of crushing anticipation before the boys broke into their slowly-building but inevitable laughter. It grew especially loud from Jason.

Alessa didn’t seem to get what was so funny. “Huh?”

Then, Jason finally said, “You named your starter after yourself!”

Alessa began laughing her head off immediately. “Omigod, you’re kidding!”

Travis tried to restrain himself, but he wasn’t doing a good job. “Knew it. I knew that name had to come from somewhere.”

Krissy wanted to find a hole to hide in.

“You don’t know the half of it!” said Alessa. This time, she actually addressed the boys directly, and while smiling, no less. “One time when she was younger, she was writing a story, like a little fantasy novel, and she named the main characters after me and her even though they were nothing like us! She just couldn’t think of any other names! And then she begged me to come up with the names for all the other characters, and oh my god, Chikorita’s ‘Lucia’ now! That is so her!”

At the very least, it seemed like this might make the three of them friendlier with each other. Krissy supposed she might survive the embarrassment after all, in that case.

But then, Jason asked her, “So wait, what about your name? Who’s ‘Krissy,’ then?”

No one had said ‘Krissy’ the entire conversation so far. Alessa covered her mouth with both hands and looked like she might explode from holding in the obvious truth. Krissy shot her a look that said, Please, please don’t say anything, or I might literally die.

In what appeared to take a herculean effort, Alessa removed her hands and said, “No idea.”

“And none of your business,” added Krissy. She hoped that would be the end of it. The laughter did in fact die down, but what followed, in retrospect, was worse.

Travis stared Alessa down. “So. Are you gonna help us or not?” From the look on his face, you wouldn’t know he’d been in such a good mood only moments ago.

Just like that, the smile was gone from Alessa’s face as well. “Cool it, pipsqueak. I’m thinking about it.”

Krissy could see from Jason’s and Travis’s eyes that they didn’t believe there was anything to think about. She wanted to say this was more than Alessa’s livelihood at stake: that the Rockets treated snitches and traitors worse than they treated cops. She almost remembered what happened to the last police officer they caught trying to break into a hideout, but something in her brain mercifully stopped her.

This was all far easier for Krissy than it could ever be for Alessa. Krissy had any number of mitigating factors protecting her from fierce retaliation: nepotism, age, perceived level of threat, et cetera. But Alessa was an adult of no relation to anyone important, and she had taken an oath of loyalty. Whatever Krissy had in store if her father caught her was certainly dreadful, but it wouldn’t entail permanent harm. She couldn’t say the same thing with confidence for Alessa. There was no escaping that uniform.

Even so, she didn’t know how to say any of this without sounding like an apologist. She couldn’t think of anything worse than Jason and Travis seeing her as a defender of Rockets.

While she was thinking, another tense silence had settled in. This time, Alessa was the one to break it. “Anyway, we still have to get all of you farther north, for now. They might send out another wave of searchers.” She stood up. This didn’t resolve the situation by any means, but Krissy would settle for a continuing, pragmatic ceasefire.

Jason stood up as well, and Travis followed suit. “We passed some on the way here,” said Jason. “They just asked if we’d seen anyone and kept moving. They weren’t going the right direction.”

“Good. Better safe than sorry, though, right? I’ll cook for you guys tonight.”

With that, the three of them followed her in silence. Everything that could lie in store for Alessa dragged on Krissy’s mind, which made her realize she hadn’t thought enough about what might happen to Jason and Travis. Things were never supposed to have escalated to this point until they were at least fifteen and could better protect themselves.

All this meant nothing had really changed since the night before. Krissy was still the only one who was anywhere close to safe.

*********​

Krissy was tired, but she wasn’t asleep. The clouds were too thick for stars, and the fire was already out: it was as dark as possible. It gave her some measure of confidence she could sneak away again. It was the right thing to do, especially now that one more person was involved. If she was quick enough, she might just bring everything to a happy end before the others could even follow her to the mansion. This plan had seemed like a longshot when she was more awake, but now, it was clearly doable.

She sat up without making a sound. There was another critical difference between this night and the one prior: Alessa’s keys. They were only a few feet to Krissy’s right, and if she could find them, it would all go so much more smoothly. She could get inside the house without anyone’s help. There was still the matter of getting into her father’s office, but she wasn’t the worst lock-picker in the world. This was too good a chance to pass up, and she could save Alessa and the boys so much grief this way.

Alessa was lying on her side. Krissy crept up to her. She listened to her breathing pattern: regular, meaning asleep. If the keys were in her right pocket, like Krissy thought, she could get them without disturbing her. It was going to be simple, she told herself, and it would let her keep everyone safe.

Krissy wiped some sweat from her forehead and dried her hands on her shirt. Then, she slowly reached out to where the top of Alessa’s leg was supposed to be. Her fingertips touched her hip. Then, before she could move them any farther, a hand grabbed her wrist so fast and so hard she thought it would snap off. Alessa bolted upright and yanked her closer to her.

Krissy almost cried out, but she just stopped herself. She couldn’t see a thing, but the way Alessa refused to loosen her grip painted a distinct picture. Krissy imagined a pair of burning eyes, beyond furious. The way Alessa’s hand twitched and continued to squeeze the life out of Krissy’s wrist said something to the effect of, “I told you what would happen if you ever tried this again.” But Krissy didn’t know whom Alessa was talking to and didn’t want to know. She was just trying to help.

Alessa pulled her in until her mouth was right next to Krissy’s ear. She whispered, “Don’t mess with sleeping people. Not everyone likes that.” There was acid in her voice that she was clearly trying but failing to keep down. Krissy wanted to say she was one of those people, too, but now she wasn’t sure she knew what that even meant.

“Were you after my keys?”

Krissy barely managed to squeak the word, “Yes…”

“You realize if I was a little less sharp, I would’ve clocked you? Busted your head right in?”

She did now. “…Yes…”

“Is this how it’s going to be if I don’t help you or drag you away? You’ll keep pulling stupid, suicidal shit until you get that kid’s Seadra back? The one you said ain’t even your friend?”

“…Yes.”

Alessa’s hand kept twitching for several seconds, but then it calmed down. “Fine. Go to sleep. We’ll all rest up, then tomorrow night, I’ll sneak you and your friends into the mansion. I’m keeping my keys with me, you’re on your own from there, and you never saw me.”

Krissy was a little relieved, but she still swallowed. “Jason and Travis too?”

“You want them to track you down again and ruin everything? Unless you can tie ’em up and leave ’em here, they’re coming too. If you don’t like it, pick some better friends next time.”

Alessa finally let go. The conversation was over. Krissy crawled back to her sleeping bag and rubbed her wrist. She hoped against hope the boys wouldn’t agree to the plan.

 

[icomeanon6]

Chapter 8​

It was almost noon when Jason, Travis, and Rabies were closing in on Krissy and a Rocket Grunt. Not so far from there, Jen stood outside the Violet City Pokémon Center, handing out fliers to anyone who walked by.

“Excuse me, sir, have you seen these children? Please call this number if you do. Thank you.”

“…No, ma’am, I’m afraid we don’t have a picture of the girl. She should be with the boys, though.”

“You guys seen these trainers before? Well, if you could keep an eye out, that’d be real great.”

This was turning into the same routine she’d gone through in Cerulean City. She must have talked to hundreds of people by now and handed out twice as many fliers, but no one had seen the kids. It felt like all she was accomplishing was bolstering the copier store’s bottom line. Even though she had some small reason to be more optimistic about their chances in Violet City, it was hard to shake off that sense of futility.

Hanna and Derek said they were here, and that’s that. We’ll find ’em for sure this time. Her main partners in the search were not in town at the moment. It had only been a few hours ago when she got the call from them with the news, after which she hopped on the first bus, while they presumably passed out to recover from the all-nighter. The plan was to meet up sometime that evening.

Jen noticed her stack of fliers was growing thin, which meant it was back to the copy machines, and probably the ATM before that. She looked around as she walked and saw that the number of people out and about for their lunch break was starting to pick up. She hoped to be ready to hand out more fliers before the streets turned quiet again. She was thinking it might be a good idea to try around the Tower District, too, when something else caught her eye.

A young woman had just dropped her own sheet of paper on the cobblestones and was bent over to pick it up. She was wearing all black, including a cap she kept pulled low over her forehead, and her boots were nearly combat-grade. As Jen hadn’t been born yesterday, the fact that her jacket was zipped closed to hide the “R” didn’t fool her for a second. The best thing to do at a time like this was to pretend she was an idiot and walk right past the obvious Grunt as if she were invisible.

Not that this was easy. Jen stuck her right hand in her pocket to keep herself from making a fist. How she wished she could get Jason and his friends back simply by giving one Rocket a black eye. She began to indulge in a few thoughts of intense (but still restrained and justifiable) violence, which gave her a small case of whiplash when the Grunt stepped in front of her path and said, “’Scuse me.”

Act normal. Act normal. “Yeah?”

The Grunt held up a flier which bore a single portrait with no description. “You seen this girl?”

Jen’s eyes nearly bugged out, but she caught herself. It was Krissy’s picture. At least, Jen thought it was. It had to be, right? Then again, she’d only ever seen her for a little while a few weeks ago.

…No, it’s definitely Krissy. Worse yet, Team Rocket was specifically looking for her. Things were even worse than she’d thought.

“’Fraid not.”

“Hmph.”

The Grunt was about to leave, when it struck Jen that they really needed a photo of Krissy. She quickly reached for her phone and asked, “Hey, want me to take a picture of that? My friend knows everyone around here.”

The young woman opened her mouth half-way, but she didn’t say anything.

Come on, thought Jen. You don’t want to act suspicious either, do you, you evil little bitch?

Whether for this reason or because she simply couldn’t find any harm in it, the Grunt did hold up the flier again. Jen snapped a picture of it quickly but casually. Then, she put on a look of concern that wasn’t exactly fake, but was perhaps deliberately misdirected.

“Don’t worry—I’m sure you’ll find her soon.”

The Grunt nodded, then walked off at a hurried pace. Jen turned the other direction and did likewise. She wanted to focus on the positive development in that she could change the flier to have all three pictures now, but even she couldn’t pretend this was anything compared to how much more dire the situation had become. She prayed that Team Rocket didn’t know the kids were probably in the area, because if she had to bet money on who would find them first, it wouldn’t be on herself.

It was when she walked straight past the sign that read “Copy, Photo, Print” that Jen realized her eyes were fixed into a nervous glare. She tried to shake it off. Was it still too early to call Hanna and Derek?

Of course not. Sleep be damned—this is an emergency.

As Jen took out her phone again to try Hanna first, she went over in her head who was supposed to know what: Hanna presumably knew a little something about Derek’s job, as she had probably applied her hacker skills to some of Derek’s work data in order to get the information from earlier this morning. Depending on how carefully Derek had selected and redacted his data, he probably still thought Hanna knew little and Jen knew nothing. Either way, Jen still had to act like she was totally in the dark when she talked to either of them.

It was growing more difficult by the day to pretend she hadn’t “accidentally” learned about Derek’s job as an undercover cop when she was seventeen.

*********​

A few hours later, Jen sat waiting on the curb by a hotel on the outskirts of town. Two cars drove by, and she found herself growing anxious. She thought about calling Hanna again when Derek’s structurally dubious pickup truck pulled into the parking lot. Hanna stepped out of the passenger side, rubbed her eyes, and gave a small wave. “I called ahead. You and me are sharing a room.”

“’Kay.” It worried Jen a little that Hanna still looked this tired. They didn’t exactly have time for rest.

Derek got out as well and cut to the chase. “If the Rockets are on their trail and they’re in the right city, that means we can’t just go around talking to people or camp at the Pokécenter. That’s too slow, and it’s a race now. We need to head into the woods—that’s where they’ll have to spend most of their time. And we can’t split up, cause we might need numbers against Rockets. Think you can track them with Summer?”

Jen had to think about it. “I know she’d recognize Rabies’s scent if she found it, but probably not any of the kids’. We’d have to find something that belongs to them, and I didn’t think to get anything last time I was in Cherrygrove.”

“That’ll have to do. If we’re lucky, Jason’s been using him a bunch. I’m gonna go check in, so let’s meet back here in ten.” With that, Derek darted off for the entrance.

“He knows we’re checking in, too, right?” asked Jen.

Hanna shrugged. “Long drive. Don’t think he’s all there. I offered to take a turn at the wheel, but he wouldn’t listen. Shall we?”

Jen was looking forward to having somewhere to drop her bag. When they entered the lobby, she just saw Derek rounding a corner and heading to the rooms. It was nice they were on the same page in terms of the necessity of haste.

“Honestly,” said Hanna, “I think we need him to slow down for a minute. You can only go so far on fumes.” She yawned before going to the front desk to take care of the typical hotel formalities. Jen found herself shifting from foot to foot in impatience. After what seemed like forever, Hanna tossed her a key.

“So, what do—” Jen faltered as Hanna began shambling her way to their room without stopping to listen. “So, what do I owe you?”

“You don’t.”

Jen would be lying if she said she hadn’t expected this answer, but that didn’t mean she was going to take it sitting down. “C’mon, don’t do this. Tell me what the bill was.”

“No, you don’t do this.”

“Nice comeback.”

“Whatever.” Hanna struggled with the lock. “I know you don’t like talking money, but I’ve got some and you don’t, so I’m paying. That’s that. Also, I’m bigger than you.”

Hanna’s facts were all correct, but Jen still didn’t agree with the conclusion. “Okay, so my finances aren’t exactly solid, but I can at least pay myself to be here cause I’m the boss. You said you ran out of vacation a few days ago, right?”

The door finally opened, and Hanna promptly entered the room and fell face-first onto the bed nearest the door. “Bill’s been more than accommodating.”

Jen suddenly felt silly for equating Bill to an ordinary employer and simultaneously realized her latest argument wasn’t much of an argument. If anything, Jen’s extended absence was more detrimental to her future financial prospects than Hanna’s was to hers. “Guess neither of us are really doing ourselves favors at work right now.”

“That’s ‘none’ of us. Three.”

It took Jen a moment to realize what Hanna meant. She had been taking it as a matter of course that Derek was on the clock. To her knowledge, their efforts were all perfectly within his normal work duties, but Hanna wouldn’t know that. To an uninformed observer, the natural assumption would be that “at work” for Derek meant a government building in Goldenrod. Jen wearied of tracking what everyone was supposed to know and not know. “Right, duh.”

In any case, Hanna didn’t seem to think it was a big deal. She turned over and held up a limp arm as a signal for Jen to help pull her upright. She obliged, bringing Hanna to her feet with a grunt.

“You need more exercise. Getting pretty heavy, there.”

Hanna acted like she hadn’t heard that. “It’s supposed to rain tomorrow morning. It’ll be tough if we can’t find them today.”

“Hey, we will. I’ve got a good feeling.”

*********​

It was pouring. The leaves were catching a lot of it, but it was more than enough to put Jen’s spirits in the cellar. She rubbed some of the water off Summer’s nose. No Arcanine was happy in even a drizzle, and Jen was now deeply regretting that she’d never taught her to use Sunny Day. It probably wouldn’t have been enough to dispel the rain entirely, but it still would have been a huge improvement, and they needed a huge improvement the way things were going. Yesterday afternoon’s search in the forest southwest of Violet City had turned up nothing, and the northeast was proving no better.

“Hey,” said Hanna to Derek, “You’re sure we don’t want to bring this back to town for now?”

“Yes. In-town’s still a dead end. I don’t care if we’re out here all day.”

The two of them didn’t seem much better even after a full night of sleep. Jen couldn’t understand why Derek was so hell-bent on searching for them this way, either. It felt like looking for a needle in a haystack to her. “Look, Derek. Summer’s good, but I don’t know if anyone’s good enough to find them with nothing to go on. What are the odds we just stumble on somewhere Jason had Rabies out?”

“We won’t have better luck in town. All we’d get are some old leads, if that. Hanna, bring Marie out again; it’s been long enough.”

His tone was really starting to get under Jen’s skin. As for Hanna, she shook her head, but tossed Marie’s ball anyway. The Alakazam stood in a slouch and with arms heavy. She let out a low, discouraging hum, and Jen noticed Hanna’s eyes widen in a familiar way.

“No. They’re nowhere close.” Hanna bent down and rubbed Marie’s back. Apparently, her Pokémon had been awfully tired lately, and she wasn’t getting better. While Derek looked around, probably to decide where to go next, Hanna’s eyes suddenly grew wide again. “Wait.”

“What is it?” asked Jen and Derek at once.

“There’s somebody close by. Strangers. She thinks three.”

Derek’s brow grew tighter. “How close?”

Hanna paused, and when she spoke again, it was in a smaller voice. “Fifty feet west. They’re coming this way.”

“Fifty feet?” Derek was almost whispering now, but it still sounded like he was shouting. “We needed to know that right away! Get them back in their balls! They might be Rockets!”

He didn’t have to tell Jen. She just felt lucky to have the cover from the trees and inclines around them, otherwise they might have been spotted already.

When Summer and Marie were safe in their Poké Balls, Hanna turned on Derek. “Listen, you. This ain’t as easy for her as just looking. It’s not like—”

“Later! Just follow my lead!”

Derek began to walk north and gestured for Jen and Hanna to follow. He wasn’t moving in any particular hurry, which Jen assumed was so that if they were seen, it would look like they were simply passing through. She didn’t have time to think about whether it would have been smarter to run off, as she heard from behind, “Hey! You down there!”

They turned around. Uphill from them were three Grunts who didn’t even bother to hide the letters on their shirts. As the Rockets began to approach, Jen started to consider, despite herself, how she would handle a battle with them. It was “despite herself” because everyone with a brain knew the risk of fighting Rockets didn’t go away if you beat some of them once.

The clear leader of the trio walked right up to Derek with an insufferable swagger about him. “Hey, pal, you seen a kid around here? Girl, ’bout eleven?”

Jen took some offense at how this pig acted like Derek was the only one here. It almost made her want to point out that Derek didn’t have any Pokémon left, and had always been a crappy battler anyway.

“No.”

The two Grunts behind the leader—who was perhaps self-appointed—let their heads drop. They certainly weren’t trying to fake any gusto for their job. Mostly, they seemed just as tired as Jen was with how the rain kept pelting their heads.

“That really sucks,” said the leader. “Makes me wish there was something besides information you could contribute to the effort. Get my drift?”

Jen looked at Derek’s face. Immediately, she felt a knot form in her stomach. He had looked angry a moment ago—as he often did—but there was a tension in his jaw and something in the lines on his face that she was positive she had never seen before. She looked down and saw his fist shake at his side, and then the image filled her head of him beating the Grunt to a pulp. She was this close to moving forward to intervene, but then Derek loosened his fist and reached for his back pocket instead. He pulled out a few large, loose bills.

Jen supposed it had just been her imagination—hers had always been a little overactive. The Grunt at least didn’t seem to have noticed a thing and took the money while wearing the same shit-eating grin as before. “Hey, you’re a smart guy, y’know that?”

Not a muscle in Derek’s face moved. One of the other two Rockets, however, looked up and said, “Come on. Let’s just keep moving.”

With an obnoxious chuckle, but without another word, the first Grunt acquiesced. Soon enough, all three were out of sight. Jen and company stayed still for a good while afterward, until at length Derek let out a deep breath.

“I nearly fucked that up.”

Jen hadn’t imagined the whole thing. It wasn’t that she would have felt differently had she been in his shoes. Who didn’t ever feel like correcting the shape of a Rocket’s nose? The difference was that she never saw herself or Derek being so close to actually following through with it. He’d always been strong—so had the whole family, for that matter—but he’d never been any kind of fighter.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Jen. “We didn’t get in a fight, and that’s all that matters. Went about as well as it could’ve.”

Hanna nodded her agreement, but Derek didn’t say anything else. They then walked on, and Derek didn’t seem nearly as driven as he had all morning, rather his feet dragged. When it felt like the right time, Jen brought out Summer again, who growled at the ongoing rain, but dutifully put her nose to the ground. They continued in no particular direction at a trudge for what felt like an eternity.

Then, Summer barked, and they all jumped at the sound. The Arcanine dropped her shoulders and sniffed with more intent than Jen had seen from her in years.

“Summer? Is it Rabies? Is it your baby boy?”

After a little more sniffing, Summer barked again and sprung back up. Jen could have cried, and her face broke out into a tremendous smile. Summer took off at a trot in a new direction. They finally had a trail.

“Slow down, girl!”

Jen turned to the other two. They didn’t quite seem to believe it yet. “We’d better move in slow. We don’t know how they’ll react.”

“If they’re at the end of the trail, you mean,” said Hanna.

“Hey, they’re gonna be there! Let’s go!”

Now Jen took point with Summer. Even though the wind came from the front, she could have sworn it was at her back. After all the agonizing and hopeless searching, she was finally going to bring Jason and friends home. She wouldn’t have to bring any unspeakable news back to Aunt Meg because this was it. Today was the day, she kept telling herself over and over. She repeated the thought as long as she could. Then Summer came to a sudden stop by a huge tree. There was a kind of hollow under its roots. Jen looked.

There were no kids. There was nobody around at all, nor was there any sign of a camp, abandoned or otherwise.

Jen could only stare as Summer sat at attention. The Arcanine didn’t look exactly happy, but she had clearly followed the scent as far as it went.

“He must have put Rabies back in his ball here,” said Hanna.

Derek examined the earth all around. “I don’t see any footprints. That’ll be the rain.”

Jen felt like an idiot. She thought she’d stopped overreacting to small signs like that a long time ago.

“Can Summer pick up any other scents?” asked Hanna. “Just anyone who’s been here?”

Jen looked over at Summer. She knew her Pokémon could understand Hanna at least that well. As for Summer, she put her nose to the ground again, but pulled her head back up quickly and with finality. “That might be the rain, too,” said Jen.

Hanna sent out Marie, found nothing, and recalled her after barely any time at all. Then, she came near and put her hand on Jen’s shoulder. “Let’s take a break. There’s space under those roots.”

There was just enough space, she might have said. The ground was muddy, and they had to bend their heads down, but the three of them were able to sit out of the rain.

Less than an hour ago, Derek probably would have shot down the idea of taking a break. Now, he just stared into space. The look reminded Jen of when he was a teenager, which wasn’t encouraging. Several times, it looked like he was about to say something, and eventually he did.

“I think we need to let the police take it from here.”

Jen could barely register what she’d just heard. When she didn’t say anything, Derek kept going in an attempt to explain himself.

“I mean, we know they were here now. And if we tell the Violet police about how the Rockets are looking for Krissy, they’ll put good people on it.”

Jen didn’t see how there weren’t already “good people” on it. Of course, it was the right idea to tell the police what they’d just learned, but why should they drop their own search? She had to wonder if this was just him trying to get her and Hanna out of the picture while he continued to work on it alone. Maybe there were things he couldn’t do as a cop if they were in the way.

“…I’m sorry. I also have to get back to Goldenrod. I’ve been away from work for too long.”

No, he was serious. Derek wasn’t that good of an actor, and Jen knew it. He really intended to go back to whatever his normal duties as an officer were and leave everything to the local police. She felt like there was a boiling kettle in her stomach, and it was getting hard to hold in the steam. How could he seriously consider abandoning Jason to fate?

“But…” she said, “…But we’re so close. We’re so much closer than the police have been able to get!”

Derek put his hand to his forehead. “No, we’re not. Trust me: We’re not prepared for this. I meet cops through work sometimes, and they know a hell of a lot more what they’re doing than we do. We need to let the professionals handle this.”

Jen exploded. A decade of careful discretion did nothing to keep her from shouting, “That’s you, you bullshitting coward!”

Derek stared at her. He looked almost like she was holding him at gunpoint. Then, the quivering, pathetic fear suddenly gave way to something closer to rage, and he glared at Hanna for some reason. Hanna had been stuck in awkward silence to this point, but now she spoke.

“Derek, I didn’t tell her. I swear.”

Jen twitched. For a reason she could barely grasp, this was nearly as infuriating. “You told her but not me?”

Derek twisted his head back to Jen and jabbed a finger in her direction. “I didn’t ‘tell’ anyone! And she’s fucking blackmailing me!”

The corner where Hanna sat wasn’t large enough for her to actually disappear into. She didn’t deny the charge.

Derek took on a deadly serious tone. “Tell me when you found out and everyone you’ve ever told.”

There was no “if” in that question, only an “ever.” Jen almost slapped him.

“It was Christmas of ’06. I haven’t told a single goddamn person, and I never heard anyone guess.”

It looked almost as if Derek had come down with a sudden case of stomach flu. Apparently, his guess had been far more recent. “Well,” said Jen, “it’s all out in the open now, so what the hell do you mean ‘let the professionals handle this?’”

Just like that, Derek’s anger was back. “Look, do you want me to say it out loud? This isn’t my assignment, and I’m not allowed to call my own shots. I’m sorry, but this is bigger than just three kids, and there’s too much at stake for me to keep ignoring orders. Every day I waste here is putting a much bigger plan at risk.”

“Let me see if I follow this stupid shit: for years and years, the only thing you ever said about your job was how fucking dumb your bosses are and how they don’t know what the hell they’re doing. So now they are worth listening to when that means leaving Jason in a ditch.”

“Oh, shut up! If he’s in a ditch, it’s cause you shoved him in!”

She hadn’t seen that coming, and she thought for his sake he’d better have a good explanation for it. “Excuse me?”

“Why do you think I brought you into this in the first place? It’s because he used to trust you. Used to. But no, you had to throw that out the window as fast as possible. ‘I know! I’ll get my psychic friend to scare the shit out of them!’ Great fucking plan! That’s why we’ll never find them again!”

Jen almost started screaming about how he wasn’t there and had no idea how that plan actually went down, but she thought of something worse. She had realized what was actually behind Derek’s twisted idea, and it was so much more banal than he was trying to spin it. “So sue me, I tried! And I’m still trying, unlike you! You know what, fuck it, the kids are trying, even if they’re stupid about it. You know why they’ve done more to hurt Team Rocket than you ever will? It’s cause to get anything done, you’d have to stand up to your idiot bosses, which you won’t cause they might fire you, and you’re scared to death of fucking job interviews!”

This left Derek frozen, not that Jen gave him much of an opening to respond. “How are you not over this yet? That’s a problem for teens and new grads, not guys in their thirties! I can’t believe I was ever proud of you for what you do. You make me sick.”

Derek’s face was utterly blank. He was staring a thousand miles away again. Then, where there had been blankness, it looked closer to sadness.

“…You’re right.”

He ducked his head, rose to squat, and left the roots to return to the open and the rain. He walked a few paces, then stood still. Slowly, it sunk into Jen that she may have just said something which would haunt her for the rest of her life. She looked over at Hanna and saw her head was buried in her hands.

Minutes passed. Nobody moved, and the only change was that Derek was getting wet again. Eventually, Jen realized she had to say something, and probably something which at least resembled an apology. Before she knew what it was, she got up to join Derek. As soon as she was able to stand up straight, though, he spoke again. He sounded calm.

“New plan. We’re going to save Wyvern.”

Not in a million years did Jen expect him to say that. The idea had never even crossed her mind. “What?”

Derek turned around to face her again. “That’s the only thing that’ll make them come back. They don’t have a shot of getting that key, but I do. We do. Hanna, I’m going to need your help.”

Hanna got up as well, but she didn’t look remotely convinced. “Even if we get the key, will that work? We can text Travis that we’ve got it, but are they going to believe us?”

“They will if Bill tells the press that his team’s cracked the Rockets’ new Poké Balls. Then, we just have to tell the kids to read the news. It’s what they want to hear, and they’ll believe it. And we’re not going to trick them. We can do this the right way.”

Hanna bit her lip for a moment. “And you’re sure you can do it?”

“Yes.”

Jen found it hard to believe, but it wasn’t like Derek to overstate his confidence about anything, much less something this dire.

He continued. “There’s a Grunt who works directly for Russo who owes me. It’ll only work once, but he’ll get me inside the facility under Russo’s mansion. Their network isn’t connected to the public internet, but everything I’ve heard suggests that once you have physical access to it, their security sucks.”

Hanna lifted her eyes up. The gears inside her head seemed to be turning.

“If you can handle it,” said Derek, “I can call you when I get alone with one of the machines. Then, you and Marie track my phone, teleport in, do your thing, and we’re out with the key and all the other data you can pull.”

Jen wasn’t happy with one of the conditions of that plan. “And you’re sure you can find an unsupervised computer?”

“Almost sure. I’ve been getting ready to carry out this kind of operation for years. But like I said, it’ll only work once. Soon as they know I’m not actually selling out the police, then that’s the rest of my assignment out the window. This plan means cashing in for me, and if I’m lucky, the department will think it was worth it. Are you and Marie up for it, Hanna?”

“…Yeah. Should be no problem.”

Jen swallowed. “I’m coming too.”

Derek answered almost before she finished speaking. “No way in hell.”

“What if things go south? Marie’s in no shape to fight, but Summer is.”

“I have a Pokémon. We’ll be fine.”

Somehow, Jen hadn’t seriously considered this possibility, but she played it off. “One Pokémon’s never enough. Everyone knows that.”

Derek shook his head, but to Jen’s surprise, he said, “Fine. You’re right. But if you and Hanna get in serious trouble, Marie’s taking you out of there right away. And the plan is that nobody needs to fight at all.”

You mean she’ll be taking all of us out of there right away, Jen thought to say, but she didn’t push it. Derek was the professional, after all. “How soon can you make this happen?”

“Tomorrow morning. I do need a little time to get ready, and we could use a good night’s sleep first.”

Jen looked at Derek and Hanna. Hanna especially seemed almost as confident as Jen had been when Summer found the trail. She had to wonder, though, if this was how Jason and company had felt when they first decided to pick a fight with Team Rocket. But then, they were just kids, while Derek and Hanna were bona fide experts.

This was going to work.

*********​

It was past midnight. Travis had his back to a tree. A short way behind him stood the biggest house he had ever seen. To his left was Jason, to his right was Krissy, and standing by another tree was the Grunt, Alessa.

Nobody made a sound. The stillness lasted at least ten minutes, and then he heard a heavy door open and shut. With that, Alessa crept over to the three of them and whispered, “That’s the guard’s nightly bathroom break. There won’t be anyone watching for about five minutes. I’m going to open the door, and then I’ll signal each of you over one at a time.” She switched her small flashlight on and off. The beam was narrow. “You first, then you, then you.” She pointed at Travis, Jason, and Krissy in that order.

There was no debate. This part of the mission was entirely in the Grunt’s hands, as much as Travis hated to admit it. He didn’t understand why they had to go one at a time, though. In any case, Alessa moved quickly and quietly across the lit clearing, unlocked the door, and disappeared. Several long seconds passed. Then Travis saw the signal.

He had to move. It took a moment of hesitation, but he willed himself to cross the gap. He could only hope nobody who was still awake was watching from one of the windows.

As soon as he was through the door, someone grabbed his shoulder and he nearly cried out. It was just Alessa, of course, but that didn’t keep his heartrate from spiking. He was about to move away from the entrance, but she held him in place. Then, she made him face her and whispered, “Do you know what you’re getting into, here?”

It didn’t seem like the perfect time to ask that question. Travis’s eyes strayed up and down the long hallway they stood in. There was a dim light coming in from outside, but at the edge of his vision, it was pitch black.

“Answer me.”

He did. “Yes.”

“Are you willing to do anything to get your Pokémon back? And I mean anything.”

Travis didn’t like that she was willing to burn so much time on this. “Why?”

“Because you might have to.”

Something was crawling up Travis’s throat—a caveat, a dodge, some kind of hedging. Despite that, the answer was obvious. Wyvern came first.

“Yes.”

Alessa stared him in the face with a deep crease in her brow. He got the feeling she didn’t believe him.

“One piece of advice, cause I feel sorry for you. If you end up facing Russo, don’t look him in the eye.”

Travis didn’t know what to make of this. “Why not?”

“Cause that’s what he wants you to do.”

Alessa nudged him over to the side, then signaled Jason. He came in a flash, but he got no words from Alessa before it was Krissy’s turn.

With all of them huddled up just inside the house, Alessa looked them over one last time and said, “Remember: you never saw me. Good luck.” She bent down and gave Krissy a quick one-armed hug. Travis wondered how Krissy could stand to let a Rocket touch her that closely, friend or no. Just how badly had they messed her up?

Alessa hustled out the door and closed it with barely a noise, but still more than Travis was comfortable with. He felt the clock ticking as Krissy hurried them down the hallway.