The Duty of a Champion
The Duty of a Champion
After Zach left on his mission, Cammy found herself standing in front of that same mirror again, examining herself further. It had been only a few days since Zach had left, but she already missed having him around. She knew why he'd gone, of course, which made the separation easier. Miranda didn't, though. The pokémon nurse was a bit baffled that Zach had, as she'd put it, simply abandoned his team and gone traipsing off to Sinnoh with only Beni to support him. Cammy, translating for Venus and Lorelei as well as expressing her own opinions, had managed to convey that Zach was on assignment from the Director, though she had not told the girl what he was doing.
Cammy wasn't too thrilled, herself. She knew that Zach and Beni had been Rangers before they met her, but all of her memories of the pair of them were from Zach's time as a Coordinator. She wasn't too used to having Zach under orders from someone else, especially when those orders left her sitting in the Academy, feeling lonely. Venus and Lorelei seemed fairly comfortable with things, though Venus had been wilted the first few hours after her trainer's departure. Indeed, one of the things that had made it easier for Cammy to deal with the sudden loneliness was having to soothe Venus's tears and anger. The Mawile was very mature in some waysâ�"especially in the ways that made her want to sleep with her trainerâ�"but was still a child in others. Venus had been certain that it was some fault of her own that made Zach leave, regardless of having been there when Jefferson had given him his orders. She was sure that if she'd not done something wrong, Zach wouldn't have been willing to leave, and it took Cammy several hours to explain to Venus the exact nature of human relationships and Zach's sense of honor. During that time, she'd come to grips with his absence as well, realizing that the same things she most loved about Zach wouldn't allow him to stay at home when someone he knew was suffering.
On the other hand, that still left her with a problem. It was a very similar problem to the one that had resulted in her finding out she was pregnant, but she wasn't sure precisely how to solve it. Venus had stated her willingness to assist, but Cammy felt, somehow, like that would be unfair to Zach. Also, Venus hadn't seemed too thrilled about it herself. Which left her with only one solution.
"Miranda?" she asked, knocking on the adjoining door. It had been locked on both sides when Zach had been at the Academy, but since he'd left, Cammy had spent as much time in Miranda's room as her own. Even at night, the doors were usually left open.
Miranda didn't answer, but Cammy could hear a moan from inside. Now, Cammy wasn't the most adroit with humans, she freely admitted. That would be Beni, who had, with Zach's help, taught Cammy everything the Lucario knew about humans. Generally, however, she knew that when someone made a noise like that, it meant something was wrong. Cautiously, Cammy opened the door to Miranda's room and peered inside. Then she blinked.
Miranda was lying on the bed, her dress around her waist, and one hand covering her crotch. A buzzing noise that Cammy's sensitive ears readily picked up came from the same area. The other hand seemed to hold some kind of pink box, and there was a wire connecting both hands together. The nurse had not yet noticed that the door was open, and Cammy carefully stepped inside and quietly shut the door behind her. What luck, she thought to herself. This was the perfect way to find out what she wanted to know: how a girl by herself could deal with the problem Cammy was having.
"Whatcha doing?" she asked when she was close enough to see. Miranda's eyes flew open and went wide with shock.
"Ca-Cammy!" she gasped. There was a flurry of cloth as Miranda sought to cover her nakedness. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to ask you a question," the pokemon said, recognizing Miranda's embarrassment. Cammy, of course, felt no such thing, but she realized that humans occasionally were shy when talking about some things.
"Oh..." Miranda shook her head to clear it, and attempted a smile. "Is it important?" she asked pointedly.
"No," Cammy admitted cheerfully. "What were you doing?" The Lucario's patience, after all, only went so far... and not very far at all, in truth.
"Um..."
"I know!" Cammy said suddenly, words clicking in her mind. "You were masturbetting." She cocked her head to one side. "That doesn't sound quite right," she mused. "Mesturbating? Misturbedding?"
"Masturbating," Miranda corrected weakly.
"That's it!" Cammy danced gleefully. "Masturbating! Masturbating!" she said the words in a sing-song tone of happiness. "Zach used to do that," she confided. "But he has..." drawing another expression half-remembered from magazines... "different plumbing. I don't really know how girls do it properly."
Miranda was forced to think quickly. On the one hand, Cammy was a pokemon, and Francisca had watched Miranda masturbate many times, on those occasions where Miranda couldn't wait long enough to place the Happiny in her pokeball. On the other hand, the pokemon's visible unhappiness at Zach's absence, on top of the conversations the nurse had had with the resident doctors at the Academy, had reinforced the fact that pokemon were at least as complex emotionally as humans. Then Miranda had a thought which surprised her and dismayed her. "Am I no different from him?" she muttered to herself.
The thought was that, if Cammy didn't understand how girls masturbated, then Cammy would not be able to do it when there was no suitable mate around for her. If that was true... well, Miranda would have been willing, almost eager, to teach another girl in her place, so long as she wasn't going to get in trouble.
"Cammy," Miranda finally said, avoiding the issue, "Most girls don't usually like people walking in on them while they're doing this. It's a very private thing."
"If you show me how to do it, I'll let you watch me, and then we'll be even," Cammy replied, sounding as though she were baffled by the human's strange reluctance.
"That's not the point!" Miranda couldn't help letting her lips turn up in an unwilling smile. The Lucario had the talent of being endearing to anyone she met, and Miranda was no exception. Indeed, Miranda admitted unhappily to herself, a girl of Miranda's inclinations would find Cammy attractive if she were a human,; enough, perhaps, to risk the embarrassment that came with admitting that she preferred women to men. That brought with it a memory of the sending-off one of her school friends had given her, and a corresponding sense of urgency in her loins. The decision was rapidly being made for her, the nurse realized, and the only question would be how soon she gave in. If not today, then tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day. It had been far too long for her to refuse forever.
"Okay," she agreed. "How much do you know about your body?"
Cammy cocked her head on one side, somewhat baffled. "It's my body," she replied. "It does this and that."
"I mean, do you know how it works?"
"Muscles? I know I have bones and blood and stuff."
Miranda sighed. "Okay, basic anatomy time, then." She turned the vibrator off and set it to one side. Then she positioned herself on top of the sheets and spread her legs. "Stand there," she ordered, gesturing between them.
Cammy eagerly did so. Miranda's manner seemed to indicate a great amount of fun was in the offing, not to mention answering her question.
"This is the vulva," Miranda explained, pointing at her genitals.
"I thought it was a vagina," Cammy asked. "Or pussy, or cunt, or slit," she added thoughtfully. Miranda winced.
"We'll stick with clinical terms," she muttered, blushing. "The vagina is here." She moved a finger to point at the lower opening in her sex, using her index and ring fingers to spread her inner lips. "That's where the penis goes, as youâ�"" she blushed again, "â�"already know. The vagina is a long tube inside of you that leads up to the uterus, that's where babies are made.. As far as pleasure goes, there's something called the 'G-spot' in there somewhere, which can give a great deal of pleasure when stimulated. At least, that's the theory. That's fairly hard to do by yourself, though. I mean, I've found it hard." She drew her finger upward.
"This is far easier to manage, if you know what you're doing. This is called the clitoris. A lot of people call it a 'clit' for short." She wrinkled her nose at the vulgarity. "Well, I suppose it's better than some names." The little fleshy button was already beginning to soften as she'd stopped stimulating it, but it was still engorged enough for Cammy to easily see it. "This is how most women will experience pleasure during sex. Some are lucky enough to orgasm from direct vaginal stimulation, but..." She shook her head. "Nevermind," she finished. "You know what works for you on that."
She let her inner lips fall shut and pointed at them. "These are the labia minora. They connect and protect the sensitive clitoris and cover your vagina and urethral opening."
"Urethawha?"
"Where you pee from."
"Oh."
"Remember what this is called?" Miranda asked, pointing again at her genitals. She was starting to enjoy the role of teacher, however unorthodox the setting.
"Vulva?"
"Very good! It's made up of the mons pubis and the labia majora." She pointed at the fleshy mound above her vulva, and then the two outer lips of her genitals. Then she clapped her hands together. "That's it. Well, there's a lot more stuff in there, and more complicated, but that's the basics."
"Okay!' Cammy smiled. Then she frowned. "But what were you doing when I came in?"
In response, Miranda pulled the pink box, wire, and small pill-shaped object up from beside her. "This is called a vibrator. There's lots of different types, some shaped like a penis, some like an egg, others like this. Have Zach get you one if he plans on disappearing for a while." She smiled vindictively. "I hope he has to ask a saleswoman." The pokemon nurse shook her head to clear it, then flipped a switch on the box. The pill on the wire started to vibrate, and the buzzing noise Cammy remembered became audible.
"Touch it," Miranda ordered, holding the wire towards Cammy. Cammy touched the small, dangling piece of plastic, and jerked her hand back.
"That feels weird," she complained.
"It doesn't when it's down here." So saying, her teacher grasped the vibrator between thumb and forefinger, licked it, and then moved it down to rest just above her clitoris. She restrained a gasp as the electric shock hit her. Teaching Cammy had left her hyper-sensitive.
As Cammy watched, Miranda let her pinky and ring fingers slip down and start pushing into her hole-- vagina, Cammy noted with certain satisfaction. It was nice to know that all these things had proper names, even if it was confusing. Her fingers were barely able to get more than halfway to the first joint before they stopped. Cammy thought for a moment, then stared at her own paws.
Ah, she thought to herself. I see. A sudden mental nod later, and she put her paw over Miranda's hand, taking the vibrator from her weak grip without resistance. Miranda brought that hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp as Cammy began to apply her newfound knowledge. That gasp soon became a series of them, and then Miranda began to pant as Cammy turned her attention on the girl in earnest.
She started with the vibrator resting on Miranda's clit, as the nurse had held it, but then she thought to herself that that was somewhat boring. Instead, she began to hold it only just barely close enough to touch, leaving Miranda flexing her hips towards the buzzing pill to bring it closer. Cammy smiled happily at the mewling noises that the human was trying unsuccessfully to suppress.
Miranda, for herself, was still dealing with culture shock. It was one thing to intellectually concede the idea of finding a pokemon an acceptable bedmate, it was quite another to have that pokemon take the decision out of your hands-- literally!-- and into her own... ooooh... so capable hands. It felt much better than doing it herself, she had to admit, and she was not at all reluctant to say so.
"Please, don't stop," she hissed. Not because she was out of breath, or because she was embarrassed, but mainly because Cammy chose just that moment to slip the vibrator into her vagina and start pushing it further in. Then her eyes widened as a sudden electric shock ran through her. Was this empiric evidence of...
She couldn't complete the thought. The stimulation from earlier, uncompleted, and the excitement of teaching Cammy had left her on the edge, and while Cammy's earlier ministrations had kept her there, she had somehow managed to find the G-spot, and Miranda was lost, totally and utterly.
Miranda's mind came back to earth slowly, just in time to hear Cammy's next words. "Thanks, Miranda!" the Lucario said cheerfully, as if she hadn't just given the other girl an orgasm. "Can I borrow this for a bit?" At Miranda's shaky nod, Cammy bounced off to the room that she had been sharing with Zach, bearing her prize-- the slightly used vibrator-- with her.
Miranda was almost disappointed that Cammy hadn't done anything more. Still, she thought to herself, with sudden insight, perhaps she preferred to wait on Zach. Did that mean that the pokemon was truly capable, as capable even as humans, of true romantic attachment? And if that was true, then Zach and Cammy really were more than simply casual partners--then Zach wasn't abusing Cammy. The thought was disturbing, since she hadn't really believed his story to her. But...
"I guess I owe him an apology," she muttered to the empty room. "Damn," she sighed.
"I hate being wrong."
* * *
"The problem started a few weeks after Celestic," Cynthia began. "You recall how I asked Professor Rowan and the other Elite 4 members to join me there?"
Beni and I both nodded. "That was part of what confused me," I admitted. "If Lucian agreed with you, and you called the others to visit, then why did they do... this, to you?" I gestured around the prison visitors' room, the League Security guard in the corner, and the cameras mounted in the ceiling. "It doesn't make much sense."
"Lucian," Cynthia said bitingly, "is a prick." My face must have shown some surprise at her words, because she gave me a scornful laugh. "What, you don't think that a beautiful woman should use such language? Try spending most of a month in prison for something you didn't do, while those you most trusted spend countless hours and dollars wrecking your reputation for their own petty games."
I had to admit, she had a point.
"So, what makes him so prick-like?"
Cynthia leaned back in her chair, studying me a moment. "How much do you know about how I became Champion?"
"I know it was a surprise," I said. "Nobody expected the young, unassuming girl from Celestic to have a chance at getting to the Elite 4, let alone trouncing them without apparently even taking a breath." I was overstating the case, but not by much. Lucian had been the only one able to give her any difficulty at all, taking down three of her pokémon in a row before her Lucario had gotten the better of his Alakazam. "I also know that you were sponsored for admission to the League matches by Professor Rowan, and that your father and he were close friends. That's the extent of my research to date."
"Clear enough, as far as it goes." She nodded. "Lucian had expected to challenge the League after the season endedâ�"you know that Elite 4 members can only challenge off-season, right?"
"Yep. Keeps the League from being rearranged while being swamped with challenges."
"Right." She sighed. "In some ways, life would have been easier if I'd just let him win and fallen back to his old position. Instead, I beat him, badly enough that five years later, he still hadn't considered trying again." Another sigh. "I don't think he's forgiven me since. In fact, I know he hasn't. Every time I see him, it's a sort of contest between me and him. I try to give him ordersâ�"as is my rightâ�"and he tries to misinterpret or ignore them without making it obvious."
"Sounds like fun." I carefully exaggerated my tone to make it obvious I meant the exact opposite. I couldn't risk annoying myâ�"client? Target? I decided to leave the distinction aside for a moment.
"It wasn't, much. Anyway. Basically, the trouble really started back when I tried to investigate the old Arceus/Darkrai myths. I started getting subtle hints from my security that people were getting interested in me. Real interested; guns and bombs interested." She frowned. "That should have been my first clue. I didn't find out much about Darkrai, but I do know that it's fairly powerful, and wouldn't need to bother with mundane weapons to make me disappear. I'm not sure why it hasn't, to be honest."
I frowned, too, and glanced at Beni. "Arceus, probably," I said, drawing Beni into the conversation officially.
*Most likely. He's marked you, Zach, and probably anyone associated with you is at least unofficially protected. Darkrai isn't ready for an all-on war with Arceus yet, and won't be until it gets the neutrals on his side.*
"Yeah." Cynthia, who had heard only half of the conversation, nodded. "I'm definitely not on Darkrai's side, and if Arceus wanted someone willing to fight Darkrai, I'm glad to be that person."
"He's already got a recruit, but I suspect he's got plans for you, too," I said. I raised an eyebrow at her. "So you have no idea, outside of sheer pique or divine misanthropy, why you're here?"
"No. I've wondered about it for a while, but all I can get is some ridiculous rubbish about smuggling and collusion with poachers. I haven't left the League facilities but five times in as many years, excluding that trip to Celestic. When would I have had time to do what they claim I did?" She frowned. "And that bit about my delaying challengers! I wish I could do that, some days. Do you know that I've spent most of the season sitting in that little, tiny room, waiting without much hope that someone would manage to fight their way through the Elite Four so I could do something?"
"Not really," I admitted.
The rest was merely routine question and answer, and I left confident that my impression of Cynthia had been bang-on. Armed with her side of the story, I departed the prison and began to make my way through Victory Road. Fortunately, I was able to decline most battles by pointing out to the trainers that I was on duty and couldn't spare the time. The ones who wouldn't take a polite dismissal were, frankly, destroyed. Neither Beni nor I was in the mood for games, and every minute lost was a minute which, if I was right, would let Lucian push the League closer to Darkrai. We left a path of wild pokemon stunned on the ground behind us, and emerged into the light of the Pokemon League plateau. Some innate sense of foreboding warned me, and I turned to my right as we exited the cave in time to see something very much like a blackjack swing down at my head.
I awoke some while later. My head felt like someone had played all the heavy metal drum solos the world on it. For the uninitiated... it hurt. A lot.
I found myself in a dimly lit room. The light allowed me to see a sink against the wall, and a hole in the floor next to it. From the stench, its purpose was fairly obvious. I shuddered. A prison, then. Not my favorite place to be, but I've spent some time in them. This one, I thought grimly, wasn't going to make my Top Ten tourist destinations to revisit, to be sure. Especially since they had taken the precaution of locking manacles around my ankles. One bright side, though, was that they'd given me enough chain to explore the entirety of my tiny cell. This isn't quite as stupid as it sounds; it gives a prisoner more freedom, but it reduces the number of times the door needs to be opened as well, correspondingly reducing the risk of escape.
It would for a normal prisoner, at least. I cast my thoughts around for Beni's, and found her almost instantly. She responded with a great deal of relief an affectionâ�"like a dog to her owner, just returned home. The wry tinge of my thoughts did not escape Beni, and she settled immediately into business.
*I'm trapped,* Beni told me, blearily. *They have me chained in a dark room.* She sent me an imageâ�"extremely fuzzy, since this was not a skill she was very proficient inâ�"of chains on each of her four legs and around her neck. Clearly, whoever it had captured us was taking no chances.
Almost no chances, anyway. Aside from the big one: taking a Ranger Field Commander prisoner. By and large, the best way to ensure that a Ranger stays interested in something is to try to force them to drop it, and about the only way to ensure that they drop it is to kill them. If the intent of our captors was to prevent my investigation from proceeding, I was determined to disappoint them. I had just the thing, too.
"They've left my hands free," I told Beni, trusting her to pick the words I spoke from my mind if she couldn't hear them. "I've got a plan."
I made a lot of noise, sounding like someone energetically breaking free, all the while positioning myself just beside the door. Now, if onlyâ�"
"What the hell is all that racket?"
Just on cue. I made more noise, and heard the unmistakable sound of a key in a lock. The door swung open angrily, and a man with the stature of a Slaking lumbered into the room and over my boots. He fell with a thud that I was sure Beni could have heard from the other side of the building, and was unconscious the moment he hit.
Now, if this had been an action movie, the guard would have been carrying the keys to my shackles as well. Unfortunately, despite searching him thoroughly, the only key he turned out to have was the one currently sticking out of my cell door. That was fine. I pulled myself to my feet and hopped out of the cell. I found myself in a dimly-lit room, with a chair and a table. I had apparently interrupted my guard's mealâ�"breakfast, judging by the food. Hanging on the wall by the only other door in the room was a ring of keys. I found the one I was looking for, and was free moments later. I stuck the keys in my pocket for later use. If I was far, far luckier than I deserved, the keys for Beni's restraints would also be on the ring. If I wasn't that lucky, I could at least use them as a sort of weapon. Worst case, those keys would hurt when hooked to a leather belt and swung. No, you really don't want to know where I came by that bit of wisdom.
Now, you'd think that prisons are pretty unique in most cases, and they are. Still, there's always a certain pattern to the majority of prisons, and this was no exception. I reflected on the little I knew so far about this prison, and nodded. At a guess, I was in the high-security non-political section. That is, more specifically, that I was in the top rank of the lowest class-- they needed to make sure I stayed where they put me, but they didn't need to keep me comfortable in case they found a use for me later. Hence the guard and the extremely spartan cell.
From Beni's image, she was in a similar cell, and should be in the same section. Two doors led out of the room I was in now. One would probably lead to the guard barracks for this section, while the other would lead into an adjoining cell's guardroom. This suggested that I was on a corner, and that the door to my left would be the correct one. I opened the door and walked straight in on three more behemoths playing cards.
"Hi, guys!" I chirped. "Say, could you tell me which way the bathroom is?" Three stunned faces looked at me blankly. "Nevermind, I'll find it myself." I turned to walk out the nearest door, only to have a chair go flying past my head. One of the uglies had gotten his wits together, or else they were pooling them.
"Go, Primeape!" he bellowed. The distinctive white fur and manacled arms and legs of the karate monkey appeared in a flash of red light. The other two got their acts together, and a Machoke and a Koffing made the room far more crowded. I reached at my belt for a pokeball, only to remember that I had left them all at home... but wait! There was still one on my belt! But... Cammy, Venus, and Lorelei were all back at the Academy, and Beni's pokeball was still in my backpack...
Mismagius! I had virtually forgotten about it in the aftermath of discovering Cammy's pregnancy. In the week since, I hadn't had occasion to reach for my belt, and somehow had never remembered it since. The big question wasn't how I could have forgotten, though. Would it obey me?
Only one way to find out. "Mismagius, Confusion!" I shouted, flipping the pokeball into the air and summoning the ghostly purple pokémon. It turned to me with its baleful yellow and red eyes.
"Mismagius?" it asked, curiously. It seemed to be deciding whether or not to listen to my command when the Machoke attacked it. Being a Ghost type attacked by a Fighting move, it didn't feel a thing, but its eyes flashed red and it turned to stare at Machoke. The bulky, muscle-bound pokémon seemed to shrink into itself with a distinctly embarrassed look on its face. Mismagius's stare transferred itself to Primeape, and then Koffing, with similar effect. Then it turned its gaze back to me.
"Yes?" I asked, steeling myself as waves of anger and terror alternately coursed over me. I knew what was going on now, like I hadn't in the forest, and was prepared for it. With massive effort, I made my next words sound casual, almost bored. "Can I do something for you?"
The ghost seemed nonplussed at that, and the intense feelings it put out faltered for an instant, then redoubled. By then, my own anger was racing. This pokémon was delaying me from rescuing Beni, for some stupid power games! Without thinking, I reached out and swiped my hand at its face. "Stop that," I snapped. To my surprise, the slap connected, and the nonplussed look on Mismagius's face demonstrated an even greater astonishment. The feelings of terror and fury faded abruptly, to be replaced by vague unease.
"Maj-ius?" it asked hesitantly. "Wha-aat?"
"Confusion!" I ordered it, pointing at the enemy pokemon.
It gave me a look, conveying the feeling that it wasn't quite certain it should be obeying me, but wasn't willing to argue the point now. It turned to the six other occupants of the room, and they sank into sleep immediately.
"Or Hypnosis works too," I agreed equably.
"Mismagius." By which I understood Mismagius to be agreeing to serve me, at least until it understood more about the situation.
The next room proved to be equally useless, though fortunately empty. Finally, after a number of cells and guardrooms equally devoid of occupants, I found Beni's cell. The guardroom was dark, and I gathered that Beni's guard had been one of those playing Go Fish back at the start of this maze. The key to Beni's door turned out to be hung on a hook outside the bars, along with the key to her chains.
"That's that," I told her as I unlocked the last tether. "How do you feel."
"Pins and needles," she growled, not bothering to send it psychically. "I'll live. Who's that?" She pointed at Mismagius.
"That's... um, Mismagius," I told her, deferring the question of a name for a time. "Venus and I caught her back in the forest a few weeks ago, when Miranda ran off. I forgot to mention her."
"Goof," she murmured with amusement. She nodded her head at Mismagius. "Thank you for your assistance, Mismagius."
Mismagius seemed to shrug, as if to say, "What else could I do?" After long conversations with Venus, I was now an expert in interpreting shrugs.
"Alright, well, now that we're together, we can stop taking the scenic route and just leave."
We passed through several rooms, and a few more guards, before finding ourselves in a very interesting place.
*Zach...*
"I know," I said. The room we were in was the exact visitor's lounge we had met Cynthia in. At first, I thought it was perhaps a very similar room elsewhere, but then I noticed certain details which I had noted back during my interview with the Champion. And if this was the same room...
"Beni, see if you can find Cynthia's thought patterns anywhere."
*On it.*
"Mismagius?" the pokemon asked, curiously. I gave it a shrug. For much of Mismagius's verbal communication, there was no direct translation. I understood her to be asking who Cynthia was.
"We came to rescue Cynthia, the Sinnoh League Champion. She's probably somewhere in this facility." My eyes hardened and I found myself glaring at the incapacitated guard in the corner. He flinched away from my gaze. "And if so, these idiots have made two of the biggest mistakes they could in their operation. They brought me directly to her, and managed to piss me off." I punched my hand. "And it may be a temporary position, but I'm a Ranger, dammit. And we don't, don't, by Arceus, lose. Ever."
*FOUND HER!* Beni's mental voice was excited.
"Good work. Where is she at?"
*Approximately 15 yards east of this room, and two yards up. From her thought waves, it would seem that she is asleep, which suggests that she is on the top level of a bunk bed.*
"Lead on, m'dear."
Cynthia was understandably astonished at my sudden appearance at her room, and even more so when I pitched her pokeballs back to her. True to practice for League prisons, her pokemon had been stashed on a shelf outside her cell, in view of her, but too far to reach. It was exquisite torture in many ways, but for those who hadn't yet been convicted of a crime, to be completely denied any connection with their pokemon would have been even more grossly unfair.
"Come on, Cynthia," I ordered. Then I had an irrepressible urge to grin. "We're blowin' this joint." Cynthia gave me a strange look as she buckled on the belt with her partners on it. "I always wanted to say that," I explained sheepishly.
"I don't know that I should leave," Cynthia replied. "I didn't do anything wrong, and it's my duty to stay here and prove that."
"Your duty, Champion," I said in my most persuasive tones, emphasizing her title, "is to protect your people from Darkrai. That comes first, second, and last. You can worry about your own reputation after he's defeated."
Cynthia actually seemed to have to consider that, giving me grave doubts as to the effectiveness of my most persuasive tones. Then she sighed. "You're right. Let's go."
"Good. Beni, escort Cynthia to the exit, and guard her."
"I've got my pokemon, I don't need any other help," Cynthia protested. I glared at her.
"Beni, take Cynthia to the exit. If she resists, pick her up and carry her."
*Sir.* Beni acknowledged. She looked at Cynthia. *Come with me, please.*
Cynthia alternated gazes between me and the Arcanine. Then she sighed resignedly and nodded. The two of them left, leaving me alone with Mismagius.
"Are you a girl or a guy ghost?" I asked Mismagius idly, as I waited for them to get a little distance. Mismagius seemed to consider that a moment. Then I got a distinct affirmative sense on the "girl" concept. So Mismagius was, indeed, Miss Magius. I grinned.
"Congratulations. You're now named Wendy. Do you mind?" A distinct negative. Communication was getting much easier. "Alright, Wendy. Here's what we're going to do." I quickly sketched out my plans to the ghost-type, who seemed ecstatic at the idea. We left in the opposite direction from Beni, and headed for where, if this prison followed the pattern of the others the League had built, the armory should be.
See, we live in a world of Pokemon, yes. On the other hand, the League has long since come to the conclusion that the best way to achieve peace is through superior firepower, and occasionally, it is necessary to have a power which isn't dependent on pokemon. After all, the number of truly skilled trainers in the world are limited. Almost anyone can take a half kilo of C4 and destroy most of a small building, with sufficient instructions. Since that was true, I was almost certain that a fair amount of explosives would be kept within the armory.
There were lots of guards on the way, of course. Somewhere along the way, whoever was in their security room must have woken up and pressed an alarm button. They became more concentrated as I got closer to the armory. Wendy had no trouble instilling terror in even the most resilient of the men, however; they fled in the direction I knew the exit was, and per my instructions to Wendy, would find their fear fade as they got farther from the jail, and totally vanish about 100 meters from the jail, while it would intensify the closer they got to me. My hope was to completely empty the building. On my way to the armory, I spied precisely what I thought I'd want, and grabbed three things from the Warden's office.
The armory was a small room, barely large enough for the eight guards it had held before Wendy worked her magic on them, with steel walls several inches thick. It contained enough explosives for my purpose, though. More than enough, in fact. I considered taking the time to plant secondary charges around the entire facility, to ensure the destruction, but decided against it. My primary mission was to rescue Cynthia, and I had already done that. This was revenge, pure and simple, and had no other purpose, and I couldn't justify the extra time wasted on it beyond what I already had.
The box on the lower right-hand corner of the shelves on the left wall held what I wanted. Incendiary grenades. The model the League favored had extremely weak springs on the levers, just strong enough to keep an accidental explosion from occurring. I pulled the objects I had stolen from the Warden's office out of my satchel and placed them next to one of the grenades. There was a roll of duct tape, an old-fashioned mechanical alarm clock, and a big rubber band. I set the clock for ten minutes before 12, hooked the rubber band around the lever and the clock's minute hand, tying it off so that it was taut. I carefully, very carefully weakened the rubber band so that it would start to tear after it hit around 12 o'clock, and then taped the whole ensemble together and set it gently down on the box helpfully labeled "Explosives, Handle With Care." Then I nodded.
"Time to go, Wendy," I said, shutting the armory door solidly behind me. I began to jog towards the exit, the Mismagius in hot pursuit. The guards milling around confusedly outside didn't even pay me the slightest attention. They all looked fairly dazed, and let me past without challenge. I met Beni and Cynthia at the edge of the forest, and hauled them after me without a word.
"We want a fair bit of distance between us and that place," I told them after a few minutes. I glanced at my watch to check the time, and nodded. "Let's go!" We ran, slowing only enough to ensure that nobody broke an ankle on a hidden tree root.
The trouble with the sort of bomb I used was two-fold. First, it was hellishly unprofessional, but I'm hardly an explosives expert. Second, though, it was also difficult to time. Approximately 18 minutes after I set it, I heard a giant roar in the distance, and something accompanied by fireworks flew into the sky from the direction of the prison. I watched it burn itself out on the way down, making sure it wouldn't land on us, and realized that it was the door from the armory. I grinned, and Cynthia gave me a wan smile in return.
"I really don't want to know what that was, do I?" she asked.
"A distraction," I grunted. "Come on!"
Our trip back to the Ranger Academy was almost uneventful by comparison.
*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***
I LIVE! Well, sort of. The last six months have SUCKED. Major. I mean, seriously, they sucked more than the entire... um, yeah, that joke's a bit off-color. Pretend I never went there. Anyway. Here's the latest chapter. I had it mostly finished months ago, but then my teachers discovered that I had free time, and suddenly, I didn't. If I ever get my hands on their informant...
The long and the short of it is, I've got one more episode to finish, and then we're into the main event. We're in summer, so I'll promise to finish up the entire Arceus season before school starts in the fall. Or, at least, draw it to a more interesting state, yeah?
Two things to say here. First, as an exercise, I finally got to working on updating and editing "the Exile." This probably doesn't matter to most of you, but some may find it interesting. Don't expect any results any time soon, 'cause I need to figure out where in the season to place it and then properly rewrite it, but I plan to make it a trilogy, with an honest conclusion, so as not to have multiple unfinished series in my profile.
Second, no, I did not steal Zach's bomb from a MacGuyver episode. I don't think MacGuyver ever did that particular one, but rereading it before posting I came to the conclusion that it was not unlike something he might have come up with.
After Zach left on his mission, Cammy found herself standing in front of that same mirror again, examining herself further. It had been only a few days since Zach had left, but she already missed having him around. She knew why he'd gone, of course, which made the separation easier. Miranda didn't, though. The pokémon nurse was a bit baffled that Zach had, as she'd put it, simply abandoned his team and gone traipsing off to Sinnoh with only Beni to support him. Cammy, translating for Venus and Lorelei as well as expressing her own opinions, had managed to convey that Zach was on assignment from the Director, though she had not told the girl what he was doing.
Cammy wasn't too thrilled, herself. She knew that Zach and Beni had been Rangers before they met her, but all of her memories of the pair of them were from Zach's time as a Coordinator. She wasn't too used to having Zach under orders from someone else, especially when those orders left her sitting in the Academy, feeling lonely. Venus and Lorelei seemed fairly comfortable with things, though Venus had been wilted the first few hours after her trainer's departure. Indeed, one of the things that had made it easier for Cammy to deal with the sudden loneliness was having to soothe Venus's tears and anger. The Mawile was very mature in some waysâ�"especially in the ways that made her want to sleep with her trainerâ�"but was still a child in others. Venus had been certain that it was some fault of her own that made Zach leave, regardless of having been there when Jefferson had given him his orders. She was sure that if she'd not done something wrong, Zach wouldn't have been willing to leave, and it took Cammy several hours to explain to Venus the exact nature of human relationships and Zach's sense of honor. During that time, she'd come to grips with his absence as well, realizing that the same things she most loved about Zach wouldn't allow him to stay at home when someone he knew was suffering.
On the other hand, that still left her with a problem. It was a very similar problem to the one that had resulted in her finding out she was pregnant, but she wasn't sure precisely how to solve it. Venus had stated her willingness to assist, but Cammy felt, somehow, like that would be unfair to Zach. Also, Venus hadn't seemed too thrilled about it herself. Which left her with only one solution.
"Miranda?" she asked, knocking on the adjoining door. It had been locked on both sides when Zach had been at the Academy, but since he'd left, Cammy had spent as much time in Miranda's room as her own. Even at night, the doors were usually left open.
Miranda didn't answer, but Cammy could hear a moan from inside. Now, Cammy wasn't the most adroit with humans, she freely admitted. That would be Beni, who had, with Zach's help, taught Cammy everything the Lucario knew about humans. Generally, however, she knew that when someone made a noise like that, it meant something was wrong. Cautiously, Cammy opened the door to Miranda's room and peered inside. Then she blinked.
Miranda was lying on the bed, her dress around her waist, and one hand covering her crotch. A buzzing noise that Cammy's sensitive ears readily picked up came from the same area. The other hand seemed to hold some kind of pink box, and there was a wire connecting both hands together. The nurse had not yet noticed that the door was open, and Cammy carefully stepped inside and quietly shut the door behind her. What luck, she thought to herself. This was the perfect way to find out what she wanted to know: how a girl by herself could deal with the problem Cammy was having.
"Whatcha doing?" she asked when she was close enough to see. Miranda's eyes flew open and went wide with shock.
"Ca-Cammy!" she gasped. There was a flurry of cloth as Miranda sought to cover her nakedness. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to ask you a question," the pokemon said, recognizing Miranda's embarrassment. Cammy, of course, felt no such thing, but she realized that humans occasionally were shy when talking about some things.
"Oh..." Miranda shook her head to clear it, and attempted a smile. "Is it important?" she asked pointedly.
"No," Cammy admitted cheerfully. "What were you doing?" The Lucario's patience, after all, only went so far... and not very far at all, in truth.
"Um..."
"I know!" Cammy said suddenly, words clicking in her mind. "You were masturbetting." She cocked her head to one side. "That doesn't sound quite right," she mused. "Mesturbating? Misturbedding?"
"Masturbating," Miranda corrected weakly.
"That's it!" Cammy danced gleefully. "Masturbating! Masturbating!" she said the words in a sing-song tone of happiness. "Zach used to do that," she confided. "But he has..." drawing another expression half-remembered from magazines... "different plumbing. I don't really know how girls do it properly."
Miranda was forced to think quickly. On the one hand, Cammy was a pokemon, and Francisca had watched Miranda masturbate many times, on those occasions where Miranda couldn't wait long enough to place the Happiny in her pokeball. On the other hand, the pokemon's visible unhappiness at Zach's absence, on top of the conversations the nurse had had with the resident doctors at the Academy, had reinforced the fact that pokemon were at least as complex emotionally as humans. Then Miranda had a thought which surprised her and dismayed her. "Am I no different from him?" she muttered to herself.
The thought was that, if Cammy didn't understand how girls masturbated, then Cammy would not be able to do it when there was no suitable mate around for her. If that was true... well, Miranda would have been willing, almost eager, to teach another girl in her place, so long as she wasn't going to get in trouble.
"Cammy," Miranda finally said, avoiding the issue, "Most girls don't usually like people walking in on them while they're doing this. It's a very private thing."
"If you show me how to do it, I'll let you watch me, and then we'll be even," Cammy replied, sounding as though she were baffled by the human's strange reluctance.
"That's not the point!" Miranda couldn't help letting her lips turn up in an unwilling smile. The Lucario had the talent of being endearing to anyone she met, and Miranda was no exception. Indeed, Miranda admitted unhappily to herself, a girl of Miranda's inclinations would find Cammy attractive if she were a human,; enough, perhaps, to risk the embarrassment that came with admitting that she preferred women to men. That brought with it a memory of the sending-off one of her school friends had given her, and a corresponding sense of urgency in her loins. The decision was rapidly being made for her, the nurse realized, and the only question would be how soon she gave in. If not today, then tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day. It had been far too long for her to refuse forever.
"Okay," she agreed. "How much do you know about your body?"
Cammy cocked her head on one side, somewhat baffled. "It's my body," she replied. "It does this and that."
"I mean, do you know how it works?"
"Muscles? I know I have bones and blood and stuff."
Miranda sighed. "Okay, basic anatomy time, then." She turned the vibrator off and set it to one side. Then she positioned herself on top of the sheets and spread her legs. "Stand there," she ordered, gesturing between them.
Cammy eagerly did so. Miranda's manner seemed to indicate a great amount of fun was in the offing, not to mention answering her question.
"This is the vulva," Miranda explained, pointing at her genitals.
"I thought it was a vagina," Cammy asked. "Or pussy, or cunt, or slit," she added thoughtfully. Miranda winced.
"We'll stick with clinical terms," she muttered, blushing. "The vagina is here." She moved a finger to point at the lower opening in her sex, using her index and ring fingers to spread her inner lips. "That's where the penis goes, as youâ�"" she blushed again, "â�"already know. The vagina is a long tube inside of you that leads up to the uterus, that's where babies are made.. As far as pleasure goes, there's something called the 'G-spot' in there somewhere, which can give a great deal of pleasure when stimulated. At least, that's the theory. That's fairly hard to do by yourself, though. I mean, I've found it hard." She drew her finger upward.
"This is far easier to manage, if you know what you're doing. This is called the clitoris. A lot of people call it a 'clit' for short." She wrinkled her nose at the vulgarity. "Well, I suppose it's better than some names." The little fleshy button was already beginning to soften as she'd stopped stimulating it, but it was still engorged enough for Cammy to easily see it. "This is how most women will experience pleasure during sex. Some are lucky enough to orgasm from direct vaginal stimulation, but..." She shook her head. "Nevermind," she finished. "You know what works for you on that."
She let her inner lips fall shut and pointed at them. "These are the labia minora. They connect and protect the sensitive clitoris and cover your vagina and urethral opening."
"Urethawha?"
"Where you pee from."
"Oh."
"Remember what this is called?" Miranda asked, pointing again at her genitals. She was starting to enjoy the role of teacher, however unorthodox the setting.
"Vulva?"
"Very good! It's made up of the mons pubis and the labia majora." She pointed at the fleshy mound above her vulva, and then the two outer lips of her genitals. Then she clapped her hands together. "That's it. Well, there's a lot more stuff in there, and more complicated, but that's the basics."
"Okay!' Cammy smiled. Then she frowned. "But what were you doing when I came in?"
In response, Miranda pulled the pink box, wire, and small pill-shaped object up from beside her. "This is called a vibrator. There's lots of different types, some shaped like a penis, some like an egg, others like this. Have Zach get you one if he plans on disappearing for a while." She smiled vindictively. "I hope he has to ask a saleswoman." The pokemon nurse shook her head to clear it, then flipped a switch on the box. The pill on the wire started to vibrate, and the buzzing noise Cammy remembered became audible.
"Touch it," Miranda ordered, holding the wire towards Cammy. Cammy touched the small, dangling piece of plastic, and jerked her hand back.
"That feels weird," she complained.
"It doesn't when it's down here." So saying, her teacher grasped the vibrator between thumb and forefinger, licked it, and then moved it down to rest just above her clitoris. She restrained a gasp as the electric shock hit her. Teaching Cammy had left her hyper-sensitive.
As Cammy watched, Miranda let her pinky and ring fingers slip down and start pushing into her hole-- vagina, Cammy noted with certain satisfaction. It was nice to know that all these things had proper names, even if it was confusing. Her fingers were barely able to get more than halfway to the first joint before they stopped. Cammy thought for a moment, then stared at her own paws.
Ah, she thought to herself. I see. A sudden mental nod later, and she put her paw over Miranda's hand, taking the vibrator from her weak grip without resistance. Miranda brought that hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp as Cammy began to apply her newfound knowledge. That gasp soon became a series of them, and then Miranda began to pant as Cammy turned her attention on the girl in earnest.
She started with the vibrator resting on Miranda's clit, as the nurse had held it, but then she thought to herself that that was somewhat boring. Instead, she began to hold it only just barely close enough to touch, leaving Miranda flexing her hips towards the buzzing pill to bring it closer. Cammy smiled happily at the mewling noises that the human was trying unsuccessfully to suppress.
Miranda, for herself, was still dealing with culture shock. It was one thing to intellectually concede the idea of finding a pokemon an acceptable bedmate, it was quite another to have that pokemon take the decision out of your hands-- literally!-- and into her own... ooooh... so capable hands. It felt much better than doing it herself, she had to admit, and she was not at all reluctant to say so.
"Please, don't stop," she hissed. Not because she was out of breath, or because she was embarrassed, but mainly because Cammy chose just that moment to slip the vibrator into her vagina and start pushing it further in. Then her eyes widened as a sudden electric shock ran through her. Was this empiric evidence of...
She couldn't complete the thought. The stimulation from earlier, uncompleted, and the excitement of teaching Cammy had left her on the edge, and while Cammy's earlier ministrations had kept her there, she had somehow managed to find the G-spot, and Miranda was lost, totally and utterly.
Miranda's mind came back to earth slowly, just in time to hear Cammy's next words. "Thanks, Miranda!" the Lucario said cheerfully, as if she hadn't just given the other girl an orgasm. "Can I borrow this for a bit?" At Miranda's shaky nod, Cammy bounced off to the room that she had been sharing with Zach, bearing her prize-- the slightly used vibrator-- with her.
Miranda was almost disappointed that Cammy hadn't done anything more. Still, she thought to herself, with sudden insight, perhaps she preferred to wait on Zach. Did that mean that the pokemon was truly capable, as capable even as humans, of true romantic attachment? And if that was true, then Zach and Cammy really were more than simply casual partners--then Zach wasn't abusing Cammy. The thought was disturbing, since she hadn't really believed his story to her. But...
"I guess I owe him an apology," she muttered to the empty room. "Damn," she sighed.
"I hate being wrong."
* * *
"The problem started a few weeks after Celestic," Cynthia began. "You recall how I asked Professor Rowan and the other Elite 4 members to join me there?"
Beni and I both nodded. "That was part of what confused me," I admitted. "If Lucian agreed with you, and you called the others to visit, then why did they do... this, to you?" I gestured around the prison visitors' room, the League Security guard in the corner, and the cameras mounted in the ceiling. "It doesn't make much sense."
"Lucian," Cynthia said bitingly, "is a prick." My face must have shown some surprise at her words, because she gave me a scornful laugh. "What, you don't think that a beautiful woman should use such language? Try spending most of a month in prison for something you didn't do, while those you most trusted spend countless hours and dollars wrecking your reputation for their own petty games."
I had to admit, she had a point.
"So, what makes him so prick-like?"
Cynthia leaned back in her chair, studying me a moment. "How much do you know about how I became Champion?"
"I know it was a surprise," I said. "Nobody expected the young, unassuming girl from Celestic to have a chance at getting to the Elite 4, let alone trouncing them without apparently even taking a breath." I was overstating the case, but not by much. Lucian had been the only one able to give her any difficulty at all, taking down three of her pokémon in a row before her Lucario had gotten the better of his Alakazam. "I also know that you were sponsored for admission to the League matches by Professor Rowan, and that your father and he were close friends. That's the extent of my research to date."
"Clear enough, as far as it goes." She nodded. "Lucian had expected to challenge the League after the season endedâ�"you know that Elite 4 members can only challenge off-season, right?"
"Yep. Keeps the League from being rearranged while being swamped with challenges."
"Right." She sighed. "In some ways, life would have been easier if I'd just let him win and fallen back to his old position. Instead, I beat him, badly enough that five years later, he still hadn't considered trying again." Another sigh. "I don't think he's forgiven me since. In fact, I know he hasn't. Every time I see him, it's a sort of contest between me and him. I try to give him ordersâ�"as is my rightâ�"and he tries to misinterpret or ignore them without making it obvious."
"Sounds like fun." I carefully exaggerated my tone to make it obvious I meant the exact opposite. I couldn't risk annoying myâ�"client? Target? I decided to leave the distinction aside for a moment.
"It wasn't, much. Anyway. Basically, the trouble really started back when I tried to investigate the old Arceus/Darkrai myths. I started getting subtle hints from my security that people were getting interested in me. Real interested; guns and bombs interested." She frowned. "That should have been my first clue. I didn't find out much about Darkrai, but I do know that it's fairly powerful, and wouldn't need to bother with mundane weapons to make me disappear. I'm not sure why it hasn't, to be honest."
I frowned, too, and glanced at Beni. "Arceus, probably," I said, drawing Beni into the conversation officially.
*Most likely. He's marked you, Zach, and probably anyone associated with you is at least unofficially protected. Darkrai isn't ready for an all-on war with Arceus yet, and won't be until it gets the neutrals on his side.*
"Yeah." Cynthia, who had heard only half of the conversation, nodded. "I'm definitely not on Darkrai's side, and if Arceus wanted someone willing to fight Darkrai, I'm glad to be that person."
"He's already got a recruit, but I suspect he's got plans for you, too," I said. I raised an eyebrow at her. "So you have no idea, outside of sheer pique or divine misanthropy, why you're here?"
"No. I've wondered about it for a while, but all I can get is some ridiculous rubbish about smuggling and collusion with poachers. I haven't left the League facilities but five times in as many years, excluding that trip to Celestic. When would I have had time to do what they claim I did?" She frowned. "And that bit about my delaying challengers! I wish I could do that, some days. Do you know that I've spent most of the season sitting in that little, tiny room, waiting without much hope that someone would manage to fight their way through the Elite Four so I could do something?"
"Not really," I admitted.
The rest was merely routine question and answer, and I left confident that my impression of Cynthia had been bang-on. Armed with her side of the story, I departed the prison and began to make my way through Victory Road. Fortunately, I was able to decline most battles by pointing out to the trainers that I was on duty and couldn't spare the time. The ones who wouldn't take a polite dismissal were, frankly, destroyed. Neither Beni nor I was in the mood for games, and every minute lost was a minute which, if I was right, would let Lucian push the League closer to Darkrai. We left a path of wild pokemon stunned on the ground behind us, and emerged into the light of the Pokemon League plateau. Some innate sense of foreboding warned me, and I turned to my right as we exited the cave in time to see something very much like a blackjack swing down at my head.
I awoke some while later. My head felt like someone had played all the heavy metal drum solos the world on it. For the uninitiated... it hurt. A lot.
I found myself in a dimly lit room. The light allowed me to see a sink against the wall, and a hole in the floor next to it. From the stench, its purpose was fairly obvious. I shuddered. A prison, then. Not my favorite place to be, but I've spent some time in them. This one, I thought grimly, wasn't going to make my Top Ten tourist destinations to revisit, to be sure. Especially since they had taken the precaution of locking manacles around my ankles. One bright side, though, was that they'd given me enough chain to explore the entirety of my tiny cell. This isn't quite as stupid as it sounds; it gives a prisoner more freedom, but it reduces the number of times the door needs to be opened as well, correspondingly reducing the risk of escape.
It would for a normal prisoner, at least. I cast my thoughts around for Beni's, and found her almost instantly. She responded with a great deal of relief an affectionâ�"like a dog to her owner, just returned home. The wry tinge of my thoughts did not escape Beni, and she settled immediately into business.
*I'm trapped,* Beni told me, blearily. *They have me chained in a dark room.* She sent me an imageâ�"extremely fuzzy, since this was not a skill she was very proficient inâ�"of chains on each of her four legs and around her neck. Clearly, whoever it had captured us was taking no chances.
Almost no chances, anyway. Aside from the big one: taking a Ranger Field Commander prisoner. By and large, the best way to ensure that a Ranger stays interested in something is to try to force them to drop it, and about the only way to ensure that they drop it is to kill them. If the intent of our captors was to prevent my investigation from proceeding, I was determined to disappoint them. I had just the thing, too.
"They've left my hands free," I told Beni, trusting her to pick the words I spoke from my mind if she couldn't hear them. "I've got a plan."
I made a lot of noise, sounding like someone energetically breaking free, all the while positioning myself just beside the door. Now, if onlyâ�"
"What the hell is all that racket?"
Just on cue. I made more noise, and heard the unmistakable sound of a key in a lock. The door swung open angrily, and a man with the stature of a Slaking lumbered into the room and over my boots. He fell with a thud that I was sure Beni could have heard from the other side of the building, and was unconscious the moment he hit.
Now, if this had been an action movie, the guard would have been carrying the keys to my shackles as well. Unfortunately, despite searching him thoroughly, the only key he turned out to have was the one currently sticking out of my cell door. That was fine. I pulled myself to my feet and hopped out of the cell. I found myself in a dimly-lit room, with a chair and a table. I had apparently interrupted my guard's mealâ�"breakfast, judging by the food. Hanging on the wall by the only other door in the room was a ring of keys. I found the one I was looking for, and was free moments later. I stuck the keys in my pocket for later use. If I was far, far luckier than I deserved, the keys for Beni's restraints would also be on the ring. If I wasn't that lucky, I could at least use them as a sort of weapon. Worst case, those keys would hurt when hooked to a leather belt and swung. No, you really don't want to know where I came by that bit of wisdom.
Now, you'd think that prisons are pretty unique in most cases, and they are. Still, there's always a certain pattern to the majority of prisons, and this was no exception. I reflected on the little I knew so far about this prison, and nodded. At a guess, I was in the high-security non-political section. That is, more specifically, that I was in the top rank of the lowest class-- they needed to make sure I stayed where they put me, but they didn't need to keep me comfortable in case they found a use for me later. Hence the guard and the extremely spartan cell.
From Beni's image, she was in a similar cell, and should be in the same section. Two doors led out of the room I was in now. One would probably lead to the guard barracks for this section, while the other would lead into an adjoining cell's guardroom. This suggested that I was on a corner, and that the door to my left would be the correct one. I opened the door and walked straight in on three more behemoths playing cards.
"Hi, guys!" I chirped. "Say, could you tell me which way the bathroom is?" Three stunned faces looked at me blankly. "Nevermind, I'll find it myself." I turned to walk out the nearest door, only to have a chair go flying past my head. One of the uglies had gotten his wits together, or else they were pooling them.
"Go, Primeape!" he bellowed. The distinctive white fur and manacled arms and legs of the karate monkey appeared in a flash of red light. The other two got their acts together, and a Machoke and a Koffing made the room far more crowded. I reached at my belt for a pokeball, only to remember that I had left them all at home... but wait! There was still one on my belt! But... Cammy, Venus, and Lorelei were all back at the Academy, and Beni's pokeball was still in my backpack...
Mismagius! I had virtually forgotten about it in the aftermath of discovering Cammy's pregnancy. In the week since, I hadn't had occasion to reach for my belt, and somehow had never remembered it since. The big question wasn't how I could have forgotten, though. Would it obey me?
Only one way to find out. "Mismagius, Confusion!" I shouted, flipping the pokeball into the air and summoning the ghostly purple pokémon. It turned to me with its baleful yellow and red eyes.
"Mismagius?" it asked, curiously. It seemed to be deciding whether or not to listen to my command when the Machoke attacked it. Being a Ghost type attacked by a Fighting move, it didn't feel a thing, but its eyes flashed red and it turned to stare at Machoke. The bulky, muscle-bound pokémon seemed to shrink into itself with a distinctly embarrassed look on its face. Mismagius's stare transferred itself to Primeape, and then Koffing, with similar effect. Then it turned its gaze back to me.
"Yes?" I asked, steeling myself as waves of anger and terror alternately coursed over me. I knew what was going on now, like I hadn't in the forest, and was prepared for it. With massive effort, I made my next words sound casual, almost bored. "Can I do something for you?"
The ghost seemed nonplussed at that, and the intense feelings it put out faltered for an instant, then redoubled. By then, my own anger was racing. This pokémon was delaying me from rescuing Beni, for some stupid power games! Without thinking, I reached out and swiped my hand at its face. "Stop that," I snapped. To my surprise, the slap connected, and the nonplussed look on Mismagius's face demonstrated an even greater astonishment. The feelings of terror and fury faded abruptly, to be replaced by vague unease.
"Maj-ius?" it asked hesitantly. "Wha-aat?"
"Confusion!" I ordered it, pointing at the enemy pokemon.
It gave me a look, conveying the feeling that it wasn't quite certain it should be obeying me, but wasn't willing to argue the point now. It turned to the six other occupants of the room, and they sank into sleep immediately.
"Or Hypnosis works too," I agreed equably.
"Mismagius." By which I understood Mismagius to be agreeing to serve me, at least until it understood more about the situation.
The next room proved to be equally useless, though fortunately empty. Finally, after a number of cells and guardrooms equally devoid of occupants, I found Beni's cell. The guardroom was dark, and I gathered that Beni's guard had been one of those playing Go Fish back at the start of this maze. The key to Beni's door turned out to be hung on a hook outside the bars, along with the key to her chains.
"That's that," I told her as I unlocked the last tether. "How do you feel."
"Pins and needles," she growled, not bothering to send it psychically. "I'll live. Who's that?" She pointed at Mismagius.
"That's... um, Mismagius," I told her, deferring the question of a name for a time. "Venus and I caught her back in the forest a few weeks ago, when Miranda ran off. I forgot to mention her."
"Goof," she murmured with amusement. She nodded her head at Mismagius. "Thank you for your assistance, Mismagius."
Mismagius seemed to shrug, as if to say, "What else could I do?" After long conversations with Venus, I was now an expert in interpreting shrugs.
"Alright, well, now that we're together, we can stop taking the scenic route and just leave."
We passed through several rooms, and a few more guards, before finding ourselves in a very interesting place.
*Zach...*
"I know," I said. The room we were in was the exact visitor's lounge we had met Cynthia in. At first, I thought it was perhaps a very similar room elsewhere, but then I noticed certain details which I had noted back during my interview with the Champion. And if this was the same room...
"Beni, see if you can find Cynthia's thought patterns anywhere."
*On it.*
"Mismagius?" the pokemon asked, curiously. I gave it a shrug. For much of Mismagius's verbal communication, there was no direct translation. I understood her to be asking who Cynthia was.
"We came to rescue Cynthia, the Sinnoh League Champion. She's probably somewhere in this facility." My eyes hardened and I found myself glaring at the incapacitated guard in the corner. He flinched away from my gaze. "And if so, these idiots have made two of the biggest mistakes they could in their operation. They brought me directly to her, and managed to piss me off." I punched my hand. "And it may be a temporary position, but I'm a Ranger, dammit. And we don't, don't, by Arceus, lose. Ever."
*FOUND HER!* Beni's mental voice was excited.
"Good work. Where is she at?"
*Approximately 15 yards east of this room, and two yards up. From her thought waves, it would seem that she is asleep, which suggests that she is on the top level of a bunk bed.*
"Lead on, m'dear."
Cynthia was understandably astonished at my sudden appearance at her room, and even more so when I pitched her pokeballs back to her. True to practice for League prisons, her pokemon had been stashed on a shelf outside her cell, in view of her, but too far to reach. It was exquisite torture in many ways, but for those who hadn't yet been convicted of a crime, to be completely denied any connection with their pokemon would have been even more grossly unfair.
"Come on, Cynthia," I ordered. Then I had an irrepressible urge to grin. "We're blowin' this joint." Cynthia gave me a strange look as she buckled on the belt with her partners on it. "I always wanted to say that," I explained sheepishly.
"I don't know that I should leave," Cynthia replied. "I didn't do anything wrong, and it's my duty to stay here and prove that."
"Your duty, Champion," I said in my most persuasive tones, emphasizing her title, "is to protect your people from Darkrai. That comes first, second, and last. You can worry about your own reputation after he's defeated."
Cynthia actually seemed to have to consider that, giving me grave doubts as to the effectiveness of my most persuasive tones. Then she sighed. "You're right. Let's go."
"Good. Beni, escort Cynthia to the exit, and guard her."
"I've got my pokemon, I don't need any other help," Cynthia protested. I glared at her.
"Beni, take Cynthia to the exit. If she resists, pick her up and carry her."
*Sir.* Beni acknowledged. She looked at Cynthia. *Come with me, please.*
Cynthia alternated gazes between me and the Arcanine. Then she sighed resignedly and nodded. The two of them left, leaving me alone with Mismagius.
"Are you a girl or a guy ghost?" I asked Mismagius idly, as I waited for them to get a little distance. Mismagius seemed to consider that a moment. Then I got a distinct affirmative sense on the "girl" concept. So Mismagius was, indeed, Miss Magius. I grinned.
"Congratulations. You're now named Wendy. Do you mind?" A distinct negative. Communication was getting much easier. "Alright, Wendy. Here's what we're going to do." I quickly sketched out my plans to the ghost-type, who seemed ecstatic at the idea. We left in the opposite direction from Beni, and headed for where, if this prison followed the pattern of the others the League had built, the armory should be.
See, we live in a world of Pokemon, yes. On the other hand, the League has long since come to the conclusion that the best way to achieve peace is through superior firepower, and occasionally, it is necessary to have a power which isn't dependent on pokemon. After all, the number of truly skilled trainers in the world are limited. Almost anyone can take a half kilo of C4 and destroy most of a small building, with sufficient instructions. Since that was true, I was almost certain that a fair amount of explosives would be kept within the armory.
There were lots of guards on the way, of course. Somewhere along the way, whoever was in their security room must have woken up and pressed an alarm button. They became more concentrated as I got closer to the armory. Wendy had no trouble instilling terror in even the most resilient of the men, however; they fled in the direction I knew the exit was, and per my instructions to Wendy, would find their fear fade as they got farther from the jail, and totally vanish about 100 meters from the jail, while it would intensify the closer they got to me. My hope was to completely empty the building. On my way to the armory, I spied precisely what I thought I'd want, and grabbed three things from the Warden's office.
The armory was a small room, barely large enough for the eight guards it had held before Wendy worked her magic on them, with steel walls several inches thick. It contained enough explosives for my purpose, though. More than enough, in fact. I considered taking the time to plant secondary charges around the entire facility, to ensure the destruction, but decided against it. My primary mission was to rescue Cynthia, and I had already done that. This was revenge, pure and simple, and had no other purpose, and I couldn't justify the extra time wasted on it beyond what I already had.
The box on the lower right-hand corner of the shelves on the left wall held what I wanted. Incendiary grenades. The model the League favored had extremely weak springs on the levers, just strong enough to keep an accidental explosion from occurring. I pulled the objects I had stolen from the Warden's office out of my satchel and placed them next to one of the grenades. There was a roll of duct tape, an old-fashioned mechanical alarm clock, and a big rubber band. I set the clock for ten minutes before 12, hooked the rubber band around the lever and the clock's minute hand, tying it off so that it was taut. I carefully, very carefully weakened the rubber band so that it would start to tear after it hit around 12 o'clock, and then taped the whole ensemble together and set it gently down on the box helpfully labeled "Explosives, Handle With Care." Then I nodded.
"Time to go, Wendy," I said, shutting the armory door solidly behind me. I began to jog towards the exit, the Mismagius in hot pursuit. The guards milling around confusedly outside didn't even pay me the slightest attention. They all looked fairly dazed, and let me past without challenge. I met Beni and Cynthia at the edge of the forest, and hauled them after me without a word.
"We want a fair bit of distance between us and that place," I told them after a few minutes. I glanced at my watch to check the time, and nodded. "Let's go!" We ran, slowing only enough to ensure that nobody broke an ankle on a hidden tree root.
The trouble with the sort of bomb I used was two-fold. First, it was hellishly unprofessional, but I'm hardly an explosives expert. Second, though, it was also difficult to time. Approximately 18 minutes after I set it, I heard a giant roar in the distance, and something accompanied by fireworks flew into the sky from the direction of the prison. I watched it burn itself out on the way down, making sure it wouldn't land on us, and realized that it was the door from the armory. I grinned, and Cynthia gave me a wan smile in return.
"I really don't want to know what that was, do I?" she asked.
"A distraction," I grunted. "Come on!"
Our trip back to the Ranger Academy was almost uneventful by comparison.
*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***
I LIVE! Well, sort of. The last six months have SUCKED. Major. I mean, seriously, they sucked more than the entire... um, yeah, that joke's a bit off-color. Pretend I never went there. Anyway. Here's the latest chapter. I had it mostly finished months ago, but then my teachers discovered that I had free time, and suddenly, I didn't. If I ever get my hands on their informant...
The long and the short of it is, I've got one more episode to finish, and then we're into the main event. We're in summer, so I'll promise to finish up the entire Arceus season before school starts in the fall. Or, at least, draw it to a more interesting state, yeah?
Two things to say here. First, as an exercise, I finally got to working on updating and editing "the Exile." This probably doesn't matter to most of you, but some may find it interesting. Don't expect any results any time soon, 'cause I need to figure out where in the season to place it and then properly rewrite it, but I plan to make it a trilogy, with an honest conclusion, so as not to have multiple unfinished series in my profile.
Second, no, I did not steal Zach's bomb from a MacGuyver episode. I don't think MacGuyver ever did that particular one, but rereading it before posting I came to the conclusion that it was not unlike something he might have come up with.