Chapter Thirty

Lossy led Macro and Anchor all the way to the town square. Macro clutched the writhing caterpie to his chest, enveloped in his scarf, as his mind stretched back to the events that had followed in the dewott's apartment. His mouth was dry and he licked his lips as he looked around the square. Her phone conversation had been somewhat shaky and had avoided mentioning her helpers were space pirates at all costs. She'd only spoken to the Governor's assistant, promising a call back after he'd passed on the news. Then not even ten minutes later, the Governor himself rang back, demanding to speak to Lossy and her two 'helpers' without asking for any further information over the phone.

Macro was dreading what this Governor's reaction would be. Given he only had authority in Cyan City, his power and influence paled in comparison to Socket's. But he'd still be the first line of contact should she want to find out what was going on in Cyan City.

The Governor's office was situated at the edge of the market, being the main focal point of the square, especially since the market was closed for the day. Beside the building sat a police station that was rather unimpressive in comparison. Cyan City's flag fluttered atop the Governor's office in the artificial breeze, depicting a rain drop against a deep azure sky.

The door was unguarded from the outside. A quick scan of the wall told Macro there were cameras, and not the stealthy hidden kind that some government bodies used. The white-shelled, black-eyed cameras looked like something out of an old sci-fi movie, and they fixed the group with a suspicious stare. He even saw the camera lenses focus.

Lossy rang the buzzer and waited. The voice that followed was familiar. Gritty, like the one he'd heard back in her apartment.

"Hello?" it asked.

"It's Lossy," she replied. "The Governor asked to see me?"

"Oh yes! Hold on one second."

The voice cut out then the buzzer gave a deafening ring. Macro leapt as the lock clicked up and he hugged his writhing scarf tightly. His heart was hammering in his chest but he did his best to hide it, boldly following the dewott into the lobby.

A large bibarel stood behind the counter and he removed his reading glasses to get a good look at them.

"So you're the young lady who called?" His gritty voice didn't remotely suit him.

He looked up from Lossy to eye Macro and Anchor, and his eyes narrowed as he squinted at them. Maybe he needed the glasses for more than just reading?

"You two don't look like water types," he said. "Are you here with this young lady?"

"Yes," said Macro all too quickly.

His heart was still hammering. He was beginning to fear that the secretary's hearing made up for his poor eyesight and he'd actually be able to hear it.

"Very well." The secretary reached for a pen and notepad. "I'll need you three to sign in."

Lossy took the pen and glanced back at the two space pirates.

"I-" she stammered. "I'll sign in for all three of us, okay?"

"That is fine." The bibarel sat back in his chair and replaced his spectacles.

Macro kept a close eye on him, but he didn't look back up from his computer. Once Lossy was done, the bibarel retrieved the notepad and pushed a buzzer on the desk.

"You have-" he read over the notepad. "Lossy here to see you. And..."

He trailed off and looked back up at Macro and Anchor. A look of realization began to cross his face, but before he could say anything more, the Governor's voice rang out from his speaker.

"Fantastic! Send them in right away."

"Okay..." The bibarel cleared his throat. "It's just through those double doors. Room Two A."

Macro met the secretary's gaze, but Lossy grabbed him by the elbow as she mumbled her thanks and steered him alongside her towards the Governor's office.

Two A was exactly where Macro would have expected it to be. The words 'Governor Jumper' were even printed in gold over the window.

Lossy knocked twice and a deep voice from beyond the door instructed them to 'come in'. Two simple words that chilled Macro to the bone.

A lithe frogadier hunched over a low desk, decorated to resemble an old mahogany antique. But like most antique-style furniture, Macro could easily guess it was made from plastic and chrome. He looked up when they entered and his yellow eyes went from worried to furious to plain confused in a split second.

"Lossy, right?" he asked the dewott. Then he look up at her two companions. "Why, may I ask, are you accompanied by Hunter of Wildcard Gamma?"

"Because..." She wound her paws together and her eyes flitted from Macro to Anchor. "Because they helped me... They... They know what happened to my children..."

"And... let me guess..." Jumper let his pen drop to the table and sat back in his chair. "That writhing thing leaking silk is the caterpie you were telling me about?"

Macro's eyes snapped to his writhing scarf. He'd been clutching it so tightly the caterpie had begun to protest violently and a gap had opened in the folds, letting sticky silk flow out onto the linoleum floor like a faucet.

"Oh right... yeh." He chuckled nervously and pulled the fabric back from the caterpie's head. "Yeah, it's-"

The frogadier waved his paw. "Don't say anything, Hunter. Lossy told me everything. Let me look at it."

Jumper's voice was laced with venom. It pushed Macro's fur on end and he had to bite back a sneer. He took a confident stride forward and deposited the sticky caterpillar right onto the Governor's paperwork. He folded his arms and took a step back, letting a smirk spread over his lips. At least it covered up the fact he was deeply regretting folding his arms over his immensely sticky scarf.

Jumper sighed and tried to rescue some of his paperwork from beneath the silent bug.

"Wipe that smile off your face, Hunter," he said. "You should know full well the risk you're taking being here in Cyan City."

Macro snorted. "If I weren't here, you'd have no idea that grass army was in your City. Or that they're releasing bug pokemon to attack your orchards."

Jumper narrowed his eyes at him and shook string from one of his files. "That is the only reason I'm not throwing you behind bars. Now... I think I know full well why you're here. Socket warned me you might show up. Nevertheless, right now... I hate to say this, but... I'm in your debt." He raised a paw before Macro could chip in with a snippy comment. "But don't go demanding anything off me. All you've done is alert me to something that would have become obvious in a day or so. I can pay you back by letting you keep your freedom and get out of this city. If you're not gone by nightfall, my word will no longer protect you and you're back to being free game. Understood?"

Macro snorted and turned his back on the frogadier. He struck Anchor in the lower back with his paw.

"Come on, Anchor. Let's get that disk and scat."

"But..." Lossy clutched her paws together and looked between the space pirates and the governor. "My children..."

"Don't worry, Lossy," said Jumper. "Cyan City's army will deal with the grass threat and rescue your children."

Macro paused by the door and fixed the Governor with a sneer. "You send an army in there guns blazin', those kids are as good as dead."

Lossy let out a wail and fell heavily into the nearest chair. Jumper looked up at Macro with a start and his eyes narrowed dangerously.

"I think my army knows what they're doing, Hunter," he said. "Don't you go scaring a worried mother with your lies!"

"They ain't lies," Macro retorted. "I've seen enough combat to know things can go from bad to worse. I heard with my own ears that army is keeping those kids as a bargain to get away."

"Murder is illegal and punishable by death," Jumper said slowly. "I sincerely doubt that a law abiding army-"

"Law abiding?! Yeah right! Look what they've done to that caterpie then tell me they wouldn't hesitate to murder a couple of kids!"

Lossy sobbed loudly and her face fell into her paws.

Jumper met Macro's leer for a long, painful moment, then sighed, letting his pen drop beside the caterpie. His eyes went to the bug, watching as it scanned the room with its blank, black eyes.

"Maybe there are risks," he said. "But I can assure you we will get those kids back."

"Yeah?" Macro pulled the door open. "Let's see who gets there first, then."

Jumper narrowed his eyes again. "What are you saying, Hunter?"

"I'm sayin' I never leave a job unfinished."

With that, he let the door slam shut behind him.

...

Socket's office filled with digital ringing, penetrating her sound filter which was primarily thrown up to tune out Tweak's incessant jingling. She frowned at the chingling bouncing in the corner of her office while he leafed through and stamped her paperwork, then brought up her holoscreen. Yobi's tired face filled it and he looked up from his indescribable nicknacks to address her.

"Good afternoon, Madam Mayor," he said.

"Good to see you out of your sick bed, Yobi," she said. "What are you ringing me for, exactly?"

"To be honest," he looked back down at his work, "to let you know I'm out of my 'sick bed'."

Socket did not appreciate his air quotes. She steepled her paws together and narrowed her eyes at him.

"You look just as dreadful as you did before you fainted," she said.

He gave a dry laugh but didn't look up from whatever he was attacking with his screwdriver. Part of her wondered if he was imagining whatever it was to be her face. Not that she cared.

"Someone has to make these things," he said. "Besides, I'm still trying to work out the kinks in that worm you want me to send to Download Database."

"Oh yes, the worm." She let her paws drop onto her desk and leant back in her chair. "When will that be ready?"

"Like I said, it has kinks," he said. "Obviously we don't want it to kill the host. But we do want it to incapacitate her and make her easier to retrieve."

"I am less concerned about retrieving that pachirisu than I am Hunter. I just want that nuisance of a pirate to stop meddling in my plans."

"Then the virus is a win-win," he said. "It will incapacitate her, we can retrieve her along with Hunter and his goons, and it will also prevent him working around her database to access confidential files."

"Tweak already dealt with that," she said. "Download Database's reach is severely limited."

"Doesn't mean she can't be hacked around," said Yobi. "If there was a surefire way to stop other pokemon from accessing databases, hackers would have been powerless centuries ago."

Socket snorted, then covered up the rather unfeminine sound by scratching her nose.

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but believe me," said Yobi. "There's a massive risk. We definitely need to either retrieve the pachirisu, or shut her down until we manage to obtain her. The worm will do both. Not only will it shut down the database, it will also allow us to track her down."

"Yes, since the last tracker was destroyed," said Socket. "I hired a mercenary to track down Hunter and her last update was less than reassuring."

"Well." Yobi scratched behind his ear with an oily paw, leaving an unsightly black streak on his orange fur. "Unless they have some means of detecting, isolating and destroying a worm, then this method will be much more reliable than a little tracking chip."

"Fantastic news." Socket steepled her paws again and leant forwards on her elbows. "When will it be ready?"

Yobi cleared his throat and shot her a fleeting glance. The kind he often gave her before he fled a room.

"I already said, it has some kinks." His voice came out with as much haste as a rapidash trying to escape a tsunami. "That last episode of mine cost me some serious time, but I'll keep working on it, and as soon as it's ready, I-"

Socket raised her paw to cut him off. "You will make sure you rest, young man. I don't want you to lose yet more time with another fainting episode. You understand me?"

Her dagger voice caused his eyes to widen, and he closed his mouth tight and nodded.

"Yes, Madam Mayor," he said. "I understand completely. I'll set this android aside and get to working on the worm as my number one priority."

Before she could even ask what importance the new android served, he vanished, and her holoscreen retreated into its desk entirely of its own accord.

She sat back in her seat and sighed, rubbing at her forehead with one paw. "Stupid technology."

...

It certainly wasn't dawn when the materials arrived. It was more like dusk.

Cold wind whipped at Annie's hair as she stared up at the skip of scrap metal. Sheet upon warped sheet of varying grey, splashed here and there with the occasional neon colour. Most of which was marred with rust.

Waveform crouched on the edge of the skip with admirable balance. He rifled through the jagged sheets, the sharp edges snagging and snipping at his brown wing feathers. He didn't seem to mind, or notice. One or the other. Finally, he turned his sharp eyes onto Annie and Web.

"It's all here," he said. "All three thousand five hundred credits worth."

Web stifled a sigh. "You paid all that for this?"

"In all fairness," he said, "it isn't a lot of money for sheet metal. But it got enough scraps to build the entire shell of a ship."

"And what about all the parts that will make it work?" Web asked. "An engine? Steering controls? Fuel? Not to mention the paint it will take to get this looking like..." She waved a paw.

"A pyukumuku," said Annie.

The skuntank shrugged and looked back up at Waveform.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," he said. "While the rest of you are building this ship, I'll keep hunting pirates. We'll hopefully have enough for the remaining parts before too long."

"You've said a billion times that space pirates don't just fall out of the sky!" said Web. "What about the necessities? You can't keep wasting all those credits on a toy that might not even fly!"

"Oh, it's not a toy," said Annie.

Web turned her large head to face the human. "Annie, could you please go inside and see what Trojan is up to?"

Annie shrugged. "Sure. Maybe he'll let me see what designs he's come up with."

Web watched the human stroll into the house, then look around as though she'd lost her way before finally finding the stairs. Web turned back to Waveform who was once again rifling through the tatty sheet metal.

"Waveform, I think we made a huge mistake taking in a human," she said.

"Really? Because I think it was a fantastic decision," he said.

"I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not."

"I'm not being sarcastic." He straightened then glided down to the ground with one silent beat of his wings. "It was just what we needed to get a jump start on dealing with Socket."

"What is your issue with the Mayor?" Web asked. "The environmental conditions don't even directly concern you. You could easily be living in luxury inside Gear Village yet for some reason you choose to live in the slums hunting down space pirates!"

He said nothing as he tossed a stray, and somewhat heavy, sheet of metal back onto the heaving pile. It teetered precariously at the top before sliding into place with a sound like claws on a chalkboard.

"Seriously, Waveform. What is it? You've always been shrouded in mystery and I think it's about time you told us what's going on before dragging us - and a child! - into your ominous plans."

"That water dweller doesn't need to come with us," said Waveform.

"But he wants to," said Web. "And the last I heard, Trojan was designing him a pair of legs! He's much too young to have mechanical enhancements!"

She watched with despair as Waveform dragged the skip on its creaking wheels towards their home's rickety gate.

"Oh, where are you taking all that?" she asked with exasperation.

"What? You think I'm leaving this on the street?" he scoffed.

She opened her mouth to speak, but instead she shook her head and sighed. Leaving it on the street would certainly solve her problems. Or delay them. But it would certainly be a waste of three and a half thousand credits.

"Fine," she said. "Lock it in the back garden. Maybe it will rain and finish off rusting it all away."

The decidueye snorted and turned his back on her, dragging the skip behind him effortlessly.

"Do you really think we can trust her?" she asked.

He paused by the gate and fixed his vermilion eyes on hers. "You're the one who let her into our home."

"It was pity," she said. "Besides... I can't decide if she's unwell or if all humans are a bit loopy."

"Oh, she's unwell."

He turned away from her again and pushed the gate open, dragging the rattling skip behind him.

"How do you know that?" she asked. "You've never met a human before. None of us have."

He said nothing. Her only answer came in the slam of the gate, splintering around its already worn hinges.

She shook her head again and dragged herself into the house. Between Annie and Waveform, her sanity was being plucked limb from screaming limb. A good hot cocoa was what she needed right now.

And a lie down.

...

Defrag sighed at her computer as she brought up yet another article on a potential 'monster' sighting. There were certainly a lot of them, most of them concentrated at the northern end of System Sky. Yet not one of them matched the description Tracer had shown her of the human. Either winged, looking every bit like an archeops; or gangly and ape-like with very little fur.

These sightings, however, looked nothing like either. Neither winged nor gangly. Each sighting described a creature that resembled a tentacruel or tentacool, or even frillish in some descriptions. Part of her deeply wondered if Tracer had been wrong. Maybe the human had more than one pokemon form, and the second was aquatic, and not an extinct pokemon at all.

Or maybe it was. An extinct pokemon they knew nothing or very little about. Jellyfish pokemon didn't have skeletons. They didn't fossilize. There was every possibility that a prehistoric pokemon could have been terrorizing the northern most point of System Sky, then vanishing back into the darkness.

But there was no ocean in System Sky. So this monster's presence made no sense. Were there flying jellyfish?

She pursed her lips together as she skimmed over the article, all of it information she had already read elsewhere. Attacks on the northern cities. Three pokemon dead from toxic stab wounds. Her eyes trailed down to the related news headlines below.

'Jellyfish attacks Favicon City. Is this the water dwellers' revenge?'

She mouthed the words as she selected the headline. Once again, it was all news she'd read before. Favicon City was one of two that had been attacked, and sported two casualties. But this time, something else accompanied the article.

A photograph.

The blurred picture looked every bit like a jellyfish, but she wouldn't have said it looked like any pokemon she was aware of. It had twelve tentacles of varying length on either side of its body, in perfect symmetry. Two at the sides and two at its 'rear' were longer than the others. Almost gangly... was this actually the human?

She stared at it, trying to work out whether or not it fit the description - and somewhat crude drawing - that Tracer had left her with. (Due to confidential reasons, he hadn't wanted to leave a screen shot of the CCTV footage.) It didn't remotely fit. It didn't even match her mental image of it. Yet there was something oddly human-like about it.

She ran a paw over one of her long ears as she stared transfixed at the odd jellyfish. No. It wasn't the human. This was something else. Something more threatening than a creature from another world assaulting the mayor.

Whatever it was, it was attacking System Sky.