PokéBattles: Sandy Version

Interlude 4 - Rescue
Published: 16/11/24

Solveig walked through the door that had manifested once she'd solved the obscenely difficult sudoku in the room she appeared in after folding the net, raising an eyebrow as it sealed behind her. Red was the first to notice her come through, interrupting his conversation with Matey Mike to run over to her.

"...Solveig? What are you doing here?" He was startled at the woman who helped him solve the sudoku to get into this prison having seemingly followed him, albeit so much later.

Her response was less than helpful. "Good to see you too." She looked around the small yard, only seeing a man dressed in pirate garb and a young man in distractingly skin tight lycra aside from Red. "Is this everyone?"

"Yeah. Well, there's Simon as well, but he's... Well..." He hesitated, unsure how to describe his roommate's permanent predicament. "...Unable to leave our cell."

"I see." She subtly looked around, noticing the glean of the lens of the CCTV cameras monitoring the yard. "In that case, I think I'd prefer to reconvene in your cell. Just so I can make sure I'm getting to know everyone at once."

"That seems..." Red trailed off, noticing something in Solveig's eye. There was something she was deliberately not saying. He switched, deliberately putting on a show. "...Efficient. Figures that such a renowned puzzle solver who was able to prevent Grant and myself from getting hold of the Tilde would want to maximize her social efficiency as well as her solve times."

The quartet of Red, Solveig, Mike, and Tex went into Red's room. Solveig glanced around, seeing no one else present. "I... Thought you said there was a Simon here?" Red simply gestured to the wall behind her, and she was greeted by a wall of human anatomy, displayed alphabetically in reading order. "...I... Is he alive?"

The mouth on the wall somehow spoke, despite the tongue being elsewhere. "Despite everything, yes. Hi. And you are?"

"Solveig." She paused, composing herself at the wall of body parts. "We're not sure if this will be possible tomorrow, so I'm here to do this today. This is a rescue." She threw two of the Masterballs, one at Mike and one at Simon, both dissolved into glowing red energy, going inside their new balls.

As Solveig got the next two balls ready, Tex interrupted. "I'm afraid I can't." Tex glanced at Red, not wanting him to block the ball and give the game away that he was no longer under the control of the Unknown Unown that caught him all that time ago. "I think the way they took me here means I count as a caught Pokémon. Besides. Better for it to be me stuck piloting their robot than some other schmuck."

Solveig paused, noticing the glance to Red who subtly nodded to her, hoping she'd pick up that Tex needed to remain here. "Very well." She threw a third Masterball at Red, capturing him in the same red energy as she'd just caught Simon and Mike. She sat on one of the two beds in the cell, having pocketed the three MasterBalls she'd used.

"So... What was stage 2 of the rescue attempt?" Tex looked slightly bemused at the lack of any effort on Solveig's part to leave now she'd caught the three people she was apparently rescuing.

"I wait. Shouldn't be long. I take it you're going to be on the front line of the attack on Sandy when they decide to invade?"

"Afraid so." He paused. "...Between you and me, I'm afraid the Narrator won't be able to stop us."

"So it's going to be down to us mere mortals?" A wry smile crossed her lips.

Tex looked horrified by the prospect. "...I... I don't think mortals getting involved against them is a good idea at all. You saw what they were able to do to Simon... I'm afraid the Narrator won't be able to stop us, but... No one else has a chance in hell. At least, not without their tech but obviously I'm the only mortal - as you put it - with access to that."

Solvieg paused, noting the cameras in the cell, putting together what Tex was deliberately not telling her - That he was pretending to still be caught by them while actually being caught by Red to use whatever robot they were having him pilot against them in the upcoming invasion. "A shame. We'll all just have to hope the Narrator is more competent than it acts when the chips are down, then."

She faded into the same red energy that the three trainers she'd caught inside balls had previously faded into, and that energy shot out of the cell and into the void beyond.