Sammi and I were very close after spending most of a decade together. While we looked nothing alike, we were often told we acted very similarly to twins.

Because of this, when she’d left the year before to start her journey, we’d made a promise to keep in contact often. We talked nearly every night unless she was in a place with poor reception. However, since those locations were well marked, she’d contact us early to let us know she’d be out of touch.

So when she failed to call, I got a little worried. Maybe she was just busy, or hit an unmarked dead zone, so while worried, I just sent a text to her. When she still hadn’t responded by the next morning, I mentioned it to mom.

“That is a little worrisome. She’s been in Saffron City for the past month, so I’ll have somebody I know check up on her.”

Thanking her, I went about my day as normal, but I couldn’t help feeling a sense of apprehension. We’d been so close, that we’d forged a psychic bond much like actual twins had, but it was more fragile than a natural bond, and faded with distance.

Mom had bad new for us that evening. Her friend had found no trace of Sammi. She’d vanished.

Then had I been misreading what I felt? Had the sensations actually been what I was getting from Sammi? If so, something had to be terribly wrong for me to feel it all the way over here!

“Rynn, stop! You can’t help her if you go in without a plan and get yourself hurt or killed.”

“Oh, I’m not going straight to the attack. I know enough not to do that. But I can find Sammi, far more easily than any other person, and when I do, I will set her free, in the most efficient and safest way possible. Send anyone available to Saffron, they’re going to regret messing with my family.”

What I didn’t say was that I’d be doing it the safest way for my sister, not myself.

Mom acquiesced, but asked me to wait for a few minutes, coming back with a pack and some of her pokémon in their balls. She’d decided to come with me.

I couldn’t argue. It would just waste time, and if I wasn’t the one to bring her, she’d just have someone else do so.

During the wait, I’d gathered up my own pokémon, since anything else I needed was stored away, so as soon as she was back, we ‘ported over.

The safehouse in Saffron City was in an old building on the floors above a laundromat. It wasn’t in the best part of town, but that just served to make it easier to disguise. The place was owned by an old man who was friends with my Oak grandparents. They had friends the world over, from what I knew.

The place was supposedly an apartment building, but in reality none of the apartments were rented out. The old man didn’t need the money they’d bring in to keep the place up. He’d invested well when he’d been young, so his income was secure. The apartments were instead used by those he trusted for stopovers on their travels. And recently, since we’d been officially recognized by League Law Enforcement as a contracted and deputized organization, the place had been made one of our bases of operations.

As soon as we arrived, the slight feeling of something being wrong exploded within me, making me gasp.

WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO MY SISTER?!

“Rynn. Rynn! RYNN!! CALM DOWN!”

My mother’s voice pulled me back from the rage and pain I was feeling, anchoring me. For the first time ever, I intentionally muffled the connection between my sister and I, reducing the shared pain to a more bearable level. I also sent feelings of love and strength down the bond, letting her know without saying it, that I was coming for her.

“Mom, she’s in so much pain. We need to save her quickly, I’m not sure how long she can last like this.”

“I know, baby, but we can’t just rush in. I don’t want to lose both on my daughters.”

She hugged me, projecting to me through our touch her emotions, anger, fear, love, worry, hope. It was something I’d taught her how to do, making herself open to be via touch so we could communicate easier. I responded in kind, and we comforted each other, while we calmed down, finally reaching a point where we could think clearly.

Then we got to work.

There was always at least one person in each of our bases, watching over things in the city, and notifying the group of issues they noticed, and hopefully uncovering EL agents. The one on duty here hadn’t been aware of Sammi’s disappearance until she looked into it, having an entire city to observe meant that things slipped through the cracks. We just didn’t have the manpower to keep an eye on everything.

Now that we knew there were enemies here, we’d called in reinforcements, but they take a while to get here. Time we couldn’t afford to waste.

So I hunted… did reconnaissance work, while we were waiting. Now that I was closer, the bond was stronger. It wasn’t just passing me the anguish she was feeling, but also a rough estimation of the direction. So I tried to take that estimation and pin down the location.

It was nerve-racking, having to feel the pain and terror my sister was feeling without being able to act on it for fear that those who had her would either kill her or escape with her, making us start all over. I didn’t want to be Mario, chasing the princess all over the place. I wanted to pin them down and rescue her in one go… and then go about destroying them utterly.

I’d gotten permission to track down the location, but only after promising that I wouldn’t attack them alone when I found it. In order to stay incognito, I’d left all electronics stowed away and shifted to my recon form, Miss Jane.

Jane Chief was an unknown, at least as far as I was aware, never having taken action against anyone or standing out in any action related way. She was an average level of pretty, not beautiful. I didn’t want to be drawing eyes during my hunts.

As Miss Jane, I wandered the city, riding an unregistered electric scooter. I could have run around, or ridden a pokémon, some of the ones I’d liberated were mountable (not like that!) and were fine working with trainers, so I could have used them to get around, but pokémon stood out more than someone on a motor vehicle.

It took me an hour to identify the location my sister was being held at, then another to carefully probe the building and its surroundings without alerting anyone.

Even having failed once, they’d come loaded with enough people and weapons to take on a small army. But what was worse was that I figured out what they were doing to my sister. Most of the agony wasn’t physical, her body had cuts and bruises, but so far they hadn’t abused or defiled her. Not that I couldn’t pick up the lust and malice of those wanting do do so. It took a lot to prevent me from killing them when I detected those thoughts.

No, instead of torturing her body, they were doing so to her mind, trying to brainwash her in a relatively quick and dirty way. The reason for all the pain is that she was resisting. A lot. Far more than a normal human should be able to. As we’d bonded, I’d helped her set up mental defenses, and strengthened them as time went by.

I’d helped my other family members as well, but none as much as Sammi.

With those defenses it was like they were trying to crack open a bank vault, but without the tools to do it quickly. So they were working on wearing them down, and it was working. We were almost out of time, so we had to act fast.

After ‘porting to a secure location, I shifted back to myself and phoned in the information I’d gained, while also getting prepped for the mission. Black armored body suit, with combat boots and gloves, a helmet that completely hid my face, a pair of swords crossed on my back, and a pair of pistols at my hips. I’d been tempted to make it red with black accents instead of pure black, but didn’t want to stand out too much. Maybe I’d make a set like that for Mr Doe.

Not everyone was there yet, but when I told them that we were out of time and had to act or sis was as good as dead, mom got them moving. She wanted me to stay out of the fight, but there was no way I was letting other people handle this when my sister was the one at risk.

When I popped back to the safehouse to meet with the team, I got some raised eyebrows at my equipment, but no comments. We mentally connected, and I passed along all the information I had gained about our target location and the personnel guarding it. Then we strategized. Doing so mentally was faster than in the mundane, and we could amp up the speed with only psychics in the link.

It took twenty subjective minutes to hash out the plan, so we were done in seconds. Since I knew the location, I ported us all over to the positions we’d attack from. Once everyone reported readiness, we went in.

There were seven of us in the assault team. Two each went in the front and rear entrances, while the other three of us entered from other positions. Mine was the rooftop entrance.

I’d wanted to enter from the rear, forcefully entering the building and heading downstairs where my sister was located, but everyone refused. So I wasn’t a legal adult yet, screw you guys. That’s my sister! My objection was overruled, and I got stuck entering from the safest location. I had spent a good amount of energy on scouting and transporting, so my core wasn’t at full capacity, but I still had more than any other person.

When we entered, we went hard from the beginning, grinding the enemies beneath our steel-toed boots. There were a few people up top, lookouts and whatnot, but they went down quick with a maximum of effort.

Just like last time, the pokéballs were collected in an open backpack, preferably with their occupant included. I wasn’t the only one doing this, all of us were, not wanting to have to deal with pokémon more than necessary. However, some of them were already out, and others were released before we disabled their owners.

As soon as the assault began, our side’s pokéballs released their inhabitants from stasis to assist in taking these villains and their slaves down, preferably without killing them. We needed to interrogate the humans, and I needed to talk to the pokémon.

I was joined by some of my mother’s pokémon, since mine were too young and emotionally fragile for this kind of work.

We moved quickly, disabling or killing any who got in our way, collecting any portable electronics and stowing them away in special bags to prevent remote wiping. Stationary equipment got disconnected from power and internet and was slated to be retrieved later along with everything else. There were also metal nets to act as Faraday cages in case of large wireless equipment with batteries. They weren’t as effective as the real thing, but they were sufficient for short periods of time.

Since the top floors were fairly empty, my team progressed quickly, clearing the top two floors before meeting up with my teammates who’d entered on the second floor and cleared it and the third. As our zones were clear, the other two headed to assist on the first floor before heading underground.

Me? I was told to work on cleaning up the already cleared zones.

Did I listen? Nope!

The other teams were stalled without freeing my sister, and there was no way I was letting those bastards escape, especially with my sister.

I ported to the back entrance, then headed downstairs, then broke through the floor into the second underground floor, since that’s where my sister was and the rear entry team had only made it partway through B1.

They hadn’t expected my dynamic entrance, and so I had the initiative, knocking out three people before they could put up any resistance. The three who’d been closest to my sister. With her at my back, I started disabling my opponents. I didn’t just rely on psionic attacks, there was a reason I came armed with physical weapons. Getting shot really ruined someone’s concentration. So does getting body parts sliced off. It makes it so much easier to mentally disable someone when they can’t put up much of a fight due to pain.

Sadly, I was not well versed in the art of witty banter, so I fought without speaking. Also because this was being recorded, and I didn’t want my voice on record.

After clearing the room, I checked on my sister. She was still in pain, but it was lingering pain, not from continued assault or terrible wounds. I released another pair of pokémon from those I’d gained the assistance of, and had them standing by to protect my sister as I advanced through the level, taking the defenders prepared for assault from the other side by surprise. The room had been soundproofed, so they had no idea I’d broken in there.

One of the big wins was that I’d gotten hold of someone who was waiting for a download of the local computer files to an external hard drive to complete. He was a psychic, and had been told to get the data and go. We’d learned previously that none of the bases were linked to each other or the internet to prevent intrusions, well trained rotoms could be very dangerous to information security, so there were designated individuals who were supposed to retreat with the data to be picked up by senior agents.

I caught him just after he disconnected the hard drive, but before he could port out. The local servers were fried, but we still saved the data, and we’d be able to use it well, especially if we let them think we hadn’t gotten it by letting this guy go after copying the files.

Since I’d knocked out the guy without him realizing I was there, I was able to pull it off. I pulled out a computer and another hard drive and quickly copied over the data with the help of a rotom, me. Rotom have the ability to supercharge electronics as well as increasing functionality of the things they possess. It’s a trait that I could only utilize when in that form, which made it risky, but since I could port to a safe location to do that part, there’s no way I’d be discovered…

ZAP ZAP ZAP

After taking care of business… I was back in the server room. Returning the original hard drive the man’s hands and propping him up, I woke him up and messed with his mind enough to not notice anything off, so he popped out of there. I’d data mined his head as well as the copying the hard drive, and letting him go would be beneficial to us in the long run.

Cleanup was left to the other members of the team, as well as the reinforcements who’d arrived after the fact. I was needed elsewhere. My sister had been tortured for days, and needed a peaceful and loving environment to recover in. Even without her defenses breaking, she’d be suffering mental trauma, and so she needed her family.

It was time for her to come home.