Spitfire had sent them to fetch more food for the barbecue. It'd proved so popular more and more people had turned up late. That Emolga and her trainer had even made good on the promise to do a food review and had been enthusiastically giving Spitfire an interview as she worked. They'd have probably drowned in work, even with a flirting plan to keep people too kissy to bother them. thankfully Cinnamon had jumped in to help them, and Blaze hadn't stopped her. The Ninetales' ability to serve three tables and charm five more was a huge help. Brandy was starting to think Blaze just wanted to make Spitfire's day, and the test was more of a formality.

She didn't mind if that was the truth. It was nice to have a plan that just worked out.

The inside of the Nexus building was a pleasant coolness to the sunny day outside, and Brandy wasn't going to get to enjoy it for long. She let it wash over, her eyes closed and head up as she felt the simmering heat in her ebb a little.

"It's going really well," Calcine said, adjusting her apron. It had been chewed around the edges and torn by claws in one corner, but it was still mostly intact. Scuffed battle maid Calcine was a not insignificant part of why Brandy was feeling the heat right now. She wore the damage with pride. Hopefully, the Magneton Trio could recycle it later. It'd be a shame not to enjoy Calcine's maid dress properly.

"Everyone's been working hard," Brandy smiled. "You especially. You can relax. You don't have to win me this badge."

"I absolutely do," Calcine lightly punched Brandy's arm. "I want to celebrate with a two-badge trainer."

"Oh, got plans for me, do you?" Brandy said as she pulled open the cafeteria doors.

"Too many plans recently," Calcine grinned. "I'm going to freestyle it."

Brandy had an answer ready but paused as she looked over the cafeteria. Empty, of course. The lights were off, and the tables were all stacked on one side of the room. The only light was a thin line of sunlight from the crack in the window shutters.

"Is something wrong?" Calcine said.

What was wrong? Something was making Brandy's arms itch. A missing something to the building that made it feel dead.

Dead?

"Where's Pix?" Brandy said, "Shouldn't she have turned on the lights for us?" Brandy cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled into the empty cafeteria, "Pix! I know you can't sleep. Are you there?"

Nothing. Weird.

"Maybe she's snuck out again." Calcine shrugged.

"Probably. Someone's going to be mad." Brandy smirked. "She deserves it though. She works too hard."

"You do love hard."

Brandy's turn to punch Calcine's arm. She might as well have punched a wall for all the good it did her. The Carkol grabbed her fist and kissed the knuckles.

"Need to toughen you up. Sparky's ahead in inheritance. You need some fire in your blood and obsidian in your skin."

Brandy turned her head away from Calcine as she bit her lip. She knew she was blushing. Calcine could do that effortlessly. Brandy felt like she had inherited from the Carkol; there was a furnace in her chest, and her Partner's obvious love for her was making the coals glow red hot. The heart beating faster, thump, thump, thump. Brandy had been having a perfect day strutting her stuff, but it was nice to be reminded she had a long way to go yet. Not that losing control was an unpleasant feeling, far from it.

No wonder so many Trainers tried to capture a Legendary before settling down. One last chance to make the blood rush and the heart drum when faced with something so much stronger than you.

Arceus. She really was lucky to have such strong Partners she needed to match up to. Not to mention Mercury was out there, somewhere, training up to fuck her brains out.

Brandy shook herself. No time for all this schmaltzy stuff. Focus. She took Calcine's hand. Her fingers curled through Calcine's, the Carkol's grip a pleasant warmth. Her skin was hard, but that gave it a protectiveness that made Brandy's insides flutter.

"You're so worked up," Calcine said, blunt as always. "All that flirting has gotten to you."

"Maybe you're the one doing it."

"Maybe," Calcine said as they pushed through the doors to enter the kitchen, "I have a Fire Badge. Makes me a big deal. Maybe we got a few minutes to show you what we can do with our tongues."

The wet splash of Brandy's boots made Calcine hiss in shock as water slipped through tears in her white tights and hit her thighs, sizzling off her skin.

The kitchen floor was a mess. Puddles of water covered the floor, and the air was thick with the smell of damp.

"Shit," Calcine said, holding Brandy's hand firmly to help her keep her balance against the slippery tile. "The food! The freezers aren't on."

"Pix!" Brandy called out, "Pix, are you in here?! What's going on?"

No answer. Something was very wrong.

"There's no way Pix would let something like this happen." Brandy said, "We should go get my Mom."

Calcine sighed. "I suppose the meat will still be fine, even if it's half defrosted. Let's leave it. It's too wet in here to carry it out."

Brandy wasn't sure it mattered anymore. Something happening to Pix was a way bigger deal than any Barbecue problem.

They raced out of the cafeteria back to the entrance but were halfway along a corridor when a voice suddenly blurted out.

"No Running In the Halls!"

Brandy and Calcine didn't stop, and black and purple shadowy tendrils rose from the ground and grabbed their legs, holding them fast.

"Curse," Brandy said. The Move was a well-known one by Trainers due to how annoying it was to deal with. "Listen to her orders or get punished. We can be all Morgan about it."

Which meant they could cheat. But Brandy didn't want to say that out loud. Morgan had taught her to hide her hand during that strip game on the train. It hadn't helped, but it was a valuable thing to know.

"I do love punishing!" a cheerful voice called out, loud and all around them. "You're not going anywhere."

The lights flickered, and then two giant red eyes glowed on the wall, using the same screens Pix used to talk to people. The pupils were slits, like a coin slot, and there was a point to the top of the pupil like something with cutouts had been pulled over it. A hood? It was so familiar, a look on the tip of Brandy's tongue.

"Boo." the voice said, the word rippling in the air and tingling the spine.

Calcine threw a vase at the screen, the water exploding over the screen and making it sizzle.

"Dohohoho! Fiesty!" the red eyes appeared on the other side.

Brandy knew where the button was to turn the screen off and leaned down to do it.

"STOP TURNING MY SCREENS OFF."

The Curse hit like a hammer blow, but the Move had a second weakness beyond being playful with the wording. It could only issue one command at a time, so the tendrils around their legs frayed and faded in a few short moments, and they both took off at a run for the doors.

The eyes appeared ahead of them like the door was its mouth, and they looked absolutely gleeful.

"Nah Nah. I'm not letting you leave here so easily. You're in my house now, and there are rules."

The room trembled, and then furniture flew everywhere, smashing off each other as it piled up in front of them, blocking them from the exit. Calcine threw her arms around Brandy, shielding her from splinters and acting as a bulwark against the tidal wave of office furniture. By the time the crashing stopped, the way ahead was a barricade of sofas, desks, and spluttering printers.

"That was loud. Everyone's going to come running," Calcine said. "Best you leave before they do."

A smile appeared on the wall, like white piano keys, with a little zipper hanging off the edge. Well, at least Brandy knew what she was dealing with now.

"You'd think so," the Banette said, her voice crackling with malice. "But I have a lot of control right now. This place has really good noise-dampening. The things they do here are a bit loud, you know? I can just snip it all off. It's just me and you two."

Brandy couldn't help but feel Fenny might have been responsible for that feature. Brandy was very, very familiar with how loud she could be. Her poor bedroom wall had never done the job. Still, she had to hope something had got out. She'd have to stall until they could think of another exit.

"Liar, it's not just us. Pix is here too." Brandy said. You're a Banette, and you're using Role Play. Taken Pix's possessing ability."

"Dohoho! What a smart girl! But are you smart enough to sit your ass down and wait until I'm done?" The smile on the wall grew bigger, looming over them. "Or are you going to force me to make you? Because I want to make you."

Calcine cracked her knuckles. "I can break a building if I have to. Let us out, or I'm going to find your puppet body. I've got Flame Charge now, and I haven't had a chance to use it yet. I bet it'll burn real nice, and then I will stick you in a dishrag and use you to clean up this mess."

The Banette blinked, shrinking back into the screen, and their eyes disappeared.

"Gone?" Calcine said.

"She's with someone. Popped out to speak to them. She's going to come back and jump us soon," Brandy said, her voice low, putting her back to Calcine. "Ghost Types don't back down. We could really use Morgan for this one."

"She'll be mad she missed it," Calcine whispered back. "The Banette will have her puppet body somewhere in the building. How are we going to find it?"

"It'll be in the control room. That's where Pix would have been spat out. We just got to get there." Brandy took a few steps down the corridor, Calcine following in her shadow. "It's .... at the top of the building."

They both looked to the Elevator. Then, after a moment of thinking about how that'd go with a crazed poltergeist controlling the building, looked at the stairs instead.

"We could try to find a different exit. That's a lot of steps," Calcine said in a hushed tone. "A lot."

"You wanted to harden my body up." Brandy smiled. "She's expecting us to try to break out. We'll have more luck finding a window higher up to smash and alert everyone, even if we can't reach the control room. And cardio can't hurt, right?"

"That really depends on what she decides to throw at us." Calcine opened the stairwell door and looked up the long, winding stairs. "We can make it. Let's get moving. I'll help push through anything in the way."

"Including walls? Rock Tomb is still good for doing that?"

"Rock Tomb is very good for doing that." Calcine nodded. "But let's not go crazy and collapse the building. I was bluffing.."

"But you could do it?"

Calcine flexed her arm. "Kind of a big deal."

Brandy slapped her on the butt and pushed her forward. They had a long way to go, and she was pretty sure the Banette wouldn't make it easy on them.