Chapter Eight

"You! Girl!" a Team Midnight agent barked to Candida. "I've got something for you!"

Warily, Candida got up off her bunk and made her way across the dormitory towards the door. In the week that had passed since Team Midnight's takeover, life in Aquarius had become, to put it bluntly, unbearable. The entire population was forced to work for hours on end in what she could only describe as an undersea mine, its purpose still not entirely clear. The worst thing had been being without her Pokemon and she had often lain awake, wondering how Lapras and Togetic were faring.

Now, however, she could scarcely believe her eyes as she saw what the agent was holding - two Poke Balls. And these weren't just any Poke Balls; they were the ones that held her Pokemon, whom she hadn't seen since Crozier confiscated them. The agent gave a sly grin as he held out the Balls, keeping them just out of her reach. "If you want these back, you'll have to do something in return," he informed her.

"And what would that be?" Candida asked coldly. She did not care for the look on his face and her mind was racing through the various degrading things he might make her do. Like most trainers, she had thought she would do anything for her Pokemon, but, now that it came down to it . . .

"I want you to say "Team Midnight rule"," the agent informed her.

Candida looked at him coldly; there was no way she was going to utter those words and she let the agent know as much by stamping on his foot. "The only thing you rule is a pile of trash!" she retorted. She immediately regretted those hasty words as the agent pushed her to the floor and held her there with his foot.

"I think you need to be taught some respect," he informed her as everyone else in the dormitory looked on nervously. Autumn was at the far end of the room and, having tried in vain to warn her friend against crossing the agent, was now shaking at the thought of what the man could do. Candida was a fourteen-year-old kid and wouldn't stand much chance against the powerful agent of Team Midnight . . . There was a sudden gasp as the agent aimed a vicious kick at the girl he had pinned to the floor.

"Never - insult - Team - Midnight!" he barked, punctuating his words with more kicks as Candida curled up in a bid to make as small a target as possible. Her head was ringing, tears of pain and humiliation pricking at her eyes as she struggled to avoid shedding them, determined not to give the agent that satisfaction. In the end, Autumn could stand it no longer. She ran forward just as the agent was about to deliver another kick.

"Candida, please - just do as he says," she pleaded. Dimly, Candida looked up into Autumn's face, noting as she did so the expression that clearly said it was probably better to obey this outlandish command lest her refusal to do so lead to even more trouble.

So, with a sigh of immense reluctance, Candida said the words she had been commanded to utter, forcing them out with such distaste that they felt almost like swear words. "Team . . . Midnight . . . rule!" she said through gritted teeth. The agent looked down at her, pleased that he had forced her to grovel, and thrust her Poke Balls at her.

"There! Take your wretched Pokemon!" With that, he turned and left, slamming the door behind him.

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Candida went and sat on her bed, clutching her Poke Balls as she shook with anger and humiliation. She hated Team Midnight more than ever. Some day, she vowed to herself, she would get back at that self-satisfied agent who had kicked her. Some day, she would make him sorry he had ever come near Aquarius . . .

"Candida, are you all right?" It was Sandra who had spoken. She was still wearing her Skitty nightshirt, now covered in dirt from hours of working in the undersea cave. She got up and knelt beside her friend, clasping Wooper and Dratini's Poke Balls which she had had returned to her earlier in the day, although, in her case, she hadn't been forced to do anything degrading in return. Nonetheless, she knew how Candida must feel; she had been bullied at school when she was eleven and had once been beaten up so badly that her parents had reported the matter to the principal and the culprits had been expelled.

"I'm . . . OK," Candida lied. "I was just wondering what we could do against Team Midnight . . ."

"Me too," Sandra admitted. "We still don't know what all this is about, but I'm pretty sure whatever it is will be bad news for us . . ." A pause followed, during which the two girls looked each other in the face, both feeling helpless in the face of the organisation which had seized control in Aquarius. After a few moments, Candida stood up and held her Lapras' Poke Ball as if she was preparing to throw it.

"Then we shall fight!" she declared. "We shall band together and drive Team Midnight out of here!" Everyone in the room turned in her direction, noting as they did so that a change seemed to have come over her. She spoke with an assurance beyond her years, as if she was a politician at a pep rally, and many couldn't help agreeing with her.

"Yeah!" someone shouted. "Squash Team Midnight!"

"Let's give 'em what for!" added someone else.

For several moments, there was so much shouting going on that Candida was worried the noise might attract a guard. "Shh!" she said, pressing her finger to her lips. "We won't get anywhere if we alert anyone. So let's discuss this and decide what we should do."

"Candida's right," seconded Autumn. "We need to get properly organised if we're going to try a rebellion . . ." She paused and leaned against the wall with her arms folded. "If only there was some way to get word to the men."

But, for the life of her, she couldn't think of any means of doing so without being detected. The women and children in Aquarius never saw the men except in the mine these days and the constant vigilence of the Team Midnight guards made passing secret messages under those circumstances easier said than done. But there had to be a way. There had to be some means of contacting the men . . .

Her thoughts were distracted by a frantic call of "Pikachu!" from somewhere nearby. She held her breath, scarcely able to believe what she was hearing. That sounded like her own Pikachu's voice and it seemed to be coming from the vent set high on the wall. Had he come all this way just to be with her again?

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"Help me, Candida," Autumn whispered as she pushed a chair towards the grill and stood on it. Between them, the two girls managed to get the wire mesh off the vent and Autumn reached inside. Moments later, she emerged holding a very bedraggled Pikachu.

"Pika!" the yellow Electric Type said in a tone that conveyed a mixture of relief at seeing his trainer again and annoyance that she had gone away and left him to fend for himself. For the last seven days, he had kept himself alive by raiding the now unattended larders of Aquarius, but all he ever wanted was to be with Autumn and, while he was exploring one day, he found a shaft he had never been down before . . .

That was how Autumn's Pikachu had found his trainer again and it also provided a possible solution to the question of communicating with the men. Autumn stroked the Pokemon gently, rubbing the red electric sacs on his cheeks in the way he liked as he squealed with delight. Then she put him down and looked at him gravely. "Feel like helping the ARM?" she asked, pronouncing each letter separately.

"ARM?" echoed Candida. "What does that mean?"

"Aquarius Resistance Movement - ARM for short. I just made it up off the top of my head. It's what I think we should call ourselves."

"Anyway," Autumn went on, addressing her Pikachu once again, "we need some way of communicating with the men without Team Midnight knowing. Would you like to be our messenger?"

"Pikachu," the Pikachu replied, nodding vigorously. Like most of his kind, he was fiercely loyal to his trainer and was willing to do anything she asked. Autumn patted him on the head again and turned to the others.

"Do any of you have a notepad and pen - something we could use to write a message?" she asked. A brief silence followed as everyone in the room exchanged glances and shook their heads; Team Midnight's night-time raid had given the people of Aquarius little time to gather together any personal belongings. "Anyone?" Autumn asked, a look of desperation etched on her face.

Candida sat down on her bunk, her head in her hands. As she stared straight ahead, her eyes chanced to glance at the list of rules Team Midnight had pinned to the wall and an idea occurred to her. It was risky and could land everyone in trouble, but it seemed to be their only option. She stood up and walked over to the list.

"We'll tear a scrap of paper from this," she said. "It's risky, but it'll be worth it if we can get a message to the men . . ." With that, she pulled down the sheet of unlaminated A4 paper and tore a square off the corner. She had just rested it against the wall when she remembered that she didn't have a pen with her.

"I could use some help here!" she called to the others.

In response, Kelly rummaged in her pocket and produced a Biro. "I swiped this from Crozier's pocket yesterday," she said with a grin as she handed it over to Autumn. Autumn took the pen, rested it and the scrap of paper against the wall and scribbled the words:

ARM
We aim to fight a common enemy and need to discuss plans. Send reply to AL

on it. She kept it as ambiguous as possible to guard against the note falling into the wrong hands; hopefully, Kevin, Jeremy, Marc or one of the other males would be able to work out what it meant, whereas Team Midnight would be none the wiser. Satisfied, she called her Pikachu over and handed him the note.

"Pikachu, take this to Kevin, Jeremy or Marc," she whispered. "But stay out of Team Midnight's way."

As the Pikachu turned to go with the hastily written note folded up and tucked inside his cheek, Autumn hoped this plan would work. If it didn't, if her Pikachu was caught . . . She did not want to think about it.

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Things were little better in the men's quarters and the uncertainty wasn't helped by the fact that, while Jeremy's Charmeleon and Marc's Seadra and Squirtle had been returned to their respective trainers, Kevin had not seen Houndour, Murkrow and Sneasel since a burly Team Midnight agent confiscated his Poke Balls. Something told him that the three Dark Type Pokemon were in serious trouble and he had no way of determining what was happening to them, what unspeakable purposes Team Midnight wanted them for. He was leaning against the wall, wishing he had some means of contacting the girls when he heard a "Pika!" from somewhere near his feet.

Kevin bent down to see a Pikachu standing in front of him. "Hey, aren't you Autumn's Pikachu?" he said as he knelt down and stroked the small Pokemon. "What are you doing here?"

"Pikachu," the Pikachu replied, reaching into his mouth and pulling out a rather soggy piece of paper. "Pika pi pika!" he said urgently as he handed it to Kevin.

Kevin took the note and unfolded it. The ink had run, but it was still fairly legible. He read it through a couple of times, wondering as he did so who or what ARM was. He knew AL had to be Autumn Lane since it was her handwriting and her Pikachu had delivered the note. As for who the "common enemy" was . . .

Kevin's train of thought was interupted by Marc and Jeremy coming off duty after another shift spent searching an undersea cavern for some unknown treasure. Both boys hated their conquerors with a vengeance and longed to be able to teach them a lesson, but Kevin had vetoed any idea of rebellion for the time being. Acting rashly would only land them in worse trouble, he said. He chose to forget that, not too long ago, he had been more than willing to take what was on reflection a rather foolish risk.

Marc and Jeremy both spoke at once.

"What's going on, Kev?"

"What's that Pikachu doing . . .?"

"It's Autumn's Pikachu - don't you recognise it?" Kevin filled in. "And it brought me this." He held out the note so they could read what Autumn had written.

"Arm?" said Jeremy, assuming it was all one word. "What arm? Whose arm?"

"I don't know," Kevin pointed out. "But Autumn says we've got to get a reply to the girls somehow . . ." He paused and stared round the dormitory, which was identical to the one which housed the women, girls and younger boys, right down to the long lists of rules. Looking closely, he saw that the note had been scrawled on paper torn from such a list; a few fragments of sentences could still be seen on the reverse. "I don't suppose either of you has a pen," he added at length.

Marc and Jeremy shook their heads. "But maybe we can let them know another way," Jeremy added, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small keychain shaped like a Lunatone. "I bought this on holiday in Hoenn once - if Kelly sees it, she'll know we got the message."

"All well and good," agreed Marc. "But how do we arrange a meeting?"

Jeremy ignored that. "What's important right now is that we can communicate with the girls - it doesn't matter what we say." With that, he handed the keychain to Autumn's Pikachu.

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With the keychain clasped in his mouth, the Pikachu darted nimbly through the shadows. He instinctively knew that what he had been asked to do was important and was careful to stay out of the way of any Team Midnight guards he saw. Autumn had told him Team Midnight were trouble and, more than anything, he longed to Thundershock the guards or, at the very least, sink his teeth into their hands. But he resisted the urge - he had to get back to Autumn and let her know he had made contact with the boys.

Finally, after much ducking and weaving, he made it back to where he had started from. He located Autumn and darted over to her, looking up at her with Jeremy's keychain still in his mouth. "Pika!" he said.

Autumn looked down at her Pokemon. "Pikachu? Did you see the boys? Where did you get that?" she asked, taking the keychain out of his mouth and examining it. It was a perfect miniture of a Lunatone, moulded out of modelling clay and with a metal ring to hold the keys attached to the top. She turned it over and over in her hands, remembering having seen such keychains on sale in Hoenn. But, as far as she knew, this design was not available in Johto so where had Pikachu found it?

"Pika pikachu pikachu chu!" Pikachu piped up impatiently. Autumn glanced down at him and realised she had been so busy examining the keychain that she had forgotten he was there.

"Sorry, Pikachu," she laughed. "I was just wondering . . ."

Before Autumn could complete her sentence, Kelly chanced to glance in her direction and noticed what she was holding. "Hey! Isn't that Jeremy's keychain?" Kelly asked, walking over to her friend and looking at the miniture Lunatone in her hand. She turned to Autumn's Pikachu. "Did Jeremy give that to you?"

"Pi!" The Pikachu nodded vigorously and leapt up to touch the keychain. Autumn picked him up and hugged him close as she pondered their next move. If the keychain did belong to Jeremy, it meant Pikachu had made contact with the boys. The next order of business was finding a means of keeping that line of communication open without arousing Team Midnight's suspicions.

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A klaxon sounded nearby, followed almost immediately by the sound of clumping feet and a harsh female voice shouting. "Up! Move it, you scum!" she barked. Candida's eyes narrowed as she recognised it as Crozier's voice and restrained herself as the woman who had taken Lapras and Togetic marched in. Crozier stood with her arms folded, a willow cane tucked under one of them, and addressed the assembled women as if she was a Sergeant Major. "Next Shift in ten minutes! If you're part of it, move your lazy butts!"

Candida and Autumn were part of the next shift so they joined those moving silently towards the workings. Before she did so, however, Autumn hurriedly hid the keychain inside a slit in her mattress lest a Team Midnight agent find it. Then she addressed Kelly in a hurried whisper. "I'll speak to Jeremy if I can," she said. "Don't worry."

Kelly nodded and sat down on her bunk, while Autumn's Pikachu perched on a nearby chair. She looked down at the Poke Balls containing Drifter, Pinky, Cheeky and Delibird and sighed - it was going to be a long few hours.