Chapter 3

Rob thought for a moment as Geoff stood and dusted himself off. "Well," he said thoughtfully, "there are some extra security measures in place just in the off chance we were attacked."

"Attacked?" the courier laughed, picking up Nezumi and checking to make sure his pained expression as he limped towards her was just an act, "By what?"

Rob shrugged; making sure his tazer was okay. "Oh, mostly just by the other people who work here," he explained, "When you rent out more than half your office space to other companies you can't be too careful. Especially not with the research we do here."

"Anything we need to worry about?"

Rob shook his head. "Naw, we'd have to turn them on manually from Iago's office," he explained, "But I guess someone could always get around that and just access the security program itself to turn them on..."

"Gee, thanks Rob," muttered Geoff as a loud, annoying ringing sound issued from the fire alarm, and the sprinklers turned on, drenching them with water, "You DO know the ghost can hear us through the intercom system, right?!"

The scientist shook his head. "No, this isn't it," he replied, raising his voice above the alarm bell, "we're still okay."

"Actually," corrected Miranda as Nezumi took a small umbrella out from seemingly nowhere and held it above his head with a sarcastic grin in TI-85's direction, the pokemon looking distinctively unhappy about the situation, "I think I see what he's doing."

"Oh?" the others inquired as the courier headed down the stairs, her shoes now squishing loudly as she walked.

"He's making sure Rob can't use his tazer, and Ti can use electrical techniques until we get somewhere drier," the courier explained, causing Rob's expression to become stricken.

"What?!" he exclaimed, tears forming in his eyes even as the cold rain from the sprinklers poured over his face, "I can't use my tazer?! Oh, the humanity!"

"Which probably means he's got something planned for us," Miranda continued, listening intently as something within the walls began to shift mechanically, "Something we'll probably need to fight our way past."

"Um, I think we're going to have about as much prep-time as an Ontario teacher, though," muttered Geoff, catching Miranda's eye and pointing down to where the landing they stood on began to rise and shift as the stairs rattled and squeaked before turning like Venetian blinds.

"Is this one of your 'can't possibly be used against us' security measures?" the courier demanded as the landing they stood on suddenly tilted at a sharp angle as the steps all became a slanted waterfall and the group found themselves sliding down it towards the next landing.

"I- It's not my fault- Ah, Geoff you-!" exclaimed Rob as he fell upon his back, only to have the security guard trip and land hard upon his stomach as Miranda fell forward and grabbed his ankles.

"What?!" replied the security guard innocently, turning his head as Rob's tazer bounced off the wall and flew out of his hand before rebounding off TI-85's left magnet and sending the construct spinning as the group hit the next landing.

"Try and grab the walls!" shouted Miranda over the sound of the artificial rain and Nezumi's laughter in her ear, all the while moving her legs apart, pressing her feet against the all too smoothly polished walls as the landing tilted to allow them continued passage.

"Um... Okay?!" muttered Rob through gritted teeth, grabbing Geoff by the arm and trying to shove the security guard off his stomach.

"Not me, you idiot!" the man exclaimed, glaring over his shoulder at Rob before falling off as they rounded the corner and sliding half way up the wall before continuing down the water-slide in a continuingly faster spiral to whatever awaited them at the bottom.

"Geoff!" Miranda shouted, ducking her head as Geoff rolled over her and grabbed hold of her ankle, "Hold on! I have plan!"

"Oh, yeah! Like that's reassuring!" he called back as the next turn came much faster and the dizzying pace began making him feel queasy.

"Professor, hold still!" the girl ordered, waiting for the next turn before pushing down against Rob's ankles and letting momentum throw her a little higher.

"Sorry!" she exclaimed, reaching out with her arms to grab the scientist's shoulders but instead having her hands land upon his chest.

"I'm NOT a toboggan-!" began Professor Kipp before suddenly blushing deeply with a horrified look upon his face.

"Oh dear," muttered Miranda suddenly looking hideously embarrassed as she deliberately moved one hand after the other onto Rob's shoulders, ignoring the security guard's screaming as they turned again, "I- I wasn't sure, but I guess I know now..."

"I think we have bigger problems," the scientist replied, breathing again as the courier removed her hands.

'Told ya, ' chuckled Nezumi, sitting atop Miranda's head and using all four paws to cling to her now tangled wet hair.

The courier glanced upwards with a bit of a scowl before looking forward and seeing the problem. Their seemingly endless, spiraling decent had finally gotten them near the bottom, as evidenced by the large '#3' painted in white letters on the door they slid past.

"What's at the bottom?!" the girl asked, dreading the answer as TI-85 finally caught up with them.

"You don't wanna know!" answered Rob, lifting his head awkwardly and smiling as he caught sight of the magnemite. "Ti!" he exclaimed as the strange pokemon swooped around the corner after them, "There's a fire door coming up! I need to you to blast it! Just take out the sprinkler above the door first, or you'll get us too! Understand?!"

The pokemon tilted forward in a nod, and sped off ahead of them as the group rounded the second floor landing. "What's he doing?" Miranda asked, hearing the sound of metal crashing into metal with something giving away with a whine of protest. A second later, and a loud unpleasant sound, reminiscent of tinfoil in a microwave, filled the area just a head.

"The boys down in R&D call it 'zap-cannon' for short," explained Rob with a prideful smile as the area lit up with a blinding white light reminiscent of an arc welder before an explosion and the sound of sizzling, hotly oozing metal reached their collective ears, "But I think 'plasma bolt' is much more stylish!"

"Whatever works," the courier commented as they slid down the last fight of stairs, through a partially melted doorway and most of the way across the linoleum floor of the lobby before skidding to a slow, wet stop.

"Are we dead?" inquired Geoff as Miranda yanked her feet free of his iron grip and rolled off of Rob.

"Almost, but not quite," the courier replied, looking over at the glass doors to where sunlight should have been streaming through, only to see a wall of cold steel barring the passage.

"It's the ablative armor," explained Rob, standing up and slipping off his soaking wet lab coat, "We deploy it incase of an attack, or if something dangerous gets loose."

"So much for back-up then," muttered Miranda a little glumly.

'No more back-up for you!' quoted Nezumi with a sarcastic chuckle to hide his nervousness, 'Eat more vegetables!'

Bob blinked at his suddenly blushing stepdaughter.

"I met Zack in Neon Town this one time when I was still traveling with Joshua. We decided to hit this buffet house," she quickly explained, avoiding his gaze, "And well, Zack went a little... Shall we say 'overboard' and ate more than is humanly possible. Mostly the expensive stuff too! That was when this large Chinese chef guy ran out of the kitchen wielding a cleaver. He glared at Zack while shaking the knife threateningly and yelled out loud enough to be heard for a least three block in kinda this broken English, 'No more meat for you! Eat more vegetables!' For a while there, it occasionally came up in conversation."

Her stepfather nodded, hiding behind his warm mug of tea where it was safe from the courier's insanity. "Go on..."

"So how do we get down to the basement from here?" Miranda inquired as the three made their way towards a pair of discreet looking doors marked with the symbols for male and female.

"There's another staircase," explained Rob, pushing his way into the women's washroom and causing the courier to stammer for a moment before glancing at her hands and blushing.

"Look, I, uh..." she muttered as the scientist lead the way into the antiseptic feeling room and quickly disappeared into one of the stalls, "I wanna apologize for earlier."

"Huh? For what?" he inquired, banging against the thin metal wall as he strained against something.

"Well, for accidentally groping you earlier," the courier replied, walking to the wall of sinks before depositing her backpack on the counter and carefully extricating Nezumi from her hair.

"No, no, it's alright," came the now feminine sounding voice as Miranda removed her courier jacket before undoing the dark tangles of her hair and wringing it out over the sink, "It happens now and then. I've mostly gotten used to it."

"I still apologize," the courier called back, her eyes going wide as she watched the water that fell from her hair turn bright red as it pooled in the sink and refused to drain away.

The scientist laughed as she stepped out of the stall followed by TI-85, seemingly oblivious to the mess Miranda was making in the sink. 'It's just an illusion, ' the girl told herself, closing her eyes and running her fingers through the long ebony locks, 'he's just messing with my mind again.'

Joanne shrugged, checking herself in the mirror before hanging her lab coat up on one of the hooks near the door. "The only thing I'm concerned about right now, is having to go down into a room full of sensitive computer equipment while being soaking wet," she explained, resigned to wearing her other damp clothing, "If we had time, I'd suggest using the blow-driers, but I think we'll just have to deal with it."

The courier nodded slowly, opening her eyes and trying to ignore the fact that her reflection was smiling evilly and waving back at her. "Another problem too," Miranda added, shivering at the thought and trying to ignore the odd assortment of squirming centipedes, snails, and little wagging tails that fell from her hair to splash down into the bloody sink, "It's probably going to be cold down there with the mainframe's air-conditioning."

"That must be part of the reason he set the sprinklers on us," the scientist agreed, shaking her head as she pulled open the door and Miranda finally gave up, simply tying her hair back again, "Oh, well. I guess it's better than fighting one of Ziffle's escaped lab experiments..."

Geoff pushed open the door to the men's washroom and exhaled loudly as he struggled to remove his uniform jacket which was now a size too small. "Stupid Sylph Co," the muttered, tossing the garment onto the countertop before leaning warily against it in front of a mirror, "Who ever heard of issuing dry-clean only uniforms! Yeesh!"

But his reverie was suddenly interrupted by a sudden flush of one of the toilets. The security guard winced as he slowly opened his eyes and said the words he hated to say, but knew he couldn't stop himself from saying. "Um, hello?" he called, turning around slowly and wishing his tazer hadn't gotten lost in the maze, "is there somebody in here?"

Geoff's only reply was a second flushing from a second stall. "Oh, they really don't pay me enough for this crap," he muttered, stepping nervously forward, leaving wet footprints as he went.

But as Geoff pushed the first stall door open, a third toilet flushed farther down the row. "Hello?" the security guard called again, flinging the first door open all the way only to find nothing, "Look, this isn't funny!"

As if in response, a forth flushed.

"Enough of this," the security guard muttered, walking down the row towards the back of the room, simply flinging each of the doors open in turn yet finding nothing.

And as the last door swung shut, the entire row of toilets flushed simultaneously, causing Geoff to nearly pull out what remained of his short, dark hair. "Ah! I can't take this anymore!" he shouted, running blindly for the door, "If they don't fire me for this I'm gonna quit... !"

As Miranda and Joanne stepped out of the woman's washroom, they could hear Geoff's prolonged yell a moment before he came crashing through the door of the men's. It was also all they could do to keep from laughing however, as the security guard ran across the lobby, his thin form wrapped up in toilet paper like some kind of B-movie mummy.

"I think the ghost found him," the courier commented rhetorically as they turned to watch Geoff run by, bits of wet paper flying off him as he passed the empty receptionist's desk and slammed into the front doors of Sylph Co.

"Open! Open! Open!" he demanded, as the automatic doors slid open, but the ablative armor blocked his way, forcing Geoff to pound his fists futilely against them.

"Geoff! It's okay," called Joanne, jogging after the security guard as he slowly slumped to the floor, looking more pale than usual, "We're almost there. We'll have this ghost back in his ball in like, fifteen minutes at most."

"You, you're sure?" inquired Geoff, his body shaking with both cold and fright, barely noticing the woman slide her arm around him as she tore away the wrappings.

"Positive," the scientist assured, her tone quiet and soothing as she linked an arm through Geoff's and pulled him to his feet, "Once we reach the mainframe, me and Ti can flush him out easily."

Geoff nodded slowly, leaning against the much taller woman as she walked him back to the receptionist's desk where Miranda waited for them. "The door's beside the elevator," explained Joanne, nodding to a rather plain section of wall as the courier followed her gaze, "But I think we can take a minute for Geoff to recover."

"No, no," he muttered, shaking his head, taking several deep breaths as he leaned over the desk, "I'm fine. Just go."

"It'd be better if we stuck together," commented Miranda, her gaze tracking Joanne as the woman took out the sonic screwdriver again, traversing the room and wielding the item with a wide grin.

"Hey, I ain't sayin' for ya to leave me behind!" the security guard exclaimed in sudden alarm, causing Miranda to smile as a portion of the wall clicked and slid into itself, revealing a dark, lightless passage beyond.

"He's only picking on you because you're letting him get to you, ya know," cautioned the courier as Joanne waved them over and TI- 85 began to glow with a strange golden light.

"Oh yeah, and like you're not scared," the security guard muttered, following Miranda to the doorway as the glowing magnemite lit up a flight of plas-crete steps just beyond the doorway.

"I never said I wasn't. I'm just used to not letting ghosts think they can push me around, that's all," the courier replied, glancing curiously at Joanne, "So um, what's with the secret passage?"

Joanne chuckled, smiling mysteriously as she took the first step into the cool air of the stairwell. "Oh, mostly paranoia," she said with some small satisfaction, the far off whirring of cooling fans seeming something of a reassuring lullaby to the woman as she descended the steps, "But it's also just a Sylph Co thing. At the head office, we have a series of teleporters, but they're awfully expensive to install and maintain. Also, I'm not exactly inclined to trust such things with a mischievous ghost loose."

"I seem to recall my Aunt mentioning those," pondered Miranda, both her and Nezumi suddenly shivering as they entered the eerie golden twilight, "apparently one of her classes was on the other side of the campus and she used to have to take a teleporter to get to class on time in the morning."

Joanne's smile was reminiscent as they hit the first landing and moved farther down the plas-crete steps into the looming darkness. "Did Laurna also tell you about the time she took the wrong one?" the woman inquired, glancing over her shoulder to make sure everyone was still with her.

Miranda shook her head in reply. "Nope," she responded, tensing a little as something warm and furry leaned against her neck, only to quickly realize the cold was getting to Nezumi.

The scientist sighed, shaking her head as the courier simply took the small rodent in her hands and held him close to her chest. "Oh, she wound up outside one of my professor's classrooms... I think we were studying geo-parazoology that semester... Anyway, she almost walked in on my professor and some woman. Hm. I wonder whatever happened to him? Oh! Um, we're here."

The flight of stairs ended in what appeared to be a small, empty room. But as Joanne raised her sonic screwdriver again and switched the device on, a section of the wall once again slid away. This time, however, brilliant white light poured into the small, dark area, blinding everyone except TI-85 momentarily as a cold breeze rushed out and the sound of humming computer fans and clicking, spinning hard drives filled their ears.

"Behold!" Joanne exclaimed dramatically, holding her arms into the air and standing in the doorway so that she blocked the blinding light, "SkyNet! Ain't it pretty?"

"It looks like an oil-drum," commented Miranda, ducking under Joanne's arm to examine the enormous, cylindrically shaped piece of machinery that took up most of the far wall of the somewhat large room.

"Hey now," the scientist replied, stepping over a mass of cables that snaked its way across the floor from the mainframe and passed before the only exit, "don't be hurting its feelings. It's already got an inferiority complex because of AIVAS in Saffron."

The courier chuckled, shivering as she stepped into the icy cold room and shook her head in wonder at the array of thick black cables that covered most of the floor, the wide metal pipes, clearly marked "DNGN", and the curious glass tubes filled with bubbling eerie green liquid all of which connected SkyNet to the walls, ceiling, the and occasional standard computer terminal.

"Still have that pokeball?" Joanne inquired, seemingly unconcerned by the constant flow of cold air from the many air ducts that opened into the room and kept the mainframe from over heating.

Miranda nodded as the woman hopped carefully over a particularly large bundle of thick black cables and approached the large screen built into the side of SkyNet

"Then you'd best get yourself over here," she cautioned in a mildly worried tone, typing several commands into the awkwardly placed keyboard beside the display, "if this works, we're gonna have one very upset gastly on our hands!"

"Okay," the courier replied a little nervously as she entered the room and glanced down at Nezumi. "I'm gonna need both you and Umi ready to help if this goes wrong," she explained, watching her step as they traversed the room, "You up for it?"

'Ah, it ain't nothin' but a wee little ghostie, Boss Lady, ' the rattata chuckled, waving a forepaw dismissively, 'Heck, I'll bet I could take him on even without Draco-Babe's help!'

"You aren't THAT good, dear," the courier chuckled as they reached the mainframe and she set Nezumi down on one of the free patches of floor before reaching for the other pokeball she carried.

"I'm sure this'll work," assured Joanne with a confident smile as the courier held up the blue and white ball, "I mean, what could possibly go wrong?"

Miranda glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. "Umi, come ye forth," she replied flatly, causing the ball to click out and send out a crimson glow that ached towards the floor beside Nezumi.

"What?" inquired Joanne, holding her hands out helplessly as the courier shook her head and turned to the suddenly materialized dratini at her feet who immediately began shivering in the cold of the computer room.

"Sorry, dear," said Miranda apologetically as she knelt down and held out her hands to cup Umi's small, snouted face as the dratini made an unhappy sound and wrapped her tail around the courier's leg, "I know you hate the cold, but we have a very serious problem. I can promise, however, that after we're done, we'll hit those hot springs you adore so much."

Umi looked up at Miranda, her multifaceted eyes swirling from pale green to golden. 'I, I can handle it then, ' she promised in a shaking, stammering voice as she uncoiled her tail, 'Just promise me you'll make this quick!'

Miranda smiled, affectionately scratching the little dragon's eye ridges as she took out the black and gray ghost-ball. "No worries," she promised, glancing at Nezumi with a smile and scratching him between the ears, "with any luck, you guys won't even have to anything."

'Aww, but mom!' chuckled Nezumi, suddenly cringing in mock-terror, as Umi turned on him with eyes that suddenly flared orange.

"Okay, ya ready?" inquired Joanne as TI-85 hovered before the monitor and switched on her dataflow beam.

The courier nodded as she stood. "As we'll ever be," she promised, clutching the ball as it expanded in her hand, watching intently as Joanne's fingers danced across the vertically placed keyboard and Ti's magnets spun slowly with concentration.

"Almost there..." Joanne commented, beads of sweat forming on her brow as she typed faster, "Oh crap!"

"What?!" inquired both Miranda and Geoff at the same time as one of the blinking greenlights along the side of the cylinder became solid red.

"He's almost gained access to the computer in Saffron!"

"Can you stop him?" the courier inquired, gulping down her nervousness as Joanne gave a short nod.

"No worries!" she laughed nervously, "I have a whole two seconds to spare!"

With that, however, TI-85 let out a pained shriek as the data flow reversed and the monitor exploded outwards in a shower of sparks and shards of glass.

"Ti!" shouted Joanne turning away from the keyboard and half lunging forward to grab the magnemite out of the air before they both fell to the cable strewn floor.

"Joanne!" Miranda exclaimed, panic suddenly overwhelming her as several other lights turned red forming the words "You're Next!" before a dozen other switched to a constant glow, leaving only a handful still blinking green, "The ghost! It's gonna-!"

But as the courier spoke, all but one of the lights switched to red, and as the last green one flickered, the omnipresent hum of SkyNet's many cooling fans ceased, replaced by a sudden loud rattle and the sound of sound of a very large computer powering down as all of the lights went out, only to replaced by the same red illumination that filled the rest of the office building.

"What?" inquired Geoff as everyone into the room turned to see him with a large plug in his hand, swinging it idly in the air as he spoke, "I figured we could just unplug it for crying out loud!"

Miranda let out a slow breath as she turned to Joanne in the sudden near darkness. "That works too," she chuckled, only to have SkyNet's ominous silence suddenly replaced by a distant, echoing clang, and a few muttered curses somewhere within the machine.

The courier's eyes widened as Joanne looked up at her with a stricken expression. "Shh," the girl cautioned, slowly sliding her pokedex out of her pocket before opening it and placing it carefully atop the mainframe, "This might not work..."

With a nervous shiver, Miranda reached her shaking hand up and switched the device on. Its small internal fan immediately broke the still silence and the glow of the dex's tiny screen provided for an eerie glow as something within the mainframe made a quiet chuckling sound.

As the group watched, a dark shape partially emerged from SkyNet. The rolling shadows seemed to ooze forth from the thick, tri- tanium casing, only to surround the small purple plastic casing of the Parazoological Encyclopedia & Data Input/Output Device like a hungry shadow.

Miranda glanced at Umi and Nezumi, raising her hand to clam them as a pair of malevolent red eyes burned within the dark mist before flickering out with a frightful chuckle as the ghost vanished inside the courier's pokedex.

"Now what?" inquired Joanne, getting to her feet and watching with morbid fascination as Miranda reached up and took hold of the device.

"You'll see," the girl whispered, her expression twisting to one of disgust as the air filled with an wet, squishy, crackling sound, and the 'Dex pulled away from the top of the mainframe followed by a long trail of thin, greenish translucent goo, "Okay, this I think this is a good thing. Here, hold this."

Joanne made half a sound of protest as the courier handed her the ectoplasm covered pokedex, and nearly dropped it as the girl reached underneath it to scoop the goo away with her bare hand.

"Wha- What are you doing?!" the woman demanded in a harsh whisper as Miranda slid her bokken out and wiped the handful of viscous, oozing mass of solidified ephemerae along the wooden blade of her sword.

"That's not gonna hold his interest for long," she explained, nodding to her pokemon, causing Umi to take deep breath, and Nezumi to concentrate before suddenly bursting into a bright silvery glow and stand upon his hind legs dramatically, "I think it's best if we hit the gastly hard when we comes out. After all, these ghostballs aren't perfect, and I don't want him just letting himself out or something."

"They- They can do that?!" exclaimed Joanne all too loudly as the pokedex began to shake in her hand and an image of herself appeared upon the little screen.

The courier nodded, her reply suddenly cut off by a peculiar sound from the 'Dex. A voice that sounded both eerie and nerve gratingly annoying suddenly switched on, filling the room with a few stammered words.

"P- P- Professor Joanna Kipp," the device intoned as Miranda's jaw dropped.

"No way!" the courier exclaimed angrily, glowering darkly at the device, "I ripped the freakin' speakers out of that ruddy thing myself so I'd never have to hear it talk again!"

The pokedex continued unabated, however, running down the list of scientific terms to describe a human being. When it neared the end of its speech, however, the voice let out a quiet chuckle. "Species, human. Resistances; None. Weaknesses; Fighting techniques and..." as the voice spoke, the lights in the room dimmed slightly as its chuckling voice became a loud, screeching laugh of triumph, "Ghost techniques!"

"Get it away!" the scientist exclaimed in a panic, slamming the 'dex's cover shut before tossing it across the room.

"Get ready!" cautioned Miranda, watching it pass her in the air, and turning to face the device before it hit the ground, "Here it comes!"

As the pokedex clattered to the floor, a heavy silence came over the room, and everyone held their breath. Waiting.

"That things not going to be very happy when it gets out of there, is it?" came Geoff's nervous tone, speaking rhetorically, watching as Miranda's pokedex shook violently of its own accord, sending sparks flying in all directions and white smoke from somewhere within. This was soon accompanied by a terrible grinding, knocking sound of most of the hard drive being horrible scragged.

Miranda nodded, glancing over at Rob. "You wouldn't happen to have another magnemite would you?" she asked as a small explosion caused the pokedex's cover to open up revealing the darkened, cracked screen, across which scrolled the phrase, "You're next..."

"Guess it's just up to you two now then," said Miranda glancing at her pokemon, who nodded slowly as they watched their trainer's pokedex go through its final death throws.

With a loud -pop!-, several buttons flew off SkyNet's keyboard and the maintenance panel blew apart as the gastly within it grew wary of the toy and sprang into the air, causing Umi to make an angry hissing sound, her eyes glowing blood red as Nezumi gritted his teeth, growling at the now laughing ghost.

"NOW!" shouted Miranda, bringing her ectoplasm smeared blade down upon the little ghost, cleaving him almost in half as Umi spit a walnut sized ball of flame, and Nezumi leaped in the air at it.

With a shriek of pain and rage, the ghost's body shimmered as Umi's small fireball exploded against him, and Nezumi's glowing teeth sank into his ephemera. "Gassst!" the gastly hissed as a wave of dark purple unlight expanded out in all directions, throwing his three attackers backwards as he flew forward.

"Miranda!" exclaimed Joanne, running forward and catching the girl as she stumbled backwards and landed in the woman's arms.

"Never mind me!" she exclaimed, irritatedly, "don't let that freakin' ghost get back to the mainframe!"

"Oh yeah, I'll get right on that," commented Geoff in a bitterly sarcastic tone as Nezumi shook off the effects the 'nightshade' attack and scurried quickly over to Umi.

'Ya okay, Draco-babe?' he inquired as the little dragon reared up like an angry serpent, baring her small sharp teeth and hissing at the wounded ghost before glancing down at Nezumi and making a small reassuring sound.

"He's headed for the vents!" called Miranda, struggling to her feet and throwing her bokken like a javelin at the gastly even as he phased through the air vent grating and disappeared, his sinister laughter echoing back to them as the courier's sword bounced off the grate and landed on the floor with a damp splatting sound.