I Want To Lay the Very Best!

157 – A Thorny Problem

Brandy was deeply thankful the maid dress had a short skirt rather than the long folds like Morgans. Because she would have died going up all these stairs in that thing.

Most people in Nexus didn't use the stairs, so they were more of an afterthought. A tall, narrow tower working its way up the building, cramped and lit mainly by fluorescent strips. It might have been an unpleasant environment, but it had an upside. Pix's screens weren't in here, so the Banette couldn't pop up to taunt them and possibly couldn't spy on them?

Brandy really wished she knew more details on how Pix worked precisely. Or why was the Banette even doing this? It seemed a bit more than just a prank. It couldn't be a coincidence they'd taken over the building at the same time everyone was out enjoying the barbecue.

"How... many more flights?" Brandy panted. She was fit, and inheritance had only made her fitter. Still, she didn't have a Pokémon's near inexhaustible stamina yet.

"Twenty-one," Calcine said. "I'm keeping count."

Brandy nodded, trying to keep her breathing steady and deep. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Just like Caramel had taught them for Volleyball.

"We can take a breather if you want," Calcine offered. "Just a quick one."

"No, I'm good." Brandy waved her off. "Let's keep moving."

The pair climbed up the stairs silently for a bit longer before they heard crashing up ahead. It got louder and louder, heavy thumping, and the sharp snaps of things breaking echoed from above. Calcine pushed forward to act as a shield, and Brandy tried to keep up, but she wasn't sure she'd manage much longer with how much her legs were burning.

The thumping and crashing built to a crescendo, and a ball of office furniture rolled right around the corner of the stairs and straight at them.

"Smack Down!" Brandy yelled, dropping to lie on the stairs, hoping some of the boulder would miss her if this didn't work.

Calcine's fist drew back as the boulder approached, her fiery cape fluttering behind her, making her look like a ridiculously heroic figure. A second later, she swung, the air thrumming as her fist tore through it into the office furniture boulder.

A loud crack and a shattering sound filled the air.

Brandy's heart thumped as she lay face down against the steps, her hands over her head to protect it. Had that worked? She didn't feel any pain or anything, just a few shards bouncing off her skin.

She risked opening an eye and peering up. Calcine stood there, steam rising off her body as her chest pulled with fire. Her fist was spewing black smoke, and the boulder remnants spread around her and embedded into the stairwell's walls. But she was okay, tense and panting for breath, but okay.

She turned slowly, looking down at Brandy, who, after a shocked moment, gave her a thumbs up.

Calcine's shoulders slumped, and a smile spread over her face when she saw Brandy was okay. Then, the thumping and crashing began up ahead again.

"I got plenty more! Dohohohoho!" a mad cackling came from the building speakers. "Dodge all of these idiots!"

"You've gotta be kidding me," Calcine hissed, grabbing Brandy and hauling her up, then rushing ahead to kick open the door to the next level. "Come on, let's try the windows here!"

Brandy didn't need telling twice, scrambling to get through the door before the next boulder tore its way down the stairs. The room on the other side was a large open floor plan, rows of desks and workstations stretching across the room with the occasional cubicle set aside for Pokémon who needed the privacy. The windows were all misted with a pink swirling light, giving the room an eerie glow. There was a crash and a shriek as two office chairs tore themselves out from desks and rose, purple energy swirling around them.

"This Poltergeist nonsense is getting really old." Calcine sighed as she swept a hand, and the room was bisected with a stone wall that burst up from the floor's foundations. "Ideas?"

"The windows looked like a Psychic move, probably something to shield what's going on inside once she spotted us," Brandy said, as there were two thumps against Calcine's sudden Rock Tomb wall. Hopefully, Nexus could fix the damage to their building quickly. This was already a bit of a mess. "She's trying to stop us going up, so we shouldn't stop doing that."

"The stairs are too dangerous for you, and we'd be crazy to try the lifts," Calcine said, grabbing a chair that began glowing and smashing it against the ground. "I know I said I'd fight a whole building, but I don't think I can do that safely. We need a plan."

"Give me a second to think."

Calcine fielded furniture while Brandy wracked her brains, keeping in her shadow for safety. It was frustrating Sparky and Morgan weren't here. Both of them would have made this so much easier. Well, she'd just work with what she had.

Banettes. Creepy doll like Ghost Pokémon who could steal other Pokémon's abilities. This one had taken Pix's possessive ability and taken over the entire building, likely so whoever their Partner was could do something while everyone was outside for the barbecue. Annoyingly, Brandy and Spitfire's success had made their plan easier by clearing the place out. Flirting was out. Brandy couldn't flirt with a building. She wouldn't even know where to begin. So what did she know?

The Banette's moveset they'd seen so far suggested a sneaky fighter. A bit like Morgan, they set up the battlefield to give them all the advantages and then struck when the opponent was powerless. If they could force a confrontation, they'd win, but Pix's ability to possess the entire building gave the Banette a tremendous advantage.

How could Pix do that? Rotom were strong but usually couldn't possess things much bigger than a fridge. The building must have a unique design to it to allow it.

"Calcine, can you feel the building construction?" Brandy said, "Search for anything unusual."

Calcine stomped a foot down and closed her eyes, listening to the vibrations.

"There's something like Fenny's cage, a strange metal?"

Well, there we go. The building must be threaded with the same material that Fenny's scanning cage used. Pix used that to expand her reach to the entire building.

"Can you move it?"

"Not rock." Calcine said, "Well, not entirely. It feels a little bit like it, but only a little. Not enough."

"What about the surrounding floor?"

"Oh." Calcine said, stamping her feet and grinning, "That I can do!"

With a great roar, the room shuddered. A section buckled, folding upwards like someone had grabbed the floor and tried to bend it like a playing card.

"Mom's going to kill me." Brandy gasped as she watched the room almost fold in half, the sound of metal banging off the floor below as the special struts fell out. A floating desk suddenly dropped to the ground with a smash. Recycle could fix all the damage. Trainer Pokémon battles would have to be a lot tamer if it couldn't. However, it would still be an unholy mess to sort out once everything was returned to its original form.

The half of the room that was folded over slid back down to form a ramp. Calcine raised a fist to the ceiling at the edge and spread her fingers, a hole ripping open in the floor above. Then she turned and offered a hand to Brandy, grinning. "We're saving Pix. She'll have to forgive you."

"You're loving showing off right now," Brandy said, shaking her head as she took the hand. "You make a good dashing hero. See if you can't get your hands between the floors and rip all the metal from the stairwell. If we trash twenty floors, my mom really will kill us."

They scrambled over the pile of furniture this move had made and up the cleared ramp, Calcine keeping an eye on Brandy the whole way in case she needed to grab her.

"You're really not clever, you know!" the speakers wailed. "I'm going to enjoy watching those smiles get wiped off your faces."

"She's mad." Calcine grinned, jamming her hand in the space between floors. "Knows she's got nothing. We got this."

Brandy lifted her head above the hole as she patted Calcine's shoulder to make sure it was clear. Her nose flared as a sweet smell washed over her, and Brandy blinked at what she saw. It looked like the room had been abandoned for decades. Grass grew from the carpet, swaying in waves from the ceiling fans above that wreathed in flowers and raining down petals. Vines twisted over the desks, beautiful flowers blooming along the thick stems.

It was beautiful. A botanical garden come to life in what should have been a boring office.

"Brandy, you all right?" Calcine asked.

Why was she asking that? Brandy rubbed her head, but she felt at ease. The sweet scent was comforting and made her feel completely at ease. She'd found paradise, and she reached down to squeeze Calcine's shoulder.

"I'm great. Let's just take a break here. Look at how pretty it is." Brandy smiled. Something scratching in the back of her mind. Orchid? Why was she thinking about the Flower girl from the Grass Gym right now?

Calcine raised her head to look in the room just as two beautiful roses bloomed atop a desk. One blue, one red, they were massive, and the plant they were attached to twisted hypnotically in the wind. Brandy wanted to wander over, touch it, hug it, rub it over her skin, but Calcine's grip on her wrist was like a hot iron.

"Brandy, snap out of it!" Calcine yelled in warning as the plant reared back. Her grip got searing hot for just a second that sudden jolt of pain snapping Brandy to her senses. Letting her see the grassy room more clearly.

Not a plant, a plant lady, with a green mask over light red eyes, squinting as it picked its shot. Their leafy cape billowed behind them as they raised a long, thorny whip back.

"Rock Tomb!" Brandy yelped as she dropped, stone bursting to life before her. The thorn whip just smashed right through it, slamming into the stone above her, those sharp points oozing a sickly looking green liquid onto the stone.

Calcine swirled her hands to try to reshape the platform they were on to get a footing. Barely started before the plant woman leaped up atop the wall Calcine had made. Her cape billowed behind her as she struck a pose. Rather flat-chested but with absolutely massive hips, she gave Brandy a brilliant smile as her petal-like waves of white hair fluttered dramatically.

"Once again, the Great Mardi has to pick up where Zipper fails," she said with an accent so stereotypically Kalosian it couldn't possibly be real. She tipped up her chin imperiously as she struck a dramatic pose. "Mardi will make your Carkol a notch on her whip and you, my pretty redhead, a notch on her bedpost. I hope you feel suitably honored."

Great. It couldn't just be one crazy Pokémon in the way, could it? No. That'd be too easy.

Brandy adjusted her maid hat and bit her lip. This one. This one she could flirt with. Calcine had done all the hard work so far.

Time to pull her weight as a Trainer.