To Steal the Heart of a Thief {Pokemon Ranger Fanfiction} (Pokemon Watty Awards 2015)

Chapter 37: Let the Games Begin

"We need to break through the security lock on the back door and slip into the tower without being noticed..." Rena went straight to business and squinted at the tower's back door from a distance, devising a plan of attack already.

"Come on, then. Let's go." Keith impatiently waved to her, trying to get her attention.

"Er... Right." Rena looked down at the Staraptor she was still sitting on, too embarrassed to admit to Keith that she really wasn't sure how to dismount from the gigantic bird.

She was a thief, not a sky trainer...

Rena took a chance and tried to lift one leg over the other side of the bird, but she quickly lost her balance and began to fall off.

"Ah!" Rena gasped with surprise, and she prepared herself for the impact with the cold hard ground.

But it never came.

Rena slowly opened her eyes to see that she was being held in Keith's arms right in front of him, held like a bride, only inches away from his face. For a few moments, their uneven breaths mingled with one another, and the heat brushed against each other's cheeks.

Keith awkwardly stared at her and slowly set the shorter girl back down on the ground. He had to think of something to say to her to break the awkward silence between them, and he had to think of something fast. By now, a blushing heat prickled up both their necks as they began to release their Pokemon out to join them in a disheveled way. In a bright flash, the two Pokemon were out; exchanging glances between their masters and each other.

Keith awkwardly cleared his throat and averted the pretty blue eyes that were staring at him in such innocent surprise. "You know, for a professional thief, you're a real klutz."

Smooth, Keith. Smooth.

Rena embarrassingly glared at him and marched ahead. "Am not..."

"Are too."

"Am not!"

It only took them about five minutes to reach the back of the tower. Rena and Keith kept their backs pressed firmly to the wall and tried to make it over to the back door, trying not to be caught by the roaming security cameras positioned around the base of the tower.

Isaac had been kidnapped by Dim Sun, and all of the data they had collected the previous night was taken with him. Luckily, he had just made a copy of the data from Rena's phone, so she still had the access codes with her. She spent half of last night in the lab with Nage and Vatona, two brother scientists working at the Ranger Union, trying to create the one card without Isaac's help. It was tricky, but they managed.

Rena swiped the fake key card through the back door's electronic reader and watched as the red light flickered green. A devious grin stretched across her face when she heard the locking mechanism click.

The small group quietly leapt inside the building, quickly finding themselves in a darker hallway. No lights seemed to be on, shadowing their vision as the long corridor seemed to stretch forever. They peered around a corner and spotted the luminous lobby, the one with a glittering chandelier, that they had just been dancing in the night before, and across the room from them were two Dim Sun minions pushing barricades in front of the doors. They were both just talking to each other as if nothing could possibly go wrong in their boss's perfect plan.