Entro and Victor
Entro was shaken from the near hypnotic state he was in by Eracaste yipping at him. He'd been staring at the wrapping paper on the present he was holding for nearly ten minutes at that point, and it was getting to be a bit much. He couldn't help it though, those Skitty with the Christmas hats and baubles were just so, incredibly cute that they needed to be properly appreciated.
It didn't help that he wasn't super motivated to actually enter the home in front of him to deliver the present. Process of elimination had led him to less of a house and more of a complex, several concrete buildings behind a large and equally concrete wall. Worse still, Entro knew from orders made to his shop that the people who lived in the nightmare abode were incredibly paranoid and had traps upon traps set up for intruders. He did have a mission to complete for a man with a beautiful beard though…
"YYYES! WE HAVE ARRIVED!" A loud, juvenile voice suddenly sounded behind him, threatening to wake up every soul in the gated complex before them. Entro spun around to see the source of the noise, coming face-to-face with a young boy in a thick Christmas sweater and large green and red gloves, with a pair of goggles on his head with lenses shaped like two Christmas trees. The boy's most noticeable feature though was his large, oversized backpack, filled to the brim with objects with jagged that stuck out from inside, and a few oversized mechanical tools hanging onto it.
"GP, MY GREATEST INVENTION YET- FOONGLE MAPS, HAS SUCCESSFULLY BROUGHT US HERE!" the boy screamed again, holding up a cellphone to the sky triumphantly. A slightly singed-looking, frazzled Morpeko cheered in response on top of his bag.
Entro opened his mouth to greet the new appearance before his eyes focused in on the Morepeko seated on top of the sweater-wearing lad's bag. "Look at you! You're so cute! I just want to steal you away so you can play with Eracaste every day!"
The sudden outburst was coupled with Entro reaching over the boy and scooping up his Pokemon, lifting it up Litleo King style before pulling it into an overly-tight hug. He continued a stream of compliments toward the creature's cuteness, slipping deeper and deeper into baby speech as he did so.
The boy squinted briefly at him before pulling out a notebook from his back pocket, quickly alternating his gaze between the man before him and his notes. "Curious…" he muttered. "Says here you should be much more of a paranoid, unwelcoming fellow, but hey, whatever makes our job easier."
Without further ado, he slid off his massive bag, plopped it to the ground, and reached inside to pull out a small carefully wrapped gift. "Here you go, sir! Happy, merry, jolly Christmas!" He said, tossing it Entro's direction.
Entro found himself suddenly jugging a squirming rodent and an additional pristinely wrapped present, desperately trying not to drop either, or the present he was already holding under his arm, as he caught the projectie offering. Once he had both settled in his grasp, he realised what had been said. "Oh. I don't live here. I'm just delivering something, see."
Entro held up the Morepeko, taking several awkward moments to realise he was showing the boy the wrong thing. He shuffled the objects he was holding around to display a present. It was the wrong one, but close enough.
"Ah, I see." the lad quickly scribbled something down and pocketed the notepad again. "You must be another deliveryman then! Dare I say, I'm glad Santa employs only the most devilishly handsome, sir- you look like you could comfortably hold down three or four relationships at once." He gestured for his Morpeko to hop back towards him, and as the rodent followed, he stuck out his hand eagerly. "The name's Victor R. Yan, inventor extraordinaire and future Nobeldum prize winner! And this is GP, my Morpeko." As he spoke, the Pokemon that had crawled back onto his bag pulled out a golden plaque that showed his certification as an accredited probably-an-inventor™ from his school's science fair.
"That's very kind of you," Entro replied and shook his hand, "I hope my husbands agree."
Entro ogled the card for a moment, extremely impressed by the brilliance it implied. It wasn't every day he got to talk to a certified genius. "But what do we do about getting in?"
"Leave that to me." Victor chuckled. He stepped towards the big gate, looking around to inspect it before letting out a soft 'aha' and finding the electronic panel and buzzer used to speak to the occupant of the house. He gave the panel a quick glance, hand on his chin, before quickly snapping his fingers.
"GP, screwdriver! The 42 null, please."
On cue, the electric rodent dove into his bag, rummaging around for a while before emerging with a small yellow screwdriver and carrying it to Victor. The young inventor quickly opened up the panel with it, his hands moving at an incredible speed as he turned screws and expertly unplugged wires attached to the device. After a few seconds of fiddling, a loud beep sounded, which was followed by the slow cranking of the front gate opening.
"You're really smart," Entro said, walking through the gate. So entranced as he was, he didn't even consider that he was technically breaking and entering. He also didn't notice the pitfall he nearly walked into, only to be saved by his loyal Shieldon tackling him away from the edge. "Guess we should watch our step."
"It seems our nice-lister is quite the paranoid one," Victor peered into the pitfall, noticing rows of crudely arranged spikes at the bottom. "Intriguing how a person with such assumed enemies still made it on there."
Entro shrugged. "Working out that sort of thing is a bit beyond me. Entro continued walking forward, now staring intently at his feet for any signs of further pit traps, Eracaste mimicking his masters actions.
The path in front of them leading to the front door was laden with bear traps, tripwires, spikes and little red beeping lights sticking through the snow, that the pair assumed were landmines. Victor slipped on his goggles and adjusted a dial on one of the lenses. "I'm afraid the path to the front door is completely obstructed by traps. We're going to need to take the side entrance." He pointed to a path ever so slightly noticeable from the rest of the snow, as if a trained pair of legs had walked it thousands of times in the exact same manner, which led to a small door off the side of the large complex.
"You're really smart." Entro repeated again. He carefully walked along the hidden path with Eracaste at his side, soon reaching the door. He reached out and gripped the painfully cold metal knob and gave it a turn, only to find that it was locked. "Huh."
As Victor followed behind, he inspected the large wooden frame. "I believe this isn't a digital lock we're dealing with anymore… we're going to need to brute force this lock." he tapped his chin.
Without any further warning, Eracaste leapt up and rammed into the door above the handle. The door flung open widely with a loud bang, slamming into the wall of the hallway beyond it.
"I guess he agreed," Entro said, looking back and forth nervously between the now open door, his cheerfully oblivious Pokemon and Victor. "We can probably fix that. This is totally fine."
Entro stepped into the hall, immediately discovering that the building disagreed with him. He stepped onto a concrete tile, feeling it sink down as he heard a distinctive click. An instant later, darts were flying out the walls.
The pair quickly ducked as the darts missed them, flying off into the night behind them. Victor glanced at the pressure plate Entro's foot was on with starry eyes. "An in-residence pressure tile system…" he mouthed incredulously, "... beautiful. Archaic, but beautiful."
He quickly snapped of out of his trance. "Ah, Mr. Pie, make sure to watch for any floor tiles that look slightly off, most pressure plates never fit seamlessly with the rest of the ground, due to the nature of the mechanism."
Entro looked around, not entirely sure who Victor was talking to. He resolved to tilt his head and stare blankly, seeing if the mysterious Mr. Pie would show himself.
The pair began to slowly walk down the hallway. The concrete walls and grey floor tiles were dimly lit by the spaced-out emergency lights on the ceiling, and the air smelled of paint and sulfur. Through the small vents that they could see on the ceiling every once in a while, they heard the whirr of some machinery as well as the ominous sounds of dripping liquid and creaking metal. This truly was a festive, yuletide setting.
Victor sidestepped another pressure plate, holding GP in his arms as the rodent trembled in fear. He exchanged few words with Entro, whose Shieldon seemed to his wits more about him than his own trainer. The two gifters stopped when the hallway split into three. Victor looked around. "Hmm… which way shall we go, then? Left to the spike pit, right to the incinerator or forward to the crushing machine?" he joked, looking at his colleague.
"None of those choices sound good," Entro replied, looking down at Eracaste nervously. "Why don't you pick?"
Eracaste yipped in response, dashing boldly straight down the middle hallway. Entro watched him go, looked back at Victor with a shrug and the two then followed behind the cheerful Shieldon.
After some more walking, Eracaste miraculously dodging all the dart-activating pressure plates, the group found themselves in front of another door, but this one was made of metal. No switches or panels beside it this time either. Before either of the gifters could react, a loud, robotic voice sounded from a hidden speaker above them.
"STATE YOUR BUSINESS, VISITOR."
"We're… here to deliver Santa's gift?" Victor replied in a hopeful tone.
"INVALID. SANTA DOES NOT EXIST. RELEASING SECURITY."
Almost immediately, two large, skeleton-like metal robots emerged from the side walls behind them, with glowing red eyes. As they whipped around to see, they noticed the cracking of electricity in the batons that that security bots were holding. Without warning, both of them suddenly charged forward, raising their weapons to strike.
"Ah, fizzled-wire short-circuit crap!" Victor cursed, stepping back in fear and nearly falling over with his oversized backpack. GP squealed and ran up Victor's bag, trying to get back into his dawn ball. "How do we get out this?"
"Uhhhhhhh… Tackle?" Entro asked Eracaste, not entirely sure if his Pokemon actually knew the move. In what may have been a Christmas miracle though, the little Shiedon did.
Eracaste gave something resembling a half-battle-cry-half-cheer and ran at the closest of the two security bots, ramming into it. The machine crumpled against the attack, dropping to the floor and shocking itself with its own baton, becoming nothing more than a heap of twitching scrap metal.
"Like that, I guess." Entro said.
"O-okay!" Victor stammered, sterling himself. "GP, fetch me the… PORTABLE MICROWAVE!"
The little Pokemon dove into his bag again before quickly emerging with a long cord, which he was painstakingly pulling on. After a moment, the cord was revealed to be attached to a large, box-like device fitted with duct tape and a mess of wires and batteries- a shiny, black, Philips-brand Microwave. Victor grabbed the appliance and opened its door before chucking it at the robot. It landed squarely on its metallic head- but did nothing to slow down the attacker.
"GP… ACTIVATE THE MICRO WAVES, FROZEN PIZZA SETTING!" Victor yelled, and his Pokemon followed suit, blasting a bolt of electricity at the robot's head. The microwave immediately turned on, and the results were devastating. The robot stopped in its tracks as sparks flew from its head, all while the non-metallic bits in its circuitry began melting away. After a second, it fell to the ground like its colleague.
"Magnificent work, partner!" Victor high-fived GP. "They felt the sting of my- our genius!" He turned to Entro.
"You're such a good little cutie-pie!" Entro exclaimed, petting the Morepeko a little too hard. He then knelt down and did the same to his Shieldon, who was much more comfortable with the firm contact. "You too, Eracaste."
As he spoke, a loud beep sounded and the metal door opened. Something one of the two had done to the guards must've activated the door's release, and they happily seized the opportunity, going through the entryway before it closed again.
The pair and their companions found themselves inside what appeared to be a large square room made entirely of metal. A small control box was fitted high on the wall directly across from them, next to a door inexplicably high up on the wall.
"That's weird." Entro said, perplexed. He had little time time to ponder this strange scenario though, as with a horrible grinding sound the walls began to move towards them. "You were right! It's a crushing machine. How did you know? How do we turn it off?"
"Wait, WHAT?!" Victor panicked and looked around- this part-time gig was beginning to really not be worth it anymore. "I was JOKING! I can't believe this is happening to us…" He inspected the walls some more. It seemed they had all been smoothed out and shaped to be as un-climbable as possible… but the boy nonetheless had an idea.
"Pass me the ribbon on one of these gifts!" Victor said to Entro, as he took off his bag and rummaged inside. After a brief moment, he pulled out a small gun-like object with a syringe at the end. "Behold, my ENTHICKENATOR!" Victor exclaimed. "Initially designed to make udon out of spaghetti and turn crepes into pancakes- but this should also work!"
As the walls rapidly closed in on them, Entro very carefully removed the ribbon from the present he was safeguarding, taking every possible second to avoid tearing the wrapping paper. With little time left, he freed the ribbon and handed it to Victor.
The room was less than half its original size now. With no time to waste Victor injected the ribbon with his Enthickenator, and watched as the flimsy shiny plastic grew into a much longer, far sturdier (but equally as shiny and festive) rope. He grabbed GP and tied the rope around him, eliciting a high-pitched protest from the rodent.
"Oi, language, GP." Victor scolded. He then turned to the muscular man again. "Quick, I need you to throw GP at the door, and when he reaches it he'll tie the rope to the handle and we'll be able to open it and climb out!"
Entro gently gripped the Morepeko in one hand and gave it a light toss up to the door, allowing it to grab the handle and wind the ribbon-rope around the handle. When the rodent brought the tether back, Entro had Eracaste help him pry the door open so they could climb up.
Entro gestured to the now open door. "After you."
Charmed by the politeness of his companion, Victor gladly look the offer and quickly made his way up the rope, painfully bearing the weight of his oversized backpack. Once he was at the top - which was another concrete hallway, shocking - he called out for Entro to go up. There wasn't much time left, and with a heavy steel-type to carry, he was worried the man couldng make it quickly enough…
"Mr. Pie, quickly!"
The Morepeko scampered up the oddly noodle-like ribbon to rejoin its master. Entro tried to follow behind, Eracaste clinging to his back. However, the rope suddenly snapped and Entro was painfully reminded of gravity's existence as he slammed into the hard ground. "Oh no, not the ribbon! Now what will go on the present?!"
"That's what you're thinking about?!" Victor yelled back from the top. The room was getting much, much smaller now and at a quicker pace. With the rope snapped, there was no chance for escape anymore. Fearing the worst, Victor looked away and shielded GP's eyes.
CLANG.
A few moments passed as Victor held his breath, unwilling to look back down at what could be Entro's demise. Yet as he peered with one eye… he found the man and his Pokemon intact- more than intact, even, as the held the walls appart entirely with the strength of his muscles. He didn't even appear to be breaking a sweat.
"The walls aren't very strong or something," Entro said, "I don't really get it."
"Incredible!" Victor gasped, but realized he couldn't waste more time- pulling off the ribbon from his own gift, he injected it again with twice the dosage and dropped down the rope, making sure the other end was tied securely. "Come on, you can make it!"
This time, Entro was able to climb up safely. He set Eracaste down and pulled the noodle-ribbon up, doing his best to tie it neatly around its present again. It didn't look great, but at least the present was properly beribboned. "I suppose that will have to do."
The group cautiously headed down the hall, finding their way to one more locked iron door. Entro gave Eracaste a nod and the Shieldon rammed the door open to reveal… a cosy lounge room with a lit Christmas tree next to a warm fireplace. After the drama and excitement of the last several minutes, it was actually kind of disappointing.
"Be careful, my friend, that lovely tree could in fact be a missile or evil robot or something." Victor warned, but he knew this room was definitely different from the rest. He cautiously stepped in front of the tree and placed his gift beside it, stepping back slowly to see what would happen. Nothing did, however- this really was the delivery point.
Entro followed Victor's lead, gently setting down the noodle-ribboned gift beside the pristine one. He then stepped back and waited to see if anything happened. When nothing did, he turned to Victor. "Mission accomplished then?"
"Mission Accomplished." Victor nodded. "But uh, how do we get out of-"
As he spoke the robotic voice from earlier sounded again. "THANK YOU. MERRY CHRISTMAS."
Before they could react, the floor beneath them opened up, dropping them into a slide, which then threw them into the snow outside. A soft whirr was heard and the door behind them slammed shut. After a second of stunned silence, the door opened up again and two cookies and glasses of milk were thrown out of the slide too, landing in the snow next to them.
