Thanks for your feedback, guys.

Quote Originally Posted by mistysakura View Post
I'm impressed that Lisa's grandfather managed to gather so much information. I wonder if he really did it purely to preserve his power, or whether something else is going on... seeing as Marina's grandmother also left her a message... Marina had so much courage. It must be even worse for her, knowing exactly what she has to do, and having to go ahead and do it anyway. Her struggle was depicted really well. But how on earth did Veronica know where to find the key? And is it really a coincidence that she and Lisa are looking for the same key at the same time, or does Lisa somehow have another spy around her? Unless the diary itself was planted to lure Lisa to the statue, but I don't see how that's possible. Waiting for the next chapter!
Hullo Ada, and thanks for the comments and questions! Lisa's grandfather certainly did a studious job documenting it all. I wonder how, and why? ^_^ As for Marina's grandmother's message ... you are on the right track in linking the two together, but there's more to all this than meets the eye. I felt for Marina too - and I agree, it would have been much harder to do it knowing what was coming. She's a very fierce soul. Veronica's information came from Sterling - but how did he find out? Lots of good questions and I don't want to reveal anything because it will all spill out in good time. Thanks again, next chapter is here!

Quote Originally Posted by Sike Saner View Post
Why hello there, "oh shit" moment.

That was a nice, ominous little detail. It was pretty suspenseful, I must say, reading and waiting to find out if Marina would do what Raikou required of her before anything could go awry.

Oh, and I rather liked Raikou's personality.
Howdy Sike - thanks for the read. Hehe, I do like to throw those "oh shit" moments in there, I'm pretty sure LTL is now peppered with them, though hopefully not overly so. Glad you liked the suspense that came with Marina's foray into the Sepulchre of Raikou - and that you dig (or dug) Raikou's personality. I think he complements Suicune well, whereas Suicune is more passionate and paternalistic and direct and engaged, Raikou tends to be a bit more distant and yet quite kind in a tough, no bullshit kind of way. Or tended to be, rather; have to use past tense now, poor beast. Thanks for your reply as always.

It's a couple of days late but here's Chapter 76! No more extended 'Previously on Lisa the Legend' intros as they tend to be a bit time-consuming and now that chapters are regular, unnecessary. But here's a quick recap on where we left off:

- Gavin and Marina travelled to Emerald Plains, where Marina killed Raikou and obtained, with some difficulty, her fragment of the Sixth Key.

- The Union's Operations Manager, Larry O'Brien, revealed himself to Lisa as a double agent. His Guard contact is Lance Hudson's personal assistant, Sarah Venner, their exchanges made though a series of coded telephone calls.

- Alone in Goldenrod City, Lisa found her grandfather's diary, which led her to the location of the Third Key, however Veronica and the Union looked to be on the verge of beating her to it.

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Chapter 76 – Run Like Hell.


If he hadn’t known what was taking place in a cave somewhere around him, Gavin might have fallen asleep in the warmth of the sun. He lay on a flat rock in the middle of the gorge, his bare feet dangling in the shallow creek and his eyelids closed when, quite abruptly, his mobile vibrated in his pocket.

Blinking against the sun, he slid the cover open and read the new text message. It was from Marina’s mobile: a message from Lisa:

Any chance you will make it back here before 8pm? Just wondering. L.

Gavin checked his watch: it was already two-thirty. Marina had been gone for almost half an hour, but he wasn’t alarmed: Lisa had taken well over an hour in the Sepulchre of Suicune. Still, he hoped Marina wouldn’t be too much longer, or their chances of returning to Goldenrod today would be slim. After an arduous six hour drive, Melanie had taken Gavin and Marina as close to the Ikoswit Gorge as possible, eventually parking her sedan at the end of a gravel track that led from the Dervine Expressway deep into Emerald Plains. Nonetheless, they had trekked a further kilometre or so to reach the Sepulchre.

Sunlight crackling on his eyelids, Gavin crunched the numbers. Even if Marina returned within the hour, they wouldn’t make it back to Goldenrod until late that night, definitely hours after eight o’clock.

Gavin typed out a quick reply:

No chance. Maybe 9ish at the earliest. M in Sep. now. Waiting. Why do you ask?

He pocketed the mobile and closed his eyes again, inviting a nap …

BOOM!

The explosion came out of nowhere. A column of thick grey smoke erupted from the wall of the canyon; rocks, dust and debris flew into the air, cloaking Gavin in a world of opaque grey. Coughing and rubbing the specks from his eyes, he lunged for the ground, but it was no escape: smoke had consumed the entire gorge, carrying with it a wave of intense heat.

“MARINA?! MARINA!” Gavin roared, amid a second, and then a third explosion. “MARINA, WHERE ARE YOU?!”

There was nothing but the resounding echo of the explosions in his ears.

“MARINA!”

And then, gloriously, between the third and fourth blasts, there came through the opaque haze of smoke the imposing cobalt form of a Golduck, carrying a slender, blue-haired teenager.

“Gavin – I got it – it’s okay – I got it …”

*

Lisa regarded Gavin’s text message without surprise. She had known it would be a long shot for him to return during the daylight hours, but she had been desperate for help. Sighing, she typed back a reply:

No worries, just wondering. See you tonight.

She finished towelling her short hair dry and stared with mild horror at her own reflection in Gavin and Dave’s dull, spotted mirror. The supermarket she had stopped by had only offered two shades of hair dye that weren’t a type of brown or black: blonde (which the Union had already seen, or Veronica had, at least) and crimson. Feeling roguish, Lisa had picked up the crimson and rushed back to Gavin’s apartment to put the rinse through her hair. The result was awful, but she at least looked completely different to the girl who had visited the Goldenrod City Library earlier that day.

Changing into a pair of Marina’s denim shorts and a summery top – and reminding herself oddly of Veronica – Lisa checked her reflection one more time before, steeling herself, she jogged out of the apartment and headed for the nearest park, for the first training session with her new pokémon.

*

The shadow cast by the Goldenrod City Library was even greater now that it was almost six in the evening. Though she still had two hours before the Union agents were due to return for the Third Key, Lisa didn’t plan on idling. She took the marble stairs at a brisk walk and slipped in swiftly through the sandstone archway, passing the sign that said:

Welcome to the Goldenrod City Library
Johto’s First Library, est. 1621
Open 7am – 10pm, 7 days a week.

As she had anticipated, the foyer was much less crowded than it had been that morning. There were no tour groups scouring the art works; rather, barely half a dozen people were scattered about the place, not including the two security guards and a robust middle-aged woman at the concierge desk.

“You can do this,” Lisa whispered to herself, picking up a brochure and casually weaving her way toward Antoknossos’ Celebi. For the second time that day, she found herself staring at the plaque, pretending to read it while her mind raced. Was she really about to deface one of the best-known artworks of all time? She ran through the rationalisation in her head again. The Union was almost definitely going to blow the statue to pieces in a matter of hours. If she didn’t do it, they would, and they’d have one more key toward opening the Iron Lock.

It was the far, far lesser of two evils.

“It has to be quick,” she muttered under her breath, still fascinatedly regarding the plaque.

Regardless, she found herself hesitating. There were eight other people in the foyer. Too many. She waited impatiently, silently willing them to drift away, but it took precious time. Finally, at about ten past six, a group of three thanked the concierge and drifted back down the staircase toward the street.

“Now or never,” Lisa whispered. She took a deep breath and said a silent prayer. “Revelum, Altaria!” she hissed, touching her thumb and forefinger to the pendant on her chest; the light had barely issued from the pendant when she plunged her hand into her pocket and hurled two red-and-white pokéballs to the ground and then, amid the loud explosions of radiant light, she whipped the Buzzball from the same pocket, span on her heel to face the direction of the two bewildered security guards and screamed:

“ELECTRIFY!”

Lisa saw the guards react: their hands leapt for the weapons at their belts, but neither of the two men were fast enough for the Buzzball. A streamer of ultramarine energy crackled through the foyer, forking in mid-air and striking each of the men squarely in the chest; they were both blasted off their feet, collapsing to the ground.

At the same moment, Altaria cooed pleasantly and opened its mouth, building a pulsating ball of rainbow energy within before discharging it with a proud squeak; the Aurora Beam slammed with spectacular force into the middle of Antoknossos’ Celebi and for a moment, the jade statue was completely illuminated by the beam before the energy tore it apart: there was an almighty crack as the Celebi split cleanly in two; the two halves seemed to hang in the air for an instant, as though suspended on an invisible hinge, and then the aurora engulfed them completely, and the two halves disintegrated into a shower of fine jade crystals which rained to the ground, clinking like shards of broken glass.

People were screaming; the female concierge shrieked and lunged for the telephone behind her desk. Lisa wheeled around and held the red Buzzball in her direction.

“ELECTRIFY!” she bellowed again.

She didn’t wait for the streamer of electricity to connect: the anguished scream a moment later told her that she had been on target. She leapt over the remains of the statue scattered across the granite platform and began scanning the jade crystals for the Third Key. Her newly-caught Kingler and Cubone, along with Larry’s Altaria, fanned out, as they had been instructed to do, searching for the key, but it was mercifully much easier than Lisa had anticipated. After only ten seconds or so, Lisa’s eye fell on something large and translucent twinkling in the light of the grand chandelier, far bigger than any of the almost powdered jade crystals:

A thin, glass-like key.

“Yes!” she yelled, grabbing it at once. She recoiled as the sharp jade crystals cut her fingers, but there was no time for pain; people were now spilling out from the library and crying out in mingled shock and fear.

“Stop her!” someone yelled.

Lisa pocketed the third key, her blood pumping. The thought of yelling out something like, “Don’t attack me, I’m good!” briefly raced through her mind, but her mouth never found the time to articulate it; she swung her legs over Altaria’s back and screamed, “Let’s go!”; amid the panicked cries of Kingler and Cubone, she gripped their two pokéballs and cried, “Return!”, their bodies dematerialising into red light as Altaria lifted off.

“Oh, crap!” Lisa cried.

Beneath her, a teenage trainer had broken away from the pack of frightened library staff, intellectuals and students. A Tyranitar stood beside him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he cried out boldly.

Altaria’s wings beat frantically at the air. Despite being six feet in the air, Lisa felt intensely vulnerable.

“Please, don’t try to stop me!” Lisa cried frantically; her face was boiling hot and her vision was blurring; she had prayed that something like this wouldn’t happen.

“We’ve already called the police!” the teenager boomed, rather righteously. “Come back down and we’ll tell them you co-operated.”

“I’m really sorry,” Lisa called. “Altaria, Dragonbreath now!”

“Tyranitar, Hyper Beam!”

“Oh crap!” Lisa cried. “Altaria, attack and fly us out at the same time!”

“Awoooo!” Altaria cried.

The only disadvantage to Hyper Beam was that Tyranitar took a moment to power up the orb of energy in his mouth: Altaria opened its mouth and issued an ice-hot blast of blue flames directly at Tyranitar’s face. Tyranitar gave a guttural scream of pain and fired off the golden orb of energy in its mouth in a random direction; it hurtled across the foyer and slammed into the wall, tearing Soliono’s tapestry to shreds.

The crowd of onlookers gasped; some of them cried out; a few of them threw out their own pokéballs. Lisa wove her right hand tightly into the fur on Altaria’s back as it flapped its wings and zoomed for the broad sandstone archway.

“Not so fast!” the boy cried from behind them. “Tyranitar, Shock Wave!”

“No!” Lisa cried, panicking. She had feared Shock Wave ever since Tom had warned her about it years ago: like Swift, it was an unavoidable attack. She glanced ahead: they were almost through the archway … Altaria was singing sweetly … but even if they made it outside, they would be hit …

“Oh!” Lisa cried, an idea dawning on her. “INFLATE!”

Twisting around, she held the Buzzball out to protect herself and Altaria; instantly, it ballooned to ten times its usual size, swelling rapidly; barely a second later, as Altaria swooped through the archway and into the twilight, a bolt of yellow light arced through the air behind them and connected with the Buzzball.

At first, Lisa thought it had worked – certainly, the ball glowed an odd colour – but she found herself momentarily paralyzed, unable to move or process a thought – until the spell on her was lifted, and she realised even the Buzzball could not stop the attack from hitting home. Smoke billowed into the air from Altaria’s wing, and yet it was still flapping, trying to rise higher into the sky.

“No!” roared the boy from below, pelting onto the staircase.

“Sorry!” Lisa cried, but she could not help but laugh as she said it. She glanced at the back of the enormous Buzzball and saw that it was now charred black: it seemed that it had taken the greater force of the Shock Wave.

“Deflate,” she said sharply, and it began to hiss with escaping air.

“Awwoooo!”

Lisa spun back to face Altaria: it was struggling to stay in the air now. Indeed, they had only ascended twenty feet into the air and were slowly drifting back down.

Looking down on the collection of people on the staircase, Lisa saw the teenage boy and his Tyranitar still in furious pursuit, along with several other trainers. And then, her blood running cold, she saw a collection of five people standing on the sidewalk at the very base of the staircase, their faces almost identical masks of shock.

The blonde woman at the centre of the group went deathly pale.

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Veronica’s scream reached Lisa even a hundred metres down the street. Lisa’s brain locked up: this couldn’t be … she had planned it two hours in advance …

“STOP!” Veronica roared, her voice shrill. “STOP NOW!”

Lisa heard a pokéball opening, but didn’t linger to find out what it was; gripping Altaria’s back, she whirled around to face the streetscape ahead, trying to scope out a low roof to land on and regroup.

“Dammit!”

She cursed loudly: every building was a high-rise; they were nowhere near high enough to land somewhere safe yet.

“Rise up, Altaria, come on, let’s get some height!” she encouraged, patting Altaria’s back eagerly.

Altaria flapped vigourously again, but there was a note of exhaustion to its voice. They rose a metre or two before fluttering back to the same level.

“Come on, Altaria, you can do this, we’re almost safe, come on!” Lisa egged on, as Veronica’s screams drew nearer; she could hear police sirens now in the distance.

“Awoo,” Altaria cooed sadly, flapping its burnt wing frantically, but to little use; they were descending markedly now, and had barely made it three hundred metres down the street.

“Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!” Lisa panicked, as the pavement spiralled closer.

To its credit, Altaria managed a decent crash-landing: they hit the sidewalk with a great deal of force; Lisa was only thrown off at the last minute, rolling relatively gently into an organic herb garden at the front of an apartment building.

“Awooo!”

“I know, I know, you’re hurt!” Lisa cried frantically, spitting out a mouthful of organic basil leaves. “Retrahere, Altaria!”

No sooner had Altaria’s shimmering form dematerialised into the poképort than an enormous ball of black sludge soared mere inches over Lisa’s shoulder and slammed into the front window of the apartment building, caking it in a poisonous-looking goo.

There was nothing for it. Lisa scrambled to her feet and ran for her life.

Thankfully, the sidewalk ahead was relatively clear of pedestrians: the after-work rush had long since passed. Lisa bolted her way down Madison Street East, dodging lamp posts and recycling bins, her sneakers hammering the concrete like urgent claps of thunder.

She chanced a glance over her shoulder. A hundred metres behind her was a small pack of Union agents, led by Veronica, whose face was contorted with genuine fear; she looked deranged. A Persian raced alongside her, its eyes an odd crimson colour; the other agents had a variety of Weezing, Arbok and Houndour beside them as they ran.

Lisa checked the street ahead of her in time to dodge an old man with a walking stick before she wheeled back to take another look behind her. The trainer with the Tyranitar and his friends seemed to have disappeared – perhaps the Union had taken them out?

“No!” she screamed; another Sludge attack soared toward her, courtesy of one of the Weezing; she stopped in her tracks and ducked in order to avoid it, before picking up speed again.

“Shit!” she cursed, trying to push herself harder and faster. She heard Veronica’s cackle from behind her. Even though the Sludge hadn’t struck her, it had slowed her down for a moment, and the Union agents were now in closer pursuit than ever.

“Electrify!” Lisa screamed, holding the newly-deflated Buzzball over her shoulder and firing it in the direction of the Union agents. Blue sparks crackled through the air. “Electrify! ELECTRIFY! ELECTRIFY!”

“Augh!”

“YES!”

She whirled around: she had hit one of the agents, at least, taking him out; one of the Weezing had disappeared, too.

“Flamethrower!” bellowed one of the male Union agents.

“Thunder!” screeched Veronica.

Remembering something she had read in a book once, Lisa began to vary her running pattern, cutting a zig-zag path across the sidewalk to make it more difficult for the Union to target her. She spied a major intersection ahead: a two-lane, one-way street met with Madison Street East, and the WALK light was still green. If time was on her side, maybe she could manage to leave the Union behind …

“MOVE!” Lisa yelled, almost slamming head-on into a young man in a checked shirt as he left his apartment block; she managed to zig-zag around him at the last minute.

“What the fuck!” he cried, throwing his hands up into the air.

As she turned around and cried, “Sorry!”, her eyes were scorched by the horror before them. The Flamethrower intended for her erupted from the Union’s Houndour’s mouth, enveloping the young man in a blindingly hot column of fire.

“No!” Lisa roared. She tried to turn around again, but a bolt of Thunder sliced the air behind her, missing her by scarcely a metre.

She faced the street ahead and almost threw up in panic: she had already made it onto the intersecting street – the concrete beneath her feet had become bitumen – but the traffic light had changed to a bright red DON’T WALK.

“Aaaaargh!” she screamed, as two sleek sedans roared toward her.

In sheer panic, she leapt for the opposite sidewalk.

CRACKKKKKKKK!

Miraculously, her head landed against her arms, preventing any major damage, but as she rolled, the back of her head struck something extremely solid. Silver stars exploded into existence before her eyes; the skin on her arms was burning; she tasted blood in her mouth. The pain was too much: she struggled to her knees, but it was a task to stand. The world swam before her eyes: grey concrete slabs, a frightened old lady looking on, a colourful roar of cars beside her …

“YOU WON’T ESCAPE, LISA WALTERS!”

The cry sharpened her vision. She focused her sight and saw, though the stars and the rush of vehicles, the pale, pointed face of Veronica, frantically slamming her fist into the button on the traffic light.

They knew who she was.

She clambered to her feet and took an almost drunken step forward. If she stopped, this would be the end of her valiant attempt to get the Third Key … her escape, Larry’s sacrifice … it would all be for nothing …

Vaguely aware of the old lady calling out to her, Lisa stumbled onward down Madison Street East. A row of neon signs barely twenty metres ahead caught her eye: a popular fast-food chain, a Megaplex … an Underground train station …

“Come on, come on, you can do it!” she muttered to herself, trying to move her body into something more than a slow jog. She began to hum to herself. By the time she reached the entrance to the Underground she was almost hobbling, but she continued to hum to herself, focusing on the goal, sure that if she could just catch a train – any train – she would be able to escape the Union’s grasp.

She cast a quick glance behind her – the DON’T WALK sign was still red, a seamless buzz of evening traffic keeping Veronica and the other Union agents at bay.

“Come on …” Lisa said, spurred on by the sight. She entered the arcade that led into the Underground and began the descent.

“Damn stairs!” she muttered, negotiating them as quickly as possible, her bones sparking with pain with every step.

After what seemed like an eternity, she reached the main platform, filled with people and the screeching of train brakes. She scanned the red digital readouts of the overhead schedule. There were four train lines that converged at this station. The next train was due to depart in one minute from platform two; the second would leave in two minutes from platform one. Lisa’s mind raced. There was almost no way she could make the first train in her injured state … but she could make the second, and it would probably throw the Union off course …

Hobbling more frantically than ever, she crossed the underground footbridge over the tracks and descended the steps to platform one. Reaching the train, she collapsed with exhaustion onto the floor, panting heavily as her lungs clutched at oxygen. The doors seemed to hang open forever. Lisa waited in terror for Veronica’s black boots to step through the door and announce her capture.

The train at platform two squealed and its doors hissed shut. Lisa had to know. She clambered onto her knees and peered cautiously through the glass window at the first train as it pulled away.

Her eyes prickled with relief.

Veronica strode down the length of the first train as it chugged away from the station, her expression cruel and victorious, pushing past commuters to track down Lisa. Her three agents were behind her, harassing everyone in their path.

Lisa slumped to the floor in relief, oblivious to the frightened stares of the other passengers, as the doors of her train hissed to a close and tears poured down her bloody face.

*

The electric hand dryers never seemed to work. Wiping her wet hands on her dark blue jeans, Sarah Venner returned to her desk outside Lance Hudson’s office. The view from the window was black: the sun had set hours ago, but working in Lance Hudson’s office had never been a nine to five job.

Sarah’s hands were poised over the keyboard, ready to resume the urgent email she had been composing, when she noticed that her silver mobile phone was flashing red: she had a missed call.

She flipped the cover open and bit her lip. One missed call from Larry O’Brien. One voicemail. Twenty-three seconds.

She frantically dialled the voicemail number, her mind reeling.

“You have one new voicemail,” the electronic female voice stated. “Voicemail received on Thursday the third of April at twenty hundred hours and forty-six minutes.”

There was a sharp beep. Larry’s voice reached Sarah’s ear. This time, among the gravelly, fatherly quality, there was something Sarah had never heard in his tone before: disguised fear.

“Hi sweetheart. Just … uh … thought I’d give you a quick call. Angela’s made me think about taking some time off work so … we might be able to spend some more time together. Nothing’s … uh … definite yet, and it won’t be for a few days at least, but I’ll let you know. Uh … don’t bother calling me back, I know you’re busy with study. Love you.”

Sarah closed her phone and said a word she had never said before in her life:

“Fuck.”

*

It was nine o’clock when Lisa turned the key in the door of Gavin and Dave’s apartment and gingerly stepped inside.

Gavin and Marina were huddled on the thick rug before the wooden TV set, Gavin with his phone to his ear; when they heard the door open, their faces both changed into curious expressions of mingled relief and concern.

“Oh my God, Lisa!”

“What the fuck happened!”

They were both at her side within seconds.

“Lisa, you look … are you okay?” Marina spluttered.

“I’m alive, I’m okay,” Lisa said, her voice unintentionally vague. She felt as though she could float off the ground at a moment’s notice. She wriggled out of their grasp and collapsed gratefully on the dirty, chocolate-brown rug, her bones sighing with relief and her mind whirling.

“Why didn’t you answer your mobile?” Gavin demanded, his tone almost accusatory.

Lisa reached into the pocket of her denim shorts and produced Marina’s mobile phone, brandishing it in Gavin’s direction to show the deep crack that ran through its screen.

“Sorry, Marina, but the Union broke it.”

Lisa almost heard the silence that followed.

“Leese … the Union … what?!” Gavin spluttered.

Lisa stared dazedly at the ceiling, still numb from the day’s events.

“I have a lot to tell you guys, but first up … what happened at the Sepulchre of Raikou?”

“Get her a glass of water and something to eat, Gav. I think she’s dehydrated or something.” Marina’s bushy blue hair appeared in Lisa’s line of vision; she sat down beside Lisa and took her hand comfortingly.

“You were right, Leese. About Raikou. I got the key fragment.”

Somewhere in the depths of her numbness, Lisa felt a ripple of sentiment; a distant, muffled echo of victory.

“Good stuff,” she said, slightly giddily.

“Lisa,” Marina held her face firmly, “we got back here almost half an hour ago and you weren’t here. We’ve been worried sick. Where have you been? Did the Union attack you? Are they still around?”

“They’re always around,” Lisa sighed.

Gavin’s face swam into view, a glass of water and a slice of cold pizza in his hands. Lisa downed the glass in the space of five seconds before taking the pizza and munching the corner eagerly.

“Feel better?” Gavin prodded, mirroring Marina and kneeling beside her.

“Mm,” Lisa murmured through a mouthful of pizza.

When she had finished eating, despite a wave of nausea, her head felt slightly clearer.

“Lisa, fill us in,” Marina pressed. “What happened to you?”

“I’ll give you the short version,” said Lisa slowly, “because I seriously feel like I’m about to throw up or fall asleep or something. That okay, Marina?”

“Okay,” Marina said gently, her alarmed face betraying her cool voice. She rubbed Lisa’s arm comfortingly. “Go on.”

“Well, I found the locations of all the keys,” Lisa said, getting onto her back once more and fixing her gaze on the ceiling. “My grandfather’s diary – I found it in the Sepulchre of Suicune – he’d hunted it all down, he’d written it, he knew everything except the Fifth Key and the Seventh Key, he doesn’t know where they are, but he found the rest, and the Third Key was in the library so I went to get it, but the Union – Gavin, you remember Veronica? She got to it too, so I had no choice, so I had to like, I just destroyed Antono – Antononno - Antoknossos’ Celebi basically, you know what I mean, and got the key, then Veronica and them chased me with pokémon, and me and Altaria crashed, of course, but then I ran and I crossed the road in time but I hit my head and I think I broke my nose. That’s when your phone died. But then I got on the train and it took me on the circle route for a few hours and then I got lost and then I found my way back here to you guys. So yeah, I got the Third Key.”

She reached into her pocket and withdrew the thin glass key, pressing it into Marina’s hand.

“Lisa … wow … this is incredible …” Marina breathed.

“You’re welcome,” said Lisa, giggling slightly as she said it.

Gavin, however, was not quite so congratulatory.

“Lisa, how sure are you that you weren’t followed?”

Lisa felt a spark of indignation within her; she sat up carefully, Marina hauling some of her weight.

“Gavin, I just got the goddamn Third Key. A ‘thank you’ would be nice you know!”

“Thanks, Leese,” he said pacifyingly, clearly in no mood to squabble. “I know you’ve been through a lot and you’re clearly overtired, but I need to know, did you see anyone following you?”

“Well, I didn’t see anyone, Gav, no.”

“But you didn’t take any precautions?”

“Well, I got on a different train to them, they never saw me.”

Gavin audibly tapped one of his canine teeth against his bottom teeth.

“I guess it’s possible that you lost them,” he said. “But just in case …”

He finished his sentence, but Lisa didn’t hear the words over the five heavy thuds that sounded from the front door.

There was a moment of dead silence within the apartment. Lisa, Gavin and Marina’s terrified eyes all locked in a triangle of panic.

“Could it be Mel?” Marina breathed to Gavin.

“Don’t think so, and I won’t chance it,” Gavin whispered. “Get yours and Lisa’s packs, hurry!”

“It never ends,” Lisa said blankly, her mind numb. She gave a kind of half-scoff to herself. “Peace. There’s no such thing.”

BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck,” Gavin panicked. “Leese, wait here, I’ll get my pack, I’ll be two seconds –”

“No, don’t leave me!” Lisa hissed. She lurched to her feet, every muscle aching, as Gavin darted into his bedroom. For a moment, she stood in the lounge room alone, waiting for the door to cave in, and then Marina raced out from Dave’s room, her rucksack slung over her back and Lisa’s in her hands. Her Guardian Butterfree hovered alertly over her shoulder.

“Here we go,” she said in a high-pitched whisper, securing Lisa’s pack onto her back. “I’ve got the Third Key, don’t worry …”

Ice cracked in Lisa’s veins suddenly.

“The fragment,” she gaped. “Did you get my key fragment?”

Marina’s hazel eyes widened.

“I thought it was with you …”

Gavin came pelting out of his room.

“Guys, I can pop the window frame on my bedroom window, come on!”

Before Lisa and Marina could even turn to face him, the front door exploded in a billow of dust and debris. Lisa and Marina ducked; splinters and shards of wood whizzed past their faces as five black-clothed figures stormed the room, led by Veronica.

She stood in the doorway, her platinum-blonde hair sleeked back into a ponytail, her dark eyes alive with triumph as she levelled her Stunner at Lisa.

“I’m not going to immobilise you this time, sweetie,” said Veronica, casting a poisonous smile at Lisa as she pulled the trigger.

“This one’s set to torture.”