Off the Tracks

Loop de Loop took his job of protecting the Digital Age very seriously.

After Digital warned them about Team Cyber, Kyrie agreed that they shouldn't leave the cabin. Ever since, Loop de Loop spent his every waking moment parked just inside the door, his mane puffed up, the fire in his belly smoldering in preparation for a blaze. Team Cyber might come at any moment, he thought to himself. He had to be ready for them.

Kyrie came back home with the groceries. Loop de Loop lit their sock on fire.

"Loop!" they shrieked. "What are you doing?! Ow!"

Loop yelped in alarm and ran in circles. By the time he calmed down enough to realize, oh yeah, he should do something, Kyrie had managed to put out the fire.

"Loop," they said sternly, "I know you're worried about Digital, but you need to be more careful. This is the third time, and you know what they say about three strikes!"

Loop lowered his head. Kyrie's voice softened. "I know it's scary," they said, "but we're all gonna work together to keep Digital safe."

They gently fluffed the tuft of fur on his head. Loop de Loop nuzzled their hand.

"Why don't you spend time with the others?" Kyrie said. "You've been on edge all day, you should relax."

Loop nodded and trotted to the back room.

With all the eevees Kyrie kept catching, their cabin felt more and more cramped as time went on. Most everyone spent their day outside, but Loop spotted the Digital Age sitting on the bedside table with Aether on the bed itself. Loop jumped up. The bed creaked under his weight.

"Careful, Loop!" Aether said playfully. "You're not as small as us un-evolved eevees anymore!"

Loop swiped at Aether's ears. The purple eevee didn't even move, just twitched his ears away.

"Hello," Digital said. "I heard Kyrie shouting."

"He lit them on fire again," said Aether.

"I thought so."

Loop de Loop huffed and turned his head away. Digital tilted their head. "Did I upset you?" they asked. "I'm sorry."

"Eh," Aether said. "He just got enough of it from Kyrie, you know?"

Loop nodded. He walked over to Digital, causing the bed to creak again, and rubbed against him. The Digital Age, being above average size for an eevee, and also made of metal, could handle Loop's new weight. They nuzzled him back, the movement awkward, but Loop didn't mind.

"Y'know," said Aether, "I bet we could protect Digital on an outdoors excursion."

Digital pulled away from Loop to stare at Aether, their ears perked. "Are you certain?"

"Yeah! Me and Loop, I mean. We'll need Kyrie's permission, obviously, but one of us is evolved, and I'm like, almost there. I think my evolution ceremony is supposed to be the one after next."

Loop growled, but his heart wasn't in it. Digital usually showed so little emotion, but what they felt now was obvious: perked ears, their lights bright, their whole body leaning forward to jump down from the table. How long had they been cooped up in the cabin?

"Aw," said Aether. "I know you know it, Loop. We won't go far, but it'll be good to go outside."

"I will ask Kyrie," said Digital.

They spread their wings and jumped up, flying to the kitchen. Loop de Loop shook his head and followed, with Aether close behind.

They entered the kitchen just in time to hear Kyrie's reaction: "You want to do what?"

"I want to go outside," Digital said. "Loop de Loop and Aether will protect me."

Aether shouldered his way in front of Loop de Loop and barked in agreement. Kyrie frowned.

"I don't know," they said. "We don't know much about Team Cyber, but they're still out there, right? We have to be careful."

"We are being careful!" Aether said, though Kyrie couldn't understand him. "Digital has bodyguards!"

The Digital Age translated Aether's words, and added, "We won't go far. I will be careful."

Loop de Loop whined and headbutted Kyrie's leg. They looked down at him with a smile.

"You have been cooped up in here for a while," they said. "Alright, just… stay near the cabin, okay? Don't go off into the woods."

"We won't," Digital said.

"I know, buddy." Kyrie pat their head. "You already know Loop's worried, but I'm worried, too. Stay safe, alright?"

"We will." Digital looked in his direction. "Loop de Loop will protect me."

Loop puffed up his chest with pride.

---

True to their word, the Digital Age didn't go far. They flew to a rock in a patch of sunlight and lay down on it, while Loop de Loop and Aether stood guard on either side. Digital soon started overheating, and they quickly went to the cabin's shadow to lie down in a cool patch of dirt.

"Is that okay?" Aether asked. "What if, uh, your vents or joints get clogged?"

"I have a self-cleaning routine programmed into me," Digital said. "I run it to clean the vents. My joints are waterproof, and can be cleaned with a damp cloth."

Aether tilted his head. "You have a program to clean the vents? Aren't programs just… I dunno, numbers and stuff?"

"It is more like a routine." The Digital Age's ears twitched. "The program instructs me to perform a series of actions that results in clean vents. I do not know how to explain it further."

"That's okay," Aether said. "I'm bad at explaining things, too. I get distracted really easily. But, it also makes me a really good bodyguard, 'cause I notice everything!"

Loop stood up and paced back and forth in front of the cabin, lashing his tail. He noticed everything, too–at least, it felt like he was. Every strange flash of light, every sound, even every smell put him on edge, and he almost wanted Digital and Aether to end their conversation because them talking made it that much harder to make out the noises around them.

He did, however, hear the footsteps.

Loop de Loop growled. Aether snapped his head around to look in the same direction. "Loop, stay here," he said. "Digital, don't say anything. I'll do some reconnaissance."

He darted out from behind the cabin. The other eevees had heard the footsteps, too, and from his position, Loop could see many pairs of ears perked and pointed down the path. The clearing went silent.

A woman stepped out from behind a tree.

She had long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, and she wore a thick black coat with pink trim. Her hands and feet had matching gloves and boots, respectively, and a pair of sunglasses obscured her eyes. Loop glanced back at Digital, who had pressed themself against the side of the cabin, trying to make themself as small as possible.

"That's her, they whispered.

Loop pressed a paw over their mouth speaker.

The woman didn't notice them. She strolled down the path, ignoring Aether at her feet and the other eevees around her, and knocked hard on the cabin door. Digital backed up further. Loop de Loop made himself as large and intimidating as possible, a growl slipping from his throat.

The door opened. "Oh," Kyrie said. "Can I help you?"

"You can," the woman said. "Are you Averill?"

Kyrie frowned. "That's my name, yeah. Kyrie Averill. Do you need something?"

"Have you seen an android eevee?"

Loop de Loop forced himself not to look back at the Digital Age. He glared up at the woman, his mane puffed out as much as he could make it. Aether went to his side and sat next to him. "Relax," he whispered. "You'll be suspicious otherwise."

"I've seen a lot of android eevees," Kyrie said. "They're uncommon, but there's some in the city. You're gonna have to be more specific."

The woman exhaled hard through her nose. "Did you find an android eevee?"

"No."

Loop allowed his fur to flatten, just a little.

"I'm going to be straight," said the woman. "I don't believe you. We found a ribbon with your surname on it where our android eevee was stolen, and we have reason to believe your pokémon have been deliberately interfering with our investigation. Where is it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kyrie said sharply. "If you're going to hurl baseless accusations at me, I have to ask you to leave."

"They are not baseless, and I'm certain you know that."

"Then by all means," they said, "go to the police, or whatever authorities you want. You're not finding anything here."

The woman smirks. "Lucky for me, we at Team Cyber are the authorities."

She snapped her fingers.

Loop de Loop's nose twitched. Something was coming down the path, he realized; he could hear it rumbling, but there was no scent he could track. The other eevees in the clearing were jumping from their spots and rushing back to the cabin, their ears flat against their heads.

"Uh-oh," said Aether.

The first eevee rounded the corner, made of metal with a frown molded on its face. Another robot eevee followed. And then another. And then another.

When there was a dozen eevees, Loop de Loop snapped out of it and charged at them.

Aether and Kyrie cried out in their respective languages: "Loop!"

Loop inhaled and blew a stream of fire at the enemy eevees. They scattered, avoiding the majority of the attack, and regrouped to run at him as a whole. Loop took a moment to consider whether he could fight an entire horde of metal eevees on his own.

Luckily, he didn't have to come to a conclusion. Kyrie's eevees streamed out from the cabin and met the opposing force head-on. At this point, Kyrie had so many eevees that Loop didn't recognize them all, but he still knew some of them. There was Green Ninja, headbutting her closest opponent and immediately moving onto the next as if she hadn't rammed her head into a hard metal surface, and there was Sweet Potato, riding in on a wave of water that their vaporeon evolution gave them the ability to control.

"Loop!" Prez barked. "We can handle this! Check on Aether!"

Loop de Loop nodded firmly and ran back to the side of the cabin.

Aether and the Digital Age weren't where he left them, but Loop could still smell them. The others were keeping the robot eevees away, so he put his nose to the ground and followed the scent, leaving the battle behind.

---

He didn't catch up to Aether and Digital for a while, and it took longer to actually find them. Loop de Loop stood up on his hind legs against a tree and barked.

"That's Loop," said Digital. Loop sighed in relief at their familiar human language.

Aether stuck his head down from the branches. "So it is," he said. "We're up here! Can you climb?"

Loop huffed, offended that Aether would doubt his abilities. He spent the next ten minutes trying and failing to haul his body up the tree.

When he finally succeeded, Aether and Digital came down to the branch he crouched on, their eyes fixed on the ground. "Did anyone follow you?" Aether asked.

Loop shook his head, but the question gave him a prickle of anxiety. He scanned the forest below them and saw no one, eevee or otherwise.

After a long silence, the Digital Age spoke. "I think we're safe," they said.

"Are you sure?" Aether said. "What about the others?"

Loop de Loop looked back in the direction of the cabin. Kyrie's eevees outnumbered the Team Cyber eevees, right?

"I don't know," Digital said. "I worry."

Aether gently bumped his head into Digital's. "I know, buddy."

Loop pressed against their other side, rubbing their cheek with his own. Nothing to do but wait until it was safe to go back.

Eventually, they heard Kyrie's voice. "Loop? Loop de Loop? Are you with the others?"

Loop lifted his head up and barked, his tail wagging.

Kyrie emerged from the bushes and squinted up at them. "That Team Cyber woman's gone," they said. "She took her eevees with her. Are you alright?"

Digital hopped down into Kyrie's arms, spreading their wings to lessen the impact. "Are you alright?" they said back to them.

"Yeah, I'm alright." Kyrie rubbed the top of Digital's head. "No one was hurt, and she gave up when she couldn't find you. I'm pretty sure she knows you're here, but she can't do anything about it right now."

Digital put their ears back. "If she comes back…"

"I'm not letting her take you." Kyrie smiled. "You want to stay here, right?"

"Yes."

"Then you're gonna stay with me. C'mon, let's go home."

Loop hopped down from the tree with all the grace of a boulder tumbling down a mountain. Aether joined him, leaving less of an impact crater. Kyrie scratched behind Loop's ears. "Thanks, you two, for keeping them safe," they said. "Aether, you should probably get your evolution planned soon. You wanted to evolve with Prez and Snow Queen, right?"

"Prez has first dibs," Aether said. Digital translated for him.

Kyrie laughed. "We'll make it work. Let's go."

Hidden in the bushes, an android eevee watched them leave, a red recording light blinking beside their eyes.