Chronicles Of A Boy Witch [Book 1: Andrew's Journey]

Chapter 11: Adventures in Enos II

The next day they took the Square Rail to the Western part of the headquarters.

"I wish I had a cool name like Tiger!" Andrew said. "Also, I wish I knew how to hack communication lines! I bet Tiger's a really cool guy!"

"Does he know? About Oz, I mean," Scarlet looked at Esther. "Can he be trusted?"

"Silver didn't really share all the details with Tiger. He just assigned it as a task for the security team. Well, I say 'team' but Tiger's the only one in it."

"A one man army, huh? I'd expect nothing less of Tiger. I bet he's jacked with guns of steel." Andrew nodded in satisfaction and Esther seemed like she was about to say something but dropped it.

The SilverStar laboratory grounds were a short walk away from the rail station. The area was covered by a long brick wall and it wasn't as busy as any other place in SilverStar.

The security lab was in a corner room with glass walls and several empty desks. When they entered, there was already a person in the room. A short curly-haired boy with dark circles under his eyes. He wore a sky blue plaid shirt over a T-shirt with a cute cartoon Tiger that looked like a tiny cat. It was angry and it was saying "roar!". He had spectacles but wore them on his head.

"You're finally here," he yawned and waved. "Hi,"

"He's Tiger?!" Andrew couldn't hold back his disappointment over the clash of his self-made expectations with reality. For some reason he had expected a tall muscular jock with brains of steel. This guy was all bones and he looked like he would pass out at any moment!

"She is the one I've been telling you about." Esther corrected. "Tigerlily Evans or 'Tiger',"

Tiger, deadpan, held up a peace sign.

"Wait, what? You're a girl?" Andrew was again surprised. "Oh, um, sorry," he said, realizing that might have been insensitive.

"It's alright," Tiger said with a yawn. "Happens more than you'd think. I don't mind, I rather like it."

"Like what?" asked Scarlet.

"Confusing people." Tiger smiled coolly. Her spectacles plopped down from the top of her head to the bridge of her nose. "So, what exactly can I help with?"

"Silver said to show them the communication lines thingy," Esther said.

"Oh that," Tiger pinched the bridge of her nose. "That was so dull. Not remotely as interesting as the boss said it might be."

She pressed some buttons on a monitor and it beeped into life. Then she began tapping the surface several times. Andrew watched from behind her and tried to understand what she was doing. Scarlet and Esther lost patience with it and began to play something that looked suspiciously similar to rock-paper-scissors. At length, voices floated out of a speaker box beside the monitor.

"This is from their base just outside Greenwood Forest, if I'm not mistaken." Tiger said. "There are about 6 small bases we identified in the Florian Region itself."

Scarlet broke into a cold sweat. "6 just in the Florian district?"

"Yeah, there are more in other regions." Tiger said, her voice lacking emotion or understanding of the severity of the situation. "What surprises me is that they don't have a lot of 'large' bases or headquarters. It's mostly just small stations here and there. It might have been more of a challenge if they had a few bigger places and newer ships."

"No, they used to have a very large base." Scarlet said in a low voice. "That was the one brutally destroyed by the evil witches in that Estonville incident years ago."