Chapter One: Cade and Jackie
There was a faint echo that permeated through the dimly lit hall. Jackie only had a few more steps until she reached the flight of stairs leading outside towards the dry, flaky desert sands of Orre.
She knew, deep down, that trying to confront the criminal syndicate that's been a parasite to the general well-being of the Pokemon world would be asking for deep trouble, but she didn't let this faze her.
Jackie continued to sneak past the doors of the hotel rooms that previously held guests. She passed the last set of doors at the end of the corridor and grasped the handle of the door. She pulled it towards her with an extreme sense of careful precision to limit noise as much as possible.
As she crept through the small opening that she made for herself in the doorway, she crouched behind the railing and tip-toed down the flight of stairs to the landing. She peered out from over the rusted metal and saw a small group of liberated hotel guests surrounded by two Cipher peons.
One peon opened up a suitcase that he had been holding and revealed individual cases with complex locks that were each Pokeball sized. Another peon, this one a shorter woman, walked face-to-face to the group of guests and spoke to them as a whole.
"Now, I assume you all want nothing to do with us. Well, that's just too bad. Please, to avoid us both any more hassle, place your Pokeballs into my comrade's lovely suitcase," she said in a commanding voice.
The male peon walked closer to a man in the front of the group and held the case right in front of his waist. He tapped the side of the case in agitation as the man refused to give him his Pokemon
"Mister, I don't intend to purposefully cause any more inconveniences, but if you fail to comply with Cipher's demands, force will be used. I'm quite positive that you do not want that, correct?" the peon said with a slight tone of irritation and sarcasm.
"Yeah, is that right?" the hotel guest retorted. "Well I don't intend to give you any of my Pokemon that I've trained for years of my life."
The peon frowned and looked virulently at the man. "Now, I assume you've been taught well. And, if I assume correctly, you should know that when rules are strictly enforced, obedience is necessary. So, I'll restate myself as clearly as I possibly can: give us your Pokemon or face severe opposition."
The guest man looked furious and disgruntled. "Yeah, didn't anyone ever tell you the difference between right and wrong?" The man clenched his fist and struck the peon in the side of the helmet, denting the metal casing.
Several of the other shrieked and winced and feared what would happen next. Jackie, still overlooked the ordeal, gaped at the situation.
"This guy is done," she thought to herself. "Wait, I should be helping them," she realized to herself as she weighed the risks of involving herself in the situation.
The peon shook off the pain from the blow and glared back at the man who now looked fearful and attempted to move backwards, only to be halted by the female peon. "I gave you a chance for a peaceful resolution and you foolishly declined. At least you made this adventure a bit more interesting for me," the peon said as he brandished a stun gun and aimed at the man. A moment later, a full-force blast that could rival a Manectric or a Raichu struck the man.
The man's body convulsed as the electric shock was delivered to his upper body. He collapsed to the ground and became unconscious. The female peon reprimanded his Pokeballs and put them in the slots in the case.
"I assume that you all see no need to resist us, after seeing what will happen," the female peon said smugly. "Now, please hand over your Pokemon." The hotel guests all reluctantly handed over their Pokemon with depressed and fearful looks on their faces.
"Okay, this cannot happen," Jackie thought to herself as she grabbed a Pokeball from her pocket and released a Delcatty.
"Delcatty, I need you to use Ice Beam on those people down there, okay?" Jackie whispered to her Delcatty, which nodded in response. It got a better look of the crowd below and opened its mouth, firing a thin beam of ice at the male peon's feet, partially trapping him.
"What the fuck is this?" the peon groaned is frustration as he saw Jackie and her Delcatty descend from the rusty flight of steps.
"I'm not about to just let some goons take innocent people's Pokemon away from them without a fight," Jackie said bluntly. "Another Ice Beam, Delcatty."
Delcatty began to open her mouth again, but she was suddenly struck in the side by the fist of a Breloom. Delcatty was thrown through the air and landed on the ground, unable to battle.
"What was that?" Jackie exclaimed in pure shock as she saw her beloved Pokemon take an immeasurable amount of damage right in front of her eyes.
"Look, lady," the male peon said as the Breloom knocked the ice away from his feet, "your fight is futile at this point. If you don't want any more harm to your or your Pokemon, then let us take them now."
Jackie's heartbeat began to race as she weighed her options in her head. She could risk her safety or her Pokémon's, and neither were appealing options. A moment later, she knew what she had to do.
She eyed the male peon who still had somewhat of a smug grin and returned Delcatty to its Pokeball. She handed it and her other Pokeball to the peon and he nodded in response. As he turned away to put the balls in the case, Jackie kicked him in the back as hard as she could, causing him to lose grip on the balls. The Pokeballs rolled away and a woman made an effort to pick them up to return to Jackie, but the female peon stepped on her hand. She pulled out her stun gun and shocked Jackie, causing her to also collapse.
"You'd think they'd learn," the female peon said as she retrieved the Pokeballs and put the iin the case and locked it. She turned to the rest of the group and glared at them. "Leave this area immediately and tell no one about this."
The bystanders all fled the scene rapidly, leaving the peons with two unconscious bodies on the desert sand. A large, midnight black SUV came into view and halted as it approached the peons.
The male peon opened the trunk and put the case inside. He turned to the female directly after.
"Do we keep these two or just leave 'em here?" he asked.
"Boss has been wanting to try the brainwashing device from R&D. We can maybe use these two as guinea pigs," the female said.
The peons picked up Jackie and the man and strapped them down in the trunk and got in the back seat. The SUV began to speed off.
"I take it that tonight was relatively successful," said another peon who was at the wheel.
"There were some minor inconveniences, but it worked out all right," said the female. "Let's hope that the facility can put these two to work.
A significant amount of time had passed before Cade woke up in a dump of a room the smelled of mold. The cement floor was cracked and the walls were marked and had indentations. A sole fluorescent yellow light flickered in the ceiling. Cade rubbed his eyes and stretched before he noticed a woman lying on a bench suspended from the ceiling to his right.
"Wait, where the fuck am I?" cade thought to himself in disarray. He felt the baggy pockets of his cargo pants, only to find nothing but lint. "Great, so my Pokemon, phone, and wallet are all missing. Fantastic."
There were footsteps outside the cell-like room that were coming and going from all different directions. Cade heard faint voices, which indicated that there were others in this facility.
Cade lied back down on the bench seat the he woke up from and attempted to fall back asleep, but he couldn't. He sat motionless for a while until he was disturbed by a sound from inside the room. He looked up and saw the woman stretch out and get up from the bench. She look at Cade in the eyes and the both sat in confusion.
"What is going here?" the woman said in a demanding tone.
"I couldn't tell you, honestly," Cade said bluntly. "All I remember was staying at a sketchy hotel in Phenac City and I find myself here."
"Hotel… Phenac City? Wait, that all sounds familiar," the woman said, taking another look at Cade. "I remember you now. You got shocked because of… something. I don't remember much else except for I was there too."
"Well, I'm Cade," he introduced. "If what you're saying is true, then it's most likely Cipher that got us."
"This isn't something that I would've liked to happen," Jackie said nervously. "I'm Jackie, by the way. How long have you been awake?"
"Not too long," Cade said. "I woke up and heard footsteps outside the door, but no one has come into this room to my knowledge."
"That just makes things even more stressful because my Pokemon and belongings aren't on me and I'm worried if Cipher has them," Jackie said stressing out.
"They have mine, too, but I can only hope that everything is still in this building," Cade said.
Jackie and Cade sat down on the benches and looked forlorn, thinking about what could become of them and their Pokemon. A dead silence hung in the room. Minutes passed felt like hours before a knock was heard on the door. Cade and Jackie immediately turned their heads to the door.
A key turned in the keyhole and the large metal door that was bolted and locked shut opened, causing a gush of air-conditioned air to permeate the cell. A tall woman and two large male bodyguards stood at the entryway and called Cade and Jackie over.
"Come with me, you two," the woman said sternly as she guided Cade and Jackie out of the cell and down a hallway. The two large bodyguards stood to the side to ensure that Jackie and Cade wouldn't be able to get away.
The group turned a corner into an adjacent hallway and followed a few other similarly sized groups of Cipher members and "prisoners" down a narrow hallway that seemed to lead toward a large room.
Cade and Jackie turned to each other and looked fearful at what lied in the unknown ahead.
A/N: Well, I've been wanting to write this story for a very long time and I'm finally getting around to that now. After playing Pokemon Colosseum and XD numerous times, I realized how much potential that Orre region has. This story is based on the in-game layout of Orre but with a lot more substance and new characters added. That being said, if you enjoyed this chapter and would like to see more, feedback is very much appreciated!