Heart of Shadows
"Ryuujin, I did something terrible." I said to my older twin brother Ryuujin.
"What is it? It can't be that bad Ryo!" He stated.
"I almost destroyed a town. I hurt a lot of people." I replied with sadness to my voice which, he picked up right away.
"Well what do you want to do? Anything you want to do and I'll help you out." Ryuujin responded.
"I don't want to hurt anyone else. I need you to seal me before I do something more serious than this." I answered.
Sadness had found a way to his face. At first it didn't seem like he would do the task I had just asked him, but he let out a sigh and agreed to it. So with that I transformed into my Pokémon form and went into the pool beside me. Ryuujin then encased the pool in ice. How did this get so bad? What exactly did I do? Well it all started a year before this on a hot summer day in the Orre Region...
This is the type of day where you'd think everything would go right for a guardian of the sea. All of the sea's Pokémon were playing as I kept a close eye on their safety. However, on this day a weird fishing boat came out of nowhere. The first thing on the boat I saw was a red "R" on the side of the fishing boat. I thought nothing of it though. Then it started grabbing up the sea Pokémon. 'That's a little strange,' I thought to myself. The boat started floating away.
'This type of behavior, I haven't seen it before. Usually fishing boats take a few Pokémon. Not this many. I'm curious to see where this boat is going.' I thought as I started following that weird boat. Little did I know this was a big mistake. The boat led me all the way to the Johto region where my older twin brother Ryuujin made his home. This is also where we had our first home, Whirl Islands.
I had followed the boat for a few hours getting tired as the current and time went by. Eventually we had gotten to an even weirder place. It was huge and looked pitch black in color. 'Well that's a little weird. I've never saw a building like this before. I have a bad feeling about this.' I thought as I entered the building. I should have just turned around and went back home, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to just leave the sea Pokémon here.
Entering the building was a bad idea. I got ambushed as soon as I let my guard down. Pokémon attacks came from every which way. I didn't have any time to react or counter attack. I didn't even have enough to use protect. And in a flash they caught me before I knew what had happened to me. From the mirage of attacks I was forced into my human form.
A few seconds later I was strapped to a table in a place that looked like a lab. 'Oh God. What are they going to do to me in here?' I asked to myself trying to get loose, but it wasn't working too well. "So is this the subject?" An old guy with a lab coat asked. A guy around 40 years of age or so with a Persian by his side answered, "Yes! Now make it a tool for our plans! I'll be in my office! You better not fail me like the scientist working on the Mewtwo Project!" With that they guy left and the scientist let out a sigh of relief. He then proceeded to pull out a piece of metal that read, 'XD-001.'
'What in the world is that for?' I asked myself. The scientist put it around my neck and sent out fire Pokémon to seal it closed. A sharp pain surrounded my neck. The feeling of third degree burn mixed with 100 Beedrills stinging. What this metal thing became my new name for my stay in this awful place.
The next year was the worst ever. Every day I was injected with this weird liquid, I was used as target practiced for these strange Pokémon that had somehow become different, and at the end of the day I was chained into a cold, small, metal box that only had one small window that only showed the other Pokémon getting tortured. Also Team Rocket had moved their base to Kanto. With everything that was going on my heart was filling with shadows. My rage started building and building as each day past. A few months later I had completely changed. I knew nothing but destruction and pain. They had molded me into their own tool. I had become a shadow Pokémon.
Shadow Pokémon: A tool for mass destruction. The most powerful type of Pokémon created by humans. Shadow Pokémon first appeared 100 years ago and were thought to no longer exist. Most of the Shadow Pokémon research was destroyed.
A year had passed since they created what I am now. I was filled with darkness and bitterness towards all humans because this was the first time I interacted (well the little interaction) with humans I had. The day came where I could make my escape. For once since I was caught by team rocket a person who looked different from the rest came into the room I was being held. He wore a red and white shirt with a hat that matched and blue pants to finish his outfit off. This person looked no older than 10 years old. He had a girl with him wearing a white and pink hat with a light blue shirt and a pink skirt. She looked the same age as the guy.
"Don't worry Lugia. Red and I will free you from this horrible place." The girl said.
"Yeah! Just hold on for a few more seconds! Did you get the key Green?" The boy named Red asked.
"Yeah. I have it right here." Green said taking the key out of her bag and handing it to Red. So Red took the key and unlocked the door to the metal box that I was confined to. As soon as that door was opened I flew out of there.
"It looks like Lugia isn't too injured." Green stated as I flew around with my new found freedom.
"Well now that I'm out I know exactly what I'm going to do." I said with all of my rage made me start destroying all of the machines.
"You have to get away Lugia! You can't stay here or Team Rocket will catch you again!" Red told me.
'That's right. Why should I stay here when all humans should get this as well?' I thought not knowing what I was actually thinking. I created a hole in the wall for means of escape. Team Rocket members came in to see what all the commotion was about.
"Seems like they found us out." Green stated
"What are you two doing!? XD-001 is Team Rocket's property!" The Rocket grunt asked.
"Pokémon aren't anyone's property! They're our friends!" Red defended.
"We'll keep this grunt busy. Make your escape Lugia." Green whispered to me.
"You don't have to ask me twice. I'm out of here." I responded as I left through the hole I made earlier. Thinking back now I should have stayed and helped them. I was just so clouded with the shadows they pumped into my heart. As I flew around on the outside for the first time in a year I started destroying everything in sight. People and the Pokémon tried to get away from this mass destruction. Thankfully I didn't hurt anyone. While on my rampage I finally snapped out of what is called shadow mode. I soon realized what I had just done.
Shadow Mode- A state of mind and being of a Shadow Pokémon. In this mode they feel no pain and only think of destruction. Most of a shadow's Pokémon memory of what they did in shadow mode is gone when they turn back to normal.
I was unable to tell when I was going to snap again, or even if I would snap again. I thought to myself, 'I'm a danger to myself and everyone else. There is only one thing to do. I have to seal myself off from the rest of the world.' That's when I flew to my twin brother, who I thought would be at our childhood home.
That is where I was sealed away in a pool covered by ice for seven years. It was just like sleeping for a night though it felt like it would never end. Well at least I can't feel the coldness of the ice. Being sealed just made my rage grow more and more out of control. Well at least I couldn't hurt anyone in this state. So I thought.
7 years passed since I was sealed from the rest of the world. I thought this is how I was going to spend my life. All time was lost to me. And I was hearing random voices when I started waking up from the state. I thought I was going completely nuts. But the voices belonged to my older twin brother , Ryuujin, my niece , Natsu, my nephew , Rai, and the girl I was going to spend my life with, Mai.
For some reason they were able to get me to wake up. I still don't know how they were able to. But my first impression to them was going to be the worst possible way ever. When I woke up I had caused a huge tidal wave soaking Rai and Natsu. I guess someone could call that a flashy entrance.
The first words out of my mouth to them were talking to Rai. "Do you ever shut up?" Is what I said as I got out of the water.
"Oh...and he's rude too" I heard the girl sigh.
I turned my attention to the girl, "Why in the world did you bring an outsider here, let alone a human?! Pathetic." I spat not realizing I was now in shadow mode.
"Humans pathetic? How on earth are humans pathetic? Humans made you who you are." The girl answered with anger setting in on her voice.
"Humans did this out of greed and a thirst for power. They're weak pathetic creatures." I retorted.
"We just came here to see if we could help...we need you Ryo." I could see that the girl fought fear to get those words out.
"Why would you need me? I can take team rocket on by myself. I don't need help! Now get out of here or I won't go easy on you all." I stated, with rage building up inside of me.
"No I won't leave! At least not until you hear me out!" The girl yelled at me.
I don't know what happened to make me do what I did next. I guess it was all of the rage that had been building up inside me over the past couple of minutes. I turned to the girl and launched one of my attacks straight for her. It would have hit her too…that is if my nephew didn't jump in the way of the attack.
"Rai! Are you okay?" The girl yelled running over to check if my nephew was okay.
"Yeah Mai I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Rai stated to her.
"I warned you to leave. That was a warning shot. Now leave or I'll fire for real." I stated.
"Warning shot?! That was a dirty trick!" Rai stated getting up.
"You can't do that" Natsu stated.
"Watch me." I retorted.
"You know what? I was wrong. You're pitiful! To think you used to be a Lugia! Just because a few humans turned you into...you know what you're a waste of time!" Mai yelled at me.
"You have just proved my point. No real Pokémon trainer would call any Pokémon a waste of time no matter the circumstances." I retorted. I then proceed to attack again. "I won't let you hurt my friends!" Natsu warned making my attack come short by letting out an attack of her own. I dodged it easily and attacked her back. She tried to dodge, but was too slow. My attack hit her causing her to get knocked out. "You are all pathetic. I'm not going to waste any more time on you guys." I stated letting out an attack out on the roof of the cave causing a hole to form.
This was my escape route from Whirl Islands. It seems like I have been running away from my problems for a while, but this time I wasn't running away at all. Team Rocket was going to go down or they were going to take me out. I was not leaving those Pokémon in Team Rocket's possession for any longer. I also had a personal score to settle with them. As I flew around this time I didn't destroy anything. I was just dead set on using all of my power and energy to get rid of Team Rocket. Even if that meant killing myself to do it.
As soon as I got to their base in Johto I let out my strongest attacks. "This is what you created. Do you think you can handle your most powerful weapon turning against you?" I questioned. They responded by sending helicopters on me to destroy me. If they couldn't use me no one could. The helicopters let out blast after blast. They wouldn't give me a chance to do any damage. Each blast just felt like a breeze. I couldn't tell the toll it was taking on my body since I was in shadow mode.
As I started to snap out of shadow mode all of the pain rushed to me at once. It felt like a train had hit me and backed up to see if it just ran something over. This pain made me fall to the ground. That's when Mai, Natsu, Rai, and Ryuujin showed up with Kazan following close behind.
'Thank goodness they are alright.' I thought to myself when I saw them coming to my aid. I stood back up, but my legs were shaking with how much pain I was in.
"He's going to fall again! He's in no shape for this!" Mai said in a concerned tone.
'This girl Mai, seems to be different from the other humans I have met over the years. But what is this feeling I have thinking about her?' I thought to myself.
Natsu snapped me out of my thoughts by adding, "And if this continues he could be destroyed."
"You need to stop this now Ryo!" Rai demanded.
"We can help you stop Team Rocket later, but you are injured now! You should come with us!" Mai commented.
"I really don't have a choice in this matter." I responded. And then I blacked out.
*End of Part One*
