Absol woke in a flash. She could hear intruders.
Henry was fast asleep, but his face showed that it was anything but peaceful. Absol tried to shake him awake. It was no good. He just twitched in his sleep, his face twisting in whatever dreams were gripping his mind.
She got out of bed, hauling on a fluffy, navy-blue dressing gown. It was one o' clock in the morning. She knuckled the sleep from her eyes, and searched for Henry's belt in the darkness.
She found it eventually, and tugged a few Pokéballs from the holders. She popped them open as quietly as possible. Out burst Cradily, Sceptile and another Pokémon. It looked like a slim, short woman in a green blouse and white skirt, with a short red horn sprouting from the centre of its chest and back. It had violet eyes, and a neat mop of grass-green hair framing its pale face.
"OK, listen up," she said, in Absol-tongue. This was irrelevant, however; most Pokémon can naturally understand each other. "We've got intruders. We need to stop them before they make off with anything important. Gardevoir, Sceptile; you go outside and stop them getting a way of leaving. They may be using a getaway car."
Sceptile nodded and placed its hand on Gardevoir's shoulder, before they winked out of existence. Absol turned to Cradily.
"Keep it quiet," she whispered, and inched down the corridor. Cradily shuffled its slow way from the room, dragging its heavy body over the shag carpet with its stubby little legs.
The intruders were picking the lock on the fire escape. They were dressed in white jumpsuits, grey trousers and white boots. With a reassuring click, the lock opened and the door swung open slowly.
"Come on," grumbled one of the intruders. "Let's see what we can snag before the kid wakes up."
They had barely gone four paces before they sensed something was wrong. It started with the door snapping shut behind them as soon as they were in, clicking as the lock clamped itself shut. They had shrugged and walked in. They saw the computer sitting on the desk.
"You get the computer, I'll find his research papers," the second Grunt said. His partner sat at the desk and booted up the computer. This would be simple; hack the password, copy anything of worth, and turn it off again. Piece of cake.
He plugged a small device into a USB port. It buzzed for a second, then the password typed itself in. Yuki. The grunt would have laughed, if it weren't for the fact that it would have given them away.
The desktop loaded in a second. A small window flashed for attention on the taskbar. It was titled 'Shadows'. This would be sooo easy ...
He clicked the window. It opened up to show ... a perfect view of the room. He frowned. So did his reflection. There wasn't a webcam in sight.
An instant messenger window popped up at the side of the window.
-[I see you hacked into my computer.]-
Who is that? the Grunt asked.
-[Your worst nightmare.]-
I don't understand.
-[Don't you? Read carefully; I won't call the police. I won't steal your details. But I can tell you this – you will be very sorry you messed with me.]-
The Grunt paused. What on Earth was the guy on about?
-[Just to let you know, I've won the first round. Your getaway vehicle is useless, and I'm hunting you down. I will destroy you if I catch you, and I will catch you.]-
Cold sweat ran down the Grunt's neck. How was this computer saying this? The IP address showed it was the computer itself, responding to his intrusion.
You won't catch me. You're a computer.
-[I wouldn't bank on it.]-
The Parkinson kid is asleep. No-one else knows we are here.
-[Yes, I am asleep. You set off silent alarms all over the building the second you entered.]-
"Oi!" he called as loudly as he dared. "How much security does this apartment have?"
"It should be off by now."
"Should?"
"He only turns it on when he isn't in the building."
"Oh, OK." The Grunt turned back to the computer screen.
You lied.
-[I know. Watch closely ... ]-
The Grunt stared at the screen, confused. His reflection wore an equally bemused expression. What exactly was going on here?
Sceptile slid out of the Teleport silently, stepping out into the cool night. Gardevoir followed, picking her way delicately across the alley to where Sceptile was hiding.
There was a small van parked outside, the like used by the TV reporters that they had seen dotted around Hoenn and Sinnoh. A tall decal of a gold G was plastered on the side.
Sceptile looked at the wheels. "The rubber is thick," he said softly.
"What're we supposed to do?" asked Gardevoir, rubbing her arms and shivering.
"You deal with the driver, I'll deal with the van."
"How?"
"Use your imagination."
She nodded, and crept over to the cab. The driver was a strange man dressed like a tramp. She tugged open the door and clambered in.
"Hey, whaddya ..."
"Shhh," she said, pressing a slim finger to his lips. His eyelids instantly drooped, and he started snoring faintly. She edged away, before noticing the radio sitting on the dashboard. She popped the batteries out as an afterthought.
She leaned out of the window and gave Sceptile a thumbs-up. Sceptile nodded. The leaves on his wrists glowed green as he slashed the van's tyres. The air hissed as it escaped. He laid a single golden seed under the back end of the van, and breathed on it.
As though a sped-up film, they watched as the seed grew, punching through the steel bodywork like paper. In twenty seconds a full-grown tree stood up from the tarmac as if it had always been there.
"Great," said Gardevoir. "What now?"
A piercing scream answered her.
A shadowy figure appeared behind his reflection. It appeared to be holding a straight-bladed, old-fashioned razor. The Grunt tried the get out of the seat, but he seemed to be frozen to the leather. He shut his eyes and turned away, but the figure in the screen had expected his move.
An arc of crimson agony sliced across his cheek. He winced; the pain was horribly real for an image in the screen. He touched the spot. His fingers were stained red when he looked at them again. Sick horror welled up in him. His mouth was dry, and he could taste bile.
He stared at the screen once more, eyes popping. The figure took another slash at his face, and another, and another. The Grunt chewed his lip, desperate not to make a sound. He didn't even noticed a female figure in a dressing-gown standing next to the sofa. A notice was on the messenger window.
-[I warned you. I have found you. There will be no mercy now.]-
The next slash cut straight through the other cheek. He could barely hold it in. He saw the shadow lower the knife for his throat. He couldn't take it. He screamed in terror, animalistic in its intensity. Flecks of blood splattered the screen as the ruined cheek was opened.
"Enough!" shouted Absol at the computer. The figure raised its head, nodded, and disappeared. The computer shut itself down. The hacking device burned itself out, curlicues of smoke floating from the plastic shell.
Cradily shot four of its tentacles, binding the Grunt securely, and hoisting him off the chair. He struggled and yelled, but Cradily blocked his mouth with the end of a tentacle. His colleague rushed in, as Absol had suspected. Cradily used its other four tentacles to grab him.
"I'm gonna cut to the chase; what the hell are you doing here?"
The second Grunt squirmed but remained silent.
"I should warn you; I'm tired and I'm hung-over, so don't you dare piss around with me."
Silence.
Cradily squeezed a bit tighter, but removed the gagging tentacle from the first Grunt's mouth. He immediately started mumbling incoherently.
"Did you know that Cradily tentacles are covered in pores?" asked Absol, stroking the huge green head affectionately. "Cradily ensnare their prey with their tentacles, then those pores secrete a corrosive acid. When the prey is dissolved to a half-digested pulp it is swallowed. Don't even put it past me."
"Why should I tell you anything, demon?" growled the second Grunt.
"Because I can make you very uncomfortable right now. So I suggest you answer me truthfully."
She stared in his eyes. "Why are you here?"
He tried to remain poker-faced.
"Cradily?"
The Pokémon obliged. A glistening fluid shone thinly on the tentacles. She could smell it burning slowly through the rubber.
"Fail to answer, or lie, and you become Cradily's midnight snack."
"The boss sent us."
"To do what?"
The Grunt hesitated. There was a hungry look in Cradily's yellow eyes.
"That's none of your business."
Absol raised an eyebrow, and folded her arms. He yelled in pain as the acid soaked through his undershirt.
"To steal the research on shadowforming!"
"Can I just say; did you really think it would be that easy? We got Dug to set up a false user that would come up if someone tried to enter the computer by force. The user you opened, it only had one file; an experimental project on subconscious alpha waves and REM data transmission. You hacked into it, and saw a mixture of your own imagination and Henry's dreams. Any pain experienced or hallucinations are merely a delusional placebo effect. Now why does Saturn want our research?"
"I don't know."
"Cradily, do the honours."
"It's the truth! He's telling the truth!" screamed the first Grunt hysterically, twisting and writhing like a possessed thing. "Master Saturn tells us what to do, not why!"
"He says 'jump', you say 'how high?', huh?" mused Absol.
"Yes, exactly! Let us go!"
"Hang on a sec," she said, before calling in Absol-tongue, "Gardevoir!"
Gardevoir and Sceptile slid into sync with reality in the living room.
"Did you do it?" she asked them, in Absol-tongue.
Gardevoir nodded. "The driver is asleep and will remember nothing of tonight. Sceptile took care of the van," she added, clapping the slightly taller Pokémon on the shoulder in a comradely way.
"I'd like to see them get that van out in a hurry," agreed Sceptile.
Absol pointed at the Grunts. "Wipe them too. Then leave them with the garbage."
Gardevoir placed a single finger on each of their foreheads. They yelled for a moment, but fell silent as a blank expression fell over their eyes. The three warped out of reality. Absol went into the kitchen and dug some leftover steak from the fridge. She tossed it to Cradily, saying, "Sorry it's cold."
Just as Cradily had swallowed the half-digested meat, Henry trudged into the living room. He wore a moss-green dressing gown and had heavy bags under his eyes. "What's been going on, Absol? I heard shouting."
"Just some intruders from Team Galactic. I've dealt with them. I don't think they got away with anything."
Henry looked in the briefcase the Grunts were using to stash the papers. His expression grew suddenly very hard.
"What's up?"
He stared at her. "It's not here."
"What?"
"The comprehensive report on shadowforming and its implications on society that I wrote for Dug and Devon Corp. They've essentially got everything we know."