Pokémon Darkness

Part 2: Kanto

Chapter 19: Ninja Skills

The first thing N realized upon regaining consciousness was that his Pokémon were gone. The second thing he realized was that he was in a jail cell, and the third thing was that there were many other cells lining the hall outside his.

The first thing N felt was fear, deep and paralyzing, for his Pokémon. He knew not how long he had been unconscious. A few minutes? Hours? Days? What could Cipher have done to his Pokémon friends by now? Were they just being held in some warehouse, or had they been…?

The second thing he felt was an equally paralyzing sense of hopelessness. He was stuck in a cell with no Pokémon, and thus no means of escape. And if he couldn't escape, he couldn't do anything to save his friends. He was essentially helpless.

"Huh? Who're you?" a voice from behind N mumbled. N turned sharply around to find a short, unshaven man with lilac hair rubbing sleep from his eyes and stumbling out of the bed N had not woken up on. N was surprised out of speech for a moment, and the man spoke first.

"Oh, shit. Fuck fuck fuck. You're a new cellmate. Oh fuck what'd they do to Nick?"

The man buried his face in his hands, shaking his head and muttering obscenities. N could not think of what to say, and was not even sure he understood what was going on.

"I… apologize?" N said tentatively. The man looked up suddenly, and for a moment seemed about to attack N, but then sighed and collapsed back onto his bed.

"Arceus… Bah, don't worry bout it. 's not your fault. But damn… I was really startin' to like that kid…"

N said nothing, still confused and concerned about many different things. The man again was the first to speak.

"Whelp, we're gonna be in 'ere together for a while. Hopefully. Alternative's way worse. Anyway, the name's Petrel. You mighta heard of me."

"I… can't say that I have," N replied. "I'm N. N Harmonia."

Petrel's eyes grew wide, and he made an odd motion with his hands. N did not know what to make of this, but Petrel soon elaborated.

"Well. Shit. We're all fucked now."

"…I'm sorry?" N said, further confused. "What do you mean?"

"Dude, you're like a legend in here! Everyone's always talkin' bout N Harmonia, how he's been fightin' Cipher and is gonna break us all out, 'ventually. But damn, they finally got ya. They get your sidekick too?"

"Um… My what?" N asked. Petrel shook his head slightly before going on.

"Your sidekick! Y'know, that girl you travel 'round with. No one seems to know her name. She's the one who can get rid of Shadow Pokémon, or somethin'. I dunno. Is that part made-up?"

"Oh! You mean Claire!" N exclaimed, glad to be making some progress. "No, not quite. She can identify Shadow Pokémon by sensing auras. She has a Pokémon capable of then purifying them. But no, they did not get her. At least, as far as I am aware. She fled with some of my other friends."

"That's crazy shit, man," Petrel said, shaking his head again. "Man, I gotta tell ya, it's kinda disheartenin' to know they got ya. It was nice thinkin' there was someone out there, someone they could never catch who was always fightin' 'em. You said you got friends though? Maybe they'll keep on fightin'?"

"I know she will," N said softly, almost without realizing it. "I mean… They all will."

"Well that's good," Petrel nodded. "You wanna know why they got me?"

"I suppose so," N shrugged.

"Well, see, listen to this, and don't be judgin' me now. I used to be a Team Rocket Executive, back when Team Rocket was, y'know, a thing. S'pose you can't exactly be judgin' now, seeing how you used to be the Team Plasma Emperor, or somethin'."

"Wait… how did you know that?" N interrupted, caught of guard.

"Well that's what Cipher's been telling everyone, inn'it? See, that's not how I found out though. See, some of my fellow old Rockets kept up with me, and some of 'em were lookin' for another team to join. Kept tellin' me bout anythin' they'd find out. I always told 'em I wasn't interested; told 'em 'Giovanni's the only leader for me. I ain't joinin' any team other than Team Rocket.' See, they kept tellin' me anyways, and they 'ventually got round to your Team Plasma. That's where I first heard bout ya."

"I see," N said, somewhat distracted. He had been surprised that Cipher had specifically cited him as the former Team Plasma King, not merely a terrorist. He supposed that, as these regions were likely unfamiliar with Team Plasma, this worked conveniently for them. Also, as he was unfamiliar with Team Rocket, N was not able to follow everything Petrel said, and thoughts of his Pokémon kept surfacing.

"Hey, you know what else, though?" Petrel suddenly said. "I thought bout you once, after Cipher came calling. I was layin' incognito, right, down in Fuchsia, and I thought 'Hey, I bet that N Plasma guy wouldn't like these Cipher guys too much. I bet Plasma'd have a big grudge match with Cipher if it's still around.' Then I heard bout you fightin' 'em, and I jumped up and thought 'I knew it! Hey, I knew he'd be fightin' 'em!' I take it you don't have Team Plasma any more, though, huh?"

"…I do not," N sighed. He had wondered, on numerous occasions, how much easier this all would have been if he were still the King of Team Plasma. Truthfully, he knew not whether he wished he were, and generally avoided dwelling on it.

"Oh, but anyways!" Petrel spoke up. "I was sayin' what they got me for. See, they went looking after all the old Rocket Executives. Me, Ariana, Proton, and Archer. I hear they went after Giovanni too, but they ain't gonna find him, and they'll be sorry if they do. Ariana and Proton, though, they jumped right on 'em. They're greedy bastards, real mean and power-hungry. Hurt to seem 'em go like that, and have to see how they really are. I always thought them friends. Archer, though, bless him, he went out in a blaze of glory…"

Here Petrel stopped, sniffed slightly, and rubbed his eyes. N felt sorry for the little man.

"Damn it, we were both there, they had us sorta cornered, all up in the mountains, Ariana leadin' 'em, and they offered us the job. 'Hell no,' we both said, 'We're loyal to Giovanni and Giovanni only. You oughta be to, Ari.' Well, these Cipher guys, they don't take no for an answer. S'pose I can't blame 'em, really, but… Damn it, man, Archer took 'em all on, told me to run, and I was scared man, I was so scared. I just couldn't fight Ariana. She used to be like my sister, man, and now she's… But I did it, I just ran, I just ditched my last real friend in the world. I looked back just in time to see her Arbok crunch Archer's throat, and… Fuck, man, I couldn't… I just flew away, flew away with my Crobat, and ran and hid…"

The former Rocket Executive finally broke into sobs here. N thought that he had never seen a man so filled with regret, and instinctively reached out and hugged him. Petrel did not hug back, but did not pull away either.

"I am… very sorry," N said, feeling rather unhelpful.

"Aww, how touching," came a high, mocking voice. "Did you find another shoulder to cry on, Petrel?"

N suddenly found himself falling back, and when he looked up he saw Petrel gripping the cell bars madly, glaring at Ariana, who stood beyond the door.

"Ariana, please!" Petrel cried. "You gotta let me out, you just gotta. We were friends, damn it!"

"Oh, this again," Ariana criticized. "You know what you need to do to get out, Petrel. The offer's always on the table."

"I won't do it!" Petrel protested. "Ariana, what happened to our promises to Giovanni? Huh? Damn it, he was your fuckin' husband. I thought you loved 'im!"

"Loved him?" Ariana incredulously laughed. "Your naïveté never stops surprising me, Petrel. I loved his power. I loved Team Rocket's power. But that's over now. Cipher is rising, far above anything Team Rocket could ever have been. If Giovanni ever shows his face again, unless he's smart enough to join us, then my Shadow Arbok will tear his throat out! That's my promise to Giovanni."

"Fuck you!" Petrel screamed, punching the bars. "You're an evil bitch! You're a fucking monster! Get the fuck away from me!"

"Oh, how your words hurt me, Petrel," Ariana sighed dramatically. "But I'm not even here for you. Get back. Harmonia! Come with me."

N merely blinked at being addressed. The sheer emotion of the former Executives' conversation had rendered him temporarily immobile. When the cell door came rattling open, he leapt up abruptly, and dropped his hand to where Zoroark's Pokéball should have been. By the time his mind had fully caught up with his place and time, Petrel had been knocked back, and Ariana was approaching N.

"I said, come with me," she hissed, seizing N's wrist and dragging him from the cell. N glanced back at Petrel sitting on his bed sadly as the door clattered shut, until Ariana had dragged him too far away. He then looked around at all the other cells, attempting to find a familiar face. He just barely caught sight of Cheren and Silver in a cell together before Ariana abruptly yanked him to the side and into an empty cell.

"Sit," she commanded, and, not waiting for a response, pushed N onto the sole chair in the room. Energy cuffs immediately bound N's arms and legs. Ariana smirked slightly before turning and calling out the door.

"Bring them in now, dear."

A Cipher peon walked into the door, handed Ariana a bag wordlessly, and briskly walked out. At this point, N realized how visible the cell was to the other prisoners. Ariana clearly wanted to make an example of him, to tear down a symbol of hope the prisoners had clung to. The Cipher Admin then turned slowly to N, now grinning widely.

"Right, now, N darling, I'm going to try to do this the easy way first. Where are your friends hiding?"

N almost immediately said, truthfully, that he had no idea, but he suddenly remembered the only cave they had hidden at that had never been discovered, the one they had first stayed in after Mount Moon, and knew for certain that Claire would have told White and Bianca to hide there.

"…I have no idea," he said impassively after a moment. Ariana giggled softly and shook her head.

"N, dear, I'm no idiot. Of the three who escaped, two have never been to Kanto before. The other has been your traveling partner for the past few months. You know ever hiding place that she does, and you know which one she would have chosen. If I had any doubts of this, you expression and pause just now swept them away. Now, would you kindly tell me where they are."

"I do not know," N insisted, somewhat bitterly. He began mentally bracing himself for whatever tortures Ariana would inflict on him. He only knew that no amount of pain would pry his friends' location from him.

"Tsk tsk. Fine then, have it your way," Ariana said, snapping her fingers. Immediately, a band of energy like those binding him wrapped across N's mouth, rendering completely incapable of breathing except through his nose. Ariana then reached into the bag, idly rustled around in it, and made a mildly curious noise as she withdrew a Pokéball from it. She let the bag fall, and held the Pokéball up, eying it with polite interest. N thought he knew what was to come, but desperately prayed to be wrong.

"Hmm, now I wonder what could be in this," she simpered, before clicking the Pokéball open. To N's horror, Carracosta appeared at Ariana's feet. Before his friend had a chance to find out where he was, Ariana's Arbok and Vileplume were on either side of him.

"Crunch," Ariana said with notable relish. The giant serpent bit Carracosta fiercely, but the attack did little beyond anger him. He made to attack, but Ariana laughed.

"Ice Fang. Poison Powder."

Arbok again savagely gnawed N's prototurtle Pokémon, this time with frigid fangs. Frost surrounded Carracosta's bleeding wounds. He made to dash at the snake, but a venomous purple cloud descended on him, visibly searing his gashes and wracking him with pain. N's blood froze as he stared at his injured friend with eyes wide with horror. He attempted to call out attacks for his friend, but the energy band over his mouth kept him from making a sound.

"Bind it," Ariana said, smiling widely, and the Arbok wrapped herself around Carracosta, who finally turned his tired eyes to N, and looked for a moment surprised.

"Are you going to tell us where your friends are yet, dear N?"

N's mind was racing to nowhere fast. He knew he couldn't betray Claire's location to them, but he didn't know if he would be able to mentally withstand watching his friend be slowly and brutally murdered.

"No? Sad," Ariana sighed when N showed no signs of trying to speak. "Mud Bomb! Venoshock!"

The Arbok swiftly smashed Carracosta against the wall, quickly followed by a powerful blast of mud. The weakened turtle fell to the ground motionless, until the Vileplume drenched him in a sizzling violet liquid that caused him to writhe and twitch. N felt his own muscles begin to twinge as well, his brain almost shut down.

"That poor, poor Carracosta," Ariana mockingly sniveled. "I don't think he can take much more damage. Won't you save him, N? Just tell me where they are."

"N…" Carracosta whispered. "Better… not… tell…"

N felt his heart shatter, yet at the same time made up his mind. He knew what he had to do. It was what White would have done. It was what Carracosta wanted. It was what was best for everyone. It was the right thing to do.

But it was a truth N had to force himself to face.

"All right, well, if he means that little to you…" Ariana said, her mouth spreading into a positively wicked grin. "Giga Drain!"

The Vileplume sucked the vitality from the turtle in a flash of green light, causing him to completely collapse. He moved just barely, with the shallowest breathing imaginable. N found himself practically wishing that his friend's pain would just finally stop.

Ariana looked down at the pathetic, mutilated prototurtle Pokémon, sadistic pleasure gleaming in her eyes, before whispering her last command: "Crunch."

The Arbok shattered his shell with her jagged fangs, and the last bit of life faded from Carracosta's eyes. N knew, with one of those jagged fangs imbedded in his heart, that his second-oldest friend had left him.

"How about we let you think about what you've done," Ariana scolded. "Take him away."

Janine snickered to herself as she huddled over her small glass bottles with her back to the cell door, carefully collecting the last few bits of Sleep Powder off of her clothes. She had enough to fill the bottle that had contained the Sleep Powder antidote she had just used about three-fourths of the way. Once she was confident that she had every speck of the heavy green dust, she slipped the bottle into one of her hidden pockets, just beside the passkey she had stolen from a grunt while pretending to have succumbed to the Sleep Powder, and chuckled again.

"Sleep Powder," she laughed in her head. "Against the Poison Gym Leader. They aren't exactly top scientists."

Even more surprising than their foolish attacks was their audacity to arrest her. She was the Gym Leader of Fuchsia! The whole city was surely in an uproar over her arrest. What's more was that her father was a member of the Indigo Elite Four. The second he got wind of this, he would storm down to the prison and demand she be released; assuming, of course, that she hadn't gotten out on her own by then. There was really no way they could keep her there, and the second she got out she was going to run to her father and tell him all about Cipher. Once he knew, he'd tell the rest of the Elite Four and the Champion, and then Cipher wouldn't stand a chance.

Reassuring herself with these thoughts, she made a quick count of her bottles: she had the Sleep Powder she had just collected, a general-purpose antidote, an anti-paralytic, some Toxic liquid, and one empty bottle. The Sleep Powder, if used properly, would be enough to knock out five adults, and the Toxic could incapacitate sixty. Sure, they'd taken her Pokémon, but she was still more than sufficiently armed. She was, after all, a ninja.

Escape was no longer an issue. She could have already escaped, if she wanted to. What held her back, however, was her friends and Pokémon. She hardly wanted to leave Silver and N in a prison cell, and was just as happy to leave her Pokémon in the care of these Cipher agents. Though she had seen the location of her friend's cells as she had be taken to her own (pretending to be unconscious), they were a good ways away, and she had no idea where their Pokémon had been taken. She thought that she might be able to locate them, but doing so would likely deplete her resources, and, if she failed to recover them, escape would be incredibly difficult. It would be a risky gamble, but perhaps…

"Hey, uh, Leader Doku?" a voice called out. Janine flinched slightly, but stopped herself enough to pass it off as mere surprise, and turned to face the door. A woman in a black armor-like suit, with a helmet and an ornate "C" logo on the chest was standing in the doorway. Janine assumed this to be the official Cipher peon uniform. What surprised her more, though, was the politeness in the peon's voice.

"What do you want?" Janine asked, suspicious.

"Ah, Admin Ariana wants to see you soon. She asked me to fetch you."

"Fetch me? So you're her dog, and I'm some newspaper she wants to read? What's she want with me, anyway?"

"…I don't know," the peon said, more stiffly. "She just told me to get you. This way, please."

She then took hold of Janine's wrist, and began dragging her from the cell. Janine quickly threw her off.

"I can walk just fine on my own, thanks," she said bitterly. The peon glared at her for a moment before stepping behind her.

"Very well. Walk. I'll tell you when to turn."

Janine almost regretted her cheek, as she liked having a known enemy behind her back even less than being dragged. However, she still was still glad that she'd shown that she wasn't afraid of them. Listening closely to the peon's movements, she began to walk down the cell-lined hall. She began to edge to the side once she knew that the cell that Silver and N's friend (whose name she couldn't remember) were in was approaching. She stuck her hands in her pockets, attempting to subtly pour some of the Sleep Powder in the empty bottle without removing them, in hopes of giving some to Silver and the other guy to use. Just as she reached their cell, however, desperately hoping to conceive of a way to distract the peon, she was ordered to stop.

"Wait here," the peon ordered. "Ariana is in that cell. She is still speaking with her previous guest."

Janine leaned against the door of Silver's cell as the peon spoke. The second the guard looked away, she knelt down, slid the bottle with half of the Sleep Powder into the cell, and stood back up without turning around or speaking. She heard one of them pick up the bottle, and then heard Silver whisper right behind her.

"Janine-" he began, but the other guy interrupted him.

"Don't talk," he frantically hissed. "They can't know we got that."

"I just need to-" Silver threw back, but Janine was distracted by N suddenly appearing from the cell the peon had indicated. Seized by an impulse, she emptied enough Sleep Powder for one person into her pocket and rushed at N.

"N!" she shouted, her friend's expression momentarily driving her mission from her mind. She couldn't imagine a more defeated-looking person. "What'd they do to you?"

"T… t-tortured… killed… Pokémon…" he managed to get out. Janine quickly hugged him, hoping it would appear to be nothing but sympathy, and slipped the bottle with the remaining Sleep Powder into N's pocket. Hoping her friends would be able to make use of the sedative, she allowed herself to be pushed away by the guard leading N away. She then made to walk into the cell, but Ariana abruptly appeared in the doorway, holding a bag and a Pokéball.

"Ah, Janine Doku!" Ariana cried happily, putting the Pokéball in the bag. "You're here earlier than I expected. But this cell is no place to talk; let's go to my office."

Janine watched Ariana closely as she grabbed a Pokéball from her belt and sent out a Deoxys. Janine had just enough time to be surprised before the DNA Pokémon wrapped its tentacles around her and Ariana's arms and teleported them away with a soft bleep.

They were suddenly in an office, presumably Ariana's. Janine looked around and saw from the open door that the office was positioned at one end of the long prison hall on the upper floor before Ariana pushed the door closed and recalled her Deoxys. Janine's mind raced quickly as she watched Ariana's actions. She reattached the Deoxys's Pokéball to her belt, which meant that her own Pokémon were kept there, not in the bag. Given that the Cipher Admin had evidently tortured N's Pokémon in an attempt to coerce him, Janine reasoned that the bag likely contained her own Pokémon, in case she proved to be uncooperative.

"Now, Janine," Ariana said, with an almost motherly tone, as she set the bag down and sat at her desk. "I really must apologize again for all of this. I think that this is all just a big misunderstanding. Please, just let me know whatever nasty lies that N has told you, and I can let you know how things really are. Once I know you aren't still misinformed, I can let you get back to your gym. You see-"

"How am I supposed to do that," Janine interrupted, growing angry, "when you just blew it up?"

"See, Janine," Ariana sighed, shaking her head. "That's exactly the kind of nonsense I need to sweep from your mind. N Harmonia has already been known to attack buildings with explosives. He'll say anything to make himself seem innocent and put the blame on others. He's a nasty liar, and you really can't be blamed for him deceiving you. But he's the one who blew up your gym! Not the Kanto police! That's positively silly to imagine!"

"I know N," Janine growled. "He's my friend. I also know you, and your whole Cipher thing, and know not to trust you. You aren't getting anywhere with this."

"You are very loyal very quickly, Janine," Ariana half-laughed. "Which can be good. But in cases like this, it can also be very bad. How much do you even know about this N? How can you know that he's telling you the truth?"

"He's got friends backing him up!" Janine shouted. "Everything he says matches up with everything you've done! Silver told us that he saw you guys putting up the Electrodes! And you are just evil!"

"Janine, I really think you should-" Ariana began, but Janine cut her off, burying her hands in her pockets.

"And guess what! You've screwed up big time here. I'm a Gym Leader! You know what that means? And my dad's an Elite Four! As soon as I get out, I'm gonna tell him all about you and your Cipher, and once the whole League knows you're all screwed! And guess what else!"

Ariana clicked a Pokéball and sent out her Arbok at her side here, but before she could say anything Janine withdrew her hands, with a fistful of Sleep Powder, and threw it into Ariana's face. The Cipher Admin blinked dazedly, mutter a few incomprehensible words, before collapsing.

"I'm gonna get out!"

Janine held Ariana's head up and struck her face with her palm for good measure, before seizing the bag containing her own Pokémon and running out through the door. To her surprise, the Arbok did absolutely nothing, and she ran from the office unopposed.

At first, no one noticed her, or seemed at all aware that anything had happened to Ariana. She began running down the hall's upper floor, opting for speed given the lack of any places to hide. She hastily dipped each of her fingers in her Toxic liquid, to which she was had long ago built up an immunity, not wanting to rely on Pokémon which may or may not have even been conscious. She encountered a handful of guards, but quickly leapt up and struck their throats with her venomous fingertips, incapacitating them shortly.

By the time she was about halfway down the hall, however, an alarm sounded, and many more peons began pouring into the long room's upper floor. The ninja girl sprinted on, poisoning peons as she went, until there were simply too many for her to take. She then immediately vaulted over the railing and hit the first floor running. She was quick enough to avoid or poison most guards or their Pokémon on the lower floor. Finally reaching the end, she hastily unlocked the door with the passkey she had stolen, and rushed outside.

The building was, of course, immediately surrounded by high concrete walls topped with barbed wire, with no visible door. Desperate not to fail when escape was so close, Janine grabbed a Pokéball from the bag, hoping fervently that it would contain her Crobat, fully conscious and ready to fly away.

It did not contain her Crobat, nor, to her horror, did it contain any of her Pokémon. It did, however, contain a Pokémon who was fully conscious and ready to fly away: a fluffy female Altaria, who looked around confusedly and let out an inquisitive cry. Janine groaned as she saw guards approaching her from either side, and heard the door behind her shaking.

"Okay, look," she said rapidly to the Altaria. "We both wanna get out of here. Trust me, you do. Are you N's?"

The instant the Altaria nodded, Janine pressed on hurriedly.

"Good, I'm a friend of his. He's trapped in here, but we can't get him out. If we leave though we can get help, so let's go now!"

Janine did not wait for the Altaria's answer, but jumped straight on her back. Fortunately, the Pokémon seemed to understand, for she took off into the sky just before a few Houndour would've reached her. Janine glanced back at the peons, who were angrily shouting, and laughed loudly. They seemed to lack Flying-types, and would have to find someone else to pursue her. Feeling nothing but elation at her escape, Janine turned forward, whispered a word of thanks to N's Altaria, and looked onward, towards freedom.