Hidden in Shadows Part 3~ Tests

In Pyrite Town, Gary Oak was still trying to reach Amy and walking with a determined look on his face. Cail was still an unwilling ally, having Duking use force to get him up to Cipher's Pyrite Town headquarters. They didn't attract many stares though, it seems Duking walking around with a screaming boy over his shoulder was normal.

"Okay, the door is locked, how are we going to get inside?" Gary asked with a frown after pulling on the door handle.

"Well I think Rui and Wes broke in themselves, but they said the keys were hidden in the basement of the Pyrite Colosseum. You can only go down there if you win a competition though," Duking explained.

"Yeah, that's where they gave me this stupid Furret," Cail growled.

"Okay so I just beat them right? Oh wait, I don't have any Pokémon with me! Well whatever then, just show me the Pokémon center and I can get some from my PC," Gary said confidently.

"There's no Pokémon center in Pyrite Town stupid," Cail snapped from over Duking's shoulder.

"H-huh? But then how can I…" Gary seemed perplexed. Then he brightened. "I'll just go catch some wild Pokémon! At least that'll give me a chance to-"

"There are no wild Pokémon in Orre!" Cail snapped, "And besides, I thought you were in a hurry? Why are you planning to go through the Colosseum at all? Wouldn't it be faster to go back to Gateon Port, get your Pokémon to break into this place using them?"

"Shut up Cail!" Duking snapped, "This is how real men settle things, honourable battling! Not sneaking around like you're always doing! Maybe if you fought with more force than those stupid dance steps and sneak attacks you do you wouldn't be stuck over my shoulder right now!" he turned to Gary, "You can use Plusle and Minin, they'll listen to you!"

Cail scoffed. "Like they'll help at all. Look, Gary, you seem like an okay guy I guess. So if I let you have my Furret if you can get Duking to let me get the hell away from you guys."

Gary though about the offer. Cail wasn't really doing anything else for them. The Furret may have something wrong with it, but at least it seemed stronger then Plusle and Minin did. "Yeah, Duking, I could use the Furret and this kid isn't much help." Duking grunted and dropped Cail. He groaned and handed Gary the Pokeball with Furret before shaking his head.

"You're an idiot Gary, you know that right? This Amy girl, she really must be something to you," Cail said looking a cross between amused and impressed.

"Yeah, she is," Gary grinned. Then his face hardened as Cail left, lighting a cigarette on his way. "Alright Duking, let's go!"

"Ah, sorry Gary, I've got to help my daughter with her homework, but stop by if you beat the Colosseum!" Duking said smiling and heading back to his house. Plusle and Minin were now both on Gary's shoulders. He still held Furret's Pokeball in his hands. He wondered how in the hell he was supposed to save Amy like this.

Amy had been marched into a small room that reminded her of a doctor's office, but more metallic grey than white. She was made to sit on a steel table as Mirror B. leaned against a wall. Beside him were three men in lab coats and dark sunglasses. They appeared nearly identical.

"So, according to your Pokedex you are the 'famous' Amy Tanner," one of the scientists grinned "Fourth place in the Kanto Pokémon league, and daughter of the two most notorious trouble makers in the entire Orre region. It's good to be seeing you, I wish we'd had the pleasure of meeting earlier."

Amy frowned. "What do you mean troublemakers?"

"Ah so you don't know… well no sense worrying you over it," The second scientist said, nodding and making notes. Amy scowled.

"Are you kidding? You brought it up, so of course I'm going to worry over it now!" Amy snapped.

"How very like Rui…" the third scientist murmured. He stood slightly behind the others.

"You won't worry for long Miss Tanner," the first smiled, "You'll have worse problems on the way."

Amy snorted. "Well that's encouraging." In truth, her fear was clawing around at her stomach. However, she wasn't going to show weakness to these people. No matter what they did, they wouldn't break her down. No way.

"Mm hmm…" the second was still making notes. Amy frowned, biting her bottom lip a little. The second looked at her, then scribbled some more. She looked from him to the first.

"So what are you going to do with me now?" she asked, mentally cursing herself for the weakness in her question.

"Oh standard procedure. We'll give you a full physical examination, then we'll take some blood samples, all very safe I assure you," the first chuckled.

"Yeah, the real fun starts tomorrow after the boss comes to take a look," Mirror B. laughed. Amy's heart hammered but she kept her face mostly neutral. Only the corner of her mouth twitched downward.

So Amy submitted. What else could she do in this situation? She had no idea where she was but clearly there was high security. So far, she was being stripped and poked and prodded but no worse. It did seem all medical… except for Mirror B. but at least he wasn't touching. In Amy's mind, she decided her best option was to talk big and fearless but seem non-threatening beyond that. Then maybe they'd slip up somewhere, give her the piece of information she'd need to break free. Hopefully before tomorrow. She was starting to feel sick.

Gary was in the middle of a Pokémon battle. No, not at the Colosseum. That would be just too damn easy wouldn't it? Crossing duel square he was challenged to a battle and everyone knows that declining a battle in duel square could get you shot. Gary complied. Plusle and Minin fought a Rosalia and a Starly. Gary was relying heavily on his Pokedex for attacks and his opponent was mocking him for it. His cheeks were growing red with anger.

"Plusle use… Helping Hand!" Gary said, eyes darting to the Pokedex "Then Minin, use Spark on Starly!"

Minin's charged attack smoked the bird Pokémon and it fainted. Gary's opponent seemed unworried.

"Whatever, check out this Pokémon I won at the Colosseum, kid!" the trainer sent out a Misdeveus. Gary looked up the ghost type in his Pokedex. Registering it he knew to avoid physical attacks at least.

"Minin! Plusle! Use Spark!" he called. They aimed for Misdeveus but Rosalia was ordered to shield and absorbed a lot of the attack.

"Okay, now use Shadow Rush!" the trainer yelled. Misdeveus cackled and glowed black before slamming into Plusle with a driving force. With a cry the red rodent fell and its blue companion ran toward it crying out. Gary ran forward and collected Plusle form the ground. Then he sent out Furret.

After quickly looking up the ferret Pokémon's attacks, Gary turned to his recent addition. "Okay use… Quick Attack on Rosalia!" Gary said deciding that beating off the grass type would allow Minin to start working on Misdeveus. Furret did nothing.

"H-huh?" Gary said in shock. At its level, Furret should definitely know this attack. There is no way it couldn't. He had eight badges, all Pokémon should obey him even if received from another trainer… what was wrong?

"Can't even make your Pokémon listen to you, kid?" the trainer laughed, "Shadow Rush!"
Misdeveus suddenly growled and ran at Gary. Gary yelled and jumped out of the way.

"WHY DO THESE WEIRD POKEMON KEEP ATTACKING ME?" Gary screamed in frustration as the trainer called Misdeveus' name in mild irritation. Then it hit Gary all at once. The Makuhita. It had used Shadow Rush too; the one Amy said looked weird, the Shadow Pokémon. And Furret must be one too; it also attacked him like that! So then… it must use the move Shadow Rush! "Furret, use Shadow Rush on Rosalia!" Gary called. Furret obeyed this time, glowing black and charging. Rosalia went down, to its trainer's shock, as if the move were super effective. But she remained confident.

"Okay so you have a Shadow Pokémon too, big deal. Misdeveus is more than a match, you don't even know how to work with one!" she laughed, "I bet you don't even know about Hyper Mode or how to get out of it! Well tell you what, I'll let you in. Hyper Mode is what you just saw, when the Pokémon goes a little insane and attacks the trainer instead of the Pokémon half the time. Really annoying, and only one way to snap it out of it, but I'm not gonna tell you what that is," the trainer smiled. Gary frowned.

"Whatever. Minin, use Spark!" Gary ordered. Though the mouse attacked and hit, Misdeveus' next Shadow Rush sent him flying. Now both Shadow Pokémon faced each other. The trainers soon realized that Shadow Rush wasn't very effective on other shadow Pokémon and that this was turning into a rather long battle. Then Gary had a thought. He'd need more Pokémon in this fight. And besides, this Pokémon was clearly troubled, it needed to be taken from these hands… and he had just the gloves to do the job. It was certainly wrong to steal another trainer's Pokémon, but maybe in this lawless town it wouldn't be questioned. Maybe…

Gary took a breath in and grabbed a ball from his belt. In his gloved hand it glowed with red light and he threw it.

"H-huh? What are you-?" the trainer gasped as the Pokeball encased her Misdeveus. It stopped shaking and flew back to Gary's hand. The trainer stared, then, to Gary's amazement the trainer grinned.

"Hey! You're a Snag'em trainee huh? Wicked. Oh well, I'll just go get another Shadow Pokémon by beating the Colosseum. You only have to be halfway decent to beat it. See ya kid" the trainer laughed again, walking off. Gary gaped from the trainer to the ball in his hand and back to the trainer. He'd just stolen a Pokémon. And the trainer didn't even care. Woah.

Amy was back in her cell at last. She shivered in the white, thin flannel clothes she'd been given. As Mirror B. left she huddled against the wall. As the footfalls and salsa music faded, she looked from her knees.

"Jesse?" She asked.

"Yeah?" was the immediate response. She frowned and shivered.

"How long did they wait, before they blinded you?"

"Well… they didn't actually do it just to blind me. It took a while. Just all the tests, and then they took samples… eventually I just couldn't see anymore. They might not even go that far with you. We might get killed before then."

Amy laughed darkly, "How cheery."

To her surprise he laughed too. "Yeah, I'm just a ray of sunshine aren't I?"

"Well you're better then a poke in the eye with a sharp stick… no offense."

"I should be offended that I'd better then a poke in the eye?"

Amy giggled. "Alright. Maybe I wasn't thinking."

"Maybe?"

"Okay, I wasn't thinking if you want me to be so specific," Amy scoffed. Jesse laughed. Amy smiled. "Don't worry Jesse, we'll get out of here long before they can do anything to us."

Jesse was silent for a while. Amy was about to question it when he said, "So, they have a new subject now."

"W-what?"

"They've got all they can from me now that my eyes… they're killing me tomorrow. Then they're going to start working on you. The guards were taunting me while you were gone."

Amy's eyes widened. "N-no way. They can't!"

"Of course they can. It doesn't matter. I've been here for ages, it'll be a relief," a pause, "I hope you make it out eventually though. So you can get back to your boyfriend."

Amy jolted. "Oh, Gary! I forgot he's looking for me, got to be! Then maybe… maybe there's still some hope, I mean… he's pretty clueless and distracted a lot but he's stubborn so maybe… maybe…"

"Maybe what?" came a male voice from outside Amy's cell. Her eyes flashed up and standing before her was a kid with dirty blond hair and dark glasses.

"Who are you?" Amy asked confused.

He smirked. "Name's Cail, you Amy?"

"Yes…" Amy said, cocking her head to one side and standing up.

"Amy? Who's there, is he with Cipher or…?" Jesse asked and Amy frowned.

"I don't know, some kid." Amy shrugged.

"You're boyfriend's being an idiot so I thought I should come save you before it was too late. I can get your friend too, I already knocked out the guards and took the key," Cail said with a grin, holding up a silver key on a ring.

"You're JOKING," Jesse's voice exclaimed, with a fierce edge of excitement.

"Nope, come on Aims," Cail said as he unlocked the cell. Amy ran outside and hugged him.

"You have no idea how good timing you have!" she said happily.

The two went to Jesse's cell next. However, just as they were unlocking it, they heard running from up the hall.

"Crap, must be a silent alarm, come on kid-ooh, ouch. Look what they did to you," Cail said with a low whistle as Amy opened the cell and took Jesse's hand, leading him out. His hand was sweaty, but Amy knew she had no time to grimace.

"Let's go!" she said to Cail who began running down the hall, away from the voices. Amy and Jesse were close behind, with Amy guiding the blind boy by the hand. He stumbled often.

However, upon turning a corner they found themselves facing a line of three men in strange different coloured cyber-game like uniforms. In front of each was a different middle evolution of a Johto starter Pokémon. Bayleef, Croconaw and Quilava faced them, and every one pulsed with a dark aura.

"Oh my gosh, they're all-" Amy started but Jesse finished.

"Shadow Pokémon. Three of them," he whispered.

"How the hell would you know? You're blind," Cail said with a snort. He glared in Cail's direction.

"That's why they still need Amy to study, I'm too damaged to bother with any more living tests but I still sense Shadow Pokémon without seeing them," Jesse said quietly. Cail rolled his eyes.

"Great. Well I assume neither of you have Pokémon with you so I'll have to battle three on one," Cail groaned. He tossed 3 Pokeballs. Out appeared a Staryu ('won it in a card game' was Cail's explanation upon its release), Porygon ('got it at the slots'), and Floatzel ('Got her when I was seven, won a bet with the kid down the street').

"Porygon, Tri Attack on Bayleef! Staryu, Psybeam on the alligator thing! Floatzel, use Waterfall on that… fire thing!" Cail called. His Pokémon knowledge seemed patchy but his Pokémon seemed to understand him well enough. They obeyed anyway. Then the Shadow Pokémon used a combined Shadow Rush, knocking out all Cail's Pokémon, save for Floatzel who still seemed to be hanging on. Wide eyed, Cail recalled his fainted Pokémon.

"Alright, get ready to run then," Cail said with a groan.

"I hear people coming from behind us," Jesse muttered to Amy. She bit her lip and nodded to Cail.

"USE HYDROPUMP!" Cail yelled. Floatzel blasted through the men and group of teens raced through the gap, down the halls. They reached a dead end door.

It was locked.

"OH SH- hang on a sec," Cail said looking to the right of the door.

"What is it?" Jesse hissed at Amy, still gripping her sweaty hand.

"A grate. We're apparently going to go into the ventilation," Amy groaned as Cail expertly removed the grate from the metal tunnel beyond. He got in first. Amy sent Jesse in afterwards, letting go of his hand. Then she entered after, clumsily pulling the grate on behind her and taking Cail's strange sticky putty he handed back to her to attach it.

Then they headed down into the darkness. Not a big switch for Jesse, but Amy terrified and Cail's hiss for silence in the echo chamber didn't help. Her heart beat fast as she listened for sounds of pursuit, or worse, the fans turning on. They were in the quiet for what seemed like hours. Cail mentioned it was getting dark when he got into the building. Now morning must be approaching. Then Jesse stopped and Amy bumped into him. "What's wrong?" she whispered.

"The ventilation is going straight up now," he said, sounding displeased.

"What? Then what do we do now?" Amy said, shivering. She'd gone through a vent before on the S.S. Anne, and later in Celadon, but not for this long. She'd only gone to the other side of a wall. Now she was supposed to do what?

Some scrambling up ahead as Cail adjusted his position and then he said, "Alright, keep pressure with your back and feet on the other side and sort of walk up, sliding your back up the other side. It's not that hard," Cail said and Amy heard sliding noises as he began pushing himself up. Jesse hesitated, but feeling around he followed suit. Amy moved up and got into position. Cail was right, the slippery sides of the shaft weren't so hard to travel up as she'd feared but still…

"What if one of you falls, you'll crush me!"

"Well then go back to Cipher, I'm sure they'll be much more gentle," Cail said sarcastically.

"We won't fall," Jesse assured Amy. Amy sighed.

"Alright." And so they climbed. They were in that vertical darkness for close to an hour, going painstakingly slowly. Even then Amy slipped twice and her heart hammered. Then Amy was hit by blinding light as Cail unscrewed the top of the grate and he and Jesse moved out to reveal it. They helped Amy out of the vent and her eyes slowly adjusted to the light. They were not on a roof, but in a small grassy field. The wind was blowing softly as Cail replaced the grate. Apparently it was morning. Amy was exhausted.

"Where are we?" Jesse asked, standing with no sign of weariness in him. "Are we outside? God…" he seemed in awe, though he couldn't see the blue morning sky stretching overhead.

"We're not even in Pyrite," Cail muttered, seeming annoyed, "Oh well, we're out. That's good at least." He pulled out a PokéNav. "We're in… Phenac City? How the hell did we get all the way over here? CRAP! Now that spiky haired kid's gonna try to break Amy out and she's not even there! Urg… maybe we can call Duking and get him to stop him," Cail muttered the last so Amy only heard Gary going to try to break in himself.

"Oh my god, Gary," Amy looked sick. Jesse had frozen at 'Phenac City'.

"We're in Phenac?" he said softly. Amy turned to him.

"Oh yeah, this is where your cousin Justy's supposed to be! He'll be able to help us stop Gary!" Amy said happily.

"I guess so," Jesse said frowning. Amy shivered in the breeze now, her white clothes billowing around her body. Cail noticed.

"Ah, here, take my vest before you freeze to death," he said handing her his vest that smelled strongly of smoke and dust. Amy put it on anyway, trying not to seem ungrateful. He'd just saved her skin after all. The three headed out from behind the trees and saw a small city bustling around them, with clear water fountains and white buildings.

"Oh, it's beautiful!" Amy said happily, for the slightest moment forgetting Gary. Then she took Jesse's hand and followed Cail as he went towards the small gym up a set of white stone steps.

Meanwhile, Gary was in the Colosseum fighting in the final battle. Why had it taken him so long to get there you may ask? Well after securing Misdeveus he went around the square looking for more Shadow Pokémon to complete a team. He managed to identify a Murcrow and a Skiploom at least, but it was hard. It turned out that Shadow Pokémon could sometimes use some of their original moves too so he had to battle them into a corner of using Shadow Rush on Plusle or Minin (who he was running out of potions to heal) and then capturing them was the next problem. But he finally got two (strangely with less reaction then Misdeveus' old trainer). With this team he had managed to get through the first three rounds and now he was fighting a Goldeen and Machop with Murcrow and Furret.

"Alright, Furret! Use Shadow Rush!" Gary ordered. Furret complied, knocking out Goldeen, but then started thrashing and growling. "Oh god, Hyper Mode" Gary groaned. So far he'd avoided it but he had no clue what to do. But at least this time it'd attack the other trainer not him. "Okay, use Quick Attack!" Gary was smacked hard by Furret and fell back "OKAY WHAT THE HELL?"

Then it finally occurred to him that he'd seen the other Shadow Pokémon snap out of Hyper Mode himself. They'd just called their Pokémon's names. Maybe Amy was right when she called him an idiot…

Nah, that was just ridiculous.

"FURRET!" Gary called. The Pokémon shook its head and looked slightly confused. Battle went on, and Gary gained an easy victory. Misdeveus' former trainer was right, you only need to be half deceit to beat most of these wanna-be trainers. Once Machop was down, Gary's hands clenched. Now he could finally rescue Amy. As he left the stadium he was approached by three nearly identical looking men in lab coats and strange man with an afro playing salsa music.

"So you're Gary Oak," The first lab coat man said, smiling.

"We've been hoping to congratulate you. Follow us, we have a prize for you downstairs," the second said. The afro man just laughed. Gary smiled and nodded as they showered him with praise over his victory and led him towards a staircase. Then Duking suddenly ran up to them. The other men narrowed their eyes and the afro man seemed to have slipped away.

"Gary! I just got a call from Amy, she's safe! Cail saved her, the sneaky brat! But hey, she's safe! They're in Phenac so you don't have to go through the Colosseum after all!" Duking said grinning. The second man in a lab coat made a note on his clip board. Then they all ran. Gary and Duking looked at each other. Then Gary scowled at this, but decided to let it go.

"I am really glad Amy's safe," he sighed and then stalked out of the stadium. It seemed he was not happy about missing out on his prize, or maybe missing out on saving Amy himself? "Where's Phenac?"

"To the East, you're going now? Shouldn't you get some sleep first? You've been battling all night…" Duking said with a frown.

"Huh? Really? I don't feel tired," Gary said with a shrug. Duking saw him to his motorcycle at the edge of town. He jumped on. "Thanks for all the help. Um, you're sure Amy's okay, right? And is in Phenac City?"

"Yes I'm sure. I saw her on the video phone; her eyes are just like Rui's," Duking smiled, then his smile dropped, "When you find her, you should get out of the region. It's not safe for her here."

"Yeah, you're right. We'll get out as soon as I find her," Gary nodded, mentally preparing himself to murder his grandfather when he got back to Pallet for sending the two of them out here to start with. As he crossed the desert though, a thought occurred to him that hadn't for a while. Amy's father was out here somewhere, trapped by Snag'em. If Amy found out, she'd want to save him, no matter the cost… Gary had a sinking feeling in his stomach as the sand passed below him.