Edric awoke with a start, sweeping his arm out in front of him to stave off whatever had knocked him out. The first thing he noticed was that someone had moved him back to the outside of the cave. He was sitting up against the trunk of a tree. His bag and belt of Pokeballs lay next to him.
Then he felt a brutal panging in his head, like he had fallen and cracked his skull open – Oh -
He tried to laugh, but all he could get out was a sharp gasp before a wave of dull pain washed over his head. He reached up to put his hand over his skull, but he didn't feel his hair. Someone had wrapped a wet towel around his forehead. He clasped his hands of both of his temples, trying to somehow steady his brain so it could stop ringing so damn hard. When he brought his hands down, he realized one his palms was redder than the other. He was bleeding, or at least he had been. It wasn't a bad bleed, maybe a cut or something.
"You're awake! How do you feel?"
Emily's voice seemed to come from everywhere around him. It took a while for his eyes to stop seeing things that weren't there before her face formed in his left periphery. She stood against a tree, fingering a Pokeball. She smirked down at Edric, before walking over and kneeling at his side.
"I'm fine." he snarled. He didn't like that dumb smile on her face. He had just cracked his head open and she was here grinning like she had won the lottery. He took a deep breath and tried to stand, but his head immediately made that impossible. He froze in a crouching position, his vision spotting again. He felt nauseous and nearly fell over twice before he was finally able to stand up with Emily's help. "What the hell happened?"
"There was a Pokemon in the cave that apparently didn't want us there. It attacked us and put you, Ethan, and Hart in some kind of lock. I was in it too but I guess it lost focus or something. I was able to distract it with Pignite for a minute, but you ended up catching the tail end of it. It put you to sleep and you hit your head pretty hard on the ground. The cut isn't bad, probably won't need stitches. It still bled quite a bit though."
His head pounded again. Ethan and Hart appeared from his side as he turned to look around the forest. Ethan raised a hand to touch Edric's face and he leaned into it. "I'm glad you're not hurt, Ed."
"Me too. What was it that attacked us?"
Emily smirked again, holding the Pokéball up. She released what was inside and the temperature took an uncomfortably familiar drop. The Pokémon stared about menacingly, the pupils of its comically oversized eyes small and red. It's 'body' was just a cloud of black gas that got much darker in the middle. It was translucent. Edric nearly screamed, he didn't like this Pokémon at all.
"It's called Gastly. They're like extremely rare and usually don't live anywhere in Sinnoh. I'm actually quite curious as to how it got all the way out here." As Emily spoke, Gastly whirled about in the air. The cloud of gas never moved, just the giant floating eyes. Edric began to inch away from the cold it exuded. It sent a constant chill up his back.
"It scares the shit out of me." Edric told. "I wonder why it attacked us. Pokemon usually don't just go attacking humans like that unless they sense some kind of threat. What would've threatened them?"
The other three just shrugged in response. Edric grimaced as his head panged again. He hoped this headache would go away soon.
–
"I can't believe we've spent two weeks on this damn mountainside and haven't seen a single Pokemon!" Edric moaned one afternoon as they crossed a particularly wonderful-looking spring that looked like it should've been crackling with life. "There has to be something going on around here."
Edric was tired of this mountain. His feet hurt, he had no cell phone signal – Or a place to even charge his cell phone – He was tired of eating dry food all the time, and he was pretty sure he had a blister on his ankle from his hiking boots. All of those were just minor things though, what really got to him was that the serene peace that came with the lack of noise had quickly morphed into an eerie feeling of emptiness. He sometimes found himself waking in the dead of night and listening to the sound of nothing.
In the weeks that past, they were getting so frustrated that they resorted to dedicating specific days to looking for any Pokemon at all. Gastly seemed to be a special case as they always came up empty handed. The plan was to hike for two days up then mountain, then spend half of the next day looking for Pokemon, and the other half training. Emily seemed to be making progress, but the other three couldn't focus quite enough. Even when there was the sound of attacks being flung everywhere throughout their camp, the unnerving silence was ever-present.
"It is quite hard to believe, I'd say. Literally every report I read on this place said that there were hundreds of reported species of Pokemon here. We've seen one so far, and it nearly killed Ed." Hart mentioned.
They hiked laboriously up a sharp hill where slates of rock jutted out to shape a natural staircase. As they walked, Hart studied the screen on his GPS. Hart mentioned that the device ran on batteries, so they didn't have to worry about recharging the thing any time soon. He was looking down at the screen with a confused face as they climbed. Then he suddenly stopped climbing and stood still on the incline, almost clashing with Emily but moving out of the way just in time. The others stopped too.
"What's going on?" Edric said, his hands on his hips. Beads of sweat ran down the sides of his face and matted the hair that wasn't covered by his hat.
Hart tapped a few buttons on the screen and the device made a beeping sound before going completely black. "For some reason, my signal was just interrupted." He fiddled frustratingly with the device.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know. I was looking down at it and suddenly it just blanked. It couldn't have been the altitude. We've definitely been higher above sea level than we are now and it's never done this before."
"Do we still have a map or something that could help us follow the trail?" Emily asked, a bit of desperation in her voice.
"The GPS still has a map, yes, but I'm afraid we wont know exactly where we are at all times. We'll need to wing it, I guess." Hart rubbed the back of his neck.
Edric sighed deeply as he turned and continued walking.
–
"What? All the way up here? What kinda cave system runs this high?" she complained, kicking rocks in frustration.
They stood in front of an area of collapsed cave that stretched for further than Edric could see, The giant gash in the land plummeting straight down into a running brook.
"There's no way we could cross this. It must've happened recently." Hart eyed his GPS device. "We'll have to go around it, I guess."
"Is that even an option? What if we get lost?"
Hart eyed Edric, considering what he just said.
"To the east is an area of lower elevation. If that's whats making my GPS and our phones act weird, it's probably better down there anyway."
There were slight glances exchanged between them as Edric fingered his belt nervously. He didn't like the way this was going.
"It seems as though it's our only choice then. There's no way we'll be able to cross this thing without killing ourselves." He settled. They all nodded in response.
"Let's just hope we can find somewhere with cell signal. I think I might just call some help and tell them to come get us. This place is creepy as all hell." Emily added as they turned eastward.
–
They'd been walking for hours before they came to a stop again. Edric was thirsty. They all stood around him as he shrugged his bag off his back and knelt to the ground. As he unzipped the pocket, he thought he heard a small thud and rustling behind him. He reached into his bag, got the water bottle, and stood. His friends turned to him as he uncapped and downed it.
"What's that?" Ethan said, pointing behind him at something. He took two steps past Edric before there was a popping and hissing sound like someone opening a soda. The area that he and his friends occupied suddenly erupted in a cloud of white-purplish gas. Edric gasped loudly at the surprise, sucking in metallic-tasting air. When he breathed out, his vision went hazy and he fell over for the second time on the mountain.
I shudder awake, sweeping a flat palm out in front of me. Soft, cool wind tousles my hair and clothes. I realize quickly that I am falling, but for some reason, I don't panic. All around me is a deep cobalt. There isn't a place to put my feet, yet I manage to stand upright. I feel my weight shifting. I'm no longer falling.
I'm about to say something, but something hushes me.
'We know you.'
The voice seems to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. The voice is definitely one I have never heard, but it has a strong familiarity in it. Like someone from a long-forgotten memory.
'We know you.'
The ground sweeps from under me and I'm descending again. I watch around me as my surroundings swirl from the attractive blue to a deep red. My feet settle again and I want to say something – many things – but I cant seem to find the way to position my tongue and form the words.
A different voice speaks for me instead. I am taken off guard. It's definitely my voice, but there is something strange in it. There is a monotony in it, a deep complication. I could never hope to reproduce it myself.
"Where am I?"
There is a long silence where I wonder what kind of dream this could be. I know for sure it is a dream, but it definitely isn't a normal one. Whatever I breathed in is having some kind of weird interaction with my brain.
'We know you.'
It isn't the same voice as before. This one is ragged and demanding. It's tone is more demanding compared to the other clearer, evened voice.
'We know you, boy.'
I am taken off guard by the slight variation of the words that seemed to ring in my head. The second voice referred to me as 'boy'. What was that supposed to mean?
Suddenly, everything around me flicks off like a lightbulb. Darkness envelops me and my eyes shoot open.
Edric awoke with a start, immediately rolling up from being on his back to a sitting position. His eyes shot around the room frantically as the metallic taste still lingered on his tongue, despite the absence of the white smoke. His chest heaved and drops of sweat rolled down his face and head. Gathering himself, he looked around.
The room was grey all around. There was an old mattress that lay in the left corner and a faucet and toilet opposite. It was like a jail cell, but much cleaner. It made Edric uncomfortable among other, much more panicky things. Opposite where he sat was a door with a slot in the middle that functioned as a window. There was no handle on the inside.
As far as he could tell, he hadn't been harmed. He was still dressed in the same clothes he had before he passed out except for his overcoat, which had been thrown haphazardly on the mattress. His bag and belt were both missing from the room completely, though. Whoever had kidnapped him had made sure not to leave any loose ends.
His head dully ached again, he must've rekindled his headache when he hit. He tried to move his hands up to check if his scabbed cut was reopened, but he couldn't. His hands were bound behind his back.
He remained calm and shifted his weight around so that he squatted on the floor. He managed to get his legs through the space between his arms so that his wrists were in front of him. His wrists were bound tightly together by two lengths of cable tie wound together. The plastic dug painfully into his wrists as he tried to pull them apart with all his might. He only succeeded in scratching himself pretty bad. He gasped in frustration.
"Where the hell am I?"
He waited there for a few minutes that felt like hours to Edric. He occupied himself with worry about many things; his boyfriend, his Pokemon, his own life. He figured if whoever kidnapped him wanted to kill him, they would've already done it. But why would they want to kidnap someone like him?
He shoved his hands in his pockets, struggling to maneuver his wrists around to get to the bottom of each. Nothing. He scanned the rest of his immediate person for anything to help him, then went for the jacket that still lay on the mattress. He checked his shoes and socks. Nothing.
Edric was stuck here.
This was when he began to panic. His breath picked up and he readied himself to scream, but thought better of it. Screaming probably wouldn't accomplish much anyway. If he wasn't taken far from where they were hiking on the mountain, he could count on the fact that they were completely alone up here. He went to swipe a bead of sweat away from his eye and his cuff dug further into his wrists. He grunted in annoyance. The cable ties had been secured tightly. Tightly enough to where, if he positioned them right, he could -
Huh. Don't I feel stupid.
Edric stood quickly and turned his back away from the door. He raised both arms above his head and held his wrists perpendicularly. He raised his knee and slammed his wrists down on it, pulling the cable ties apart as he went. There was a small snap, and his hands flew free to his sides. Edric breathed deeply, massaging some feeling back into his wrist.
"Thank you, random nights on YouTube." He mused to himself despite his predicament. He had just been kidnapped and he was making jokes.
He went to the door and put his hands against the cold metal. He tried prying it open with his fingers, but it wouldn't budge. He did manage to sneak them between the notches in the sliding window. He looked through the tiny window and into a dimly lit hallway. The window's position only allowed him to see what was directly across from him; another door to another cell.
His friends were in there.
The sound of a door closing suddenly echoed down the hallway and Edric heard footsteps approaching his left. He shut the window as quietly as he could, then slipped into a corner, his hands positioned behind his back. He sunk into a crouch at the wall, ready to lunge at whoever was about to walk through the door. He remained as quiet as possible as the footsteps drew nearer to his door then stopped directly in front of it. Edric felt a strong urge to get up and slide the window back again, but restrained himself as he heard the sound of a card swiping, then a low metallic click. His door didn't move. They were across the hall.
There were a few small footsteps Edric assumed belonged to their kidnappers, and then a sudden loud grunt. Edric moved as quickly as he could to the window as there was some shuffling from behind the door. As he slid the window back, someone slammed into the door from the other side, letting out a moan of pain before slumping to the ground in front of him. A tall boy with red hair stood before the unconscious figure, chest heaving and blood leaking from his wrists.
"Peter!" Edric croaked in surprise.
Peter glanced at Edric through the window and bent over to frisk the downed man. He paused when he got to the man's belt where a few Pokéballs hung next to a small box of black metal held in a holster with two silver prongs at the tips and next to that a pair of black scissors. Peter plucked the taser and scissors from his side and went to retrieve the key card the guard had dropped during their scuffle. When he slid the card through the slot outside Edric's door, it popped open with a click.
"What are you doing here? Peter questioned.
Edric couldn't ignore the fact that Peter's wrists were dripping with blood. He grabbed them and pressed his thumbs against them to stop the bleeding. Peter winced as Edric hovered over him.
"How did this happen?" Edric said worried
"I had a bit of a hard time getting the cable ties off. Is there anybody else with you?"
As if on cue, a hushed yell came from further down the hallway. "Edric, is that you?"
Edric rushed down the hallway, stopping at a door very similar to the ones that held peter and himself a few moments ago. He slid the key card through the slot to the left and the door shot backward and Ethan came bursting through. He made contact with Edric – His hands still bound by the cable ties - and planted a kiss on his forehead.
"Are you alright? What happened?" He was referring to Peter's arms as the boy came into view in the dim hallway.
Peter explained how he scraped himself on the cable ties trying to get his hands free to fight the guard. He mentioned that he had also been taking Tae Kwon Do since he was a kid which explained why he was able to take down the guard so easily. Edric wasted no time in using the scissors to cut Ethan hands free.
"Where are the others?"
Edric quickly went to work on unlocking every cell door until he finally came across Hart and Emily closer to the end of the hallway where the guard had came from. Neither of them had gotten out of their cuffs like Peter and him did, so he cut both of them apart with his scissors.
"Holy shit am I glad to see you guys. I thought I was dead for sure. " Emily said, signs of dried tears streaking her face. She wrapped her cousin in a warm hug as her hands were freed. Edric smiled despite the fact that they were still in danger. It was rare that his cousin ever showed NY kind of affection toward him.
"Anybody realize that we're the only prisoners here?" Hart pointed out.
They all let the comment go to the wind as they heard more footsteps coming from down the other end of the hallway. Before they could hide, a man in a light blue shirt and khakis appeared from the door the other guard had come from. Edric didn't even realized Peter was moving from beside him until the boy had tackled the man to the ground and covered his mouth with his hand. Peter delivered two swift strikes and the man was unconscious. Edric couldn't even gather himself to look surprised as they quickly rushed up to meet him.
"They all seem to be dressed in this same outfit. Maybe it's a uniform or something." Peter heaved out as he stood again. There were red bruises on his knuckles from where he punched both the guards.
"You think this could be the same group that attacked Edric in Oreburgh?" Ethan asked.
"It's a possibility. We should move ahead and find our bags so we can make contact with the police or something."
With a bit of effort, they stripped the two guards of their tasers, scissors, and keywords before locking them in one of the cells that opened from the outside. Neither of them were very heavy, so it didn't take much.
They then moved through the doorway onto a set of stairs that only lead to one other floor. The stairwell was just as dimly lit as the hallway, which made Edric wonder if it was this dim throughout the whole building. He got his answer when they stepped onto the ground floor. Long windows lined the left wall of a long corridor. The windows looked out onto a giant courtyard with a large steel wall on the side opposite of the building they were in. On the left side of the courtyard was a long farmhouse-looking building with no windows at all. To the right side of the courtyard was a smaller building with a satellite dish pointed toward the sky. The only light in the hall they were in came from the large football stadium floodlights that lit the courtyard.
"What the fuck is this. Why the hell is that gate so big?" Emily said as they stared straight ahead through a window.
"Looks like they're trying to keep something big contained. It doesn't seem to be working out." Hart pointed out. There were big gashes in the metal where it looked like something had tried to force it down.
"We should find our shit and get out of here. I have a really bad feeling about this place. We're lucky we caught the night shift, there'd probably be a lot more guards here than any other time of the day." Peter eyed a clock on the wall of the hallway. It was 4 in the morning.
After a short discussion on which way to go, they quickly decided to split up to find their things. Edric and Emily would move further down the hallway toward the farmhouse, and the other three would search every room in the hallway and in the satellite room before meeting up with them in 20 minutes back in the hallway. They sorted out their weapons as well. Edric and Hart both took a taser while Ethan and Emily took scissors. Peter could handle himself. Edric almost laughed at the boy's cliche regurgitation of a plethora of corny action movies.
The door to the farmhouse was strange to open. It was like a door to an underground bunker. Edric and Emily had to spin a wheel to draw back the lock from the inner wall before they were able to twist the handle. They realized that the door was both airtight and soundproofed once they cracked it open.
There was a giant whirring sound as they stepped through the doorway and into the giant warehouse. The room was huge, twice as big as any department store Edric had been in. The walls were made of some kind of Grey metal and we're lit by the same floodlights they had seen in the courtyard. Immediately in front of the door was a large generator device that hummed like an engine. Out of the front of the generator came a large bundled cord as thick as Edric's entire body. The wires broke off as the room went further back, each leading to a row of large cages with shimmering barriers in front of them that reminded Edric of the move protect.
There were hundreds of cages of multiple sizes, some shorter than Edric's waist and some standing over 30 feet taller. In each of those cages were 2 to 4 Pokémon of a the same species, held captive.
Edric felt a plethora of emotions all at once, and they all seemed to feed one emotion in particular: anger. He felt anger for his kidnapping. Anger for his time wasted on this mountain. Anger for the fact that there were hundreds of Pokémon being held captive. And most of all, he felt anger for the fact that no one was here guarding this area, which meant that whatever had compelled them to capture all these Pokémon wasn't as important than guarding a couple teenagers.
Edric watched in horror as the Pokémon in the front row of cells reacted to his sudden entrance to the massive room. Although Edric couldn't hear them they screamed and reared forward onto the barriers. He saw four Pokémon with round blue bodies release a barrage of sharp leaves at the barrier to no avail, and a pair of Geodude slam full force into the walls. He nearly cried when he glanced around the corner at one of the much larger cells and saw that they held a pair of Onix that also slammed into their shields with. He suddenly knew what had caused the gashes in the gate.
"Edric, you okay?"
Edric had blanked. His fingernails dug into the palms of his hands as he clenched his fists. He stared straight ahead at the Onix as they thrashed about, throwing themselves toward him. His frustration only grew as he noticed the other Pokémon staring at him in horror. They thought he was the bad guy here, that he had captured him. The thought terrified him.
"We found them"
They both turned as Peter, Hart, and Ethan came through the doorway and immediately stopped upon seeing what the farmhouse held. Peter now sported a few small bruises on his upper arm, but for the most part they were unharmed. They held Edric and Emily's bags aloft, their belts slung around the straps. They froze as they noticed the Pokémon thrashing about in their cages. Ethan looked at Edric weird.
"You're crying?"
Edric hadn't even realized it until he felt tears dripping from his chin. His anger was making him emotional.
"I don't understand. Who the hell would do something like this to Pokémon?" he said, strapping his belt back to his waist."We're going to get them out of there. "
He repeated it even louder over the whirring the machine was making. He wasn't so sure if the Pokémon could hear him or not, but it didn't matter. He grabbed a handful of Pokeballs from his waist and threw them all out. Even the empty ones clattered out as Monferno, Psyduck, Luxio, and Noibat all materialized in front of the row of cages. The incarcerated Pokémon all suddenly stopped trying to break out and stared forward at Edric as his Pokémon looked around aimlessly. Edric stared back at all of them, tears falling down his eyes. He couldn't believe he was getting this emotional over something like this. He felt passionate about the well-being of Pokémon and all, but he hadn't realized it was to this extent. He felt he would take a bullet for every single Pokémon behind a barrier right now.
"Flamethrower! Dragon rage! Thunderbolt! Water gun!" he bellowed, sweeping an arm out toward the machine.
There was a second where Edric didn't think the machine had been destroyed when the attacks ended. The shimmering barriers stood for a few seconds after the thing had exploded, sending Edric to his back. He had just gotten to his feet when they suddenly flickered off, and hundreds of Pokémon poured into the small space Edric and his friends occupied.
–
Edric didn't remember much of what happened next. The memories in his head weren't really memories at all, mostly just pieces of things he could vaguely recall happening. Everything had moved so fast, he couldn't compose himself well enough. A combination of anger, retribution, and the collective screams of hordes of Pokemon made everything blurry for him.
After the barriers went down, Edric remembered the bigger Pokemon just sorta blasting a hole in the wall of the farmhouse, which sent everything into a panic. They were able to make it out before the farmhouse was completely destroyed, but the courtyard wasn't much better. He remembered reinforcements immediately being called in by whoever was left guarding the facility. They arrived almost immediately and suddenly more Pokemon joined the fray. Edric remembered ordering multiple Pokemon of his to pummel the Pokemon belong to one of the guards. As they battled, A stray bolt of lightning blew the sattelite dish on top of the building clear off the roof. Then, all of a sudden, Ethan was on the phone with the police as Edric and Monferno defended three baby Pokemon from a purplish snake Pokemon.
The only clear thing he could remember from that night, thoguh, was when something smashed into him from behind, immediately grounding him and knocking him unconcious.
–
He awoke in a hospital bed the next morning dressed in the same clothes he was wearing yesterday. He was filthy, and smelt that way too. He found he was covered in mud and still slightly damp from all of the water moves Psyduck and the other Pokemon had been throwing around. He was surprised he hadn't sustained any injuries despite the slight ache in his back.
"Good morning, Mr. Ryerson."
There was a white police officer with bags under his eyes sitting opposite of where Edric sat up in the bed. He held a pen to a notepad on his lap as he looked up at Edric. He offered a soft smile as Edric moved to get up. His muscles protested in exhaustion as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. He looked around for his bag and belt.
"Your friends and belongings are waiting for you in another room, for now. I think we need to have a talk about some recent events you've been involved in."
The police officer smiled again, then motioned to a cushioned chair opposite of himself. Edric sat.
"Where am I?" He asked before the officer could speak. The officer frowned a bit.
"You'll have time for questions in a moment. I need to ask you a couple things, first."
Edric nodded.
"Are you informed of the recent happenings around Sinnoh involving the harnessing and kidnapping of Pokemon?"
Edric shook his head. The police officer spat something that sounded like this was his hundreth time repeating it.
"The Sinnoh Department of Pokemon Law Enforcement has recently began receiving multiple reports of mass dissappearances of Pokemon in large areas all at once. We aren't – Well, weren't - sure of the cause of these cases, but they seem to be related to some underground cult organization disbanded decades back called Team Platinum. In the past, we really haven't been able to confirm Team Platinum's involvement in the dissapearances because of a lack of straight up evidence. A few weeks ago, we discovered a lead telling us that there were outposts being purchased in various places around Sinnoh by some unknown company. At first, we believed that it may very simply be something innocent, but last nights events confirmed that one of the properties purchased was in fact, a containment facility for kidnapped Pokemon."
Edric only stared back at him in awe.
"I can't go much further into confidential information, but I do have a few questions for you, Edric." He smiled again. Edric realized the officer was tryign to be comforting toward him. He understood why, although he didn't really think he needed it. He had just been in a warzone, yet he found he didn't really think much of it. He acknowledged that he very much could've died last night, and accepted the fact that he didn't. If he was being honest with himself, the only thing he really felt the urge to do right now was to see what kind of Pokemon he could find on this part of the mountain.
"How did you and your friends manage to find your way to the facility?"
The officer – Officer Bryce Jordan, by his name tag – wrote with fervor as Edric explained how part of the mountain trail had been blocked off by the crater where the cave had fallen in. Officer Jordan explained how Team Platinum were using sattelites to muck up any foreign electronics that came in the radius of their base, which was why Hart's GPS and their phones weren't working correctly.
"You mentioned you were knocked out by a gas canister. Did the gas have any other effects other than putting you guys to sleep?"
Edric didn't go into the details of the weird dream he'd had after he awoke. He only explained that he had some extremely lucid dreams.
The questioning didn't go much further than that. Jordan only wanted to scrape out exactly what happened from Edric's head. It only took ten more minutes before he finally let him ask his own questions.
"You're on the north side of the mountain about a day or so out from Hearthome City. Not many trainers are ever up here, but we still have a Police kiosk and Pokemon Center available for any emergencies that may happen. We know this place can get a little crazy sometimes."
Edric laughed at his musing. If 'crazy' is something he would use to describe last night, so be it. "Are my friends okay?"
The police officer laughed softly. "Actually, your friends are in much better shape than you. It seems you got carried away a bit in all the chaos and kind of wandered into a group of Pokemon. A stray attack hit you and you just went out."
Edric reddened a bit, his jaw clenching. "That's great."