Bad Memories
The afternoon sun beats down on Serenity Forest. This places surrounds the park that Kibou had battled the PCU yesterday alongside Plush. Unlike the town, this place has a much more serene and calm atmosphere. After a short breather in the park, he decided to fly into the forest to throw off Plush and Emma in the event they decided to go after him.
The forest has many different flowers, berry trees, and colorful plants growing all over, making it seem like springtime all over again. This reminds Kibou of what happens on his island during spring, but just as how this reminds him of that, it makes him wish he could go back there even more. He aimlessly floats around the forest, looking at the trees and flowers, occasionally stopping to smell one.
He stops by a flower with a very deep pink color to it and he takes a gentle sniff. "Smells very sweet… just like…" he doesn't finish his thoughts, he already knows what his brain is trying to say.
The sounds of bird Pokemon can be heard all around, but ironically, not a single one of them is in sight. The peaceful atmosphere of the forest is calming to him probably because it reminds him of home. While still in a bad mood and upset over all the fighting, he's a little bit happy thanks to the surroundings around him.
As he floats forwards, something strange begins to poke through the tree trunks and grasses. This piques his curiosity and he flies over to it. The object in question is revealed to be a very strange looking building. Moss and vines are growing all over it and it seems to have been abandoned for a very long time.
He tilts his head and raises the equivalent of an eyebrow at it. "What's this building?"
He approaches the door and looks up. The place seems to have multiple floors. Next to the door is sign with faded text on it. He tries his best to read it, but time has worn most of it away and it's illegible. He places his right paw on the doorknob and twists it. To his surprise, the knob actually turns and the door opens for him. He lets go of it and the door squeaks itself open to reveal a dark lobby.
"This looks a bit scary… maybe there's a power source or something like that inside that I can use to turn all the lights on." he thought to himself as he grabbed the sword of his back and infused it with the "Fire" type, making flames come out of it, holding it up in the air.
The flaming sword provides light and he floats inside cautiously. He's heard of scary tales from his parents about going into old, abandoned places and how they can be dangerous when alone. These tales used to be scary but he's much older and no old building can scare him now.
The lobby is a mess, there's papers all over the place and it looks as if somebody hasn't cleaned the chairs and desks in years. "This place is really dusty and messy… someone should clean it up." he whispered to himself.
He goes through the only doorway on the other side of the lobby and comes to a hallway with 4 different ways he could go. He could go up the stairs to the next floor, down the stairs to the basement, or to the left or right. He wants to go upstairs, but something compels him to go into the basement for some reason and as such, he decides to go there first.
As he descends the stairs, it seemingly gets darker than before and he starts getting a weird feeling, almost like he's being watched by something. He ignores it, it's just his nerves. He reaches the bottom and comes face to face with double doors that seem to require a keycard. He doesn't have it so the only option he has is to use his sword to cut the door down. He removes the "Fire" typing from it and winds up for a few hits.
He slashes at the doors a few times and cuts right through them as if they were nothing. He jumps through them and the doors fall to pieces behind him. He immediately infuses it with the "Fire" type again so he can see. The basement isn't actually a basement at all, instead, it's a very long hallway with many doors on each side. It reminds him of the hospital he was at back in Hearthome City.
"Is this place a hospital or something? It looks a lot like the hospital in that city I landed in a few days ago." he whispered to himself as he floated through the hall, looking at each door and taking notice of the lack of any windows or peepholes.
As he gets closer to the end of the hall, he notices that the doors at the end aren't like the ones he's seen throughout the building. They're made of metal and have yellow and black tape on them. He reaches them and goes to push them open. They're really heavy and he grunts a bit as he struggles slightly to open them. He manages to do so and he's greeted to a giant room filled with many strange, cage looking fixtures on the walls, a few operating tables, and many different computers, lab equipment, and other stuff.
A chill runs down his spine. Something about this place is vaguely familiar to him, but how could it be that way when he's never been here before? He shudders at the thought of being in a place like this in the past. On the ceiling hang a few sharp looking instruments that don't seem too friendly.
As he floats around the room, his attention shifts to a random piece of paper on the ground. He picks it up using his psychokinesis and grabs it with his right paw and begins to read it.
"August 27th, 20XX: We've finally been given the green light to continue our research and start our newest task. The president has tasked all research stations under government control to start looking into the process of strengthening Pokemon via robotics and specially made armor. We're not blacksmiths, but we can surely say that robotic armor capable of bringing out a Pokemon's true potential is in the realm of possibility. The current mind control experiments he tasked us with have also been a total success, enabling us to fully control any and all Pokemon and their cognitive thinking as long as the mind control device is on their head. Once placed, it cannot be removed through normal means and attempts to remove it may prove to be… gruesome and fatal for the Pokemon in question. As for the robotic suits the president wants, they'll be able to withstand 4x super effective hits and reduce their damage to be around only 1.7x damage, with regular super effective hits only doing 1.067x damage. Dare I say not very effective hits will only do .35x damage, and almost ineffective hits doing .128x damage. They'll be very effective in battle, however, they'll be extremely expensive to produce initially. This is only research and development data and the actual battle performance may vary significantly. As for the three mythical feline Pokemon that were reportedly captured a few days ago on a remote island almost 1000 miles away from any mainland region, they have been sent off to the main facility for further research and potential testing. As for the remaining physical Pokemon and experiments done on them, most of them have been a success, even the extremely dangerous Shadow Pokemon project was a success too. The president doesn't approve of their use though, he said that they'll be too difficult for regular PCU grunts to control. Perhaps we'll be able to sneak them to the top executives in the unit but who am I to go against the president? - Edwick, Sinnoh Pokemon Research and Development lab #3464"
His brain processes this information for about a minute or so and a feeling of fear and nervousness begins to overcome Kibou. He gulps down some saliva and continues to look around. He doesn't understand much of what the paper said but from what he could understand, it seemed like they were doing some pretty bad things to Pokemon here and nobody knew about it because they were in the forest doing it in secret.
He walks past the operating table and takes a look inside one of the cages. He can't really see if anything's inside of it and notices a funny smell coming from it so he brings his sword closer and what he sees makes him jump back and drop his sword in shock. He gasps at it and starts to crawl back towards the far wall away from it in fear.
Inside the cage, there's a rotting corpse of a Pokemon. It's impossible to identify what Pokemon it is but it looks like its been there for a very long time. The only thing that's left is part of their face and it looks rather sad and hopeless, almost as if it knew what its fate was and couldn't do anything about it.
Seeing this freaks Kibou out, but this feeling is short lived as memories from his youth that he managed to suppress down for years suddenly resurface and play back in his head.
Almost 16 years ago, Kibou and his parents had ended up getting caught in the middle of the night by a very early form of the PCU when it had just started to form thanks to the president. It was a stroke of luck, under normal circumstances, the island they lived on is invisible to the naked eye and only by driving a boat or airplane through the special barrier that surrounds the island would one be able to know it even exists.
The PCU was trying to catch aquatic Pokemon when one of their boats stumbled into the barrier and revealed the island to them. Since Kibou and his parents were asleep, they were easily caught in simple, electrified nets and brought to a containment facility a few hours later.
They were then transferred a few days later to the main containment facility in Unova where all 3 of them were to be researched and possibly tested on too. During that time, Kibou had no idea of what was going on and could only hear the terrifying screams of Pokemon in pain as unthinkable experiments and terrible treatment was given to them.
One night while most of the Pokemon who were up for testing had fallen asleep, Kibou had started to ask his parents questions.
"Mommy, daddy, what's going to happen to us?"
His father thinks for a moment before responding. "I don't know. I can tell you one thing though, we're gonna be getting out of here soon. Before you know it, we'll be back home and we can all have fun once again. Okay?"
Kibou smiles innocently and nods happily. "Okay daddy!" he then turns to his mother. "We're gonna be going home soon! Do you know how we're gonna get back?"
His mother chuckles for a second before responding. "Perhaps we'll take a train to Sinnoh and then fly out over the ocean. Maybe you can play in the water on the way home too!"
He starts to giggle happily. "I wanna play in the water! I wanna go swimming with you! I want to go home now so I can play!" he continues to laugh for a few minutes before tiring himself out and falling asleep rather quickly.
With him asleep, his mother and father have a serious conversation between each other. "We're not gonna be able to escape at once. They'll easily catch us and lock us up in something that we won't be able to break through."
"So how are we gonna escape? If we can't all escape in one shot, then what can we do?"
He doesn't want to do this because he knows it might backfire. "We'll have to let him leave… he's got the power, and if they find out there's no telling what they'll do with it."
She nods slowly. Even though she also doesn't want to do it, it's the only option they have. It'll let him live and also protect him in the process. "We can't let them get his power. I just hope he keeps running and doesn't try to come back for us…"
A scientist suddenly walks by and kneels down to open up the cage door. Both Kibou's parents stand in front of him to prevent this human from grabbing him. It doesn't matter, since it seems this human isn't after Kibou, and instead, grabs both of his parents and takes them out of the cage. He closes the door in a rather noisy manner and it wakes Kibou up.
He crawls up to the bars and takes a look. He can't see very well and everything around him is a bit bright due to his little nap. A few minutes go by and he decides to try and call out to them.
"Mommy? Daddy?"
No response. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, two blood curdling screams are heard. They're coming from his parents and this scares him badly. He hurriedly crawls away from the bars and into the very corner of the cage and starts to cry. Not long after that, he hears the laughter of a few humans and then his parents are brought back to him, all bloody and beat up.
The memory ends and tears begin to form in his eyes and he shakes a little bit from the fear it caused him. This memory is one of the worst ones he has, and he suppressed it for good reason. Seeing the rotting corpse has opened pandora's box and all the memories of what those humans did to him and his parents, all the pain they caused them for their own experiments and fun, it comes back to him.
He can't handle the images in his head and being in this terrible place only makes it worse. He grabs his sword and as fast as he can, tries to teleport out of the building and succeeds. The terrible influx of memories quiets down as the tranquil sounds of the forest surround him once again.
He looks back at the building and sticks his tongue out at it. He floats away from it as fast as possible and a new memory comes into his mind. This one is about what had happened when he managed to escape the containment facility. It causes tears to drop from his eyes and pains him, knowing that he could've done something to prevent the event from happening.
It's in the past and while it should stay in the past, it comes back to haunt him every once-in-a-while. This is one of those times. He flies deeper and deeper into the forest. Eventually, he comes across a giant, crystal clear lake. With sorrow and pain in his heart, he decides to stop at the lake. Perhaps a drink and some cold water splashed on his face will rid his mind of the recently resurfaced bad memories.
Yes… while he might be just a child, he's a child with a slightly troubled past… I know all about it and if he wishes to make any progress, he'll eventually have to put said past aside and focus on the present and future. Alas, he is in the right spot to meet someone else who is just as crucial as me… I wonder what they'll say to him…
PD: Kibou has a troubled past. They'll be more about it in future chapters but for now, you'll just have to keep reading to find out. Seeya in the next chapter which will be kicking off the new upload schedule for this story. When new chapters are ready, every week, one of them will be put up on Sunday in the afternoon and another may be put up on Wednesday or Friday during the afternoon as well.