Chapter 25 Baby, It's Cold Outside

"The Shadow Triad…?" Rosa breathed, looking them over in awe. She had heard the Silver Knights explaining them before, and had heard Hugh's tales of the men that stole his pokémon, but actually seeing them… Well, that was another thing entirely. They unblinkingly looked ahead at Dr. Colress and said nothing. They were dead in the eyes and dead in the face, looking more like automatons than people. "What… did you do to them to make them like… this?" she asked, suddenly doubting the confidence she had so carefully been building since the night before, since Dr. Colress had told her he could do something that would 'draw out her true humanity,' in his own words. She had already been nervous about that—Dr. Colress' understanding of humanity was flawed, to put it nicely—but this… She didn't even know where to begin…

Dr. Colress gleefully pranced forward and put a hand on one's shoulder, peeking his head over at her to reveal that stupid grin. "They've been a long-time project, so the patchnotes are quite long, but I can try to shorten it!" He jumped away from the one he was leaned on and patted them on the back. "These three were first created 24 years ago! Well, they themselves weren't created then, and most certainly not by me…" He trailed off as he said that, losing his train of thought for a second. In fact, his expression abruptly soured like he had just sucked on a lemon. He drew in a fast breath, apparently banishing that thought, and cheerfully continued, "I just turned them into the Shadow Triad at that point!"

As disturbing as his revelations were, Rosa, however, was hung up on a particular detail. She gawked at him. "24 years ago…? Dr. Colress… how old are you?" She could have sworn he looked like he was 24 at the most!

"My dear Miss Rosa, I'm 43," he laughed, waving a hand at her. Then he winked. "But do keep that private, don't need anyone thinking I'm an old man, now. After all," he sighed, "age is just a number. You humans and your silly societal rules regarding this arbitrary number of times we have revolved with the Earth around the sun… I was first creating the mind-altering technology necessary to create the Shadow Triad when I was 17, and yet, I was still in school!" He pouted. "I am an absolute genius and they kept holding me back!"

He was dumping information on her faster than she could keep up. It seemed to be a nasty habit of his with her. She could say one thing and it would set him expositing about several different tangents. Still, her mind did catch that he said he was 43, and she was astounded. He truly did look so much younger… Scrambling to keep up, once his statement about beginning to create them at seventeen sank in, she whispered, "You… what?"

"Details, details!" he loudly complained, waving his hand at her more vigorously. He swept a gesture across the Shadow Triad, who were still unfalteringly staring ahead at the fountain. He snapped his fingers and cleared his throat. "Mm, you three can turn around now. Don't be rude," he snickered. Obediently in unison, like a group of well-trained Arcanine at a circus, they turned on their heels to give Rosa a deadpan stare. Satisfied, Dr. Colress adjusted his still-pulsing sensor and continued. "See, I created the Shadow Triad for a… colleague." His expression soured again and this time, she saw his lips twitch, momentarily baring his teeth. "They ultimately respond to me, but they think they work for him. Not that they're a particularly lively bunch to begin with, but that's why they seem almost catatonic right now." To emphasize his point, he snapped fingers in front of their faces. None of them blinked or even followed his hand movements. "I have full control over what regions of their brains function and at what capacity. So, I can do this…" He started to reach to flick that pulsing sensor ringing his head.

Rosa waved her hands frantically and her Pignite squealed. "Wait! Dr. Colress, I… don't think any demonstrations are necessary…" she whimpered. Shaking her head, she tried to piece together what he was saying… The Silver Knights and their Sage, Rood, had told her some about the Shadow Triad… She had been reeling too hard at the realization that they had actually existed to think too much about it then, but she did recall him telling them that they had responded to Ghetsis… the man that had been behind the original Team Plasma.

She froze.

I created the Shadow Triad for a… colleague.

His hand dropped to his side and he frowned at her. "Oh, come now, Miss Rosa, don't you enjoy seeing my work?"

Heart pounding, Rosa came to realize that Dr. Colress had had a hand in assisting the original Team Plasma, in the ones that had attacked the Pokémon League; even if indirectly, he had been involved in this long before. How long had he been collecting 'data,' as he called it? How many other victims like the Triad were there? Head swimming and as if she had forgotten who she was talking to, Rosa said through clammy lips, "Yes, but… Dr. Colress, they're still people…" She couldn't question him about his involvement with Ghetsis. The way his expression darkened at the mention of that colleague and his previous outbursts made her certain that was a terrible idea. Yet, she couldn't help the way her heart bled as she looked on at the Shadow Triad, unyielding and unaware. They were quite literally fleshy machines.

"Mm, they used to be, anyway!" Dr. Coless exclaimed in a sickeningly joking tone. "These three originate from the Village of Dragons just beyond Unova's borders, if you are curious, but that's unimportant. Their humanity is long lost now. They are more machine than they are people, really. Besides! That's not the point!" he grumbled, clearly flustered by her response. Without warning, he stamped on one's foot with the heel of his boot. The member of the Triad didn't react whatsoever. With a proud, expectant look to Rosa, he gloated, "They feel pain, but they don't suffer the stupid, human reaction of recoiling or buckling beneath it! They can feel it well enough to save themselves if in dire straits, but otherwise? They will complete whatever task they have been given." Stepping away from the Triad, he clasped his hands behind his back and nodded his head approvingly to himself. "Similarly, the Triad does not have normal emotional capacity. That is where the difference between what I want to offer you and what they have undergone lies! While the Triad is an experiment in the lack of compassion and emotion in the mechanical extraction of the potential in humans, you, Miss Rosa, could be the experiment in emotional and compassionate extraction of potential in humans!"

Now seriously doubting her earlier confidence and deeply disturbed, Rosa staggered away from him, her Pignite following suit. She shook her head in desperation. "Dr. Colress, this is—I don't know what I was expecting but—this is—I can't—"

He hopped so that he was right in her face again, that demented smile still crossing his lips. "Miss Rosa! Come, come, stop this! It's not as bad as it looks!" He patted her cheek in that way that made her skin crawl and her blood run like icy sludge. She gritted her teeth as her face screwed up at his touch. She could feel his breath against her skin, hot and unpleasant. "As much as I want to understand how to draw forth the potential in pokémon, I have an even deeper interest in that of humans… In just what makes you creatures tick…" He creepily cocked his head at her again. "That's my real focus. Pokémon just help me further that goal, so that's why I focus on them as well, Miss Rosa. Like I've said before… My desire to research is my own."

Rosa reared away from him and violently shook her head. She couldn't believe this. This was madness! "Dr. Colress," she bitingly started (after all, he needed her for his data; he wouldn't harm her, surely?), "you are human. I don't know what you're getting at, but you are human. Why—why do you act like you're not, like you have to study me like an alien?"

His expression fell like it did earlier when he joked about having not created the Shadow Triad. "I am not human," he breathily whispered, running his hand across her cheek again, this time unsettlingly tenderly. Such a mechanical scientist shouldn't have been capable of such a soft gesture. "Someone made sure of that a long time ago…"

Mind swimming with fear, anger, and now, frustrated confusion, Rosa increasingly felt the urge to run. She went to shake her head and Dr. Colress just gripped her jaw tightly, digging his nails into her flesh, forcing her steady. That set her heart to beating quickly all over again; he was shockingly strong for someone that spent so much time in a lab. "Are we going to have a problem, Miss Rosa?" he asked quietly.

Red-hot anger flowed through her veins and Rosa felt as if the strength in her body grew tenfold as she managed to wrench her hand free of his grasp, and then brought her teeth down on his gloved limb, sinking them as deep as she could get them in the few milliseconds she had before he yelped and drew back his arm. She had traded in her fear for fury as she kept telling herself he wouldn't actually harm her if he didn't have to. Talking back to him and not falling for his tough guy act was not inherently inhibiting his research or threatening his incognito role in Neo Plasma. She could afford this. She would not be an abused little experiment for him, not like the broken Triad ahead of her. She felt sorry for them, but she had no intentions on joining them.

He flailed his hand against the cool, early morning air, completely focused now on the pain in his palm rather than her. Rosa stamped a foot and raised a hand, pointing at him. "You love to tell me how you're not human and you're nobody else's experiment," Rosa spat at him, "yet you want to treat me the same! Are there even others like me? Why me specifically, Dr. Colress? Why do you treat me like this, huh? What do you get out of it?" She understood her reasoning perfectly for wanting to get closer to him… but why did he seem so fascinated with her?

His amber eyes lifted from his injured palm at last and he just stared at her for a long while, cradling where she had bitten him in his other hand.

She shook her head and looked at the Triad. "You're right. You're not human, but it's not for whatever fucked up reasons are in your head. What were you even going to do to me?"

"You are truly fascinating," he said breathlessly at last. He surreptitiously dropped both hands to his sides and issued her a smile unlike his usual Cheshire grins. This one was warm and slight, strangely… genuine. It unnerved her so badly that the tension in her form faltered. "Miss Rosa, you misunderstand me. I do not want to harm you or make you mine in any capacity. I want to study you, but you are not mine to use, oh no. To force you to act in any one way would skew my data!" he explained as if it were the most obvious reason in the world. She almost felt the urge to slap him. "No, Miss Rosa, I want to do something to you that will turn those turbulent emotions into power. Isn't it so exhausting?" he asked incredulously, "to have these powerful surges through your veins that make you feel like you could shove mountains! And yet… you can't. Isn't that so, very frustrating, Miss Rosa?" he pressed as he started to circle her. "Imagine all you could do. You could remove any obstacles in your path from then on, no matter what they may be, by simply using your human emotions to their fullest potential! That's what fascinates me so much about you. Even now, even though I could kill you and your Pignite right this instant if I so desired and you would have no power to fight me off, you were willing to attack me. Wouldn't it be so nice to have the bite to back up that bark, Miss Rosa?"

"And give you free data… and why would you give me that if you know I could turn on you?" she demanded sharply, shrinking away from his every move and touch. The tense safety she had felt with him before had rapidly started to fade the second he introduced the Shadow Triad and had fully left after he grabbed her earlier. She had been so, so mistaken to think Dr. Colress was harmless as long as she agreed with him. He was the personification of instability.

Dr. Colress paused and slyly glanced to the Shadow Triad. "Do you really think I'd not think about a failsafe or two to keep you from turning on me or my colleagues?" he asked, that sultry voice dripping with malice. "Miss Rosa… I don't like how much you seem to be threatening me lately." He frowned and rounded those golden eyes at her. "I thought you were intrigued by my work? I thought you wanted to be more involved? Miss Rosa, you were not just hoping to get something out of me, were you?" He laughed. "Because, my word, Miss Rosa, that would not end well for you…" He knowingly glanced to her Pignite, then back at her. "Miss Rosa, you know far too much to back out now, and have too much to lose by doing so… don't you?"

She still just felt the urge to slap him and it was so very difficult to keep from doing just that. She still didn't think he would do anything to her just yet, but he was clearly growing increasingly annoyed with her. Still unwilling to back down, she snapped, "You're a monster."

"I am better than human, and I will make you better than human, too," he said sweetly, stepping away. "That deluded uncle of mine will not know about this. This will be just our little secret, Miss Rosa…"

Uncle…? Shoulders sagging, Rosa pleadingly looked up at him. She still felt that desperate anger, but could tell that would only upset him further. Feigning hurt, she practically mewled, "Dr. Colress… This is way more than I ever anticipated… I'm… I'm scared…"

His expression softened slightly, and that genuine smile crept back, replacing the wicked creepiness. "Do not be afraid, Miss Rosa. I am never wrong, and my equipment never fails. You could not be in better hands. You are quite possibly the first person to take such a keen interest in my work at its true value rather than to try to warp it to your own needs…" His voice steeled and he narrowed his eyes at her. "Nothing will happen to you or your Pignite as long as you do not intend to bring harm to me, try to intentionally hurt my research, or reveal my relations to Team Plasma to those I am not ready for, Miss Rosa."

It's a good thing I intend to do two of those things eventually, then, isn't it? Rosa thought to herself sarcastically. And I'm sure the third will just happen along the way.

"However, this process isn't an overnight one, and most certainly isn't one we should start now. I have fires to put out aboard the Frigate. Well, not literally, but still." Dr. Colress flippantly waved her off again. "Goodbye, Miss Rosa! We must discuss the details of what I want to do with you another time, perhaps even install the chip! For now, though, I must return to the Frigate! Farewell!"

She was absolutely terrified of what he meant by that, but she knew there was nothing she could do now. She had terribly underestimated him yet again and she didn't want to even think about what he meant by chip. Voice cracking with the dryness in her throat, she croaked, "Goodbye, Dr. Colress…"

She was smart, but she was starting to realize that she was fighting a losing battle in trying to outwit Dr. Colress. It was becoming increasingly apparent that doing so… might just not be possible.

"Cheren, slow down… what happened? Are you okay…?" Bianca sounded and looked stunned as she animatedly waved a hand at the Xtransceiver to try and get her boyfriend's attention. His mind was racing, and his mouth struggled to keep up, to coherently form words. He was briskly making his way down Route Six with a plan in mind already. His Emboar hobbled after him, emanating a glow that helped keep him warm. The area had fallen dreadfully cold recently. That was part of why he was there.

"Neo Plasma's base. We found it. It's on a sailboat designed to look old and dilapidated, painted black, but we were aboard it and I can tell you now, it's no ordinary old sailboat. We have to keep in mind, these are the same people that designed a castle that could break out of the ground," Cheren reminded her quickly. "I told all the other gym leaders already. Gym Leader Clay alerted the Elite Four and Champion Iris and he wants to call a meeting soon, but before then, I'm heading to the Seasonal Research Lab to see if they've gathered anything about temperature drops—"

"Cheren," Bianca interrupted him, more sternly this time, "stop. You were aboard this ship? What happened? Slow down and talk to me, please…"

Impatiently, Cheren paused and snapped his fingers, wordlessly telling his Emboar to stop at his side as well. The Emboar snorted and then sat down at his heels. He didn't understand the exasperated edge to Bianca's tone. This was a huge deal! Neo Plasma had been a looming threat over Unova for some time, like how the first Team Plasma started according to the other gym leaders, and they had made an enormous breakthrough in discovering their base of operations! Failure to locate that had been what had allowed the original Team Plasma to fester and grow as strong as they did in the past! There just wasn't time to waste before they grew that strong again! Especially not if they are using an Ancient Dragon of Unova… or are going after one… he shook his head at the thought. But Hil and N are both gone, not in Unova, and Neo Plasma certainly doesn't know where N is… and they can't touch Reshiram without having a Dragon of their own, it's too strong…

Trying to soothe his voice so he didn't sound as annoyed as he felt, Cheren tensely explained, "Hugh, I think you said you gave him and his friend, Nate, a pokémon a while back? Well, Hugh saw a Neo Plasma grunt and tore off after them. I couldn't just let him get hurt, I'm a gym leader, I had to step in and do something. Nate and I followed him onto this sailboat. We were attacked by Neo Plasma, but we fended them off and then they booted us from their ship—with the Shadow Triad. I saw Zinzolin there, too, one of the Seven Sages from the original Team Plasma." He grinned at the camera. "Bianca, this has to be their main base! But there's something that disturbs me about it. The ship was extremely cold and all of Driftveil fell cold soon after. And Zinzolin himself, when I asked what they were doing, said that they were doing the same as always: using an Ancient Dragon to take over Unova. Except Hil and N aren't in Unova anymore…"

Bianca flinched when he said the names like she had been struck. After, she shook her head, eyes closed, and clamped a hand to her forehead. "Cheren," she sounded like she was close to whining hysterically, "why do you have to get involved with this?"

His heart sank some. "What… do you mean? I'm a gym leader. This is part of what I have to do."

"No, you don't," she bit back, "Marlon is a gym leader, too, and you tell me all the time about how he doesn't care at all about Neo Plasma and won't do anything more than report sightings."

"Yes, and he's not very well-respected because of it," Cheren shot back defensively, "at least, not amongst the rest of us. Humilau seems happy enough with it but… I don't know, Bianca, I can't just sit by and watch…" He rubbed the back of his head, confused, and raised a brow at her across the Xtransceiver. "Bianca… what's wrong?"

"The last time one of my childhood friends got involved with Team Plasma, he left without a word and never came back," Bianca said, still with a hand over her face and refusing to look at the camera. "Now, you blow off some days together with me to go handle it—they say they have an Ancient Dragon of Unova again—you saw what happened to Hil!"

Clenching his jaw, Cheren felt a pool of mixed emotions. On one hand, there was that flood of sorrow, guilt, that made him want to Fly back to Nuvema and comfort her. On the other, there was frustrated anger, because… "No. I didn't see what happened to Hil. He grabbed a handful of things and left without saying a word to anybody. Nobody saw what happened to Hil, Bianca." His Emboar huffed at him in a way that made him immediately second-guess his response.

He had good reason to. Bianca wrenched her hand away from her face and spat at the Xtransceiver, "And that's exactly why I don't want you getting involved in this!"

"Do you not trust me? Do you think I can't do this or that I'll just leave like he did?" Cheren asked incredulously. He didn't like what she was insinuating. He had hoped she would have known him better than that…

"That's not what I'm saying, Cheren, you're not listening to me."

Thoroughly frustrated, Cheren shook his head. "No. I think it's you who isn't listening to me. I'll talk later, Bianca." Without waiting to see her response, he hung up on her. Emboar just gave him a disappointed look. "What?" he asked him defensively as he started to walk down the route again. "This is my job. This is what I do. She'll believe me when she sees I come back safe and sound."

Emboar blew a puff of smoke at him and grumbled as he waltzed after him. Cheren's Xtransceiver soon rang again, when he was just feet away from reaching the Seasonal Research Lab's deck. "Now, who could that be?" he asked irritably as he reached for the device again. He was fully prepared to just swipe the call away or let it go to voicemail until he saw that it was Church. Surprised, he answered right away.

"Church?"

"Hi there, Teach," Church goofily called with a wide wave at the camera. He was apparently on his couch in his house, or so it looked like. "I know it's been a while, but—hey, are you and Bianca busy tomorrow?"

"Ha. Busy! I can bet what they'd be busy with…" a distant voice laughed and trailed off. Cheren furrowed his brow. Church was known to occasionally invite friends from Pokéstar Studios back to his home, but he rarely got that close to them. Cheren and Bianca certainly almost never met them, so for this one to know about him and Bianca was a surprise. They were too far from the Xtransceiver for him to make out their voice that well anyway, maybe he had misheard…

"Well, I don't know about her, but I am," Cheren impatiently responded. "I'm sorry, Church, I'd love to catch up, but I have to go. I'm at the Seasonal Research Lab for some business related to Neo Plasma."

"Oh… I mean, I really think you'd like this," Church eagerly said, "so—"

Growing frustrated again, Cheren shook his head and bitterly growled, "Church, I don't have time for one of your Pokéstar Studios parties or premiere day parties or… I have stuff I need to do. Call Bianca if you want, but I can't come tomorrow, and she and I probably won't talk for a little while."

Church pursed his lips and suddenly looked nothing like his usual self. "You live at the same house as her, Cheren."

Cheren almost laughed. "Doesn't mean we can't have disagreements," he reminded him sharply. "Seriously, I have to go. Talk later, Church."

"Cheren—"

He ended the call and marched into the Seasonal Research Lab.

Nate and Hugh woke that morning to find Rosa gone. Some of her things were still there, so they assumed she intended to return, but Hugh had been deeply worried by her disappearance. Nate hadn't liked it that much, either. She had been acting strangely recently and he had tried to talk to her, but she had insisted it was just stress over the Neo Plasma incidents… He hoped this was related to that and not something new. Still, as privately worried over it as he was, he was confused by Hugh's near hysteria, in how he called her a few times and even called Cheren to ask him if he had seen her. He had to laugh at Cheren's biting response, though; he had simply answered "no," and then hung up immediately.

It was well into the afternoon before she returned. Hugh and Nate had been killing time in the hostel room by tentatively sharing some interests. Unsurprisingly, Hugh was enraptured by intense action movies and shows, and loved violent, graphic games, and he had been shocked to learn Nate cared not for such media. Somehow, Hugh managed to coax Nate into admitting he liked gentler movies and low-stakes games; in fact, if Nate did any gaming at all, it was primarily little puzzle games on his Xtransceiver. Seemingly bored with their trainers yammering away, Hugh and Nate's pokémon had decided to get up to some shenanigans of their own. Spacey seemed to earn Ivy's trust well enough to keep the Servine from cowering at her presence, and at one point, she got him to use his vines to snatch a bag of treats from Hugh's bag, spilling them across the floor.

Hugh and Nate were jokingly scolding the pokémon as they cleaned up the mess when Rosa returned. Hugh all but dumped the ones he had picked up and scrambled over to the door. "Rosa!" he exclaimed. "There you are!"

Rolling his eyes, Nate tauntingly said, "Don't worry, Hugh, I got it."

"Where've you been?" Hugh asked a bit too intensely, more like he was demanding than anything.

Rosa swallowed hard and looked lost. "Sorry," she mumbled, "the… Neo Plasma stuff stressed me out, I just… went and walked and trained for a while…" Her Pignite squeezed into the room from behind her and huffed. Then, its interest was piqued by the dropped treats. Deciding discretion was the better part of valor, Nate just gave up and dropped the ones he'd gathered, letting their collective pokémon vacuum the floor clean for him.

"You're all pathetic," Nate snorted, "acting like we never feed you or anything."

"The Neo Plasma stuff stressed you out…?" Hugh's voice dropped and he seemed to reel for something to say. "Right… Well… Uh. We were just planning to head on up Route Six, and… see if we couldn't make it through Chargestone in one go to get to Mistralton…"

"To train more so you can face Neo Plasma," Rosa explained in a deadpan. "It's okay, Hugh. I get it. It's fine."

Nate cast her a doubtful look and then felt a little nervous. It was quickly feeling very tense in this room and he wasn't a fan. "Well," he said, trying to break it, "we should get our things together and then leave then, shouldn't we?"

"I think I want to relax for a little while," Rosa admitted.

Hugh blinked at her, expressionless. "I think I'll stay behind a little longer, too."

Nate just shrugged. "Suit yourselves. I'll go train or something until you two catch up. You can just call me on the Xtransceiver when you're on the way."

"Oh, Nate!" Rosa's exclamation caught him off-guard and made him jump.

"Yes…?" he asked nervously.

"Has—has anyone been calling you today?" she pressed, brown eyes intensely locked onto him.

Nate looked down at his Xtransceiver and flicked the screen open, going to the call log. Usually, he did have a flood of calls by this time, but today, his parents had apparently decided to be eerily silent. He just shook his head slowly. "No… Why?"

"No reason," she quickly answered, folding her legs as she sat down on the edge of her bunk. "None at all."

"Right…" Deciding he didn't want anymore of whatever this was, Nate was quick to recall his pokémon and head on to Route Six. Maybe some time together with Hugh and Rosa would do them some good. Maybe Rosa could talk some sense into him. Either way, the room had started to feel claustrophobic and oddly tense in a way that made Nate feel gross with the beginnings of adrenaline, so he was happy to leave, Spacey perched proudly on his shoulder again.

He clutched his silver windbreaker closely as he left. It had gotten so cold in Driftveil over the night… He'd need a better jacket at this rate.

No real QOTDs as tbh this was mostly to just explain the Shadow Triad and set up for the next chapter. Though Im always curious to see how yall are liking Colress and his spiel so far because man am I having fun with this guy.

I am also slowly realizing that I have SO MUCH STUFF going on in this story that it will probably end up longer than the original Black, lol. On one hand I am sorry cause I know it's a lot but on the other I'm not that sorry because... yeah I have a lot going on but Im having fun, why cut certain character arcs and things out when I'm having fun? I have sooo many ideas for so many things and if that means the story ends up 200-300k words long so be it lmao. Thank you for those of you that continue to read, enjoy and comment on my insanity though, it really means a lot!