Chapter 08 – A Search That Will One Day End
Driftveil City
It had been a long and tiring walk, and yet we made it to Driftveil City by nightfall, but we didn't stop here or find a place to spend the night, we had to find Yuri being held captured somewhere within the city by Team Annihilation Reborn. Our destination was at a bar where we would 'full of thuggish types looking for trouble' Devon and his intel team said that the hidden lab was somewhere underneath the city. Thankfully this city unlike most others wasn't crawling with Team Annihilation Reborn soldiers patrolling all exits of the city, but that didn't mean we could relax just yet, if the lab was underneath the city then obviously people who worked inside them must come up eventually, some might see and recognizing us and the city would be filled with soldiers within minutes. If Yuri was here, I wanted to find her and get out without any problems.
"Phew… man, that walk we just did… my legs are like jelly now… I can feel my heart beating like crazy here… like I was in a marathon or something…" Espeon gasped for air as we took a little break beside the city entrance. "Can't believe we made it here this soon… I thought we would've been here… *coughs* in four hours from now, but we managed to power walk the rest of the way… and take shortcuts… phew…"
"Yeah, well I had to since we did miss the bus to the city." I coughed, gasping for air the same as Espeon. "And I really didn't want to risk hitchhiking, who knows who we could've been picked up by. Someone possibly finding out about my bounty, who knows."
"And let's not forget that most people are not comfortable around talking Pokemon, especially a cool Espeon right here and her cool alternate colored Dewott friend." She smiled. "Alright… let's really catch our breath here… because I'm about to faint on the sidewalk here any minute… whew… damn!"
After a minute or so of resting by the entrance of the city, Espeon and I got right down to business by contacting Devon to let him know we had arrived. On the small handheld device we were given to contact him, his face appeared on the small monitor after the first two rings. "Zack, Espeon, so what has happened so far? Last I heard you two locked the ex member of the mafia boss Drake who once ran Driftveil city years ago alongside his brother."
"We've arrived at Driftveil City; we're going to search for this bar your intel team told you about." I said slightly lowering my voice cautious should anyone be listening nearby. "Any ideas where we might find this bar?"
"The intel team gave only a few pieces that may help you find the bar were the informant is."
Espeon and I looked at each other before turning back to the monitor and asking "We're meeting an informant?"
"He goes by the name of Night Shadow, obviously a false name all of my intel team have to use to conceal our identities. He calls himself this since he always works at night and he is never seen. He blends in and out of areas without problems, never arousing any suspicion by the opposing force after all he is very cautious whenever he talks to his true employees not wanting to break cover out in the open so close to the enemy. The bar is said to be located in the middle of Driftveil City, mainly around the entertainment district if you know what I mean; alcohol, gambling and such. The only thing noticeable about this bar you're supposed to meet him in is a bar with no name on the outside, only a green neon light cocktail glass flickering on and off constantly, kind of a killer to the eyes should one look at it too much from what the informant told me before I last spoke with him."
"So how will we find him once we enter this bar?" I asked.
"The informant will be in the back playing a game of poker. All you have to do is play a game, win a few rounds or lose them depending on what your play style is. But on the third round, leave the table by declaring 'I need to get me a round of drinks in me, followed by some nachos' wait at the bar and the informant will come to you, if not then contact me."
"Does the informant know about us?" Espeon asked, after watching a couple walk by paying no notice to us. "A talking Espeon and alternative colored Dewott companion, shouldn't we be the ones waiting for him?"
"The informant doesn't know, never asked except for the words he should listen out for. Anyone could claim they know you, could spark trouble with the bounty hunters and Shiny Latias' soldiers searching for you. The cash prize for your capture is attractive for those seeking a large sum of money."
"I guess that'll work." Espeon shrugged, casting another glance over at the couple who had walked passed us to find they were now halfway over the bridge.
"Devon, I'm curious, how exactly did you find out Yuri was here? What are your sources?"
"After hearing about your search for your family and friends, how long it had already taken that was when we stepped in. We were careful, working closely undercover with Team Annihilation Soldiers for many years trying to find all sorts of secrets and plans, it wasn't easy, I lost a good number of my team to them but it wasn't all for naught, with what we brought back, the information was more than we desired, we learned of their training methods, weapons and new gadgets they were developing for field use, and new bases to build to expand their name beyond the region, even underground bases in certain cities and routes." He said, pressing something on his keyboard as a map of the region was shown of the known bases of interest within the region. "These underground bases was the highlight of what we found, the one thing out of the many with high security involved and the highest level of access approved by Shiny Latias herself; underground bases made especially for test subjects, prisoners. The names we found within Driftveil had your sister's name listed among the many within that underground base. The others you are looking for in other cities and routes I will tell you about once Yuri has been recovered. The information we have for Yuri is needed right now, we can worry about the others later."
"Yeah, I questioned his knowledge at first, almost didn't buy it until he showed me all of the files and documents his intel team gathered before we arrived in Nimbasa to meet you Zackary." Espeon said after finally steadying her breathing. "It's legit, he was telling the truth. Man, all the things that shiny bitch is doing to these prisoners in these bases… they're barbaric, I can't even begin to explain the things I read in those files… the photos… ugh!" she shuddered. I didn't ask about the files, not wanting to picture Yuri going through the same things as the prisoners from the underground prisons.
"The things they had done shocked us all, disgusted us…" Devon said, closing the map of where the underground bases where located back to him. "My intel team is working on the other areas your friends and family remain, as well as locating Shiny Latias' headquarters. We'll let you know when we have any updates."
"Thanks Devon." I said before the connection cut off, and the two of us were ready to get back to work. Nervous of the mission and the dangers Espeon and I would face, fearing I would lose another friend to the enemy and yet anxious at what Yuri is like after all these years. The torment and torturous inhumane things they had done to her… I just hoped and prayed she was alright.
Driftveil City – Unnamed Bar
The bar was tricky to find, especially in this city since almost all bars had green neon cocktail glasses outside their own bars but with an actual name, the bar we were searching for didn't have one for some reason. I assumed it to be one of those bars with illegal gambling and drugs involved. We didn't ask around not wanting to draw attention to ourselves while we were here, but we managed to find it after almost an hour of searching, a quiet bar between two other lively bars with no name attached. The bartender once inside after asking if the bar had a name or not and we found out this bar did not have a name.
"Ugh… this place smells awful! Too much smoke in here…" She coughed once we sat at the bar table, glancing over our shoulders at the other people in the bar. There were two pool tables to our left near the bars entrance, one being used by two burly men arms filled with various colorful tattoos of symbols and designs. Two dartboards with thousands of small holes around both boards showing that the boards had been used a lot. Tables to our right filled with mostly men and women all drinking, smoking and laughing as they raised their glasses cheering on things I overheard about sports and Pokemon tournaments. On the right side of the bar we saw a door with a set of stairs leading up. "You think that's where we might meet this guy?"
"It looks like it... I don't see any other door." I said, almost finding it a little hard to breath since my cloak covered most of my mouth and nose preventing me from smelling the smoke all that much. "Uh, excuse me bartender?" I raised my paw up to gain the man behind the bars attention, once he approached I had asked him where we might go and play a game of poker. He of course like with the others who reacted whenever they saw a Pokemon speaking directly to them were of course shocked at first, surprised and taking a long time to calm down, the man quickly regained himself without attracting much attention and told us the way to play a game was by going up the stairs, door on the right, finding it odd how two Pokemon wanted to go play some Poker.
"The man behind the bar is finding it to be difficult to accept what he had just seen yet heard." Espeon said as we walked up the stairs, passing one or two people walking down. "I read his mind and found he doesn't know about you or the bounty the shiny bitch has placed in almost every city and town within this region. After that I checked to see if anyone was watching us, talking about us; nothing much, only that they saw us and joking to one another that their Pokemon 'us' was at the bar getting wasted and they should stop us. Nothing to worry about."
"That's good to know." I felt myself relax a little. Usually whenever I go into places like this I was always looking over my shoulder constantly, worrying every second that more than one knew who I was and was out to get me should I let my guard down. "Thanks Espeon, I was feeling a little bit worried, but I'm alright now."
"Heh, no problem Zackary, always happy to help out. I could sense you were feeling a lot tense once we entered this smoky joint, so I thought 'why not'"
Inside the room called 'Cards room' we found several tables with various card games to play; blackjack, poker, baccarat, and a large table at the back for roulette, each table filled with many players with some behind watching the games. In all four corners of the room were bouncers, buff men ready to throw out the troubled one, one trying to cheat the game or refusal to pay, we noticed upon entering that half of them all looked our way, and yet remained as still as statues watching us at the open door.
We approached the table, and immediately all five men at the table noticed us, one man wearing a white suit smoking a cigar chuckled while being surrounded by two women. "Who do these Pokemon belong to? Does your son have Pokemon Tobey?" the man asked the larger fat man wearing a sweater to the left.
"Only rock types. That's an Espeon a Psychic, and a Dewott a water type… but different… huh…" He raised his eyebrows at us, and then shook his head after throwing the cards he had down onto the table.
"Are they strays then?" The cigar smoking man shrugged as he asked the other men across the table. It was then I walked up to the table and spoke.
"I want to play." I spoke loud and clear, and nearly all around the table if not to the others looked at us, some doubting at what they heard, others surprised if not mixed. "I can play, right?"
The cigar smoking man chuckled. "You gotta have cash to play. Minimum is a thousand; this is a high stakes game." That was already taken care of before we entered. I took out five thousand to play and stay around for three rounds instead of losing it all before the third round had begun. Thankfully I would be getting all my cash back and more after this.
"Yeah, I got cash. So can I play then?"
"Well, pull up a chair and let's play." He again chuckled, him and a few others finding it amusing that a Pokemon was playing poker against them, some of the women standing around the table called us cute wanting to know if we belonged to anyone. The cards we shuffled by the player to my left, a tall man wearing the same kind of suit as the cigar smoking man opposite me but a black suit.
"Hey, uh Zackary?" She said as she leaned up on the table, "You know how to play the game right?"
I looked at her, and made a quick hidden gesture underneath the table with my paw to tell her I didn't know how, well not much to consider myself good at the game just barely. To be honest I have only ever seen this game played on either TV or video game, I think after all these years having watched the game being played I got the gist of it; straight flush, five aces of the same suit in a fifty two card deck if the movies were accurate on that last one, although it seemed like a cheating hand at best. But I didn't need to win, only last three rounds before leaving the table but not before alerting the informant that we were there ready for him to give us the information we seek.
"Hmm… I don't see anyone that I can think of who looks like our guy, they all like snobby thugs to me, and they all smell of that disgusting strong smell of tobacco downstairs… ugh!" Two cards were set down in front of me, so I checked them to see a seven of clubs and six of diamonds. I watched the other players on the table, seeing how many chips they bet, trying to match their bet and raise it on occasions, trying to convince to the other players I was actually here to play instead of just folding every round and quit until round three. I wanted to convince them since they all look suspicious of me. So I thought of making conversation to help lower their suspicions.
"So uh, how about the baseball game last week? First batter seemed to be uh… new at the game, huh?" Yeah I couldn't think of anything much, anything to ease the tension I was already feeling from the other players and people watching me.
"They're hiring kids with no experience these days." The man to my left said with a gruff. "So how exactly can a Pokemon talk?"
"Yeah, that is a good question." The cigar smoking man set his cards down after raising the bet. "This some kind of prank or something? Your trainer made you play this game? A little kid trying to earn more allowance than his parents gives him?"
"No, I'm just here to play poker, maybe earn myself some cash I suppose, mostly have fun." I shook my head, and folded my cards. They all looked a little less tense. Just two more rounds and I can leave this game and hopefully get the informant to talk to us. "As for how I can speak, my trainer taught me, a trainer who could teach Pokemon how to do so… I don't know how, just that he died and his secret gone with him. Don't know why, he just did that with all of his Pokemon, but I never asked. I'm just looking for some fun since I can communicate with both species." I had hoped they at least bought it so I can get back to waiting sitting and relaxing until I got to round three and quit without any trouble coming my way. I thought about when asked how I could speak I could try to reveal how I could actually speak was by either; science experiment gone wrong, but that would lead to more questions and suspicions I guess. a rare herb I so happened to discover and consumed in the forest, again suspicion on the location of said herb. And then there's the trainer who could teach Pokemon how to speak the language of the humans, again that would lead to more questions but thankfully I chose to add the 'just that he died and his secret gone with him' would close any further questions about that.
All I heard was grunts and saw them shrug before raising and placing down their own bets. The cards I had were a king and a jack of clubs; the cards on the table were in order two, six, five, three, and ten. Two out of the five other players folded, but I stayed wanting to see if my hand was good. Again, I have no knowledge on how to play the game. The game came to an end and the larger man wearing the sweater won the round and the man placed down an ace and a four. "Maybe to win this game you need cards from one to five? So do I fold if I have cards higher than that? Well however you play this game, just remember that I am only here for round three." I thought as I looked around the table at the cards everyone had trying to figure out a way how to play this game, but was slowly learning how. If I knew how I probably would've at least tried to play, maybe even having a little fun. But now was not the time, I was here to find the informant; I was there to save Yuri. There would be other times were I could learn the game at a later date.
The next game ended faster than the second, the man with the cigar won the round with something called three of a kind. Again this round ended with me losing more chips than I used up in the first.
The third round came, I thought back to what Devon told me about what the informant was looking for, someone to drop out of the third round and declaring 'I need to get me a round of drinks in me and some nachos' then we were supposed to wait at the bar until the informant came. If not then we would contact Devon. As soon as the second round had ended, I got up from the table and cleared my throat to make sure I said what came next as loud as possible so the informant if he was in the room he could hear me.
"Well that's it for me, I'm going…" I gave off a fake yawn as I began to jump off the chair. "I'm going to need to get a round of drinks in me and some nachos. Thanks for having me, would like to play again sometime."
"Yeah, he uh didn't believe in the heart of the cards this time, might get 'em next time, huh? Probably send you to the shadow realms or something… especially since you all smell terrible with that smoke." Espeon laughed as she used her Psychic to pass the dealer the cards before following me behind. Neither of us turned her heads back as we made our way towards the door, but we still felt the eyes of the people in the room watching as we left in silence.
Downstairs sitting at the bar we waited, carefully watching the door were the stairs was to see if anyone followed, but after the first five minutes no one descended the stairs, only two people walked up them.
"Hm, I don't see anyone yet. We did say the right phrase and left the game at the right time, right? So how come this guy hasn't showed up?"
"Maybe it was to do with all of those people in the room watching us." I said remembering the glances we got, confusion mostly. I figured the informant was still playing a game or waiting for the right moment to leave the room and come down to meet us if we just waited. Perhaps the glances we got and the all the whispers about us we could hear before and during the game probably spooked the informant a little. Devon did say he was good at blending in and never raising suspicions. But he was a cautious man, not wanting to blow his cover this soon, although I wasn't sure what this informant was doing here in the city, he was possibly working another case or something. "A white furred Dewott with a black and red eye who can talk with an Espeon companion wanting to play poker is one of those encounters to tell stories about. If I was undercover ready to meet someone but they gained a lot of attention, I'd wait until all of this dies down."
"But how long for?" Espeon asked, her eyes never turning away from the stairs. "Do you think we should actually order the drinks and nachos? Or would you think the informant mistook us for Pokemon who actually did want to eat, that he talked to the wrong ones and we just so happened to say the exact words he was waiting for? Eh, best wait here until he shows up… if he does."
So we waited for a good ten minutes, patiently watching as people walked up and down the stairs. The larger man I played poker with walked down stairs to be greeted by a couple of men, cheering at the winnings before heading out, but not before casting Espeon and I another look. One of the other men walked downstairs looking disappointed before leaving the bar. In the game of poker he did lose a lot of chips during the first two rounds, I'm guessing he lost it all or a little. Then we noticed the man who smoked the cigar approach the bar, ordering a round of drinks for the two women who were with him standing and watching the poker game. He noticed us and walked over to us with a smile before putting out the cigar. "Still here are you? You two play poker that much? I thought you two would've played a little longer than just three rounds."
"Well, luck wasn't on our side today. We thought instead we would have some good round of drinks and some nachos." Espeon said with a shrug. The man only nodded his head and the bartender gave him his glass of bourbon.
"Devon sent you then? Never expected the two I was supposed to meet were Pokemon." The man said as he sat on the barstool, casually drinking from the glass. He was the informant, the man we were looking for; I didn't think it was this guy, he kind of looks like one of the men who worked alongside the mafia boss Drake.
"You're the informant then?" I asked. "Then let's get down to business then."
"Good. Your sister Yuri is located within a warehouse in the warehouse district, warehouse number eight." he chuckled, pointing at the dartboard, pretending to be talking about something else with us. I looked back to see a few people staring at us. "On the outside it looks empty, nothing inside except a few worthless crates and broken bottles and such. But at the back, there is a storage container, a big huge red one, can't miss it. No electronics or cameras in the area."
"Inside is the entrance to the underground base?" Espeon asked, passing the informant the bowl of nuts he was pointing to.
"The only way in as far as I am aware of. Once I was inside just down the long stairs I noticed there weren't any cameras, only two armed guards at the bottom in front of a steel door." He took a nut from the bowl and began to eat a handful of them. "They have the key card to open the door, and once inside you will see a long corridor, few doors on both sides leading to offices and meeting rooms. But it's the far door at the end of the corridor is what you are looking for. They call it the 'prisoner's room' a messed up room with cages alongside the wall full of people and Pokemon."
"Sounds horrible."
"It is… just prepare yourselves for the sights as well as the smell…" he shook his head before drinking his bourbon. "On the right side of the room, there was a cage with the name 'Yuri Amano' the photos we took of her and brought back without causing any suspicion we were able to conform that this was indeed your sister."
"How many armed guards inside? Scientists, Pokemon, mechas, and drones we might run into?" I asked. "I want to know what were going to have to get through to get Yuri and the others trapped in there out safely?"
"The numbers change every week. Last week it was up to forty strong, but this week it'll be thirty strong."
"Thirty?" Espeon looked at me unsure if we could take on that many. "Wow… I guess we'll just have to take them out one by one until the area is cleared, otherwise we can't evacuate the prisoners. They'll know something is up once we're inside."
"I used disguises to break inside the base underneath, a guards one used to patrol the area in and out, and I was in and out without suspicion or anyone questioning my presence. All I had to do was follow the other soldiers and that was that. Just contact Devon once you have your sister, let us do the rest." The informant said before drinking up all of his drink, setting it down on the table. "Once we have entered and take down the soldiers, we'll evacuate the prisoners and take them to somewhere safe. The warehouse district is less populated with security around nine and ten, but this security around the warehouse district are Team Annihilation Reborn's. If they see you, the mission to save your sister might be bad, cause reinforcements will be there in a maximum of ten minutes, and you are both looking at a strength of a hundred all flooding the area, numbers we can't handle due to our low numbers. But we will fight them, we won't leave you two."
"Thanks, we'll try to do this as quick and as quietly as we can." I said before getting off the barstool along with Espeon. The informant smiled and waved goodbye to us before standing up and walking back to the women, telling them that he invited us to play poker again at some point. Obviously a fake story, but I wouldn't mind to play poker again with him, maybe after all this was over.
It was almost nine, and with all the information we came for we left the bar immediately to get to the warehouse district to save Yuri.
Driftveil City – Warehouse District
The warehouse district, a place I hadn't been to in a long time. Last time I was here I fought the mafia boss Drake with his men when I was travelling with Sakura and Isaac during the first year I was a member of the Savior's. Nothing much had changed since the last time I was here. The warehouse we had to get to was the warehouse number eight that was somewhere on the right side along with four others; six to ten on the right, and one to five on the left. The warehouses were made of steel, all rusty and quite old looking with street lights flickering on and off on occasions, but the guards the informant alerted to us that they were here, we couldn't see anyone patrolling.
"Warehouse number eight… you think we'll find the master here to help us with a letter we'll need help translating? Or perhaps we'll find a creepy guy who might steal the mirror from us?" She said with a slight chuckle, obviously making some kind of joke or reference to something I had no knowledge of. "Well, enough of another world references, right now we have to get there and save Yuri."
"Yeah." I agreed, still anxious on seeing her again, scared to see what they had done to her, even more so on how exactly we'll get her out of there fearing Yuri or Espeon would get hurt or killed. "We may have to fight our way inside or back out once we find her. We should call Devon once we have found Yuri and then we'll get out of there."
"Devon's men can get the others out these bastards have locked up." Espeon and I looked at one another before we emerged from the warehouse districts entrance to enter to make our way over to warehouse eight. "Let's go save Yuri, Zackary." I nodded and the two of us walked cautiously within the shadows to the right side of the warehouse district.
It was silent. The last time I was here I could hear the foghorns from the passing ships in the pier, flying type Pokemon above flying around the area looking for scraps or people to annoy. Looking up at the night sky I could see the stars. I remember once from my early years as a Savior member, another agent once said he believed that on missions, the night depended on the mission; no stars meant a disaster awaited, a moonlit night meant great success, and a starry night meant everything would be alright. I don't know why I started to remember any of that, a memory activated by random, but looking up at the stars after remembering what that man once said, I just hoped that the guy was right. The starry night sky meant things would be alright tonight, heh now I don't know if those things are real or just to give hope things will go well, but I hoped it was real. I felt myself get a little hopeful we would make it, so I would just have to give it my all and for all of us to get out alive and for the night sky fortune to feel real.
The warehouse district was quiet, deserted almost after discovering the first set of guards upon stopping at the corner of warehouse number seven and looking around the warehouse to see five guards standing in front of warehouse number nine, next to warehouse number eight. The five men were wearing blue uniforms, armed with batons. We watched them for a while only to see they never moved an inch or made a single sound. The expressions on their faces were stiff, expressionless. If the informant was right about this area then they were being controlled by Shiny Latias to watch the area for any intruders. With these ones controlled like this to stand around and watch a certain area, they swap shifts with others while they rest for the night and swap again the next day over and over again. Over the years after running into them, battling against them, I had come to find out a weakness to their control over Shiny Latias as well as any other soldier of Team Annihilation Reborn member; they have to be knocked out for them to break free from her control. I remember after the battle with Team Doom when Shiny Latias controlled me, I was knocked out shortly after breaking free from her control. I could face controlled humans and knock them out, but facing Pokemon would be a problem for me, if I defeated them in battle I would kill them instead of save them.
When the moment was right, we quickly made our way to the other side to where warehouse eight was located and carefully sneaked through the district. But before we could enter the warehouse, one of the controlled guards was walking towards us after emerging from the other corner; thankfully we could hide behind a set of empty barrels beside the warehouse providing us with cover. We watched as the guard walk by us not noticing we were ever there. When he left, in silent we emerged from the barrels and ran for the warehouse eight entrance which was open ajar. Inside just as the informant described to us seemed empty, that there was nothing much here besides empty crates and broken bottles besides the entrance. If it weren't for the lights outside we would've stood on the glass and our mission to save Yuri would be delayed.
But at the back of the room we saw it, the storage container, and the entrance to the underground base. We approached the storage container, looking around us before we got too close. There were no cameras we could see; the informant told us there weren't any here or electronic equipment or any cameras outside the base. The storage container doors were easily opened after pulling them with our Psychic, and just a little further inside we saw the stairs leading down into the darkness. We walked slowly down, one not wanting to make much noise to alert the enemy we were here, and two we had to be careful descending down these dark stairs since we didn't have a flashlight or anything to help. It wasn't entirely dark, there was light at the bottom, otherwise we would have to return back and get something to light our way.
"Hey Zackary?" Espeon whispered beside me sounding a little nervous as we walked closer towards the light at the bottom of the dark stairs.
"What's up, Espeon?"
"Not going to lie to you, but I have a small fear to the darkness. Just very small that I can handle it should I ever find myself in darkness like this, but not for long that is."
"Do you want to head back?" I asked, not wanting her to be forced into this. "I can go ahead and find Yuri; you can stay up top and be on lookout."
"N-no, I can do this. I want to help you save Yuri and the prisoners they have locked in here. And besides, this mission can't be done solo." Her breathing had calmed down, but I could still tell she was still anxious about this. So I decided to keep talking to her until we neared the light at the bottom.
"How come you never told me about this before?" I asked her, she lightly chuckled and said.
"Because I wanted to show off. I wanted to be like this tough Espeon not afraid of anything, the cool Espeon unafraid of any challenge. I suppose I didn't want to let anyone down. I didn't want anyone thinking I was weak or pathetic. But a grown adult Espeon scared by a little darkness?" She sighed. "I'm not scared of the darkness because it leads to the imagination of what might be within just waiting until you are close or the darkness has engulfed you completely the unseen monster will strike. The last time I was in darkness like this was when my last owner; Eliza died in that fire. The smoke was everywhere, made everything dark as I was trying to struggle my way towards the sounds of her crying voice, only finding myself outside alive while my owner and her mother died in the fire and smoke."
"I remember you telling me about Eliza. She lived in the Kanto region with you. Then months later we met."
"Yeah. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my small fear before. I was afraid of talking about it for multiple reasons; sparking up old memories of my owner, remembering the dark smoke, or something silly like I would be laughed at."
"We wouldn't laugh at you."
"I know that, but still it was something that was on my mind if I said anything. I learnt over the years to get over my fear, once staring off as a big fear refusing to even go into dark places, but after meeting you, travelling together and being the best of friends I learnt to turn that big fear into something small, perhaps one day I can be free of it."
"Anything to help, just say the word and we'll be there."
"Thanks Zackary." I hadn't noticed her fear of the darkness before she mentioned it to me that day, never showed any hints or signs whenever we approached a dark area before in the past. She was always trying to hide it. She was hiding a lot things, some I noticed, others that were deep down inside. I never pried, I didn't know how to ask or if I should.
Team Annihilation Reborn Underground Base No.5 – Entrance
We finally entered the light at the bottom of the stairs to find ourselves at the entrance of Team Annihilation Reborn's underground base, a large rectangular area with many barrels and large crates here and there with bullet holes in them, they helped provide us with cover after we noticed two armed guards standing in front of the large metallic doors with the number '5' marked on the door. The area besides the one light we saw from the top of the stairs was pretty dim, I guess that was one of the reasons we weren't seen coming down them by the two guards.
"Hmm, this whole thing feels a little off." Espeon whispered as she checked the area behind the barrels we hid behind, carefully peeked her head over to watch the armed guards standing beside the entrance.
"What do you mean? That the outside was unlocked and there weren't any cameras or better security?"
"Yeah. For an underground base you'd think this place would've been better secured, meaning more security rather than just leave an unlocked door up there allowing anyone half good or bad at sneaking through the area to come down here. Oh yeah, the big bad scary leader that is Shiny Latias can set up an underground base with minimum security with her thinking 'no one will ever think of coming down here with this crazy amount of security guarding the place I have set up, I'm soooo smart.'" She scoffed shaking her head, cursing under her breath more hatred for Shiny Latias.
"Maybe because of the lack of activity no one thought to look here. The pier has been inactive for some time since Team Annihilation Reborn have been showing up and seizing control over certain parts of the region. We should be careful."
"I know… there is no strength in numbers after all, so their 'best' controlled soldiers could be in there. So let's approach this with stealth like the informant said we should."
"Let's take these two guards out first. You take out the one on the left, and I'll get the other one." I said pointing at the barrels. "We'll use the barrels and sneak behind them until we are close enough before we can strike. The key cards should be on them."
"Right. Let's hope we can enter without anyone noticing these two are unconscious before we finish up in here." She nodded, waiting for the moment to make her move as I waiting for the moment to move to the other side.
The guards turned their sights away from us, and then we made our move. Espeon moved to the left side of the room, and I to the right while staying low down to the ground behind the barrels gaining closer and closer to the guards. When we finally got close enough to strike, all it would take was for one of us to strike first, but it needed to be an attack that wouldn't accidentally cause them to squeeze their fingers on the trigger of their weapons and alert the rest of the base, we waited. I wasn't sure how long it took, but then after some time had passed we noticed the guards move his hand away from the trigger of the weapons, and then we emerged from the barrels at the same time and held them with Psychic and pulled their weapons away without them pulling on the trigger when we did. We knocked them out and placed them behind the barrels where we hid behind should anyone come down here. The informant said we would find key cards we could use to access the other areas of the base; we did and used them on the doors opening them.
Inside was much brighter than the dim lit barrel filled entrance room; inside was much cleaner and incredibly bright. The walls, floor and ceiling was white, the doors yellow with the Team Annihilation Reborn symbol on each door, a letter 'A' which obviously stands for Annihilation. What the informant told us was true about the interior, multiple doors on both side, but the one at the far end was the one we needed to go through, where Yuri was located in.
We walked cautiously down the hall, careful at the open doors of some of the rooms should anyone be inside them, but in this hall we encountered no one, not even heard anyone inside the other rooms, it was as though we were the only ones there.
Inside one of the rooms before reaching the end of the hallway Espeon stopped at as she turned her head to look inside. "Hey Zackary, look!" I stopped and looked inside the room and saw many computers on a long desk. The computers all displayed an open folder with many files on them. The files Espeon and I noticed were names on each file, names we recognized. We walked inside the room and up to the computers, Espeon on one computer, me on another to find the names of our friends, family, allies, everyone we knew, and there were files on everyone.
Scrolling down the page until I found my file and clicked it open, there I saw many other sub files ranging from career history to favourite pastimes, even photos of me talking with my friends, Savior agents I worked with, people I helped on missions during my five year search. At the top I noticed a file that caught my interest, a document file with the name; 'Update on Zack Raines' I took a quick look and read from the document:
'The subject known as Zack Raines a.k.a. The White Dewott must be located and brought back to the base for the plan to work and the region will become under our control. Six years the subject has travelled all over the region in search of his friends and family members we have taken to separate facilities around the region. Despite numerous attempts at capture, the subject has naturalized our soldiers sent in to bring him back.
Jessica the Mew, Ren Raines and brother of Zack Raines, Rose the Ninetails are the last surviving members of Team Doom that need to be killed by Zack Raines just like the others had so he can absorb their strength thus making him stronger for the plan to work without the possibilities of failure.
Shiny Latias not only wants to find the subjects again but she also wants him to fight as many Pokemon as possible to absorb all of their energy to make up for the absence and lack of absorbing the life energy of the last three remaining members of team Doom. Their whereabouts remain unknown, but right now our focus is on the capture of Zack Raines. Shiny Latias has come up with a plan to lure them out once Zack Raines is in our custody, as with his other allies. All of our soldiers upon seeing Zack Raines and his allies are all controlled to use tranquilizer rounds. As much as I would like to see his allies neutralized whenever they assist him in battle the use of real ammunition or other weapons may injure or kill the subject. The subject must not be harmed in any way.'
I glanced down at my injuries I had received during my five year search, all the scars I have been given with every battle, the soldiers, drones, the mechas, and Pokemon all fought me trying to knock me out however they could, blunt weapons or objects hit against my head or slam me against a wall, cutting me up and slashing into my skin trying to bleed me out, break a few bones to which they have done so before to the point I had to fix my broken bones myself out in the open. Either Shiny Latias intentionally controlled her soldiers to hunt me down and hurt me before knocking me out or the guy writing this document doesn't really know about the aggressiveness of how Shiny Latias' army try to catch me with every encounter.
"You call this not being harmed?" I said to myself in my head after looking at my scars across my body, shaking my head.
Nothing useful was on the computer, nothing that could've helped pinpointed the exact location of Shiny Latias' base or where Reiko, my dad Henry, or even Latias where located, or even if they were still alive.
"I don't know what I find disturbing about this base." Espeon said after checking one of the other computers inside the room. "That they have a lot of information about you, me, all of our friends and the things we have done, favorite food, movies, hangout spots and our past from childhood. Or that they have thousands of collected photos of all of us throughout the years, even photos of us sleeping..." Espeon showed me the folder and inside we saw many other files of everyone I knew except Aqua. Files from A-Z of everyone I knew, photos from casually walking up and down a street, sitting down at a café, or on missions, to documents detailing so much about everyone, even more than I knew. "Why the heck do these guys have all this stuff on us? I saw my file, and the fuckers know about how I was born in Goldenrod City before being adopted by my owner, how I can talk… the exact way I learnt how to step by freakishly detailed step."
I would've said something along the lines of wanting to leave to find Yuri right then and there, but I had to check on the computer to see whether or not they had any information on the hideout the others were staying in, but from the looks of things they didn't know, and I wanted things to stay like that until Team Annihilation Reborn and Shiny Latias were defeated for good.
"C'mon, let's get moving. If these guys are getting this much information on us we can inform Devon about it once we're out." I then thought the talks I had with Aqua on the phone back in the centers, how secure were those things? Has someone in the past listened in o the conversations before? If they had this much information on us I had to be careful. "Let's hurry up and find Yuri, get her and the others out of here." As much as I would like to know how they managed to get all this information on us all, I had to find Yuri and get her out of there.
Running down the hall with Espeon close by, we approached the door at the end of the hall and slowly yet carefully opened it not wanting to alarm anyone that might be inside and entered to find ourselves inside a large room that kind of looked like an operating room filled with medical items and surgical tools stained with blood. The strong smell of potion hit our noses mixed with a metallic scent. Up on one of the three beds we saw was covered in blood. Someone was injured here recently, what happened to them remained a mystery to us, but it clearly wasn't good. There were two doors at the other side of the room, one leading to a room completely filled with darkness with a strong scent of more blood and something foul inside, while the other door on the opposite side had a scent similar to oil and alcohol.
We walked closer to that door, the strong smell from before almost became unbearable to approach, let alone attempt to open it. I adjusted my cloak lifting the flaps covering my mouth to cover my nose instead before opening the room, while Espeon attempted to breathe through her mouth rather than her nose, flicking the light on before we entered.
Just a little sniff of this room caused us to gag, that's what would've happened whenever we did by accident. It smelt rotting, foul, like something was dead in the room, but we had to find Yuri. Down a small ramp leading into the larger room with rows upon rows of cages all stacked by one another filled with people and Pokemon either barely hanging on to life and those who were dead. As soon as flicked the lights on, almost everyone in the room reacted to this by cowering back into their cages away from the cage doors, all refused to look at us as we entered. We noticed at the other end of the room was a large metallic door possibly fourteen feet high, and again like the other rooms barely any security cameras or electronic equipment to keep tabs on the prisoners here.
We walked further inside and pass each cage, horrified at what we saw; the prisoners were all cut up, limbs missing a foot or an arm, markings on their wrists. The people's clothing was all torn up, stained with blood and old as if any moment they'll fall apart. There in the back on the right side was a cage I saw to have a young woman inside, I ran over and got a look inside the cage to see Yuri on her side.
I broke the locks open with my scalchop, opened the cage doors wide open and ran inside kneeling down to her. "Yuri! Yuri!" I felt for a pulse, she was still alive. She slowly opened her eyes, looking at me. "Yuri, it's me Zack. Are you all-" I glanced down at her arms and legs, they were badly cut up, and she had her feet cut off.
"Z-Zack…" she gasped before closing her eyes again, but she was still conscious. For six years I hadn't seen her, spending five of those years searching for her, for the others. I felt relieved to see her alive, happy to know Yuri would be safe.
"It's okay, I'm here. Espeon's here, we're going to get you out of here." I hugged her, almost not noticing how she was sobbing at this point. All I had to now was contact Devon and the informant would be able to move in with his people and get everyone out of here to safety.
Then suddenly, the large metallic doors opened up. I stepped out of the cage and stood with Espeon as the doors had opened up completely revealing a large metallic circular room with a huge monitor hanging above.
The monitors sparked with life as a figure appeared in the center of the screen, one Espeon and I saw at the bar while playing poker, it was the fat man now wearing a lab coat with a clipboard in hand smiling at us as he sat in his chair in another room in the underground base. "Well if it isn't the gambler. You didn't do too well at that, and you didn't do too well on staying hidden within my base my boss has granted me to do so as I please." He sighed, typing something into the computer.
"You, you're the leader here?" I snarled, feeling my anger rise within me again.
"Yes. Ever since Shiny Latias came to power she has tracked down past members of the old team to be reunited for this new and improved team. I was asked by her to lead one of special bases here and make the prisoners suffer for the hurtful things they might have done to our boss." He gave off a light chuckle. "I know who you are, Zack Raines, especially your travelling companion Shiny Latias despises the most out of your companions. I do wish to kill you for what you did to us and our old boss Juro, but Shiny Latias has other plans instead. But your Espeon companion is expendable, so this'll be fun until the boss arrives and the region will be ours for the taking."
"You're security down here sucks!" Espeon growled as she took up a fighting stance. "Lack of security, cameras, if you think you and that stupid monitor will stop us from leaving with all of these prisoners, then you can go and fuck off!"
"I have more than just this monitor you see before you, my funny Espeon opponent." He chuckled. "I have thirty men in this base soon to be reaching the numbers of two hundred all to deal with your sorry hides. The call has just been made and right now troops are being sent here. So you can either admit defeat or watch as your pathetic Espeon companion dies right before your very eyes, Dewott boy!"
"Go to hell!" I yelled, feeling the anger inside raise, the voices I could hear in my mind all telling me to kill, but I didn't let them control me.
"Shiny Latias told me of your rage ability, that you lose control over yourself whenever anger gets the best of you." He leaned in forward as he pressed something in his keyboard. Then right in front of us the floor opened up and emerged on a rising platform was a humanoid mecha; arms attached with a blade, legs equipped with turbo boosters to gain speed, body fitted with guns and rockets standing at fifteen feet. "I am not sure how you found the underground base of ours, but I will find out before the boss arrives. Until then, play with my good creation; Mech No.07. Mech No.07, I want you to kill the Espeon, but leave the Dewott alive. Break his legs to stop him if he causes too much trouble or gets in your way. Watching you unless your anger upon seeing your dead friend being squashed like a bug will be very interesting." The excitement in voice was disturbing to us, which only fuelled my hatred towards him.
"Oh and by the way Zack, I was the one who ordered for your little sister Yuri to have her feet cut off, without any medicine to help ease her pain." He chuckled. "And she didn't even try to escape because she just loved seeing every morning!"
Espeon quickly approached me, her paw touching my arm as she said "Zackary, don't listen to that fucker. He's just trying to make you angry!"
"Right…" I controlled my breathing to help calm myself down, it worked and found the voices already fading away faster than the man on the monitor could taunt some more. He would pay for what he did to the prisoners here including Yuri, but we had to deal with the mecha first. I had faced these before in the past, sometimes they proved to be difficult to face with, sometimes I could easily dispatch them, but I had never seen on built like this one before, they almost never had boosters and rockets built into the mecha, sometimes it would cause interference or the rockets wouldn't work properly. The weight of it all would be too much and be too slow in mobility. They would more bulky than the one before us; this one was thinner, either a good thing for us since the thinner design with all of the weapons and boosters it has on it might not give it good balance, that it wouldn't be able to handle using all its weapons, or this could be something we should careful of. Team Annihilation Reborn might have improved on the mechas so they could be built to use any heavy weaponry without falling back or slowing down.
The Mech No.07 moved in first using its boosters to move in on us preparing to slash at us with the blade attached to its arm, Espeon and I moved quickly to the side to evade the attack moving away before it could turn back around and slash at us again. But instead it aimed its other arm at us and began to shoot the same blue tranquilising pellets the drones used, but at a faster rate than them. Espeon used Protect to shield herself from the attacks, upon impact caused the pellets to create a blue smoke that managed to creep inside the bubble she created and had to back away before the effects took a hold of her.
I moved in and attacked its right leg with my Razor Shell once or twice before the Mech No.07 slashed me with its blade. This was a special kind of blade Team Annihilation Reborn had created; it was a nonlethal blade a lot thicker at the edges, if this was a real blade when it hit me across my chest and into my neck I would've been dead.
"Ooh, that's gotta hurt!" Laughed the man watching us fight from the monitor above us. "Careful, you gotta last longer than that before the Mech No.07 can utilize its full potential. So c'mon, with more gusto! And I thought you two were trained members of the Savior's, more like trained circus clowns, hah!"
"Once we have dealt with this hunk of junk, I'm seriously going to break all of his bones!" Espeon grunted as she dodged out of the way of the blue mist using her Psybeam at the mecha's left arm damaging it a little. I moved in and threw one of my scalchops at its head pushing it back a little and buying ourselves some time to inflict more damage upon it before it would be back up again. Regaining my thrown scalchop, I used Scald on the open circuits to damage the interior before stabbing the mecha with a Razor Shell while Epsoen damaged its arm. The mecha immediately jumped up once it regained control, using its boosters to gain a large distance away from us.
The mecha attempted to use its guns, but they were too damaged to be activated, so instead it used rockets at us. I wasn't sure if these were special rockets designed only to knock out those caught in the blast or if they were the real deal. Not wanting to find out, Espeon and I separated and used Psychic on all rockets fired at us and shot them back at the mecha, but was evading each shot. But with one missed shot, the rocket thrown attempted to hit the mecha instead hit the monitor above crashing down right onto the mecha damaging it destroying both legs and one of its arms.
The mecha crawled out from the rubble, preparing to use the blade to strike, but we had already got there first, disabling it for good as Espeon used her Psychic to crush the computer within and I stabbing the head with my Razor Shell. Then the cockpit opened up revealing the man inside, cowering as he nervously laughed in his seat.
"Well, isn't this something. C'mon, you're not really going to hurt me, right?" He swallowed as Espeon jumped up on the torso of the mecha up to the cockpit. "I thought Savior members didn't hurt anyone. So if you hurt me, I am within my r-" Espeon has quickly grabbed him out of the chair and slammed him into the wall a few inches away from us knocking him out cold.
"I would've liked it if he didn't knock out upon impact. I would've preferred if he lasted multiple strikes so I could've hurt him more." She shook her head, before turning to me with a smile. "Lack of security and a pathetic yet easy to defeat mecha, this shiny bitch doesn't know how to lead an army yet control them to be good soldiers." An alarm began to trigger throughout the base, and we had to act fast before being overrun, but we never were overrun with armed guards, drones, more mechas or Pokemon.
We had called the informant, let them know we had Yuri and needed help to get her and the prisoners out of the underground base. It didn't take long for them to arrive, putting the prisoners into the backs of the trucks they drove into the warehouse district after dealing with the controlled soldiers on the outside driving them to the hospital. The thirty soldiers in the underground base to our surprise for some reason weren't controlled and on the ground unconscious so they couldn't react to an intruder or react to the alert, the people who they once were before Shiny Latias controlled them, citizens working in Driftveil City were back to their old selves with no memory of what Shiny Latias had done to them.
It was strange to us, not knowing who had actually done this; it certainly wasn't Espeon and I or the informant's men. But a Pokemon had been sighted prior to Espeon and I showing up at the warehouse district. A Latias under the cover of night had been reported to be sighted flying away from the city after being close to the warehouse district. Whether this was Shiny Latias or another Latias remained unknown to us.
Driftveil City – Hospital
Inside the room waiting with several other of the informants men perhaps Devon's intel team we were told to wait outside as the doctors were checking up on Yuri, doing all they could with her wounds she had received during her time locked up in that cage, but also checking to see if she had any trackers on her or anything before the all was clear.
I sat in the corner with Espeon after she got us a cup of water from the water dispenser down the hall. "Here you go Zackary, a fresh cup of water. Excellent for a water type, should help you feel refreshed in no time."
"Thanks Espeon." I took the cup and gulped it down, finding myself feeling revitalized faster since I was a water type. Although I did need sleep, I was anxious about Yuri. I looked outside the large window, the sun had already set and yet the clouds were slightly still bright. Once I saw peace whenever I found a view like this inside a building, now I found anxiety from it since knowing Team Annihilation Reborn were watching us, keeping tabs on us so I turned away. Espeon used her psychic to shut the blinds, placing her paw on mine with a smile.
"We did it Zackary, we finally found Yuri. Next destination is Mistralton City to save your dad, Henry. Soon all of us will be back together again." She drank from her cup before glancing up at the room where Yuri was in. "She is going to be okay. I know I shouldn't be prying into people or Pokemon's minds without their permission, but I wanted to know how she was on the inside; they didn't touch her if that helps… I mean, they only cut off her feet and that was all they did."
"She was about to be enrolled in an art school in a different region six years ago before Shiny Latias came to Nuvema Town." I looked up at Espeon before looking back at the room. "I hope she can pick it back up again, she had talent when it came to art."
Espeon smiled and turned her head as she remembered the past. "She asked me once if I wanted to be painted by her. I said yes. After hours of staying as still as I could, Yuri finished the drawing and showed me a beautiful drawing of a fantastic Espeon." She pointed at herself with her tail, and that got a chuckle out of me. "She used that for her college thingy and they loved it. I wanted her to draw more of me or the rest of us, but of course she was busy and I didn't want to disturb her, but I did so happen to see her artwork. She is a really great artist; I can definitely see her going places."
"Me too." I smiled; finding hope that Yuri would be alright after all this was over. Being locked in there for five years and remembering about it would bring up bad memories, but with us around I had hoped we would all be there for one another and help each other. I had hoped things would be the same for us after the fighting. "Her mom inspired her to draw you know. She gave her comic books that had really nice artwork inside, I don't know what they were about, but it did look like something to do with giant mechas saving the galaxy from an evil alien race wanting total domination over all… or something like that. After the evil that is Shiny Latias has ceased to be, maybe she can show it to me and we can read it together."
"I think I remember that comic. It was called 'Ultra Galaxy Defenders' I think it's still ongoing… or was it on hiatus?" I nodded slowly, remembering the comic cover of each issue; it always had the protagonist fighting against the main villain of the issue, sometimes with his rival or friend. I had only read a handful of those comics before I moved on to something else, but the artwork always stayed with me in memory. "Last time I checked was almost seven years ago. I never really had time for any of that since."
"When was the last time you had something really good to eat?" Espeon asked. "And I'm not talking about instant noodles or snacks, but a real meal. I heard your stomach before, how about we get some food?"
It had been a while since I last ate, probably yesterday before arriving in Nimbasa City before meeting Devon and Espeon in the baseball stadium. Before I could agree with her, the door to Yuri's room opened up and out came the doctors. One of the men in the room I hadn't noticed before approached them; it was the informant talking to the doctors. Espeon and I jumped off from the chairs and approached them.
The doctors told us about Yuri's condition, she was still out of it, but she would be alright. Later that night I watched over her as she rested up before she would be moved to the safe zone Aqua and the others where in. Devon would see to it that they arrived safe and sound. With one last silent look at Yuri, I walked out of the room towards the exit.
With Yuri back with us and now in safe hands, I walked out of the hospital first before Espeon came running after me to catch up. I couldn't rest yet, not until everyone else was back home where they belonged. With all of the leads I had been given, the years I had spent searching for them, seeing the state Yuri was in when we found her I just had to keep going, until all were safe and until the search had ended.
To be continued…
Trivia:
The mafia boss Drake who controlled Driftveil City would've made another appearance within this chapter having been contacted by Shiny Latias to assist her on finding Zack alive promising to have his lost title restored and the city once again his before Zack and his friends interfered.
AN: And there you go, one of out of the five kidnapped by Shiny Latias saved. I'll upload the next chapter sometime soon, hope you're enjoying the story so far and hope you'll stick around for more. Take it easy, see you soon.