#6, Reunion or… A Black Unmarked Van
I woke up to a loud bang as my door was pulled open and someone walked in with heavy footsteps. I blinked at the sudden rush of light into the room as it nearly blinded me and I was trying to figure out what was happening. I was roughly hauled up from the bed and onto the ground while I was still trying to actually see what on earth was happening and made a vocal complaint to the treatment but it didn't come out anywhere near as harsh or loud as I had hoped, more forced than anything. The voice that actually replied to me was obviously male and was in that same language that everyone seemed to know in this place. I didn't understand it but I moved along as he shoved me forwards and directed me towards the door. The moment I was about to make a sound of complaint though a hand came down and slapped me across the face. I decided maybe not to talk for a little while.
So we walked happily along the corridors and through rooms with me in front being shoved roughly from behind more than enough times to make my back black and blue along with my shoulders and the backs of my arms. We went a different way to what I had originally come to the room from, not that I could really tell by where we were going or anything, but the amount of turns and doors were different even to be going backwards. It was sometime in the day now because through some of the doors that were open I could see splashes of light on the ground from ceiling lights, or spilling onto the walls from windows. The red lights had stopped flashing so the going was darker in the place even if it was day outside since there wasn't really much light coming into the corridor. I don't know how anyone could possibly work or live in that type of place. There was basically no light, natural or otherwise.
My guard person was being in no way helpful to me as whenever I paused for any reason he gave me a hard shove from behind and made me stumble forwards. Opening my mouth to say anything got me an even harder shove that nearly sent me to the ground so there wasn't really a way of winning the situation. And even if the guy had actually replied to anything I said I wouldn't have understood anyway, as far as I could tell at the time the guy didn't understand or at least speak any English.
So that was absolutely no fun as we went somewhere that I had no clue of and had no choice about. I didn't get a good look of my guard person until we stopped where some other guard type of person was standing at a door. The guy in charge of me didn't look much different than any of the other people I had seen. He had black cropped hair, brown eyes and was dressed in the same black gear that everyone else was wearing in the place that I had seen so far. Aside from that I didn't get anymore of a look until the next stop as my guard person shoved me forwards as the other guy opened the door and let us through after they finished talking. The looks the two men gave each other wasn't exactly a 'I love you' look. None of these people seemed to get along with each other all that well from what I had seen so far.
After three more of these I was suddenly shoved into an open space outdoors and had to quickly shield my eyes from the morning sun. My guard person didn't exactly give me all that much time to gain my focus back as he shoved me forwards still towards some sort of blurry black thing that quickly focused into view and became a van. I blinked a few more times losing those last traces of dancing dots in my vision so I could see fully and kept on walking. I was about to call out to Angela as I spotted her going inside the back of the van ahead of me but had second thoughts as I didn't really want to be shoved at the moment and I didn't want my guard person doing anything worse. As we got closer to the van I could tell it was just plain out all black with no markings. Good sign, a black unmarked van. Fogged windows are always an added bonus as well.
I was little less than thrown into the back of the van by my guard person, where I landed with a less than delicate thud. I saw Angela in there at the back of the van and quickly got myself next to her. She hadn't noticed me and she wasn't moving or speaking. I think I scared her as I touched her lightly on the shoulder since she jumped back with a choked scream.
"Shh. Shh. It's only me Angie. It's ok," I tried to reassure her. She looked at me wide-eyed for a moment but calming herself down. She still sat a little on edge but she was more relaxed looking than before. "Are you ok?" I inquired worriedly. I don't think she was too sure of the answer herself so she didn't say anything. Our attention moved away as we heard a loud thud behind us as something else was dumped inside our new home. Then the slam of the doors being closed straight after. We both quickly turned to see what it was and I think we both were shocked to see Kite.
Kite didn't move and I quickly scrambled over to him wanting to make sure he was ok. There was probably just enough room inside for us to actually stand with our heads titled but I had been placed in here on my backside and I hadn't got myself up yet and didn't really see any real reason to do so anyway. I prodded Kite lightly in the side and only got a mumbled groan as a response.
"Is… is he ok?" Angela whispered beside me. "I don't know…" was all I could reply with. She looked at me with scared eyes. I didn't know what to do, at least she had moved when I had touched her, Kite wasn't and I was getting more worried. I moved around him pushing him lightly more to the center of the van and tried to see if he was ok. Kite was curled in on himself, I can't remember what that positions called, and he was shaking a little. I tried to get him to respond to my voice as I cooed to him in mostly nonsense just trying to get some sort of a response. It seemed to work because he pulled his head out and looked up to me with swollen shut eyes. I guess he hadn't calmed down much after I'd lost sight of him.
I kept Angela where she was, I didn't want her freaking out at the moment any more than she was, we didn't need the extra trouble that would make. The sound of the rev of an engine and a jerk around us gave the impression we were about to leave. More movement and the steady hum of the engine was the definite give away as we started to drive to our next destination. At the time I didn't really care where we were going I needed to make sure nothing major was wrong with Kite.
"Kite…Kite, can you hear me?" he groaned in response but locked eyes on where I was sitting over him. "Dew?" he smiled a little to me and ever so slowly started to get himself into a more appropriate position. He winced and gave sharp cries more than once as he did so but wouldn't accept any help that I could give, not that there was much I could do anyway.
"Are… are you ok Kite?" I was still worried even if he was putting on a brave show, his face was holding more than a few cuts and bruises and his clothes weren't nearly as well made looking as they usually were.
"Dew, I'm… ok," the pause was a short coughing fit that didn't bring any blood up but it didn't look like it was all that great none the less and he probably could of if he'd continued much longer than he had. "You sure?" He just half smiled at me and closed his eyes. "You really sure Kite?" Angela piped up behind him. He opened his eyes and shook his head a little, "Yes and hi Angela."
I got myself a little more comfortable on the cold metal floor, the grooves didn't help all that much if I must say, and looked at Kite, "You didn't calm down did you?" He kept that smile on his face and shook his head a little again. Angela moved herself around next to me as Kite moved himself up against the side of the van so as to have a backrest.
I paused a moment, I wasn't sure if I should ask but I really wanted to know, "Wh-what happened after… ya know? I didn't get to see what happened in the end. I was pushed out of range."
Kite bit his lip and opened his eyes as fully as he could, that was around halfway on his right and even less on his left, "I don't really know… they got her. And I tried to get back to where she was and I just blacked out." His smile grew some as he thought of something in his mind, "I guess the men in black don't have all that much patience for kids." He smiled more but wasn't all that willing to start laughing or anything, by the way he was breathing I could tell why.
"What happened to you then?" Angela mumbled beside me, I don't think Kite heard all of what she said but got the point or was at least figuring we were going to ask anyway. He fell silent for a while and nothing was said as we listened to the hum of the engine as it continued on its way. There wasn't any other noises which was a little weird seeing as we should have been passing through the city somewhere and hearing the normal sounds of morning traffic and such.
Anyway, Kite just sat there, he didn't answer the question and we decided unspokenly not to press. Sighing inwardly I looked at Angela then at Kite. "You want any help Kite? And don't act like just because you're a boy you don't need help. It's not like as if we are going to be telling anyone, at least not anytime soon." Angela surpressed a smile while Kite cringed. "No, I'm pretty sure I'm fine Dew," he mumbled, "What bout you two, where'd they take you?" he said a little more enthusiastically.
I looked to Angela but she wasn't speaking shaking my head I answered first, "Went down some corridors, past a whole heap of rooms and things. Only stopped when we came to what I guess was some kind of like checking station where my guard person and some other guy dressed in black said some things to each other in that weird language. Then we went through. Then the guy stopped me at this last one where another man was standing. They opened the door and shoved me in. Closed the door behind me and left me in a small room with basically no lights till they brought me where you see me now," Angela was nodding her head in agreement to what I was saying so I guess she went through the same thing.
Kite thought a moment, "What was in the rooms you passed?"
"Not much, there was only a few that I could see into on the way and on the way here, all that was basically in them was either a simple bedroom setting like what was in the room I went into. A room filled with computers, or with a large table and chairs." Kite thought the answer over and shook his head.
"What you shaking your head at Kite, you know something that we should as well?" Kite just shook his head again, "No, it's just… I don't know. I didn't really expect there to be much in that place. Was just wondering." I gave him a weird look but shook it off, I wasn't really in the mood for anything at the time. "Sooo…" I started off but I didn't know what to say.
"I hope we don't take too long, I don't like staying in the same small space for too long, it creeps me out," mumbled Angela.
"I don't think they'll leave us in here too long, the drivers have to stop at some point."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean they're going to let us out as well. We're prisoners you know."
I sat back and mumbled, "Well just make yourself comfy then, if we're going to be going on a long ride I don't want to be listening to you whining."
Kite rolled his eyes and moved himself a little to an accompanied, "oww." A thought came to mind a moment, "Did either of you get your pokemon back or at least have them anymore?" Both of them shook their heads. "You?" "No." Angela looked sad, she'd always liked her pokemon. And I'd never heard of her to hurt one of them, she hardly ever battled them even though they were strong, I don't actually know how she got them like that exactly since she didn't battle them very often, doesn't matter much now anyway. "I hope they're ok." I nodded my head in agreement.
For the next few, it had to be hours, we sat in the van and made idle chitchat occasionally but none of us really wanted to talk. I don't think anyone really liked the dead silence aside from the humming of the engine either. Kite had been right, when we did stop we didn't get out, they just changed drivers or something then went on. We hardly passed any other vehicles as we didn't hear anything pass by so none of us had any clue as to where we were going. Not that we would of anyway, their were no windows that we could see out of to see where we were and none of us really knew our way around outside of Cerulean anyway. When one or two of us fell asleep for any period of time, (We didn't know long for as none of us held watches or clocks of any kind, Angela had lost her backpack and Kite didn't seem to have anything on him aside from the clothes her wore.) the other/s would sit in silence pretty much like the rest of the time.
Inside the van it was surprisingly light seeing as there wasn't any windows that we could see through, but I guess that was kind of wrong as the windows where just black, so light did seep in and we couldn't see out of. Also along with the dim light heat seemed to be attracted to the black and before long we were all sitting off of the walls as they were burning up. We had our backs against each others as that was the best position we found where we all could lean on each other, though to say Kite leaned on us a little more than we leaned on him wouldn't of been a lie.
The time sure didn't pass quickly as we were mostly bored in the van and we didn't really want to talk too much either as we didn't know what the drivers would think. We didn't know if they could understand us, for the few times we did actually hear them say something it was in that same weird language so we couldn't understand them. Really was an added downer to our already depressing manner.
I awoke to a hard jolt that sent all three of us rolling to the back of the van and probably wouldn't of thought much of it if it hadn't been for the fact I was quickly told to shut up by Kite. We'd stopped more than once in that manner and nothing had happened so before hand so I really didn't believe it was any different.
Kite grabbed Angela and me and quickly as he could started to pull us towards the front of the van watching where we had landed with caution. I more than protested against this and shoved Kite off of me with a loud complaint but was once again told to shut up. Sighing I did and looked at him but he just kept staring at the van doors.
A click and a sudden rush of light got me turning towards the doors then immediately turning away again as my eyes had to adjust for the third time that day for a sudden on rush of bright lights directed to my eyes. A gasp and shuffling sounds to either side of me gave the impression that the other two had done the same. Still trying to adjust I looked forwards once more with squinted eyes and looked at five men and a woman. Well that was a nice change. The woman and the men closest to her where both dressed in white as well so that was another welcome change. I don't know if any of the men had been the drivers as I hadn't seen them at anytime from getting into the van so everyone of the people was a new face to me. Past the people I could mostly see the greens of trees and bushes and that was about it so I guessed that the van was parked next to a building facing out. If you had asked me then I would of told you that that was probably a pretty stupid idea seeing as we were looking straight out into an escape route.
Kite next to me growled a little under his breath as he looked at the people and Angela did basically the opposite thing as she whimpered and moved herself up closer behind me. The woman looked at us with a bemused expression that quickly disappeared as the men in the white said something to her and she frowned. She looked at him and said something back that by the tone of her voice wasn't exactly one of immense approval. She sighed and looked at us again. A hand went back over her shoulder and three of the men in black grunted then started to move forwards into the van.
The increasing volume to Kite's growl got a hiss from me to him, "Quit it Kite. We don't know what they're going to do and starting a fight is not going to increase our probability of escape." He flashed a look in my direction and I could see his teeth were clenched hard as stone but he sighed a little and gave up on the growling as he looked back to the oncoming men. "Fine," was the only thing he said as one of the men in black grabbed his shoulder and started to pull him out. Kite's teeth bit down harder as the man had obviously grabbed a sore spot and Kite just kept himself from pulling his arm away as I mumbled something unintelligible to him. I wasn't really all that surprised when all three of the men could fit in the back of the van as well as us. One of them grabbed Angela and plucked her off me while the other grabbed me by my arm and hauled me to my feet. Bent over a little the guy dragged me out first and I plopped to the ground in a near heap as I hadn't realised the drop was there until too late. Kite landed with a little more grace next to me then Angela having noticed that both of us were at a lower level than her, landed with no fuss at all.
Now with a proper look around I could see the building that the van was parked near. Near being about fifty meters or so. The thought ran through my mind that the driver didn't know how to park but it was only fleeting as my attention scrambled about. The main thing I could see for the moment was the front entrance to a white building. Its walls stretched out on either side of us for at least four hundred meters and the only windows that were visible upon it's surface were down the very end on our left and around those large front doors. Each one of the windows had large steel bars covering over them. There was some words tattooed into the right side of the wall from the doors, each letter was a couple of meters tall with some smaller ones below them. But they seemed more than a little worn and in need of a new coat of paint so I could hardly read them, a couple of P's, E's and an R were the only things I could make out. Looking out in front of us again now with a wider range of view there wasn't much of an improvement in the greenery department. They just seemed to stretch out even further in both directions, with a small dirt track passing between two of the larger trees directly to my left. Probably the way we had come from as there wasn't any other track that I could see. There were no trees around where we were standing or between us and the building only grass and dirt. That stretched out for another hundred meters or so in front of us before the bushes and trees started growing.
Wherever we had been taken to was somewhere where there had been a lot of money put in place, a simple guess could tell you that you probably couldn't find this place unless someone told you about it and then actually gave you the directions to get there. The weirdest thing about the place that I had seen until that point was two large black spires that stood stretched to the heavens at either corners of the white building, about fifty meters or so from the corners at probably a direct diagonal angle. They didn't have any corners from what I could see and they stretched up about the size of the building and a half as high. From what I could tell from the flat face of the building that was staring at us the spire was around eight stories or so high.
I only really had a short period of time to look about before I was snapped back to the attention of the people that were holding us. I blinked a few times as we stood in what would have been silence if not for Angela's occasionally whimper and a grunt from one of the men in black. Then the woman snapped out of whatever it was she was in and she looked to the man in white and growled something at him then started walking off towards the building in what seemed like a huff. I just looked after her blankly before being shoved hard in the back as an indication to move and we started off after her. The man in white muttered more than one thing under his breath and the man holding Kite grunted something in response though I don't think he was really meant to as the man in white paused a moment before walking on again with yet more muttering. I shot a glance to Kite and Angela, I didn't really want to be split up again. Angela was feeling the same way and kept looking from me to Kite in worried glances. Kite was just watching the woman like as if he was expecting something. It kind of struck me as a little odd but I didn't have anything to back myself up on the thought and my mind kept bouncing about the place.
We walked over the grass for a while then stepped onto the gravelly pathway and kept on walking. I kept my eyes on the lady ahead and noted to myself the fact she was slowing a little. From the back of her head you wouldn't think she was as young as she looked from the front. White hair tends to do that to you I guess, you don't usually associate white hair and youth, at least as far as I knew. The white on white on white of her clothes, hair and skin gave her an eerie look to her like she was a ghost or something and the way she moved over the ground didn't help much either. I don't know how she moved liked that in heels, especially on the uneven ground with all the small potholes, it was if she was gliding upon a smooth surface.
She kept on walking until she was at the door and then waited for us to catch up with a rather much unpleasant looking face and growled something to the man in white once we were close enough. She flicked her hair out of her eyes then turned on her heels and went in through the door after a quick shout at them to make them open before the guy could make a reply to whatever it was that she had said. She was gone in a blink of an eye and the only thing to remind us of the fact she had been there was the imprints of her heels in the ground and the echoing sound of heavy doors being closed quickly. The three of us looked at each other in surprise wondering what on earth was going on. The men in black looked to the man in white awaiting orders and the man himself stood staring at the closed door with his mouth left hanging open in a lost retaliation. So far it didn't look all that good and I was really hoping the guy had enough decency not to take it out on us.
We all just stood there for what felt like hours until the man in white got himself together and turned around to face us. He didn't look in anyway happy and the way his voice fell out of his lips it didn't sound like it either. We took up a line behind the man in white, with the one guy in black without one of us in the front, then Angela and her guard person, Kite with his then me and mine. And we all started up a little march on our way along the white wall. I didn't have a clue to where we were going now, not that I really had one previously. The obvious place we should have been going was back and through those doors that the woman had gone through though in my opinion. I don't think any of the three of us had a clue, even Kite who seemed to know a little more than he was letting on.
It was pretty much silence for that whole walk that seemed to just go on and on and on. We got a pretty good look at the spire thing though, it was larger even than I thought it was when we were getting closer. It had a base that you probably needed about four people fingertip to fingertip to reach around it and that's to say at the extreme least. Upon closer inspection there was a red throbbing motion moving in a line down it in three lines that we could see from the angle we were moving at. It wasn't until the last fifty meters or so of the building that they were noticeable from. They seemed to start somewhere near the top out of our eyesight and travel down the entire thing to disappear into the ground somewhere and probably continue for some distance. I wouldn't of been surprised that the spire thing went for some meters down underneath us and then some. The three of us seemed to be mesmerised by the travelling lights, as we couldn't take our eyes off it for more than a moment. I had no clue as to what the thing was for and the thought wasn't popping into mind. As we came to the closest point near the spire the hairs along the back of my neck stood on end. I could feel some sort of electrical charge coming from the thing and wouldn't have been too terribly surprised to of found small amounts of discharging static bolts in the air around the it.
I kept on trying to look back to the spire as we turned the corner and my guard person was having a hard time in trying to keep me moving forwards. That was until I saw what was ahead of us. It wasn't exactly what I had been expecting. What I had been expecting was just another line of white that went on for pretty much as far as I could see with dirt for the first ten meters or so from the wall, then a hundred or so of grass, then the bushes and trees and such.
Now what I did see wasn't exactly all that great but it was a surprise and definitely not as boring looking as what I thought it would be. There was the line of the building we were walking along and all still there, but as well as that there was a line of two storey buildings that went down where the trees should have been. They travelled down parallel with the white wall. Scattered around between the walls of white were smaller one-storey buildings with a few that linked up to the two storeys one and to each other. A large domed roof was held over where the long two-storey building and the largest of the one-storey buildings joined together. And in the distance I could just make out a black wall like thing of some sort of netting that was spread out between the two white walls near the other end of the larger white building with massive flood lights set up around on the edges of it. It looked a little like one of those major league pokemon battle stadiums, just without the bleaches and such. At least that was the closest thing that it reminded me of and I was only seeing it from a distance at that time. There were tracks leading off in different directions that branched between all the white buildings, the largest one was paved over and lead between the white wall building and the two storey building and then a small off shoot to one of the larger one storey places. Where that paved area was, was the only place I could see trees as they lined up along it in rows. You know those huge tall ones that people prune into spire like shapes that just go up and up. And in the furthermost distance past all the white buildings and the arena type of thing there was another of the black spires that lead up into to the heavens and stood pretty clearly visible as it was taller than anything else within view range.
I was kind of wondering now if we had actually come up to the place along a back entrance seeing as you usually don't get these type of compounds to the side of a main building, usually either to the back or the front. Not that I had ever been to a compound of any kind previously or anything, that's just how I had always seen them in my mind and on TV and in books.
I shrugged it off or more to say had it shoved off, as I had stopped moving to stare at the place and my guard person had had enough of it and decided on making me move again. I kept on walking and had to move a little faster as we had been left behind a short distance. He didn't make me run or anything just made me walk quiet a bit faster for a little while. We followed along behind everyone else still in silent procession once we had caught up except for a grunt from my man in black.
I woke up to a loud bang as my door was pulled open and someone walked in with heavy footsteps. I blinked at the sudden rush of light into the room as it nearly blinded me and I was trying to figure out what was happening. I was roughly hauled up from the bed and onto the ground while I was still trying to actually see what on earth was happening and made a vocal complaint to the treatment but it didn't come out anywhere near as harsh or loud as I had hoped, more forced than anything. The voice that actually replied to me was obviously male and was in that same language that everyone seemed to know in this place. I didn't understand it but I moved along as he shoved me forwards and directed me towards the door. The moment I was about to make a sound of complaint though a hand came down and slapped me across the face. I decided maybe not to talk for a little while.
So we walked happily along the corridors and through rooms with me in front being shoved roughly from behind more than enough times to make my back black and blue along with my shoulders and the backs of my arms. We went a different way to what I had originally come to the room from, not that I could really tell by where we were going or anything, but the amount of turns and doors were different even to be going backwards. It was sometime in the day now because through some of the doors that were open I could see splashes of light on the ground from ceiling lights, or spilling onto the walls from windows. The red lights had stopped flashing so the going was darker in the place even if it was day outside since there wasn't really much light coming into the corridor. I don't know how anyone could possibly work or live in that type of place. There was basically no light, natural or otherwise.
My guard person was being in no way helpful to me as whenever I paused for any reason he gave me a hard shove from behind and made me stumble forwards. Opening my mouth to say anything got me an even harder shove that nearly sent me to the ground so there wasn't really a way of winning the situation. And even if the guy had actually replied to anything I said I wouldn't have understood anyway, as far as I could tell at the time the guy didn't understand or at least speak any English.
So that was absolutely no fun as we went somewhere that I had no clue of and had no choice about. I didn't get a good look of my guard person until we stopped where some other guard type of person was standing at a door. The guy in charge of me didn't look much different than any of the other people I had seen. He had black cropped hair, brown eyes and was dressed in the same black gear that everyone else was wearing in the place that I had seen so far. Aside from that I didn't get anymore of a look until the next stop as my guard person shoved me forwards as the other guy opened the door and let us through after they finished talking. The looks the two men gave each other wasn't exactly a 'I love you' look. None of these people seemed to get along with each other all that well from what I had seen so far.
After three more of these I was suddenly shoved into an open space outdoors and had to quickly shield my eyes from the morning sun. My guard person didn't exactly give me all that much time to gain my focus back as he shoved me forwards still towards some sort of blurry black thing that quickly focused into view and became a van. I blinked a few more times losing those last traces of dancing dots in my vision so I could see fully and kept on walking. I was about to call out to Angela as I spotted her going inside the back of the van ahead of me but had second thoughts as I didn't really want to be shoved at the moment and I didn't want my guard person doing anything worse. As we got closer to the van I could tell it was just plain out all black with no markings. Good sign, a black unmarked van. Fogged windows are always an added bonus as well.
I was little less than thrown into the back of the van by my guard person, where I landed with a less than delicate thud. I saw Angela in there at the back of the van and quickly got myself next to her. She hadn't noticed me and she wasn't moving or speaking. I think I scared her as I touched her lightly on the shoulder since she jumped back with a choked scream.
"Shh. Shh. It's only me Angie. It's ok," I tried to reassure her. She looked at me wide-eyed for a moment but calming herself down. She still sat a little on edge but she was more relaxed looking than before. "Are you ok?" I inquired worriedly. I don't think she was too sure of the answer herself so she didn't say anything. Our attention moved away as we heard a loud thud behind us as something else was dumped inside our new home. Then the slam of the doors being closed straight after. We both quickly turned to see what it was and I think we both were shocked to see Kite.
Kite didn't move and I quickly scrambled over to him wanting to make sure he was ok. There was probably just enough room inside for us to actually stand with our heads titled but I had been placed in here on my backside and I hadn't got myself up yet and didn't really see any real reason to do so anyway. I prodded Kite lightly in the side and only got a mumbled groan as a response.
"Is… is he ok?" Angela whispered beside me. "I don't know…" was all I could reply with. She looked at me with scared eyes. I didn't know what to do, at least she had moved when I had touched her, Kite wasn't and I was getting more worried. I moved around him pushing him lightly more to the center of the van and tried to see if he was ok. Kite was curled in on himself, I can't remember what that positions called, and he was shaking a little. I tried to get him to respond to my voice as I cooed to him in mostly nonsense just trying to get some sort of a response. It seemed to work because he pulled his head out and looked up to me with swollen shut eyes. I guess he hadn't calmed down much after I'd lost sight of him.
I kept Angela where she was, I didn't want her freaking out at the moment any more than she was, we didn't need the extra trouble that would make. The sound of the rev of an engine and a jerk around us gave the impression we were about to leave. More movement and the steady hum of the engine was the definite give away as we started to drive to our next destination. At the time I didn't really care where we were going I needed to make sure nothing major was wrong with Kite.
"Kite…Kite, can you hear me?" he groaned in response but locked eyes on where I was sitting over him. "Dew?" he smiled a little to me and ever so slowly started to get himself into a more appropriate position. He winced and gave sharp cries more than once as he did so but wouldn't accept any help that I could give, not that there was much I could do anyway.
"Are… are you ok Kite?" I was still worried even if he was putting on a brave show, his face was holding more than a few cuts and bruises and his clothes weren't nearly as well made looking as they usually were.
"Dew, I'm… ok," the pause was a short coughing fit that didn't bring any blood up but it didn't look like it was all that great none the less and he probably could of if he'd continued much longer than he had. "You sure?" He just half smiled at me and closed his eyes. "You really sure Kite?" Angela piped up behind him. He opened his eyes and shook his head a little, "Yes and hi Angela."
I got myself a little more comfortable on the cold metal floor, the grooves didn't help all that much if I must say, and looked at Kite, "You didn't calm down did you?" He kept that smile on his face and shook his head a little again. Angela moved herself around next to me as Kite moved himself up against the side of the van so as to have a backrest.
I paused a moment, I wasn't sure if I should ask but I really wanted to know, "Wh-what happened after… ya know? I didn't get to see what happened in the end. I was pushed out of range."
Kite bit his lip and opened his eyes as fully as he could, that was around halfway on his right and even less on his left, "I don't really know… they got her. And I tried to get back to where she was and I just blacked out." His smile grew some as he thought of something in his mind, "I guess the men in black don't have all that much patience for kids." He smiled more but wasn't all that willing to start laughing or anything, by the way he was breathing I could tell why.
"What happened to you then?" Angela mumbled beside me, I don't think Kite heard all of what she said but got the point or was at least figuring we were going to ask anyway. He fell silent for a while and nothing was said as we listened to the hum of the engine as it continued on its way. There wasn't any other noises which was a little weird seeing as we should have been passing through the city somewhere and hearing the normal sounds of morning traffic and such.
Anyway, Kite just sat there, he didn't answer the question and we decided unspokenly not to press. Sighing inwardly I looked at Angela then at Kite. "You want any help Kite? And don't act like just because you're a boy you don't need help. It's not like as if we are going to be telling anyone, at least not anytime soon." Angela surpressed a smile while Kite cringed. "No, I'm pretty sure I'm fine Dew," he mumbled, "What bout you two, where'd they take you?" he said a little more enthusiastically.
I looked to Angela but she wasn't speaking shaking my head I answered first, "Went down some corridors, past a whole heap of rooms and things. Only stopped when we came to what I guess was some kind of like checking station where my guard person and some other guy dressed in black said some things to each other in that weird language. Then we went through. Then the guy stopped me at this last one where another man was standing. They opened the door and shoved me in. Closed the door behind me and left me in a small room with basically no lights till they brought me where you see me now," Angela was nodding her head in agreement to what I was saying so I guess she went through the same thing.
Kite thought a moment, "What was in the rooms you passed?"
"Not much, there was only a few that I could see into on the way and on the way here, all that was basically in them was either a simple bedroom setting like what was in the room I went into. A room filled with computers, or with a large table and chairs." Kite thought the answer over and shook his head.
"What you shaking your head at Kite, you know something that we should as well?" Kite just shook his head again, "No, it's just… I don't know. I didn't really expect there to be much in that place. Was just wondering." I gave him a weird look but shook it off, I wasn't really in the mood for anything at the time. "Sooo…" I started off but I didn't know what to say.
"I hope we don't take too long, I don't like staying in the same small space for too long, it creeps me out," mumbled Angela.
"I don't think they'll leave us in here too long, the drivers have to stop at some point."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean they're going to let us out as well. We're prisoners you know."
I sat back and mumbled, "Well just make yourself comfy then, if we're going to be going on a long ride I don't want to be listening to you whining."
Kite rolled his eyes and moved himself a little to an accompanied, "oww." A thought came to mind a moment, "Did either of you get your pokemon back or at least have them anymore?" Both of them shook their heads. "You?" "No." Angela looked sad, she'd always liked her pokemon. And I'd never heard of her to hurt one of them, she hardly ever battled them even though they were strong, I don't actually know how she got them like that exactly since she didn't battle them very often, doesn't matter much now anyway. "I hope they're ok." I nodded my head in agreement.
For the next few, it had to be hours, we sat in the van and made idle chitchat occasionally but none of us really wanted to talk. I don't think anyone really liked the dead silence aside from the humming of the engine either. Kite had been right, when we did stop we didn't get out, they just changed drivers or something then went on. We hardly passed any other vehicles as we didn't hear anything pass by so none of us had any clue as to where we were going. Not that we would of anyway, their were no windows that we could see out of to see where we were and none of us really knew our way around outside of Cerulean anyway. When one or two of us fell asleep for any period of time, (We didn't know long for as none of us held watches or clocks of any kind, Angela had lost her backpack and Kite didn't seem to have anything on him aside from the clothes her wore.) the other/s would sit in silence pretty much like the rest of the time.
Inside the van it was surprisingly light seeing as there wasn't any windows that we could see through, but I guess that was kind of wrong as the windows where just black, so light did seep in and we couldn't see out of. Also along with the dim light heat seemed to be attracted to the black and before long we were all sitting off of the walls as they were burning up. We had our backs against each others as that was the best position we found where we all could lean on each other, though to say Kite leaned on us a little more than we leaned on him wouldn't of been a lie.
The time sure didn't pass quickly as we were mostly bored in the van and we didn't really want to talk too much either as we didn't know what the drivers would think. We didn't know if they could understand us, for the few times we did actually hear them say something it was in that same weird language so we couldn't understand them. Really was an added downer to our already depressing manner.
I awoke to a hard jolt that sent all three of us rolling to the back of the van and probably wouldn't of thought much of it if it hadn't been for the fact I was quickly told to shut up by Kite. We'd stopped more than once in that manner and nothing had happened so before hand so I really didn't believe it was any different.
Kite grabbed Angela and me and quickly as he could started to pull us towards the front of the van watching where we had landed with caution. I more than protested against this and shoved Kite off of me with a loud complaint but was once again told to shut up. Sighing I did and looked at him but he just kept staring at the van doors.
A click and a sudden rush of light got me turning towards the doors then immediately turning away again as my eyes had to adjust for the third time that day for a sudden on rush of bright lights directed to my eyes. A gasp and shuffling sounds to either side of me gave the impression that the other two had done the same. Still trying to adjust I looked forwards once more with squinted eyes and looked at five men and a woman. Well that was a nice change. The woman and the men closest to her where both dressed in white as well so that was another welcome change. I don't know if any of the men had been the drivers as I hadn't seen them at anytime from getting into the van so everyone of the people was a new face to me. Past the people I could mostly see the greens of trees and bushes and that was about it so I guessed that the van was parked next to a building facing out. If you had asked me then I would of told you that that was probably a pretty stupid idea seeing as we were looking straight out into an escape route.
Kite next to me growled a little under his breath as he looked at the people and Angela did basically the opposite thing as she whimpered and moved herself up closer behind me. The woman looked at us with a bemused expression that quickly disappeared as the men in the white said something to her and she frowned. She looked at him and said something back that by the tone of her voice wasn't exactly one of immense approval. She sighed and looked at us again. A hand went back over her shoulder and three of the men in black grunted then started to move forwards into the van.
The increasing volume to Kite's growl got a hiss from me to him, "Quit it Kite. We don't know what they're going to do and starting a fight is not going to increase our probability of escape." He flashed a look in my direction and I could see his teeth were clenched hard as stone but he sighed a little and gave up on the growling as he looked back to the oncoming men. "Fine," was the only thing he said as one of the men in black grabbed his shoulder and started to pull him out. Kite's teeth bit down harder as the man had obviously grabbed a sore spot and Kite just kept himself from pulling his arm away as I mumbled something unintelligible to him. I wasn't really all that surprised when all three of the men could fit in the back of the van as well as us. One of them grabbed Angela and plucked her off me while the other grabbed me by my arm and hauled me to my feet. Bent over a little the guy dragged me out first and I plopped to the ground in a near heap as I hadn't realised the drop was there until too late. Kite landed with a little more grace next to me then Angela having noticed that both of us were at a lower level than her, landed with no fuss at all.
Now with a proper look around I could see the building that the van was parked near. Near being about fifty meters or so. The thought ran through my mind that the driver didn't know how to park but it was only fleeting as my attention scrambled about. The main thing I could see for the moment was the front entrance to a white building. Its walls stretched out on either side of us for at least four hundred meters and the only windows that were visible upon it's surface were down the very end on our left and around those large front doors. Each one of the windows had large steel bars covering over them. There was some words tattooed into the right side of the wall from the doors, each letter was a couple of meters tall with some smaller ones below them. But they seemed more than a little worn and in need of a new coat of paint so I could hardly read them, a couple of P's, E's and an R were the only things I could make out. Looking out in front of us again now with a wider range of view there wasn't much of an improvement in the greenery department. They just seemed to stretch out even further in both directions, with a small dirt track passing between two of the larger trees directly to my left. Probably the way we had come from as there wasn't any other track that I could see. There were no trees around where we were standing or between us and the building only grass and dirt. That stretched out for another hundred meters or so in front of us before the bushes and trees started growing.
Wherever we had been taken to was somewhere where there had been a lot of money put in place, a simple guess could tell you that you probably couldn't find this place unless someone told you about it and then actually gave you the directions to get there. The weirdest thing about the place that I had seen until that point was two large black spires that stood stretched to the heavens at either corners of the white building, about fifty meters or so from the corners at probably a direct diagonal angle. They didn't have any corners from what I could see and they stretched up about the size of the building and a half as high. From what I could tell from the flat face of the building that was staring at us the spire was around eight stories or so high.
I only really had a short period of time to look about before I was snapped back to the attention of the people that were holding us. I blinked a few times as we stood in what would have been silence if not for Angela's occasionally whimper and a grunt from one of the men in black. Then the woman snapped out of whatever it was she was in and she looked to the man in white and growled something at him then started walking off towards the building in what seemed like a huff. I just looked after her blankly before being shoved hard in the back as an indication to move and we started off after her. The man in white muttered more than one thing under his breath and the man holding Kite grunted something in response though I don't think he was really meant to as the man in white paused a moment before walking on again with yet more muttering. I shot a glance to Kite and Angela, I didn't really want to be split up again. Angela was feeling the same way and kept looking from me to Kite in worried glances. Kite was just watching the woman like as if he was expecting something. It kind of struck me as a little odd but I didn't have anything to back myself up on the thought and my mind kept bouncing about the place.
We walked over the grass for a while then stepped onto the gravelly pathway and kept on walking. I kept my eyes on the lady ahead and noted to myself the fact she was slowing a little. From the back of her head you wouldn't think she was as young as she looked from the front. White hair tends to do that to you I guess, you don't usually associate white hair and youth, at least as far as I knew. The white on white on white of her clothes, hair and skin gave her an eerie look to her like she was a ghost or something and the way she moved over the ground didn't help much either. I don't know how she moved liked that in heels, especially on the uneven ground with all the small potholes, it was if she was gliding upon a smooth surface.
She kept on walking until she was at the door and then waited for us to catch up with a rather much unpleasant looking face and growled something to the man in white once we were close enough. She flicked her hair out of her eyes then turned on her heels and went in through the door after a quick shout at them to make them open before the guy could make a reply to whatever it was that she had said. She was gone in a blink of an eye and the only thing to remind us of the fact she had been there was the imprints of her heels in the ground and the echoing sound of heavy doors being closed quickly. The three of us looked at each other in surprise wondering what on earth was going on. The men in black looked to the man in white awaiting orders and the man himself stood staring at the closed door with his mouth left hanging open in a lost retaliation. So far it didn't look all that good and I was really hoping the guy had enough decency not to take it out on us.
We all just stood there for what felt like hours until the man in white got himself together and turned around to face us. He didn't look in anyway happy and the way his voice fell out of his lips it didn't sound like it either. We took up a line behind the man in white, with the one guy in black without one of us in the front, then Angela and her guard person, Kite with his then me and mine. And we all started up a little march on our way along the white wall. I didn't have a clue to where we were going now, not that I really had one previously. The obvious place we should have been going was back and through those doors that the woman had gone through though in my opinion. I don't think any of the three of us had a clue, even Kite who seemed to know a little more than he was letting on.
It was pretty much silence for that whole walk that seemed to just go on and on and on. We got a pretty good look at the spire thing though, it was larger even than I thought it was when we were getting closer. It had a base that you probably needed about four people fingertip to fingertip to reach around it and that's to say at the extreme least. Upon closer inspection there was a red throbbing motion moving in a line down it in three lines that we could see from the angle we were moving at. It wasn't until the last fifty meters or so of the building that they were noticeable from. They seemed to start somewhere near the top out of our eyesight and travel down the entire thing to disappear into the ground somewhere and probably continue for some distance. I wouldn't of been surprised that the spire thing went for some meters down underneath us and then some. The three of us seemed to be mesmerised by the travelling lights, as we couldn't take our eyes off it for more than a moment. I had no clue as to what the thing was for and the thought wasn't popping into mind. As we came to the closest point near the spire the hairs along the back of my neck stood on end. I could feel some sort of electrical charge coming from the thing and wouldn't have been too terribly surprised to of found small amounts of discharging static bolts in the air around the it.
I kept on trying to look back to the spire as we turned the corner and my guard person was having a hard time in trying to keep me moving forwards. That was until I saw what was ahead of us. It wasn't exactly what I had been expecting. What I had been expecting was just another line of white that went on for pretty much as far as I could see with dirt for the first ten meters or so from the wall, then a hundred or so of grass, then the bushes and trees and such.
Now what I did see wasn't exactly all that great but it was a surprise and definitely not as boring looking as what I thought it would be. There was the line of the building we were walking along and all still there, but as well as that there was a line of two storey buildings that went down where the trees should have been. They travelled down parallel with the white wall. Scattered around between the walls of white were smaller one-storey buildings with a few that linked up to the two storeys one and to each other. A large domed roof was held over where the long two-storey building and the largest of the one-storey buildings joined together. And in the distance I could just make out a black wall like thing of some sort of netting that was spread out between the two white walls near the other end of the larger white building with massive flood lights set up around on the edges of it. It looked a little like one of those major league pokemon battle stadiums, just without the bleaches and such. At least that was the closest thing that it reminded me of and I was only seeing it from a distance at that time. There were tracks leading off in different directions that branched between all the white buildings, the largest one was paved over and lead between the white wall building and the two storey building and then a small off shoot to one of the larger one storey places. Where that paved area was, was the only place I could see trees as they lined up along it in rows. You know those huge tall ones that people prune into spire like shapes that just go up and up. And in the furthermost distance past all the white buildings and the arena type of thing there was another of the black spires that lead up into to the heavens and stood pretty clearly visible as it was taller than anything else within view range.
I was kind of wondering now if we had actually come up to the place along a back entrance seeing as you usually don't get these type of compounds to the side of a main building, usually either to the back or the front. Not that I had ever been to a compound of any kind previously or anything, that's just how I had always seen them in my mind and on TV and in books.
I shrugged it off or more to say had it shoved off, as I had stopped moving to stare at the place and my guard person had had enough of it and decided on making me move again. I kept on walking and had to move a little faster as we had been left behind a short distance. He didn't make me run or anything just made me walk quiet a bit faster for a little while. We followed along behind everyone else still in silent procession once we had caught up except for a grunt from my man in black.