Alex blinked his eyes open to small amounts of daylight hitting his eyes. He gave a small irritated groan and rolled away from the trace amounts of light that had filtered through his blinds. He blinked several more times, gathering his bearings, and finally sat up. He recoiled in pain and gave a soft grunt, holding onto his chest. He became more and more lucid with every passing second and recalled the events that took place the day before. Specifically during the night. He let go of his chest and looked down at his body. He was still in his day clothes from the other day. He was clearly incredibly exhausted that night.
Yet that wasn't the biggest thing on Alex's mind as he looked down to his body. It was the pain in his chest. Or rather, the lack of pain. He still felt sore, and his chest still felt tender to the touch, but it was more than manageable compared to before. Alex chuckled, turned to the edge of his bed, and hopped off of it in a lazy fashion. 'I've a feeling I'm going to be impressed by what pokemon are capable of many times over before I get used to it,' he thought to himself, recalling the pokemon girl of an unknown species he encountered last night, as well as how she managed to heal his injuries. Alex looked over to his bedside radio. It read 10:32am. Alex's eyebrow raised and he gave a swift, surprised exhale. 'Damn, I really was tired.' Alex stretched his body, even through the dull throbbing pain of his aches, and made his way towards the living room.
Alex glanced around, but the apartment was entirely still. Alex did a delayed double take out of confusion, wondering where his roommate was, until Alex recalled Isaac mentioning that he had started work again. So Alex was on his own for the time being. Alex felt a small wave of relief, which was then almost immediately replaced by guilt. He felt bad for wanting to be away from his roommate for a while, but quite frankly, he just didn't feel like dealing with Isaac's smothering concern for Alex after yesterday's events. It may have only been that one day because Alex's trauma was incredibly fresh, and after seeing that Alex was going to be just fine, Alex imagined that his roommate would've given him whatever space he needed. Regardless, Alex decided that being on his own was better than the best case scenario of Isaac being home for the simple fact that he wanted to work through his thoughts completely on his own.
Alex toasted an english muffin for himself, grabbed a banana, and started idly chewing on his quick breakfast at the dining room table as he quietly started mentally working through his troubles. The issues began yesterday when he and Eli had an errant encounter with two very aggressive and prejudicial men. Alex shook his head, feeling anger swell up in his chest. He had a bad feeling after seeing the news report about the explosion he got caught up in, and it seemed like yesterday's encounter only strengthened his worries. People were becoming very distrusting towards pokemon, even to a hostile extent. It hardly felt fair to Alex, being judged on what he and others like him could do. Hell, everyone could do things that'd be incredibly harmful to others, but do they? 'Okay, okay, back up, Alex,' he thought to himself, derailing any further pessimistic thoughts for the moment, 'for all you know, those two dipshits could've just been outliers. Keep in mind, there have been multiple issues with people like them being loud and aggressive in this complex, even before the transformation happened.' Alex took a calming breath, trying to keep himself from getting worked up too much.
'It's a good thing Isaac was there too. Those morons would've really hurt us if he hadn't gotten involved.' Alex let a remorseful gaze rest on his banana. 'I mean... I think I'd have stopped it if it really came down to it. At least, I like to think I would. But looking back, I was just so messed up in the moment. Those two hit all of my injured spots... I could barely form a coherent thought, let alone have the wherewithal to will myself into my pokemon form if I had to. Could I have actually done something...?' Alex gripped onto his banana harder, almost crushing it in its peel, and gave a frustrated grunt. "I am sick of feeling utterly useless!" he shouted out loud. 'I mean, I'm a fucking mew, for God's sake! I should be able to train up whatever techniques I want and save anyone around me that happens to be in some sort of trouble!' Alex set down his half eaten banana, rested an elbow on the table, and rested his head against the palm of his hand, stewing in his frustration.
His mind flashed back to what that girl had told him. There were supposedly missing people, all of which were pokemon, and there was supposedly some shady activity taking place at an otherwise unused warehouse. Alex initially dismissed it, thinking that there wasn't much merit to her story. In fact, a thought occurred to Alex just then that the two events might not even be related. And yet... 'That girl's expression... Lila, I think she called herself, she seemed absolutely certain that her friend was in danger.' Alex leaned back in his chair and stared at the wall. 'I don't think I'd be able to forgive myself if she was right and I didn't at least try and do anything about it.' Alex's expression turned into that of grim determination. 'I'm not letting this one slip by. Not this time. I'm done sitting on the sidelines watching people and pokemon get hurt.' Alex got up, finished the small remainder of his breakfast, and returned to his room, willing himself into his pokemon form the moment he stepped through the door. 'Well if there are pokemon in trouble, they may not have much time. I have to figure out invisibility and transformation right now in the next few hours.'
Alex slammed the front door of his apartment shut in a fit of rage as he stepped outside in his human form. He clumsily inserted the key into the lock, taking more than a couple of tries in his angered state, and finally locked the door. He stormed towards his car, cursing under his breath. "Fuckin stupid transformation. The one thing I can't do. Complete fuckin bullshit," he muttered angrily.
Alex had been training for all of four hours after he had eaten breakfast, and he very quickly made headway on his invisibility power. He was able to go fully invisible, move around freely while doing so, and even exert small amounts of psychic power without reappearing. It did have limits, in that he had to actively focus on it in order to maintain it, meaning if he wanted to use a strong attack, he would need to break his invisibility, but otherwise, it was a very solid start. He just had to be careful with it. Unfortunately, he had still made zero headway whatsoever in using the move Transform. Not even so much as a spark. Even if he attempted to imagine other psychic types, which Alex thought would make it easier, there was no change in success. Alex made several attempts over a solid hour of his training time. Even if it was one of the most difficult techniques, Alex thought he would've at least found a starting point, but there was no sign anything was happening.
'You know what, fuck it. I'm not even going to bother with that anymore since I very clearly don't even know what I'm going there. All I'm doing whenever I try using Transform is just wasting time.' Alex unlocked his vehicle and opened the driver side door. 'Might as well focus my efforts on other things, like other elemental attacks.' Alex stepped in his car, took a minute to do some deep breathing to calm his nerves, and started the car. "Can't afford to focus on what I can't do right now. I have a task that may involve saving a few people," he muttered to himself. He pulled out of the parking lot and began making his way towards the highway leading to downtown Austin.
Alex felt his nervousness rising the closer he got to his destination. He couldn't stop thinking about worst case scenarios. Of course there was always the possibility that he would find nothing, or that it was a gigantic misunderstanding, but what if it wasn't? What if there really was something illicit going on, and the level of danger was so high that something were to happen to him? Alex took a breath and gripped the steering wheel tightly. 'I guess I'll just have to take each problem as they come,' Alex thought to himself, determined to see his mission through, regardless of what happens.
Sooner than Alex would've liked, he arrived at his destination. He parked on a street right next to the University of Texas softball stadium. Of course he wasn't stupid enough to drive up anywhere close to the warehouse. Alex figured he needed a relatively out of the way spot to fall back to once all was said and done, and next to a softball stadium seemed like a great spot since softball and baseball season were both still many months away. He stepped out of his car, locked it, and began making the trek towards the other side of the highway. As Alex was crossing a highway intersection, Alex made a passing note that traffic was starting to pick back up to its normal speed again. Alex, despite himself, allowed a small smile. But he didn't allow his mind to wander for long. It took him some time, but he made his way across the highway and ducked behind a building near the football stadium that he knew had a blind spot to both cameras and university students. He willed himself into his pokemon form, rapidly turned himself invisible, and took to the skies.
Having been downtown more than a few times, Alex knew his way around town fairly well. Though he had to admit, it was a little disorienting seeing it from the sky rather than on the ground. Even as Alex searched for his destination, he kept raising a hand in front of his face every few seconds, paranoid that his invisibility would come undone. The fact that it was still very much a new technique to Alex was not lost on him, and he kept silently begging whatever powers that be not to let it fail on him. Eventually, he came across 1st street, and he began to float in line with the road slowly, scanning for any abandoned buildings.
Alex spotted a few, but none that looked like a warehouse, let alone any building that was big enough to house more than a few people comfortably. Until he came across a bigger building that was slightly out of the way of the street. It did look abandoned. But Alex eyed it suspiciously, noting that it had a couple perfectly functioning businesses nearby. 'Could there really be something going on there? Surely someone would've seen them by now, if that were the case?' Not one to skimp out on a thorough investigation though, he lowered himself to ground level. As he was lowering himself, he noticed that the warehouse windows were all boarded up. Alex raised an eyebrow. 'Never seen any abandoned building have every single one of their windows boarded up unless it was waaay more run down than this place looks. Maybe there is something going on here...' Alex floated over to one of the walls and pressed his ear against it in an attempt to hear any noises coming from the inside of the building. He waited... and his ears perked a bit as he heard some shuffling inside. And then a voice. Alex felt a chill go down his spine. 'Okay, the shuffling I maybe could dismiss, but I definitely heard a person in there. Fuck me, there really is something here.'
Alex idly floated away from the wall slightly as he went into thought. 'But how to get inside without drawing suspicion...?' Alex was unable get very far in his thoughts. He heard heavy footsteps coming from behind them, gradually getting louder. Alex sharply turned around and make a motion to flee on reflex, but stopped himself after reminding himself he was invisible. There was a man walking towards the building's entrance with a rather large box. Alex slowly floated up and out of the way, being extremely careful not to bump into the man. The man set the box down with a grunt and knocked on the door loudly in an odd pattern. Alex swallowed down his nervousness as far too much time for Alex's liking had passed with nothing happening. Then at last, the door swung open, startling Alex, but not fazing the suspicious man. "Are you fucking insane?!" a female voice spat in a hushed tone, "You trying to blow our cover to literally anyone walking down the fucking street?!" The man rolled his eyes. "Just let me in. That shit's heavy and I wanna sit down," he grumbled with no concern whatsoever. The female voice took a breath, which sounded to Alex like it was an attempt to calm her nerves. "Just get your dumb ass inside already."
Alex stiffened up. He realized he was probably not going to get a better opportunity to get in the building unnoticed than this. With a surge of adrenaline and making sure he was still invisible, he shot through the doorway, floating just above both people at the door. After flying inside, Alex rapidly spun around to see if his presence was felt. Thankfully, it looks like neither party noticed a thing. The man continued to walk inside with the box in his arms, grumbling as he went, and the woman stood at the door, shaking her head rather impatiently at the man. The door closed behind them both and another chill of fear coursed through Alex. He got inside, but he also had to get back out after he finished his business in the warehouse. Alex glanced at the door. It was a locked push door. 'I guess I can use the slightly less conspicuous way to leave and just open the door while invisible. Not like I'm gonna be coming back to this place.' Figuring that was the best way to make his exit, he turned himself around to examine the inside of the building and what he saw disturbed him.
There were multiple desks in the building. A couple of them had computers that a few of the people were using, but most of them were stacked with boxes filled with various objects and papers, which at a glance, seemed like there was no way to determine what was what. 'Jesus... how does anyone find anything in this mess?' Alex glanced to the other side of the room. There were a few more people inside the building that Alex could see. After silently floating around and examining the place, Alex noted that the building had two floors, though the second seemed to be largely unused by any person, since the building itself seemed to be too short to comfortably fit a second floor. Alex surmised that it was primarily used for more storage, and the mass amount of extra boxes stacked up against each other corroborated that theory.
Alex narrowed his eyes slightly and gave a confused headtilt. He couldn't tell what was so bad about the scene taking place before him. About the worst crime he could tell that was taking place was maybe some type of contraband smuggling. It didn't look like a drug ring of any sort, and there was certainly no sign of any foul play regarding the supposed missing persons. At least, none that Alex could make out. Still, something felt off. There was nagging feeling in the back of his head to investigate further. Alex took a long, quiet breath and lowered himself to a desk out of the way and out of immediate view of the others. He floated underneath the desk and slowly moved to open one of the boxes- "ALEX!"
Alex shot backwards in terror, almost colliding into a stack of empty boxes, and his eyes shot to the origin of the voice. He saw maybe one or two people in his immediate line of sight, but neither of them were looking in his direction. Then a small but very muscular and intimidating looking man shouted towards another person Alex couldn't see. "I thought I asked nicely to stop fucking smoking inside! It's stuffy enough in here without you stinking up the place!" "Hey, fuck you, man! I need my smokes and you won't let me do it outside!" "Yea, I ask you to stop that shit for a reason. You keep doin it and I'm gonna stop being so nice. Get me?"
Alex clutched his heart and took slow and controlled breaths to calm himself down. 'Okay... I absolutely did NOT need that scare right now.' Alex pulled his hand away from his chest, only to sharply bring it back up to his face. He could see it again. Alex let out a gasp of terror and swiftly forced himself invisible again. He directed his attention to the people in his line of sight to see if he was found out. Much to his dismay, they were facing his direction. "What was that noise?" One of them asked. Several long and painful seconds passed as nothing was said by anyone, until the one who hadn't spoken yet shook his head in irritation. "Probably one of the freaks trying to stir up shit again," he muttered, then faced across the room and called out in a louder tone. "Hey Beth! You wanna shut em up?" "Ugh, fine. Just a minute."
Alex took a shaky breath, entire body jittery with nervousness, and shook his head to clear his mind. 'Christ, I almost royally screwed that up. Damn it, this was a huge mistake. I should not have came here without properly training my invisibility,' Alex scowled to himself. But sensing that he was getting too worked up at a time where he couldn't afford to be, he closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath. 'But you know what, fuck it. I'm already in too deep. May as well try and find out if anything shady actually is going on here.'
Alex opened his eyes again and peeked out from under the desk to look around. No one seemed to be focusing their attention in his direction. Alex withdrew back under the desk and decided to root through a box or two to see if he could find anything hinting at what was going on in this building. He opened up the box closest to him and made a face of slight disgust and annoyance. It was a bunch of papers haphazardly piled up inside. 'No one's going to win any cleanliness or organizational awards here, that's for damn sure.' Alex shook his head slightly and ignored the lack of order. He picked up two of the papers and studied them close. They were hard to read. Partially because of the lack of light around him, but mostly because it was all hand written, and calling the handwriting chicken scratch would be a compliment to how it was written. Alex gave up trying to decipher it quickly and picked up a different pair of papers. He ran into the same problem.
Alex decided that trying to find a paper that was more legible was pointless, seeing as it was very likely that he would run into issues no matter the paper he picked up. So he attempted to decipher what he presently had in his hands. The more Alex managed to translate, however, the more his exasperation faded and the more his concern grew. He couldn't read the entire thing, but a few key words he was able to pick out alerted him to the possibility of something nefarious possibly taking place at or near this building after all. ''Pokemon,' 'price,' 'negotiations,' 'well behaved,'... I may be way off base, but it sorta sounds like there's some sort of trafficking going on here. Maybe those missing people actually are in danger...'
Alex's ears perked up. He heard heavy footsteps, and they were getting louder and moving in Alex's direction. Alex froze and his heart rate began to skyrocket, but after calmly setting the papers back into the box, he forced himself to remain still and silent. 'Just relax, Alex. As long as you're invisible, you'll be fine. They won't ever be able to find you... wait a sec, is my tail still hanging ou-' Alex didn't have time to finish the thought before a pair of light brown animal-like feet came into view, stepping on Alex's tail in the process. Alex violently jerked backwards, recoiling from the sudden sharp pain.
"Hmm? What was that?" he heard a voice above him speak. The owner of the animal feet shifted them in such a way that it dug into Alex's tail and very roughly dragged it along the concrete ground. Alex pulled his tail back on reflex so hard that it slapped against his body. He began to silently scream and writhe at the sheer amount of unexpected pain and adrenaline shooting through his body as a result of having his tail crushed.
All of that pain was forgotten in a moment's notice when his eyes fell on the owner of the animal feet, who had knelt down and peered under the desk, staring directly at Alex. It was a kangaskhan. Alex froze up in an instant, fearfully staring back at the pokemon. The kangaskhan, however, could not see through Alex's invisibility, and looked back and forth several times under the desk while not acknowledging Alex's presence.
"Yo Beth, what's the hold up?" a different voice away from Alex and the kangaskhan spoke. The kangaskhan stood back up and turned towards the owner of the voice, and Alex took that as his cue to limply flop on the ground with his body splayed out, finally allowing himself a relieved breath. 'I am never doing stealth missions again after this. I don't have the nerve for it.'
The kangaskhan spoke in a gruff feminine voice. "I thought I felt and heard something, and it didn't sound like it was coming from-" "Fuck's sakes, woman," the voice interrupted, "I told you already that no one can understand a goddamned thing you say when you're like that. I don't care if your tail itches or whatever. Just go down there to shut up the freaks already. And give little fire boy a pep talk. We might have a buyer for him soon, so he needs to be on his best behavior."
Alex's ears perked up once again and he sharply lifted his head up. 'Wait, what did he just say?' Alex lifted himself back up and eyed the grumbling kangaskhan carefully, occasionally glancing back in the direction of the distant voice. 'That sounded so fucking shady it's not even funny. Are they actually trafficking human pokemon?' Alex felt anger and disgust begin to well up. He flew out from under the desk, still under veil of invisibility, and tailed the kangaskhan. Alex was perplexed as he watched the kangaskhan make her way to an empty nondescript corner of the warehouse not far from the desk Alex was under, wondering what could possibly be over there, until she lifted a large concrete slab that was jutting out from the ground. Alex's eyes widened. There was a secret underground area in the warehouse? 'Since when do warehouses have those? Let alone here.' Alex started puzzling to himself, but quickly snapped himself out of it after he realized the kangaskhan was lowering herself down. Alex, not wanting to miss out on the opportunity, swiftly followed in her footsteps.
Alex was shocked by what he saw. It was a very small corridor that had been very roughly dug out to the point where Alex was convinced it was entirely man made, with cells carved out of the stone walls, reinforced with heavy iron doors that had opaque sliding windows that Alex surmised could be briefly opened to communicate with the occupant before completely shutting them out from the rest of the world after. The hallways and cells had the crudest lighting wired in on the underground ceiling. Alex counted eight cells in total- four on each side. It looked very demeaning and inhumane to him.
Alex's observation was interrupted by the kangaskhan suddenly slamming on all of the cell doors in sequence, causing Alex to flinch in mid air. The kangaskhan then opened all of the cell windows. "I thought I told you shits several times to keep your traps shut! I know one of ya was making a racket in hear. Who was it?!"
Alex nervously swallowed. No one made a noise for several moments until the kangaskhan started chuckling. "So that's how it's gonna be, huh? No one wants to own up? I've got half a mind to cut your rations again, but-"
"Give it a rest, will ya? No one can understand you like that," Alex heard a depressed, but defiant sounding male voice say, interrupting the increasingly irate kangaskhan.
The kangaskhan glowered at the source of the voice, and suddenly slammed on his cell even harder than she had previously, causing Alex to flinch again and causing the male voice to let out a terrified whimper. "I'm gonna let that slide this time, pretty boy, because you've caught me in a good mood. In fact, I think you should hear this news, yourself." The kangaskhan suddenly began glowing in a white light, and a woman with short, blonde, gelled hair and a plain white t shirt and oversized jeans took her place. "You should be more thankful, cuz someone actually wanted ya enough to get you out of this dump. Congrats, someone bought you. Maybe you'll go to someone who will let you go. But then again," the woman sneered, turning away to start closing all of the cell windows again, "I wouldn't get my hopes up for that happening if I were you." Alex narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists, fury coursing through his veins at the spiteful woman, as she closed the weeping and whimpering male's cell window and proceeded to make her way back up to ground level.
The concrete slab was slid back in place, and it was only then that reality dawned on Alex again. He was trapped. Alex began to panic, but he was able to quickly stop himself. 'This is what I came here for. No turning back now. I've only got one shot at this. Gotta make it count.' Alex took yet another calming breath and flew down the crudely lit hallway, opening all of the cell windows back up as he went.
"Um... hello? Who's there?" a confused voice called out.
"Shh! Shh!" Alex whispered out, hoping his pokespeak wouldn't muddle up a shushing command.
Thankfully, it seemed to work. Alex heard shuffling and footsteps from within the cells, but no further attempts to speak. Alex saw the faces of confused people start to appear at the cell windows. "Hello...?" one of them whispered.
Alex narrowed his eyes in confusion and concern. Two cell occupants hadn't walked up to their respective doors. It was only after Alex floated to and looked inside each cell did he realize that the two remaining cells were empty. 'Huh, okay, so only six occupants. Not sure if this makes things easier or harder if they end up all being pokemon, but oh well. Just gotta roll with it.' Alex floated to the center of the hallway, and with a nervous breath, he released his hold on his invisibility.
The effect was immediate. The hallway was filled with the sounds of shocked gasps. "Mew!" "It's Mew!" "Wait, what's that?"
"Shh! Quiet, guys! Shh!" Alex whispered frantically. The hallway rapidly became still again, but Alex still waited, watching towards the underground exit for several tense moments until his attention was caught by glowing white light in two different directions. Alex shifted his attention back and forth to the two people, now turned pokemon. One of which Alex recognized as a mudbray, and the other a cyndaquil.
"Please tell me you're here to rescue us," the mudbray whispered, desperation lacing his voice.
Alex nodded. "Yup. I'm here to get you guys out of here. Gonna see if I can mentally pick the locks without them knowing. Then next time that door opens, we can all rush the front door." As Alex was explaining his plan, the other four prisoners all followed suit of the other two trapped pokemon-humans, and all transformed themselves. Alex noted there was an inkay, a pidgey, a skorupi, and... another pokemon Alex didn't recognize, much to his frustration. It looked to Alex like a purple lizard with four thick but short horns, and a tuft of hair that kept flickering like a candle flame or a bolt of lightning. "We're definitely going to have to fight our way out. Inkay, I don't suppose you know any defensive techniques?" Alex whispered.
The Inkay nodded and hopped up to try and look Alex in the eye. "Yup. Reflect and Hypnosis. But I don't know how well Reflect is gonna hold up against non pokemon and I'm not sure if I'll be able to put more than one of em to sleep. I haven't gotten a chance to test them that much."
Alex grimaced and forced his mind to think quickly. "Hmm... okay, I think it'll still work. Cyndaquil, you know how to use smokescreen, right?"
The cyndaquil gave a small fearful whimper, but tried to speak with as much confidence as he could manage. "Yea, I can. I think I can lay down a layer thick enough to hide all of us, if that's what you're asking."
Alex nodded. "Good. That'll help a lot."
"B-but wait, hold on a sec, can't you just teleport us out?" the cyndaquil stuttered.
Alex took a moment to process what was being asked of him, then his expression darkened. 'Fuck me, I completely forgot that mews could do that too! That's it, next time before I train, I'm researching everything about this species. Fucking criminal that I haven't done that yet...' As Alex was internally chastising himself, he realized the question was still hanging in the air. Alex gave a frustrated sigh. "No, I can't. I haven't learned how to teleport yet."
"Then can't you just transform into a pokemon who can?"
Alex gritted his teeth. He almost felt as if he was being needled for not knowing techniques that came as a staple to the species he turned into. "I haven't learned how to do that either," he forced out in a frustrated grunt. 'And not through lack of trying in that case,' he added bitterly to himself.
Alex, much to his dismay, was met with multiple hushed reactions of shock and uncertainty, until the skorupi piped up. "Wait wait guys, I don't get it, why is him not being able to teleport and transform such a big deal? What is he?"
"He's what's known as a mew," the pidgey girl piped in without missing a beat, "and he's supposed to be a super mythical pokemon with the ability to use any move in existence, except for a certain few. And he's supposed to be the ancestor of all pokemon, having DNA from each and every one of them-"
"And I'm also just another regular guy who didn't ask for any of this!" Alex interrupted, silencing everyone. Alex took a calming breath so he didn't fly off the rails. Now was certainly not the time for that. "Look, I know I'm not what you guys were expecting. There are some things about my powers that I'm still figuring out. But when I heard that there might've been other pokemon in danger, I couldn't exactly wait for a couple more days to hone skills I may not even be able to figure out by then. I doubt y'all would've had that time. I'm here now, and I may not have another chance like this. So let's use this time to get you guys out of here," Alex quickly whispered in a stern, no nonsense tone.
Alex heard uncomfortable shuffling coming from a few of the pokemon until the nervous cyndaquil spoke up. "Sorry, Mew. I don't mean anything by it, and I don't think anyone else does either. We're just... you know, scared," he whispered with multiple murmurs of agreement following his apology. "You said you can pick the locks?"
Alex nodded, just happy to get the rescue back on track. "Mhm. One thing I have gotten good at is my precision with my psychic powers. It may take me a couple moments to control something I can't see, but I can mentally reach inside y'all's locks and open up the doors that way."
"Hey hey, get me out first." Alex looked over to the mudbray, reacting to his impatient tone.
"What?! What makes you so special? We all wanna get out of here!" the unknown pokemon whisper-shouted.
"I know. And trust me, we will. But if they find us while Mew is busy busting us out, then we need to get everyone out fast. I can kick down the doors."
Alex blinked in surprise at the very sudden sound reasoning coming from such a frantic sounding pokemon and the room briefly fell silent as no one found an argument against it.
"If you can do that, then why haven't you tried getting out already?" the unknown pokemon muttered, still sounding very irritated.
Alex saw the mudbray's gaze darken drastically. "I did try once," he spat with an alarming amount of venom for being so silent, "but I nearly got myself killed for it. It wasn't like I could just waltz out the front door, you know. Kinda hard to coordinate an escape when they won't let us talk to each other. Especially since they're keeping a fricken kangaskhan here twenty-four seven."
Alex heard enough. "Alright, guys, that's enough. Mudbray's right. I'll get him out first in case things go sideways, then the rest of you. Don't worry, I'm not gonna leave you til I know all of you are safe."
"Same goes with me," the mudbray piped in, "I may be desperate to get out, but I'm not an idiot to think I can leave on my own."
Alex heard unsure murmurs, but there were no objections to the line of reasoning. It seemed good enough for the rest of the pokemon. Alex nodded and floated up close to the mudbray's cell door lock. "Alright, Mudbray. Just give me a minute and I'll have you out of here. Then we can get everyone else." Nothing more was said by anyone, leaving Alex to focus on his work.
It was a mechanical lock, much to Alex's relief. He wasn't sure he could trick a digital lock. Alex mentally reached inside the lock and began messing with the locking mechanism. Alex had understated how much difficulty he had controlling things he couldn't see a fair amount. If it wasn't something as small as a lock gear, it would've been downright impossible for him to manipulate. Alex spent the next few minutes trying to get the locking mechanisms to align correctly, patiently putting every ounce of focus he had into it. No one said a word in the meantime, being too afraid to disrupt Alex's concentration.
Finally, the lock gave. Alex gave the cell door a small tug as he felt the lock line up, and it was enough to open the door off of its frame. Alex gave a small grin. "Nice, I got it." Excited murmurs filled the hallway and Alex pulled the cell door open all the way. A very ecstatic mudbray bolted out of the cell and began swiftly trotting up and down the hallway.
"Oh thank goodness. Oh freedom. Even if it's just a bit right now. Holy crap, thank you so much," he whispered over and over again to Alex.
Alex couldn't help but chuckle. "Heh, no worries. I'm not done yet, though. Gotta get the rest of you out."
The mudbray nodded and sat off to the side as Alex went to the next closest cell. Several minutes had passed, and Alex was starting to get quicker at unlocking the locks. The next one he picked took some time, just like with the first, but soon enough he was able to free the cyndaquil. Not very long after, he was able to set free the inkay and the unknown pokemon in relatively quick succession. All of whom were predictably elated to finally be released from their cells. Alex reached the pidgey girl's cell and began to pick her lock too. Alex meanwhile decided to speak a small suspicion he had. "Hey, I don't mean to pry, but you wouldn't happen to know someone answering to 'Lila,' would you?" he asked in a tone only he and the pidgey could reasonably hear.
Alex could practically sense the pidgey's alarm from the other side of the door. "What- is she okay? She's not hurt, is she?"
"Ah, no no, nothing like that. She's just fine. In fact," Alex paused for a brief moment so his concentration wouldn't slip, "you might wanna thank her after you get out of here. She was the reason I even found out about you guys in the first place."
The pidgey's alarm melted into relief, then shifted to surprise. "Oh dang, that's how you heard about us? How did she find you?"
Alex shrugged and peered at the look closer. "It was kind of an accident. I was in the woods one night on my own, she caught me by surprise, quickly told me about you missing and how she thought something bad might've happened to you, and now here I am."
The pidgey gave a dry exhale of amusement. "Oh Lila, ever the worrywart... she cares about me a lot, which I mean, I care for her too. But she's always so- well... I guess I can't really call her paranoid anymore after this deal. But seriously, her worst case scenario only happens every one in ten thousand times."
Alex shook his head, both annoyed and amused. 'You mean I fell victim to the paranoid pleas of a girl that just so happened to be right this one time? Oh brilliant.' "Guess she hit number ten thousand this time, huh."
The pidgey sighed. "Guess so... I just wish that-"
Her words came to a screeching halt as her attention, as well as everyone else's shot towards the entrance of the underground prison. Someone was moving the stone slab aside. Alex's focus on the lock was shattered and he jerked backwards in fear, having no time to react as a man made his way down. "I thought I told those shits to- holY FUCK! THEY'RE OUT! INTRUDER ALERT!" The man bolted back up before anyone had time to do anything.
All of the pokemon suddenly became frantic and fearful. Their cover was blown. And Alex knew several people would be on their way in no time at all, likely brandishing guns, all before Alex could come up with a way to get them out. Alex yelled out the only thing on his mind at that moment that could suitably explain his thought process. "Oh SHIT!"
((So fun fact, this chapter originally was not gonna end here, but I realized this chapter is already going to be pretty long already that adding the original ending would've made this chapter 12k words long easily. That would've made it far too long and not fun to read for me. I like long chapters, but if they get to be TOO long, I start to lose focus. Soooo cliffhanger it is for the time being!
As usual, constructive criticism, questions, and general comments are appreciated. I can see my story getting more traction, and I just really need to thank you guys. I probably would've gotten this far in my story anyway because I love pokemon a lot and I love the world building part of it, but it may not be at the pace I am presently. You guys give me extra motivation. And for that I thank you. Til next time!))