Chapter 68

Ebony put her hand over her mouth to help stifle a yawn.

"Why did you two have to drag me along, again?" she grumbled to Cara and Serenade as they left the little boy's hotel room. The Honchkrow-woman adjusted her fedora and rubbed her right eye. Ten o'clock in the morning was simply too early to be doing anything.

"No one forced you to come, sweetie," Serenade said gently, "but with the triplets practicing, we had to choose between the sleepy one and the grouchy one. Who would you have taken?"

"Alright, fine…" Ebony shook her head. She didn't agree with Serenade's view of the situation, but here was certainly better than hanging around Sparks. The human Luxray was easily the worst company she could imagine. Even being left alone for this short trip would've driven her insane. "At least we got what we came for, right?"

"Better," Cara chimed in from ahead of them. Their trainer was in a much better mood after speaking to Eric. Now they knew the truth behind that man in the purple suit and they might even be able to do something about it.

"Do you really believe what he said?" Serenade asked, "He could be lying to us."

"No, I believe him," Cara said, "as ridiculous as all of that sounded, I still believe him. The question is: what do we do now?"

"Well, the kid said he knew some other people that could help, right?" Ebony asked.

"Right…" Cara agreed, "And it'll take some time to get them all together."

"What about us?"

"Well," Cara thought, "first we need to talk to Alex. Let him know what we found out." She couldn't help grinning to herself. From the very start, she knew that there wasn't much hope. But still, Whisper's escape had been far too easy. Without help, Alex would have caught him. And if that was true, who in their right mind would take Whisper in.

Admittedly, Cara knew very little about Whisper. Alex had only said that he was brutal, powerful and near impossible to control. Whenever she pressed him for details about what he had done, Alex would shut her out and would refuse to tell her anything. The battle against PureBlueSky was the most that she had seen of Whisper's murderous darkness.

That had been traumatic enough, for her. Even from her distant location in the stands, Cara could feel the intensity and the maniacal joy Whisper took in burning PureBlueSky's Glaceon-girl. It was no wonder that Alex had never told her the details.

But that was no longer important. Soon they would have allies to help them track down Whisper. PureBlueSky was searching the city without knowing where to look. Thanks to Eric and his friends, they knew where Whisper had gone. They were ready to chase him down and keep him from hurting anyone ever again.

With Serenade and Ebony behind her, Cara knocked on the door to Alex's room.

Nothing happened for a few minutes and Cara knocked again. She knocked a third time before the door creaked open. Cascade, the blond Seaking-girl, stood sheepishly to the side to give Cara room to enter.

Before she did, Cara paused and peered at her. Alex and his entire team of human-Pokémon had all but broken down after Whisper escaped. The burden of knowing what they had allowed to escape was torturing them all.

However, that was before Cara had learned where he was.

Alex sat in a chair on the far side of the room, looking out at the gray sky over top of the city. He and Cascade were alone in the room. His other two human Pokémon, Dozer and Coraline, were probably hidden away inside their Pokéballs. Alex did not look up as Cara walked over to him.

"Uhh…what's up?" Cara asked, suddenly nervous to deliver Alex the good news.

"Meh…" Alex shrugged.

"That good, huh?"

Alex did not answer.

"Well, I have good news," Cara plunged into it, "I think I know where we can find Whisper. He's with-"

"Cara," Alex interrupted, "please, don't go after Whisper."

"What?"

"Don't go after him," Alex repeated, "he's too powerful and too dangerous."

Cara waited for him to continue, but he simply didn't.

"That's it?!" Cara yelled at him, "You're giving up just like that?"

"You would understand if you knew what I knew," Alex dismissed her.

"Alright," Cara took the challenge, "then help me understand. Tell me what happened."

"Believe me," Alex warned, "you don't want to know."

Cara bit her lip in her anger. Was he right? There certainly was something very sinister about Whisper. It was instinct. Instinct told Cara that she needed to fear him. She needed to run and hide and protect herself from the creature that his own trainer was terrified of. But she wouldn't let herself be defeated by something like that.

"That's bullshit," she spat, "that's bullshit and you know it."

"Cara, I'm telling you to drop it," Alex stubbornly continued, "You don't want to know."

"BULLSHIT!" Cara screamed at him, "I'm not some weak little kid! Don't tell me what I can't handle!"

"Cara, please," Cascade spoke up. Cara had nearly forgotten the human Pokémon were even in the room. "We've been through a lot these past few days. Please, don't make this worse."

Cara whirled on her. "Do you even know what happened?" she accused the Seaking-girl.

"I…I…" Cascade stammered, taking a step back.

"Cascade knows," Alex answered for her, "and so do Coraline and Dozer. We've had to deal with Whisper for over two years." He paused and took a deep breath. "Cara, he's gone. Let it go. We're safer now."

"Safer doesn't mean better," Cara snapped.

"Cara…" Alex shook his head, "what can I say to make you understand?"

"You can start from the beginning," she suggested, with acid in her voice.

Two years ago was the first time Whisper ever killed.

Alex remembered facing a young boy, a newcomer to human Pokémon. He fought with only a female, human Ninetales. The young woman appeared to be in her mid-twenties. She wore a form-fitting cream colored dress that seemed to blend in with her skin. Her long hair and her nine flowing tails were colored that same, gentle cream. Her eyes, however, were a deep red. Her face, though slightly narrow, possessed a unique beauty. And a sly smile touched her lips when she emerged from her Pokéball to face Whisper.

At that time, Whisper and Alex were still friends. Cascade, Coraline and Dozer were all humans and significantly stronger than what they had been. But it was Whisper who was growing the fastest of them all. Without question, he was Alex's strongest.

Even before that day, Alex had noticed Whisper's drive to gain more power. He rarely suffered defeats, but even when they won, it wasn't enough for Whisper. There were strongest opponents in the world and Whisper was ambitious enough to want to defeat them all. What Alex did not know was how far he was willing to go to prove it.

"You ready?" Alex asked him. For this particular battle, Whisper was disguised as Dozer, the enormous human Snorlax. The form made him look clumsy and doughy. A wonderfully misleading disguise.

Ninetales shouldn't have been a difficult opponent. They were fast, but they lacked the offensive power of many other fire-types. Alex had heard of several Ninetales that could increase the heat of the sun simply by appearing on a battlefield. Power like that would have been overwhelming for Whisper back then. That particular Ninetales, however, did not possess that ability. Often, Alex wondered if the future would have turned out differently if she did.

"I'll be fine," Whisper assured his trainer. Over time, his voice and manner would darken with his contempt towards his trainer. But back then, Whisper still had some humanity left in him.

"Soulflame, start with a Nasty Plot," the battle began as the boy issued his order.

The woman's sly smile spread wider as she concentrated. She snickered to herself and peered at Whisper.

Many experts were still unclear about the specifics of how Nasty Plot worked. Much like Swords Dance, it was a concentration technique. Special abilities like Thunderbolt and Psychic increased in power by staggering levels. Physical strikes, on the other hand, were totally unaffected.

"Make a Substitute," Alex ordered.

Whisper concentrated briefly, creating the shade that would step in for him when the time was right. When he was finished, he began to dash towards his opponent. The massive Snorlax form did not slow him down in the slightest.

"Wait, what the hell?!" Alex's opponent exclaimed, "Snorlax can't move that fast! Flamethrower!"

"Suckerpunch."

The Ninetales-woman drew in a deep breath to attack, but Whisper reached her first and punched her as hard as he could straight into her stomach. Soulflame was only stunned for a moment and Whisper didn't even have time to draw back his fist before he was bathed in flames from her attack. The substitute broke apart and the illusion faded, turning Whisper back into his true form.

"Surprise," Whisper grinned, shaking down his long, red hair. He expected to see his opponent react with shock or even terror, but she only continued to grin at him. He dropped back and put more distance between them.

There was something off about Soulflame. Alex couldn't quite explain it. She had barely been hurt by Whisper's Suckerpunch. She didn't appear to be wounded, but more than that, she didn't even react to the pain.

"Is that the best you can do, handsome?" the Ninetales-woman taunted. Her voice was as sly as the smile on her lips. Her nine tails rippled in an enthusiastic wave.

"Just getting started," Whisper returned. Without waiting for an order, he fired a Night Daze at her. The wave of dark energy spread outward from his palm and caught Soulflame with a direct hit to her forehead. She made no effort to dodge or defend herself. Yet as the Night Daze dissipated, she only needed to shake her head briefly to brush off the pain.

"Pitiful…" she scoffed, "my turn." The next time was her chance to act without orders.

Whisper tried to raise a Substitute, but he was a moment too late. The jet of flame seared his skin and caused him to scream out in pain and rage. When it was over, Whisper lied on the ground, his damaged body smoldering.

"Over already…" Soulflame pouted, "That was hardly any fun at all. I thought you said this guy was good."

"Clearly nowhere near as good as us," her trainer boasted. Alex could not remember what the boy's name had been or even what he looked like. But despite all of his jeering, Alex could only remember the boy with pity in his heart.

When Whisper stood up, he wasn't the same anymore.

Alex could not say what went through his mind as he lied there. Maybe he was thinking about revenge. Maybe about how weak he was in the face of Soulflame. Maybe he just wanted to win to make Alex proud of him. Or maybe some animalistic demon woke up inside of him that day and refused to go back to rest, but only wanted him to fight, attack, draw blood…and kill. Maybe none of them, maybe all of them. The only thing Alex knew was that his eyes were different. His dark eyes had been red before. But from that day forward, they were always the color of blood.

"What? Want some mo-" Soulflame's sentence was cut short when Whisper shot at her in a blur and Suckerpunched her directly in the throat. Gasping desperately for air, she staggered backwards and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Whisper did not wait.

He grasped her forehead in the palm of his hand and released another Night Daze. This time, Soulflame's eyes glazed over for moment as the blow shook her very being. She convulsed for a second before Whisper tossed her aside. She lied on the ground, still gasping and coughing up blood while a trickle of the red liquid leaked out of her nose. A moment later, she slipped into unconsciousness

"Ooooh, sweeeet Arceus…" Whisper breathed in and out, slowly. He held out his palms and gazed at them as though it was the first time. "Sooo much power. All of it…just waiting for me. Locked away all this time. Just waiting…waiting for me. All I had to do was let it in and take it…" He turned to the Ninetales-woman lying in a shattered heap on the ground. "And you…you want some more?"

"WHISPER!" Alex screamed, "what are you doing?! STOP IT!"

Whisper turned to look at his trainer. A moment ago they were friends. What were they now?

Soulflame's trainer was shaking as he fumbled with her Pokéball. He managed to recall his battered and unconscious partner. But he was too slow to run away.

Whisper cut him off and stared down at the horrified boy as if weighing out what he wanted to do.

"I'm not done with her," Whisper growled at the boy, "leave her and I'll let you go."

The boy staggered back, Soulflame's Pokéball still clenched in his shaking hands. His legs slipped out from under him and the Pokéball went flying into the air. When it hit the ground, Soulflame appeared and the boy ran.

Alex never saw him again.

"Now then," Whisper reached down and pulled Soulflame's limp body up, grasping her by her hair. Her tails dragged limply along the ground. "Wake up, you pretty, pretty little bitch."

Whisper shook her body like a lifeless doll. Alex could only stare in horrified shock as Whisper transformed into an outright monster. After a few moments, Soulflame's eyes slowly opened. She began to whimper, helpless in his grasp.

"Please…" she pleaded.

"What's wrong?" Whisper sneered at her, "you liked it a minute ago?"

"It's done…" she whimpered, "It's over…please…"

"Maybe it is," Whisper nodded, "but I sure as hell don't want to ever stop."

"Then let me go…" Soulflame begged.

"No," Whisper shook his head. Soulflame cringed, trying in vain to pull away from him.

"What do you want from me?" she began to cry as she pleaded with him.

"It's easy," Whisper told her, "even you should be able to do it."

"Please…" a tiny bit of hope returned to Soulflame's voice, "tell me, please! I'll do anything!"

"Scream."

It echoed for miles around. High-pitched and blood-curdling. Alex could still hear it in his sleep some nights. It seemed to stretch on forever.

Then it stopped.

As Alex finished the story, Cara realized that her leg was shaking. She didn't know how long it had been doing that. She tried concentrating on it, to make it stop, but it kept right on going anyway.

Alex leaned back, closed his eyes and breathed deep.

"After that," Cascade spoke up, trying to help her trainer, "it took all of us to get him under control."

"W-w-why would you keep him after that?" Cara stammered.

"I don't know," Alex admitted, "I think it's because we used to be friends. We wanted to cure him. We just didn't know how. All we could do was watch him and feed him battles and try not to let him kill." Alex couldn't even look at her anymore. "But he's too strong for us, now. He could kill again. And it's all my goddamned fault…"

Cara had never seen Alex weep before. In fact, she had never seen any boy cry. Ever. She had no idea what she was supposed to do, so she did exactly what she wanted to do. She stood up, walked out of the room and left him alone.

AN: So…yeah…

This is pretty much going to be the end of the line for Alex. No, he's not going to kill himself or anything like that. He's just not going to be around for a very, very, VERY long time. This is, more or less, the end of his storyline. Depressing, isn't it?

Overall, I'm not hugely sad to see him go. Pretty much all of his plotline was dedicated to introducing Whisper and telling his back story. And now that that's done, there isn't much for him to do and I have PLENTY of other characters to work with anyway.

oh, in case you missed it, Whisper's sudden power boost and bloodthirsty rampage is triggered by the first time he activates the Red State. yes, the very same Red State that Maple and several of the Four's human Pokemon rely on. just think about that for a little bit.

i haven't been able to use the Red State too much recently, but believe me, it's not gone.

Anyways…I guess that's it for this week. Do yourself a favor and go do something that makes you happy now.

Thanks for reading!