Chapter 71
"Look at them, Cal," Farin swelled with pride, "aren't they glorious? Aren't they wonderful? Aren't they everything you've ever dreamed of?"
Cal looked up and down the agents gathered before them. He knew all of them. He had eaten with them, joked with them and fought with them. They were the men and women of the Himitsu Island outpost.
Standing in front of him were twelve agents, each with six violent and obedient human Pokémon of their very own. They commanded a total of seventy-two of those deadly, half-transformed brutes that Farin favored over the real thing. Right in front of them, sealed within their Pokéballs, was a force that totaled nearly three-quarters of all of the human Pokémon participating in the tournament and one-third of every human Pokémon on the entire island.
"You seem unconvinced," Farin looked at Cal.
The cautious hunter felt like the only one in the room that was not proud to be there. Seventy-two was an impressive count, but Cal still did not believe in these creatures. He did not trust them and they had done nothing to change his mind.
Farin supposedly commanded the strongest of them, but when he went up against a ten-year-old boy in single combat the boy had easily stood toe-to-toe with him. Given a bit more luck, the boy would have had a chance to come out on top. That boy had been an amateur and should have been little more than a speed bump. These creatures were not ready to face PureBlueSky or any other member of the Four.
No, this was not right. Farin believed he had an army that could swarm the island, but he was wrong.
Farin was a madman. He was drunk off the lies that some pathetic researcher had told him to save himself from the rabid things in the basement. Hold death over somebody and they'll tell you anything. Cal had never seen this power that Farin claimed to wield.
"It's nothing," Cal shook his head. He had not feared Farin before, but in the face of his army it would be best to keep his head down. He was alone down here, as well. Fate, Whisper and Lionel were still waiting for a chance to attack the Meganium-woman up on the surface. All he had to defend himself was Maraca, his human Ludicolo, the fat, useless bastard. If there was ever a human Pokémon that Cal wanted to change into one of Farin's brutes, it was Maraca. But it was too late for that and he was stuck with the dead weight.
"Come now, Cal," Farin taunted, "I know that's not what you really think. These men and women are going to take over the island. Show a little more enthusiasm."
"Seems to me like you have everything you need right here," Cal shrugged, deciding to take up Farin's challenge, against his better judgment, "so, why are you lining them all up? Do you just like looking at them?"
"Why, my friend?" Farin tittered, "because much like yourself, several of these fine recruits remain unconvinced that we have the forces to conquer Himitsu Island. And, dare I say, there are those that think it unnecessary."
Insubordination amongst the grunts; Cal barely managed to keep the stoic expression on his face, it was so laughable.
But, undoubtedly, these grunts felt the same as Cal. They had been told that Team Deus was to remain secret. Even having select members participate in the tournament was a bold move for them. Everything Farin was doing was in direct contrast to their orders and their code. Perhaps they were beginning to suspect what Cal already knew.
That's what this gathering was. Farin was trying to change the face of the organization. If he wanted an army, he needed them to be unquestioningly loyal. They needed to accept his orders and carry them out as if God himself had given them. These men and women had been taught to be thieves. Farin was turning them into soldiers.
"Now, then," the man in the grape suit turned to his army, "today, we are going to conduct a tournament of our very own. You will fight each other with the creatures you have been assigned until a champion has been decided. Be sure to fight well, a command position could be in your very near future. Dismissed."
The grunts were left on their own to organize the tournament. However, it did not take long for them to pair off and spread around the vacant, auditorium-sized cafeteria where Farin had gathered them.
Farin continued to watch them, intent on watching their battles and training his soldiers.
"Your own army," Cal mused.
"Our army," Farin corrected him, "I haven't turned my back on Team Deus, as you seem convinced I have."
"I know the higher-ups too well," Cal admitted, "they don't want this. What are you thinking?"
"Cal, what do you suppose will happen when we attack the tournament?" Farin asked him.
Cal did not expect Farin to ask such a bold question, but he had an answer ready.
"That we'll lose, expose the organization, and be wiped out by their most powerful trainers when we should have stayed hidden and waited until the forced transformations had been perfected," Cal had repeated the scenario in his head time and time again. It was always the same. They could produce any number of loyal monsters, but the power of each one did not match true human Pokémon. Team Deus needed that power or there would be no victory.
"Always the pessimist," Farin grinned as he shook his head, "no, my dear boy, that is not what will happen. You said yourself that these trainers are disorganized and lack any true leader. That makes them weak and vulnerable. Now is the time to strike. Now is the time to fill them with fear and bend them to Team Deus. And win or lose, our own forces will be compelled to join the war with absolute commitment. We will crush them long before they even realize the extent of our reach. Our hands are around their throats, Cal. We only need to tighten our grip."
Cal stood silent for a few moments.
Farin was insane. Worse, he believed every word of it. He would die following this path and take down everyone he could hold on to while he did.
But Cal wouldn't be one of them. He wouldn't follow this madman's war. He needed to get off this island. He needed to eliminate the Meganium-girl as quickly as possible and vanish along with Whisper and the boy. Cal would survive only if he escaped this lunatic.
"By the way, Cal," Farin said, "it's come to my attention that you're hiding a few…shall we say, persons of interest, from me. The boy and…a Zoroark, I'm told?"
"What about them?" Cal needed to tread carefully.
"Oh, nothing much," Farin chuckled, "I'd just hate to think that you're building up an army of your own without telling me."
"They're only useless throwaways," Cal tried to downplay his newest subordinates, "nothing important."
"Is that so?" Farin was plainly unconvinced, "well, don't keep them locked away for too long. A growing army needs soldiers. Wouldn't you agree?"
"I suppose it does," Cal turned to leave, "I'll see if I can locate them for you."
"Hurry back," Farin chuckled once more.
Dammit, dammit, Cal cursed as he stormed through the halls of the base. Farin would not be persuaded, it was too late for that.
But was it too late to stop him? Farin's forces still didn't trust him. Maybe if Cal reminded them that they were thieves, not soldiers, he could convince them to disobey their orders. Farin's orders were not what Team Deus truly wanted. Surely they could sense that. Without his army, Farin could not launch his attack.
And where did all of those human Pokémon come from? Farin's army had been assembled from nothing. Cal didn't even know there were that many in the base. Could Farin have convinced headquarters to send him more of the half-transformed brutes? If he was doing something so drastic, it wouldn't be long before they found out what he was doing.
That was it, then. Farin was a dead man.
How long would he have? A week? Maybe as little as a few days. Team Deus would not forgive him for any slight. Not even one as small as smuggling in a few extra tools. Imagine what they would do if they knew about his little rebellion.
One phone call. Just one phone call and Cal could destroy the man. He could sound the alarm against him and Farin would disappear from his office one day, his rebellion easily forgotten.
But, no, that wouldn't work either. That way was too formal, too by-the-book. There would be an investigation first and Farin would launch his attack long before anything was accomplished.
How long did Cal have, then? Farin clearly planned to interrupt the tournament, which would be over in less than two weeks. But he wouldn't have that much time. His order for more human Pokémon would have raised a lot of red flags right when he did it. Time was no longer on his side.
It could only be a few days, no more. Cal would give him three days, at most. Then, ready or not, Farin would unleash his army on Himitsu Island and officially start the war between Team Deus and the tiny community of human Pokémon trainers.
Cal would only have one chance to set things right and keep Team Deus hidden in the shadows. If he could convince those grunts that Farin was crazy and they were going to lose, then the attack would fall apart. There would be no war if there was no army.
With only a few days to work with, there would be no time to talk to the grunts himself. He needed a grand gesture. Something impressive to make them fall in line.
He needed to defeat Farin himself.
"Hey! There you are!" Cal jolted out of his plans to see Lionel, the little blond brat, running down the hall to meet him, "I have another update from Fate! She says that-"
"Come with me," Cal strode straight past him, "you're weak and I need you to be stronger."
"Huh?" Lionel turned to follow after him, "w-what did you say?"
"I said that you're weak," Cal growled at him. He did not need this. There was no time to babysit. There was only one way he could prepare this fool for what he was about to do. He only hoped Farin hadn't thought of it first.
The cell was dark, but he deserved it. The cell was cold, and he deserved that too. He only remembered the collar around his neck when he looked at himself in the mirror, but it belonged there. Even the constant screams coming through the other side of the door were well deserved.
There were few punishments that Tesla, the human Galvantula, did not feel that he deserved. This cell had been all he had known for over two years now. More than half of his life had been spent in this cell. He looked like he was twenty-three, but that was something that his captors had told him.
Behind him, there were a total of seven-hundred and sixty-nine marks on the wall, over his cot. Each one was a painstaking chore to cut, but even that was fitting, for him.
His clothes were soiled and ripped, but they still reflected what he was. His jacket had once been a bright yellow, but it was so faded, it looked almost cream. The inside had been a vibrant, dark blue, now faded to a sad blue-green. His yellow pants were similarly battered and faded. His black hair, grown long from his time in the cell, was covered in dirt and grime. Had he been capable of growing a beard, it likely would've been down to his chest.
But what terrified his captors were the four solid-blue insect eyes he had and the two extra spider-like limbs that hung lifeless against his side. Most human Pokémon evolved with only a set of ears and a tail to mark them for what they were. The human Galvantula was nowhere near as lucky.
His company in the basement was screaming especially loudly today. He couldn't say why, but there were days that they would just keep screaming louder and louder. If he could understand their cries, he suspected they would be shouting "kill me." And yet, they always ate their food and lapsed back into silence whenever one of the keepers opened the door with a cattle prod in hand.
Maybe "kill me" was too strong. Too gruesome. After all, even with all of his regrets and the punishments he had earned, Tesla still did not want to die. He ate his food, he exercised and practiced his abilities and marked off each day, one by one. He wasn't ready to die.
He didn't understand that. Was living really that important? His life served no purpose in that horrible cell and nothing waited for him outside of it. Seven-hundred sixty-nine days of the same four walls and the screaming horrors on the other side.
He should've gone insane. He probably was insane. The only way he knew seven-hundred and sixty-nine days had passed was because that was the number of times somebody had come to bring food down to the lower cells. It only happened once a day and it was the only moment of peace he had. The screams only stopped for a few minutes while the horrors gorged themselves, but it was the only time of the day Tesla could hear himself think.
But, when they were screaming, which was constant, it reminded him of Rob. And how he never even had the chance to scream.
Rob was eighteen when Tesla had evolved into a human Pokémon. Rob, with his lip ring and spiky hair, had taken one look at Tesla's useless, lifeless arms and quadruple eyes and said his favorite word: "Bitchin'." The boy did not give anyone the impression that he would make a good Pokémon trainer, but Tesla could not imagine anyone accepting his deformities as quickly as he had.
He would have been a good partner, had he survived beyond the second day.
It was an accident. Tesla told himself that over and over and over, but it never made any difference. His old instincts had still been with him. In his head, he was still a Pokémon. As far as he knew, everything should work just like before.
It was the same instinct from life as a Galvantula that told him electricity was harmless. Not just harmless, but food. He could feed off of it, suck it in and power his own body with its energy.
To put it into practice, he went straight for Rob's stereo system. He was pulling cords apart and testing the right distance he needed to make an arc when Rob came up behind him.
"Whoa! Hey man, what the hell're you-" He reached for Tesla's shoulder and tried to pull him away. Startled and angry by the aggressive action, Tesla shot a jolt of electricity at him. It wasn't even an attack, nowhere near as powerful as what he used against other Pokémon.
But even that small jolt was enough.
Rob was shot backward, landing flat on his back a short distance away. Tesla turned away from the stereo to see his trainer shaking violently. Then he stopped.
That was all it took. Just one, quick shock had given Rob a heart attack and he was gone. If Tesla was anything but a Pokémon, he could have saved him. He could have called an ambulance, gotten him help. He didn't have to die. Not like that.
What could he do but run? Two days later he had a human mind and it was racked with guilt over what had happened. He ran and tried to live on his own, but he wasn't going to get anywhere. His eyes and his useless, dead limbs gave him away for what he was. It was inevitable that they would catch him.
Seven-hundred and sixty-nine days. He deserved every one of them.
The screams of the horrors fell silent as the door creaked open. Tesla sat up, confused by the interruption. It was still early. This was not a feeding time.
He could hear footsteps coming towards his cell. It was hard to tell how many, but there was more than one of them. A set of keys jangled for a moment before the door was opened wide.
Standing in the entrance was a tall, cruel-eyed man and a boy that was even younger than what Rob had been. The boy was plainly frightened, his blue eyes growing wider as he looked at Tesla's deformities. Who was this boy? He couldn't be with these people, could he?
It was the tall man who spoke next.
"He says his name is Tesla," he said, "he killed two agents when he was captured and has been unruly ever since. Even still, he's probably one of the toughest we've ever found. The collar isn't very effective for electric-types, so you're going to have to rely on some other method to get him to follow you."
"What are you talking about? What are you doing?" the boy stammered.
"Lionel," the man took a deep breath, "I already told you, you're weak. And you need to be stronger. The only way for that to happen is for you to start listening to me. Got it?"
"Yeah," the boy nodded, "I got it."
"Good. In that case, meet your new partner. Try not to let him kill you."
AN: that's more like it for chapter content. Crazy villain plots and a new character. I like it.
And, I'm back! Sorry for my prolonged absence. I started playing Skyrim and then suddenly two weeks were gone. Good news is that I think I'm getting bored with the game, now. It felt good to take a vacation to Skyrim. But, now that I'm over my brief addiction, I'll get back to a regular posting schedule.
And I must also say that I'm still working on responding to the recent flood of awesome reviews (I love you guys). I'll try to respond to as many as possible tonight, but I'm usually really terrible at this. So, I apologize in advance if I forget about you.
Even I don't always respond, I ALWAYS read every review I receive and they are always appreciated.
So, here's hoping I'll see you next weekend without a hitch and thanks for reading!