Chapter 4: The Shadow Device
The power station that Robert referred to was an old, decrepit coal plant from many years ago that had become a training ground for many young Trainers over the years. Native Pokémon included Patrat, Voltorb, Lillipup, Koffing, Elekid, and Magby, which made this place ideal for those who intended to catch Pokémon to puff up their roster, or even just battle for practice. Today, however, not many trainers were out. The wild Pokémon seemed to be absent or hiding, so there wasn't really much reason to hang around the decrepit building, but Darius was an exception. He had both Snivy and Gligar out of their Pokeballs, and they were practicing their techniques on nearby targets. Snivy was attempting to lift a barrel with its vines, while Gligar was practicing aerial strafing on a signpost with the sign long since removed. He eventually got bored and ventured into the building, wondering where the Pokémon might be hiding, only to see about 300 Pokémon marching further into the building like mindless automatons in 5 single-file lines, with a group of Koffing following behind the terrestrial Pokémon in a similar way.
He saw five suspicious black-clad people with odd smartphone-like devices in their hands fall into line behind them, as if to make sure the Pokémon didn't fall out of line. Darius, curiosity piqued, silently motioned to his Pokémon to follow silently. Luckily, Snivy and Gligar were species very inclined to stealth, so they had no trouble sneaking in with Darius unnoticed. All of a sudden, however, he heard a female voice yelling angrily in the factory, and abandoned his self-assigned stealth mission to investigate.
What he saw was a girl staring defiantly at two black-clad criminals with similar devices in their hands.
"No, I'm not letting you get away with this! You horrible people! Kidnapping and hypnotizing Pokémon just so you can round them up for your own misdeeds... I WON'T STAND FOR IT!" The girl screeched at the two suspicious people.
He looked closer at the criminals to see that it was a woman and a man. They both had smirks on their faces.
"Look, sweetie, either you run away now, or we pulverize you and keep your Pokémon, and we might even..." The woman began and then paused, as if to think of the right word.
"Forcefully persuade you to join our cause." The man finished her sentence for her. "I mean, I don't like your odds, you're going 2 against 1 here."
"What about 2 on 2?" Darius calmly walked up to the man and looked him in the eye. Even though he suddenly tensed up and got nervous, he also knew he'd hate himself for abandoning this poor girl when she got in over her head.
"Now that sounds like fun!" The man grinned.
"Shut it. I'm Cheryl, this idiot is Darryl, and you two are our new victims! En garde!" The woman snarled with a positively predatory grin, like a hunter who found its quarry.
Both Cheryl and Darryl pulled out Pokéballs and released their first Pokémon: a pair of Zubat. They flew erratically as they came out before orienting themselves and flapping their wings to remain aloft in one place. The Zubat didn't look very high-level, however, and it became obvious that these two were simply guards to run distraction while the real operation was going on.
"Attack, Gligar!" Darius sent out his Gligar, knowing full well that Snivy would be at a terrible disadvantage against a flying-type. Gligar flew out from its hiding place on the ceiling, gliding overhead above the two Zubat.
"Aero, use Gust!' The girl sent out her Pidove, who whipped up a gust of wind that sent Darryl's Zubat flying.
"Shit! Zubat, Supersonic!" Darryl's Zubat made sound waves that caused the girl's Pidove to suddenly begin flying in circles before it crashed into the floor. "Leech life!" The Zubat headed towards the confused Pidove with its mouth open wide, but Gligar swooped down and clamped onto its wings.
"Poison Sting!" Gligar jabbed the Zubat with its stinger, but it seemed to have no effect.
"Zubat, Leech Life!" Cheryl's Zubat latched on to Gligar's wing and tried to drain blood, but Gligar seemed to pay it no heed as it continued to fly in circles.
"Aero, consecutive quick attacks! Pick off the Zubat!"At the girl's command, the Pidove gained altitude, looped around and struck Cheryl's Zubat clean off Gligar's wing with an incredibly fast ramming attack. Gligar dropped the other Zubat from its pincers just in time for Aero the Pidove to strike the Zubat with such speed it was barely visible. Both Zubat landed on the ground spent, much to the chagrin of the two guards.
"Fine, let's play with our cool toys now." Darryl pulled out the device and pressed a few buttons, which caused an Elekid to run out from the hallway and to its side. Its eyes were glazed over and expressionless, almost as if it was sleepwalking. Cheryl summoned a Magby similarly.
"Like the Shadow Device? If you join our cause, we'll give you one!" Darryl smirked.
"Shut it, you idiot! You've said too much!"" Cheryl backhanded Darryl, causing him to yelp slightly.
Darius recalled his Gligar and sent out Snivy after scanning the Pokémon in his TMA, with the TMA noting that their abilities cause status conditions upon contact and that they were wild Pokémon.
Wild, eh, Darius smiled slightly. Perhaps he could catch them to boost his roster. Meanwhile, the girl replaced her Pidove with an Oshawott whom she called Shelly.
I get the feeling this is the third trainer from Professor Fern's lab I haven't met yet. This isn't the time for curiosity, though; both of their Pokémon seem to be pretty strong. Dammit, Darius, stop checking out her tits! Get it together!
"Elekid, Quick Attack!" Darryl made the first move, and Elekid wordlessly ran full-tilt at "Shelly".
"Vine Whip, intercept it!" Darius' Snivy lashed the Elekid with its vines, but it continued charging despite the welts that were already forming from the harsh strikes.
"Shelly, Water Gun!" The Oshawott began to shoot water forcefully, but this only caused Elekid to stumble. However, this was the opportunity Darius was looking for.
"Tackle!" Snivy sprang up to attack, only to be hit by a sudden cloud of poison gas.
"Magby, now use Ember!" The Magby spat small fireballs at Snivy, causing it to reel back in pain as its skin began to blister. "Finish it with another Smog attack!"
"Shelly, Water Gun!" Magby's attack was interrupted by a blast of water that caused it to cringe in pain as the water sizzled on its fiery body. "Now, Tackle!"
"Elekid, zap it!" the Elekid struck Shelly with a jolt of electricity that made it scream with pain and fall over next to Snivy. "Well, looks like we won! Hand 'em over, brats!" Darryl cackled with glee, not noticing the radiant green and blue glows emanating from Snivy and Shelly, respectively.
Both Darius and the girl realized that their Pokémon's abilities had activated as their Pokémon charged in for their final attack. Shelly's scalchop began to glow as a strong wind whipped up in the room around Snivy. "Let 'er rip, Snivy!"
Leaves began swirling around Snivy as it released a whirlwind, knocking Darryl's Elekid back as the leaves whipping around began to lacerate its yellow and black coat with bleeding cuts, while Shelly slashed Magby with its glowing shell, knocking it out on the spot. Unfortunately for Shelly, Magby's Flame Body activated, and the burn damage caused it to go down to its knees, wailing in agony. Elekid began to get back up and it was preparing to release another Thundershock attack, its glassy, expressionless eyes contorting into a hateful glare. Snivy, however, saw its arms begin to windmill and tackled it onto the ground, casing its attack to hit the remotes instead.
"Oh crap! We got our asses whooped! Let's get out of here!" Cheryl wailed, before fleeing with Darryl close behind her out the factory door. The Pokémon they abandoned lay defeated on the factory floor, with Snivy and Shelly barely able to stand panting after winning the most difficult battle they'd faced.
"Perfect." Darius pulled a Pokeball from his bag, and lobbed it at the fallen Elekid, sucking it inside with a red glow. The Pokéball barely seemed to shake, due to the Elekid's exhaustion, and the ball quickly clicked to indicate a successful capture. "Take that Magby. It was pretty powerful, it would help your team for sure."
"Thank you SO, SO, SO MUCH for helping me out. Without you, for all I know I would have had my Pokémon taken away and been kidnapped by those creeps." The girl planted a kiss on Darius' cheek, causing his face to go a deep burning crimson as his mind blanked completely. "By the way, my name's Marcia. I hope to see you again sometime!" The girl hugged him again before catching the Magby and running out of the factory, leaving his head spinning.
Holy crap, a hot girl just kissed me... Darius had a dopey smile on his face before quickly realizing something. Shit. I didn't even get her number. I'm a damned idiot. Keep cool, Darius...
The whole way back to the Pokémon centre, Darius was in a haze. The normally level-headed teen realized that his hormones had finally gotten the best of him, because he was so hung up on missing an opportunity to get her phone number that he couldn't even get excited about catching the fairly rare Pokémon, Elekid. He barely even realized that he had been at the power station all day, because the sun was beginning to set
Alex was nowhere to be seen when he entered the Pokémon Centre again, but the sounds of his Tepig squealing in the back indicated he was probably elsewhere. He gave his Pokémon to the nurse for healing and headed back up to his room for another deep sleep. Work hard, play hard, sleep hard, he thought to himself as he turned off the light and crawled into the cot. Being a Trainer is certainly exciting, but I don't know how many events like that I can handle.
With that, he began to drift off, ending one of the most adrenaline-fuelled days he had ever experienced, second only to accidentally enraging a group of Mankey in the woods behind his house. Of course, compared to the days that are to come, Darius will come to realize that this day is mundane by comparison...
