Hidden In Shadows Part 4~ Pre-Gym Confrontation
Amy groaned and stretched on the couch. Cail was already dozing next to her. They had been awake nearly twenty four hours and having called to tell Gary where they were they decided it was time to sleep a few winks, though Amy was finding that difficult. Jesse had opted to go without sleep and was catching up with his cousin Justy, who was shocked and yet intrigued by Jesse's endured torturing. Amy could hear Jesse explaining the situation fully to in the next room. Cail was less than interested in explaining or hearing explanations so he just crashed on the floor. Amy would've stayed with Jesse but she'd yawned and swayed at the wrong time into the wrong person, causing Justy to insist that she just get some sleep before she collapsed after he picked a stunned Jesse up off the ground where he'd been knocked.
Despite her weariness, Amy could do naught but lay awake listening to the murmurs of Jesse and wonder when Gary would arrive.
Gary was at that moment rushing into town, Plusle and Minin crying out from his heaving shoulders and hanging on for dear life. But Gary wasn't about to stop. He ran up to the first person he saw, a small child chasing a Castfoam around a fountain.
"Hey you! Kid! Have you seen a girl with long brown hair and blue eyes? Probably with a guy in a vest with blond hair and sunglasses, maybe smoking?" Gary asked, flagging the running boy down.
He seemed to think for a moment. "Um… Was the girl wearing white clothes with a grey vest?"
Gary frowned. "Um, she might be I guess, the vest sounds like Cail's… where did they go?"
"Oh, they were heading for the pre-gym. There was another boy too, with red hair and freckles and black clothes."
"Okay, pre-gym, gotcha. Where is that?" Gary asked, neither knowing nor caring who the other boy was at the moment.
"Oh, it's up that stairway there. They seemed to be running. The red haired guy seemed to be having trouble though, that girl was holding his hand."
"SHE WAS WHAT?" Gary shouted, eyes blazing. The kid's eyes watered and he shrank back.
"S-she was holding his hand, w-what's wrong with that? I thought they might be dating or something!"
"Amy is my girlfriend and no soulless ginger kid is going to move in on her!" Gary declared, taking off for the pre-gym. The kid's shaking subsided ad he turned to his Castfoam.
"I think it's mean to call them ginger kids," he said and the little grey Pokémon nodded fiercely in agreement.
Amy was actually at the edge of drifting off to sleep when the banging sound of the front door opening and an enraged yelling drove her to sit up. Cail snorted and jerked up a bit as well.
"W-What was that?" he groaned. Amy listened a moment a smiled.
"Gary"
"Oh, then I'm going back to sleep," Cail muttered, laying back down. Amy smirked and jumped out of bed, all sleepiness gone.
Amy opened the door to see Gary storming inside, spotting the back of Jesse's head, and going into a yelling fit.
"SO YOU THINK YOU CAN STEAL MY GIRLFRIEND YOU JERK? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HOLDING HER HAND I OUGHT TO BEAT YOU BLIND-SIDED!"
"Too late for that," Jesse snorted, turning to face Gary, though he couldn't see him he could hear where the voice came from. Gary froze.
"Oh you're… so Amy had to… oh," Gary said awkwardly, "So, erm, where's Amy?"
"Right here Gary," Amy said giving a little wave and a smirk. Gary let out a yell of happiness, accompanied by two shrieks from the Pichu-like Pokémon on his shoulders. He rushed over to Amy and threw his arms around her, smashing his lips against hers.
"GARY!" she screamed, pushing him back, "You don't have to do that right in front of everybody, it's embarrassing! And… why are there two shrieking rodent Pokémon on your shoulders?"
"It's a long story, and I assure you that you will learn it all in good time. But are you okay?" he said looking her up and down. She sighed wearily.
"Yes, I'm fine Gary. Really. This is Jesse, he was trapped by Cipher too, only he'd been there for months," her eyes became downcast, "If Cail hadn't come when he did, he would've been executed, and they would've started in on me."
Gary glanced at Jesse's mutilated eyes and then turned back to Amy. "Okay, so I owe Cail a thank you, where is he?"
"Sleeping in the other room, until your screaming vibrated a picture off the wall onto my head," Cail said in annoyance as he entered the room, a picture of a Piplup with a broken frame dangling from his hand.
"OH NO!" Justy wailed, "That was a priceless Pokasso Original!"
"Well blame Gary not me, he's the one that shook it off the wall," Cail said tossing the painting to the floor. Justy took some deep breathes.
"I-I suppose we should work on getting you three out of the region then," he said after a moment, "It's our best bet. From what I understand, Cipher doesn't operate much out of this region since the police here are so lax. The only real police force we have in the entire region is a two officer force in the jail of Pyrite town and a small base in Gateon Port, and they're mostly caught up catching thugs who are beating up children. So if we can get you out, you'll be okay. You're Amy Tanner correct?"
"Yes," Amy nodded
"Then stay with your parents, they'll be the best protection you'll have. Wes was the best Pokémon trainer I've ever seen, and I'm sure he married Rui. She was smart, they'll know what to do."
"Y-you've met my father?" Amy said in surprise.
"Yes, years ago but I recognized him on the television hugging you when you won your 4th tournament match in Indigo League." Justy smiled. "He was excellent, no wonder he made such a good Snag'em member! But he quit of course before he met Rui who'd run away from Cipher!"
"Um, back up a minute here, ran away from Cipher? You mean she was captured too?" Amy said in surprise. Gary had a clenching feeling in his stomach.
"No, she was working on the Shadow Pokémon project, but she left when it got too much for her. She was one of their top scientists, just like Wes was one of the top snaggers before he ran off with two small snag machines. I think the two teams would often have business deals, Cipher buying Pokémon that Snag'em stole from trainers to turn into Shadow Pokémon."
Amy felt faint. "I-I didn't know, he never told me, and my mom's been dead for a long time," Amy whispered.
Justy looked very upset. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't know. I assure you, she was a wonderful girl as I knew her. But still, you should get back to your father."
"She can't," Cail said raising his eyebrows, "He was kidnapped by Snag'em the moment they spotted him in the region."
"HE WAS WHAT?" Amy yelped, whirling towards Cail, "H-How do you know?"
"Gary mentioned it when he was talking to Duking. Apparently right after you were kidnapped your dad showed up and spoke to Gary. He gave Gary his old Snag machines just before Snag'em got him."
"And you didn't mention this immediately why?" Amy rounded on Gary, who looked away.
"I-I figured you'd want to go rescue him…"
"OF COURSE I want to rescue him! He's my FATHER!" Amy stamped her foot, "We have to save him. I am not going to leave the region until we do."
"Urg…" Gary's face was turned red and he glared at Cail "Why'd you have to say anything in the first place?"
"Well I think she might've found out when she went home and her dad was gone!" Cail snarled defensively.
"Will you all quit shouting please?" Jesse said and managed to gather everyone's attention for the moment. "Now, obviously we have to save Amy's dad. So our first step is to figure out where Snag'em headquarters are right now."
"Oh, hold on just a moment Jesse," Amy said kindly, "We need to get my Pokémon first, did you bring them Gary?"
"Nah, he even forgot his own Pokémon back in Gateon Port," Cail sniggered.
"Oh, then that explains why you can have Plusle and Minin on your team then. Well then let's go to the Pokémon Center here and get our Pokémon transferred over, and get the Pokémon that aren't going to fit on your team now to Professor Oak's," Amy said in an accommodating manner.
"Erm, that would be, well, all of them," Gary said uncomfortably
"Huh?" Amy said confused.
Cail raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, I know I gave you my Furret, but there's no wild Pokémon in Orre so how did you manage to fill up your team?"
Gary hesitated and held his hands together in front of him, twiddling his fingers and tried to come up with a reason other than thievery. "Um, well er..."
"Oh hey, I recognize those gloves!" Justy said pointing to Gary's hands.
"What? Uh, no you don't!" Gary said waving his hands in front of him and then jolted, putting them behind his back.
"No, no I'm sure I do…" he said reaching over and grabbing his hand, holding it up to examine as Gary tried to struggle away.
"NO! It's, they're, uh…"
"Yes! These were Wes' old Snag'em gloves! They were actually Snag machines used to steal Pokémon from trainers! Of course, Wes only used them on Shadow Pokémon owned by Cipher. He gave one of these to Rui as well. In fact Rui acquired a rather beautiful Ninetails that way."
Amy's eyes widened. If the Ninetails was a shadow Pokémon perhaps it did kill her mom… the sad train of thought cut out when it hit her. "Gary, have you been stealing Pokemon?"
"I-uh, well, they were Shadow Pokémon, and the trainers didn't seem to care!" Gary whined.
"SO YOU HAVE BEEN STEALING POKEMON?" Amy shrieked. Gary fell to his knees begging forgiveness, as Amy looked… very scary. Cail stared.
"God... I knew you were an idiot Gary but I didn't know you were also one of those wimpy scared-of-their-girlfriend boyfriends too," Cail mused. Jesse was just sniggering at Gary's begging. Justy seemed a little confused.
"Well what kind of trainer doesn't care if their Pokémon is taken away?" Amy snapped. Justy raised his head a little.
"Actually, Rui and Wes mentioned most trainers seemed non-chalet, or even relieved to have their Shadow Pokémon taken away. In fact, I think it might be because even though most people cannot see the auras, people will still feel uneasy around them and don't really feel much love for Pokemon with them. Rui and Wes kept several Shadow Pokemon though, in hopes of someday finding a cure for what Cipher did to them," Justy explained.
"Huh, yeah I think I get what you mean. I usually like to keep my trophy Pokémon but I was easy to give up that weird Furret. I thought it was because he kept attacking people and would get me in trouble if I kept it but now that I think about it I did sort of feel a little uncomfortable around it, like it was going to decide to attack me at any time," Cail said scratching his lip and pulling out a cigarette.
"Not inside please!" Justy snapped. Cail rolled his eyes and headed out the front door for a smoke. Gary looked down at his Pokeballs.
"Um, okay but, I don't really feel afraid of the Shadow Pokémon I have. I mean, I already know they're going to attack me, but I don't feel uneasy around them, they're really powerful!" Gary said looking back up. Amy frowned.
"Well, to be honest I've only seen that one Makuhita, maybe you could let one of your Shadow Pokémon out so I could look at it? I want to know what we're up against," Amy asked.
Gary frowned. "You aren't up against anything! We are going home before you get hurt again!"
"I'm fine Gary, release a Shadow Pokémon now," she said narrowing his eyes. Gary sighed and sent out Skiploom. Amy's eyes widened at the dark aura pulsing around the otherwise normal-looking Pokémon and saw Jesse go through tremors at its presence. Justy looked at it with raised eyebrows.
"Fascinating, it looks completely normal to me but it's clear that Amy and Jesse see something more…" Justy said without paying mind to Jesse's clear inability to see anything.
Amy nodded. "Yes, it's very… oh gosh!" she cried and jumped back and Jesse let out a short yell as well as the aura grew and turned into a dark bloody red colour. Skiploom turned toward Gary and leapt at him.
"AAAAH!" Gary yelled, "S-Skiploom!" he stuttered and the Pokémon stopped, cocking its body to one side and blinking curiously.
"Huh? Its aura shrank…" Amy said softly, and sure enough Jesse noticed the drop of power and said so.
Justy nodded. "Yes, Rui told me before that Shadow Pokémon auras seem to decrease when their name is called while in hyper mode, or when you walk around with them for long periods of time or even when you give them items. But the amount it decreases by varies with the Pokémon's personality."
"Well if that's the case, why not just decrease the Pokémon's aura until its gone?" Jesse asked.
"Well according to Rui, in order to stop a shadow Pokémon from losing its entire aura (since Cipher didn't want that to occur) they set up a special end lock or something. When you reach far enough to the lock, the Pokémon can't use Shadow Rush without going into hyper mode and becomes far more violent than usual, and would also give off a DNA signature that Cipher would detect, collect, and torture back to full Shadow Aura. Though at that point the Pokemon does gain a certain sense of itself and can use most of its original move set," Justy explained, "Wes and Rui were sure there was a way to undo the final lock but they never found it."
Gary cocked his head to one side. "What did Cipher do to those Pokémon anyway?"
Jesse's blind eyes narrowed. "They closed the door to their hearts."
Gary and Amy stared, silent. They looked at each other.
"That's just so… so…" Amy whispered, trailing off.
"Cheesy," Gary finished.
"Yeah," Cail snorted, having come back in from outside without anyone really noticing.
"NO! I was going to say horrible!" Amy snapped.
"Amy's right, it's like mind control! Blocking off all emotion except rage and anger, making them fighting machines, powerful from the adrenaline rush!" Jesse said in anger, "They have no memory of before they were Shadow Pokémon, they barely remember the last thing they did AS Shadow Pokémon!"
Gary frowned. "Then why not call it mind control or anger channelling? 'Closing the door to their heart' is so…"
"Cheesy," Cail repeated for Gary, looking slightly amused. Jesse looked insulted.
"Look, it doesn't matter! We just have to find Amy's dad and then you can all get safely out of the region," Jesse said firmly. Amy sighed and nodded.
"Yes, let's go to the Pokémon center and get out my Pokémon," she said, heading for the door. Gary and Jesse nodded and followed. Cail smiled and even held open the door as they stepped out.
Out of seemingly nowhere, a group of Cipher agents stormed in, quickly grabbing Amy and Jesse and twisting their arms behind their backs. Justy and Gary were pushed to the floor and held down by two growling Houndoom. Amy saw they weren't shadow Pokémon, but they still looked vicious.
"What's going on?" Amy cried, "Cail, help!" Cail chuckled.
"Sorry Aims, usually I play for myself but this time I found Cipher to be the highest bidder of my services," he said as Mirror B. handed him a large sum of cash. Gary's mouth dropped open.
"YOU WERE BEING PAID BY CIPHER THE WHOLE TIME?" he yelled, and then silenced at the snarl of the Houndoom. In fact he whimpered a bit.
Cail shrugged. "Not the whole time, just since I went out for a smoke. I saw them and was going to tell on them but they made me a rather large offer to keep you in the dark till they got their troops together."
Amy stared in pain of her twisted arms. How could he double-cross them like that, after all he'd gone through to save them?
"Anyway, now that I've been paid, I'll just have to…" he placed the cash in his pockets and pulled out his three Pokeballs, "Save the day."
"Huh? You double-crossing little punk!" Mirror B. snapped, pointing a disco finger at Cail in anger.
"Triple-crossing actually," he grinned, and released Staryu, Porygon, and Floatzel. "Floatzel, Save Gare-bear and that, um, Jesse's cousin guy from the Houndoom with Aqua Jet!" the giant otter Pokémon streaked towards them, surrounding her body with blue water and crashing into them. Both trainers jumped to their feet. Plusle and Minin, who had been cowering in a corner when the Cipher goons came in, ran back to Gary's shoulders.
"Lot of help you guys are," Gary muttered, "GO FURRET!" he said, releasing the one shadow Pokémon he's finally figured out all the attacks of and knows the only one it can seem to use, which was Sand Attack. "USE SAND ATTACK ON THE GUYS HOLDING AMY!"
The ferret Pokémon leapt forward and sent a shower of sand at the man holding Amy. He cried out and Amy freed herself. Justy, who had sent out a Maril, was sending jets of water gun at the guy holding Jesse, but it was no good and Jesse was getting soaked.
"Uh, retreat for now!" Mirror B. said under the gaze of Floatzel, Staryu and Porygon looming over him. He nearly tripped on his way out. "And bring that boy you've still got!"
"NO YOU DON'T!" Amy yelled, leaping on the back of the man holding Jesse. He clawed at his arms and he started yelling, trying to buck her off.
"Aaah! W-what's going on?" Jesse moaned, being jerked around like crazy.
"Get the girl!" Mirror B. said clapping his hands now.
"NO! Plusle, Minin, D-distract him or something!" Gary said throwing the rodent Pokémon at Mirror B. They landed in his afro and burrowed into it, sending electrical charges through his scalp.
"OW! NOOOOO!" he cried, tearing at his frying hair. As most of the men tried to help him get the two out, Cail sent his Porygon and Staryu to pry Jesse away from his captor. It worked and as they did this Floatzel yanked Amy off his back.
"Okay, get out of there!" Gary yelled at Plusle and Minin. The two jumped out of the sizzling nest of sparks and Mirror B.'s eyes snapped on Gary as the two returned to his shoulders.
"Y-you boy, Gary Oak, you will rue the day you messed up MY fabulous hair! You mark my words," he hissed, eyes watering. Then he got out a comb and touched it to his afro. It disintegrated, leaving him bald.
"AAAAAAIIIIIII!" he screamed, and wailing he grabbed the Cipher goons and ran out the door, cursing Gary's name.
"Well, on the bright side, I can treat dinner if you guys want," Cail said waving the money. Everyone groaned and fell on the floor, breathing hard. Gary turned to Amy.
"What were you thinking jumping on that guy?"
"I didn't want Jesse to be captured, I didn't know that was wrong," Amy said huffily.
"Well you never did that for me did you?"
Amy raised an eyebrow. "I don't think we were ever in that sort of situation before…"
Gary growled under his breath and sent a glare at Jesse, which obviously he couldn't see, but he still seemed a little confused at Gary's angry tone.
"Well, I'm very grateful for your heroics Amy, but I don't want you to go putting yourself in danger for my sake," Jesse said, sounding perhaps a little amused?
With Gary seething they sat in silence for a few more minutes.
"So, should we go to the Pokémon Center now?" Amy said getting to her feet.
"Yes! Let's go!" Gary said jumping up after her.
"Okay Jesse! Let's go!" Amy said taking his hand and helping him up. Gary shook at this but Amy either didn't notice or pretended not to. They headed for the door "You coming Cail?"
Cail raised an eyebrow. "Uh, sure," he said getting up she wants to just go ahead to the Pokémon Center after all that? Geez that girl has a will of steel.
As they walked out the door, Justy still sat on the floor, looking a bit abandoned.
"Well, if you guys don't want to invite me along I- I guess I'll just stay here then," he said into the empty room with a sigh as Amy and friends walked out into the sunlight.
(( Joyful Note: Bleh, I don't like this chapter much but I suppose as I'm still editing these as opposed to straight up writing them I won't do too much to it. I guess bear with me through the rough patches, I'm sure by this point you'll just keep reading as I update anyway... I don't like this exposition but not everyone has played Colleseum and Gale of Darkness so I feel I need to explain these aspects.))