Hidden In Shadows Part 10~ Kidnapped Again
Amy came back to consciousness, shivering, inside a darkish room. She was being held by two Ciphers under her arms as she twitched her fingertips. How had she survived being completely frozen? How had any of them? That's a good question. If I were you, I'd ask whoever invented anime physics. If they're unavailable, or if you're unable to speak Japanese, you're just going to have to run with me on this one.
"Wh-what the heck... l-let g-go of me!" Amy growled, teeth chattering as she tried to pry herself free of the hands holding her.
"Forget it sweetheart, you're going into isolation," said one of her guards with a smirk. The other was holding a hair dryer. Well, it seemed to be some sort of turbo hair dryer but whatever. This still wasn't very good.
"Isola- wait. Where's Gary? And Jesse, what did you do with them?" Amy thrashed about angrily.
"Shut up," growled the hair dryer holding guard and the two dragged Amy out of small room they were in, down a hallway, and into a smaller corridor with metal doors on either side. One was opened and Amy was thrust within. The door slammed shut behind her. Still shaking a bit, Amy checked her pockets. Empty.
"Damn it," Amy whispered and leaned against the wall. She curled her legs against her and sighed. This was her fault. She's the one... wasn't she? That suggested they all go to the mystery lab... Now they were all doomed. Her, Jesse, Gary... Celia and Cail too. And all their Pokemon...
And so Amy cried.
The rest of the group wasn't doing so well either. They were currently locked in cells much like Amy's and though no others were crying, Jesse was in some place beyond tears and Gary was ready to kill things. Celia was pacing and Cail was currently falling further into cigarette deprivation. He was not pleased.
But their Pokémon were arguably doing far worse.
"Glaaaace..." Isis moaned rubbing her forehead with her paw as she realised she was inside a glass container. Clearly, things had gone very wrong. A quick look around showed her the other Pokémon from her group in similar containers. Socrates was nearby, but seemed to be passed out. Glaceon pawed at the glass and cried out to him.
"Um... bre..." the black Pokémon slowly stirred awake and stumbled to his feet. He tried to move towards Isis but struck the glass, which drove the sleepiness from him "UMBREON?"
"Glace," Isis sighed and explained to Socrates all she knew, which basically consisted of the fact that they were outside the Cipher Lab and were probably inside now.
"Cu?" asked Gabriel from nearby. It seemed he'd woken as well. "Cubone bone?"
""FEAR?" Avion didn't seem pleased either. They then took a second look around and realised the strange shadow Pokémon weren't there. Which basically meant the only Pokémon of Gary's there was Socrates. Cail's Pokémon and Celia's Gligar, and her other Pokémon, a Teddiursa, were there however.
"Gli Gligar!" Gligar yelled and sent a flurry of attacks at the glass, but they left not a scratch.
"Dragoooooon," Selene even had been squished into a container. It was larger than the other cases, but she was still twisted up inside and looking very uncomfortable.
"Glaceon?" Isis asked if anyone could see Plusle and Minin.
"Num Num," that's right, despite not appearing out of his Pokeball since entering the region, Flash the Numel was sitting in one of the glass containers, and he could answer Isis' question in the positive. The two rodents were still out of it inside a case behind the fire Pokémon's. In fact, they were starting to stir as well.
"Pluuuuus..." Plusle groaned loudly, struggling to sit up. Seeing Minin laying lifelessly he shrieked and started to shake his partner until he two stirred and opened his eyes.
"Mi Mi?" the blue tipped electric Pokémon murmured as he got to his feet. They looked at each other and nodded before sending a flash of electricity at the glass... but nothing. They frowned. This was bad. But they were sure they could think up a plan, given time.
Unfortunately, time wasn't what they had as men in lab coats entered the room, picked up Flash's case and took it from the room without a word. The Pokémon weren't sure what this meant; only that it was very likely a bad thing.
"So you're Amy Tanner are you?" came a voice from behind the metal door. Amy raised her head and quickly wiped the tears from her face. A small panel had been slid back on the door revealing a pair of eyes behind glasses.
"Obviously," Amy muttered, getting slowly to her feet and glaring at this intruder.
"I'm Ein. You might be interested in meeting me."
"Not really," Amy said dismissively.
"Are you sure? I knew your mother back in the day. In fact, we worked very closely in the creation of Shadow Pokémon," Ein grinned, "She in fact was the one who invented the final lock to a Pokémon's heart that stops the purification process."
Amy stared. Her mom... but that couldn't be. Her mother wouldn't do that... "But she left Cipher! You're lying."
Ein chuckled. "The only reason she left Cipher was because she didn't like what we were doing to humans. She never cared about what we did to the Pokémon. They were tools, nothing more. Same with your father. Tools. Which is of course what they are... they simply failed to see that humans can also be tools."
"Pokémon aren't tools! My parents knew that!" Amy shouted, but then seemed to cut herself off. Her dad... never seemed to like Pokémon... and her mom... but...
"Really? Then why did Rui leave her Pokémon as Shadow Pokémon? She invented the final lock. If anyone knew how to break that lock it was her. Yet she didn't, I wonder why?"
"Sh-she..." Amy looked down, wide eyed. This was a blow, a very hard blow. "There's… no way. You're lying!"
"No. Anyway… I didn't have any good reason to tell you all this, I just figured you might be… interested," he closed the opening and left in chuckles. Amy's breathing quickened and her heart beat harder in rage. What a sadistic BASTARD.
That said... he had given her something to think about if she assumed what he said was true. It was true her dad never really liked Pokémon... but she thought now that it was because of that Ninetails... the one he thought killed her mom. What if... what if that Ninetails was a Shadow Pokémon? They do attack their trainers. And without her mom, her Dad would have no idea if Shadow Pokémon were around or not... he wouldn't know his daughter inherited the power to see the auras. So... so what did that mean about her mother? Maybe... maybe she did make the Shadow block but... she did go against Cipher right? And maybe Ein was wrong, maybe she didn't know how to break the final seal. Or maybe she simply couldn't. Or maybe... maybe... oh she didn't know! Amy groaned and buried her face in her hands. Dang it.
W-well, Ein might be lying too. Yeah, he could easily be lying. Amy shivered. She seriously hoped he was lying...
Flash did not come back when the Cipher scientists returned. When they left with Celia's Gligar, Plusle and Minin realised what was happening... finally... they were to be slowly turned into Shadow Pokémon. Flash was already gone, Gligar was heading out now, and Plusle and Minin knew they had to get out of here. And probably save the others too. Yeah. So they assessed the situation. They were in a glass container on a table. So, logically, the way to escape would be to knock the container to the floor. The glass would, hypothetically, break. And even if it didn't, the sides were round so they could probably work it like a hamster wheel right? Right.
So the rodents got to work trying to tip over the container. They got it rocking but had to quickly stop it as the door to the room opened again, to the grinning Cipher scientists. A visible shiver went through the Pokémon in the room.
"Okay, the Glaceon's next," one scientist said, glancing at his list. The other nodded and lifted Isis' container.
"GLACE?" she shrieked and thrashed about inside the glass, desperately trying to break it.
"Heh, that glass is modelled after the molecular structure of Suicune ice, nothing harder to break out of." One Cipher laughed.
"UMBREON!" Socrates roared and started throwing himself against the glass... obviously to no avail.
As Isis was pulled out, Plusle and Minin returned to rocking the container. Suicune glass, shmeecune glass. They were getting out of this thing!
Gary growled and rubbed his foot in irritation. He'd just kicked the door as hard as he could and that hadn't boded well with his toes. In fact, it ached like crazy. None the less he was still angry as hell. After getting thrown in here he hadn't heard anything about anyone and if he didn't find out what-
A sliding panel on the door suddenly opened and a pair of eyes behind glinting glasses appeared.
"Ah, Gary Oak... I've just learned that not only are you grandson of Prof. Oak, you also happen to be grandson of the great Eagun and Beluh. Which of course is good news for you, it means you get to live a bit longer."
"You bastard! Where's Amy?" Gary raged.
"Temper, temper..." Ein tutted and then grinned. "Amy Tanner is perfectly safe. She is needed for tests and whatnot and we intend to use her for a quite a while... much longer then you. Which is far more then I can say for your other friends..."
Gary gritted his teeth. "What do you mean by that?"
Ein seemed pleased at the question. "Well, for one thing Jesse Hutch is almost done being useful to us. Once I'm given the go ahead we'll start torturing him to find out what his affiliation with the legendary beasts is. Then we'll probably kill him. And as for Celia and Cail Rivers, they have no usefulness at all. They'll be killed soon I'm sure. And of course, all your Pokémon will be made Shadow and distributed among Cipher members and the general public."
Gary twitched. "How... can you be... so EVIL?"
Ein laughed softly. "It's a talent," the panel closed and Gary leaned against the cell wall, infuriated, frustrated, and more than a little afraid.
Meanwhile, Plusle and Minin had managed to tip the container to the floor. There was a loud thunk when it hit, but there wasn't a single scratch. None the less they had the attention of all the other captured Pokémon and were busily figuring out how to run the case around the room. They quickly learned how to manoeuvre the thing and positioned themselves inside the edge of the door. When the door next opened, they quickly used Agility to zoom out, knocking the scientists aside as they raced down the hall.
Continuous Helping Hands sped the rodents up and they were soon grinning in the ecstasy of the chase. Chase it was, as wherever they went Ciphers came after them. This went very well. Until they hit a dead end corridor and smacked into the wall.
"PLUS!"
"MIN!"
The two groaned and lay back stunned as their case was quickly retrieved by their pursuers.
"Forget the order, you two are next!" snapped a woman with long red hair, clearing the hall to bring the two to the Shadow center. Plusle and Minin looked at each other wide eyed. This... this couldn't be it could it? Maybe... maybe they could fight the process. But they didn't know. They didn't even know what the process was that would close the door to a Pokémon's heart.
"You're going to kill me? Fine. But there's one thing I'd like to know before I die if it won't kill you to tell me," Celia growled, "How exactly do you go about 'closing the door' to a Pokémon's heart? I know it has something to do with brain surgery but-"
Ein laughed from behind the panel. "Brain surgery? Oh no... we don't need to get any surgical tools dirty for this procedure. We use electromagnetic pulses and subliminal messaging. It completely disrupts the normal workings of the brain. If I'm correct, I believe Team Rocket was working on a project for something similar at some point, but all it did was increase rage and required a headband to use the pulses. Very easy to remove. But our pulses actually alter nature. You can get the Pokémon to relearn certain attacks sure, you might even get it to lose some aggression, but the only way to completely reverse the effects of the procedure is to turn back time itself."
"I see," Celia said darkly.
"That's right," Ein laughed, "I hope you have fun thinking about that in your last hours!" he shut the door and continued down the cell block. A short ways away two Cipher Scientists were watching the scene.
"Dude... Ein's brutal," one whispered.
"Yeah, he really likes psychological torture, but he likes physical too," the other shook his head, "I heard back when they were just killing whoever showed up with Shadow Sight he'd sometimes take them and spend hours dissecting them for his own amusement while they were still alive."
"Awe... come on, no one would do that," the first one shuddered and his friend shrugged. With Ein... you never knew.
"Mi Mi MININ!" Minin shrieked as Plusle was taken to the electromagnet machine. The red tipped Pokémon was matching his friend's shrieks if not topping them. Minin was currently in the firm grip of rubber gloves.
Off to one side were cages holding snarling Pokémon. Flash was drooling and gnawing at the bars. Gligar was growling and lashing out at the walls of his prison. The worst may've been Isis... she simply lay on the floor of her cage, eyes glinting with anger and trained on the scientists outside. But this was no normal anger; there was no sanity behind those eyes.
In other words, this wasn't a reassuring sight for the rodent twosome.
"PLUS PLUS PLUS!" screamed Plusle as it was shoved between two large red metal beams and strapped down tightly.
"Okay, starting the neurological stimulation now," said a woman behind a computer screen clattering at a keyboard. Lights flashed around Plusle. He began to thrash and shout. "Receptors normal, beginning shutting down of the emotional channels."
Minin watched in horror as slowly his partner grew more violent in his thrashes. Drool began to creep from his jaw as he snarled and jerked. Minin was horrified, and when his partner's process was complete, he could barely recognise the Pokémon he'd raced down halls with less than a half hour before. And then it was his turn.
"MI MI MI!" Minin shrieked as Plusle was jammed into an empty cage and Minin was strapped in his place between the red metal.
"Alright, beginning stimuli-" and then there was an explosion of fire. Minin's world went black.
Cail paced his cell angrily. These Cipher bastards... They took his cigarettes! And of course, like any seasoned smoker, this would send him into withdrawal rage. And it had!
"I WILL KILL CIPHER!" he shrieked as Ein closed the panel to his cell. He had been smoking a cigarette as he spoke to Cail and blew some smoke into the cell before closing it up. This was rather mean.
So Cail started throwing himself against the door. And as his withdrawal got worse, his attacks got harder. It's a little known fact that when a frequent smoker is removes from smoke from a set period of time, they can attain super human strength.
The door buckled... and burst!
Yay! How convenient!
"I'M GOING TO- oh... heh. I'm out," Cail grinned, then glared down the hall at the other cells. There were quite a few. He ran up to the first cell and opened the panel.
Jesse sat quietly at the back of his cell. He already had been spoken to by Ein and told of all the tortures he'd get to endure. But that didn't hurt him nearly as much as knowing that he'd failed completely as a guardian. He was meant to protect the legendary beasts, and he'd failed. Miserably. Then he heard metal screeching as the door opened.
"Jesse?"
"Cail?" Jesse's head perked up and he turned his head in the direction of the chain smoker's voice.
"Uh, yeah. I broke out, let's go," he walked forward and grabbed Jesse's arm, pulling the ginger up. The two quickly ran into the hall... to be met with Cipher scientists who heard the alarm go off when Cail's door opened.
"Oh no! Cail, get out of here, I'll-"
"Shut up and get on my back," Cail growled, grabbing Jesse's arm tighter and guiding him onto his shoulders so he could carry him piggy-back style. "OUT OF MY WAY!" Cail screamed and charged. He looked rather scary. So the nerdy scientists wisely darted out of the way as Cail and Jesse charged out.
In her cell that was unknowingly across from Jesse's, Amy wondered what the screaming was about.
Minin shuddered and opened his eyes blearily. The room was ablaze and towering over him was a furry face with glowing red eyes.
"Niiiiine," growled the Pokémon above him. She leaned down and sniffed Minin. She shuddered slightly, and then got down on the floor.
"Minin?" Minin asked but got no reply. Ninetails looked pointedly at her back, clearly wanting Minin to climb on. But Minin glanced worriedly at Plusle in the cage, snarling away. Ninetails followed his gaze and then sent a jet of flame at the cages. Flash, Gligar and Isis burst forth and faced Ninetails, growling. Ninetails narrowed her eyes at them and Minin felt a wave of strange energy course through him. The Pokémon seemed to feel it as well, and calmed enough to follow Ninetails.
Meanwhile, Minin ran up to Plusle and took his arm. "Mi Mi?"
"Pluuuu, PLUS!" Plusle snatched his arm away and snarled at Minin. The blue tipped rodent bit his lip and felt his eyes water. But he didn't have long to lament as Ninetails came over and practically threw the two rodents onto her back before racing into the hallway.
Cail and Jesse turned a corner in the hallway and suddenly Jesse fell off Cail's back. Quite frankly, he simply released his grip. Cail stopped and turned to the blind boy.
"What'd you let go for?" he demanded. He wasn't really in the mood to stop for a bathroom break.
"Sh-shadow Pokémon, a small group ahead of us, but one feels-"
"GLACE!"
"GLI!"
"NUM!"
"PLUS!"
"Mi?" Minin wondered at his partner's anger.
"NINE!" The group of Pokémon froze as they rounded a corner and faced Jesse and Cail.
"Hey, isn't that... that's Celia's Gligar! And Amy's Glaceon... Isis! And the freaky rodent things!"
"Careful Cail! All but one of those is a Shadow Pokémon!" Jesse shuddered.
Ninetails looked from Cail to Jesse slowly. Minin looked up and recognized the humans of course and quickly told Ninetails who they were. Ninetails cocked her head slightly to one side, narrowing her eyes as if straining to understand. After a few long moments she nodded and then walked past Cail and Jesse, followed by the three other shadow Pokémon.
"Hey, I wouldn't go back there if I were you, That's where Cipher has-"
"Cail, follow them!" Jesse said suddenly.
"I thought you said don't trust them?"
"I said be careful!" Jesse snapped, "Now follow them, they're going to save Amy and the others!"
"... how do you know?"
"Just trust me okay?"
Cail shrugged, his cigarette withdrawal temporarily forgotten in the excitement as he grabbed Jesse and they headed back the way they'd come.
((Joyful Note: Whelp, finally finished my Hetalia fic's next part so you guys get an update too. Enjoy it. University is hard, no idea when the next update's coming.))