UnendingSilenceOfSong: And you don't even know what I'm writing about, do you? lol
Dracarot: Replied to you in a PM but as for everyone else - by range, I mean miles until the scooter is out of fuel.
Hollow Mashiro: Thanks for the advice!
Also, sorry for the wait on this chapter, I've been busy with schoolwork leading up to winter break. But here it is!
Chapter 3
The sky is clear by the time we reach the lab once more. The charcoal-dark clouds from earlier seem to have disappeared, which is interesting; there must be something to the whole 'mad scientist with lightning in the background' thing. I drive the scooter the last few feet to the bike rack and park it right next to the steel structure, and as soon as the vehicle has come to a complete stop, Jovi leaps off and runs up to the lab.
With a sigh, I turn off the scooter, lock it to the rack, and glance in Jovi's direction before I start following her. Mom is standing at the steps with her arms crossed, looking none too pleased, but Jovi doesn't notice this; I can tell from where I'm currently standing that her mouth is moving a mile a minute, and as I take the last few steps up to my mother and sister, her words become a little clearer.
"-and Big Brother was lost, so Jovi had to go find him with Mimi's help. Jovi had to bring him back here, too. If Jovi weren't there, Jovi bets he'd be crying now about how he can't get home! Right, Big Brother?" she asks, spinning around to stare at me. I blink and look up at Mom, who winks at me.
"My, my, Jovi," she says, now smiling; Jovi turns back to face her and I roll my eyes. "You're such a brave girl, aren't you? Since you've finished rescuing your brother, I think you should go find Adon; he must be tired of waiting for you, hmm?"
Jovi stares up at her blankly for a moment, and I can literally see the lightbulb go on in her brain when she realizes what Mom is talking about. "Oh yeah! Jovi was playing hide-and-seek! Jovi should go find him before he gets scared! Bye, Big Brother!"
"He's hiding under a table," I blurt out, but Jovi is already halfway to the lab entrance before I get the sentence out and, predictably, she doesn't hear it. I feel bad for Adon; he's going to be stuck there for a while. With a sigh, I turn back to Mom, raising an eyebrow. "So. Why did Krane e-mail me to get back here?"
"Why don't you go ask him? He's in the first room on the left, through the main entrance." She pauses and eyes the lab speculatively. "Where was Jovi, anyway?"
"At some mad scientist's house," I reply, shrugging. "It wasn't anything bad, if that's what you're worried about. She was just bugging people. In fact, there was a guy from the Parts Shop there. I think his name was Makon, or Makan, or something? Either way, he said there was a machine part ready for pickup."
"Oh, all right," she says with a nod. "Thanks, Michael."
"No problem," I tell her, spinning around and heading for the lab doors. They slide open as I approach, granting me access into the lab, which (owing to the AC) is nice and cool, a welcome change from the warmth outside. One of the problems of living in a giant desert is the constant heat, even when the sun's going - or has gone - down.
The first thing I notice is that Lucy, the receptionist, has fallen asleep on her desk. Her head is buried in a pile of assorted papers, but luckily there are no visitors or staff waiting to talk to her. When I tap her on the shoulder to wake her up, she jerks into a sitting position, causing me to leap back, startled. "I wasn't sleeping!" she starts before her eyes land on me and she visibly relaxes. "Oh. Hi, Michael."
"Hi," I say, rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly. "Not that I'd love to argue that you were sleeping, but I need to talk to Professor Krane."
"Okay," she says, nodding, her eyes already half-closed, not bothering to defend herself. It doesn't surprise me she's tired; she barely ever sleeps, just stays up sitting there nearly all hours of the day.
Instead of telling her to wake up again, I head towards the room Krane is supposed to be in. The door is closed, but slides open as I approach; this is new, because the doors are usually locked or always open. Two people are standing there, staring at a strange machine. There's Aidan, his short blue hair sticking up as though he's just been electrocuted, which is actually quite probable. Krane, on the other hand, is walking towards me with a smile, hands folded behind his back as usual.
"Michael!" he greets me. "We've had people working on the doors to make them less of a hassle to open. But that's beside the point - come this way," he says, inclining his head towards the machine Aidan is still staring at. As soon as I get closer to the blue-haired man, I immediately notice the proud smile on his face.
Hmm. What's been going on here, I wonder?
"I'd like to show you the Snag Machine," Krane announces, pointing somewhat unnecessarily at it. "Has Aidan said anything to you about this machine?"
"No," I say with a tilt of my head. "But if I had to take a guess…it snags Pokémon. 'Snag' being a euphemism for 'steal'."
"Exactly," Krane responds. "It's a special device, one-of-a-kind - assuming the last one was destroyed - that's meant to be used for snagging Pokémon. Aidan and I have been developing it. I suppose you're wondering why we would make such a clearly terrible thing, but that explanation will have to wait just a second…would you help us test it out?"
"Um, testing doesn't involve stealing from people, right?" I ask. "If it doesn't, I'm in."
Krane nods. "Excellent. Aidan, if you'd get it ready while I explain." When Aidan grunts in response and reaches out towards the machine, Krane continues. "This Snag Machine was made specifically to steal Pokémon from trainers, as you know. We didn't make it to indiscriminately take people's Pokémon, however. Have you heard of Shadow Pokémon?"
I nod. Everyone's heard of Shadow Pokémon. It all started five years ago, with a group called Team Snagem, who artificially closed the doors to Pokémon's hearts and turned them into fighting machines. It looked like they were going to succeed in taking over Orre, too, until one of their members turned traitor, a boy called Wes. He stole their Snag Machine and snagged every Shadow Pokémon from their owners, purified each one and put an end to the group in charge of Team Snagem - Cipher.
"Well, we developed this Snag Machine to take back such modified Pokémon. Why this is needed now can be explained later, but for now I'd just like you to test this machine. After all," Krane adds with a grin, "you're the best trainer at this Lab."
It's kind of sad, really…the fact that I'm the best trainer here. Clearly, we wouldn't stand much chance in the case of an invasion, so maybe I should talk to Krane and Datan about getting a security system put in at some point. There's always a first time.
"Here you go, Michael," Aidan breaks in, offering me a complicated-looking machine that I don't have the slightest idea how to put on. Luckily, he reads my expression. "Hold out your arm," he says, and when I do, he presses part of the machine to my shoulder and sticks it there with a couple of black straps. With that done, he has me slip on the other part like a glove, and presses the Poke Ball icon in the middle of the glove. It glows bright blue, and the wire connecting both parts of the machine starts pulsing with blue light as well.
Aidan stands back and examines me. "It looks like it fits perfectly. Looks cool, too," he adds with a smile. Take this as well," he says, fastening a curl of metal behind my ear.
"What's this?" I ask, poking at it with the hand not encased in a glove.
"It's called the Aura Reader," Krane tells me. "Normal people can't tell Shadow Pokémon and normal Pokémon apart easily, so we made this to aide in figuring out which Pokémon are Shadow and which Pokémon are not. When you see a Shadow Pokémon, the Aura Reader will tell you."
"I'm going to add a new feature to your P*DA," Aidan says abruptly. "It's called the Shadow Monitor, and it'll let you check the data on the Shadow Pokémon you've encountered. Could you hand it to me?"
I nod, fish the electrical device out of my pocket, and give it to Aidan. He promptly slots a card into the side of the P*DA, and when the machine gives a loud, high-pitched beep, he pulls the card back out and returns the device to me. "There you go."
"Thanks," I say, and Krane claps his hands once.
"That's it, Michael. From here on out, though, it'll be a lot more simple to just show you how it works in practice rather then trying to describe it to you. With that said, let's head up to the Battle Sim System room." With that, Krane turns and walks out the door, presumably heading to the Sim room.
Before I can follow, Aidan grabs my arm. "Wait!" he says. "I almost forgot to give you these." Releasing my arm, he grabs a cardboard box from a nearby table and offers it to me. I peek inside; it's full of red-and-white capsules I instantly recognize as Poke Balls. "In order to make the Snag Machine work, you need at least one Poke Ball. Why don't you take five of them?"
I quickly grab five of the orbs from the box and stuff them into the bag at my hip. Luckily, they fit in the bag, packed as it is with potions and the strange broccoli-candy Dr. Kaminko gave me. "Where did you get these?" I ask; it's common knowledge nobody sells Poke Balls in Orre. With the lack of wild Pokémon, there's just no need for them.
"They were imported from Unova; Professor Krane's good friends with the Professor there," he replies. "You're all set, right?"
I open my mouth to reply, but before I can speak there is a scream from the lobby. This causes me to jump about five feet into the air. Aidan promptly makes a dash for the door and I follow him; from this distance I can hear Professor Krane's voice. "Wha- who are you people? What are you doing here?"
We emerge from the room in time to see the doors into the Lab slide shut. Lucy is standing by the desk, looking wide-eyed and quite startled. As soon as she realizes Aidan and I are standing there, she runs towards us, which is an impractical thing to do in high heels. She nearly falls on her face, but manages to stay upright. "Some strange men came in and took the Professor!"
"Let's go," I yell at Aidan. Luckily, everyone who works at the Lab has a brain in between their ears - except, perhaps, Ryan and Jovi - so instead of standing there in shock he follows me in a flat-out run towards the doors. They open to let us outside and the first thing I notice is Stefan, lying on the sidewalk. His Patrat seems to be beside him; at least it hasn't been stolen. Aidan immediately runs towards him, dropping to his knees to examine him.
"Michael, go get the Professor! I'll help Stefan," he yells at me, and I give him a quick thumbs-up before rushing down the sidewalk. I end up standing behind a group of men in strange white armor, wearing what appear to be bandannas around their necks. The biggest one is holding Professor Krane with his arms pinned behind his back as he struggles.
"Let go of me!" the Professor yells, struggling in a fruitless attempt to get free. "Where do you think you're taking me?"
The guy holding Krane chuckles slightly. "I'm taking you to your new lab, Professor."
I reach for Prince's Poke Ball as Krane attempts to kick the man, but the attack is useless as his foot simply collides with the guy's armored shin. "What are you talking about?"
The guy snorts. "It doesn't matter right now, so if you don't want to get hurt, stop trying to hurt me and hustle yourself into the car."
Krane snarls and whips his foot back to kick the guy's shin again, but the larger man doesn't notice, which is all well and good. Before anything else can happen, I lift Prince's Poke Ball into the air and step forwards, purposely bringing my foot down hard on the cobbled sidewalk to make a loud thudding noise that causes the attention of everyone to turn to me. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" I snap - I'm not known for polite language in the face of danger.
The man in the yellow scarf is the only one that actually turns to face me. The rest of them just kind of tilt their heads, and although Krane tries to take advantage of this momentary distraction by attempting to pull his arms free, I can see the bigger man's grip tighten and the Professor gives a cry of pain.
Yellow-scarf man smirks at me. "What do you want, punk? You going to play hero and try to stop us? Well, that's not going to happen. I don't show mercy to anyone, especially not some snot-nosed kid." With that, he whips out a Poke Ball and throws it to the ground. A flash of blue-white light emerges and forms into a small bear which I instantly recognize as a Teddiursa. Reflexively taking a step backwards, I release my own Pokémon. When Prince appears, he does something uncharacteristic; instead of giving his foe innocent eyes, he growls deep in his throat and his tail sticks straight backward, ears pulling back against his skull.
Shadow Pokémon detected! something says loudly, right into my ear. I jump as a thin piece of see-through glass slides in front of my face with a high-pitched whirring sound. Suddenly, my surroundings turn several shades darker, and a violet aura surrounds the Teddiursa for a few moments before the glass retreats.
"The hell…" I mutter. Luckily, the man holding Professor Krane has turned around to watch the battle with a look of amused interest, and upon noticing my expression Krane decides to help me out a bit.
"Michael! The Aura Reader is responding! That's a Shadow Pokémon! Hurry, throw a Poke Ball at it!" At this point, the big man grunts and covers Krane's mouth with one oversized fist while keeping hold of the Professor's arms with the other.
Pokémon should be weakened before you throw a Poke Ball at them; I know that much. But something about the urgency of Krane's tone gets to me and, instead of ignoring him and ordering a Bite attack from Eevee, I reflexively lift my gloved hand back.
A Poke Ball materializes right in the center of the glove and, without thinking about it, I spin in a neat circle and release the capsule. It lazily sails through the air, but halfway to its target, the ball opens up to reveal a hand of glittering orange energy. The hand swoops down, Poke Ball still attached, and scoops the bear into the capsule. Yellow-scarf man's eyes widen as the ball drops to the ground, shakes three times, and makes a sharp ding, signaling a successful capture. I hold out my gloved hand and the ball soars into the air and lands in the center of the glove. I pluck the capsule out of the glove with my other hand and stow the Poke Ball in my belt.
"What the…" Yellow-scarf says, his blank expression turning into an angry scowl. "My Shadow Teddiursa…was that a snag?"
I glance over at Krane. The big man seems to have removed his hand from the Professor's mouth and I notice a satisfied grin on Krane's face. I shoot him a smirk of my own in response. This'll teach them not to try and kidnap staff of the Pokémon HQ Lab in future - hopefully.
"What is that thing on your arm?" Yellow-scarf snaps, turning towards his companion. Said companion, a short man with a red scarf, stares at me for a beat before responding.
"It's a Snag Machine!" he shouts, clearly quite astonished by this. "What the heck is that doing here? I thought Wes had the last one of those, and it didn't look like this one at all!"
"That's big news!" Yellow-scarf yells, grabbing Red-scarf's arm. "Come on, let's move! We need to report this to headquarters right now!" With that, they both take off towards a large red-and-gray car parked near the bike rack. I dash forwards after them, and it's only then that I realize the largest man of the trio has already tossed Krane into the back of the vehicle. He climbs into the front seat as I descend the steps and the giant machine roars to life. Both Yellow-scarf and Red-scarf man are in front of me, and as soon as they grab onto the ladders on either side of the back of the vehicle, it jerks forwards and starts heading down the path.
Yowling loudly, Prince bolts after them and makes a heroic leap. He lands on Yellow-scarf's leg and bites down right between the plates of white armor covering the man's leg. His sharp white teeth easily pierce the black material serving as a kind of shield for the spots the white armor doesn't quite reach and Yellow-scarf screams in pain. I quickly recall Prince before the car disappears down the road.
With my Pokémon safe, I stand there, staring blankly after the vehicle, for what seems like an age. Eventually, I am jolted back to awareness by footsteps nearby; Aidan is drawing level with me, and when he does he places a hand on my shoulder. I'm not sure if the gesture is meant to be comforting or if he's trying to keep himself from falling over.
"They kidnapped the Professor," he states flatly, as though he can't quite believe it. It isn't until the clouds of dust kicked up by the car's wheels and…hover systems…have faded until he speaks again, and the two words he says are a little too obvious.
"We're screwed."
It seems to take quite a long time to walk back to the Lab, take Stefan to his bedroom, and inform everyone of any importance that Professor Krane has been kidnapped. When we do, we end up in the room where I originally obtained the Snag Machine, with my Mom and our resident tech geek Datan standing there silently as Jovi sobs uncontrollably into her palms. Aidan, for his part, is staring blankly at the wall.
"They took the Professor away!" she cries, sniffling unhappily as she wipes her eyes with her sleeves, covering the white cloth with damp spots. "Jovi wasn't there to stop them, and Big Brother can't stop the bad guys on his own!"
I scowl, sufficiently irritated with her sense of self-importance to forget how upset I am about the whole kidnapping ordeal. Mom shoots me a glance - a sort of 'don't start anything now' look - and pats Jovi on the back. "It's okay, Jovi, Don't cry. I'm sure Professor Krane will be fine."
"Really?" she sniffles, looking up at Mom.
Before she can reply, Aidan's head jerks up; he's snapped out of it, apparently. "I've had people contact the police and the proper authorities about Professor Krane," he says, wisely avoiding the word 'kidnapping' as though he knows that will bring on a new round of tears. "They will let us know if they discover anything. But I still can't believe this is happening…"
Mom sighs, and I glance up at her. "Professor Krane predicted that someone would again try making Shadow Pokémon," she says, voice emotionless. "It seems his prediction was on the mark."
"If that's true," Aidan says slowly, "the Teddiursa you snagged probably isn't the only Shadow Pokémon that was made. And in addition to that, the Purify Chamber's still not finished. When it's done, we'll be able to purify lots of Shadow Pokémon at once, but until then…Professor Krane is crucial to the Purify Chamber project, and without him we can't do anything."
Mom's head suddenly snaps up. "We're going to complete it. We can finish the Purify Chamber by ourselves."
Aidan blinks. "But - you know that's not possible! Without Krane here, it's hopeless; there isn't any way to get it done! We only got this far because of him, and we can only finish it because of him!"
"That's not true," Mom replies firmly. "We're on the verge of finishing, and this isn't the time to mope and feel sorry for ourselves. How do we know what we can do until we try? Anyways, we all worked on the Purify Chamber; we got this far not because of Professor Krane, but because we worked on it as a team. It would be stupid to stop now. We can finish this project as one, even without him here. That means things are going to get very busy around here," she adds, eyeing Jovi and I. Luckily, my younger sister has stopped crying, and is instead staring at Mom with wide eyes. "You guys will have to help. Right now, though, it's getting late, so I say we start tomorrow morning. Any objections?"
She glances around, and when nobody responds, she gives us all a satisfied nod. "It's settled, then. We'll start tomorrow."
"Okay," I say with a yawn. "In that case, I'm going to bed and not bothering with food. I've had a little too much excitement today." I glance at Jovi, but she's too busy rubbing at her eyes to notice, and so I leave her there and step out into the hall.
The hallways are full of people as usual, even though they should all be eating dinner unless they have the same idea as me. Predictably, they're all talking about Professor Krane's kidnapping. There's enough voices to even drown out the constant whirr and hum of the machinery that goes on night and day. I dodge around the people and head towards the elevator; when I finally make it there, one person enters with me. I shoot a glance at their face; it's Ryan. Handy.
"Hey, Ryan," I say with a smirk, and rummage around in my bag, pulling out a single piece of the candy Kaminko gave me and offering it to him. "Here you go."
Rather predictably, Ryan only scowls at me. "Nice try, Michael, but I know you and, as such, know you wouldn't offer me that unless it was poisoned or tasted like broccoli."
I grunt in response, but am spared from saying anything else as the elevator door opens. When it does, I step out, roll my eyes in Ryan's direction, and flick the piece of candy at him. There is a satisfying thud as it connects with his forehead and he yelps. Before he can come after me, though, I stick my tongue out at him and dash off into the crowd.
We're all entitled to acting like a kid sometimes…especially around people we hate.
From there, I make my way to my bedroom. When I finally reach the door, it slides open as I approach instead of waiting for me to slide my ID into the card slot nearby; this is likely part of the repairs Krane had been talking about. When it closes behind me, I manually lock it and look around the room. It looks just like I left it earlier, which means nobody's gotten into it. Good.
My bare hand drifts down to the capsules attached to my waist and lands on Prince's Poke Ball instinctively. I lift it from my waist and hold it into the air, and unclip the belt it was attached to with my gloved hand, dropping it onto the table along with the Shadow Teddiursa's Poke Ball.
I don't feel safe letting out the bear right now, so I only release Prince. The Eevee appears and bears his teeth, still stained crimson with the blood of Yellow-scarf, but when he notices I'm the only one in the room he quiets down and looks up at me with wide eyes. After a pause, he tilts his head and mews.
"Krane's gone," I tell him, and he growls unhappily before leaping up onto the bed and burying his face in the pillow.
"Prince!" I yelp, and quickly run over, lifting him up and off the furniture. He blinks and tilts his head at me in response. "I don't want you getting blood all over the sheets and pillow," I tell him sternly, although he's able to tell I don't mean it and simply nips at my arm until I drop him on the floor again.
I sit down on the edge of my bed and glance at Prince. "We're going to rescue him," I say matter-of-factly. The Eevee nods and sits down at the foot of the bed. "And we're going to start tomorrow," I add. "Those stupid idiots aren't getting away with this." Instead of looking excited by this notion, though, Prince only wags his tail once, yawns, and curls up in a ball.
I eye him dubiously. "Fine, Prince. Good night," and with that, I lean back, resting my head on the pillow and pulling the sheets over my body. I don't bother with switching into any sort of special clothes for bed, since I know I'll be getting up early the next morning. Instead, I mutter a single word under my breath - "Lights" - and the room is instantly plunged into darkness.
Since I don't exactly know how to reattach the Snag Machine to my arm (or take it off), I leave it on - I'll talk to Aidan about it tomorrow - and close my eyes.