Chapter 6
Michael spent the rest of the afternoon that he had sneaking up on the Cipher members, and knocking them unconscious before frisking them for the key. He had kept a count for no other reason than to amuse himself. There was, after all, an entire city of Cipher team members to go through. He hadn't realized just how powerful the organization was. They were able to occupy an entire city, yet from what he had heard, this was just one of their ongoing operations.
Eventually, Michael overheard a crucial piece of information. He had been approaching a pair of Cipher when he heard a bit of information that solved his problem, but at the same time, opened up a number of more issues.
"The boss went down to interrogate the citizens. Apparently a number of our group has gone missing, and we can't even find bodies."
Michael knew that would happen eventually. It was a mere matter of time until someone discovered that their teammates were slowly and quietly disappearing. That fact didn't matter though. To him the most surprising thing was how quickly the missing people were identified.
"Apparently, the prisoners didn't know anything, and Snattle wasn't able to get anything out of them so he went back to the Colosseum. He was dealing with a couple of reporters from ONBS."
Michael chose this time to act. He had gotten what he came for and still more. Now he had an opportunity to impress ONBS by saving their crew members.
He didn't even bother with knocking them out. Even if they discovered him, the worst they could do would be to assault him, which he could handle. The best case scenario would be for them to completely ignoring him.
Getting to the arena was not the most challenging task. The only issue was the guard stationed at the entrance to the Colosseum. Even then, ordinary trainers posed no threat to Michael, not even the criminal ones. Even if they were criminals that didn't make them any more powerful than other trainers. Except for the occasional shadow Pokemon, there was not much of a challenge in Cipher. The reason not every member of Cipher had a shadow Pokemon was purely a money issue. Creating shadow Pokemon took money and time, though as Michael understood it, the technique of creating a shadow Pokemon was constantly improving.
Eventually every member of Cipher would have a shadow Pokemon, not just the privileged would be powerful. That was the true threat and potential of the shadow Pokemon project.
Inside of the Colosseum, but not in the arena, it was empty. The only sound was that of the crashing waterfalls from every direction. That was a cool theme of Phenac city. Even though they lived in the desert, quite deep in the desert, they still managed to find the water and use the technology to perform a great feat of engineering.
Everything was beautiful. The entire city had gorgeous architecture. It was a big shame that Michael was not able to just stand an appreciate it. He was certain that a rough battle was near. As long as he had espeon, Michael wouldn't lose a battle.
His espeon was a psychic type Pokemon, and those kind of Pokemon were rare and powerful. It is a misconception that it takes a psychic in order to train a psychic. Being an actual psychic just made training all Pokemon, not just the more supernatural ones, easier.
That was his secret for winning effortlessly against Cipher. He was a vigilante, and felt very justified in using force to stop them. That included using his espeon's abilities to beat them. It was a violent and painful way to lose a fight. Michael acknowledge that manipulating the people's minds was not the most comfortable way to go.
That was why he preferred to use it as a last resort, or in a particularly urgent situation. Some might have even called it inhumane, yet he was dealing with criminals. Using a Pokemon's abilities as deadly force against humans was against the law, but so was what Cipher did, and they posed an actual threat to society and the world. Therefore, he knew that no trouble with the law would come to him.
So, Michael steeled himself for battle, preparing a Pokeball in his snag machine, and activating the scanning screen. Then he opened the door. Inside the giant stone Colosseum, two members of what he only assumed were ONBS recorders stood in the middle. It looked like they were being interrogated by a man with rather odd clothing.
Michael assumed, based on his experience with Lovrina, that Cipher admins could dress the way they wished, as long as it fit the style of the uniform. That was why he also assumed that the man was Snattle. He had been assuming a lot of things recently though, so it was time for his luck to run out. Instead of approaching Snattle, two members of Cipher did what they did best, that is, appear out of seemingly thin air.
Michael battled them, and it was obvious that he was dealing with an admin. The other one was not exceptionally skilled and only had one Pokemon. The admin, however, was a great deal more adept, and happened to have more than just a tiny spearow.
Michael needed to defeat three Pokemon, one less than the number that he had. Except his fourth Pokemon was a brand new shadow roselia. That made them relatively even, and though none of his Pokemon became to injured to carry on, they were winded by the battle. Quickly as he could, before Snattle decided to assault him, he administered aid to their bodies. Even his powerful espeon, the prize of his party, had battle wounds.
He was certain that Snattle was far more powerful than Lovrina.
Once he was done, he looked up and saw that Snattle had been waiting on him. The man stood with his arms crossed, and foot tapping. Snattle had strange body proportions. He was tall and skinny in his limbs and face, yet had quite a belly.
Michael recalled espeon and let out spinarak. He was certain this would be the battle that would allowed him to unlock the heart of his little spider Pokemon. Once his spinarak had once again regained it's emotions, the world would be a better place. There would be one less shadow Pokemon, and one less problem to deal with.
With his spinarak every command had to be firm, and every action a command. So when he moved forward to approach Snattle he said-
"Follow me spinarak." and his Pokemon followed. Teddiursa did not need to be commanded in order for it to follow him. Michael liked to think that his teddiursa was all the more loyal to him, because of the fact that he had saved it from the shadow.
Snattle spoke, "Shall we begin, child? I lack the time to bother with you so just allow me to make it quick."
"Yeah sure I can make it quick." Michael smirked putting on an air of confidence.
The battle began.
"Go lunatone, and castform." Snattle's snobby voice was beginning to get on Michael's nerves.
Michael likewise allowed for his two Pokemon to join the battle.
"Prepare yourselves," Michael said.
Michael made the first move not even allowing for Snattle to have an inch. He knew from the HUD on his snag machine that the lunatone was a shadow Pokemon. His first move was of course to try and capture it. His plan failed of course. As an admin of Cipher, Snattle was well informed about the snag machine.
When Michael activated the machine and sent his snag ball flying, Snattle moved in front and blocked it, smacking the now useless ball out of the air. Then Snattle launched his first attack.
"Lunatone use shadow sky!" he began to snicker as if he had already won. Michael understood why, as the battle instantly became many times more difficult. Snattle hoisted what looked like a steel umbrella out from under his cape, goodness knows how he stored it there, and opened it above himself. The ONBS camera crew moved as far away as they could in fearful speed. They knew what was about to happen.
Snattle's lunatone aimed itself towards the sky, and Michael could see in his snag HUD that a powerful force of shadow power was building up into a small ball. Michael had yet to see this type of shadow Pokemon attack. He knew that they had unique properties, and was beginning to wonder. His wondering ceased though, as the lunatone fired it's attack into the sky, and everything up above became cloudy with a deep purple.
Rain began to fall, and Michael saw why Snattle had an umbrella made from metal. The shadow rain fell onto all surfaces within quite a large diameter of its origin point. Michael could smell the burning sensation before he could feel it. He could also hear the cries of his Pokemon in pain before he could feel it. Then the pain began and everywhere the rain touched his body it burned.
Michael began to understand the true nature of the threat to the world by the shadow Pokemon. Cipher could create powerful Pokemon with unknown abilities, such as a move more powerful than giga impact without the repercussions, or an acid rain.
Michael bit through the pain and acted quickly. He pulled the pokeball containing espeon, and through it on the ground. His espeon came into the world, and Michael warned her.
"Espeon, use your psychic to block the rain from hitting us!" Michael shouted through the excruciating pain. Now Michael knew he would need to finish this fight quickly. He wouldn't be able to use espeon to fight, because she was defending him and his Pokemon from the shadow rain. Spinarak was not effected very much by the rain, and Michael knew it was because the shadow attack would not work so well on another Pokemon with the shadow attribute.
"Okay, we can still do this guys. Teddiursa use metal claw on lunatone. See if that stops the rain." his teddiursa complied, flashing its claws as it made lunatone it's target.
"I'm afraid that's not how it works around here. Castform use weather ball!" Snattle commanded. Michael wasn't sure what a weather ball in the shadowy rain would do, and he wasn't willing to find out. There was also an odd glint in Snattle's eye. A look that Michael didn't much like. Regardless, he had to get teddiursa out of there and fast just in case.
"Teddiursa move out of the way." Michael said waving his arm to the side. Teddiursa complied. Then Michael knew he had made a fatal mistake, because Snattle was not aiming at teddiursa. No, Snattle had said he planned to finish the battle fast, and he meant it. Michael moved as fast as he could and ran in front of the attack.
Time seemed to slow down as Michael recognized that he was in imminent danger. Nonetheless he did not back down and took the hit of the shadow ball( can we call it that?) and went down in front of his espeon. All that Michael's poor espeon could do was keep the rain from falling on her master, as he had ordered. She did not want him to come to harm and thus, could not fight. The psychic circle of protection from the rain shrank to a considerably smaller size, teddiursa moved with it in order to avoid the pain and protect his master.
Michael lay on the ground in obvious pain, and barely managed to notice that the rain stopped. He could see that Snattle was approaching with both of his Pokemon out and ready just in case he tried anything. That was when Michael's vision went blank and he lost consciousness.
Snattle crouched down to look at Michael's unconscious body.
"hmm... what should I do with you. You soiled my plan of replacing the entire city. Most of my underlings are knocked out in some broom closet or another. How am I going to repay you for ruining my plans with the ship. Well I do guess we are nearly done, but you could still do some punishment." Snattle snickered.
Out from the shadows somewhere came a slim figure approached. Snattle had to admit she was good at what she did. Most of their stealthier missions were covered by her. That is until she got demoted after flubbing up and then broke probation orders. Now Lovrina had been put under him until she proved that she could still be a leader, if not she would either be "taken care of" or would have to stay under his orders.
Quite frankly he didn't want the temperamental, sarcastic, and sassy woman under him. She was a great bother to him, even if she got everything he said done, and in an efficient and timely manner. He just couldn't handle her attitude.
"What are you doing here Lovrina?" he frowned.
"Yes well I came back because I completed the mission you assigned for me, you loathsome beast. Then I came here and saw you battling with the person who cause all this misfortune to befall me, and I couldn't help but wonder something," Lovrina crossed on arm and rested her other, on her arm and her chin on her fist, "may I have the pleasure of dealing with him?"
Snattle smirked at this now. He was certain Lovrina would leave him alone for a few hours if he gave her a toy. This would solve his problem of getting rid of the boy as well. Lovrina was well known for her brutal practices, and Snattle wasn't sure if the boy would make it out alive, especially after what he had apparently done to her.
"Very well Lovrina do as you wish, enjoy your private time with the boy and clean up any messes okay." Snattle snickered at his own hilarity.
Lovrina of course was less than pleased but did not voice her concerns.
"Yes, yes, I will so totally enjoy this. Now if you don't mind maybe I can swipe up his Pokemon too?" Lovrina thought she was pushing it, but didn't think it harmful to try. Snattle just waved her on dismissively. Lovrina set to work attempting to get all three of Michael's Pokemon into their pokeballs. This wasn't an easy task though, because, the spinarak was a belligerent shadow Pokemon, espeon was far to over protective of Michael and she didn't even know about teddiursa. The small bear was probably the lest of her worries.
A/N: So here it is, chapter 6. I don't know what you, as my readers, are thinking about the story right now, so I wouldn't mind a little bit of feedback. I may sound like I'm begging for reviews, and that is a true thing. I am completely desperate for some feedback on my writing skills. As usual I hope you all enjoyed the read.