Chapter 8
Fox had been having trouble sleeping as of late, he had awoken numerous times in the night to a dark, billowing figure standing at the foot of his bed. He had spent an inordinate amount of time creeping through the hidden halls below with mismagius in attempts to sort out what it was Ro was working on. As far as he could determine, the leader of the Prophets was opening a gateway.
Some of the rooms he had gotten into had complex formulas that Rabbit may have been able to make sense of but were little more than gibberish to him. Fox still could not get a signal out on his cell phone even after mismagius had taken him up to the locked roof. The pupae in the first portion of the hallway rocked more frequently and he reckoned they would be hatching soon.
From quiet corners the pair watched Ro open a gateway numerous times and saw countless ghost types go to their end. He would have freed them but the Pokémon weren't kept on site and Ro kept him fed with information Fox was certain was false regarding the movements of the so called "Team Rocket operatives".
He could not in good conscience swear fealty to Ro after seeing what had happened to the ghost Pokémon. It was halfway through June when he and Ro had an opportunity to talk about where Fox would go.
"Honestly Fox, whether you join us or not, a trainer like you will be needed in the new world. Regrettably, I cannot release you back into it, it is a necessity. Hate me if that is your wish but consider this decision in your best interest.
Your hatred of Team Rocket for the scars they left on your body and your heart will only lead you down a path of vengeance. Despite your decisions, I am fond of you and would rather not see you throw your life away on that." Father Ro's hand rested on Fox's shoulder and he resisted the urge to throw it off.
"Will you at least tell me how you intend to bring about this change?" Fox sighed.
"Alas, I cannot. I hope you understand that I must maintain absolute discretion. A number of Prophets have gone missing, there is no doubt that you had no hand in it, but I must take all precautions. How is your coffee by the way?" Ro's flippant change of subject told Fox that any conversation regarding the plans of the Prophets of Renewal was done. He was more or less a prisoner.
Even when he went to the rooftop in hopes of getting reception, he did not recognize the skyline and the weather even in the summer was chilly. It was a good indicator to him that he was in one of the northern cities but of the seven of them, he could not be certain. He had already retired for the evening, so the Prophets would not be looking to disturb him in his room which left him to gaze up at the burgeoning stars.
Whichever city this was, they kept the night lighting to the barest minimum letting its citizens enjoy the full scope of the sky. The shadowy apparition appeared on the rooftop in an instant; rushing at him, it ran through him and vanished but not before a clatter drew attention to his feet.
Picking up the square case Fox pondered over it for a moment before deciding to head in for the evening. The laptop he had been given by Ro was surely being monitored but he had to know more. Mismagius was flitting about his shoulders curiously after depositing Fox unseen back into his room. Booted up the laptop took a moment as it was an older model but it still worked. In between his time in the library and exploring the building, Fox had been writing a fantasy novel encoding clues in a cipher for his operation to find regarding what he had seen should he ever find a way to get the information to them.
Opening the case revealed a disc and once loaded, it exposed far more than Fox was anticipating. He shut the laptop abruptly and turned towards mismagius. Pulling up the picture of Otter and her team, Fox showed it to the ghost Pokémon. She studied the picture intently as Fox's hand shook.
"Mismagius, I need you to take the laptop and the disc straight to this woman. Her name is Otter; find her immediately." Fox hoped the Pokémon had the foresight find Otter. Mismagius took one last determined look at the picture of Otter before picking up the laptop and drifting through the ceiling.
Careful to avoid the range of the cameras he made his way to the exit stairwell and descended. The last time he and mismagius had descended, it had appeared there was another level that extended away from the building. Fox needed to find out what dwelt below and he would discover tonight come hell or high water. Waking venusaur, he returned her to the pokeball and departed.
Slipping through the secret door he made his way towards where they had suspected the entrance would be and was rewarded for their cleverness. This required a key entry and by the sound of boot steps coming down the hall, a key would soon be provided. Fox wished he had a smaller Pokémon than venusaur as the close confines of the corridor meant that he would be on his own for overpowering the guard. The scuffle was quick thanks to Fox's element of surprise.
Taking the key, Fox dragged the guard into a closet. At least now with the key, Fox could escape the building. He had his phone on him, fully charged and ready to call in his operatives. The building itself was humming with energy in a stronger pitch than it had earlier. The smaller testing rooms had been empty though which lead Fox to believe whatever was going to happen, was happening now. The lights were flickering in a mad dervish and Fox's pace quickened.
He came out at the end of the hall in what appeared to be a large hangar with a strange machine in the center of it. There were massive containment globes, half the height of the tower he was currently trapped in. Hundreds upon thousands beyond counting; the ghost Pokémon imprisoned were from around the world and the globes were full to the point of many Pokémon forced against the glass.
A dusknoir despite the cramped quarters was pounding on the glass trying to break free. A thousand different voices were howling and it unnerved Fox. He looked about for something heavy to break the glass and saw a tool rack near a small fleet of diesel trucks. Grabbing the largest wrench he could find, he ran towards the nearest container to him; before he could even swing, a pulse of electricity knocked him back and Fox saw a guard with a raichu running for him.
The Pokémon in the imprisoning glass began writhing and boiling until they broke down to their essence; the dusknoir resisted with its bright red eye fixed upon the trainer that had run for him. Fox watched as the Pokémon exploded into its base core and the plasmic energy released from their deaths was pumped out of the prison jars.
Thick lines ran from each of the jars and they pulsed with the energy that coursed through them and into the strange infernal machine. A wordless scream erupted from his mouth; the guard ran up and swung his club across Fox's jaw, silencing him. The world swam before leaving him in darkness.
What felt like sometime later, he was brusquely awoken by a splash of water to the face. Ro was standing there with the security guard that had rendered him unconscious. Fox made certain his face was a blank mask revealing nothing. The two leaders locked eyes with each other, neither daring to break the stare. The guard's raichu delivered a low-level shock at the behest of his trainer that forced Fox to back down.
"Are you an operative of Team Rocket?" Ro's tone was neutral but his face betrayed him, showing the disappointment of a father.
"I have never been an operative of Team Rocket." Fox defiantly stated receiving a backhanded swing in response to his words.
"Who are you working for?" Ro's next question received only a blank stare from Fox. The man motioned for the guard's raichu and Fox braced himself for the next shock leaving his muscles in spasms.
"Who do you work for?" The question fell on deaf ears as Fox had begun counting in his head.
The questions and lack of response went back and forth for the better part of four hours by Fox's count but he refused to speak. He was focusing only on the numbers, always on the number trying to withdraw as far from the pain as possible.
A charmeleon had been brought out at some point and the tail flame was being used to sear Fox's finger tips. For another hour more he endured the flame passing over his body, the scorching fire threatening to loosen his tongue. They returned to beating him with their fists when that didn't work either; after eight hours of nothing they treated his wounds, dosed him with morphine and sent him to a small cold cell.
Fox slept for what felt like an eternity, when he awoke he reached for his pokeball out of habit to find it wasn't there. Disoriented from waking in a strange place, Fox took a moment to ascertain where he was. The pain hit him like a truck and almost as if they had been waiting for him to awake from his drug induced stupor.
Dragging him roughly back to the room he had been in the day prior, they began working him over again. Using arbok acid and cigarettes they continued working on him. He endured an egregious amount of torture that day but they brought in a chansey to use a healing pulse that essentially reset him for the Prophets of Renewal to continue the next day.
They continued on in this fashion for a week and a half before something slipped out of Fox's mouth.
"We will burn all that you worked for to the ground." Fox gasped out.
"Who is we?" Ro demanded but Fox had shut his mouth after realizing he had given away his thoughts aloud. "Leave him in the room with the pupae, they are set to hatch soon. We are too close to completion, send word to withdraw all Prophets to primary base."
"At once Father Ro, will that be all for you today?" The man that had been assisting with Fox's torture asked.
"Have they located the first package to come out of the portal?"
"Not yet sir, but we have secured the second package with the item stolen from Silph Co."
"Good, move along then." Ro dismissed the guard who was dragging the bloody trainer away. He returned to the hangar to watch the last of the ghost types loaded into their prisons and with a whispered apology flipped the switch personally.
Otter and The House of Valor were scrambling, they had decoded what they had found in the laboratory and were wrapping up their investigation in Aurora. Zeke had sent in his report via abra but when a mismagius found Otter while carrying a laptop it escalated Valor's plans. Many of the gym leaders not affiliated with the Prophets were remaining neutral choosing not to meddle in the affairs of "gangs of madmen" as Umir had mentioned to Otter in a conference call with several others including Kaydin of Pine Coast City. They were pulling in their agents from across the world and prepping for war.
Word had gotten out to the government of Merifos but they had issued a hands-off decree amongst the multiple homeland security agencies to only act in the event civilians somehow became involved.
Otter readied all the Pokémon under her command as Hank and Anelle did the same. They marched on Borealis the next day but were hijacking a news feed tonight to give fair warning to the citizens to evacuate. It would tip their hands to the Prophets of Renewal but it was the only way they could convince the government to allow them to handle this situation.
"I am sorry about the pain we put you through Fox, it was necessary for my cover. The House of Valor marches on Borealis tomorrow."
"I understand Ox; I've been in Borealis this whole time?" Fox spat a hunk of bloody phlegm on the floor.
"Sorry I haven't been able to contact you sooner but they have had me busy this whole time. I found out where your venusaur was being kept and replaced it with an empty pokeball. Those pupae they have me tossing you to, are tyranitar pupae, they wake up ravenous. I would help you more but I need to figure out how to shut down the jammer without getting caught."
"Good luck Ox, thank you. Is it the full strength of The House of Valor coming out tomorrow?"
"All operatives have been withdrawn from across the world via the abra platoons. Hang on, someone is coming up the hall." Ox gave Fox a kick in the back that sent him sprawling. "How dare you betray Father Ro when all he offered to you was safety and kindness?"
Fox groaned, after the other guard had walked past and out of sight Ox went back to treating him with respect. Ox had been found after the Prophets had beaten him and released his Pokémon into the wild.
Even though he was older than Fox, the kindness the younger man had shown him stuck with him. They were able to locate his raichu but the others had been domesticated too long and had grown too dependent on human assistance. They had fallen victim to the food chain.
"Hey, this isn't the way to the pupae chamber." Fox murmured.
"The chamber was moved, it's onboard that infernal machine now."
"What does that machine even do?"
"I have no idea other than it converts ghost type Pokémon into energy. Those screams, their pain, I will not forget either. Do you think my little misdreavus was with them?" Ox whispered out of respect for the fallen.
"From what I've learned over my skulking, I would say the likelihood is high on that." Fox walked through the hangar seeing Ro watch the breakdown of the Pokémon in the massive jars.
"Keep walking prisoner." Ox emphasized his façade with another kick. They all had their roles to play.
Fox was pushed and bullied into an elevator, across a catwalk and into the machine. Another guard was waiting outside the steel safety hatch that looked like it could withstand a nuclear detonation. A switch on the wall drew Fox's attention and he saw that it looked like an emergency release.
"I hope this helps you." Was the kind whisper Fox heard.
Palming an empty dusk ball from Ox, he was shoved roughly inside and the door was sealed shut. Looking around, Fox saw the pupae were rocking slowly; on the plus side, if he survived this he could wreak some havoc around the machine. Still not enough room for venusaur; the Prophets intended for this to be a blood bath when the tyranitar awoke. This was not going to go well for him in the slightest. With a worn-out sigh, Fox sat with his back to the wall, cradling venusaur's pokeball for comfort.
"There you have it folks, with that marking her eighth badge, we will see Europa-" Frank was cut off from the feedback to the station. All stations that were tuned in went through a series of static before the emblem of The House of Valor appeared on the televisions across the country.
Otter sat in her chair wearing a snug black hoodie and red cowl covering most of her face as she waited for the light to indicate the cameras were rolling and ready. Fox's ninetales sat on one side of her and her arcanine sat on her left with jolteon perched on the armrest. Precious was comfortable at her feet. She took a deep breath before the light on the camera finally indicated that Otter could speak.
"Good evening, people of Merifos and beyond; to the people of Borealis, I hope you pay close attention to this message. The House of Valor wishes to apologize for the interruptions of whichever program you were watching but these are matters of grave importance. Currently a man going by the title of Father Ro is leading a group of people known as The Prophets of Renewal. The goals they seek are simple to summarize but have long been in the making. They wish to reset the system; some of you may have noticed the absence of wild ghost Pokémon or trainers who have gone missing that had a ghost type in their party.
The theories of the ghost type Pokémon being connected to the Distortion World are correct, those Pokémon are made up of energies that originated directly in that realm. With the energy harnessed from thousands possibly even millions of ghost types, The Prophets intend to cleanse the earth and provide guidance for the next people; those that have somehow survived this, that is.
To the people of Borealis, we urge you to spend this time either evacuating or bunking down some place safe. Stay off the streets, do not go outdoors, and do not engage with anyone. Your own neighbors could be amongst The Prophets of Renewal, but rest assured we of The House of Valor shall light your path through these dark times.
To our brothers and sisters around the world, be safe, we will do all that we are capable of to end this. In the event we do not succeed, forgive us. We have had operatives working on unearthing this information that have put themselves at great risk, a risk that we have taken for the continual safety of those that will come after us. If this is the last time I speak with all of you, thank you for the honor of defending you. I and mine will blaze like the sun cresting the horizon, though we cannot guarantee the cost this will take on Borealis City. Once more we urge the citizens of Borealis to evacuate; may you be safe in what paths you choose.
One last message before we return you to your programs. Ro, we will tear down all that you have strived for. You brought us together in a common goal of vengeance; Hilda, Rabbit, the Pokémon you have stolen from us and all the ghost types but this ends now with us keeping the world safe from madmen like you. This is our declaration of war against the Prophets. Now tell me, House of Valor, what are we?" Otter concluded waiting for the response.
"IN THE DARKEST NIGHT, WE ARE THE FLAME!" Thousands of voices chorused.