Espir was trapped. He was neither shocked, nor concerned. If anything, he had a stoic sense of acceptance about himself.
The Marshadow that was trapped alongside him, however, was less calm. Espir could hear what it was saying, of course, and none of it was good. He was almost glad that the Marshadow was trapped, even if it was trapped with him. It at least meant that others wouldn't be subject to its angered reactions and likely murderous tendencies.
"Can you not?"
Espir looked at the Marshadow, which had stopped babbling minor threats and was staring at him.
"Not what?" Espir asked.
"You're thinking too loudly," Marshadow said, "and it's driving me mental. You aren't really thinking the kindest things, either."
"My thoughts are my own," Espir replied.
"Not when they're seeping into my head, doppelganger. Get control of yourself. You're acting so strangely for a Marshadow."
"Are Marshadows just common Pokémon or something now?" Espir asked to the open air.
The doppelganger eyed him with a confused look.
"...Nevermind," Espir ended with a sigh. "I'm acting 'strange' because I'm not one," Espir shrugged, not really caring whether his counterpart knew or not. "I've got a human soul and somehow got trapped in this body."
"So that's why you're so odd?" Marshadow asked.
"Rude, but sure."
"What's rude is bringing these captors to our door," Marshadow snapped.
"No, we were ambushed after running away from your murder attempt, also- not forgetting- you stole our friends."
"You say tomato, I say shut up," the Marshadow shrugged, clearly not caring about any of that.
"Well, shut up," Espir snapped back, "because we need to get out of here and your jitteriness isn't going to help anyone."
"What do you suggest, oh brainy human?" Marshadow sneered.
"I'm working on it," Espir muttered, looking over the details of their cell.
The cell appeared solid on all sides, with a glass wall on one side, with the doorway out of the cell. It would have made sense to Espir to try and float out of one of the solid walls, as he was a ghost, but he could see the slight flicker within the glass, showing it was electrified. He had no doubt the walls had the same countermeasures.
Once they were even out of the cell, Espir would need to find the location of the stolen Pokémon, and then wherever Alexis was. Considering that lead grunt had called her 'sister', Espir suspected she wouldn't be in any immediate danger, though they were all locked up, so they were clearly in some danger.
"We could always just shadow hop?" The Marshadow said, now that it had been snapped out of its more hysterical phase.
"What do you mean by that?" Espir asked.
"Try and get someone to come into the cell, or have their shadow pass by that glass, and then shadow hop."
"You've said that term twice now," Espir said, "any chance you want to actually explain what it means? I understand what a shadow is."
"You… melt into shadows," the Marshadow said. "You become the shadows. It makes it really easy to move around unnoticed and I'm sure we'd be able to skirt by the electrified defense."
"If you say so," Espir said, "I've been stuck in a cage with electricity like that. It stings badly."
"The gaps between the electric lines in the glass are far enough apart that our shadowed forms wouldn't skip a beat in dodging through it," Marshadow argued back.
They needed to come up with a plan and, as much as Espir hated to admit it, the Marshadow was right.
"Thank you," Marshadow said.
"I didn't- shut up."
...
...
...
Alexis was getting nowhere soon. While the doppelganger was happy to help, sinisterly enough, they were in no way closer to breaking out. To try and help herself pass the time, Alexis had taken to trying to torment her doppelganger's brother whenever he happened to walk by.
"You," Alexis said, "what's your name, anyway?"
"Why does it matter?" The grunt said.
"You claimed to be my brother," Alexis said, "I want to know why."
"Why does it matter?" The grunt replied, shrugging. "You clearly don't have a brother in your reality, so why does it mean so much to you?"
"How can you just brush that off so easily?" Alexis asked, her face showing just how appalled she was.
"You have the face of that," the grunt said, pointing over to the doppelganger's cell. "I would find it near impossible to have any empathy for you whatsoever, even if you do mean well."
"Then at least tell me why I'm here."
"Not that you give me orders, but I'll be nice enough to give you the general idea," the grunt said, with the twitch of a smirk. "You're here for science. You're another you from a different reality. We need to know more. About you, your reality, the construct that keeps our two realities separate and, yet, still let you in. Same goes for your Pokémon. It helps quite a bit having some counterparts to test alongside, to see the differences in what is known versus unknown."
"You're even worse than she is," Alexis remarked.
"I'm helping people," the grunt spat back.
"It shouldn't be at the expense of other people, though," Alexis said.
"I think I've heard enough," the grunt sighed, "I don't need a lecture, least of all from you."
"That spite was meant for the other one!" Alexis called out as the grunt strode away down the corridor, receiving a glare from the doppelganger as she did.
Alexis could only hope that she figured something out, or Espir came along, sooner rather than later.
...
...
...
Espir waited by the door to the cell, hoping somebody would be coming along at any moment. Marshadow waited beside him. Their plan was… not entirely what Espir wanted, but it promised to work and that was all he needed to get him on board.
The plan was simple. Wait until someone was in earshot, then have Marshadow attack Espir to the point of someone trying to run into the cell to break them up. Then, shadow hop, nice and simple.
They both waited, silent, until they could hear the tell-tale thump of boots across the plain white tiled floor of this odd prison. Espir braced himself for the impact and then, right as they heard the footsteps coming towards them, Marshadow laid into Espir with everything that it had.
Espir knew that Marshadow had literally no reason to care if Espir was conscious when it escaped, so he tried fighting back, despite the Marshadow having the first blow for free.
They both deliberately shouted at the top of their lungs to get the attention of someone nearby, but they didn't stop fighting for a second. It went from pretend to real in an instant.
Both of them knew that they only needed one of them to help free their respective owner and Espir was damned if he was going down after all that he had been through.
Espir tried to Shadow Sneak time and again, while the Marshadow continually tried to use the more powerful Shadow Punch. Espir had gotten lucky, he realized quite quickly. While the Marshadow was a more advanced Marshadow naturally, it had forgotten Shadow Sneak as it had levelled up. Espir was at a speed advantage and, with them both being ghost types, his Shadow Sneaks were brutal against the other one.
Two grunts came charging over, having heard the commotion and hurried to unlock the door and get into the cell to try and break up their prisoners.
Then, both of the Pokémon turned and stared at the grunts. The grunts realized their mistake too late. Espir watched the Marshadow jump at the grunt and disappear as soon as it hit a point that wasn't covered by light, but was instead blocked by the grunt's body. Espir had only one shot at doing the same. He ran and dove at the other grunt's shadow, but she stepped back instinctively. Espir hit the concrete still, unable to hide in the shadows. Instead, acting on impulse, he rolled to his feet and carried on running, straight out of the cell door. If he couldn't hide easily, he would do things the hard way.
With the grunts yelling behind him, Espir charged down the corridor, seeing glass panels to the left and right of him. Most of the cells were empty, the other ones looked to be filled with Pokémon that Espir didn't recognize.
He couldn't save everyone, he wasn't even from this reality, there were likely countless realities where these Pokémon were locked up in these cells, just like this one. He couldn't risk being captured on his own. The grunts wouldn't fall for anything the second time around and they would be knowledgeable of the shadow hopping technique, though Espir hadn't cracked it yet.
At the end of the corridor, however, Espir noticed a small glass cabinet with some Pokéballs. The cabinet was currently opened and the Pokéballs were just sitting there, begging to be opened. Espir couldn't believe that it would be so easy for him to find his allies- if these were Alexis' Pokéballs- but he had to try.
Espir looked back down the corridor, he could hear more than two sets of footsteps but they were far down. He had a tiny splinter of time that he could make use of. It sounded like the other Marshadow was being a nuisance to the grunts, which helped.
Espir jumped up onto the counter and grabbed the Pokéballs. Hopefully these were the right ones, as he couldn't carry all six at once. He would need his Pokémon allies to help carry them until they got to Alexis.
Espir pressed down on the Pokéball button and watched as the red glow lit up the area, he did that with the rest of the Pokéballs, though not all flashed- the spares that Alexis owned.
Before him, as if by a miracle, were Letos and Staravia. Then he noticed the state they were in. They were still brutally beaten up from the gym battle.
Espir swore and returned them to their Pokéballs. He decided that Alexis would have to get some new Pokéballs at some point as he only had big enough arms to carry three. He picked up the two that had his allies in, plus an extra just in case they needed it to carry him in- though he would despise every moment of it.
Espir then hopped off the counter and looked down the hallway. The grunts were closing in on him. He picked the only other hallway, that wasn't blocked off by doors, and ran.
Espir felt ridiculous, sprinting full speed down hallways, clutching three large Pokéballs in his arms. He was taking corridors at random- not looking for an exit, but for Alexis.
Then, he spotted him, the grunt. The grunt was, exasperated, chatting to someone in one of the cells. Espir sprinted towards the man and the grunt turned to notice Espir a moment too late as Espir dropped the Pokéballs and dove at him, punching the man square in the face as he leapt towards him.
Espir landed on his feet as the grunt keeled over- not unconscious- but heavily stunned from the blow. Espir could see both of the Alexises in their respective cells. Clearly, Team Cosmic had put more thought into keeping the Alexis duo apart than the Marshadows. Espir found that decision confusing, but he didn't care enough to dwell on it.
Espir looked between the Alexises and it wasn't difficult to tell which was his. One was leering down menacingly, while the other looked almost apologetic.
Espir placed the Pokéballs down beside his Alexis' cell and then started to rummage around in the grunt's pockets for the keys to the cell. The grunt tried to push him away, but Espir just planted another brutal hit into the man's gut. Espir had no love for the guy, especially after he had backstabbed Espir's entire group.
Espir found the keys and tried to jump up to balance on the handle to the cell door, but he couldn't get the right angle. Instead, he jumped up and grabbed the little part of the cell door that could be slid aside to talk through more efficiently. He held on with one arm as he tried out the keys in the lock with the other, carefully going through each key as he reached ones that didn't work.
After a lot of trial and error, Espir found the correct ones and the key slid into the lock with a click to show they had engaged with the lock. Espir twisted the key and the cell door was unlocked.
Alexis hurried over and pushed the cell door open gently, to avoid hurting Espir at all. She picked up the Pokéballs and clipped them to her belt.
"Let's get out of here," she said to Espir and the two of them left the doppelganger, standing and shouting as she realized that they weren't going to release her, to her fate.
LukarioLM64: Thanks for the nice review! It's really nice to see that this 'multiverse type' story is standing out from other stories according to your view on it. There's still a lot of chapters to come, and both jlrsutton and I are super happy that you've been so interested in the project. We both really hope you stick around to read the rest, and any critique is much appreciated :)