Chapter 41: Torture Postponed
Shadow watched on from a distance. The human known as Ash had let Hikari out of his pokeball. And not only that, Hikari had wandered off with his Riolu boyfriend.
They were a decent distance from the others and had crossed over a beach area. Shadow was ready, he made his move. But on approach he noticed the world growing suddenly dark around him. He ignored it as he touched down a short distance from the two.
Both were clearly shaken by the sudden darkness. And Shadow took full advantage.
"Hello boys. Not interrupting anything I hope." He said glaring at them.
"Ash-Ashachu…" the riolu called out.
'That name….' Shadow felt himself grow angry.
"Run…" one of them said as they both turned around to flee.
A desperate bid to escape him. A desperate bid in vain…
Shadow formed a blue ball of energy in the palm of his left claw and fired it, freezing the riolu up to his neck in ice.
"Ahhh. No no…It's got me." He cried out in fear.
Hikari stopped and took notice."Hunter…. hang on. I'll get you out."
He hardened his tail and prepared to strike the giant ice cube imprisoning his friend.
"It's got me. It's got me," Hunter repeated, his mind flooded with terror.
Shadow grabbed him just as he attempted to hit the ice. He was lifted by the scruff of his neck and off his feet and turned around, away from Hunter.
Shadow stared deeply into the Pikachu's eyes, letting himself enjoy the fear pouring out of the chu. "Well then Hikari… I suppose I should commend your perseverance in the face of your annihilation…" Shadow had plenty of time to think of how Hikari had managed to evade him, and how even now he fought to cling to life.
"No. NOOOO! Leave him alone you big bully," Hunter screamed at the top of his lungs. "LEAVE ASHACHU ALONE!"
'That damned name!' Shadow had grown tired of it.
Shadow's anger was impossible to contain, "Riddle me this Hikari. Why did this Riolu just refer to you as Ashachu."
No reply.
Shadows grip on his neck tightened causing him to wince in pain. "Did you hear me? I want you to tell me why your lover here, one whom I presume knows you extremely well, referred to you as Ashachu."
Shadow was seething, now more than ever he wanted Hikari, no, Ashachu dead.
"I wonder, could it be because your name is indeed Ashachu and not Hikari as previous indicated. I should hope not. For that would make you a liar. A liar and a fraud whom impersonated the identity of my dear friend's son and used to cause trick Blade into befriending you…ANSWER ME!"
His last two words were spoken with such hatred, one could almost touch the anger.
'I would sooner tear this world asunder before I let anyone do this to Blade. To my Blade. He helped you, trained you, befriended you, and not only did you abandon him, but you were lying to him the entire time!'
Out of pure anger Shadow wrapped his other hand around Ashachu's throat
"Answer me! Tell me if what I said is true. What is your name deceiver? Ashachu or Hikari."
"A-a-ashachu," Ashachu managed to gasp. "My n-name is a-ashachu."
"So, it is true then. You did lie to Blade. You did impersonate the son of my dear friend Raiee to form, on false pretenses, an emotional bond with Blade. For what purpose. For food. For sex. To lure him to the clutches of the humans who call themselves Team Rocket."
The thoughts running through Shadow's mind were numerous. Blade had suffered greatly already, his mind was damaged and broken. He had few in his life he trusted. And after so many had lied to him, Blade was barely maintaining sanity. Shadow wasn't the best person to take care of Blade's needs. He was saddened that Blade was so in love with him. But Blade had connected to this, Ashachu, so quickly, almost to the point of love. And even the betrayal and lies of a short friendship had hurt Blade. This was so much more.
"N-no," Ashachu spluttered. "I-I didn't I…"
Thwack…
Shadow threw Ashachu to the ground, as he prepared an ice beam. Strangling him to death wouldn't be enough. No Shadow needed to truly punish him for what his lies will do to Blade when he finds out. Shadow fired the beam of blue energy and froze Ashachu in place.
"Ahh…"
His arms were pinned to his side. All he could do was wiggle his legs and swing his tail. He was trapped, unable to move any more than that.
Shadow lowered himself until the red eye was only inches from Ashachu's face. He placed a claw on the right side of Ashachu's head, running a thumb gently over the sensitive red sack on his cheek.
"Do you see this, little lair," Shadow said softly. Shadow pulled out his favorite trophy, Cleave's claw, which he snapped from the weaviles body. "Do you see this claw. This claw is all that remains of the last Pokémon who brought hurt and harm to my precious Blade!"
Ashachu felt a wave of nausea as he realized what Shadow was saying. That thing the Darkrai was holding. He had taken it from another Pokémon. It was another Pokémon's claw. Another Pokémon whom Shadow had…Ashachu stopped himself. He didn't want to think about that.
"A vile creature. One whom liked to break things that didn't belong to him. So, I broke something of his. Something quite precious to him I'm sure." Shadow took a great deal of satisfaction from Ashachu's visible reactions. He pressed the claw against Ashachu's cheek. "For you see Hikari. Or perhaps I should call you Ashachu. Or just liar, for that's what you are. You see those who take from others for their selfish ends deserve the same consideration from others. You took Blade from me. Worse, you took Blade's liberty from him."
"N-no," gasped Ashachu. "I…"
Shadow was more furious than ever. How dare this little bastard try to deny what he did. "SILENCE! I don't wish to hear your sniveling or your excuses. Your actions have caused Blade suffering. You must own that. Now you shall lose something important to you."
He pulled the claw across the chu's cheek, cutting it open.
Ashachu let out a cry of anguish, tears welling up in his eyes. "Piiiikaaaaaa!"
Shadow waited for a moment, enjoying his prey's anguish, letting Ashachu blink the tears away before saying, in his most menacing manner yet, "I think I shall cut off your tail."
Ashachuwas overwhelmed by fear. He felt physically ill, like he was about to throw up. "Y-you can't," he cried. "Not my tail. You can't do this. You…Ahhhh."
Shadow stabbed the claw into the base of his tail, maintaining eye contact so as to forcefully put fear into him.
"I am doing this Hikari. And when I have removed your tail from your worthless body, maybe I shall move on to your foot paws. Then your arms and ears. I should be interested to see how much of you I can cut away before you expire." He had every intention of making him suffer as much as possible, mentally, physically. And when the time came, emotionally, by slaughtering Hunter while he could do nothing but watch.
"PLEASE…" Ashachu cried in anguish, but then stopped himself. There was an unsettling terror that came with the realization that Shadow had no mercy. He closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and started to cry heavily as the claw ripped through his flesh.
"The owner of this claw begged me too. First for his life and then, eventually for the relief of death. I suspect I shall hear the same from you!"
Ashachu's screams filled the air. And it was a symphony to the vile Darkrai.
When Shadow pierced the spinal nerve, it felt as if his whole tail had been plunged into magma. Ashachu quickly began to feel lightheaded and dizzy, and wondered if he would pass out from blood loss soon. He kept his eyes closed, not wanting to see the horrific process.
"No. No you can't do this, stop it stop it stop it." Hunter started to cry hysterically as he was forced to watch.
And then Hunter saw something in the distance behind Shadow. A faint light in the otherwise pitch black, and the outline of a lizard like Pokémon. A Charmander. Not only that he could feel the waves of aura radiating from it.
"Pyre," he shouted, but the Charmander did not respond. "Help."
And when he didn't move, he screamed, "YOU COWARDLY, DEVIOUS PIECE OF SHIT. HELLLLLLLP US!"
Shadow could barely hide his joy at hearing the desperation in their sobbing voices.
Angry at yet another interruption, Shadow shouted, "What are you doing here? Vile Human…" before being cut off. Suddenly feeling the world disappear around him.
*With Blade*
Blade awoke in Team Rocket's balloon to the sound of rather loud talking. And considering the major hangover he had, it was painful to wake up to. "Fucking hell you guys are a noisy lot." Blade rubbed his eyes and sat up but remained sitting on the floor of the basket.
"And they appea' to 'ave bagged themselves a Darkrai and Latios too."
Upon hearing the word Darkrai, Blade's hangover all but vanished instantly. He didn't bother with the binoculars the humans had handed to Meowth. Sneasel have excellent night vision. And what he saw made his stomach turn over…
The Darkrai was indeed Shadow. And he had been trapped in some sort of forcefield cage down on the beach below. The cage was being levitated into the back of a truck and there were four humans dressed in red outfits present.
"Shadow. No Shadow. Dear Arceus, this can't be happening." Blade felt himself growing panicked at the very sight of his boyfriend in such a situation.
Whomever they were, they must be responsible for this. Shadow wasn't their only captive either. Hikari was there too along with a Riolu and a Latios. A wave of despair and helplessness came over the Sneasel. Who could do this to Shadow? And how could they? It seemed impossible.
"I say we steal dose Primo Pokémon from right under those fashion freaks fashionable noses and hand 'em right over to da boss," said Meowth a huge grin spreading over his face. "And when we do, he's gonna be so happy, he's gonna say, t'anks to Meowth and his friends Team Flare has been defeated once and for all and I 'ave these great Pokémon. I must give dem a big reward."
"We'll get promotions, and raises and briefcases," Jessie and James chanted happily in response to Meowth's plan, suggestion or whatever that was.
Blade wasn't sure. He was far too worried.
Their optimism at the situation was the opposite of the hollowness and fear he felt inside.
And suddenly, Blade felt something strange, something he'd never expected. A feeling of determination unlike any other, a drive to succeed no matter the cost. He had to help Shadow.
*Later*
This place was called a space center, apparently made to help humans reach the stars, a pointless effort in Blade's eyes. Even so Team Rocket was standing at the perimeter fence at the far end of the island, watching as two Crawler-transporters, basically square platforms with wheels, trecking across the facility. Carrying two shuttles from the hangars to launch pads at the far end of the complex.
"Looks like the fashion freaks stole our idea," said Jessie. She passed the pair of binoculars she was holding to James.
"They call us a third-rate organization then they copy all our best plans," he added, raising the binoculars to his eyes. "First they try to steal the twerps Pikachu. Now the Space Shuttle. Hmmm. Speaking of which. Check out what's happening on the primary launch pad."
He handed the binoculars back to Jessie. Jessie quickly found what James was talking about. "Hmm. They're taking the twerps Pikachu and Riolu to the shuttle. Latios and Darkrai too."
"What!" Blade's heart skipped a beat at the word Darkrai. "Let me see!" He tried to grab the binoculars off Jessie only to have to slap him away.
"Sneasel. Get down!"
Jessie passed them to Meowth instead.
"No kiddin'," the scratch cat said, "Looks like dare takin' twerpachoo for a little ride into outta space."
"Sne!" Looking impatient, Blade shoved Meowth to the ground with one paw and grabbed the binoculars off him with the other.
He looked up at the gantry and saw to his horror, three humans wheeling a trolly towards the door of the space shuttle containing the Pokémon who had apparently been frozen in stone. And there he was among them…Poor Shadow. The very sight was disturbing, and heart wrenching for Blade.
"Hey," Meowth cried out in protest. "What's da big idea!"
He extended his claws and swiped at Blade, raking his claws across his face. A fight promptly broke out between them.
After a short scuffle, Blade and Meowth were lying side by side on the ground huffing from exhaustion.
"If you two are done," Jessie snapped at Blade and Meowth. "Sneasel. Cut a hole in the fence."
"Certainly," Blade replied sarcastically as he rose to his foot paws and dusted himself off. He strode over to the fence and slash at it with his claw. He was able to cut through the steel mesh like a knife through butter. It took him less than a second to cut out a circle wide enough for the humans to pass through. "Nah." Blade smirked at his handiwork and licked his claw triumphantly.
Meowth scowled at him as he got up. "Show off," he muttered.
"Good work," said Jessie. "Now let's go."
It didn't take long for them to be discovered by these, fashion freaks, as Jessie had called them.
Even so, they pushed through and reached the entrance to the launchpad.
There were two Team Flare grunts, along with a Manetric, waiting for Jessie, James, Meowth and Blade at the entrance to the launchpad.
A Short battle erupted from them, causing a slight commotion. Jessie called out her orders for Blade. "Sneasel Icy Wind."
Blade opened his maw and blew a current of cold air at their attackers. Cold enough to cover the three of them in lumps of ice and snow and giving enough time for he and his compatriots to get past them and into the launch tower.
'I'm going to save you, Shadow!'