Chapter 116 – The boy in the glass bowl

Rain was the spy's greatest ally…

When wet, Inteleon and Sobble's skin changed coloured. It would blend to its background, rendering the Pokémon invisible. Inteleon was a tall slender chameleon Pokémon, with large forepaws that almost resembled human hands, and a long tail. His long foot paws allowed him to move silently through wet grass that grew on the creek bank.

Sobble, a smaller lizard like Pokémon, with a large head and tiny limbs clung to his neck. "I don't like this Tel," he said. His voice was male, but slightly high pitched. And right now, full of fear. "This whole place feels like a trap."

Inteleon glanced around as he ran along the creek. "Hey Sob relax. The jobs simple. The message said the meeting was at six o'clock. All we have to do is intercept and observe. You got the camera right."

"Not exactly going to lose jt." The camera was a small unit strapped tightly to the top of his head. The straps were tight and irritating on the tiny lizard's skin. His claws tightened their grip on Tel's neck. "But what if we get caught. Aren't we in a giant cage."

"There are emergency exits all over," Tel reassured. "They're hidden in the scenery and connect to tunnels that lead the surface. We're nearly a kilometre under the sea, they had to have a way to evacuate the Pokémon who live here in case of an emergency. I have to say though, the humans who built this place did a great job simulating the natural environment. Even the rain feels real. You'd never know you're in a terrarium."

"Humph…I don't know." To Sobble the terrarium sure felt unreal. Even though he couldn't see the walls and ceiling, he felt as though they were pressing in on him. As if the vast space might suddenly close around him and crush him.

Despite his fear party of him had to admit it was impressive. Up ahead was a reasonable sized waterfall. A torrent of water cascaded from the lake above and into the creek below. Am artificial environment set up to accommodate all types of Pokémon.

On the bank opposite the falls, stood a lone boy. Tel and Sobble approached him quietly, taking care not to be heard. They hid behind a tree.

"That our target," asked Sobble a little too loudly.

Tel shushed him. "Shhh…It must be."

The boy had shoulder length purple hair with golden highlights at the tips. And he wore a blue top and white pair of shorts. If Tel had to guess, he would have said he was around fifteen, maybe sixteen years of age.

"Are you there?" The boy suddenly turned around, facing towards the tree.

Sobble felt his stomach turn over. Had the boy heard him. Had he just given them away. But then three more people appeared. Seemingly out of nowhere. Sobble shivered at the sight of them. Each was dressed in a white spacesuit like outfit with their heads and facial features hidden behind helmets and visors. As they watched, one of the trios removed their helmet, revealing herself as a teenage girl with short red hair.

"Well, hello there," she said to the boy. "Thanks for, you know, like meeting." She giggled.

" like Jacqueline's hunch was right," muttered Tel. "Misty Waterflower."

"Who," whispered Sobble

"What did you make me come here for," the boy demanded. He was trying to sound assertive, but there was a definite note of fear in his voice. His eyes darted between the strange humans.

There were two Pokémon with the trio. A tall Charmander with a bright blue flame at the end of his tail and a Darkrai. A reaper like Pokémon who floated in the air above them. Sobble couldn't look at it. Sobble wondered why the boy hadn't said anything about the legendary. He must know these people well.

"You okay bro," Tel whispered to him as Sobble's grip on his neck tightened.

"Th-that thing. Is it a…"

"Yes, it's a Darkrai. Its okay, it can't see us."

"You have some explaining to do," snapped one of the other two humans. Their voice was harsh and deep. Probably a male though Sobble found it hard to tell while they were wearing that outfit. The raised their right hand and a holographic image beamed from their wrist.

It was an image of the big embracing another boy. This one with spiky blue hair. As Sobble and Tel watched the two hologram boys kissed each other. Passionately and sensitively. Their hands delicately touching the other's torso.

The real boy's eyes widened. "How… how do you know about that."

"We told you we'd be keeping an eye on you, said Misty. "But that's not important right now. The point is you lied to us. You told us that you were single, and you weren't dated."

"It wasn't a date," the boy protested, a note of irritability entering his voice. "It was just a hook…"

Misty cut him off. "I believe our employer was very clear when he hired you. No surprises and no weak points. He needed someone clean and reliable for this. You told us that you were on…"

She didn't finish her sentence, before she was cut off in turn. The boy, visibly annoyed now, took a step forward and shouted. "And that means I can't hook-up with a guy…" His voice was angry now, and a little colour was rising in his cheeks.

His expression changed at once however at the look Misty gave him. The colour faded and his face went pale with fear as she took a menacing step towards him.

"He wasn't interested in you, you dolt. Who would want to fuck you? That boy's name is Lyte. He was a scientist, but he works as a private detective. If he was interested in you, he was likely looking for a lead to our employer. You weren't carefully enough."

"Wha-what," the boy gasped weakly. "I-I-I…"

"How much did you tell him. What did you know."

The boy scrambled backward but tripped over a rock. He landed hard on his back in the wet grass.

"I-I just told him that I had a benefactor who had funded part of my research and that I'd had some criticism."

Misty folded her arms. "Anything else."

"N-no…"

"You're lying. Shadow." She snapped her fingers.

At once, the Darkrai was upon the boy. The reaper like Pokémon grabbed the human by his hair and dragged him over to the water's edge. The boy protested and struggled, knowing what was about to happen.

"No…NOOO….I swear, I'm telling the truth. I…"

SPLASH….Darkrai shoved the boys head into the water.

" 's horrible." Sobble cried, turning his head away.

"Ssssh." Hissed Inteleon.

A minute or so later, Darkrai dragged the boy out of the water and threw him onto the grass, where he lay still. Misty stepped forward and kicked him.

"Ough…" The boy rolled onto his side and coughed. Water burst from his mouth as though he had turned into a water type.

"Ready to talk now," said Misty.

"Alright…alright." The boy tried to get back up, but Misty kicked him hard in the chest causing him to collapse again. She put her boot on the back of his neck and pressed down to keep him in place.

"Ahh…You're hurting…"

"What did Lyte ask you about when you slept together? Did he ask you about the project?"

"He…he asked me about my research and who was funding. I just told him that most of the work I did was through the school and that we had some specific funding from the Marco Cosmos. That's public info…ahh. Owww that."

"I'll snap your neck if you don't tell me the truth," snapped Misty. "Did you talk to him about your findings? About your speech."

The boy gritted his teeth. "He said my speech to the UN was really brave and that he admired me. I-I-I don't remember everything he said, we'd been drinking at this point. Then he asked if I could give him my opinion on something."

"What was it…"

"I don't know. I-I was pretty keen to get his pants off at that point. He showed me a couple of charts. It had something to do with sea ice in the Galar region and Eiscue populations on route 9. Said he thought it might contradict a statistic I'd mentioned in my speech. I said I'd take a look later. We were making out and I wanted to go further. We got naked; we touched a bit. Then he was on top of me, thrusting his penis against mine. I was getting close to climaxing when he stopped and said something like, admit it's a conspiracy or you don't get to cum. I thought he was only joking. You know to tease me. Ahhh…It's hard to breath." he squirmed as Misty continued to press her boot into his neck. "Please stop."

"And what did you tell him?"

"Ahh…I'd had a bit to drink at that point, and I was horny as fuck. I just said honestly that, while I was sure there was no conspiracy, some of the data had problems. You know, too many weather machines at airports. I also told him I had a friend who worked at the aether Foundation who thought it was all a conspiracy, but his theory was nuts. Like really crazy."

"What did he say," snarled Misty. "Your friend."

"Jeeze, you're really hurting me!"

"Should we like, help him," whispered Sobble.

Tel shook his head, his eyes not leaving the scene. "We need to hear this."

The boy took a deep breath before continuing. "It was this really deep conspiracy stuff. He thought some shadowy organisation had been scheming for years to create a fake climate disaster. Like really deep conspiracy stuff. He reckoned whoever was behind could influence academia, industry, and politics. I told him. My friend. That what he was saying was wrong and immoral and if he was going to get into conspiracies then I didn't want to be his friend."

Misty considered him for a moment. She eased the pressure on his neck, then asked, "your friend. What was his name."

"I don't know if I should," the boy began to protest, but stopped when he felt Misty reapply the pressure. "Ahh…AHHH…Lyte. His name's Lyte. He's a Pokémon researcher. I haven't spoken to him in over a year."

"When was the last time."

"Would have been about six months ago. We were out for a milkshake. I wanted to ask him if he wanted to be boyfriends. But all he would talk about was that stupid conspiracy theory. I hated it. It ruined his brain. He told me that a contact of his had found a document in the Galar region. From inside the council of ministers. One work. Skyfall. It just sounded like nonsense, and I told him that."

"That was it," snapped Misty. "And you told Goodman that?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah. But I told him it was nonsense. Now please…let me go."

"Hmmm…" Misty pursed her lips. The only part of her face visible under the helmet and visor. After a few seconds of tense silence, she removed her boot from the boy's neck.

He sighed heavily in relief for a moment, before sitting up in the grass. He seemed too scared to stand. He looked up at Misty, Inteleon observed that his eyes were blood red. He had spent the entire interrogation sobbing.

Despite his fear, he still wanted answer about why he'd summoned here and what was going on. He looked up at Misty and asked, his voice breaking, "Wh-what's going on h-here? Is there any truth to this? W-was I hired to perpetuate a hoax... I think I'm entitled to some a-answers! I did every..."

WHAM...Misty punched him hard in the face. There was nasty crack and Inteleon saw a fleck of blood hit the grass as the boy put his hands over his nose. The punch had broken it, and he was bleeding profusely.

"Owwww."

Misty grabbed him by the collar and pulled him to his feet. Putting her face offensively close to his, she snapped, "You think you're entitled. You think you're entitled you whinny brat. We got you into this academy. We ensured that you had the resources to do your research. We set you up to succeed. Not to mention the small untraceable fortune we paid you. You're entitled to nothing. In fact, if anything, you owe us! And you didn't do everything we asked. You let a private detective get you drunk and concupiscent. Seducing you into giving away sensitive information."

"Hey I..." The boy was breathing heavily, struggling to form coherent sentences. His voice was muffled due to the build-up of blood in his sinuses. "I-I-I didn't know I wasn't meant to say any of that."

"You were told our project needed somebody dependable," shouted Misty. "Somebody with a discrete and interesting personal life. Immune to attacks from trolls or the media. And you've done the exact opposite. If that detective was looking into you, it means he has a link to us. And you just handed him a thread on which to pull on."

She threw the boy bodily from her, and he landed back on his ass in the grass. He looked up at her again, breathing heavily. He looked more diminished than ever. "I-I-I'm sorry. I-I didn't k-know!"

"Boys!" snarled Misty. "You're all the same. Impulsive, licentious, and blinded by the privilege your penis affords you. Unable to see the bigger picture. I once knew a boy and his dirty rodent who destroyed my bike. A custom-built bike costing thousands of Poké. Apologising for his stupidity didn't repair my bike, just as your snivelling apology won't undo the damage your little indiscretion caused. Fortunately, we caught this early, and we can stitch the thread before this detective has the chance to pull on it. We have the name, Lyte."

"So" Whatever it was the boy was trying to say, got caught in his throat.

"Unfortunately for you, that concludes the part of the program in which we need you to keep breathing."

A look of utter horror and terror appeared on the boy's face. He went pale as he clambered onto his knees. "N-no, please, no. D-don't k-k-k...I know I've done wrong, but I'll make it right. D-D-Don't..." He was unable to finish his sentence.

Misty considered him for a moment. "I'll make you a deal. If you can get out of here alive, I'll consider letting you live."

"W-w-w..."

A nasty smile spread across Misty's face. "Better start running." She almost sang the word running.

The boy scrambled to his feet and tore of along the path following the edge of the water.

"Come on," Inteleon grunted to Sobble. "Let's follow."

He leapt off the tree, and into the tall grass. Even though he was still invisible, he kept his body low to the ground so as to conceal himself and his brother in the grass.

The boy didn't get very far. A couple of meters only, before the black form of Darkrai appeared in front of him, catching him with both arms. Just far enough so that the boy could no longer see Misty. Enough to give him a small glimmer of hope, only for it to be cruelly crushed. The Darkrai threw him backwards, and he once again found himself lying on the ground. A second later, Misty, the other humans and the Charmander came running up behind.

"Hmm how pathetic was that," laughed Misty. "This is your life and I'm not convinced you were even trying. Oh well. Pyre!"

"Charrrr…" The Charmander blew a mouthful of flames at the boy. Not the way a fire type usually uses their flame, only blackening their opponent. Charmander's flames came out hot and blue. Enough to reduce a human to ash.

Sobble squeezed his eyes shut and covered his head with his forepaws to try to block out the terrible screams that came from the boy.

"Shit," cried Inteleon, just a little too loudly. "Bastards!"

"Wait, what was that." Misty was suddenly looking wildly around for the source of the noise. "I heard something."

"I didn't hear anything," commented one of her compatriots.

"Shadow, use detect!"

Inteleon's heart skipped a beat. "Of fuck!"

Shadow's single eye turned blue then he turned to face the spot where Inteleon and Sobble were hiding. He raised his hand and conjured a beam of black and purple energy, which he fired at them. Inteleon leapt into the air, narrowly avoiding being hit. Trouble was, they were now no longer invisible.

"Shit!"

"An Inteleon!"

The humans were taken by surprise but were ready.

"Shadow, make sure you kill it," ordered Misty. "Nobody can know about this!"

Inteleon hit the ground and sprinted as fast as powerful hind legs would carry him. Sobble clung on for dear life.

"What do we do. WHAT DO WE DO!"

Sobble was in a state of total panic. His body was frozen on Tel's shoulder, his heart racing and his stomach turning over. He felt as though he was about to be sick. In his head, he could still hear the boy's streams as he burned to death. He realised then that he didn't even know his named. He'd just been the boy or the target.

"We run," replied Tel. "We head back to the elevator and get back to Jacquie. It wasn't far from here."

They ran along the shore of the stream until they reached a rocky wall. Inteleon were natural climbers, and Tel scaled the cliff as quickly as he was able to run along the ground. Sobble glanced over his shoulder. He could see the horrible figure of Darkrai moving behind them. The black veil like body, single red eye and that white plume that billowed from its head. No matter how fast Tel moved, it always seemed to be the same distance behind them.

"Communicator activate," said Tel as he reached the top of the cliff. "This is agent 009 requesting immediate extraction. Code red, I am being pursued by a hostile entity. Repeat code red."

"Rodger 009," came a voice from his headset. "What is your position."

"I am in the coastal biome of the Terrarium. I should be able to see the entrance point soon!" he turned his head over his shoulder. "Sob, you're looking for a white structure!"

Sobble's eyes widened in amazement as he realised where they were. Standing at the top of the cliff he had an almost compete view of the facility. It was as though four landmasses had been cut up and glued back together. Four wedges of a circle representing different environments. Immediately around him were trees and grass like a coastal plain. Water from a large pool spilled over the sides of the cliffs where it formed streams that flowed to a larger pool resembling an ocean.

In front of him was a world of ice and snow. Sheets of ice formed across the sea and up the slopes of a mountain. To his left, the mountain opened into canyons and crevasses, filled with rivers and grasslands. And behind him was a flat land pf dried grass like a savannah. White lines separated the different environments.

"009 do you copy."

"Loud and clear."

"The extraction team is ready, but you need to get out of the terrarium. Can you manage it?"

A smile spread across Tel's muzzle. "Oh, I can manage."

"Ahhhh." Sobble suddenly screamed as Darkrai rose up from behind the cliff face. Its red eye fixed on the pair of water lizards. "TELLLL!"

"I got this Sob," replied Inteleon as he spun around. "Snipe Shot."

In a flash, he raised his right paw and pointed his index finger at Darkrai. A shot of water fired from the tip striking Darkrai in the chest. The reaper like Pokémon disappeared in a cloud of water. Inteleon spun back around and, before Sobble knew what was happening, threw himself off the cliff.

"TELLLLLL!"

"Hang on sobby," Inteleon shouted over the wind.

Sobble felt his stomach leave his body as the world opened out before him. Looking down, Sobble saw a narrow white bridge emerging from the cliff side that hadn't been visible before. It was lined with railway tracks. A short distance ahead was a sleek silver train, like a bullet.

Inteleon are endowed with a cape like membrane on their backs. Opening this out allowed Tel to glide through the air. Riding on an updraft. Rather than falling, they were now gliding towards the bridge below. Sobble closed his eye and hugged his brother's neck tightly.

He didn't open them again until he felt Tel land on something solid. "Ahh." Far up above he could see the Darkrai at the top of the cliff. Then he felt Tel's paw on the back of his head forcing him down. The world suddenly went black. "What…what's going on."

"It's alright, it's alright, it's alright," said Inteleon soothingly. "I timed that jump perfectly. We're on top of the train. We're in a tunnel so don't move too much. It should take us up to the surface!"

"A train…Tel, what is this place?"

"It's called the terrarium. It's all part of the Blueberry academy," Inteleon explained. "A simulated environment for us Pokémon. Its split into four biomes, each with its own mini eco climate. The coastal biome, the polar biome, the canyon biome, and the savannah biome. This train connects them together and links it to the school. That way they can get Pokémon and equipment in and out of they need to." He breathed deeply. "Hopefully we should be safe now! The rest of the team are waiting for us above. Then we report what we've found to HQ and Jacquie will do the rest!"

"What will happen?" asked Sobble.

"Presumably they will want to talk to this Lyte character," said Inteleon. "But that's up to the humans. We've done our job." He smiled, though Sobble couldn't see it in the dark. "Your first mission, a complete success."

"What about the human." Tears formed in Sobble's eyes at the memory. "That was horrible."

Inteleon sighed. "There was nothing we could have done. I could have done something to stop the Darkrai killing him. But I've never seen a fire type with a flame thrower like that. His entire body would have been burnt within seconds. There was no surviving that!"

Sobble wiped the tear from his eye. "At least I got it on camera. The people who need to know, will know!"

"Good job Sob." Inteleon patted him on the head. "I'm proud of you."