Chapter 27
The drive went as one might expect, mostly silence, focus like nothing else filling the four pokemon. The only thing occupying their time was being fitted for disguises, though disguise may have been too generous. They were closer to costumes.
Pyre was dressed simply with a masquerade mask and a shoulder cape.
Rai was wearing a simple cloak hiding his body, along with a circular flat hat upon his head.
Blade had on, what was essentially a ninja costume.
And Shadow, while believing they looked like ridiculous superheroes, had followed suit, wearing a long cloak over his body, and hiding his face behind the mask of a plague doctor. That paired with the billowing smoke of his head, and the faint crimson glow behind the eyes, made Shadow look somehow even more menacing.
To say they stood out would be an understatement, but as far as anyone in Icekey City was concerned, they were simply strangers from out of town.
However, even with the costumes hiding their identities, the police had little trouble figuring out who they were. Which brought them here, hiding on a rooftop.
"This sucks!" Pyre groaned. "How are we supposed to find Ivy if the cops are gonna get in the way!"
"This was always the outcome Pyre. But we will find him." Shadow rested a clawed hand on the charmander's shoulder.
"Hey, guys, we might have a lead over here." Blade said peeking over the edge of the roof.
Hypno was feeling along the body of a pichu, while a shiny bisharp laid beaten on the ground.
Pyre stepped over seeing them all. "Hey Rai…"
"Is that?"
"Looks like Max, but what's he doing all the way out here?" Pyre hopped over the edge.
"is he fucking nuts?!" Blade sat stunned, but the other two had followed.
Hypno glanced up, as if sensing their descent, and glared, teleporting away.
They each landed with a loud thud, staring at the two goons who'd been abandoned, a greninja and a houndoom.
Pyre ignored them and shook the pichu awake.
"Woah, what…what happened?" Max looked surprised.
"Are you okay?" Pyre asked caringly.
"Yeah, who are…Pyre?"
The charmander felt silly, he clearly hadn't hidden his identity well enough. "Yeah, it's me, what are you doing here?"
Houndoom suddenly bolted off toward the entrance of the alleyway only to see a streak of electricity shoot by him placing Rai between him and his escape.
Meanwhile, the greninja dove into the shadows of the alley.
"You cannot escape." Shadow sprouted legs stepping into the dark. "You think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded it to my will." As if to accentuate his words the darkness of the alley all but spat the ninja frog out into the light. "They say only light can drive out darkness. They are correct. Only light can drive out darkness. But darkness," tendril of Shadow shot out dragging the greninja back in. "Can swallow the light. That is the nature of the dark. Consumption. Either you control it, or it consumes you." Shadow grabbed the frog by the face, a sickening crimson glow emanating from the eyes of his mask as the beak-like covering opened, as if revealing an open maw of sharp fangs. "And you have not the stomach to consume."
Shadow tore inside, digging through the water type's mind with ease. A dark room, a snivy, suspended, used, soaked in the seed of other men, struggling to remain himself.
Shadow tossed the greninja back into the light, showing that his mask was just a mask, and not a maw seeking to devour him.
"Where is the Snivy in your memories?"
"The…the club…" greninja was terrified.
"Where is this club?" Rai asked as Houndoom landed beside the greninja.
"The north side of the city, but…but my boss will make you pay!"
"The hypno that fled? We can handle him." Rai added.
"He's not the boss, he's a middle man. One of the few people who've seen the boss…" greninja covered his mouth.
"There is no point trying to hide the truth, whatever they would do to you for talking," Shadow grabbed the frog by his scarf-like tongue and yanked him into the darkness, allowing the plague mask to morph into the hungering maw again. "I will do worse if you do not."
"Its the truth! I swear, only the highest of higher ups have even seen the boss!"
"Does the boss have a name?" Another voice joined, glancing over, the blue bisharp was standing up.
"He has many names: Regent, Masked Fiend, but the one most call him is Jack of Blades." Greninja didn't hesitate to spill the words.
Suddenly Shadow kicked the greninja in the face knocking him out. "And who are you?"
The bisharp straightened up. "Gambit, undercover officer with the Icekey Police Department."
"Did they know that?" Pyre asked worriedly.
"No, I just joined them, they were hazing when they knocked me out."
"Well, we may have to knock you out too. We're not exactly supposed to be here." Rai spoke apologetically.
"Oh, you must be the Firelink kids, look I won't turn you in, hell if you're really doing what everyone said, I could use your help taking these guys down." Gambit waved his hand. "Follow me, you can stay at my house. I can show you what information I've compiled." The bisharp led them out of the alley. Typing a number into his phone. "Yeah, perps are waiting, I'll brief you later, gotta chase a lead first." He put away his phone, and walked with them to a small apartment complex.
Upon entering the officers room Rai stopped looking back. "Hang on. If you're under cover, how do you know about us?"
"I know everything that happens in my city, besides, I make sure to stay in the loop, helps they believed me when I said I had a man inside with the cops. They just don't know I'm the man."
Rai seemed to not buy it, but didn't push.
Gambit stepped to a board on his wall. "So this is what I'm working with," he pointed to a series of photos on the board all connected by red strings. But he focused on three connected to a single blank photo. "These three are the main collectors. The ones sent out to do the kidnapping." He gestured to the familiar picture of hypno, then an espeon, and finally an alakazam.
"The hypnotist, the dreamer, and mindflayer." Gambit said stepping back, "that's what we call them, and now we know at least the name of their leader, Jack of Blades. So my plan is this, we take down each of them, and interrogate each until we find this Jack of Blades."
"You have planned this extensively it seems." Shadow looked over it, his eye narrowing behind his mask. He didn't trust Gambit either.
"Luckily, I have pretty good idea of where we can catch the Hypnotist." Gambit smiled.
"And where exactly is that?" Rai glared.
"My bathroom." Gambit chuckled. "Funny story, I'd been planning this for a while, letting him teleport into my home all week at any sign of danger, so today I put up a disable box in my bathroom, so he should be in there right now, unable to teleport away."
He stepped over to his small bathroom door and opened it, the hypno was up against the wall looking around frantically. "Gambit!? You traitor!"
Before he could act, Shadow grabbed psychic and crushed the disable box. "I'll get what we need." He kicked the door shut and turned off the lights.
"Hey, wait! He's a police prisoner now!" Rai and Pyre pulled Gambit back.
"Don't worry, he'll be fine, just a little scared." Rai assured.
In the bathroom Shadow slammed the psychic type into the wall, his mask peeling open, revealing that dark maw again, the single eye flashing it's horrifying crimson glow. Then it all fell away.
Hypno found himself in a room, with the espeon and alakazam. They were each kneeling before a pokemon in a bright red cloak, with gold armored boots and gauntlets, accentuated by a pale, but gold accented mask.
"Why are you all here?"
"Sir! A charmander attacked us when I went to collect!" Hypnos's mouth moved on its own.
"We've broken our procurement record sir." Espeon spoke with pride.
"Some ditto came by, and made off with some of the merchandise, mainly the strong ones who passed. He left a message. "We share the same witness."
The cloaked pokemon's expression was unreadable. "Handle your problem yourself Hypno." The voice was distorted, not by technology, but as if another voice was covering the first. Shadow appeared looking over the stranger mon. "Staring is impolite."
Shadow stopped locking eyes with the mon.
"Yes, you, darkrai."
"Strange, you are no memory." Shadow was surprised, but unbothered.
"I am not. Would you like to see more?"
The memory shifted and Hypno found himself on his knees, with the crimson and gold clad pokemon grinding his face in the dirt with his heel. "You are mine, you serve and will be of service, or your soul will be mine."
"Yes sir!"
Shadow was surprised, this thing had such control of hypno's memories.
"Do you plan to trap me here, in his mind?"
"No. In this form I lack the power to restrain one of your caliber. And even if I did," the memory shifted again, Shadow was holding Blade in his arms. "I can tell you'd tear your way out, even if it killed Hypno. It wouldn't hold you long." The memories stopped. "Caught on did you?"
"You certainly are not strong enough to trap me in my own mind."
"It was worth a try." The memories flowed again, returning to the entrance of the Spanks in the Banks. Then a large manor on the outskirts of Icekey City. With a golden eevee on the gate. "When I see you next, I'll allow you to see more."
Shadow released the hypno and stepped out. "This Jack of Blades, is not a normal opponent, part of it was living in Hypno's mind. However, there is a lead, a manor on the city outskirts, its gate had a gilded eevee crest."
"Probably home to one of the other two. But why show it to you willingly?" Gambit looked over his board. "Hmm that golden eevee is the crest of the Volution family. And, that's the in the east of Icekey, which is the Dreamer's domain."
Gambit looked at them all. "You all rest up, I'm gonna take hypno back to the station, and give them the leads you found." With that Gambit grabbed Hypno, cuffed him and took him out of the apartment.
*Later That Night*
Hypno found himself in a prison cell, but he wasn't alone. There were several other criminals in chains, namely greninja and houndoom. Some of the other prisoners were pacing back and forth.
Hypno felt a thrill of fear filling him. Across from him seated between a Mr Mime and a Marowak, was an impidimp, and it stared at him, as if hungry for him. A krokorok stepped by blocking his vision for only a moment, and the impidimp was gone, in its place a crimson cloaked, gold armored, being wearing a pale mask.
"J-Jack?" The cloaked mon stood up, walking by the pacing criminals. "Are you going to break us out?"
"No." The masked mon said plainly as a gold clad claw shot out punching through hypnosis mouth and out the back of his throat. Before either houndoom or greninja do anything, the cloaked mon tore the long tongue from greninja's mouth, and smashed houndoom's head into the wall hard enough to shatter his skull. "Just tying up loose ends."
The strange mon stepped back as krokorok paced faster. And as he passed hypno's eyes, the dark creature vanished. As if he was never there.