บท 34: The Pokéball Factory
"This was the last of them!" Shauna kicked an unconscious grunt that had been caught in their Pokémon's way "Bunch of troublemakers!!! Suits them right!!" She looked around the sea of defeated foes we stood in. Meanwhile, we all watched in awe as Shauna showed her fierce claws after being driven to almost despair and losing it against Team Flare. We were too busy to notice, but later on, some could swear they had seen Shauna going fist-first into battle with her Pokémon.
"Huh?! What is it?!" She worried upon perceiving our stare, now fully back to the frail, cute Shauna we knew her for. We enjoyed a good laugh, but then the air got thick with grimness again... I tensed my eyebrows, trying to figure out the situation:
"Masters of the new world... What the hell were those fruitcakes talking about?!"
Calem tucked his hands inside his coat's pockets and leaned back, falling against a machine and sighing with exhaustion:
"Lysandre went nuts, and that's what's going on!"
"What do you mean?!" I walked up to him, feeling the gravity of the situation.
"He means this!" Trevor intervened, opening up his Holo-Caster and flashing a dreary hologram of Lysandre. His expression was as hard as usual while he introduced himself as Lysandre Labs' president and the developer of the Holo-Caster... But without a change in his stance, he turned into a much heavier subject. It all looked like the most elaborate prank: He went on about how he commanded Team Flare, and how they were about to use a weapon to wipe the world clean, using words such as destruction and death as lightly as he would have done in a scientific report about the ancient past.
"What the hell..." it was all I could mutter below my astonished breath.
"He broadcasted this to every trainer in Kalos. Everyone is terrified..." Trevor explained as neutrally as he could.
"People have locked themselves inside their houses. Some tried to evacuate the region..." Calem sighed, picking up the explanation "But Lysandre is no fool: Team Flare was in position long before the announcement was made: Citizens, police, the military... everyone was halted by them!"
"We should be doing the same..." Tierno interrupted "We should try to build a bunker or..." his words trailed off, he himself not believing it possible.
"Lysandre didn't issue a warning..." Calem followed, his eyes lost ahead reminiscing over the broadcast "He didn't give us a heads up so we could survive, nor did he invite anyone to join Team Flare and be spared. It was merely... a farewell!"
"Are you saying there is no hope then?!!" Tierno gravely inquired.
"He means there's no place to hide" Trevor translated "If we stay still..." he looked around, marking each one of our faces "Everyone will die by Lysandre's weapon."
We took a silent moment to think as everyone faced their own mortality inside the empty, dark, echo-filled factory. The feeling that we were the only people left out there became exponentially bigger...
"And what are you guys doing here?" I asked.
"The president messaged me. Team Flare admins have taken him hostage. We have to set him free." Calem explained.
"It might have something to do with their plan..." I mused.
"I never thought of that: I just owed the guy a favor. But you're right..." He held his chin and walked past me "What if they need him for something?!"
"Then we find him and rescue him!" I rushed.
"Right! There shouldn't be any more grunts running lose around this place. I say we split up!" Calem's leading spirit shone through: it dispersed the shades of preoccupation weighing down his face, and that reflected on the rest of the team "Each one searches a corner of the factory. If you find anything, scream for the rest and wait for us before going into battle. Got it?" He sought everyone's faces, collecting their consents.
"Aaaalright, mister!" Shauna jumped up, excited as if we were in a game.
It wasn't just me... everyone had grown so much. I felt a pleasant feeling overtake my chest. We just might be the only people standing against Team Flare at that moment... and that was pretty unfortunate for them! We could do it... everything would be fine!
"Once we're outta here... we're gonna find that weapon, and we're gonna stop it!!" Calem promised, walking deeper into the shady factory.
"We will!" the boys added their voices to the general motivation before each trailed off into a different direction.
***
The factory was much bigger than it looked on the outside – or maybe it was just the darkness that made it feel that way. I struggled with apprehension as I marched forward in careful steps – being extra cautious about the pokeballs spread across the place that could easily bring me down in the dark -, but it wasn't my own fear that inspired such care: My pokeballs vibrated inside my bag in the same sick rhythm they did in Lysandre's café: The Pokémon were restless, scared... Whatever it was the weapon Lysandre mentioned, he wasn't bluffing: they could feel its threat, and I could feel it through them. It made me sweat nervously...
Keeping track of Calem and the gang's position was easy enough through the silent factory: I could hear Tierno when he occasionally stumbled into something, and now I could clearly hear Shauna's small footsteps clattering overhead, as she crossed the metal platform leading to the President's office. "Brave girl!" I thought to myself, and considered finding my way up to go with her... but my attention was captured by a greater amount of unfinished pokeballs scattered around a specific portion of the treadmills system on the back corner of the factory. I reached for a flashlight, as it was too dark to see there – a corner too far from any door or window that invited in some natural light – and investigated: the dead treadmill led into a compartment – as it did with the others – but it didn't continue on the other side! Unlike the rest of the factory, too, there was no pokeball on the track, as if they had all been thrown out of the way... Perhaps so someone could cross the treadmill?! I climbed it, crouched down and carefully looked inside the closed compartment it led into: I could see nothing but the fact that it led down into some sort of underground room.
"G..." I was about to call, but, lifting my head in the excitement of the mysterious discovery, I bumped it against the metal frames of the compartment and was muted by the sharp pain.
"Fucking... hell!" I groaned, checking for blood: The injury was nothing serious, except for maybe a goose egg starting to build.
In my worry, I didn't notice the treadmill's engine roaring into life. It jerked abruptly once, and I held on tight, afraid it might throw me off... but then the thing steadily rolled forward, dragging me inside...
It turned out that the treadmill ended in just half a meter – I was dropped onto a metal container filled with balls, immediately sinking between them after they secured my fall.
I desperately jumped and reached for the edges of the container, overtaken by the feeling I might die out of oxygen in there... But I had dropped my flashlights somewhere inside... And although I had already relinquished the idea of diving back in to look for it, the room was impossibly dark and I would never do without it!
I looked up to the faint light coming from the entrance I had fallen through, realizing the room I was thrown into was much deeper than it looked from above. As I jumped to solid ground outside of the container, the unmistakable sound of high heels echoed through. I looked back just in time to see them turn-on a solitary lamp on top of a wooden desk.
"You!!!" I jumped back, recognizing the bald man I had confronted before in the Power plant.
"Long time no see!" He smiled, confidently walking forward. A woman was next to him, wearing the same white outfit and laughing mockingly.
"And how's your Charizard?!" He chuckled, challenging my patience.
"More than ready to take you down!!!" I howled, reaching for my Pokeball...
He laughed amusedly. The lady walked next to me – I felt her heavy stare even under the dark lenses.
"Well, is this the girl?!"
I gulped in confusion as she smiled. "Yeah..." the man casually confirmed.
Her eyes narrowed inquisitively... her fingers snapped.
I threw my pokeball... the sound of Charizard's cry as he came out overwhelmed what I thought was the noise of a gentle spray around my head. Gleaming powder clouded my view, and before I could figure out where the attack had come from, my eyes trailed my way to the floor as I fell down – everything was dark then!
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