Pokemon Quest/8

Chapter 8: The Secret Weapon
Flash back to slightly over half a month ago…

“Yay! Mom, look!” said Kay cheerily as she raised up her Game-boy. ‘Kay has just defeated Sabrina!’ “I’m the best! I’m the best!” she cried out as if there were no tomorrow.

“Yes, you are,” Delia comforted her daughter with a graceful smile. Nearby, a Mr. Mime was helping with the dishes, their new guardian pokemon after the family Charmander had gone off with Ash on his journey. It was a cold night, and the wind howled through an open window. “Dearie, did you open the windows?”

“Yeah, what about that?”

“Remember to close them for the night. You wouldn’t want burglars to get in.”

“Too late,” said a third voice in a somber feminine tone, frightening eleven-year-old Kay into screaming. Mr. Mime dropped his dishes, which shattered against the metal lining of the sink. From upstairs came two figures shrouded in black. “Prepare for trouble!”

“And make that double!” said a masculine voice.

“AHH!!’ screamed Kay, dropping her game-boy as she ran into the next room, shaking in fear. Burglars!?

“To denounce the evils of truth and love!”

“To extend our reach to the stars above!”

“Jessie!” This was most definitely another team.

“James!”

“Team rocket blast off at the speed of light!”

“Surrender now or prepare to fight!”

Kay turned to the guardian pokemon. “Mr. Mime, Barrier, now!” Mr. Mime made a few silent gestures, and suddenly an invisible wall lurched straight at the team, knocking them back upstairs. The woman was not so lucky; her foot got caught between the invisible wall and the next step up. The barrier put immense pressure on her foot. She burst out hollering in pain before fainting on the spot.

“THAT’S RIGHT!!” roared a Gastly, appearing through the staircase as if it didn’t exist. The blackened ghost pokemon shot a single gloating look at Jessie, then started making incredibly distorted faces at Mr. Mime. Its mouth stretched this way and that, it floated here and there, it pulled its own face around and around, and at the same time made eerie noises. Mr. Mime looked at it, then kept looking at it, entranced by what the ghost was doing, before doubling over in laughter. It had entirely forgotten about the burglars that were in the room..

“Mr. Mime! Get a hold of yourself!” screamed Delia, but it was useless. Kay screamed in fright at the appearance of the ghost in real life, petrified. Delia ran out the door in terror, shouting to everyone in hearing distance to help repel Team Rocket.

“And now, for Mr. Mime,” said James, taking out a pokeball and throwing it at the hysterical pokemon. Suddenly, through the cupboard shot out a streak of scintillating light, knocking off the pokeball’s trajectory. The Team Rocket veterans knew immediately what it meant. “Go, Golem! Crack that pokeball!” A round, lumbering ball of rock conglomerate nearly two meters tall appeared, standing on petrified legs. It thrashed its way over to the cupboard and with a single thrust smashed through the cupboard and broke the pokeball lying within.

“Go pokeball!” Another one hit Mr. Mime, and the psychic pokemon was so riddled with laughter it was impossible to for him to resist. It was sucked inside.

Kay screamed out again and again as first the Golem appeared, then it smashed through wood and pokeball, and then as the guardian was captured by Team Rocket. This turned James’s attention to the youngster. “What have we here? Ah yes, you were the one who ordered that pathetic Mr. Mime to use Barrier on my comrade. For that you will pay – not with your life, but with your liberty!”

Kay screamed yet again and rushed out of the room, toward the front door. Long before she had reached it, an Arbok had materialized at the entrance. The giant cobra-like pokemon lashed out with its poisonous fangs, forcing Kay back to James, who had a sardonic grin on his face and yet another pokeball in hand. “It’s not right to harm ladies, so… Go, Hypno!” A yellowish pokemon appeared, standing erect, and dropped a short chain ending in a ring. It began to swing the ring back and forth…

Immediately Kay turned away from it. Then she heard a clicking sound – the safety of a gun. “If you value your life, turn back and look at the Hypno,” James demanded, while simultaneously spraying a Revive on Jessie.

Kay had no option but to turn around. She was terrified, knowing that she was about to hand over her freedom, and her life, to these totally untrustworthy strangers. And yet… and yet none of that seemed to matter any more in the space of a few seconds. Her mind calmed down quickly, and the intellectual activity whirring through her tired mind came to a halt. The melodious pendulum motion of the swinging ring was so incredibly soothing…

“Jessie, you all right?” asked James.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” said the woman. “Did we succeed?”

“You bet. The boss will be happy with this girl, I believe. She’s now completely hypnotized. Come on, lass.”

“Why of course,” answered Kay, now suddenly delighted with the prospect of leaving home.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It was a dim place where she finally came back to her senses. Where am I? she asked herself. She tried to move—and it was then that she discovered something cold and scaly was binding her hands to her sides. It seemed all coiled around her, and she could hear sibilant noises… Just then an instinct came to her. It was an Ekans! “AHHH!!” Kay screamed as she struggled to free herself of its binds.

“She’s awake, boss,” said a woman a short distance away. There was a grunt, and the footsteps of high-heels. The door opened, letting in the light from the adjacent room. It was blinding, but Kay could not cover her eyes. A gentle hand pulled her off the bed and dragged her along the hallway. “Here we are,” the woman said, turning her attention to a gigantic contraption placed in the middle of an otherwise empty chamber.

“Where am I?”

“That’s classified information.”

Kay’s fear flooded back. “What are you going to do with me!?” she asked pleadingly.

“Don’t fear, girl. You won’t be injured. Instead, you will be… perfected.”

HUH!?

The woman – who appeared to be a researcher – pushed a button that caused the cylindrical glass shell surrounding the machine to open. There was enough room inside for a person to stay in. The machine itself was suspended high above, fitting within the cylinder perfectly, and looked like it was made to descend. It looked like an immensely complex device.

“Ekans, you’re done,” the woman told the pokemon. It immediately unraveled and postured threateningly at Kay, who instinctively backed away – into the cylinder. She belatedly realized that it was akin to a prison, as the glass shell closed back in. Suddenly there was no sound coming from outside. She banged on the glass in fury, but could not break it. She was trapped! The next moment the machine had come down on her head.

“Ahh! Get it off of me!” she screamed, though no one heard her. She tried to push the machine away. However, the sheer weight of the machine meant that her flailing and pushing amounted to nothing. Soon it had descended to the level of her shoulder, her head fitting neatly into the socket at the center.

“Let the process begin,” said the researcher to herself, and pressed a button. The next moment Kay, still standing, fell into a dreamy sort of sleep.

Suddenly the machine came right back up, and the glass shell opened up. Kay didn’t know how long she was out, but the moment she came back to her senses she rushed out of the machine. There was a strange whirring noise coming from it. Several researchers analyzing the machine gasped and muttered something to each other, then one of them hurriedly grabbed Kay and dragged her out of the room. A few seconds later the machine crashed and burned at the bottom of the glass cylinder.

The researchers shook their heads. “For some reason every time the machine is done it goes into overdrive and breaks,” one muttered.

“Let GO OF ME!!” shrieked Kay. “Haven’t you had enough!? That machine broke because you guys are all evil – evil to the point of performing experiments on subjects against their will!”

The scientists looked at each other with questioning glances. “Evil? Who’s evil? We’re not evil; we’re good!”

“Yes you are evil! That’s just what everyone evil says,” protested Kay.

“Uhh… Including you, maybe?” tentatively asked another scientist.

“Aargh! Are you saying I’m evil!? You BASTARD!” She looked around, saw a stray pokeball, and bonked the scientist on the head with it before he could react.

“ALL RIGHT THAT’S ENOUGH!!” roared the loudspeaker. Everyone stopped in their tracks. Kay was bewildered. “Who’s that?”

“I am your master,” said a man through the loudspeaker, now in a smooth and more sustainable tone. “Come to me. You will find me at the end of the hallway.”

Kay was bent on getting revenge anyway, so she rushed down the corridors until she got to the double doors at the far end. She banged the door open, ready to beat down whoever it was who had masterminded her capture. Was she furious! The ‘boss’ was in a swiveling chair and had turned away from her. “Show me your face!” Kay shouted at him.

The stranger did so, and turned around with a smile. “Welcome to the Team,” he complimented.

It took Kay completely off guard. “Team? Oh, that’s right, Team Rocket. You bunch of sniveling little thieves—“

The bodyguards on both sides of the boss stiffened up, but didn’t take any action. The boss smiled. “I see that the propaganda has had its effect on you,” he noted.

Kay stopped halfway through her tirade. “Propaganda?”

“Sure, Kay. We’re not half as bad as we are made out to be. It’s just that the ideologies we have are somewhat different from the one that the rest of society upholds. I’m sure that you will come to see things from my point of view over time. But first, would you like to know what effects the ‘experiment’, as you say, has had on you?”

Kay crossed her arms. “Go ahead, tell me.”

“You have been perfected.”

“Blah-blah.”

“Until this time, pokemon and people have always been in their separate worlds. Humans could not be as pokemon were. They were totally different, even though they coexisted. The logical capabilities of the human mind combined with the near-magical properties of the pokemon have always been separate, always half-perfect. Hence, for a long time we have searched for a way to merge these two halves into one. You have been hybridized – our first success. The very fact that I am deigning to speak to you is because you are not as ordinary as you may think you are. You are now half human, half pokemon.”

“How can you do this to me!?” exclaimed Kay in outrage. “This is blasphemy!”

“That is only in the eye of the beholder. To you right now, you may be an abomination. But to me, you are worthy of the highest praise, you are accomplishment personified…”

“Quit the jabbering, whatever your name is! I demand to be restored to normal!”

“Whew, something did go wrong with the experiment, you seem to have quite a temper,” the boss joked. “I think it would be good for both of us, and not a waste of time for either, if you took me on my word for a few days and try out what it is like to be half lass, half dark.”

“Dark?”

“Time to break it to you, lass. The part we ingrained into your mind, and into your body, is the core component of what makes a pokemon a dark-type pokemon. You’ve played the games. You should know what a dark-type pokemon is capable of doing.”

“Actually, I am not familiar with that…”

“Well then, let me explain. Actually, the explanation may go faster if you felt it yourself. Guards…” He made a gesture with his right hand. The bodyguards grunted, then walked ominously toward her. “Let’s say these two are your enemies. Not really true enemies, so we don’t want any killing to happen, and of course we’re all part of the Team. But let’s say they are, and they are about to beat you up –“ Kay looked at the guards and saw that they brandished not guns, but whips – “What will you be able to do?” the boss asked rhetorically.

Kay was terribly afraid once again. She had never, as far as she remembered, ever been whipped, and even then only by parents (if they ever did whip her). But these… These two seemed to be frightfully cold people ready to abuse her…

“Come on, I know you’re a success, don’t let me down now,” the boss said. Kay was so confused by what the boss had been saying just now that she didn’t notice how close the guards had gotten to her.

PIAAA! Hard leather connected with soft, bare flesh. “AAAH!!” screamed Kay in pain. Oh dear, that really hurt!! PIAAA! “AAH!!” PIAAA! “AAAAAAAH!! Please, make it stop, make it STOP!!” Kay pleaded.

The boss looked at her with a grimace. “You shouldn’t be pleading to make it stop,” he said frankly. “I don’t get it. Researcher! You sure the report was accurate?” he called out to someone out of sight.

“Yeah, I’m sure!”

PIAAA! PIAAA! PIAAA! PIAAA! PIAAA! “AAAH!!” Kay screamed desperately and helplessly… but it quickly turned into a relieved, ecstatic sigh… “Ahhhhhhhhh…” Kay collapsed onto the floor dreamily, not even desiring to get up. “Mmm… That feels nice…” The two guards tried even harder, now very frustrated that their actions weren’t having the anticipated effect. Streaks of red appeared wherever the whips hit, but vanished mere seconds later.

PIAAA! “You see?” said the boss. PIAAA! “Being a dark type pokemon makes you incredibly resilient to pain, one form of it.” PIAAA! “In fact, it makes you love it!” PIAAA! “And that’s not all!” PIAAA! “Dark pokemon have a psychic power different from Psychic pokemon,” PIAAA! “that allows you to extend your mind into the world beyond—“ PIAAA! “—And inflict pain on other living beings!” PIAAA! “Try it, Kay!” PIAAA!

“Why would I do that?” asked Kay, thoroughly enjoying what would to others have been absolute torture.

“Guards… stop,” the boss said.

“Hey, I didn’t say you two could stop! I was feeling fine up till a moment ago! GRR!!” Kay shouted angrily. She gave them an incredibly intent stare, and suddenly her naturally blue eyes flashed brilliantly.

An invisible beam shot out of her eyes and into the guard to her left. Immediately his mind was wracked with pain, and he dropped his whip screaming “Aah!”

Ooh, that felt really GOOD, thought Kay’s mind, now in a sadistic frenzy. Too good to be true, but oh well!

She turned her attention to and stared at the guard on her right, who backed off in fear before suddenly buckling and collapsing onto his knees, his hands pressed on his head as a sudden migraine took place. “Actually, I agree now, being half-Dark is wonderful. Ahhh….”

“NOO!! Make it stop, boss, make it STOP!!” screamed the guard pathetically.

“Hmm. Kay, how about you release by bodyguard from his torment?” asked the boss smoothly.

Okay,” said Kay, and willed herself to stop. The pain stopped, but the pleasure Kay felt also subsided, which she already knew she didn’t want to happen. “Hmm. That felt good just then…”

“Kay,” said the boss, suddenly getting serious, “You do know that most people in the world don’t like being helplessly tortured like that. You will have to learn to restrain yourself, no matter now good it feels to inflict such pain. And because hybrids the likes of you should not even exist, you will have to keep out of detection. Being a dark hybrid has its good sides and its bad sides,” he lectured.

“Well I thank you for those good sides,” said Kay, happily getting on her knees and kowtowing in thanks.

“I believe in due time you will discover what the bad sides are. But first, don’t you think you should do us a few favors to show your gratitude?”

“What is it you want done?”

“I want you to join the Team and help us snare pokemon. That’s what we have to do for a living, stealing and reselling mature pokemon caught in ultra-balls.”

Suddenly Kay’s dreamy expression changed into a snarl and she jumped to her feet. “You scum, you think I’ll help you steal?! No way!” Immediately she channeled her mental focus into sending a dark pulse at the boss, expecting him to reel back in pain and give up attempting to make her do horrible things.

Nothing happened.

The boss shook his head. “Don’t you think I would have taken precautions against exactly that? Kay, you’ve only just been hybridized, and you’re already out to challenge me? Take note that though you may be cut out for great things, you’re still a weakling. Though, before I let you loose and you cause havoc within the Team, there’s some things I must show you. Maybe it’s not too early to show you the bad side of being a dark hybrid.” He took out a remote control, and pressed a button.

Suddenly a terrible pain wracked Kay’s body. But instead of the masochistic pleasure she had been expecting from such pain, only the sheer pain registered. It wasn’t your ordinary, punch-in-the-face, excitatory pain – it was a strange sensation that Kay had never experienced before. It lacked all the sharpness of normal pain, and yet it was still intense and throbbed. Men would recognize it as akin to being kicked in the crotch. And it immediately upon its onset, Kay fell to her knees, defeated. “Oh, please, STOP!” she screamed.

The boss pressed the remote again, and suddenly the effect was gone. As such, it still took a while for Kay to recover enough to stand up. “Don’t try anything you know you shouldn’t. I can use this remote no matter where you are, and I have backup remotes to boot.

“There are two types of pain – excitatory and depressive. Dark pokemon may be immune to the former, but they are exceptionally vulnerable to the latter. This makes them vulnerable to light and plant types, and rightly so,” explained the boss. “They are total opposites. Why does fire fear water? It just does. But dark pokemon are terribly afraid of the light, especially the strength of sunlight, which is why they don’t venture out much in daytime.”

Kay was aghast. “I will be afraid of sunlight!? How am I supposed to get anything done!?”

“Stay out of lit areas until night. In your chest I’ve surgically placed a series of lights. Just that is enough to debilitate you, or perhaps send you into a coma. So I suggest that you don’t get on my bad side, hmm?”

Helpless and absolutely terrified, Kay knelt before the boss in submission. “Yes, master.”

“Good girl. Now get up, I don’t want you to stay to mortified for the rest of your life. Here are twelve poke-balls. In each is contained a high-level pokemon that will help you in your tasks from this point forth. You may take any six you desire. Come in, Eric.”

“Eric at your service!” saluted a man who had just walked in.

“Kay, Eric will be your comrade for now. He may be just a recent Team cadet, but that still means he knows a lot about type advantages and pokemon battles. He too has six pokemon, and your team, like most other teams, has an additional, mascot pokemon that never resides in a pokeball, a lvl. 50 Beautifly in this case. Don’t try anything on Eric – that Beautifly can take you down with ease with its Morning Sun ability, and it can cast it 24/7.”

Kay timidly approached the display stand and looked through the names of the pokemon offered. Silently, she attached six of them to her pocket, all the while muttering, “why does the mascot pokemon just have to be a Beautifly!?”.

“Good girl. Now, your first task is something I want done to ensure your continued cooperation. You are to abduct Delia Ketchum and bring her to a specific drop-off location. You will now memorize the Team chant. After that you will be rendered unconscious so that you will not remember how to find your way back to this installation. Now listen…” The boss turned on a recording device on his desk, and it started to play.

“Prepare for trouble!”

“Make it double!”…