The_Altrox
Smash Lord
I posted the first two chapters of this on Fanfiction.net. It's a dark story about the Cipher in Orre. I'm posting my first chapter here and if it gets fans.
I don't know if it's rated M yet. But it will be getting more suggestive. I'm only ankle deep. Review. BIG WALL O' TEXT
Seriously, 23 view s and no reviews... Heart breaking
I loved the helmet and the jumpsuit, and it wasn’t because they were both comfortable pieces of our attire. It was the psychological feeling you got when you wore them. Whenever I went out in public out of the uniform, I was always afraid that I would be recognized by the locals, (though this fate was not necessarily bad depending on who could recognize me.) But when I wore the outfit, I was part of the group, the family, the posse. I felt strong and unbeatable as a simple unit among the others. But even when we all looked the same in the uniform, I felt a disconnection. I wanted to be a part of their universe, but I felt like an interloper; like a homeless man looking through a window as a family on the inside eats a cooked Tauros, enjoying each others company while I could only watch in loneliness. This isn’t to say I didn’t have friends. I had many friends, acquaintances, mentors, and lovers on the inside. But I think the loneliness I felt was present because I didn’t ride the same wave that the Cipher had created. It’s as though everybody else was enjoying the water’s push while I simply watched from behind, not feeling the same ecstasy. – Excerpt from “Casting my Shadow”
Reich of Shadows: The Judas Lark Chronicles
Chapter 1: Another Day on the Job
“Okay, the shipment is going to be heavily guarded, but that won’t be in issue,” Larce explained to the fifty peons before him, all wearing the same white helmets, and the same white jumpsuits. I was among them, not paying much attention to Larce or his speech. It wasn’t anything I haven’t heard before. But I smiled and nodded my head with everybody else. It was just a simple mission of smash, steal, and erase. Nobody on the outside would be the wiser if we did what we were trained to do. In theory, it was a cake walk. Fifty-one of us, armed with pistols, and pokemon versus a small outskirt town with a small shipment, guarded by probably no more than twenty men. Simplicity at it’s finest.
“… and if anybody cares to stop us, we capture them, or kill them like we always do. And we have a good reward this time. This shipment is full of young yet useful pokemon, so Nascour has promised ten shadows to our squadron if we are successful. Oh yeah. That got your attention, didn’t it?” When he said the word “shadow,” several heads jolted to life in excitement. Everybody wanted a shadow pokemon. It didn’t matter whether you were in the Cipher or not. Shadow pokemon were coming back in style and everybody wanted one. “Now that you are all paying attention, let me remind you how dire it is that our true actions are not connected to the leak. Elections are only four months away, and if we are connected to this extraction, we can jeopardize Karnockle’s political status. The Cipher has been building this power for over a decade, so we can’t harm it in such a big moment. But you are all devoted to the cause, so don’t screw up. Tonight shall be another victory for the Cipher!”
“For the Cipher!” we cheered together. A mixture of voices embodied the call. We were ready to dance with the opposition once more. We began to stand up as Larce put his helmet on. It looked different from ours, ending in a point with yellow texture, rather than being rounded off like the rest of ours. We all filed out through the halls to one of the large vehicle garages where we mounted our vehicles, all equipped to hover over the thick sands of Orre. As I mounted my Sandcycle, I felt Hector get on the back seat, turning around so he could observe from the back. He seemed way too eager.
“I have a great feeling about this Jude,” he spilled out. “We’re gonna get more shadows. I really want another badly!”
“Will you chill?” I yelled back to him as the engine s turned on, creating a simultaneous roar. “He said we’d only get ten. Besides, they’re gonna give them to people who don’t have one before they start doubling up. So I guess you can have mine.”
The vehicles began to move and poured through the doors of the garage into a wide tunnel beyond. After following this tunnel at a slow speed for several minutes, we were released at a mountainside. We followed Larce to the gates several miles off, where we were allowed to leave through by the guards who serviced them.
“Wow, it looks really pretty in the moonlight,” Hector said as we began to pick up speed from the gate. I looked behind me to see what he was staring at, and realized he was right. The black pyramid-like structure that was the Cipher base resting in the mountains reflected the beautiful moonlight back to us. It looked like something out of a dream… or perhaps a nightmare.
---
The drive to the destination was only a half hour or so, but it seemed much longer. Orre, like other deserts, had a drastic temperature drop at night, and the cold air that crashed into my face felt incredibly brisk, even when I wore my helmet. Nobody at Pebbling Town would have even heard us drive by. It was such a small town, and everybody was probably asleep, believing their town would not be our focus tonight. Indeed, it wasn’t. We were heading to the small cargo-transit center five miles off where our target was located.
Eventually, we shut our engines off, and coasted as close as we could to the building. A large hover-truck sat motionless on the sand as roughly thirty men, both guards and factory workers were busy unloading multiple metal cases where our gold was located. But before we circled our treasure island, Larce gathered us once more in the shielding darkness.
“Okay, remember. The guns are only to be used to warn them at first. Shoot only if you must. Let’s keep this as a pokemon raid if we can. It’s always less easy to trace that way.” Larce then pulled out a pokeball, and tossed it out. The orb exploded to reveal a gigantic snake, formed of rock. The pokemon looked menacing, but it sat quietly next to its trainer. “Onix trainers, let yours out now, and have them roar on the signal.” Immediately, several of us took a few steps out of the cluster and tossed our pokeballs into the sand. Roughly ten Onix emerged from the light, mine being one of them. They all looked anxious to fight, though my own seemed to slump among the others, moonbeams shining in his sad eyes. But I knew he was ready. We had done this many times before.
Slowly, all fifty-one of us circled the transit station, some of us ready to run in while others slowly disappeared into further darkness. They were ready to catch those who ran away. We didn’t wait for the men to stop unloading the truck. It was Larce who flashed the red signal beam that was our cue to charge. Roughly thirty of us ran in, a pistol in each of our hands. We stopped about thirty feet away from the startled men, pointing our weapons at them. Some of them put their hands up, while others glared at the ghosts who had surrounded them. After several moments had passed, Larce spoke to the guards and workers. “Put your hands up and come quietly and nobody will get hurt.” He then shot his gun at the truck. He wasn’t aiming for anybody. He just wanted to scare them. But many of the men called his bluff as they tossed out numerous pokeballs. The guards’ pokemon were all similar, being Machop and its evolutions. About fifty-some Machop, Machoke, and Machamp stood before us, all giving an aggressive stare to match their masters’. And then hell broke loose as Larce gave the signal for the Onix to roar.
The sound of a dozen Onix roars mixing to form one sound is incredibly painful to listen to if you aren’t wearing a helmet. The roars did a dual job of injuring the guards psychologically, and covering up our noise. Some of the guards fired shots at us from their own guns, only to be returned by our fire, but most of them barked orders to their pokemon. As we ran in, we began to release our pokemon, each wearing a silver band that signified them as our own. My three remaining pokemon broke from their carriers one by one. First came Vaporeon, leaping gracefully out of his capsule as he shot a water pulse as an oncoming Machop. Second came Shelgon, who immediately formed into his rollout, knocking over a mob of Machop like bowling pins. Finally came Cherrim who gracefully lept back onto my shoulder. She was in her petal covering until I told her to use sunny day, which caused her to glow as she opened up her petals. From there, she shot miniature beams at oncoming pokemon and guards.
The battle as a whole was a sweep as I had predicted. Though some of our men and women received battle scars, as did their pokemon, but we obliterated enough of the opposition to make up for it. One by one, the Machop family fell, and when we knocked over guards and workers, we began to hog tie and gag them so they could not escape. Those who did escape were not able to get far, since they were caught by our outer members.
“Vaporeon, bubblebeam his ***!” I called out to my fox, who sent a Machop with a fast stream of bubbles. I saw Shelgon on the other side of the chaotic mass, enduring the chops of a Machamp. I figured he could handle himself so I paid no mind. He was built to absorb shots. I felt pretty good so far though since I had not taken any blows myself. Cherrim had done a pretty good job at keeping the victims at bay. It wasn’t until the near end of the encounter I took a shot to the stomach from a bearded guard who dodged a minibeam. But he was left open after the punch. I immediately grabbed his arm and twisted it around to his back before pushing him to the ground. Even above the Onix roar, I heard him scream in pain, as he lay on his stomach in the dirt. “Please, don’t hurt me!” he whimpered as I continued to apply pressure to his shoulder joint. “I’ll do anything! I have a family to fe-”
“Then stop struggling *****!” The words fell out of my mouth like stones. The man stopped squirming so much as pressed my foot on his back while pulling back on his arm. I had to drain the man of energy before I proceeded to bind him. As I did this, I surveyed the surrounding scene. The Onix had been signaled moments before to stop roaring, and they now were slithering back to their trainers. My own was coming towards me, looking as he normally did. Satisfied, but sad. The last of the guards were making a last ditch effort to ward off the Cipher that surrounded them, but their Machop members were growing weary. My Shelgon limped back to me, wearing bruise marks on his back as war medals. He had been battered through out the fight, but he looked happy. Out of all my pokemon, he was always the most eager. Vaporeon now fighting one of the last Machoke, dodging its moves like a fly dodges a swatter. I don’t think he had been hit once during the entire struggle. I eventually looked back down on my captive who was moving his right hand around, trying to get it into his pocket. “What are you trying to pull old man? Don’t make me break your ar-” But I never finished that sentence.
A green blur had zoomed up to my position and took a swipe at my prisoner with a blade covered in a shadowy aura. The sound that followed sounded like a hybrid of a crunch and a crack. The Scyther had swung a scythe into the guard’s back, killing him instantly, and causing warm blood to splash onto my suit. Against a trained pokemon, such a blow would have simply been harmful, but to a human, it was fatal. The Scyther let out a cry that would make one’s skin crawl, and he then turned his face to me as if he would attack, but he had enough training to hold back. I could see a blackish aura of sorts slowly steaming out of his body like fog. Normal people can’t see this aura, but I’m not normal. I guess that I was blessed with all the recessive genes necessary to see what was not supposed to be there.
“Saved your *** Lark,” Larce said harshly as he walked up to his winged shadow. “Looks like you owe me one.”
“That wasn’t necessary Larce, I had it under control. He was begging for his life,” I replied, but my commander wasn’t fazed. I wondered how he knew it was me under the helmet, but then I remembered that he recognized me by the flower on my shoulder, who had retreated to her petals when the Scyther had struck.
“He was reaching into his pocket. Could have been for a knife or something else he could stab you with,” he answered coldly as he tapped the man’s head with his boot. “Of course, for all I know, you might enjoy that kind of stuff. But hey, I don’t judge.” At this, he let a small grin penetrate his lips.
“Wow Larce, a gay joke? Seriously? If you’re gonna try to burn me at inappropriate times, at least put a bit more effort into it.” At this, I knelt down and reached into the pocket the man. I pulled out a wallet and opened it. Even in the dim light from the building bulbs, I could see a couple of dollars, a credit card, and a picture of the bearded guard and a woman with red hair, holding a smiling female child in her arms. I felt pressure build up in my chest at this, but I turned to Larce and told him that there was no knife.
“Well, you can’t be too careful. Of course, I have to keep an eye on you homo. You may be a good trainer, but sometimes I think you’re a hazard to yourself and the rest of us. Of course, maybe if you had a shadow…” He trailed off at the end of that line, as he extended his hand to his bug and stroked the back of its head. It didn’t respond in any way. Larce then turned back to the Cipher group that had finished taking out the guards and yelled at them to start the “body swapping,” as he called it.
The rest of us were required to start unloading the truck and what had been carried inside. I grabbed two cases, putting one on Shelgon’s back while I carried one myself. They were silver colored, and I felt the weight of multiple filled pokeballs inside. These pokemon were ours now, divided by species in the cases. I looked at the one I carried. It read “Abra.” The case that Shelgon carried read “Starly.” We all knew what would happen to these pokemon. They would be taken back and trained at headquarters. Most of them would be distributed to members, while the hardier of the bunch had a darker fate in store.
After we loaded up the cases, we called our pokemon back, and started loading up the captives, all gagged with terrified looks on their faces. Eventually, they would be allowed to return home, but only after we “modified” them. Their pokemon would also have to be “modified” but that was of much less concern. Thirty of us got into our vehicles, and set off for base with our captives and cases while the rest of the group stayed behind to finish up cleaning up the evidence of our work. I had to drive somewhat slower than I preferred though, since Hector had broken a rib in the engagement, and he didn’t want to injure it anymore than it already was.
“Fun night, huh?” he said as Amigo, his Minun, sat in his lap, squeaking with excitement. I didn’t respond. I kept hearing the screams of the bearded guard that Larce had killed. It made no sense to me at that moment why he plagued my mind. I was used to death. I had caused it before. But this was different for some reason. As I sped over the sand, I looked at the picture in his wallet. I had a glimpse of his past for a moment. But as I saw the mountains where the Cipher currently resided, I tried to push the man and his family out of my mind as I looked at the onyx colored building amongst the rock. It still looked beautiful, even though the moon was now blocked by clouds…
---
The Cipher mountain base had expanded since the last Cipher rise. It used to only be a laboratory for making shadow pokemon at an alarmingly fast rate, but it was now equipped with living space reaching to deep parts of the mountain, some of the space reaching under the mountain lake. Thousands of Cipher members lived here now, and it was like a small city below the lab.
After dropping off the packages and hostages to some Cipher members ready to take them from us in the garage, I split ways with Hector, and headed to my sector. Many of the members I passed in the hallway were out of uniform, some of them staggering back from the bar. I said hello to those who knew, and ignored those I did not. Normally I would have gone down for a drink myself, but I felt exhausted from all the driving and fighting. I eventually reached the ground habitat, which was where Cipher members left their non-shadow pokemon who enjoyed the soil and rough terrain. The room was huge, and the lights were dimmed for the evening as the pokemon inside snored. I opened the pokeballs of Onix and Shelgon, who both wandered to comfortable spots to rest. I then went down to the water habitat, where water was divided into pools of fresh and salt water with currents and small waves. I let Vaporeon out and stroked his head a few times before he dove into the salt pool. Normally, I would have taken Cherrim to the forest habitat, but it was a rule that we had to have at least one pokemon on us at all times for safety reasons, and it was her night to stay in her pokemon (I alternated pokemon for this job every night, except for Onix for obvious reasons.)
I eventually reached room 874, my own. It was a small room, with a small bed, table, chairs, dresser, sink, stove, microwave and mini fridge. My laptop sat on the table next to some oranges that I had brought back from breakfast for a midnight snack. I wanted to eat one then, but I had that not so hungry feeling growing in my stomach, so I left them sitting there. I slowly walked into the bath room where I took off my helmet and looked in the mirror. My hair was somewhat flat from the helmet weight, but I played with it a bit to make it look messy again. It looked blonder than usual, but it was probably because the lights were so bright after I walked in the dim hallways wearing headgear that shaded my eyes.
After several minutes, I walked back to the entrance of my room and looked over it again. I was still pretty tired, but I wasn’t ready to crash yet. The bar would still be open, but I didn’t feel like walking that far. Everything was too far away. I stretched my arms and began to reach to my back zipper, but I was halted as a pair of arms crossed over my shoulders.
“Hey stranger,” a seductive voice said in almost a whisper as two lips touched the side of my neck.
“Hey Lilith, I didn’t hear you come in,” I replied with a tired tone, but a smile reached my face from her presence. I slowly turned around with her arms still around my neck to see her smiling too. She was still wearing her helmet and suit, but I could have told it was her even without hearing her voice. The easiest give away was the black lipstick she wore. “I thought you had lab patrol tonight at the desert lab,” I said as I slowly removed her helmet. She had a pretty face. Her eyes had heavy eye shadow surrounding them, matching her lipstick and her long, dark hair. Her hair was really brown, but I only knew this because she told me that it was.
“I did, but they switched me to new lab patrol, so I came here. I came in quietly because I didn’t know if you were sleeping. I didn’t want to wake you up again if you were.” As she said this, she slipped out of my grasp as she took a few steps before reaching for the zipper on the back of her suit. I began to reach for mine as well. The uniform was comfortable to wear, but it could get irritating to wear for too long.
“You don’t need to worry about waking me,” I said as she began to peel off the suit. “I get pretty bored down here when there is nobody around…” I paused as I watched Lilith finish taking off her uniform with her back towards me. She was wearing a black spaghetti-top and a pair short shorts that hugged her ***, which I didn’t hesitate to get a good look at. Another noticeable feature about her were the tattoos that covered her arms. They were multi-colored images of monsters and other similar beings that didn’t exist as far as I was aware. As Lilith turned around, she revealed more of them that reached the bottom of her neck, though there were other features on the front side of her body that caught my attention even more so than the body art.
“What are you staring at Jude?” she questioned as I finished removing my suit, though I think she already knew the answer.
“What do you think?” I responded playfully.
“You’re such a pervert Jude,” Lilith giggled as she moved close to me again to kiss me. Her skin felt soft and warm in the cold air that filled the underwater realm. “Hey, I saw blood on your uniform. Did you have a rough night baby?”
I looked into her eyes. She could tell I wasn’t all there at the moment, even though I still had on a smile. But I replied as simply and as truthfully as I could.
“Yeah, we had to fight off a whole bunch of guards and their Machop families. We cleaned up pretty good though, it’s just…” I paused for a moment to compile my word choice. “Somebody who didn’t need to die… died.”
“Oh, I see…” Lilith whispered quietly with concern. “You are such a poser, you know. You act like a ******, but we both know you’re a softy.”
“Yeah…” I replied. I began to sway slightly as I began to kiss her again, this time for a longer period of time before continuing to talk. I wanted to purge my mind of these inferior emotions. “I really hate Larce. The ******* said some things that really pissed me off tonight. Talking about how I’m a liability or something. He even made some implications that he thinks I play catch.”
“Hmm… that sucks,” Lilith answered in a barely audible voice. “Of course, I can see you doing that,” she said jokingly in an attempt to lighten the mood. It worked.
“Hey, isn’t that your job?” I replied in a lighter voice. My mood was getting slightly better now. “I just want to forget about tonight. I need to move on.”
Lilith’s smile changed to something that looked particularly evil, but it made her look more attractive in a darker sort of way. She then shifted her lips to my ear and whispered, “I can help you with that.”
Hours had passed before I way awake in my bed with Lilith curled up with me. I couldn’t stop staring at the digital clock that hung on the wall. It was 2:30 AM, and I still couldn’t sleep even though I was dead tired after my night job and after my adult activities with Lilith. I felt comfortable in my bed next to her, but it couldn’t make me sleep. My mind was still racing. I could not stop thinking about the bearded man I had captured. I was so used to my job, I had never thought about the deaths I had caused after the first few I had contributed to the Cipher’s cause. I knew many of the people we had to capture or kill (when necessary) had families of there own. I had always had slight guilt from what we were robbing them of. But when we did have to kill them, it was on their actions for disobeying which made me feel less bad. But this man had done nothing to make him deserve his death. The whole ordeal scared me. It made me contemplate the pain I had caused in the past. But I tried my best to put this mental issue behind me. I knew then that the Cipher did some shady things. Some dark things. Even some evil things. Evil by the common perspective at least. But they were the only family I had. They were more of a family then anything else I had in the past. At least people here cared about me and my pokemon. But even if they didn’t, I had no way of turning back.
If there's a way I can double space, INFORM ME! .
I don't know if it's rated M yet. But it will be getting more suggestive. I'm only ankle deep. Review. BIG WALL O' TEXT
Seriously, 23 view s and no reviews... Heart breaking
I loved the helmet and the jumpsuit, and it wasn’t because they were both comfortable pieces of our attire. It was the psychological feeling you got when you wore them. Whenever I went out in public out of the uniform, I was always afraid that I would be recognized by the locals, (though this fate was not necessarily bad depending on who could recognize me.) But when I wore the outfit, I was part of the group, the family, the posse. I felt strong and unbeatable as a simple unit among the others. But even when we all looked the same in the uniform, I felt a disconnection. I wanted to be a part of their universe, but I felt like an interloper; like a homeless man looking through a window as a family on the inside eats a cooked Tauros, enjoying each others company while I could only watch in loneliness. This isn’t to say I didn’t have friends. I had many friends, acquaintances, mentors, and lovers on the inside. But I think the loneliness I felt was present because I didn’t ride the same wave that the Cipher had created. It’s as though everybody else was enjoying the water’s push while I simply watched from behind, not feeling the same ecstasy. – Excerpt from “Casting my Shadow”
Reich of Shadows: The Judas Lark Chronicles
Chapter 1: Another Day on the Job
“Okay, the shipment is going to be heavily guarded, but that won’t be in issue,” Larce explained to the fifty peons before him, all wearing the same white helmets, and the same white jumpsuits. I was among them, not paying much attention to Larce or his speech. It wasn’t anything I haven’t heard before. But I smiled and nodded my head with everybody else. It was just a simple mission of smash, steal, and erase. Nobody on the outside would be the wiser if we did what we were trained to do. In theory, it was a cake walk. Fifty-one of us, armed with pistols, and pokemon versus a small outskirt town with a small shipment, guarded by probably no more than twenty men. Simplicity at it’s finest.
“… and if anybody cares to stop us, we capture them, or kill them like we always do. And we have a good reward this time. This shipment is full of young yet useful pokemon, so Nascour has promised ten shadows to our squadron if we are successful. Oh yeah. That got your attention, didn’t it?” When he said the word “shadow,” several heads jolted to life in excitement. Everybody wanted a shadow pokemon. It didn’t matter whether you were in the Cipher or not. Shadow pokemon were coming back in style and everybody wanted one. “Now that you are all paying attention, let me remind you how dire it is that our true actions are not connected to the leak. Elections are only four months away, and if we are connected to this extraction, we can jeopardize Karnockle’s political status. The Cipher has been building this power for over a decade, so we can’t harm it in such a big moment. But you are all devoted to the cause, so don’t screw up. Tonight shall be another victory for the Cipher!”
“For the Cipher!” we cheered together. A mixture of voices embodied the call. We were ready to dance with the opposition once more. We began to stand up as Larce put his helmet on. It looked different from ours, ending in a point with yellow texture, rather than being rounded off like the rest of ours. We all filed out through the halls to one of the large vehicle garages where we mounted our vehicles, all equipped to hover over the thick sands of Orre. As I mounted my Sandcycle, I felt Hector get on the back seat, turning around so he could observe from the back. He seemed way too eager.
“I have a great feeling about this Jude,” he spilled out. “We’re gonna get more shadows. I really want another badly!”
“Will you chill?” I yelled back to him as the engine s turned on, creating a simultaneous roar. “He said we’d only get ten. Besides, they’re gonna give them to people who don’t have one before they start doubling up. So I guess you can have mine.”
The vehicles began to move and poured through the doors of the garage into a wide tunnel beyond. After following this tunnel at a slow speed for several minutes, we were released at a mountainside. We followed Larce to the gates several miles off, where we were allowed to leave through by the guards who serviced them.
“Wow, it looks really pretty in the moonlight,” Hector said as we began to pick up speed from the gate. I looked behind me to see what he was staring at, and realized he was right. The black pyramid-like structure that was the Cipher base resting in the mountains reflected the beautiful moonlight back to us. It looked like something out of a dream… or perhaps a nightmare.
---
The drive to the destination was only a half hour or so, but it seemed much longer. Orre, like other deserts, had a drastic temperature drop at night, and the cold air that crashed into my face felt incredibly brisk, even when I wore my helmet. Nobody at Pebbling Town would have even heard us drive by. It was such a small town, and everybody was probably asleep, believing their town would not be our focus tonight. Indeed, it wasn’t. We were heading to the small cargo-transit center five miles off where our target was located.
Eventually, we shut our engines off, and coasted as close as we could to the building. A large hover-truck sat motionless on the sand as roughly thirty men, both guards and factory workers were busy unloading multiple metal cases where our gold was located. But before we circled our treasure island, Larce gathered us once more in the shielding darkness.
“Okay, remember. The guns are only to be used to warn them at first. Shoot only if you must. Let’s keep this as a pokemon raid if we can. It’s always less easy to trace that way.” Larce then pulled out a pokeball, and tossed it out. The orb exploded to reveal a gigantic snake, formed of rock. The pokemon looked menacing, but it sat quietly next to its trainer. “Onix trainers, let yours out now, and have them roar on the signal.” Immediately, several of us took a few steps out of the cluster and tossed our pokeballs into the sand. Roughly ten Onix emerged from the light, mine being one of them. They all looked anxious to fight, though my own seemed to slump among the others, moonbeams shining in his sad eyes. But I knew he was ready. We had done this many times before.
Slowly, all fifty-one of us circled the transit station, some of us ready to run in while others slowly disappeared into further darkness. They were ready to catch those who ran away. We didn’t wait for the men to stop unloading the truck. It was Larce who flashed the red signal beam that was our cue to charge. Roughly thirty of us ran in, a pistol in each of our hands. We stopped about thirty feet away from the startled men, pointing our weapons at them. Some of them put their hands up, while others glared at the ghosts who had surrounded them. After several moments had passed, Larce spoke to the guards and workers. “Put your hands up and come quietly and nobody will get hurt.” He then shot his gun at the truck. He wasn’t aiming for anybody. He just wanted to scare them. But many of the men called his bluff as they tossed out numerous pokeballs. The guards’ pokemon were all similar, being Machop and its evolutions. About fifty-some Machop, Machoke, and Machamp stood before us, all giving an aggressive stare to match their masters’. And then hell broke loose as Larce gave the signal for the Onix to roar.
The sound of a dozen Onix roars mixing to form one sound is incredibly painful to listen to if you aren’t wearing a helmet. The roars did a dual job of injuring the guards psychologically, and covering up our noise. Some of the guards fired shots at us from their own guns, only to be returned by our fire, but most of them barked orders to their pokemon. As we ran in, we began to release our pokemon, each wearing a silver band that signified them as our own. My three remaining pokemon broke from their carriers one by one. First came Vaporeon, leaping gracefully out of his capsule as he shot a water pulse as an oncoming Machop. Second came Shelgon, who immediately formed into his rollout, knocking over a mob of Machop like bowling pins. Finally came Cherrim who gracefully lept back onto my shoulder. She was in her petal covering until I told her to use sunny day, which caused her to glow as she opened up her petals. From there, she shot miniature beams at oncoming pokemon and guards.
The battle as a whole was a sweep as I had predicted. Though some of our men and women received battle scars, as did their pokemon, but we obliterated enough of the opposition to make up for it. One by one, the Machop family fell, and when we knocked over guards and workers, we began to hog tie and gag them so they could not escape. Those who did escape were not able to get far, since they were caught by our outer members.
“Vaporeon, bubblebeam his ***!” I called out to my fox, who sent a Machop with a fast stream of bubbles. I saw Shelgon on the other side of the chaotic mass, enduring the chops of a Machamp. I figured he could handle himself so I paid no mind. He was built to absorb shots. I felt pretty good so far though since I had not taken any blows myself. Cherrim had done a pretty good job at keeping the victims at bay. It wasn’t until the near end of the encounter I took a shot to the stomach from a bearded guard who dodged a minibeam. But he was left open after the punch. I immediately grabbed his arm and twisted it around to his back before pushing him to the ground. Even above the Onix roar, I heard him scream in pain, as he lay on his stomach in the dirt. “Please, don’t hurt me!” he whimpered as I continued to apply pressure to his shoulder joint. “I’ll do anything! I have a family to fe-”
“Then stop struggling *****!” The words fell out of my mouth like stones. The man stopped squirming so much as pressed my foot on his back while pulling back on his arm. I had to drain the man of energy before I proceeded to bind him. As I did this, I surveyed the surrounding scene. The Onix had been signaled moments before to stop roaring, and they now were slithering back to their trainers. My own was coming towards me, looking as he normally did. Satisfied, but sad. The last of the guards were making a last ditch effort to ward off the Cipher that surrounded them, but their Machop members were growing weary. My Shelgon limped back to me, wearing bruise marks on his back as war medals. He had been battered through out the fight, but he looked happy. Out of all my pokemon, he was always the most eager. Vaporeon now fighting one of the last Machoke, dodging its moves like a fly dodges a swatter. I don’t think he had been hit once during the entire struggle. I eventually looked back down on my captive who was moving his right hand around, trying to get it into his pocket. “What are you trying to pull old man? Don’t make me break your ar-” But I never finished that sentence.
A green blur had zoomed up to my position and took a swipe at my prisoner with a blade covered in a shadowy aura. The sound that followed sounded like a hybrid of a crunch and a crack. The Scyther had swung a scythe into the guard’s back, killing him instantly, and causing warm blood to splash onto my suit. Against a trained pokemon, such a blow would have simply been harmful, but to a human, it was fatal. The Scyther let out a cry that would make one’s skin crawl, and he then turned his face to me as if he would attack, but he had enough training to hold back. I could see a blackish aura of sorts slowly steaming out of his body like fog. Normal people can’t see this aura, but I’m not normal. I guess that I was blessed with all the recessive genes necessary to see what was not supposed to be there.
“Saved your *** Lark,” Larce said harshly as he walked up to his winged shadow. “Looks like you owe me one.”
“That wasn’t necessary Larce, I had it under control. He was begging for his life,” I replied, but my commander wasn’t fazed. I wondered how he knew it was me under the helmet, but then I remembered that he recognized me by the flower on my shoulder, who had retreated to her petals when the Scyther had struck.
“He was reaching into his pocket. Could have been for a knife or something else he could stab you with,” he answered coldly as he tapped the man’s head with his boot. “Of course, for all I know, you might enjoy that kind of stuff. But hey, I don’t judge.” At this, he let a small grin penetrate his lips.
“Wow Larce, a gay joke? Seriously? If you’re gonna try to burn me at inappropriate times, at least put a bit more effort into it.” At this, I knelt down and reached into the pocket the man. I pulled out a wallet and opened it. Even in the dim light from the building bulbs, I could see a couple of dollars, a credit card, and a picture of the bearded guard and a woman with red hair, holding a smiling female child in her arms. I felt pressure build up in my chest at this, but I turned to Larce and told him that there was no knife.
“Well, you can’t be too careful. Of course, I have to keep an eye on you homo. You may be a good trainer, but sometimes I think you’re a hazard to yourself and the rest of us. Of course, maybe if you had a shadow…” He trailed off at the end of that line, as he extended his hand to his bug and stroked the back of its head. It didn’t respond in any way. Larce then turned back to the Cipher group that had finished taking out the guards and yelled at them to start the “body swapping,” as he called it.
The rest of us were required to start unloading the truck and what had been carried inside. I grabbed two cases, putting one on Shelgon’s back while I carried one myself. They were silver colored, and I felt the weight of multiple filled pokeballs inside. These pokemon were ours now, divided by species in the cases. I looked at the one I carried. It read “Abra.” The case that Shelgon carried read “Starly.” We all knew what would happen to these pokemon. They would be taken back and trained at headquarters. Most of them would be distributed to members, while the hardier of the bunch had a darker fate in store.
After we loaded up the cases, we called our pokemon back, and started loading up the captives, all gagged with terrified looks on their faces. Eventually, they would be allowed to return home, but only after we “modified” them. Their pokemon would also have to be “modified” but that was of much less concern. Thirty of us got into our vehicles, and set off for base with our captives and cases while the rest of the group stayed behind to finish up cleaning up the evidence of our work. I had to drive somewhat slower than I preferred though, since Hector had broken a rib in the engagement, and he didn’t want to injure it anymore than it already was.
“Fun night, huh?” he said as Amigo, his Minun, sat in his lap, squeaking with excitement. I didn’t respond. I kept hearing the screams of the bearded guard that Larce had killed. It made no sense to me at that moment why he plagued my mind. I was used to death. I had caused it before. But this was different for some reason. As I sped over the sand, I looked at the picture in his wallet. I had a glimpse of his past for a moment. But as I saw the mountains where the Cipher currently resided, I tried to push the man and his family out of my mind as I looked at the onyx colored building amongst the rock. It still looked beautiful, even though the moon was now blocked by clouds…
---
The Cipher mountain base had expanded since the last Cipher rise. It used to only be a laboratory for making shadow pokemon at an alarmingly fast rate, but it was now equipped with living space reaching to deep parts of the mountain, some of the space reaching under the mountain lake. Thousands of Cipher members lived here now, and it was like a small city below the lab.
After dropping off the packages and hostages to some Cipher members ready to take them from us in the garage, I split ways with Hector, and headed to my sector. Many of the members I passed in the hallway were out of uniform, some of them staggering back from the bar. I said hello to those who knew, and ignored those I did not. Normally I would have gone down for a drink myself, but I felt exhausted from all the driving and fighting. I eventually reached the ground habitat, which was where Cipher members left their non-shadow pokemon who enjoyed the soil and rough terrain. The room was huge, and the lights were dimmed for the evening as the pokemon inside snored. I opened the pokeballs of Onix and Shelgon, who both wandered to comfortable spots to rest. I then went down to the water habitat, where water was divided into pools of fresh and salt water with currents and small waves. I let Vaporeon out and stroked his head a few times before he dove into the salt pool. Normally, I would have taken Cherrim to the forest habitat, but it was a rule that we had to have at least one pokemon on us at all times for safety reasons, and it was her night to stay in her pokemon (I alternated pokemon for this job every night, except for Onix for obvious reasons.)
I eventually reached room 874, my own. It was a small room, with a small bed, table, chairs, dresser, sink, stove, microwave and mini fridge. My laptop sat on the table next to some oranges that I had brought back from breakfast for a midnight snack. I wanted to eat one then, but I had that not so hungry feeling growing in my stomach, so I left them sitting there. I slowly walked into the bath room where I took off my helmet and looked in the mirror. My hair was somewhat flat from the helmet weight, but I played with it a bit to make it look messy again. It looked blonder than usual, but it was probably because the lights were so bright after I walked in the dim hallways wearing headgear that shaded my eyes.
After several minutes, I walked back to the entrance of my room and looked over it again. I was still pretty tired, but I wasn’t ready to crash yet. The bar would still be open, but I didn’t feel like walking that far. Everything was too far away. I stretched my arms and began to reach to my back zipper, but I was halted as a pair of arms crossed over my shoulders.
“Hey stranger,” a seductive voice said in almost a whisper as two lips touched the side of my neck.
“Hey Lilith, I didn’t hear you come in,” I replied with a tired tone, but a smile reached my face from her presence. I slowly turned around with her arms still around my neck to see her smiling too. She was still wearing her helmet and suit, but I could have told it was her even without hearing her voice. The easiest give away was the black lipstick she wore. “I thought you had lab patrol tonight at the desert lab,” I said as I slowly removed her helmet. She had a pretty face. Her eyes had heavy eye shadow surrounding them, matching her lipstick and her long, dark hair. Her hair was really brown, but I only knew this because she told me that it was.
“I did, but they switched me to new lab patrol, so I came here. I came in quietly because I didn’t know if you were sleeping. I didn’t want to wake you up again if you were.” As she said this, she slipped out of my grasp as she took a few steps before reaching for the zipper on the back of her suit. I began to reach for mine as well. The uniform was comfortable to wear, but it could get irritating to wear for too long.
“You don’t need to worry about waking me,” I said as she began to peel off the suit. “I get pretty bored down here when there is nobody around…” I paused as I watched Lilith finish taking off her uniform with her back towards me. She was wearing a black spaghetti-top and a pair short shorts that hugged her ***, which I didn’t hesitate to get a good look at. Another noticeable feature about her were the tattoos that covered her arms. They were multi-colored images of monsters and other similar beings that didn’t exist as far as I was aware. As Lilith turned around, she revealed more of them that reached the bottom of her neck, though there were other features on the front side of her body that caught my attention even more so than the body art.
“What are you staring at Jude?” she questioned as I finished removing my suit, though I think she already knew the answer.
“What do you think?” I responded playfully.
“You’re such a pervert Jude,” Lilith giggled as she moved close to me again to kiss me. Her skin felt soft and warm in the cold air that filled the underwater realm. “Hey, I saw blood on your uniform. Did you have a rough night baby?”
I looked into her eyes. She could tell I wasn’t all there at the moment, even though I still had on a smile. But I replied as simply and as truthfully as I could.
“Yeah, we had to fight off a whole bunch of guards and their Machop families. We cleaned up pretty good though, it’s just…” I paused for a moment to compile my word choice. “Somebody who didn’t need to die… died.”
“Oh, I see…” Lilith whispered quietly with concern. “You are such a poser, you know. You act like a ******, but we both know you’re a softy.”
“Yeah…” I replied. I began to sway slightly as I began to kiss her again, this time for a longer period of time before continuing to talk. I wanted to purge my mind of these inferior emotions. “I really hate Larce. The ******* said some things that really pissed me off tonight. Talking about how I’m a liability or something. He even made some implications that he thinks I play catch.”
“Hmm… that sucks,” Lilith answered in a barely audible voice. “Of course, I can see you doing that,” she said jokingly in an attempt to lighten the mood. It worked.
“Hey, isn’t that your job?” I replied in a lighter voice. My mood was getting slightly better now. “I just want to forget about tonight. I need to move on.”
Lilith’s smile changed to something that looked particularly evil, but it made her look more attractive in a darker sort of way. She then shifted her lips to my ear and whispered, “I can help you with that.”
Hours had passed before I way awake in my bed with Lilith curled up with me. I couldn’t stop staring at the digital clock that hung on the wall. It was 2:30 AM, and I still couldn’t sleep even though I was dead tired after my night job and after my adult activities with Lilith. I felt comfortable in my bed next to her, but it couldn’t make me sleep. My mind was still racing. I could not stop thinking about the bearded man I had captured. I was so used to my job, I had never thought about the deaths I had caused after the first few I had contributed to the Cipher’s cause. I knew many of the people we had to capture or kill (when necessary) had families of there own. I had always had slight guilt from what we were robbing them of. But when we did have to kill them, it was on their actions for disobeying which made me feel less bad. But this man had done nothing to make him deserve his death. The whole ordeal scared me. It made me contemplate the pain I had caused in the past. But I tried my best to put this mental issue behind me. I knew then that the Cipher did some shady things. Some dark things. Even some evil things. Evil by the common perspective at least. But they were the only family I had. They were more of a family then anything else I had in the past. At least people here cared about me and my pokemon. But even if they didn’t, I had no way of turning back.
If there's a way I can double space, INFORM ME! .
